The Other Side of Me – Chapter 32
by Lily Rasputin

Mike scooped me up in his arms and cradled me like a princess, smiling down at me with a grin that was both adoringly sweet and slightly lecherous. The arm closer to my butt slid higher, practically vanishing beneath the extremely short hem of my cheer skirt. A second later, I felt his palm cup my bottom, his fingers giving my rump a playfull little squeeze.

“Mike!” I squealed with mock astonishment as I slapped playfully at his arm. “Someone’s gonna see us!” Of course, despite my protesting, I enjoyed the way his hand felt on my ass. Like it belonged there.

“Let them see,” he replied, winking at me as he carried me off the football field toward a more secluded area at the rear of the stadium. “All they’ll see is the most beautiful girl in the world being carried by someone who loves her.”

My heartbeat sped up, and I draped one arm around his shoulders, stroking the taut muscles beneath his T-shirt. I tilted my head to look into his eyes, sending him what I hoped was my most smoldering and lustful gaze.

“Really?” I purred. “Show me.”

His grin widened as he finally stopped walking. We were all the way on the other side of campus, right next to the library. He gave one quick glance around, confirming that we were completely alone, then placed me gently back down onto my feet.

“You’re sure?” He asked as he stepped closer, pressing his body against mine.

I nodded, slipping my arms around his waist, and pulling him tighter while stepping back into a sheltered doorway.

“I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.”

Mike’s grin widened into an extremely pleased smile. Leaning down, he brushed his lips lightly against mine. Tasting. Teasing. Then they were pressing hard against my mouth, his tongue sliding inside as a soft moan of happiness came from somewhere deep in my throat.

Both of his hands moved around and up under the back of my skirt while mine fumbled around with his belt and the zipper on his jeans. I managed to unbuckle the belt, but momentarily stopped working on the fastener beneath when those hands stopped exploring the surface of my panties and slid beneath the waistband to grip bare flesh.

I pulled my mouth, reluctantly off of Mike’s and turned my head to breathe into his ear. “I want you inside me. I need you inside me.”

His hands squeezed as he nodded. “Anything for you, Charlie.”

The snap on the front of his jeans came apart, and I slid the zipper down with one hand while the other reached inside. My fingers curled around the hard shaft straining against the cotton of his boxers, feeling its warmth filling my palm.

Mike’s entire body shuddered as I began to stroke him up and down, running my thumb over the captured head teasingly.

“Oh, god. Charlie, that feels incredible.”

I giggled and continued to move my hand back and forth. “You’re so big, Mike. Big and hard.”

He nodded, eyes closed, as one of his hands remained firmly planted on my ass while the other moved across my hip to the front of my crotch. I fully expected him to immediately shove a finger or two inside my dripping sex.

Instead, I felt his fingers curl around something protruding from between my legs. Something stiff and hard.

His head pulled back, eyes opening wide as he looked down at what he’d found hiding within my satin panties. For a second, he just stared, then he practically leapt backward, pulling his hands off my body as if he’d just touched a hot stove.

“What the fuck?”

The shift in atmosphere had me reeling with confusion, and it took me a moment to realize that he was pointing at me. No. Pointing at my skirt.

I blinked, looking down at myself. For a moment, I didn’t understand what I was looking at. Then realization slammed into me like a linebacker, making me exhale with a rather audible gasp.

The front of my adorable cheer skirt was tented outward.

“Charlie? Is that a …” He shook his head, moving to rebutton his jeans. “You’re a guy?”

I shook my head violently back and forth, even as I reached down under my skirt with a trembling hand. “No! I’m not a guy, Mike! I swear I’m a girl!”

The hardened rod my fingers found inside my panties, however, countered my argument. Unable to stop myself, I took it into my hand and gripped it tightly. Just as I’d done to the one in the basketball player’s pants only seconds earlier.

“You’re a guy pretending to be a girl, aren’t you?” The accusation flew out of his mouth as his eyes, those eyes that had recently been looking at me with lust and adoration, now brimmed with unbridled disgust.

“No! I’m not. I’m … only a guy sometimes.”

He shook his head, backing away from me while I could only stand there holding the throbbing steel-like shaft in my hand.

“You’re disgusting! I hate you!”

“No! Mike, please don’t!” I started crying and walking toward him without letting go of the offending appendage in my vicelike grip.

He shook his head again and spun around, running off as fast as possible. In under five seconds, he was gone from view.

“No!”

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My eyes flew open as a scream died in my throat, revealing another pair of staring back at me from point blank range.

“Wow,” Samantha said with an amused smirk as she waggled her brows. “Someone is super excited this morning, huh? What’s the matter? Didn’t get enough of me last night?”

I stared at her as three things hit me, one right after the other.

We were in Sam’s bed. We were naked. It wasn’t my hand gripping and stroking my hardened manhood.

It was hers.

I jumped out of the bed, nearly castrating myself in the process. My newly freed slab of morning wood bounced and jiggled as I put one hand down to cover myself, unsuccessfully, while I glanced around in a panicked hunt for my clothes.

Spotting my boxers lying at the foot of the bed, right beside a really cute forest green thong, I snatched them up and stepped into them so fast I’m pretty sure both feet were off the floor at the same time. My still-inflated cock pushed against the opening in the front of the boxers, like it was trying to peek at the naked beauty less than five feet away.

I looked up to see Samantha was now sitting up in bed, the sheet pulled up to cover herself and held in place with one hand. The playful, sensuous expression she’d been wearing a moment ago was now the semblance of a disappointed frown.

“Welcome back, Charles,” she said dryly, adding a bit of a sigh at the end. “Great job on making a girl feel desired.”

“What are you talking about?” The crystal-clear memory of Dream Mike’s rejection of me still had my brain whirling in every possible direction. “Sam, you know that I do desire …” Then I paused, blinking as her words, all of them, actually cut through the fog in my mind. “Wait. What do you mean ‘welcome back’?”

Her green eyes studied me for a moment, then a single brow arched above one of them.

“You and Charlene switched places again, right? You’re here and she’s back over there. So, welcome back home.”

I ignored the obviously unhappy tone of her voice and lowered my hands away from their pathetic attempt to cover my body. “You know about the swaps?” I shook my head and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “How?”

“Charlene told me.”

I couldn’t stop my mouth from dropping open in shock. I had been fighting against the need to tell everyone I thought deserved to know, and apparently my opposite had no problem spilling the beans at the drop of a hat.

I knew that Charlene had begun to develop real feelings for the sporty redhead. I just didn’t think she would be so bold as to tell her new lover the truth about our situation.

“When?”

Samantha nodded. “Yesterday. When you came back and took over when we were at your place. You seemed confused for a moment. Then we started making out, but you didn’t really seem all that into it.” She shrugged one shoulder. “A few moments later, you’re twitching and looking around like you’re not sure what was going on as you screamed at me to take my ‘goddamn hands off your ass’. That's a direct quote, by the way.”

I gaped harder, remembering that Mike had been cradling Charlene just like he had me in the dream. It wasn’t hard to imagine her reaction at going from being curled up with her girlfriend one moment, then finding herself in the arms of a boy she didn’t know the next. No wonder she came back angrier than normal.

She shook her head. “I already knew there was something going on with you. I just didn’t expect swapping bodies with across a parallel reality to be the explanation.”

For a moment, I considered trying to continue the bluff. Unfortunately, it was far too late for that now. While I might not be one actually dating Samantha, I didn’t feel comfortable trying to gaslight her.

I sighed and nodded. “It’s not easy pretending to be someone else,” I confessed. “Even if that person is your dimensional duplicate.”

She threw me a little amused smirk. “I can imagine. But I have to give you two props for doing as well as you have been.”

“Obviously not well enough. If you already suspected me ... her … whatever.” I tilted my head, looking at her. “What tipped you off?”

Sam reached out and patted me on the arm with the hand not holding the sheet against her chest. It was an extremely conciliatory and placating gesture.

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, Charles. You are a good lover. Attentive and sweet. Even enthusiastic. I really enjoyed having sex with you.” Then she shrugged. “But there is something to be said for the expertise and skills that come from actually owning the equipment.”

“Owning the … oh! Gotcha!” I felt my face grow hot. “So, what about the equipment she doesn’t have the experience with?”

Samantha laughed and wagged a finger at me. “Let’s just say it’s taking her a bit to get the hang of using it. However, what she can do with her fingers and tongue? That more than makes up for any premature shortcomings.” She let out a contented breath. “I honestly thought after my ex I was done with girls permanently. But this is like, uh, a fusion of the two. The best of both worlds.”

I frowned, still slightly annoyed that apparently Charlene was better at giving my pseudo-girlfriend orgasms than I had been. The logic of it was completely asinine, but then again, so was this whole situation.

When I didn’t say anything further about it, the inquiring expression returned to her face. “So, this guy that Charlene nearly clawed the eyes out of? Has he enjoyed the benefit of your own expertise?”

I blinked, my cheeks beginning to burn as the thought of using the knowledge of what I had enjoyed as a man to make Mike’s knees buckle. “Not yet.”

She gave me an accusatory glare. “Why? Please say you’re not having some homophobic hangup.”

“It …uh …” I looked away, my face on fire. “No. It’s just that I don’t think I’m ready yet.”

“Ready?” There was no disguising the sarcasm in Samantha’s voice. “What do you mean you’re not ready? I happen to know for a fact that you’re not a virgin.” She snorted. “Nor is Charlene.”

I shook my head. “I know that. It’s just … you know.”

She put her hand on my shoulder, drawing my attention back to her. “Is it the fact that you don’t feel ready to have sex with this guy? That you’re not ready to have sex as a woman at all? Or are you feeling guilty about doing the deed because it’s ‘not your body’?” One hand came up to make the air quotes gesture.

I shrugged. “One of the swaps happened in the middle of her having sex. Actually, it was at the end. I arrived right during her climax.”

Sam’s eyebrows wiggled. “Oh really? And how did you enjoy the female orgasm?”

The frown that formed on my face made the humor drop from hers. “Well, she was fucking her best friend’s boyfriend. Didn’t she tell you about that?”

Sam’s frown matched my own. “She did. And she feels bad about it.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Seriously? Until recently, she’s been doing everything she can to screw people over. In both universes. Now she feels bad?”

“Believe what you want, Charles. I know what I’m seeing. Charlene seems to view being here as a chance for redemption or something.”

I wanted to explain to her that whatever Charlene was up to, it wasn’t likely to be any sort of penance. However, any further discussion about my duplicate’s actions, or about my resistance to have sex with Mike North, was tabled due to the fact that we both had mid-morning classes to attend.

Fortunately, it seemed as if Charlene had planned for the overnight stay and packed a bag with clean clothes and toiletries.

Sam slipped into a robe and headed toward the door, pausing to look back at me.

“I know that we’ve showered together before, Charles. Among other things. But …”

I nodded, waving my hand. “Knowing that it’s me in here instead of her makes it weird, right?”

She flashed me a small, slightly guilty smile. “Yeah. Kinda.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll go second. As long as you promise to save me some hot water.”

“I promise to try,” she said as she left the room.

While Sam bathed, I grabbed my phone and pressed my thumb against the screen. The darkened surface came to life with a surprising wallpaper image. Me and Sam. We each had an arm around the other’s waist and my other arm was extended up and out of fame. A selfie, apparently taken by Charlene.

“Guess you’re falling just as hard for her as I am for Mike, huh?” I said to the image that was both me and not-me. “I suggest not fucking it up.”

I debated whether or not to check the text messages. On the one hand, they were technically private conversations of which I wasn’t a part. On the other, until the dimensional swapping ended, however it ended, this was still partially my life.

Opening the app, I scanned the most recent conversations. The most recent one was from Charlene to Sam telling her that she was on her way over and would pick up pizza. It was accompanied by a heart emoji. There were a bunch of messages before that one, but the thought of reading what was likely a bunch of cutely romantic texts didn’t sit well for me.

The next one down was from my mom. It said, “The choice is yours, of course. But you need to consider the impact of it on everyone’s lives.”

I frowned as I opened the conversation. There was a serious tone to the black letters inside the peach-colored bubble. A warning from my mother to Charlene.

Skimming back through the short exchange, I discovered that the topic was Sam and Charlene’s relationship. It would seem that she was more smitten than I had imagined. She had bounced the idea of moving in with the redhead past my mother. Who, it seemed, was equally concerned about both me and the girl currently living my life.

“All yours,” Samantha said as she walked into the room in a towel. Almost immediately, I felt myself stirring down below. I might be falling in love with Mike, but there was no denying that the redhead was stunning. Especially right out of the shower.

She glanced down at my obvious erection and flashed me a coy smile. “I know just the thing to take care of that problem,” she purred.

I swallowed and tried to look casual. “Oh?”

She nodded, walking my way with an exaggerated sway. She stopped right before me and leaned down so that our noses were only inches apart.

“A cold shower.”

Then she grinned, tapped me on the nose, and walked over to her closet.

I sighed and stood up. “Is it cool if I call you a bitch when I’m not in a female body?” Sam’s amused giggle followed me down the hallway to the shower.

After I finished my classes, two of which I arrived tardy on account of getting my schedule and Charlene’s mixed up, I decided to head over to Jackson’s and find out what he thought about the new and improved girl masquerading as me.

Fortunately, no one else seemed to be at home. So, I let myself in and went downstairs to find him in the lab bent over his worktable.

“Knock! Knock!”

Jackson tensed as he looked up from the circuit board he was soldering, brow crinkling for a moment as he studied me. Then his posture relaxed, as he put down the tools and turned to face me.

“Back on this side again, huh?”

I stopped and gave him a smug look. “How can you be so sure?”

He grinned and pointed at me. “You’re standing with your hand on a cocked hip. You might be back in your body, but you’re still moving like you’re in hers.”

I glanced down at myself, then quickly straightened my posture into something I felt was more masculine. The problem was it just didn’t feel natural at all.

“Dammit.”

Jackson shook his head. “That’s really not that much better. You just look uncomfortable.” Leaning back against the table, he gave me a concerned look. “How are you doing? I mean, all things considered.”

I shrugged. “The connection between Charlene and I is becoming more unstable,” I said. “At least, that’s what the other you said. I’m supposed to ask you if you’ve done anything recently that might be the cause.”

“Not that I’m aware of.” His worried expression turned to curiosity. “Unstable how?”

I told him about the incident after cheer practice, leaving out the part where Charlene had found herself in the arms of a boy she didn’t know. I’d already had this discussion with Samantha and certainly didn’t need another repeat of uncomfortable questions. I mentioned Other Jackson’s theory that our memories and personalities might start getting swapped as well. Something I was keen on preventing if at all possible.

He frowned, rubbing his cheek for a moment in thought. “While it’s not entirely impossible, I don’t think it would be quite that dramatic. More like subtle influences than actual exchanges.”

Before I could ask him to elaborate on the differences between the two, he continued. “For example, can I assume that your temper has been a lot shorter than normal recently? Find yourself getting angrier and impatient more quickly?”

I reluctantly nodded as I thought about the flash of annoyance I’d felt when Samantha was boasting about how wonderful a person Charlene had become. It hadn’t been a big increase, but enough that I’d noticed. And it had itched at the back of my mind most of the day.

“I thought so,” Jackson said. “Conversely, it would seem that Charlene has received a small portion of your patience. Thankfully.”

“I heard she apologized to you for her past behavior?”

He nodded. “And she actually sounded sincere, too. Of course, she still gets a bit … standoffish when she’s around me.”

“Probably still feeling the guilt over what she did to her Jackson.”

“Maybe.”

“So, have you done anything on this side that might account for the changes?”

He sighed. “I’m not sure. I can’t say for certain since I had no idea it was happening. Contrite as she might be feeling, Charlene isn’t a big fan of hanging around the lab.”

“I’ll bet. I’m sure she’s giving her Jackson an equally wide berth.”

He nodded. “However, I have started exploring alternative methods that might reverse the swap on a permanent basis. A couple of which, I’m glad to say, seem promising.”

My reaction to this unexpected news must have shown on my face, because he immediately stared at me as he sighed with resignation.

“But … you don’t want it reversed, do you? You want to stay over there as much as she wants to remain here.” He shook his head.

I shook my head. “It’s not like that, dude. It’s … complicated.”

Jackson stared at me for a few more seconds, then turned around and picked up the soldering iron once more.

I walked over to him, standing on the other side of the worktable. “Come on. Don’t be like that.”

He didn’t look up from his task. “Be like what, Charlie? Upset that my best, and pretty much only, friend wants to stay in another universe? In the body of his female counterpart? That he’d rather live her life than his own?”

My mouth dropped open, but nothing came out. First Katie, then Mike, now Jackson. I was on a roll upsetting the people who meant a lot to me. I guess I could put Samantha on that list. As long as I was here, she wasn’t able to be with the Charlie she really wanted.

“It feels right.”

Jackson paused and looked up from the circuit board. “What does? Being her?”

I nodded, then shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain it, man. I just feel more like … me when I’m being her. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but all I can do is tell you how I feel. I feel more alive over there. Happier.”

He frowned, then went back to work. “I suppose if I told you it was only because of the quantum entanglement, you wouldn’t even care. Would you?” He shook his head. “Just like her, you’re determined to say in a universe that’s not yours.”

My hands balled into fists. In the course of our entire friendship, despite all the mishaps I’d been affected by, I’d never once wanted to hit Jackson.

Until now.

When I realized what I was feeling, I dialed my temper back a bit. However, I was still rightly peeved.

“I’m sorry if being over there, living as her, makes more sense to me than my life here ever did. You’re my best friend, Jack. Didn’t you see how unhappy I apparently was?”

He stopped his work again and looked up at me. “Of course, I did, Charlie. But I didn’t know how to help you. Other than be your friend.”

I sighed and walked over toward the dimensional control panel. Most of the damage Charlene had done had been repaired, though it still didn’t look close to being ready to recreate the original experiment.

“I can’t explain it,” I said, looking back at him. “Maybe it is the connection. Or maybe some quirk of the transfer. All I know is that I feel more like me when I’m her. As crazy as that sounds.”

I let out a sighing breath and leaned back against the podium. “Sometimes it’s all so confus-”

Jackson dropped the soldering iron and held up both hands in my direction. His eyes were wide and full of panic.

“Charlie, don’t touch that, it’s plugged in!”

His warning came a second too late. My elbow bumped against the top of the control panel. Which I hadn’t realized was lit up like a damn Christmas tree. A zapping shock blasted up my arm through my elbow and sent me stumbling backward as a wave of intense nausea slammed into my gut.

Losing my balance, I fell backward and landed on my ass.

Only, instead of the hard floor of Jackson’s lab, I was on the slightly softer surface of the school’s athletic field.

Blinking rapidly, I glanced around to see the rest of the cheer squad standing there, eyeing me with worry. Well, Shelly, Josie, and a few others looked worried. The rest of them seemed amused as hell.

“Charlie?” Shelly asked as she knelt down next to me. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, but my thoughts weren’t with her. Or the squad. Or the fact that my return had majorly disrupted practice.

Instead, they were centered on the event that happened right before that.

When I leaned against the dimensional control panel and got shocked, the result had been my returning here. To this dimension. Not completely different than the first time, when I’d grabbed the power cable while touching the mirror.

“It’s electricity,” I said softly as I stared into Shelly’s eyes. “That’s what controls the swaps.”