Bait and Switch Ch. 02

Author’s note: This story consists of multiple chapters. Some chapters will contain subjects that some may find objectionable, such as incest, anal, and perhaps even violence. While this chapter doesn’t contain any of these, you are here forewarned not to get into this series if these subjects bother/offend you. All characters are over eighteen, as I can’t abide kiddy-porn. If all this is suitable to your tastes, please enjoy my series, Bait and Switch.

(Quick FYI: The Robbie in this story is not the Rob in another of my series.)
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I woke up with a start, heart thumping in my chest, and sweat dripping from my brow, and looked around my room. Just a dream. It was just another nightmare, I kept telling myself. Images of strange pink creatures burning, dying, and the sounds of screams still echoed in my throbbing head.

Looking to the clock, I groaned. There was still a half-hour till my alarm was set to go off. The thought of trying to get more sleep and possibly continuing that dream were enough to get me out of bed.

I reached for the light switch with my mind, and as soon as I felt it, tried to flip it. Sharp, lancing pain drove into my mind. It felt like a spike was slowly being pounded between my eyes, and I stopped trying to move the switch. The pain lessened markedly, but the echo of it could still be felt, as I realized that I’d fallen to the floor.

“Are you alright in there, man?” Dennis said a few moments later, knocking on my door. “I heard you yell.”

I got up on my knees, and held my head in my hands as I answered back, “Yeah, just a bad dream. Sorry I woke you.”

As Dennis walked away, I wondered what had happened? I could still feel the switch with my mind, but I didn’t dare try and flip it again. I could still feel the pain between my eyes, though it was only a pale shadow of what it had been. Had I overused my new ability yesterday, or did I somehow break it?

Deciding that I needed to rest my mind for a bit, I brought up my laptop. The latest episode of Big Bang Theory had downloaded last night, and it usually put me in a much better mood.

“Exterminate! Exterminate!” The sound of my alarm going off scared me all over again, which ruined the final scene of the episode I’d been watching, and turned my mood sour all over again. I quickly grabbed my Android phone, and turned it off. Considering the dreams I’d had last night, I decided that I really should follow Dennis’s advice and change the alarm sound. I chose Aeris’s Theme from Final Fantasy VII, as that was a soothing song, and hoped that it would be better to wake up to.

I changed out of my Batman pajamas, rubbing my eyes, and wishing I had slept better.

“Hey,” Dennis said around a mouthful of cereal as I walked out of my room, “I’ve done some more checking online, and found even more people who claim to have gotten special abilities.”

I froze as I heard him say that, trying to recall if I had told him what I could do now. Or rather, what I had been able to do yesterday. Then I remembered the conversation he’d had with me yesterday morning about the news reports he’d seen on T.V.

“Don’t give me that look. I thought you were into this kind of weird stuff.”

“What did you find now?” I asked, trying to act uninterested, but after the events of yesterday, he had my full attention.

“Some guy down in Brazil can make himself change colors like a chameleon. It almost makes him invisible.” As he talked, bits of cereal spewed from his mouth, but he just kept talking excitedly. “Man, if I could do that, I’d hide out in the cheerleader’s locker room. Can you imagine what goes on in there?”

I could only shake my head at his behavior, but wondered if what he was telling me was real. If I had received new abilities, it was completely likely that others might have too. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was: what had the catalyst been?

“I forgot to ask you,” my roommate said, finally swallowing his mouthful, “How did your date go with Gina?”

“It wasn’t a date,” I answered immediately. “It was a tutoring session.” I couldn’t hide my smile though, and knew I’d been somewhat busted.

“Tutoring… Right… Somehow I think she did more teaching than you did, from that smile of yours!”

I could feel the blood rushing to my face. “Let’s just say, she may no longer be interested in Robbie.” I remembered that he’d had a date last night too, and I wanted to change the subject. “What about your date? How’d it go?”

“Did you see a sock on the door? No? Then you know how it went.” Dennis suddenly turned sullen, and I wondered what had happened. Being a Jock, he normally had his pick of women. From the noises that had emanated from his room on past occasions, I knew he got plenty of action. That was part of the reason we had instituted the ‘sock on the doorknob’: I had walked in on him on more than one occasion.

Knowing that I wasn’t going to get any details, I ate my own cereal,, showered, brushed my teeth, and got out the door.

Wind and snow pelted me in the face as soon as I stepped outside, and I rushed to my car. Normally I prefer to walk to the campus, but in bad weather like this, I was glad I had my car. It took me a few minutes to get it warmed up, and I had to keep my wipers going and defrost running just to see the mushy road. The snow was coming down hard, and I envied the guy from Japan that could start himself on fire. That was a feat that would come in handy at the moment.

Slick as the roads were, I arrived on campus at the same time I usually did when I walked. By the time I made it to class, I was covered in snow, and slightly out of breath from running. On the plus side, no one threw any snowballs at me, or called me any derogatory names. Everyone was too busy trying to get out of this storm.

On the bad side, despite running and the cold, I fell asleep halfway through my science class, and couldn’t get my programs to compile in my programming class; all the switches I wrote into my code kept failing. The Irony of that didn’t escape me.

Lunch was a welcome break, but I couldn’t get my mind off my failure with the switches. I was lost in thought, when something struck the back of my head. My headache had completely dissipated, thankfully.

“Look what we have here,” Robbie’s voice boomed above me, and I cringed, “a geek who thinks too highly of himself.”

“Leave me alone, Robbie,” I murmured, cradling my head in my hands. With my new ability out of commission, I knew I was no match for the bigger man.

“Weave me awone, Wobbie,” he repeated in baby talk, laughing. “Gina told me you tried to come on to her, and she had to kick you out. She’s mine, understand?