Love, Joy, Heartache and Pain

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX

Third period went smoothly. The only person missing from that class and the rest of the day was Josh. I’m guessing that he was still a little upset with Kylie over the kiss that they shared…a little? The man must be fuming with anger and rage! For once in my life, I was glad not to be in my own skin. Josh was going to kill me. Scratch that, he was going to kill Kylie. I had no idea what was going through his mind, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. He was not going to kill Kylie; he was going to murder her. All throughout the day, Kylie kept periodically looking at the doors and windows. I quickly guessed that she was still shaken up over Josh’s reaction.

“You need to calm down,” I whispered, leaning from my desk to where she was sitting. She jolted at the sound of my voice, but after a deep sigh, she managed to breathe peacefully. During fourth period, things got a bit confusing when the teacher called Kylie, but I answered. Several students laughed, but the teacher clarified that she was calling Kylie and not me. I just couldn’t wait for the day to be over, so I could be dancing in Luke’s strong arms.

“Kyle!” Kylie whispered. I turned towards her. Smiling suspiciously, she pointed to the windows. I quickly turned to look. There was a clear view of the back field from where we were sitting. Looking around, my eyes fell on Luke, who stood outside holding a boom box that was beginning to play, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. Oh my God! My heart immediately felt heavy. There was absolutely no way that air was reaching my brain or lungs because I started to feel drowsy and foolish. My dear and awesome Luke was making one of the greatest statements of all time! He was declaring how much he cared for me. Suddenly, he took out a sign and showed it to me. It said, “Please forgive me for being a homophobic jerk. Love, Luke.” That was it! My old little heart couldn’t take it anymore. I was about to die. Luke did notice my sudden reaction to his words when we were at Baskin Robbins! He had noticed that his words had cut me like Freddy Krueger’s knives. That could mean only one thing; he cared about my feelings! Just then, Principal Kelly appeared out of nowhere, and the funniest thing happened. Luke ran away from him in circles while Principal Kelly chased him from side to side. Every class that had access to windows exploded in laughter; even Kylie was laughing her ass off. When Principal Kelly caught up with him, he turned in my direction and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Do you forgive me?”

The laughter died and everyone turned to look at me. They were all waiting for my reply. Suddenly, I heard Kylie’s voice. “Say yes, stupid.”

“Yes!” I shouted with a squeal. Everyone started clapping as Luke and Principal Kelly quickly disappeared from sight. I was dying inside with happiness and absolute delight. When reality kicked in, it felt like an elephant sat on my chest, suffocating me to death. Luke didn’t love me. Luke loved the real Kylie. Yes, he liked the person I was inside, but he was physically attracted to Kylie. We weren’t meant for each other. It was all just a beautiful dream that was enveloped in heartache and pain. After class ended, we headed to lunch. As we walked the hallways, everyone was congratulating me for being Luke’s love interest. Kylie’s sulky look told me that she was not enjoying the way I was behaving with my new found popularity. She wasn’t jealous of me, but she didn’t like the fact that people were going to start looking at her differently after we switched bodies again.

“That was cute,” Harper told me as we sat facing them.

“You saw it?” I smiled.

“Everyone did.” Hughes added, smiling.

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Kylie chirped in. Kylie was right. After tonight, we might be in our real bodies again. She turned her attention to our version of Jimmy Neutron. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Well,” Harper started while we listened attentively to her every word. “First, we need to examine the surroundings and what elements were present during the barter of bodies.”

“In English.” Kylie scratched her head.

“They want to study my house and what may have contributed to our switching bodies,” I told her.

“Yes,” Hughes added. “You see, neither of you has a scratch or burn from the lightning bolt which means that you weren’t hit directly. A typical lightning bolt contains 1 billion volts and between 10,000 to 200,000 amperes of current. That’s enough to kill you, or leave you scarred for life if you manage to survive.”

“Precisely, if you had made direct contact with it, the two of you would be dead right now. Now, what I’m thinking is that maybe the lightning bolt hit the antenna, but it got redirected to the ground. That means that you got some of its energy and that powerful electrical surge made you switch bodies.”

“Okay,” I started. “Can we replicate that scene again?”

“To be honest, no. There is no way that we can gather or replicate the voltage of a lightning bolt. It’s just too much energy,” Harper answered.

“Yes, but what we can do is replicate the scene with a lower voltage that may not harm you, but will hopefully produce the energy needed to switch you back,” Hughes finished.

“So, I’ll be inside my own body tonight?” Kylie laughed.

“Probably…” Harper added.

“What do you mean probably? That sounds like a maybe.” Kylie slammed her fist on the table. Her testosterone level was starting to rise again.

“Yes, it’s just that we don’t know the exact elements involved last night,” Hughes answered. That made sense, but Kylie was a slow learner.

“So I could be stuck as Kyle forever?”

“Maybe, maybe not. It won’t hurt to try,” Harper replied.

“f**k me.” Kylie curled her bottom lip and crossed her arms.

“We’ve got to try, Kylie,” I told her, leaning on her shoulder.

“I know, but I wanted to be certain that tonight I would be inside my body again.”

“Hey!” My heart melted into my stomach. We knew who he was before we all turned around…a smiling Luke stood behind us.

“Hi!” I squeaked. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Kylie roll her eyes. I cleared my throat. “I mean, how are you?”

“Good and you?”

“Great!” Nervously, he turned to everyone at the table. “Hey Kyle!”

Rolling her eyes again, and with a sulky look on her face, she answered, “Hey…back at you.”

Luke stared at me with a perplexed look on his face. Kylie was acting like Kylie, and she should be acting more like me. In order to avoid confusing him even more, I decided to introduce the others. “This is Harper and Hughes.”

“Hey guys! Nice to meet you,” Luke replied cheerfully, still looking at Kylie. Suddenly, he turned to me. “Can I speak to you in private?”

“Sure.” I stood up. We walked a few feet away from the others, and stood looking at each other like two bumbling idiots. My hands were sweaty, and I started to dance from one foot to the other. Something about that motion made Luke carefully examine me from head to toe. Slowly, he began to inspect every inch of my face. Now I was really starting to get nervous. I decided to speak up. “So?”

“Yeah, sorry,” he told me. “Do you forgive me?”

“About?”

“Kyle.”

“Sure.” I smiled.

“Awesome! We still on for tonight then?”

“Absolutely.” He froze and began to examine me closely. I was starting to sweat now. Something was definitely up since he looked so perplexed and confused. “Is something wrong?”

He shook his head with a smile. “No. It’s just that…”

“Just what?” A cold chill penetrated my body.

“Nothing. It’s stupid.”

“Come on, you can tell me anything.” I wanted to know, so I wouldn’t be worried about what he was thinking throughout the day.

“It’s just that…” he started turning towards Kylie. “You’re acting so different…you and Kyle actually. I always made Kyle nervous, and you used to ignore me completely. Now, it seems to me like you two switched places or something. He’s treating me the way you used to treat me, and you’re acting the way he used to act around me. Even your expressions and actions have changed. It’s almost like you’re in his body and he’s in yours.”

My heart came to a sudden stop. I think the air around us disappeared because I couldn’t draw any in from my surroundings. Even he noticed our sudden change of personalities. Luke wasn’t as stupid as Kylie thought. I gulped. “I think it’s your wild imagination. That’s so silly.”

He laughed nervously and scratched his head. “I guess you’re right. That’s impossible, but I’m curious, why did you change so much towards me? There were times when I thought you hated me or something.”

My lungs collapsed. I lost my ability to speak. He continued to stare at me, waiting for an answer, but I couldn’t find one. “I…I just…wanted to give you…an opportunity to show me who you really are.”

He continued to stare at me in a most peculiar way. He was holding his chin with his right hand and his left eyebrow arched in the air. Something about my explanation seemed farfetched. “Okay.”

“Yeah…so, tonight.”

“Yeah,” he answered still not convinced by my answer. “I’ll pick you up at seven. Does that sound good to you, Kyle?”

“Absolutely! I’ll be ready.” I smiled, not realizing my stupid mistake. He looked even more puzzled as he started glancing quickly between me and Kylie with his mouth slightly open. Kylie was rolling her eyes and looking the other way with her arms across her chest. It was an action that Kylie did every time he came near her. I was starting to panic, and I needed to get his attention. “So? Seven?”

“Yeah.” He stared at me. Suddenly, he shook his head. “Yes, seven….I’ve got to go. The little stunt I pulled cost me two weeks detention.”

“Shenanigans! I’m so sorry to hear that.”

He immediately turned to me with his eyes wide open. “I thought only Kyle used that word.”

Shenanigans! I mean, f**k! The guy was right. I stumbled, but I quickly recovered. “I…Kyle’s behavior can rub off on you.” I smiled in the most innocent manner possible.

“Okay,” he told me, shaking his head. “Yeah, at first, he wanted to ban me from the dance, but after a long bargaining session, he agreed to two weeks’ detention.”

“I’m so sorry, Luke.” I really felt bad for him.

“No problem. See you tonight, Kylie.”

“Yeah, see you.” With those words, he walked away, and for the first time ever, I was happy to see him walking away from me. I made my way to our table in deep thought since our conversation had not gone well. I quietly sat down, sighing.

“What happened?” I looked up. It was Kylie and she looked really worried. Gently, she took my hand.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Kylie raised an eyebrow.

“To be honest…no. I think that Luke’s starting to notice our sudden change in personalities. He even asked me why we changed so much.”

Kylie’s eyes widened. “He did? What did you say?”

“I tried my best to play it cool and brush it off, but the guy’s not stupid. He finds your sudden change towards him suspicious.”

“I told you to act like me. We wouldn’t be in this situation if you hadn’t answered his stupid phone call.” Kylie squeezed my hand tightly.

I was angry now. “Well, Kylie, I told you to stay away from Josh too, and look at what happened with him. You kissed him and told him about our body switch! The guy must think that I’m koo-koo crazy or something.”

“Oh my God…Josh! Why did you have to remind me about him? I f****d up big time, but I want him so bad.”

Tears began swelling in her eyes. The girl loved him the way I loved Luke. We messed up big time with both of them. My biggest mistake with Luke was answering his call. He wanted Kylie, and she wanted Josh. He’s happy now. He thinks that Kylie likes him, but I know for a fact that Kylie would never love him the way she loves Josh. All of us would have our hearts broken except for Josh since God knows who he liked. I placed my head on Kylie’s shoulder. “Everything’s going to be fine, Kylie Boo.”

“I hope so. All we can do now is work on switching back and enjoy our time. So, tonight, go and enjoy your time with Luke. Have a blast! I know how much he means to you.”

“But…”

“No buts,” Kylie said wiping away her tears. She held my hands. “Enjoy your night with him and make yourself happy for at least a few hours. Make him happy, and make yourself happy. If Luke means as much to you as Josh means to me, you deserve to have a happy night with him.”

Now, I was crying. I quickly wiped my tears. “Thank you, Kylie! You’ve got no idea how much this means to me. Luke’s everything that I ever wanted and more. But, I don’t think I can.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because, when we switch back, everything will be back to normal.”

Kylie nodded. “True, but put yourself in his position. Don’t you think that he would love to spend a night with me rather than not spending one with me?”

Kylie made sense. One date would make him extremely happy. That would be ten times better than not spending anytime with who he thinks is Kylie. I think that we both owed him that much since he had been after Kylie for over a year and I foolishly answered his call. And one way or another, we both lied to him, but we couldn’t tell him that I was Kyle. Just look at what happened with Josh. Kylie kissed him, and the guy completely freaked out.

“Okay, Kylie, I’ll do it.”

We both smiled warmly. Suddenly, I heard someone blowing his nose. Upon further inspection, we realized that Harper and Hughes were still with us. Both of them were crying.

“Now, that’s true friendship,” Harper cried, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Indeed,” Hughes added, wiping his nose.

We all laughed. I hugged Kylie and turned towards them. “So, after class we head to Kylie’s house right?”

“Yes!” Harper exclaimed.

“This will be so much fun.” Hughes added.

“Awesome! After we get Kyle ready for his date with Luke, we can head to his house and prepare everything for tonight.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I chipped in. Something great came out of all this mess. We made two new best friends; however, they have always been our friends. We just never realized it. Now, Kylie and I were ready for anything.