JOSETTE’S STORY, Chapter 5

By Chirstopher Leeson

Over the next three days, Josette and Darrell were seen together around the school frequently. At each meeting, Darrell looked and sounded more relaxed. But Josette knew that other people—including Josie's friends—were watching them, too.

When a couple of girls from the popular crowd cornered her, she had no choice but to talk to them. They just went on and on about what the group was doing. Being around these people who knew Josie but not her made Josette extremely anxious. It made her realize that around Darrell, she felt completely at ease. She wanted to spend way more time with him.

On the fourth day, near the end of school, Josette saw Leah by her locker. Leah smiled weirdly. The honey blonde walked up wearing a short miniskirt and sleeveless top. Josette pretended to admire her outfit while checking out Leah's legs.

"Hey Jo, I've been wondering why you came back from summer break like you're a totally different person."

Fashion is so exhausting. You have to think about it every single minute.

"Seriously, who are you and what did you do with Josie?" Leah asked.

The question startled Josette. "What do you mean?"

"Why don't you care about fashion anymore? Did you hit your head or something?"

Josette looked at her coolly. "Leah, what exactly do you want to talk about?"

Leah wrinkled her nose like she smelled something gross. "We need to have a serious talk. You've been keeping to yourself lately, except when you're hanging out with that nerd Darrell. The whole school is wondering what's up with you."

"Our group has to be careful about our reputation, you know."

Josette frowned. "Why can't I be friends with whoever I want?"

"Don't you remember? You promised the group you'd think and act like us."

"That worked before, but we're growing up now. Maybe the rules are different."

Leah looked like she'd been slapped. "Chill out, Josie! I'm trying to help you save your reputation! Maybe it's not your fault. Maybe you had heat stroke this summer! Making social mistakes is the worst thing you can do. Hanging out with losers is going to make you a loser too. Have you seen a doctor lately? Like a therapist?"

"That's mean, Leah. There's nothing wrong with me, except I've been acting like a kid for too long. Fashion, parties, and what music is cool—none of that really matters. With Darrell, I'm learning strategy games. I'm actually getting good at them!"

Leah looked shocked. "I hope this is just a phase. If you keep going down this path, your friends might just leave you behind."

"You're talking about dropping me? Fine! I'd rather be dropped than go along with bullying people."

Leah blinked in surprise. "I don't know what's gotten into you, Josie, but I'm not going to get mad. You're not yourself. Something's bothering you. I'm hoping I'll get my best friend back soon. When you realize you've made a mistake, just apologize and we'll help you fix everything."

"Maybe I will," said Josette, "but right now, I'm still figuring things out."

Leah shook her head and walked away.

"God, those snobs!" Josette muttered to herself. "They really are going to drop me!"

While she wasn't thrilled about being rejected, if Josie's old group cut her out, at least she wouldn't have to listen to their nonsense anymore.

Josette had promised to meet Darrell after school for sodas. She found him waiting by the parking lot.

Darrell looked at her closely. "You okay, Josie? You look upset."

"I'm fine. Leah just said something mean to me."

"Did she get catty about something?"

"Not exactly, but we don't see things the same way anymore. I'm almost eighteen, and I'm changing. It's time for me to grow up, and the group doesn't get that."

Darrell nodded sympathetically. "You still want to get that soda?"

Josette managed a smile. "Definitely!"

At the cafe, Darrell's jokes soon had her laughing again. But Darrell seemed distracted. Finally, he asked, "Maybe we could go to the movies this weekend?"

Josette didn't hesitate, since Loren and Darrell had gone to movies together many times. "Sure, I'd like that. As friends, I mean."

"Yeah, absolutely!" Darrell said quickly. Too quickly.

So they got lunch downtown and then caught the seven o'clock show. Unfortunately, the movie was terrible. Neither of them liked preachy films. The protagonist was a newly graduated female police officer who somehow had better skills and instincts than even the most experienced officers. All the men in the film were either creepy or incompetent. The only guy this perfect heroine didn't find creepy was some downtown troublemaker who'd been in trouble with the law for months.

Josette and Darrell both bought candy before leaving the theater, maybe to get the bad taste out of their mouths. "You'd think a cop movie would be better than that," Darrell said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it," said Josette. "There are tons of classic movies out there. People don't have to watch this garbage. You know what you're getting with the older stuff. They made them back when Hollywood still had some sense."

"Maybe we can watch some of those together," Darrell suggested.

"Yeah, we should. Abbott and Costello movies are hilarious! But don't rush me, Darrell. I'm not ready for anything serious."

"I promise I won't," he said, but he didn't sound happy about it.

Days of classes and activities followed. Josette was no longer being approached by the popular group, and she figured she'd been officially dropped. Even Leah, who had claimed she wanted to fix things, stayed away. Maybe the others wouldn't let her talk to Josette. Why couldn't Leah see that she couldn't keep letting other people think for her?

Josette shrugged it off. She didn't really care about Leah, and she wished she had broken with the group first. But she had more important things to worry about—mainly, the dark of the moon. Did the spell work like the paper said, or was she going to be stuck as a girl forever? She'd find out by morning. The transformation would happen during the night while she was, hopefully, asleep.

She woke up in the middle of the night, not feeling sick, but not feeling right either. She touched her body, lightly at first, then with amazed surprise. It seemed too good to be true, but the girl who had made Loren's life a nightmare was suddenly gone.

He—she was he again—hurried to the mirror. The room was Loren's again. He saw Loren in the mirror, but he wasn't wearing the babydoll pajamas—he was wearing a sweatshirt and guy's pajama bottoms from a thrift store. He examined himself carefully, double-checking that his restored masculinity wasn't just a dream.

Flopping back into bed, Loren lay awake until sunrise. It seemed impossible that he could have lived a month as the opposite sex, but every detail of his experience as a girl remained crystal clear—nothing like a dream. He became more and more convinced that he had gone through something completely insane. But real or not, the ordeal seemed to finally be over.

His life as Loren Medford was back on track.

The evidence was everywhere! His closet was full of guy's clothes. When he went downstairs and his mother looked at him, she showed no surprise. It hurt not to be able to share his experience with her, but the magical instructions had warned him not to tell anyone. He felt amazing for a couple of days, before realizing he was back to slogging through the same boring life as before.

Darrell briefly said hi to Loren at school before continuing down the hall. Loren soon confirmed that no one remembered Josette. There were no memories of her at Westbrook High, except for those that Loren himself had.

Talking to his few school friends, he learned that they only had male memories of him from the past month. Weird! When he hung out with Darrell next, he asked leading questions, trying to figure out what he remembered. Darrell remembered things that didn't match anything Loren remembered. He wondered if he was still living two different lives in two different worlds. That was seriously scary!

Had Josie gotten her memories back since he'd left her world? Had she forgotten everything he had learned while living in her body? Loren had discovered that Josie's life was shallow. She let other people think for her just to stay popular. Without her membership in the popular group, Josie's life was basically nothing. When high school ended and the group broke up, she would graduate with an empty head. Also, seeing another life from a different perspective, Loren was more aware than ever of the problems in his own life.

As the new moon approached, Loren entered a strange state of mind. He caught himself wondering what it would feel like to be Josette again. Both Loren and Josie had been unhappy, but both their lives had good parts. Loren appreciated the good things in life, while Josie had a great body. What if the better parts of each life could come together, while the worst parts could be thrown away?

But no, that was crazy! Going back to her reality risked getting permanently trapped in "Girl World." He wanted to experiment, not be stuck there forever.

Girls under thirty had it made. Males didn't hit their stride until they became men. But when girls became women, it marked the end of the best part of their lives. After thirty, it was all downhill.

On the other hand, it depressed him that he'd have to wait another fourteen years before he could build a decent life. That meant college, then starting at the bottom of some career ladder. What a drag.

A girl could at least prepare for the bad years by finding some guy who would work himself to death taking care of her, all for beauty that would soon fade. A wife often divorced her husband while she still had some looks left to attract a more successful guy. But whoever she was married to when she hit the big 3-0, it would be that guy's turn to trade her in for a younger model. Divorce and loneliness, being shut out from all the best things in life—that's what made women over thirty miserable.

As the days passed and the new moon approached, Loren kept thinking about his recent adventures. He had left Girl World without any closure. He could remember how bad Josette had it in that other world, but now that he was back in his own world, he could see what a mess his life was. He kept thinking about the possibilities of the magic oil. He wondered what Josie was doing back in that other world. She was having her best years while he was having his worst. He shook his head. No amount of trouble could make him put another drop of that magical oil on his arm.

But almost before he knew it, that's exactly what he did.

Josette woke up the next morning in sexy girl's pajamas. When Mrs. Medford called her down for breakfast, she ate in a daze, barely tasting the food. It took a while to get mentally and physically coordinated in this body again. But once she got to school, Josette felt less jumpy. In fact, she started to feel confident and daring.

She stepped out of her car wearing a short skirt and a revealing summer top. She saw Darrell coming into the parking lot. He waved and shouted, "Josette!"

"Hi," she replied.

"I missed you!" said Darrell.

"Missed me? Did I disappear for a month or something?"

"What are you talking about?"

"What day did we last see each other?"

"What's wrong with you? It was yesterday when you gave me a ride home after school."

"Oh, right! Sorry. Girls get spacey sometimes during that time of the month."

"I never heard that," Darrell replied.

"We all do, but we don't like to talk about it."

After school, they went to get milkshakes. Darrell had a bunch of ideas for what they could do together over the next few days.

Some of his suggestions got pretty close to being romantic, but she knew she could trust Darrell not to go too far. She felt like going all-out with the girl thing for the month ahead. One result was that she lost her inhibitions about dressing to show maximum skin. She didn't know why she liked being looked at like that, but she did. She felt lucky to have the right clothes to wear when she wanted to look hot.

Seeing her like that, the guys started acting weird. When they came up close, most got so tongue-tied she couldn't understand what they were saying. But the worst were the pushy ones. They were always asking her to go places with them. The only guys who avoided her were those from Josie's old group. That crowd had officially dropped her. But if that meant she could stay away from them and their annoying girlfriends too, the situation worked for her.

She didn't enjoy attracting guys like honey attracts bees, and it was especially creepy when they got too close when she was alone. She noticed that all the single, good-looking girls had this problem. The solution was to get a boyfriend! Guys would usually respect another guy's claim on a girl.

She decided to focus on Darrell and stick with him. That arrangement worked fine at first, and it was her idea that the two of them should go to the beach together.

When they hit the sand, Josette attracted plenty of male attention. She had changed into a bikini—the first time she'd intended to wear such a thing in public. Under her casual clothes was a Brazilian-cut number with a stained-glass pattern. It felt weird to be seen that way by strangers, but the shyness faded surprisingly fast. Maybe women weren't built to stay bashful for long.

The other girls at the beach didn't smile her way. When she realized their problem was jealousy, it made her laugh inside. All of them—especially the hot ones—deserved payback for the terrible way they had treated Loren!

"Doesn't being stared at make you uncomfortable?" Darrell asked.

"Do you want me to cover up more?" she asked.

"Oh God, no! You look incredible! It's driving me crazy, and I love the feeling!"

"That's sweet, Darrell, but don't start acting on your craziness in real life. It might hurt our friendship."

Darrell winced. "Josette, you're always talking about us being friends. Maybe you don't realize that guys hate being in the friend zone. For us it's like having an itch we're not allowed to scratch!"

"Don't get too intense, Darrell. Intensity—from a guy who's so big and strong—makes me nervous."

"I thought our relationship would be developing more than it has. What do you think about when we're together?"

"What should I think about?"

"Don't you have any opinion about what's good and what's kind of—wrong?"

"That's nothing! Perfection doesn't exist in this world, or any other world I've been in."

"You're hard to understand."

"That's true. Doesn't it make me interesting? But let's not talk about heavy stuff. It'll kill all the fun we're having here at the beach."

Darrell reluctantly agreed and switched to talking about the new war games at Jimmy Jack's game store. But the longer they talked, the more unspoken tension built up between them.

Just then, about six buff guys came over, their skin well-tanned from twelve weeks in the summer sun.

"Hey babe," one of them called. "Come join our volleyball game!"

Josette looked his way. "No thanks! My boyfriend and I are having a conversation here!"

"I bet the nerd doesn't have much else to offer!" said a shaggy-headed guy with a dark tan.

"Hey!" said Darrell, finally standing up for himself. "She already said she doesn't want to play volleyball with you!"

One volleyball player looked at him. "Don't you get it, geek? With girls, 'no' always means 'maybe.'"

"I wouldn't count on that," said Josette.

One of the beach guys reached for her. "We've got girls on our team. You'll fit right in. Let me help you up."

Josette slapped his hand away.

Darrell stood up and tried to push the pushy guy away. "Why don't you jerks realize you're not wanted?"

The guy smirked and shoved Darrell. He fell backwards, hitting the sand. He scrambled to his feet and started throwing punches. Josette had never seen Darrell fight before. And she could see he wasn't very good at it.

The volleyball players formed a circle around Darrell, pushing him back and forth between them. Josette jumped up and started punching too. One volleyball guy grabbed her up and threw her over his shoulder.

Some of the others couldn't resist touching her legs, her sides, and her bikini bottom. Darrell started swinging wildly. Unfortunately, the jerks hit back, and Darrell was soon beaten to his knees.

"Cut it out!" shouted a mature male voice. "Put that girl down right now!"

Josette was dropped back on her feet. She staggered a few steps and saw that the person intervening was the lifeguard on duty.

"We were just asking her to play volleyball," one teen said.

The guard looked at her. "Do you want to play volleyball with these idiots, miss?"

"I told them I didn't want to," she answered.

"That's it, then," said the guard. "Get back to your net before I call security to throw you off the beach for the rest of the weekend!"

"Let's go," said one of the group. "The little blonde is stuck-up anyway!"

Half a minute later, Darrell and Josette were left standing alone. Darrell didn't look happy.

"Don't look so bummed out," Josette said.

"I tried to protect you, but all I did was get pushed around."

"You did what you could, and that makes me think you're pretty awesome!"

Darrell sighed. "You've changed how I think about things, Josette. I never thought about defending a girl before."

"I hope you learned something today that you can use next time," she said.

"Hey," said Darrell, "instead of hanging around these beach jerks, why don't you come meet my war-gaming group? We meet Saturday nights. You said you're interested in war gaming."

"I am! Just thinking about playing Advanced Third Reich with all the countries filled makes me excited!"

"Maybe you'd want to take one of the easier countries, like Italy or France?"

"Hell no! The real fun is driving tanks into Russia!"

"Okay then! Awesome!" exclaimed Darrell, his eyes brightening.

Darrell introduced his gaming buddies, not realizing that Josette already knew them all. She had put her shirt back on, but still showed off her bikini bottoms. She knew every war gamer dreamed of having hot girls in their gaming circle. The guys didn't play well that night—Josette thought they looked somewhat distracted.

Unlike the beach jerks, war gamers were incredibly polite, treating her like a princess. This was the kind of crowd Josette had been looking for. They had great conversations about movies and books. The guys kept stealing glances at her chest and legs, but Josette couldn't be offended by guys acting like guys. After all, she knew the outfit she was wearing permitted them to look every chance they got.

#

When Josette drove Darrell home, he wasn't his usual good-natured self. Some instinct warned her not to push him to talk when he was in a mood.

At the zoo the next day, Darrell's frustrations spilled over and his thoughts suddenly turned into harsh words. "I don't think you're taking our relationship seriously," he blurted out.

Where had that come from?

"It's been bothering me for a while," he continued.

"I do take it seriously," she replied defensively. "Why do you think I don't?"

"Because you never let us talk about important stuff."

"We talk about everything!"

"But never about important stuff."

"Like what?"

"Like, you never mention what kind of guy you'd want to marry."

"Whoa, that's heavy! I won't even be eighteen until next month, and I'm still living with my mom. Why should I be talking about husbands when I'm still in high school?" It was hard for Josette to even pretend to want a husband.

"So where is our relationship going? Is it even a real relationship?"

Josette shrugged. "Isn't a relationship about having a good time and going on dates? Lately I've noticed you looking miserable when you should be happy."

"I've got a lot on my mind. I'm worried that maybe we're heading for a breakup."

"Hey! Who's talking about breaking up? If we're good together, why would we have to break up?"

"If two people aren't going in the same direction, a breakup is inevitable."

"I thought I understood guys, but I don't understand anything you're saying right now."

"I don't think you get how strongly I feel about you, Josette. The vibes you give off don't make me think you have any strong feelings for me."

"Relationships evolve. I do have strong feelings about you, even if they aren't romantic. Why talk about marriage? Most marriages fail anyway. Your parents are good together, but mine weren't. People can seem to be perfect together, then suddenly want a divorce a year after they get married. Please, Darrell. Enjoy what we have and don't be so anxious to open the next box."

"We haven't even kissed yet."

"So what's the big deal about kissing? If two people aren't in sync, a kiss can be misunderstood. And misunderstandings can ruin everything."

"It looks to me like you're putting me in the friend zone. No guy likes that, because girls never take friend-zone guys seriously."

"Don't get mad! If you start hating me, you'll leave my whole life empty. We're such perfect friends. Why isn't being friends enough?"

"I've told you why not!"

Josette's expression hardened. "If I'm not right for you, is there somebody you like better?"

"I never said you weren't right for me! I just want you to act like I'm the right guy for you!"

"Listen to yourself! What do you want from me?"

"Why don't you ever do anything sweet and spontaneous, like giving me a surprise kiss?"

"Kissing again! Friends don't have to kiss. If they do, it can be weird!" Josette stopped abruptly. She was getting into dangerous territory.

"But we're talking about boyfriends and girlfriends. People who are together and really care about each other act differently!"

"Be reasonable! We've only known each other for less than three months. I don't want to rush things."

"Rush things? If you were racing against turtles, they'd lap you three times!"

"Why are you so obsessed with kissing me?"

"Do you seriously not know?" Darrell asked impatiently.

"I honestly don't," she replied.

"Now you're manipulating me, acting like I'm bullying you!"

"I'm just saying we shouldn't change something that's still brand new. A kiss is a big deal, and it would change things. Changes are sometimes for the worse."

"Some changes are for the better. I want a better and deeper relationship with you, and the longer I have to wait, the more I think we want different things."

She felt like grabbing and shaking him. She knew damn well that he'd never had a chance to hang out with good-looking girls before. Why couldn't Darrell be satisfied with being seen around with one of the cute chicks at Westbrook High? Why was it that two guys could stay best friends for years, yet even the best guy-girl relationships rarely lasted beyond a few weeks?

"You've given me a lot to think about. I need time to process this," Josette replied. "If we keep talking this way, one of us might say something wrong, and it could be hard to fix things afterward."

"Maybe you're right. But we need to have a serious talk soon."

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Josette. "I've got an idea that might solve this problem we're having. I'll tell you about it soon, I promise."

"What kind of idea?" asked Darrell.

"Don't worry," Josette replied. "It'll be the biggest and most surprising thing that's ever happened to you."

"Is it something I'm going to like?"

"There's a chance you will. Let's just wait and see. I'll tell you Friday night, after school."

"What's so special about Friday night?" Darrell asked.

Josette lied. She didn't dare explain that Friday night would be the next dark of the moon.

THE END

To continue with the adventures of Josette and Darrell, see “The Dark of the Moon,” already posted here at TFTGS, https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/51751/dark-moon-sock-...