Nevyn gripped the phone tightly, letting his hand express the anger that he tried to keep hidden in his voice. Despite his efforts, his volume rose with each word spoken. "You're telling me that you've been there a month and haven't learned anything. Are you kidding me?"
"Hey!" Derek's voice came back defensively over the speaker. "Last I checked, you hadn't figured out why you can do this and you've been hopping bodies for over two centuries, so how about cutting us a break! We're at least trying to do something while you're just sitting there at home, living my life."
"It'd be a lot easier if your life didn't fucking suck. Your parents still treat me like a leper, and get this, they want me to get a job and pay rent."
Derek laughed. "You should be glad that's all they want you to do. You'd be out on the street if you weren't in my body. Believe me, we're all hoping to get this resolved as fast as possible. I'm using what you taught me and I feel I'm making headway, at least as far as setting up Aubrey in the university's science lab."
Nevyn had been pacing in his small room, Derek's room actually, but his temporarily, along with Derek's body that he'd been stuck in for months now. What had started out as an opportunity to have a normal life had become like this room. He felt constrained, trapped, and each day he woke up anxious to break free. This was ironic, as he had wanted nothing but a chance live normally. Since he was a boy, he had been cursed to hop between person to person, taking on an identity that was not his own. He had been unable to feel at home in any place because it was not truly his. He had been unable to have anyone love him for who he was. But now he had a body that did not shudder, because he did not have to fight for dominance from another soul inside. As much as Derek's family hated but tolerated him, their home felt like his. And as two arms wrapped around him from behind, causing him to stop pacing, he had the love of a woman who knew his true name and did not run from him. He knew he shouldn't, but he had grown to hate it all.
The short haired blonde girl squeezed him momentarily, then whispered into his ear, "Tell Aubrey hi from Bekka."
Nevyn was glad his back was to her so she wouldn't see his face of disgust. He adjusted his face to appear more like a good boyfriend before turning to respond to her. "It's Derek right now, I assume in Aubrey's body."
"Oh, well, can't she hear me while he's in there?"
Nevyn's mouth twitched and he struggled to avoid rolling his eyes. "Yeah, apparently she can. So I guess, hi Aubrey."
Derek's voice began speaking with agitated tones into the receiver, but he was not talking to Bekka or Nevyn, but to the thoughts of his sister inside. "What? No! Call her when I'm in your roommate or someone else. I'm not going to do that. Because it's stupid and confusing and...fine! I'll do it but just for a minute."
"Are you arguing with your sister in your head?" Nevyn asked, slightly amused.
The first response was an exasperated sigh. "Yes, Aubrey wants to dish to Bekka about girl stuff and apparently it can't wait and I'm told it's the least I can do for letting my sister be my taxi service. Put Bekka on please."
Nevyn handed the phone to his girlfriend and sniggered, "Aubrey wants to speak to you."
"Why's that funny?" she asked while taking the phone and putting it to her ear. "Hey girl! What's shaking?"
Derek cleared his throat, a low rumble, then Aubrey's voice answered mechanically, "I miss you so much. I wish you were here with us so bad. It's not the same without you. I totally need you by my side so you can scope out the hottest professor in the world with me!"
Bekka paused. "Why do you sound like you're reading from a script?"
Aubrey's voice continued, but now with Derek's vocal cadence. "Because this isn't really Aubrey, it's me, Derek, telling you what my sister is thinking to me right now. It's like playing telephone with a telephone but way more annoying."
Bekka took a second to process that and laughed. "Bri, tell your brother to fake being you better!"
Derek's voice was back, arguing again with a voice only he could hear. "I told you to do this later. I know you'll be busy later. Yes, that's my fault I know, but I don't...okay, okay, you don't need to yell in my head!" Effortlessly, Aubrey's voice was back. "Sorry about that Bekks. Anyway, so Derek got me into an advanced genetics class. He hopped the registrar's office and set everything up. He then hopped the professor of that class and told everyone I was some kind of prodigy and not to question her placement there."
"Her placement?" Bekka asked as she teased his grammatical slip up. She knew Derek was struggling to keep it all straight in his head and she was loving that Aubrey was making him do this.
Aubrey sighed before going right back to sounding like her happy self that was getting to talk with her best friend. "My placement, yes. I thought I'd look stupid, but Derek stays in the professor most of the day trying to extract as much knowledge as possible, then hops back into me and teaches as much of it as he can."
"Wow, that must be really hard for Derek since he was never as smart as you."
Through gritted teeth, Aubrey said, "That's right, but he's doing the best he can, so everyone should back the fuck off."
"Tell me more about this hot professor. Is he in that class Derek got you into?"
Aubrey's voice registered new excitement at this topic. "Yes! His name is Professor Kendrick. He is the sweetest, kindest man, and wow he is easy on the eyes."
"Is that your opinion or Derek's?" Bekka teased.
Derek's voice was quick to retort. "You know damn well I connect with the emotions and desires of the person I'm in, even more so when it's my sister!"
"Ah ah, Aubrey please," Bekka demanded playfully.
Derek sighed, then resumed speaking as his sister. "It's mine, Aubrey's opinion."
Bekka's voice dropped an octave for her next question. "Have you fucked him yet?"
Aubrey's voice laughed loudly. "Um, I'm supposed to sound indignant here and say no, because he's married. Let's just say I've imagined what it would be like plenty of times. You should also know that Derek went to his home and fucked his wife, who is very attractive by the way. So Derek has intimate knowledge of Professor Kendrick's dick and how it feels to be touched. This means that I, Aubrey, also know, because I have access to all my super amazing brother's memories now and am a little snoop."
Bekka was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe, but was also becoming very aroused. She missed the summer months when she got to experience a twisted sexual adventure with Derek and Nevyn almost every day. "Aubrey, I'm talking to the real Aubrey now..."
"She knows," Aubrey's voice interrupted.
"Yeah, you need to let your brother hop him so you can fuck him. You have a huge opportunity right now. You're hopefully not always going to have a brother who's a body hopper, so take advantage while you can girl."
There was silence for several seconds from the other end. Finally Derek's voice spoke, "She still wrestles at times with the...morality of it all. I keep telling her it's a means to an end and we're never going to go as far as Nevyn did and..."
"Stop right there," Bekka said coldly. "I love you two, you know I do, but Nevyn is just as much a victim of all this as everyone he's had to possess. He didn't ask for this, but it happened, and he did what he had to do. If he had to take advantage of people during it, then so be it. He's a survivor, so don't be acting all high and mighty about going as far as Nevyn did, especially when you know damn well Bri that you have loved parts of it!"
There was more silence, then Derek's voice spoke calmly. "Bri says she'll talk to you later Bekka, and she doesn't want me to tell you what she's thinking right now, which is that you're not entirely wrong. Hey, well, I didn't want to do this in the first place. Remember that next time. Sorry, my sister's yelling in my head again. We're both still pretty pissed at what Nevyn did, but yeah, we've definitely taken advantage of his abilities, so any judgment from us would be quite hypocritical."
Bekka smiled at this small victory. She then asked conspiratorially, "Has Bri slept with anyone since being at college?"
It was Derek's turn to laugh. "Just her roommate so far, but I think that soon...Oh whatever! She's your best friend and you'd tell her eventually. I told you to talk to her later!"