This choice: Turn yourself into Gillian to get more ideas • Go Back...Chapter #24Girl in a Blanket by: Seuzz   To answer Caleb's question—who for me?—you're going to have to get inside Gillian Kiefer's head. But the parking lot of Besandwitched—which fronts onto Grant Boulevard—is not the place to pull off a bodyswitch.
get fod to go, you text him back. pay u bac meet at school.
* * * * *
It's not until later, when you're pulling into the Westside student parking lot, that you realize that you should have been clearer about which school you meant.
"What are we doing here?" Gillian asks from the back seat.
You glance at her in the rearview mirror as you shut off the engine. "Did I say you could talk?"
"I thought you just meant, you know, on the drive over," she says. She wears a very vexed expression.
Her reply annoys you—and, in truth, frightens you—enough that you ask her, "Who has to do exactly what I say?"
"I do," she says. "But—"
"Then don't argue," you interrupt, and she claps her mouth shut with a frown.
So that's a relief. At the same time, you don't much enjoy it. Though you're glad to see Gillian Kiefer for once docilely doing what you ask of her, you have to admit that you'll miss the teasing, the goading, the arguing that Braydon is used to getting from her, and which is part of the huge turn on that he has for her.
And that you, as Braydon Delp now, have for her.
You glance around as you get out of the car. There are a couple of cars parked up next to the gym, which worries you. Those will belong to the jocks, who will be up in the fabled "fuck room" over the gym. You've parked in the farthest corner of the lot from them, and you doubt they'll come down to investigate or to hassle you. But you can never tell about these things.
From the trunk you fetch a heavy blanket, and Gillian's eyes go wide as you clamber into the back seat with it. For a moment it looks like she's going to speak or even argue, but she keeps still, though she shrinks back a little from you.
Odd, that. She doesn't normally flinch from Braydon. But then, she doesn't normally find herself tongue-tied at his behest.
It's on account of the mask, of course. She's not really Gillian Kiefer anymore; she's a golem. The mask came out of her while you were still parked at Besandwitched, and after getting your "golem goop" into it you pasted it back onto her face. The resulting golem picked up exactly where the real Gillian had left off, but to her own astonishment she'd clammed up when you told her to be quiet and stay still in the back seat while you went up front and drove off, leaving her car back at the restaurant. Now it's time to complete a transformation, at least long enough for you to figure out where to put Caleb.
You throw the blanket over Gillian and tuck it around her; when she pulls it off her head, you push it back over her. "I need you to get out of your things, Gillian," you tell her. "Take your clothes off, sweetheart."
She groans, and the blanket writhes.
And you? Well, you hadn't thought through this next part completely, and you cast a wary eye at the gym first. But while Gillian is still disrobing, you pull off your shoes and unbutton everything. "Keep the blanket over your head," you tell Gillian. "Keep quiet. Try to go to sleep." It would be nice, you reflect, if she actually did go to sleep.
Because that's what you're about to do. You grab your face by the brow, murmur a string of nonsense syllables, and pull.
* * * * *
where r u? is the text that greets you when you wake with a groan and a grimace. You blink at it stupidly before you remember where and who you are again. Without thinking, you reach under the blanket to grab Gillian's face.
She bites you.
As you nurse your fingers, the blanket falls off her, and Gillian blinks at you in surprise.
"What the—?" She looks around. "Where's my hubby?"
"It's me, Gillian," you snap. "I'm in disguise."
She gasps. Then to your immense annoyance, she bursts out laughing. You lunge for her face.
But she bats you away. "No, seriously, Will," she says. "What's going on?"
Pleased as you are to see that she knows your name even if she doesn't know Caleb's, you're made wary by her resistance. "Who's your boss, Gillian?" you ask.
Her eyes go wide, and her laughing smile fades. "You are," she says. She looks you up and down. "You're my— Braydon?" she gulps.
"That's right," you tell her. "It's me. I told you, I'm in disguise."
"But how did you—?"
"Shh! Just be quiet, Gillian. You'll understand everything in a minute. You'll understand everything, because I understand everything. And in a minute—"
Your voice turns ragged as you grasp her forehead. Her eyes flutter shut.
"In a minute, I'll be you."
Well, it's a cheesy line, but it gives you a thrill to utter anyway. The mask comes away in your hand, leaving a sleeping Gillian behind. If she woke now she wouldn't know where she was or how she got there, and she certainly wouldn't be happy to find herself naked—even if under a blanket—in the back seat of her boyfriend's car with Will Prescott, even if he is dressed like her "hubby."
So you quickly press Braydon's mask onto her. You'd slopped some of the "golem goop" into it before setting out to meet her at Besandwitched, just in case.
Braydon's face appears where hers had been, with a muzzy and puzzled expression on it. His eyes sharpen when he does a double-take at you, though. You let him look you up and down, as Gillian had done, and he peers under the blanket at his state of undress. "Um," he says.
You start stripping. "So what do you think is going on?" you ask him.
He presses his lips shut, and waits until you're disrobed before speaking. "If I had to guess," he says, "I'd say that there's some kind of switch-off happening."
"That's it exactly," you tell him. "Now, you give me that blanket and you get dressed." You shove his shirt and pants at him. "Then text Caleb back and tell him we're on our way, and drive us out to the old elementary school in Acheson."
"I don't know where that is."
You are briefly interested to note that, although you knew everything that was going on in Braydon's head while you were using the mask, the mask doesn't appear to have picked up anything that you knew or were planning. But there'll be time enough to think about that later, if it continues to be interesting. "Use Google Maps," you tell him as you pull the blanket around yourself. Once you're comfortable, you pull Gillian's mask out, and with a gulping breath push it to your face.
* * * * *
The world is softly vibrating when you wake. It's also dark and closed in. But it's warm too.
Mm. You like this blanket. It smells like Braydon. You smile and snuffle in a deep breath.
The world seems to make a left turn, and it vibrates harder. A moment later it stops, and the vibrations cease. So too does the sound of a motor. You throw the blanket off and frown at the roof of the car.
It's Braydon's car, and you're not shocked. It must be Braydon behind the wheel. What the hell is going on with him? First he's all mysterious with you, then he starts ordering you around—and you go along with it!—and then he's turning himself into a copy of Will Prescott? It's like something out of a dream!
But even as you savor the delicious feeling of mystery, you sigh as the mystery dissipates, like a vapor under a strong sun. A car door opens, and Braydon says, "Hey."
"Hey." That's Caleb, indulging his impatient honk. "Where the fuck were you?"
"Out at the school. Westside. Switching around, apparently."
"Switching? Switching with—? What the—?"
You sit up with a grunt, wrapping the blanket around your bust. Caleb jumps back from the car a couple of feet, his eyes bugging out. "Tell him it's me," you order your hubby.
"It's Gillian," Braydon calls out to Caleb.
"No, no thtat!" You whack at your hubby's head, but only manage to hit the headrest. "Tell him it's Will, I changed places with Gillian."
"Gillian says to tell you it's Will," Braydon calls out, sounding tired. "He changed places with Gillian."
Caleb, still hunched over, advances a few wary steps. "Will?"
"Yes." You sigh and push your bangs out of your eyes. "Get up front with Braydon. Oh, you bring that sandwich?" Caleb brandishes a brown paper bag. "Great. Braydon will take his half and I'll take mine."
"Jesus, man," Caleb chortles after he's crawled into the car and shut it. "I didn't know you were going to go all the way with her."
"Funny. But I don't know for how long," you reply as you take half of the paper-wrapped sandwich he's extended you. "I'm just in here long enough to figure out where we can put you. Mask-wise, I mean."
"And?" Caleb's breathing sounds very loud.
You take a bite of the sandwich, and chew it very long and slowly, and you swallow it before answering. "It'll take me awhile."
Caleb groans. "Come on, Will! You're having all the fun! It's my turn now!"
You just take another bite of the sandwich. And another. And another.
And another. Caleb slams his face into the seat.
Monday, you want to tell him. I'll tell you Monday, and I'll try to get it arranged for you by Tuesday. That's how much you want to punish him.
Or you could just give him one of the most recent three names to show up in Gillian's text messages. You take out your phone and open them up.
Interesting, you think as you thumb down them.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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