Jon was ripped from his dreams, by a hand clamping firmly over his mouth and a voice hissing “What did you do?!”. A moment later his sheets were ripped aside. It took Jon several long moments to get his bearings, too long for his attacker apparently, because the hand shifted from his mouth to his throat squeezing painfully “I said. What. Did. You. Do to me!?” Someone hissed.
No, not someone. Abigail, the exchange student that had been living with them for a few days now. The two of them had immediately hit it off, so why the heck did she look ready to murder him?
“What…?” Jon croaked “What are you talking about?”
“This.” The smartphone Abigail had been holding over her head as if to bash Jons head in with it, was thrust into his face. It looked completely ordinary. Was this about the background image? But that selfie of the two of them had been Abigails idea!
“I- I don’t understand.” Jon croaked, reflexively bringing his hands up to grip the arm choking him “You are hurting me, Abgail!”
“Don’t call me that!” she snarled, her fingers tightening enough to cut Jons air-supply completely. “ I’m not your girlfriend! I’m… ” her anger was replaced by confusion “I’m…. We knew each other…. I was the one with…sneakers? I had….hair.” she stumbled back a step staring at Jon with wide frightened eyes “I…. We… I did …You…..” Jon was dimly aware of Abigail slowly backing away until she hit the wall, but for now his brief brush with death was on the forefront of his mind. When he tried to pry Abigails hand away she had -probably subconsciously- put more weight onto her arm to maintain her grip, slowly crushing Jons neck.
Once his heart had stopped hammering like a jackhammer, Jon slowly sat up, looking at Abigail who had sunk to the floor staring at him miserably “You weren’t Abigail yesterday, were you?” he asked, dreading the answer. He had liked Abigail. She was fun. As stupid as it sounded, it had meant the world to Jon that he’d finally had someone to watch cheesy Japanese Kaiju movies with. Karyn could outgeek Jon in a lot of ways, but this particular brand of silliness she had never warmed up to. Nor had any of his other friends or family.
His heart fell when Abigail nodded “I know who I am.” She said frustration evident in her voice “But every time I try to say it, it slips away.”
“And you thought I did it.”
“I wake up in an unfamiliar room and I’m suddenly a chick. And when I turn of the alarm on my smartphone there is a photo of who I assume is this chick and you cuddling. And there are a bunch of new messages from complete strangers congratulating Abigail for her new boyfriend. And apparently she had a long discussion on how to satisfy a guy with her BFF last night.
So yeah. It seemed pretty fucking obvious who’d profit most from turning me into your devoted arm candy.“
“Wait…what?” Jon stared at Abigail in confusion “Abigail wasn’t… We hung out in my room a few times! I mean. I thought she might be flirting with me, the last two days. ”
“Okay, okay.” Abigail interrupted him “I really don’t need the sappy details. So nothing happened?”
“Yeah.” Jon nodded glumly. Knowing that had been on Abigails mind, when she went to her room last night only made knowing she had never been real even worse. It might not have been real, but it still felt like Jon had lost a potential friend and a great opportunity nonetheless.
“And you don’t have my paper. ”
“No.” Jon nodded again “Not unless…” it suddenly hit him what might have happened ” ….you are Sarah?”. Where was the strip of paper? Did Zoe sneak in here last night to ‘borrow’ the paper for a bit of revenge her own?
