Under My Skin (on hold)

Chapter 11- Feeling Sorry

"Where the HELL is Ben?!" Jessica knocked anxiously at the door to Ben's house. She was worried about him. She called his cell phone a dozen times, and it went straight to voicemail before the first ring. She knew Ben, he was her fiancée, and Jessica knew that this was bad. Something was really wrong.

Please don't be dead, please don't be dead, DAMMIT, BEN, please don't have given up now. You were so close.

She thought to herself, noticing she didn't hear Lainey's bark. Bethany, who was still in Ben's body, wandered up to Jessica, wondering the same thing, but with much less worry. Bethany unlocked the front door to his house and found that they were both gone, and it infuriated her that Ben had run off with Bethany's body. She called him, and he picked up.

This made Jessica mad. Jessica knew that it wasn't just because she called him at the wrong time, but he picked up nearly instantly for Bethany. She didn't know how to feel about it, since she still loved him.

"BEN! YEAH, HI!! You couldn't have waited to get back in your own body before you ran off with mine, so you could reboot mentally!? What the hell are you thinking! You're such a CABBAGE, Ben!! Get back here! Your band needs you, Jessica needs you, and I need you."

It seemed to Jessica that was all it took for him to come back. She was furious when he did.

"I didn't run off, you know."
He defended when he came down the block ten minutes later.

"I was just doing some writing and arranging with Jeremiah. I took Lainey because she's friends with his dog. Who do you think I am?"

He entered his house, Lainey running inside and getting comfortable, and turned to Jessica and Bethany on his front stoop.

"I'm a cabbage now. That's a new one." He responded snarkily, before walking in his house and leaving the door open behind him, practically inviting the girls in.

Jessica knew now that he turned his phone off when he was arranging songs, and he answered to Bethany because he was on his way home. She was still mad, so she hopped in her car and started the car, backing out of the driveway with a roar. Bethany stepped in his house and shut the door.

She approached Ben, and spoke softly, but seriously to him, and he turned to her, eating a turkey sandwich.

"Listen Ben. We've been like this for weeks now, and we haven't turned back. I don't know if we ever will, but we have to start taking this seriously."

"You know, Bethany, I hope we don't have to kiss to turn us back, like in the fairy tales."

"I hope not either, because I'm with Jeremiah, and I could spend the rest of my life with him. I really could, Ben. And with my luck, if we kiss, it won't be sincere which is probably the key to turning us back, and then Jeremiah will walk in and my whole life would be sabotaged. I can't risk that."

"Maybe it doesn't have to be a kiss of love, but a kiss of understanding." He suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"We've learned our lessons, right? I see you, you see me differently now. I've been in tune with your thoughts and feelings, and something really is different in you. I think the same goes for me, and this, a normal conversation, is kind of what we never could do, and now we can. So what does that say?"

"Ben, I still don't know."

"It's worth a shot. You want to change back, right?"

"More than anything. Although your clothes are comfortable, I miss the skin I didn't realize I was comfortable in until I suddenly became you. I became comfortable in that too, strangely."

"And that's the key! I think we have to figure it out ourselves. And we might have just done so." Ben finished before there was a spit of silence and the floor suddenly caught Bethany's attention. She looked up once she decided.

"I'm gonna kick myself for this later, and if Jeremiah walks in and this sabotages our relationship and IT DOESNT WORK, I think I'm just gonna become a ghost and haunt your ass." Beth said as a disclaimer, before she reached up and put her hands on Ben's face, and kissed him like she kissed Jeremiah.

"Did it work?" Ben asked after pulling away.

"I don't know, I feel the same."

"I'll never let you live that down as long as we know each other, Beth." Ben evilly laughed before they both blacked out and fell over ungracefully.

When they came to, Jeremiah was casually flipping through a magazine on the couch, looking over at the two every so often in case they stirred. He peered over the pages when he heard the groans of his long time girlfriend Bethany.

"Good morning, you love birds. Did the fairy tale kiss work?" It was obvious he was hurt about the method of them switching back, but some part of him understood.

"Apparently. How long were we out?"

"A few minutes." He said plainly.

"Jeremiah." Bethany said, reading his emotions.

"Don't." He snapped, finally. They looked at Benjmain, who was getting up as well. Bethany extended a hand to him, helping him off the hardwood floor.

Bethany put her hands on her back like an old woman, which is what she felt like. She felt brittle, exhausted, fragile. Ben was rubbing his eyes before he scratched his head, not expecting to get punched in the chest.

"DID YOU SLEEP AT ALL WHEN YOU WERE IN MY BODY?! I AM SLEEP DEPRIVED AND CRANKY AS HELL! HAVE YOU NO RESPECT FOR THE BODIES YOU INHABIT ON OCCASION?!"

"Well, I've never really switched bodies before so I wouldn't know, plus the sleep deprived thing didn't effect me at all. I didn't know it would effect you too."

"Oh, shut up with the snide responses! OF COURSE IT EFFECTED ME!! ITS MY BODY! AND ALL THOSE FRENCH FRIES I BET YOU ATE WENT STRAIGHT TO MY THIGHS, DID YOU CONSIDER ANY OF THAT AT ALL?!"

"No, not really. I was too focused on the taste of all the grease and calories in the fries." He remarked before Jeremiah got up and pulled him into the dining room, without looking either in the eye. Ben said before he was out of earshot

"THANKS FOR TREATING MY BODY ALL NICELY AND GIRLY! I SMELL LIKE SWEET PEAS AND HAPPINESS. I HAVE NO SYMPATHY FOR YOU, THOUGH! THE FRENCH FRIES WERE WORTH IT!!"