The Switch [COMPLETED]

Chapter 41

Two years later...

Paisley Monroe: 

I looked up from my mug of steaming hot coffee when I heard the door to the apartment slam with a "bang."  Jenny appeared in the kitchen moments later, juggling a few paper bags full of groceries and the morning paper. She set the groceries down on the counter with a thud and tossed her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder, not even bothering to say good morning before twirling around to face me with an excited gleam in her eyes. 

"Have you SEEN the papers today?" she exclaimed, dancing over and slamming the morning news onto the counter before I had a chance to answer. 

With a bemused smile on my face, I glanced at the newspaper over the rim of my coffee cup. What I saw was my own face smiling back at me underneath the headline: "New York Times Best-Selling Author Paisley Monroe Delights With New Novel." 

"I can't believe it," Jenny was saying as she twirled around the kitchen, throwing Eggo waffles into the toaster with one hand and pouring orange juice into a tall glass with the other. "My cousin, a famous author!"

I rolled my eyes and pushed the newspaper away from me, a small blush beginning to creep up my cheeks. 

"It's not that big of a deal," I said sheepishly, shrugging and snuggling further into my oversized sweater. 

"Whatever you say," Jenny sang, grinning at me over her shoulder. "I think it's a pretty 'big deal.' Especially since you're only 20. Oh, to be young again..."

I laughed and leaned forward to swat her shoulder.

"Whatever - you're only 25!"

"Twenty-five feels like a hundred when you've been trying to get into the entertainment industry for as long as I have," she wailed dramatically, flinging her hand to her forehead. Jenny had been in a few small plays over the past few years, but she still wasn't as close to her big Broadway dreams as she had hoped. Still, I thought that she would get there soon. She was funny, and beautiful, and insanely talented. All it would take for her was one big break. 

I laughed at her antics and she grinned at me with a look of sisterly love. I had craved a look like that all my life. It was so nice to have finally found a family, no matter how small. 

 Her smile suddenly faltered to be replaced by a look of timid uncertainty. "Um...speaking of the entertainment business...yours wasn't the ONLY headline on the front page..." she hedged, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. 

With a small frown, I slid the paper back over to me and scanned the front page. My eyes immediately fell on the headline in question. 

"Former Ten Minutes To Midnight Heartthrob Asher Halen to Begin New Solo Tour Tonight in Times Square."

I fought to keep a neutral face, ignoring the fact that the very sight of his name had caused me to swallow my coffee much too quickly, and I was now struggling not to choke on it. 

"Are you going to go?" Jenny hedged nonchalantly, avoiding eye contact as she picked at tiny pieces of her waffle. 

"No," I said dully before putting my coffee down with a thud. I stood up from the stool I was sitting on and stretched my arms above my head, trying to work out the sudden headache that I had gotten within the past five seconds. 

"It might be good for you to see him," Jenny said. "You know...like closure or whatever."

I laughed and rubbed my temples. 

"Closure or whatever?" I echoed with a smile. "You've been watching too much Dr. Phil again, Jen. I can't go anyways. I have a book signing today, remember?"

Jenny shrugged and took a large gulp of her orange juice. 

"You could make it to both," she said with an impish grin. "Just saying."

I rolled my eyes with a smile and waved my hand dismissively at her before turning and retreating into my bedroom. The pounding in my forehead refused to go away as the headline about Asher swam before my eyes. Why did just the mention of his name STILL make me feel this way?

The past two years had been some of the craziest of my life, changing me in more ways than I ever could have imagined. After Asher had left me with Jenny that day, I had been in a slump. I was incredibly grateful for Jenny, who had pulled me out of it almost immediately with her bubbly personality and crazy dreams. Her optimism and love of life was something that was hard to ignore, and it eventually began to rub off on me, as well. 

I still thought about Asher nearly every day, though. The pain lessened with time, but it didn't stop me from wincing a bit every time his name was mentioned. And in the past few months, it had been mentioned A LOT. Because, you see, Asher had left Ten Minutes to Midnight. 

It was an amicable split. All of the boys were going their separate ways to move on to bigger and better things. Tucker, of all people, was actually getting MARRIED to an actress that he had met on the set of one of their music videos. Leo had decided that he wanted to live a more "normal" life, and was going back to school. Zach had taken a gig with another band, and so far seemed to be pretty happy with them. And Asher...Asher was going solo. 

The news had catapulted the boys into the spotlight once again, and I was stuck seeing his name and face everywhere I turned. It was easy enough to ignore for the most part, but there were some bad days that crept in every once in a while. 

Jenny was sweet, never asking too many questions and never prying. All she knew was what everyone else thought they knew: that Asher Halen and I had dated, and now we weren't, and that seemed to be enough information for her. One day, however, she had come home to see me elbow-deep in a carton of rocky road ice cream, yelling angrily at the main character of a sappy romantic TV drama. 

Quietly, she had sat on the couch and stared at the TV until I had finished my assault on the poor unsuspecting character. 

"Maybe you should write about him...y'know...Asher," she had suggested with a small shrug. "It might be therapeutic."

I had brushed off her suggestion at first, choosing to mope around for a few more days instead as snippets of Asher's new solo songs began to be played on the radio. Slowly though, her words had begun to take shape in my mind. 

One night, armed with my laptop and a giant mug of hot chocolate, I sat down at the small desk in Jenny's living room and began to write the book that would catapult me to the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list within a matter of months.

It was about a regular girl, who met a not-so-regular boy, and through a bit of strange magic ended up swapping bodies with him. They went through a lot together until they finally found out the secret to changing back. 

I called it "The Switch."

MY story had a few subtle changes from reality, though. In MY story, the boy asked the girl to stay. In MY story, their love wasn't one-sided. In MY story, the girl got the guy. In MY story, everyone got a happily ever after. 

It had been two years since the real thing. Time had healed many wounds. 

But I still liked MY story better.