It was almost as if ... as if he thought he was Jon.
"Mikey, what are you talking about?" Karyn said, "I'm friends with you. Not Jon."
Mikey felt weird. He knew he wasn't Jon, but he couldn't explain why he was using Jon's stuff. But, he didn't feel weird because he was using it, he felt weird because he didn't know why he was. Using it had felt normal at the time. The clothes fit, when if they were Jon's, they'd be too big.
"Mikey? You there?" Karyn's voice came back.
He blinked. "Karyn...can I talk to you later? I...need to go talk to Jon," he said.
"Yeah, of course. Is there something wrong?"
"Yes...no...MAYBE," he said. "I need to find out." He hung up and stuck the phone in his pocket without thinking much of it.
Meanwhile, Jon was sitting in the kitchen. He was still waiting his turn in the shower. He'd tried to go when Mikey had gotten out, but his mother had reminded him that was Zoe's turn. She seemed a bit annoyed with him today, probably because everything he did seemed to be wrong in her mind.
He felt so overwhelmed, he felt like crying. He hadn't felt like crying in years. Mikey came down the stairs. He was wearing what looked exactly like Jon's clothes. He moved to Jon's side. "Are you all right?" He asked.
For some reason, Jon felt better with him there. "Are you still mad at me?" Jon asked.
"No," Mikey said. "I just want to talk to you about something. Do you notice anything different about me?"
"You're wearing clothes like mine," Jon said. "And Mom yelled at me for sleeping in your room."
Mikey nodded. "I bet, if we went up to my room we'd find all the clothes are in your size."
Jon looked up at Mikey. With him sitting and Mikey standing, he had to do so, even though Mikey's eye level standing wasn't much higher. He realized he was looking at Mikey for clues on what to do. At first, he was surprised by it, but as the minutes passed by, he felt more and more comfortable about it.
Mikey was scared, but he felt he had to put on a brave face for Jon, who looked scared. Any thought of anger at his brother was pushed aside. Unlike his brother, he didn't notice this particular shift in his thinking and thus couldn't consider what it meant.
