The Other Side of Me – Part 26
by Lily Rasputin

As the heavy haze of my intense, dream-filled slumber slowly parted, I found that Samantha was no longer curled up next to me.

Some part of my brain, probably still soaked with serotonin, hoped the sexy redhead would rejoin me soon. However, as I continued to lay there with my eyes closed, it occurred to me that the bed didn’t seem as soft as I remembered from the previous evening. In fact, it felt as if I were lying on something a bit stiffer and less comfortable.

Reluctantly, I slipped one arm from beneath the warm environment of the blanket and reached out, exploring. Instead of a pleasant expanse of mattress, my searching fingers found the edge of a rough, scratchy cushion and the cold, unyielding surface of something hard under it.

My eyes flew open as I pushed the covers away and sat up, pushing my hair out of my face as I blinked at the sterile white walls of the small room around me. Devoid of windows, the only illumination came from a small bulb set in the domed ceiling that was no brighter than your average nightlight. A steel door was set into one wall, the keypad next to it dark.

I was inside Jackson’s virtual imaging chamber.

It wasn’t Sam who had abandoned me while I slept. I was the one who’d left.

Sighing, I crawled off the futon and stretched, wincing slightly as the accompanying yawn made my left cheek sting with pain. Rubbing at it, I glanced down to see that I was dressed only in the boyshorts I’d donned Sunday morning and one of Jackson’s oversized NASA t-shirts.

There was a small pile of clothing on the floor next to the futon. The outfit I’d been wearing before Charlene and I swapped. Peeling off the t-shirt, I dressed as quickly as I could, starting with my socks. Though the air itself was just cool, the floor beneath me was practically freezing.

I had just slipped into my shoes when the keypad flared to life, followed by six rapid beeps. The sound of a lock being disengaged echoed through the small chamber was followed by the heavy steel slab swinging outward. I stepped toward it, holding up one hand top shield my eyes from the harsh light that streamed through the opening.

Jackson’s silhouette appeared in the entrance, holding something in his hand that had the shape of a coffee cup. He didn’t enter the room but remained just on the periphery.

“It’s okay, Charlie. You can come out. The force field is deactivated.”

I emerged into the brightly lit lab, blinking as my eyes adjusted to the change in lighting. Turning to face him, I held out my hand as I nodded toward the mug.

“Please say that is for me. I need all the caffeine I can get this morning.”

He smiled and handed me the mug. “Yes. But it’s a special blend I’ve developed. It provides the desired energy boost without those unfortunate side-effects?”

I brought the cup to my lips, pausing to look at him over the rim. “Side-effects?”

“Oh, yeah. Forgot who I was talking to for a second. The first attempt resulted in Charlene being so amped up that her mental processes were operating five times as fast as her physical ones. She felt like she, and the rest of the world, were moving in slow motion.”

Shrugging, I took a sip of the steaming beverage. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

Jackson frowned. “Then the effect ended, and she crashed hard. Slept like a coma patient for five straight days. I thought her dad was going to kill me for sure that time.”

Lowering the mug, I shrugged again. “Still doesn’t sound that bad. She could have been so energized she vibrated through things.” I let out a little laugh and glanced up at the D.I.A.S. “I guess you knew that it would be me, and not her, when you opened the door? Did Miss Thang behave herself while I was gone?”

Jackson frowned. “Eventually. Do you want to watch the surveillance video and see for yourself?”

I shook my head. “Can you give me the high points. I’m guessing she wasn’t too happy to swap back and find she was still in trouble, huh?”

“Still?”

While I finished my coffee, I told Jackson about how I returned to my universe to find my pissed off mother accusing me of being an imposter and that there was now another ally back home to help try to keep Charlene’s rampages under control.

“If that’s even possible,” he commented with a derisive tone.

“Well, considering her motives for wanting my life, I don’t think she’s going to do anything to deliberately make Mom mad. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

I placed the mug down on a nearby table and immediately winced as a bolt of pain rolled slowly from one side of my abdomen to the other. Grabbing my stomach, I moaned as I stumbled to the sofa and plopped down.

“Fuck,” I said, leaning back and massaging my lower belly. “I did not miss this part one little bit.”

Jackson refilled the empty mug with water and handed it to me. Along with a bagel and couple of pills.

“Yeah,” he said as I swallowed the pain relievers and chased them with the water. “Bouncing back into her body in the middle of a crap wave did absolutely nothing to help Charlene’s attitude.”

Taking a bite of the bagel, I swallowed and then arched a brow.

“So, Charlene?”

“Right. It was … interesting.”

Jackson filled me in on what had taken place once Charlene and I swapped. Then, realizing that she was back home, facing a trio of unhappy-looking people, she did what we all expected her to do. She tried to flee.

However, Jackson had been ready with the time decelerator, and before the effect fully wore off, Charlene found herself strapped to a rolling chair. The unfortunate guest of honor to an impromptu intervention.

Shelly had gone first, telling Charlene that she and Josie were well aware of what had been going on, both before and after the swaps began. She asked how someone who claimed to care about her friends do those things on purpose. Of how she could be so callow about trying to ruin my life as Charles.

Charlene had started with some, as Jackson called it, “bullshit excuse” about how none of us knew how hard it was to be her. Dealing with her loss. And how suddenly finding herself in a stranger’s life, a better life, have been so overwhelming that it had clouded her judgement.

Unfortunately for my doppelgänger, Josie was still fuming from the whole Danny Morris affair and was buying none of it. Especially since it was clear that particular indiscretion had been going on before the cross-dimensional disaster.

“She slapped the living crap out of her,” Jackson said, shaking his head and sounding impressed. “She also called her several rather unflattering names. Lemme tell you, if you thought she was mad when you were in the body.” Another headshake. “It took both Shelly and I to pull her back and talk her out of doing something worse than slapping her.”

I reached up and rubbed at my aching cheek. “Seeing as I’m in here now, thanks. Still stings like a mother, though.”

After that, Jackson shooed the other girls into another part of the lab and sat down to talk to Charlene alone. He told her how much what she’d done had hurt him. Explained that even if she had fallen out of love with him, or if she’d never loved him in the first place, he’d thought their years of friendship would make her more considerate about his feelings. That at the very least, she should have felt comfortable enough to simply say that she didn’t want to date him anymore.

“How was that received?” I asked, curious.

He sighed. “She mumbled something about my lack of romantic spontaneity. And my inability to actually enjoy living life, rather than studying it.”

I nodded, but wisely kept my mouth shut. If pressed, I would have said the same thing could be applied to my Jackson as well.

“After the talking session was over, Charlene demanded to be released. However, Shelly insisted that we keep her here until you came back. However, we couldn’t just leave her tied to a chair all night, so we zapped her again and locked her into the VR chamber.”

I frowned, turning my gaze away. I understood, on some level, their reasoning. Having been cornered and berated by the three most important people in her life, who knows what sort of craziness she might have responded with. They did what they thought was best to help keep everyone safe.

The problem I had with what they decided was that it wasn’t fair. To either me or to Charlene.
Locking her up and waiting for me to return and take back over would only widen the disconnect she felt toward her life and her friends. It also would likely make her even more determined to stay in my universe permanently.

What if she decided that the only way to make sure things never got fixed was to kill, or severely injure, my Jackson? She’d already beaten the shit out of the dimensional window. Crippling the inventor would result in it never, ever, being repaired.

“You don’t seem to agree,” Jackson said in a slightly annoyed tone. “Come on, Charlie. You know firsthand what a mess Charlene is making of everything. How can you think we’re in the ones in the wrong?”

I shook my head and stood up, looking down at him.

“She’s not some BBEG to be battled, Jackson. Yeah, she’s done some pretty horrendous things. Both here and over there. But she’s also me and I’m her. On more than one level. I don’t think chastising her in some gang-press, or locking her in your lab, is going to make her come around and start playing nice.”

He opened his mouth, but I held up one finger and wagged it as I planted my other hand on my hip.

“She has to find her balance, Jackson. Or else she’s going to fully nuke whichever life she ends up with.”

Jackson stared at me for a moment, then snorted. “After all she’s done, I don’t understand how you can just be so casual. If she was screwing up my life, I’d be furious.”

I thought about Samantha and how Charlene had managed to get closer to the sporty redhead than I ever had. While I’m sure a lot of it was me getting in my own way, I couldn’t help but believe that having a friendship with her here helped to strengthen the romance over there. Why do it at all if she was dead set on bringing complete ruination to my life?

“Because I want to believe that her and I aren’t completely opposite people. Fundamentally. I think our mom knowing about the swaps might help straighten her out some while she’s there.”

“I think you’re being extremely optimistic, Charlie. I sure hope that your faith isn’t totally misplaced.”

I had to concede his point and nodded. “Yeah. Me, too.”

Just then, I heard the triple dinging of my phone’s text notification chime. Glancing around, I spotted it laying on top of the dimensional window control panel.

“Uh, yeah. That’s been happening since about an hour after you two swapped places yesterday Charlene demanded to know who was texting, but none of us told her. Which did nothing to improve her mood.” Jackson shrugged causally, but I noticed that his lips tightened into an unhappy line. The expression told me that he’d seen the messages. Or, at least, who had sent them.

Curious, I picked up the phone and unlocked it, seeing I had several unread texts. All but one of them was from Mike.

The first read: “Good Morning!” Sent with the requisite smiley face. I checked the timestamp and saw it had arrived around the time I discovered I was bleeding from my lady bits.

“It’s not too early to text, is it?” This about twenty minutes after the first.

“I wanted to tell you that I had a really great time last night.” “Not that I didn’t think I would. I’m just saying.” “Okay, that sounded way to casual.” Those three were back-to-back, and I couldn’t help but smile a little thinking about Mike sending them with rapid abandon.

“I hope you enjoyed yourself, too.” “Okay, that sounded way too flirty.” Those were an hour after the other three.

The next was almost three hours later. After the swap.

“Seb said he had a good time. In case Katie was wondering or anything.”

An hour after that. “I think he just asked her out on a second date.”

My smile widened. “Good for you, Katie-Kat,” I murmured.

“How about you? Interested in a second date with me?”

My heart skipped a little beat when I read the question, and my cheeks flushed as I smiled wider. Good for me.

Then I scrolled down to the last message, this one from my sister. It had come in around eleven pm. About the same time that Samantha and I were winding down our lovemaking.

“Charlie. Can you call Mike when you get back? He’s worried you’re mad or something.”

The smile fell off my face. Replaced by burning shame.

Mike had reached out multiple times with self-effacing and sweet comments. He hadn’t gotten any response at all because I hadn’t been around to send any. He assumed I was ignoring him. He didn’t know I wasn’t dimensionally available.

I looked up at Jackson. “When did you tell Katie that Charlene was back?”

He shrugged. “Around nine or so, I think. After we prepped the chamber and stuck her in it. Shelly called and told her. I guess so she wouldn’t get worried when you didn’t come home. Katie was going to tell your dad that you were sleeping at Shelly’s place because you had studying to do.”

I arched a brow. “What was the plan if the morning came, and Charlene was still here?”

“We didn’t get that far ahead.”

I sighed and tucked the phone into the pocket of my hoodie. My first class on Monday’s was Chemistry, which started at nine. That gave me about an hour and some change to get ready, grab my stuff, and make it to school. A large part of me whispered that I should just skip it. It wouldn’t kill me to miss one class.

However, I felt the distracting tedium of higher education was what I needed to get my mind off things for a little bit. No Charlene. No Samantha. No Jackson. No Mike. Just me and covalent bonds.

Shaking my head, I started toward the door. Jackson practically jogged to get in front of me.

“Where are you going?”

I stopped and gave him an incredulous stare. “Home. I need to shower, change my tampon, and get ready for school. I have class at nine.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. If Charlene comes back …”

I held up my hand, cutting him off. “She won’t be here for you to imprison again?”

“I just think that, until we can be sure she’s not going to go even more off the rails, it would be better if you’re someplace where you can be monitored.”

“Monitored?”

Jackson’s cheeks reddened and he shrugged his shoulders. “You know what I mean, Charles.”

We stared at each other silently for another thirty seconds before I simply turned around and walked out of the lab. Before I could say something that I couldn’t take back.

As I stalked back across the street home, I felt my anger threatening to bubble over. I was sure that some of it was probably PMS, considering I’d already been warned by multiple sources that Charlene was a less-than-pleasant person for the first few days of her period.

But the majority of my rage, I was sure, was directed at Jackson’s suggestion.

Did I blame Shelly and Josie for agreeing that Charlene be locked up overnight? Maybe a little. I couldn’t disagree that, after the welcome she’d received when she bounced back into her body, she might have been a danger to herself or others. If I’d been them, and it was someone else who was swapping places with their unstable, interdimensional doubles, I would have voted for an imposed time-out as well.

However, keeping this body locked up until the swapping stopped was completely unfeasible. Besides the fact that I would get kicked off the cheer team, lose my scholarship, and flunk out of school; it was a fair bet that my dad wouldn’t hesitate to kick in Jackson’s door, grab him by the neck, and demand the release of his daughter.

Or he would probably just call the cops. Given the current physical shape he was currently in.

Luckily, Dad’s car was absent from the garage when I cut through and into the house. That meant no awkward grilling about whether or not I’d actually been at a sleepover with Shelly and not actually keeping Mr. North’s bed warm.

Not that I think I would mind taking on that particular task.

Entering through the kitchen, I paused just long enough to fill a mug with coffee from the still-warm carafe and made my way upstairs. Katie’s door opened when I reached the landing and she poked her head out, apprehension plastered on her face.

“It’s me,” I said, wincing at how tired and miserable I sounded. “I need to take a speed shower and get ready if I’m going to make it to class. So, if you want to talk, you know where to find me.”

I didn’t wait to see if she was going to accept the offer. I hit the bathroom, cranked the shower to just shy of scalding, and guzzled half the mug before climbing under the spray. I turned the nozzle slightly to the side so my hair wouldn’t get directly soaked. There wasn’t enough time for wash, condition, and style it this morning.

The sound of the bathroom door closing was followed by Katie’s silhouette moving toward the sink. She hopped up on the edge of the counter and looked my direction.

“Mike’s freaking out,” she said, lobbing a loaded grenade in my direction with her opening comment.

“I read,” I replied, lathering up my loofa and going about the process of making myself less stinky. “I’m gonna text him back after class.”

“You don’t think that might be too late? What if he already thinks you’re not interested in him?”

I wanted to roll my eyes, but since the glass between us was heavily frosted, the effort would have been a complete waste.

“If he’s jumps straight to that conclusion, after the way I practically devoured his mouth Saturday night, then he’s way too twitchy to date me. Given that, you know, I’m in the middle of what might actually be the craziest identity crisis the world has ever seen.”

Katie let out a little laugh. “That’s a good point. Well, I covered for you as best as I could. I told Seb that you were having some female issues and weren’t really in the right frame of mind for flirty banter.”

I snorted. “Ain’t that the truth?”

“When did you get back here?”

“About thirty minutes ago.” I rinsed the loofa clear and hung it on the empty hook before grabbing the hose and rinsing myself. “Did you know they locked Charlene in Jackson’s lab for the whole night?”

The ten second moment of silence that followed gave me my answer.

“Do you think that’s fair?” I asked.

More silence.

I snapped off the water and shoved the door to the side, staring at my sister’s downcast face.
“You do, don’t you?” Clenching my jaw, I grabbed a towel and practically flung it around my torso. “I guess you also think keeping her a constant prisoner, unless I’m the one in here, is a good idea?”

Katie’s head bounced up, eyes wide, and shook from side to side. “No. Of course, I don’t. I just … Jackson said that she was behaving way out of control. It was the best way to make sure she didn’t do anything rash.”

This time, I did roll my eyes.

“I don’t know how out of control she was. I didn’t see the video of her return. I have only Jackson’s word for it. And right now, I’m not a hundred percent sure I believe him.” I began to dry myself rapidly. “Regardless, none of you seem to have considered the fact that keeping her tied up and pissed off here isn’t going to keep her from going crazy in retaliation over in my universe.”

Her mouth dropped open for a moment as her cheeks blossomed into a bright shade of crimson. “Oh, god. What do you think she’s going to do?”

I opened the drawer next to Katie’s leg, pulled out a wrapped tube, then disappeared into the separate toilet area to handle the necessary hygiene task.

“Hopefully nothing,” I said through the door. “My hope that her waking up to see Samantha in bed next to her helps cool her down a little.”

“Samantha?”

“My sort-of girlfriend.” I shrugged. “Though, Charlene has done a much better job of wooing her than I did. I think we might be officially dating now.”

Back in my room, I finished getting ready to leave for school. Since I was stressed from the swap, the discovery of what Jackson had done, and the 4K return of my period, I picked a comfy pair of black and pink leggings and a gray and white sweatshirt for the day’s ensemble.
Kappa’s posh sensibilities be damned.

I’d already put on my least sexy panties and was fighting with my bra when Katie stopped in the doorway to watch, her backpack already slung over her shoulder.

“Megan Smith is giving me a ride. She wants all the Seb North gossip firsthand.”

I nodded, still struggling with the brassier. “Okay. That makes it easier on me this morning. Which, apparently, is necessary.” Growling, I looked over at her. “What the hell is wrong with this thing? It’s like it shrunk or something.”

Katie looked at the bra, then to me, and giggled. “It didn’t get smaller, Chuck. Other things got bigger.”

Blinking, I looked down at my breasts. “Bigger? How the fuck did they get bigger?”

“Period swelling. All that progesterone flowing through your body. It’ll level out in a day or two and they’ll back down to normal.” She shrugged. “It’s the only time I manage to fill a C cup.”

“What the hell am I supposed to do?”

“Either shove them in and deal with the discomfort or wear a different bra. I think Charlie has a couple she bought just for that problem.” The sound of a car horn beeped from somewhere outside, and Katie waggled her fingers at me. “See you later, Chuck.”

I managed to find one of the bras Katie mentioned, but as my fingers curled around the light peach strap, they brushed something rigid buried under the pile of satin, cotton, and silk. Pulling it out, I realized it was a card. A birthday card, to be exact.

One the front was a pair of cartoon girls standing in a flowery meadow with their arms slung around each other and big, comical grins on their faces. The fluffy pink caption across the top read, “I know birthday cake is supposed to be sweet …”

I opened the card to see the rest of the greeting continued on the other side. “… but nothing could be sweeter than having you as a sister! Happy Birthday!” Then my eyes tracked to the personalized message opposite the cheesy Hallmark sentiment, scrawled in the ornate loops of familiar handwriting.

“Thank you for being the best, most wonderful little sister a girl could ever have. Happy 15th Birthday. I love you munches and munches. Charlie.”

Standing there in my underwear, with my bra in one hand and the card in the other, I read the message three times, trying to wrap my thoughts around its implications.

I’d been operating under the impression that Charlene and Katie’s relationship had always been hostile and antagonistic. At least for a long while now. Since arriving in this universe and letting her Katie in on the secret, Katie acted as if she had finally gotten a much-needed break from her overbearing older sister.

However, according to this card, Charlene adored and loved Katie. So much so that she’d kept the birthday card she’d given her over a year ago.

“I don’t think anyone’s telling me the whole story.”