Bait and Switch Ch. 06

The pain was excruciating. I was only dimly aware of the light going from white to yellow before I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, my muddled brain didn’t seem to want to work. I vaguely remembered being with Lela, making the switch that I thought would work on her (or trying to), and then waking up in my bed. Had I over used my ability at the party?

A quick test on the lights confirmed it, as pain shot between my eyes. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

I was tempted to sleep all day, till something reminded me that this next week was finals week, before the Christmas break. I’d meant to do some studying today, but I didn’t really feel like staying in my room. Especially when I saw I had two missed calls from Gina, and one from Shanna. I didn’t feel up to seeing either one right then, so I got dressed, and drove to the campus library, leaving my phone behind.

Studying never was my strong suit, however, and I began thinking about the demons. Lela had told me that there were other humans that had had their dormant genes activated, and I remembered Dennis mentioning seeing YouTube videos of people doing extraordinary things. Using the library’s Wi-Fi, I loaded the site, and started browsing. It looked like there were a lot of different videos to choose from, so I started choosing some at random. I watched one where a guy could supposedly talk to dogs and another where a girl could turn her skin blue. Neither of those seemed particularly helpful, so I kept looking. I found the one of the guy in Japan that could spontaneously combust, and then watched as the flames went out, and he was unharmed, even his clothes. I wondered if it was some type of illusion, but I was able to find a version with subtitles, and the cameraman claimed to be able to feel the heat from the flames. Now THAT could come in handy, if he could start other things on fire. Unfortunately, he went on to say that he can only do it to himself.

I searched for a few more hours, with no better results. Some were super strong, or just as useless as blue skin, but I couldn’t see how any of them could stop an alien race from destroying the human race. I couldn’t even see how I was going to do it. And if Lela, with her advanced technology, couldn’t do it, what chance did I have?

Bored and frustrated, I decided to give my ability a small test, and mentally flipped off my laptop. It went off, and the following pain was minimal. In a slightly better mood, I went back to the apartment.

Dennis was there, and I realized he hadn’t been home when I’d arrived last night, nor there when I’d gotten up this afternoon.

“Where’ve you been?” I asked him.

“Out with Robin. Man, can she give a mean blowjob!”I laughed as I dropped my stuff in my room, and then returned to talk to Dennis.

“Wasn’t she with Brent?”

“Not anymore. Can you believe what he was doing to his sister?”

I shook my head, but I could believe, and thought that I’d caused it with my switches. I felt guilty again. It was just like with Gina; I was manipulating people into doing things they would otherwise never do. Did I have the right to do that? I had a feeling that the answer was ‘no’.

“Oh, by the way, Gina stopped by again. How many girls are you going to string along? First Gina, now Shanna?”

“That was actually her twin, Shannon, last night,” I said before I could think better of it.

Dennis gave a long whistle, and punched me in the arm. The punch didn’t hurt as much as it usually did, and I wondered if Lela’s white light was finally showing its effects.

“Three women now? Yeah, I don’t think you can call yourself a geek anymore.”

I only shook my head, as I got up and went back to my room. How many women I was with didn’t make a difference whether I was a geek or not. Talk of Gina had given me an idea, though.

Opening my phone, I noticed I had missed another call from her, and called her back. She answered on the second ring.

“I’m so glad you called me back. I was afraid you were avoiding me again.”

I hated to ruin her mood, but I had to do this. “Gina, we need to talk.” I had a plan, and I was fairly certain I could deal with the pain my switches were going to cause me. I was just glad that I was recovering quicker than I had the first time.

“Oh, okay. Is everything alright?” The quaver in her voice told me of her fears.

“I’ll be by to pick you up in an hour, is that alright?”

“An hour? Yeah. Hey, is anything wrong?”

“Great, I’ll see you then,” and hung up. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I didn’t know what else to say.

I showered, and got dressed. I tried not to dress too nice, but also didn’t want to look like a slob. I ended up wearing Jeans, and a ‘Geeks Are Sexy’ t-shirt from one of my favorite websites.

Gina’s mom answered the door, and she invited me in. “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes; I’ll let Gina know you’re here.”

“I really shouldn’t stay for dinner,” I protested, but Gina walked in then.

“But we cooked enough for three. Eat with us, and then you can tell me what you wanted to say.” Gina had such hopeful eyes, that I couldn’t say no. I had wanted to talk to her in a public place, but as I thought about it, it may be better for her emotional balance if she were home when I was done.

Besides, have you ever heard of a single college student turning down a free meal?

Dinner was delicious, a Sunday pot roast, with carrots and potatoes. The table was mostly quiet. I didn’t want to talk too much around Gina, but Nancy occasionally asked me questions about school and my plans for the future. For half a heartbeat, I thought about telling them that I had no plans if I couldn’t defeat the demons, but knew how crazy that would sound.

Despite keeping my talking to a minimum, I felt Gina’s foot start to crawl up my leg.