Holt raised his head and woke up in the middle of the school cafeteria. Oh fuck. Neither Jackson nor he had planned to switch in front of everyone. He turned on his heels to face his friends, the boys from the casketball team, all cheering him up. He shrugged to himself and walked towards their table.

"Yo, dude, what's up!" asked his cousin, Heath Burns.

As Holt talked with his friends, he felt a hand slide from one shoulder to the other, hugging him from behind. It was a girl. Now… Which girl? That was a really good question.

"Hey, Holt.", said a feminine voice he didn't recognize the slightest.

"Hey… You.", he answered, hesitating a bit.

He turned around and get off of her embrace to find himself in front of a little vamp he probably had bed last weekend. Not only did he blackout but he even had little memory of what - or who - he was doing when he was in control.

"I missed you on Saturday morning. Where did you go?", her eyelashes fluttered as she smiled at him, showing her little fangs.

"Huh… Look… Hot Stuff… I am not really a morning in bed, cuddly person, you know. No matter what we did together, it was certainly really fun, but it was fun as long as it lasted, see? Like, now it's over."

The 'hot stuff' didn't seem to appreciate this lack of attention, and it didn't take long before her hand had a special meeting with Holt's cheek, under the laughs of the casketball team.

Holt raised his own hand to rub his cheek, and as he did, his eyes locked with a very much interesting person. Rita.

The little redhead shared her passion for music with him, as long as her bed. At least, before. She was alone and since Holt was a gentleman, he left his dumbasses friends and let his legs lead him towards the pretty girl.

"What's up, Babe. How's that lil' boyfriend of yours doin'? Already leaving you on your own, ignoring the concurrence."

"Holt, I already told you not to call me that.", answered the New Goreleans' girl.

"Okay, Rita.", he smiled at her, he loved to annoy her.

"It's Operetta for you. Asshole."

Yes. She didn't like him a lot. She used to, but it seemed that one night he had too much alcohol and ended up kissing someone that wasn't her. They weren't dating, but they were close and had sex together, plus they listened to the same music, so she was the closest to a girlfriend for him.

When she learned his 'cheating' it didn't take long for the little diva to find herself a boyfriend, Johnny fucking Spirit. The school's 'bad boy'. A douchebag, if Holt must say. They were in a relationship since then. And honestly, Holt thought - no, he knew - that in the beginning, she only went out with him to make him jealous, but it's been five months now and she was still dating that shitface.


Jake woke up in the middle of the night, in his bed - which was a good thing. As soon as he opened his eyes he could feel his face hurting. He touched his arcade and felt what he assumed was dried blood, and winced at the pain. He got out of his bed and stood in front of the mirror on his bedroom's wall.

He had a black eye and several bruises on his face. His left cheek and nose were wounded and both seemed to have bled a lot in the past few hours. He noticed his eyebrow piercing was missing, so someone must have ripped it from his arcade earlier, which meant Holt must have been into a fight. That sucker.

He knew for a fact that Holt wouldn't take his own piercing off because he was the one getting it against Jake's approval. Last year, he woke up with both a piercing and a tattoo, and if he had winced at the first one because an eyebrow piercing wasn't something he found attractive, he had laughed when he saw the tattoo between his shoulder blades. It was a "yin-yang symbol" or Taijitu. It was one of the few things he agreed with Holt. This tattoo was kind-of a self private joke, and he liked it.

He kept analyzing his body, taking his tee-shirt off and checking the other bruises on his torso. Lost in his thoughts, he composed the number of his voicemail to check on Holt's messages. This was their main way of communication, both of them having their own phone and number.

He clenched his teeth as he listened to his alter-ego joking about the situation.

"Yo, dude, it's Holt, uh… I might or might not have gotten into a fight at school. My nose is currently bleeding, like I'm literally drowning under my blood. Ours, sorry. Yeah it was a pretty bad fight but we won, so be happy for that.", he said before laughing. In the background, Jake recognized the voices of the Casketball team members mocking Holt.

"It's none of you're business why, but hum… Johnny Spirit punched me. That fucker took me by surprise and he really got us bad. This motherfucking ghost kept disappearing when we tried to hit him. Ouch, my fucking arm, uh, it's probably for the best if you're the one telling Mom, I don't want her to annoy me with her sermons and all her "be good at school" bullshit.", he said while Jake sighed, knowing what bullshit he was talking about. "Anyway, have a nice day Jakey, don't forget to let me take the control on Saturday, this body needs his alcohol weekly dose!"

The hell he won't. Holt wasn't supposed to go out today and in a few hours he ended up waking up looking like a fucking thug. He sighed again and checked the time: 2:48 AM.

"Oh fuck. Fuck! Fucking Holt with his fucking fight.", he swore as he goes into his unread messages.

He had four text messages from her.

"Here I was thinking of you as someone punctual."

"Should've told me I kissed this bad."

"I'm really starting to worry."

"You could at least answer."

He was so screwed. She thought he ghosted her. Fuck. What could he say?

'Sorry, babe, see, the person I'm sharing a body with got out and got kicked by a ghost at school!'

He cursed himself as he started dialing her number. She picked up at the first ringtone.

"Finally.", she said.

"I am so so sorry, Nef. I swear I didn't want to ghost you."

"Then, why did you?"

"There was this fight at school, between two jerks and it kind of degenerated and I ended up in it, I think I got knocked out pretty badly and fainted."

"Fainted? Jake this wasn't fainting, it's a fucking coma! But, are you okay? I heard about this fight, it went pretty badly apparently."

"You heard about it? How?", he prayed for Cleo not telling her sister about Holt.

"Deuce got hurt too, Cleo brought him home earlier to nurse him, they didn't want his mom to find out."

"Yeah, I could really use a nurse too, I've got bad bruises honestly."

He could hear her laughing on the other side of the phone.

"Is this serious or just some made up excuses for me to nurse you?"

"Who knows?", he laughed, too. "You want me to come and see you? I mean it's late but I can still probably make it before dawn."

"No, no, we will catch up tomorrow. Have some rest, sweetheart."

He smiled at the nickname. She never called him that before, to be honest, 'Jake' was already familiar enough for her, she wasn't used to calling people by their nicknames and it took her some time before she stopped calling him 'Jekyll'.

"Sweetheart? Really? Now if you're that loving tonight, I might actually come to your place and enjoy this rare moment."

"Stop, I was really worried about you today, hence the sweet name. I almost even asked Deuce if you were okay, earlier."

"Oh, look at the evil princess caring for a human.", he laughed, teasing her.

She made a disgusted sound but was actually smiling. She missed him and was actually relieved he was okay.

"I'll see you tomorrow…", he paused, trying to find a nickname good enough to please her but not too sweet so she would think he'll go too far. "... Princess."

"Good night, Jake."

And with that, she hung up. Smiling because her prince finally contacted her and that she could finally go to sleep, now that she knew he was safe.


Thanks for reading! Next week: The Tension