The Other Side of Me – Part 24
by Lily Rasputin

“Well?” The furious woman across the table from me said. “I’m waiting.”

I stared at my mother, pain aching in my chest as I was torn between the elated feeling of seeing her again, and the sheer terror that her sternest glare always provoked from deep inside me. Unlike my father, Mom was slow to anger, but when she got mad, she really got mad.

I held up my hands, shaking my head back and forth. “I …”

Her finger came back up again, pointing right at my face.

“And no more lies. So help me, I will drag your ass across the street and ask Jackson if he has any gadgets in his lab that will get answers from you.”

I didn’t want to smile, since I knew from many previous experiences that it would only serve to make her even madder. But the mental image of my mother physically hauling me over to Jackson’s, strong-arming me downstairs to the lab, was a little bit hilarious.

The corners of my mouth twitched up, causing her scowl to deepen. Quickly, I wave my hands in defensive supplication.

“Mom, it’s me. I swear. It is.” For the briefest of moments, I actually considered attempting to conjure an explanation that wouldn’t require revealing the truth about what had been going on for the past four days. Some wildly believable excuse to alleviate her suspicions.

Then I decided that even if I managed to convince her that she was just imagining things, Charlene would eventually return and fuck it all up. At least if she knew what was going on, Mom would be prepared for when that happened.

“Right now, I’m me again.”

She stared at me for a few seconds, though I swear it felt like at least an hour. Her expression bordered between belief and distrust, making me wonder if she would follow through on her previous threat. Finally, she sighed and shook her head.

“Charlie, what in the hell is going on?” She rubbed at her temples with the first two fingers of each hand. “I swear, you’ve been like a virtual Jekyll and Hyde lately. I asked Katie if she knew and she lied and said she didn’t.”

I wasn’t surprised. Katie was a horrible liar. Especially when it came to Mom’s interrogation techniques. “I asked her to keep it secret,” I said, hoping that it would take the heat off my sister. “I thought everything would be fixed before you or Dad would notice.”

A single brow over one of her eyes arched and she looked from me to the wall behind me. However, I knew she was actually looking through the wall, in the direction of Jackson’s house.

“Oh god, he screwed up another experiment, didn’t he?” Her gaze returned to me, the anger from before now replaced by concern and worry. “He’s done something and now you have this … split personality. Right? That’s why you’ve been bouncing between your normal self and being a …”

“A total bitch?” I offered, leaning back in my chair and lowering my hands.

She frowned. “You know that I’m not a fan of that word, Charles.” She sighed. “But yes, you have been quite the whirlwind of shifting personalities lately.”

I looked up at the ceiling, drew in a slow breath, released it, and decided it was time to put all of my cards on the table. I couldn’t hide what had happened from her any longer.

“Jackson did have an experiment go a little wonky a few days ago. But it didn’t give me dissociative identity disorder. Not exactly.”

Well, that’s putting it mildly. The condescending voice sounded exactly like Charlene.

My mother frowned, leaning forward to rest her arms on the table. “What did it do, Charles? Exactly?”

So, I recounted the disastrous event with the dimensional window. Of my discovery that I had swapped, and was continuing to swap, places with my female dimensional double. Me attempting to live her life while she spent time mine. The discussion, right on the heels of having a similar talk with Josie, provoked extreme feelings of déjà vu. The difference being that my mom was more open to accepting the story.

Probably because she was less focused on kicking my ass for sleeping with her man.

Her expression of incredulousness had begun to fade halfway through my recounting. By the time I got to the present moment, she had a sly, extremely amused smile on her face.

Tilting my head slightly to the side, I gave her a quizzical look. “What? What’s so funny?”

She shrugged, leaning back in her chair and placing her palm against one of her cheeks. “Nothing. I’m trying to imagine you having to learn do all those girly things. Like wear makeup, shave your legs, and how to sit down in a skirt without flashing everyone.” Her grin widened into a fully amused smile. “I bet you’re completely adorable in that cheer uniform.”

Her pleased comment at the obstacles I’d been dealing with for a few days made my cheeks burn with embarrassment. Despite the level of comfort I felt as Charlene, now that I was back in my own body, I couldn’t fight against the unexpected wave of shame.

“You’re absolutely right, Mom,” I said in a voice that surprised me with its level of sarcastic venom. “It’s been a complete blast having deal with all those fun, girly things. I’ve so enjoyed that I am ogled by tons of boys, treated like I’m a common whore, … and experiencing my first period.”

The smile dropped off her face in an instant. “Oh, sweetie,” she said softly as she reached out and took one of my hands into both of hers. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make fun of what you’re going through. I just thought …” She paused, looking away for a moment. “I just thought of how exciting it must be. I’ve wondered many a time in my life what it would be like if I’d been born a man. I didn’t think about how hard this must all be on you. Especially that last bit.”

She bit down on her lower lip and lightly squeezed my hand. “The women in our family have a rather unpleasant cycle. Didn’t Charlene’s mother recommend a heating pad or a steaming hot bath to help with the cramps? Or does she not know about the swap either?”

I felt my stomach drop as I realized that my rapid Cliff Notes presentation on what had been going on between me and Charlene didn’t include the largest major differences between her life and mine. The main reason why she steadfastly wanted to abandon her own world for this one.
Mom must have mistaken my expression for embarrassment because she nodded her head as if coming to the answer all on her own. “I guess if neither of you confided in me, you probably didn’t confide in her either.”

I shook my head. “Uh, it’s not that.” I tried to find a less distressing way to informing my mother that the version of her in Charlene’s world was dead. “See, Charlene’s mom ... well, there was a car accident a couple of years ago. A bad one. And …”

The color drained from my mom’s face, and she brought a hand up to cover her mouth. “Oh dear. She didn’t make it, did she? Charlene’s mother?”

I shook my head, fighting against the bile threatening to rise into my throat. The discovery that first evening that my double’s mother was gone had hit me like a sledgehammer to the gut. I’d wanted to puke right there in Jackson’s lab when he told me what had happened.

However, seeing how the news that her double was deceased was affecting my mom made that nauseating sensation return with a vengeance.
“No. She didn’t. Charlene sort of blames herself. Since she was supposed to pick up her Katie and didn’t. Otherwise, her mom wouldn’t have had reason to be on the road that night.”

“That’s horrible, Charlie.” Her voice was steady, despite the pallor of her face. “She shouldn’t blame herself for an accident.”

I shrugged. “Well, she does. And it’s, I don’t know, messing with her head. Making her behave in self-destructive ways.”

I told Mom about Charlene treating her Katie like crap, and about how she had been having sex with one of her best friend’s boyfriend. Leaving out the identity of said boyfriend. How she had attempted to stop our swapping episodes by attacking my Jackson and trashing the dimensional window.

The color returned to Mom’s cheeks, spurned on by the anger I could tell she was feeling due to hearing about my feminine side’s antics.

“I’m sure she’s acting out because of the guilt, though that is not an appropriate response and doesn’t excuse her actions.” She frowned. “But why is she trying to destroy the only way for you two to stay where you belong?”

I sighed and held her gaze with my own. “Because of you, Mom.”

“Me?”

“She doesn’t want to stay in her own life, her own world, anymore. She wants to be here. In a world where her mom is still alive.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Katie looked up when I opened her door while knocking, stiffening for a moment. Behind me, Mom waved at her and then gave me a smarmy grin before heading down the hall to her own bedroom. Stepping inside, I closed the door behind me.

“Hey, Katie-Kat.”

Sitting cross-legged on her bed, she visibly relaxed and slumped back against the headboard. “Welcome back,” she said in a relieved voice that hurt my heart. “I guess from the look on both of your faces, Mom now knows. About Charlene?”

I nodded. “I told her everything. Mostly. I probably should have done that the first time I swapped back, but I wasn’t sure if her or Dad would believe me.” I sighed. “Hiding it just made things worse.”

Katie was silent for a moment, then shrugged. “I don’t know if it would have helped. Though, there’s a good chance that if they’d known beforehand, they might have pushed back. Brought it up when she was acting out. That might have made her do something drastic. Like run away or something.”

“She’s not going to run away, Katie. She wants my life here too much to do that.”

She nodded. “Yeah, good point.” Then she gave me an interested grin. “So …”

“So … what?” I asked.

“How are things over there? Still having all the fun with the obviously less-cool version of me?”

She grinned and nudged me with her foot, but I could hear the hurt in her voice. She and I had been so close when we were younger, before I’d become a high school senior and made the choice to spend less time with my “kid sister”.

Now, I was another Katie Miller’s big sister. One who was bridging the divide between them and rebuilding their damaged relationship. Something I was fairly certain Charlene wouldn’t do. In either universe.

“I suppose,” I said, trying to sound like the idea was annoying.

“Whatever,” she said, nudging me again. “You’re not telling me something, Charlie.” Her head bobbed up and down in the affirmative, as if supporting her own statement. “I might not be the smartest child our parents ever produced, but I can spot potential gossip as easily as easily as dad can spot a potential rock star parking spot.” She pointed her finger at me. “So, spill. What’s happened?”

The heat in my face returned, as I looked away from her. “So, I might have gone out on a date last night.”

In a flash, she scrambled away from the headboard and plopped herself down right next to me. “A date? As Charlene?”

I nodded, busy studying her closet door. “Yeah.”

“With a guy?”

The warmth radiating from my cheeks increased tenfold as I nodded again.

“Someone besides Jackson. Or Danny Morris?”

Now I did turn to look at her. “I would never, ever, date Danny Morris. Ever.”

Katie giggled. “Just checking. So, with who did you have this date? Where did you go? Did he hold your hand?” She squealed softly as she grabbed my arm and planted her face on my shoulder, peering at me with wild excitement. “Did he kiss you at the end?”

I made a croaking sound and used my free arm to push her backward onto the bed. “You are horrible, you know that?”

She rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. “Don’t get mad at me. You’re the one going on dates.”

I laughed and leaned back so that I was lying next to her, staring up at the ceiling. I proceeded to tell her about meeting Mike North and his brother at the mall. How Sebastian had asked Charlene’s Katie out and Mike had requested Charlene’s company to balance out the party.

“But you already liked him, didn’t you? From that first meeting?”

I nodded. “I did. Though I was really hesitant to admit it.”

When I reached the part about me kissing Mike at the end of the date, Katie squealed again and rolled over to hug me.

“That’s awesome, Charlie.” Then she frowned. “I hope Charlene doesn’t mess it up for you. From what you told me, it doesn’t sound like Mike is her type of guy.”

“He might be. I don’t know. I do know that he is definitely my type.” Reaching out, I put a finger on her lips. “Yes, that sounded as weird for me to say as it probably sounded for you to hear. So shush!”

Katie giggled again, causing me to giggle as well. Well, at least chuckle. I might not have felt any shame at the tittering laughter, I just didn’t have the voice for it in this body.

“I don’t think there’s a Sebastian North at my school. But now I’m going to have to check.”

I forced my face to remain neutral and simply nodded. “That sound doable. Just don’t try to set me up with his brother, okay? That would be a little too much weirdness.”

“Says the guy building a romantic relationship as his female parallel counterpart.”

“Touché.”

Then I frowned and shook my head as I turned on my side to look at her. Reaching out, I let my fingers gently push some loose strands of hair from her face.

“You are plenty smart, Katie-Kat. As well as kind, warm, funny, adorable, and a whole host of other things I wish I’d reminded you of before all this started. I can’t promise that this is going to end with me here and her there. Or that if I get stuck over there permanently that Charlene will learn to cherish and appreciate you as much as I do.”

“Charlie …”

I lightly tapped the tip of her nose. “No. Let me say this, okay? You are the best little sister a guy, or girl, like me could have ever had. I love you Katie. Always remember that no matter what.”

A tear rolled down her cheek and she threw herself against me, burying her face into my chest. “I don’t want you to get stuck over there. Even if she started treating me better, she could never replace you.”

I kissed the top of her head and gave her another hug. A second later, my phone began to ring. Twisting to the side, one arm still comforting Katie, I dug it out of my back pocket and swiped the green phone icon before even glancing at the Caller ID.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Stud,” Samantha’s honeyed voice oozed into my ear. “Did you forget that we were supposed to have a date this afternoon?”

Author’s Note: I want to apologize to everyone who’s vested in this tale and who have had to wait an unreasonable amount of time for the next chapter. I suffered a catastrophic computer crash soon after posting Part 23 and lost everything that wasn’t backed. After that, I just lost the will to write for a while.

I will endeavor to not disappoint you again.

XOXO,
Lily (formerly Limbo’s Mistress)