Fantasy Two Halves of a Whole

[PlotBrownie]

"Or they'll say I'm a good boyfriend helping his girl out because no one knows you're secretly a genius." He told her with a little grin, setting the homework he finished aside and picking up a different textbook. Before he started with the new one he leaned in and took a sip of his tea.

"What we take in school must be super easy. Why do you bother attending when you go to Skylar?" He asked her after a minute of silence. He'd been wondering what she's doing in their highschool ever since he came with her to Skylar.

 

[mon]

"I highly doubt it," Acacia answered, swapping out her homework with his so that he would stop filling in her sheets. "The teachers expect the worse from me." And Acacia couldn't blame them. She hasn't really given them much to expect the most of her.

"Well, I cant exactly drop out of high school just because I'm attending tuition courses right? I guess high school is just something for me to occupy my time for now," she replied with a shrug, talking as she filled out answers for her own homework.

 

[PlotBrownie]

"Yeah but like maybe you could go to a high school that's actually challenging for you and drop Skylar instead of wasting your time and having classes literally every day of the week. That's exhausting." Tyler argued, trying to understand Acacia's reasons, or lack thereof, for putting herself through so much work. Sure she skips most classes but she still has to put some effort in giving in her homework and sitting the exams.

 

[mon]

Acacia furrowed her brows, not understanding why Tyler was pressing on the topic. Her arms crossed over her chest as she answered, "Why would I want to give myself five days of hell when I can just have two?" she asked, reminding the male that though she still attended Westmond, it wasn't like she was always present for class or participated much in anything.

"Besides, if I had, I wouldn't have met you?" Acacia pointed out, but then corrected herself, "Well, no. Then again, technically we only met because of this." Her finger waved at the space between them, gesturing at their swapped bodies.

"I don't know. I prefer things this way. All my older siblings went to high end high schools and colleges. It just seemed like a horrible environment to be in," she said with a small frown. One could say Acacia was simply being lazy, but she's seen how the stress and need to strive for perfection had sucked the life out of her older sister and how her older brother became obsessed with excellence, to the point where anything less became not only a subject of criticism but hatred. Acacia knew that all too well, being the black sheep of her family.

At least this way, she couldn't disappoint them any further. (A lie, really. She could.)

 

[PlotBrownie]

Tyler seemed satisfied with that so he nodded and that was the end of that conversation. "Just imagine if this whole thing hadn't happened. You would've missed out on all of this." He said with a smug grin as he gestured at her (his body) "And you would've never experienced my excellent culinary skills." He added, trying to lighten the mood.

He shifted slightly, unfolding his legs from under him and stretching them out on the couch, tucking his feet between the back of the couch and her side to warm them then he sighed with a content smile when he felt the warmth. Tyler was taking full advantage of Acacia's tiny size.

 

[mon]

Acacia rose her brows, looking at him with an amused look before shaking her head. She scooted closer to the edge of the couch so that Tyler had room for his feet. The homework was done on her lap and she finished the rest of it rather quickly. For Tyler's sheets, she took a bit more time because unlike the answers for her own worksheets, Acacia actually had to try to put in some effort. Oftentimes she would just scribble on any random answer that came off the top of her head. Sometimes there were right, sometimes they weren't.

Once she was done, she pushed the papers onto the small desk infront of the couches, leaving them there in a pile. A groan escaped her lips as she laid back down, not wanting to touch another worksheet in a long while. She regretted then for leaning over to do her homework. It made the bruise on her stomach sore.

"It fucking sucks balls that you don't smoke, Bay." Acacia complained, wishing she could burn a few to help numb the pain.

 

[PlotBrownie]

Tyler was still working on his homework when she finished hers, but he paused and peaked over his notebook when he sensed her moving. Okay she was smart he knew that but was she that smart to finish so quickly? He almost had the urge to check her answers but pushed it away. She was either freakishly smart or freakishly lazy.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly in a hint of a sympathetic yet amused smile. "I think you did quite the number on my body already, Romans." He retorted. Though his tone was light it still held seriousness. He understood why she did what she did but he didn't like it and wouldn't let her add salt to the wound by smoking.

"Want another ice pack?" He asked after a heartbeat. He said no to smoking but that didn't mean he wanted the poor girl to suffer.

 

[mon]

His words twinged her with guilt and she immediately regretted her complaint. Shaking her head, Acacia turned down his offer, not wanting to add another damp spot on her shirt.

"Nah, it's fine," she said, reaching over for her iced coffee. The lights overhead flickered as she took a sip and when she finally looked up, everything had switched off, leaving the two alone in the dark.

Acacia frowned. A blackout? That's rare. If it weren't for her broken leg and the injuries she sported, Acacia would've gotten up to check it out.

 

[PlotBrownie]

It took him a moment to realize what just happened.

"Fuck me. I was almost done with this." Tyler groaned as he closed his notebook and dropped it to the ground before blindly feeling around for his phone. After a few moments of struggle he found it and once he picked it up the front screen lit up, making it easier for him to turn on the flashlight.

He set his phone on the table screen down so that the flash can light the room before he turned to Acacia. "Does this usually happen?" He asked her as he shifted so he could get up without accidentally kicking her. He wanted to check if it was the whole building or just them.

 

[mon]

Acacia shook her head. "This is the first it's happened," she said, grateful that Tyler had his phone nearby. With his phone lighting up the room, Acacia took her own phone and flipped the camera on. Not being able to sit still, she made a grab for the crutches and heaved herself to her feet, one hand on the crutch and the other holding her phone.

"Maybe there's something wrong with the power box," Acacia said aloud, already making her way to the place where it was located. There was a room off the side to the dorm's entrance. It was a small room used as a shoe closet. Hanging above the shelves was a metal box where all the electrical switches were found. Setting her phone down on one of the shelves, Acacia took a footstool to give her a boosted height advantage to see if any of the switches were suddenly triggered down.

None of them were switched down, but for the heck of things, Acacia had switched everything off before slowly turning them on one by one. Unfortunately, that didn't do anything to help.

"I guess, the main source is busted. Do you want to check and see if the whole dorm had an outage?" she asked Tyler as she stepped off her footstool.

 

[PlotBrownie]

Tyler followed after her when she got up and headed to the door, taking his phone with him for light. He gulped when she stood on a stool and stood behind her in case she fell, though in this body he had no hope of catching her.

She messed around with the power box and he looked around for any changes but all the lights were still off. "Yeah, let's go check that out." He said as his arms automatically hovered at her sides when she was getting off the stool. She made it down without his help and he backed out of the small room and went to the dorm entrance, opening the door and holding it open while he peaked his head outside though it wasn't necessary as from the dark hallway it was obvious this power out was happened to the whole building.

 

[mon]

Acacia frowned seeing how the whole hallway was dark. And yet, despite that, no one else seemed to be coming out of their rooms to check. That was the first thing that struck her as odd.

Because she was on crutches, the ravenhead had to follow behind Tyler, shining her phone as a flashlight for them to check the elevator buttons. It seemed that was busted too.

"Should we go check management?" Acacia asked, feeling lazy to walk down four flights of stairs to reach the main office on the ground floor. "Oh wait, I think I might have the landlord's number." Balancing herself on the crutches, Acacia's flashlight dimmed as she made the call. It was awfully quiet in the dark hallway and while Acacia had never been someone afraid of the dark, she was glad she had Tyler there with her.

Something about the whole blackout struck her as strange. Her gut feeling nagged at her as the phone continued ringing.

"Ugh, come on. Pick up," Acacia mummbled, wondering now if they should've just waited in her dorm. When the phone finally connected through, Acacia sighed in relief.

"Hey, there's a black out in Block A. Yeah, the whole floor is out of power. Uh huh," Acacia made a face. Her brows furrowing when she heard the landlord's reply, "What do you mean there's no blackout? No, I'm not lying. Second floor. Yeah, there's literally no power. All the lights are out and the elevator is too... No one else has complained about the outage? My dorm has no power at all though. Yeah, mhm. Second floor, Room 214. Okay.. thank you."

When she finally hung up, she had an odd expression on her face. "The landlord is sending someone over. Apparently, I'm the only dorm who's power is out."

 

[PlotBrownie]

Tyler didn't want Acacia to go down the four flights of stairs on crutches in his body with no lights on except the light from the phone (recipe for disaster), so he was as relieved as she was when the landlord answered.

He leaned against one of the doors and listened to her side of the conversation with a confused frown before looking around to make sure that no light was coming out from the cracks between the doors and ground of the other dorms. It was pitch black save for his phone which allowed them to barely see eachother and nothing else.

"Well we can't both be imagining the same thing and we can't be going blind." He pointed out, moving over to stand next to her, "Let's wait it out in your dorm. And let me do the talking when he gets here." He added, gesturing to their faces as he started walking back towards her dorm which they thankfully hadn't strayed far from.

Once back inside, they moved back to the couch and Tyler picked up his dropped notebook and placed it on the table before sitting down again. "Maybe no one else thought of calling him when the lights went out. Or maybe they're out or sleeping or are vampires and live in darkness all the time so hadn't even noticed." He theorized, though mostly he was just talking because silence and darkness are a creepy duo.

 

[mon]

It was then Acacia remembered that she had been talking to the landlord in Tyler's body. Smacking herself on the forehead, she groaned. "Oh, right. I completely forgot. The landlord is probably confused as hell now." She sighed, glad that at least Tyler was there to remind her of her mishap.

"I have no idea what's going on to be honest," Acacia frowned as she walked back towards her dorms. No point staying out in the dark hallway anyways. "Hm, maybe," she said in reply to Tyler's theory. It was far-fetched for sure, but there could be a chance that it really was just her dorm that had the outage. The other rooms could be perfectly fine for all she knew as most students preferred to stay in their bedrooms at this time of night. It was odd but Acacia didn't think much on it.

What unnerved her more was the pitch black darkness, and for someone who wasn't afraid of the dark, it was strange how she was feeling uneasy now. "Hey, is it just me, or do you get the weird feeling that we're being watched?" she asked solemnly.

 

[PlotBrownie]

Tyler frowned when she asked that though she couldn't see him. "I didn't want to sound like a scared kid afraid of the dark but I've had this creepy feeling for a couple minutes now." He told her while looking around ready for something to pop out of the darkness.

Should he feel better that she was feeling the same thing or worse?

He shook his head, dismissing any negative thoughts, then turned back to look at his girlfriend with newfound confidence, "It's probably just instincts. The mind fears the unknown and that's probably what stopped our ancestors from going into dark caves with wolves in them." He reassured her, reaching out for her hand. If he was in his body he would have wrapped his arm aroud her shoulders and tucked her into his side "It's not like the boogeyman is going to pop out of the closet." He added with an amused smile.

 

[mon]

Acacia smiled at his attempt to sooth her nerves. For once, she was glad she wasn't completely alone. She gave his hand a small squeeze before leaning down to peck him on the cheek. It was less weirder to kiss herself when it was too dark for her to see anything.

"You make a point," Acacia smiled, as she saw a flicker of light near the doorway. "Oh, that must be the landlord. Let me go check." She left before Tyler could follow after her, opening the door only to see someone entirely unfamiliar.

The landlord was a short Asian man but the person before her was tall and broad. He was dressed entirely in black with a black mask covering half of his face. Cold malice was in his eyes.

"Who..." she started, confused as she looked up at the masked figure. Something was glinting in the person's hand and she paled when she noticed it. A knife? That was a knife right?

"Who the fuck--" Acacia barked, her senses kicking into fight or flight. Every nerve on her body bristling for self-defense. Her sudden anger seemed to startle the man before her and he ran off down the hallway. Acacia cursed, afraid to chase after him. She was startled badly and slumped against the doorway, having broken out in cold sweat. The feeling of being watched was gone.

What the fuck was that?

 

[PlotBrownie]

Hearing Acacia yell made Tyler sprint to his feet. In the seconds it took him to reach her he had already started theorizing of all the dangers she could be in and how hurt she might be. Hurt from what exactly he wasn't sure. "Acacia?!" He called out loudly, cursing for not taking his phone with him but thankful he could almost see her (his) silhouette in the dark.

He also heard footsteps. Someone was running and Acacia was standing still. Someone else had been here. Someone scared her.

Three seconds. It took Tyler three seconds to reach her. When he did he blindly reached out for her and his hands collided with her chest, moving upwards till they reached her face he cupped it. "What happened? What's wrong? Who was that?" He asked in a panicked voice, glancing at the pitch black hallway.

 

[mon]

Acacia was silent for a moment, too shocked to speak, but her eyes were wide and her face was pale in the dim lighting. The bad feeling in her gut stirred but she did feel slightly better, seeing how Tyler was more scared and disorientated than she was, despite not witnessing what she had. From her scared stupor, she blinked at him as he cupped both her cheeks, turning her face to look at him.

"I... don't know," Acacia replied confused. Her brows knitted together as she quickly closed the door and double-locked it. She breathed in and exhaled, calming herself before relaying what she saw to Tyler.

"It was like this man. He was dressed completely in black with a mask and everything. His eyes were like," she shuddered as she thought about it, "Psychotic or something. Like a psychopath. And he was holding a knife." Acacia let out a shaky laugh, unable to believe what she saw herself. "And I wish I could say I was making this shit up. That was fucking terrifying. I thought he was going to kill me or something."

 

[PlotBrownie]

"What the actual fuck?!" Tyler exclaimed, his body shuddering as goosebumps rose all over his arms. Fear kept him frozen for a moment and his mind went absolutely blank, unable to work out any logical answer as to why an apparent murderer came to this very specific dorm.

Actions first. Questions later.

"I'm calling the cops. This guy is still out there. Where the fuck is my phone?" He started patting his hands against his pockets till he found it and quickly dialed 911. With his free hand he reached out for hers and squeezed it. He was scared shitless but whatever he was feeling she must feel twice as worse since she saw the actual guy and she was the one close to being murdered.

He shuddered at that last thought.

Explaining things to the operator made Tyler connect the lights with murderer, or at least theorize it. Though if he was doing it to steal something who would target a dorm? And if he was doing it because he was some crazy lunatic is Acacia really that unlucky to be randomly targeted? And why did he even run away?

Too many questions. The cops that were being dispatched may have a better chance at answering some of them.

Hanging up the phone and using its light to guide him to the kitchen, Tyler picked up a knife and returned back to Acacia. His hands were shaking but he gripped the knife tighter to hold it.

"In case he came back." He explained to her, though it was mostly to feel a little safer.

That's what they did in the movies anyways. And all he had as reference were his movies.

 

[mon]

Seeing Tyler freak out as well made her less guilty about feeling scared. She did put up a brave front, not wanting to seem over-dramatic but secretly, the ravenhead was relieved to have the male take extreme measures, going as far as to call the cops. At first, she was hesitant about letting him call 911 as doing so might alert her parents of the trouble as well. It also placed the safety and credibility of the dorms under speculation. Generally thinking, there were just more cons than pros, which made Acacia doubt whether a bunch of cops would even choose to believe a couple of teenagers when her own landlord already had doubts on their initial call.

"Uhm, okay," Acacia said, sitting on the couch as she waited for the cops to come. Her brows rose at the knife wavering in his hands. Okay, maybe he was overacting. Either that or she was under-responsive. Her mind was already trying to rationalize the situation.

Maybe the guy was just... taking a walk to see who else was experiencing the blackout. Perhaps the knife was for self-defense? No, that wouldn't make sense. This was the girls dormitory and Acacia was certain the stranger was a middle-aged man.

She sighed, giving up shortly.

 

[PlotBrownie]

So far movies had proved to be pretty accurate in their portrayal of useless cops.

After having Acacia recall everything that went down once more in detail Tyler committed her words to memory and retold everything back to the two cops that came 30 minutes after Tyler's call and 20 after the lights came back on.

They were two middle aged, round men with comical mustaches and one of them still had what looked to be powder sugar sticking to the lower hairs. They listened to Tyler talking with unamused frowns and one of them took a few notes, but after seeing the surveillance cameras which showed no man of Tyler's description entering or exiting through the entrances (Because he clearly left through a window, supplied Tyler.), and talking with the landlord who stated that there was no power cut, the two cops were convinced that Acacia and Tyler made things up or it was a misunderstanding.

It probably didn't help that the landlord had a word with the two cops alone and clearly told them something that convinced them not to investigate so he didn't lose any of his residents.

And above all that they were let off with a warning and a lecture about the consequences of calling 911 on false alarm.

"This is so fucking stupid." Tyler said once they were back in Acacia's dorm. He made a beeline for the living room and gathered their stuff. "They couldn't even bother to check all the cameras. Just the ones at the main entrance. Like what fucking thief, serial killer, or whatever the fuck he was, would just waltz in through the front doors? And how weird is it that the lights turned off only for us?" Tyler ranted, shouldering both backpacks and taking his car keys before turning to Acacia.

"Let's go for a drive, maybe head back to my place even?" He suggested. Part of him knew he was being a little too paranoid but he couldn't shake off the feeling that something wrong was going to happen and the cops had pissed him off.

 

[mon]

Acacia was just as frustrated with the situation as Tyler was, but surprisingly, Acacia (who had a patience of a flee) did not act out on her emotions, keeping her criticism to herself. Of course, she likely damned the two cops and murdered them in her head about seventy-two times not but she said nothing as they warned the two teens about false alarm. Acacia was so close in using her family's name to get back at them, but she knew that would just be digging a deeper hole of problems. The less her family knew, the better. She did not want them to think she was going insane now.

But the situation really was odd and Acacia was of perfectly sound mind. She doubt she hallucinated the whole thing and Tyler being there was a witness helped to ease her worries. Nodding, Acacia grabbed Tyler's crutches and followed him out of the room. Given the unsettling incident, she did not want to stay in her dorm any more than he did.

"A drive would be good..." she said, looking deep in thought. She had been uncharacteristically quiet through it all.

 

[PlotBrownie]

He had both their backpacks slung over each shoulder as he marched out of her apartment and locked up after she got out. He was furious and barely able to bite his tongue but the way Acacia was acting was freaking him out even more. She was so calm about it.

Tyler took a few deep breaths, managing to calm himself down considerably, and they walked to his car in silence. As he was putting their things in the backseat his phone rang and he got it out, glancing at the caller ID before answering and putting the phone over his ear, "Hey Da-" The boy almost slipped but quickly covered it with a cough, hopefully the shitty reception took care of it, "Mr. Bay, I'm Acacia. Tyler's in the bathroom."

There was a short pause then: "Yeah, we're just doing some homework then we were going to go out for the bit. Hope that's okay." Pause. "I can pass along the message." Long pause filled with occasional hums of acknowledgement from Tyler, "Okay. Next week. Got that. He'll be fine don't worry about it. I'll tell him to call you when he gets out." They exchanged goodbyes and Tyler hung up, grinning to himself as he turned to Acacia.

"I got good news, bad news, and a request." He told her, and paused for dramatic effect. The conversation had him feeling much better and almost made him forget about the whole incident at the dorm. "Good news: my parents are actually coming next week so more than enough time for the swelling and bruises to go down. Bad news: my parents think we're having sex which hasn't been outright spoken but I can tell from dad's tone that he's suspecting something. Request: Can we actually turn their suspicion to a reality and have sex?" He gave her his best puppy dog face for that last one. They couldn't do it like this because it would be way too creepy but now they had a week and Tyler was not getting grounded so that is a victory.

 

[mon]

Acacia rose a brow, watching with ample curiosity as Tyler spoke with his dad. His little slip up made the corner of her lips twitch just a fraction, but it was enough to remove the negative feelings which lingered from the black out incident. Her brow raised as Tyler explained in a lighthearted manner which Acacia could not relate to. Her brow only seemed to arch higher as she crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Tyler in disbelief.

It was odd how despite that being Tyler in her body, Acacia could see herself saying the same things if she was in his shoes. If she hadn't been the one who personally saw the bizarre sight of a stranger with a knife at her door in the dead of night, the whole thing would've been amusing to her. Unable to help her sarcasm, Acacia answered deadpanned, "We---and by we, I mean I---literally just encountered a psychopath out on the loose, one which the cops refuse to believe and catch, and you're here asking me about sex."

Her voice was flat as she looked at him but then she sighed and shook her head. She supposed she shouldn't blame him. Boys will be boys and Acacia never had high hopes for the male population anyways. If her past hook-ups told her anything, sex occupied a good percentage of their brains. Still, she was disappointed. Given how distracted and perturbed she was, sex was the last thing on her mind at the moment.

"Shouldn't you focus on healing first? There's not much we can do with your broken leg and bruised sides. You'll ache all over," she went on a-matter-factly and if they were going to body swap anytime soon, Acacia did not want to deal with more pain and discomfort in Tyler's body and she already was.

 

[PlotBrownie]

Tyler's smile slowly fell as Acacia made her very valid point but that didn't seem to deter him for longer than a second. "Okay, so you need some romantic gesture to get you in the mood and get your mind off of this whole thing. Challenge accepted." Tyler said confidentially as he slipped into the driver's seat, adjusting the seat to accommodate Acacia's height.

"I mean, put yourself in my shoes, I am a teenage virgin and my girlfriend is the hottest girl in school who is probably a tigress in bed." He continued ranting as they drove, going in no certain direction. He needed to fill up the tank so wherever these streets led them there better be a gas station somewhere.

Not done yet, Tyler continued: "And I happen to know many positions in which I can be the shameless Pillow Princess... or Pillow Prince I suppose." Turning to give her a little grin he then added: "I am not as innocent as I look, Cia. When it comes to this topic I am not book smart, I'm book fucking genius."

He knew she must have been pretty badly shaken up for the big tough Acacia to be scared, and to be honest with himself he wanted her to get some of her things and spend these next few days with him. It could've been a random thing but just to be safe. Anyways, what was important now was to get his girlfriend to relax.