Under My Skin (on hold)

Chapter 6- What Lies Beneath

"So if I get drunk, who gets the hangover?" Ben said as Bethany. She smacked him immediately. He found it funny that he was getting smacked by himself.

"It would be my body, Ben! WHATEVER YOU EAT IN MY BODY GOES STRAIGHT TO MY THIGHS, YOU ASSHOLE--"

"It's too late for that, I already sent Jeremiah out to get me a Big Mac, a large fries, and a coke."

"OH MY GOD BEN, YOU ARE UNBELIEVABLE!" She pushed herself fairly hard.
"And I'm still hungover, thanks to you!"

"I was hungover yesterday, Bethany."

"Dear God, Ben. I don't like being you at all..."

"Just you wait, Beth. Just wait."

"Don't even joke around with me Ben. I can't make out with my boyfriend because I'M IN YOUR BODY and you wouldn't kiss your drummer even though you're in my body. But you might have to..."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?"

"You're going to dinner with his parents tonight."

"OH HELL NO!"

"Hell yes. I'll take you back to my house and I'll show you what to wear so you look like me. Jeremiah will be there soon to give you the rundown of what to say and how to act because you're me. Got it?"

"We better get this fixed. Soon. I ain't kissing Jeremiah."

"You're me, so you'll have to. Remember, it's my lips, you're just controlling them."

"Like that's supposed to make me feel any better."

"Hey, I'm trying."

That marked the end of the conversation. They didn't want to have to continue it for longer than they had to, even though it was the longest conversation they'd ever had.

At Bethany's house, she led Ben to her closet and set out the outfit she was going to wear for her body to put on. Jeremiah sat on her bed with a stack of dusty old books around, describing folklore about body switching. Ben struggled to get the dress on as well as the high heels she expected him to wear. Jeremiah was distracted by Ben hopping around all over the place, attempting to get the dress on from a numerous amount of angles. He slammed the book shut, dust going everywhere, and he coughed before dragging Ben around the room trying to help him get the dress on.

It's not like he as himself was trying to get it on, it was a girl's body so it shouldn't have been to hard, but for two guys, well, one and a half, it was rocket science. They finally got the dress on Ben, only to discover that it was backwards. They refused to go through the process all over again, so they tugged on it until it turned. As for the high heels, Ben twisted her right ankle and she wasn't going to be happy about that when she gets back in her body.

Jeremiah helped curl his hair, but he was reading the book to him as well as handling the hot metal wand. Ben was afraid Jeremiah was going to give him third degree burn on his forehead. Ben still hasn't gotten used to the idea of her long hair, and he considered chopping it all off so it wouldn't distract him. She would never forgive him for that but he felt like she would be doing him a favor. He can't imagine how badly her drain gets clogged.

On the other hand, Bethany was sitting around in Ben's body and she was rooting through his desk drawers, trying to find out more about the body she was controlling. She found a bunch of stuff that she was reading through about him and she was listening to the music he had recorded on his laptop that didn't have a password. She was slowly beginning to understand him.

Even though Bethany was inside his body and controlling it, she was starting to feel the effects. The body switch didn't come without a price. She felt all his emotions and thoughts when he was still in his body, and Ben felt all her emotions before they switched. This was the only way they could truly get to each other. By the end of the afternoon, Beth was feeling like Ben, miserable, and Ben was feeling like Beth, miserable but content. What they each had in common was stress and the weight of the world on their shoulders.

So this is how Ben is feeling. These are the thoughts that run through his head when he's alone. There's so much more inside of him. There's so much depth to his actions than he shows on the surface. He's not an asshole by choice, he didn't ask for this. It happened to him and he couldn't have controlled it...

Bethany thought, coming to a realization about who her neighbor really was. This was only the surface of him. This was only just the beginning. Ben was staring in the mirror and in his reflection, he saw himself instead of Bethany, whose body he was inside of. He had this strange feeling in his gut that things weren't quite alright, but things weren't all that bad. Bethany had confusing feelings, she rested somewhere in between.

So. This is Bethany. This is her, this is how she feels about everyone around her and herself. All she sees are the imperfections, and it would be great if she knew how Jeremiah felt about her, really. If she only knew what he sees when she's reading a book and drinking coffee or smiling when she doesn't think anybody is looking. Still, I feel this hole in my chest that is unable to be filled completely, and it's the desire to have purpose.

When Bethany and Jeremiah had to head to dinner, Ben was still having trouble finding a way to walk in the high heels he was assigned to wear. He threw them down the stairs and walked out to his bandmate's car barefooted and didn't put the shoes on until he was in the restaurant, and there was no turning back then. He had to pretend like he and Bethany didn't switch bodies and everything was alright, when everything wasn't alright. They were far from it.