Kate and I left soon after that. The party was still in full-swing, but I couldn’t be around all the people with my mind swirling. It was easier to calm down and focus once we were back in my jeep (despite its newest accident). And it was even more important now to give that book I’d ordered from the store a proper reading.

We arrived at her place shortly after, and I walked her to the door. I didn’t want to blow the evening (well, not anymore than I already had) by saying anything too Nick-like. You’re Brian, I would remind myself. Deep down, anyway. Brian. Brian. Brian. Brian. Brian.

“Thanks for coming with me,” I told her. “Even though I’m a crazy person who comes into the shop,” I smiled.

“You aren’t crazy!” Kate laughed, shaking her head. “You’re… interesting.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. It was good to know that I intrigued her, though. I wondered what she would say if I told her the truth about everything that was going on.

Well if AJ, who had known me for half his life, didn’t want to believe me, I couldn’t expect someone I’d only known a short while to.

“Oh,” Kate said. “I almost forgot. Tuesday, that’s when my grandmother will be back. She called while we were at the party, but you were talking to Brian. So gran can help you finish your ‘research.’” She had the skeptical look on her face again.

I felt so relieved to have a more exact time frame on this now. “Really? Great,” I let out a breath. “You have no idea how great that news is,” I reiterated.

“Well, maybe just a smidge crazy,” she conceded. Her eyes were sparkling though.

I smiled back at her, still staring into them, not saying anything. She paused, and something flickered on her face. Kate looked back and forth as if searching my eyes. The hesitation soon disappeared, and I leaned forward, slowly, and gave her a kiss. I paused, looking at her again. When I saw that there was no objection, I kissed her again, framing her face in my hands and letting all my other worries wash away.

*****

It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized I hadn’t looked at the book last night as I’d intended. Now was the time to do it… well, after breakfast. I ended up going to the store first because I had a strong craving for chocolate milk and Eggos. Boy, were those tasty.

I was watching TV when there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” I yelled, taking another bite of potato chips.

“Hey,” Nick said, looking around the living room. It was a little messier than usual, I realized. “What are you watching?”

I shrugged. “Just flipping channels.”

“Oh. Well have you looked at that book yet?”

I smiled sheepishly. “No, but I will before the morning’s over.”

“Brian? It’s two o’clock.”

I looked at the clock. Oops. Where had the day gone? I muted the TV, wondering when I’d gotten so ADD about everything. I grabbed it off the coffee table. The Skull Prophecies. I’d looked at a variety of book options from the link Nick had sent me, but this had seemed like it would be the most helpful.

Nick sat down next to me on the couch as I started going through the beginning. I skimmed the first few pages, but I found my attention being drawn back to the TV. A commercial with a cute puppy running around was on.

“Give me the book,” Nick said impatiently, rolling his eyes.

I turned the volume back on, although not high because he was trying to concentrate. When the sitcom I found went to commercial, I muted it again and turned back to him, to see if he’d found anything out.

“It talks about crystal skulls and the belief of having unlimited knowledge…” He stared at me and motioned to me by pretending to wipe something off his cheek.

I felt my own face in that spot. It was a crumb from one of the Eggos I’d eaten for breakfast. I stuffed it in my mouth.

“That’s definitely not what we’re dealing with,” Nick said pointedly. “Some cultures also believed that skulls had healing powers.”

To get him back, I punched him in the arm.

“Ouch!” he looked up.

“Let’s see if that leaves a bruise or not,” I laughed.

He ignored me and flipped forward a few more pages, and I could see his eyes scanning the page. “Hmm…”

“What is it?”

“This says something about switching bodies.” Nick read for another minute before finishing his explanation. “Look. Doesn’t this look like AJ’s skull?”

I looked. The answer was yes, it did. But a skull was a skull, so it probably looked like a lot of other ones, too. I didn’t see a significance.

“It says ‘of one body, of one mind.’ And then… this looks like a different language. I don’t really know what it says.”

“I wonder if Kate’s grandmother could read it? I don’t know how much time she’s spent in South America before.”

Nick looked surprised that I’d actually contributed something to the conversation. “When does she come back?”

“Tuesday.”

He nodded. “The way this part is written in the book, it almost looks like an incantation. Maybe, if she can read it, she can just… switch us back?”

I nodded, looking at the page. That seemed like a definite possibility. And just what I wanted to hear. “Just just two more days as each other then.”

Nick turned the page and finished reading the chapter. Suddenly, he looked panicked.

“What else does it say?”

I had to ask a second time before Nick answered. “It says that this is a rare kind of skull because it was considered to be one of the most dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?”

“The transfiguration was advanced magic. Sometimes people let it go for too long and the switch became… permanent. It talks about how the body was switched first, and then the minds started doing the same. Slowly at first, and then faster and faster.”

“Which… is where we’re at now?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think Tuesday will be too late?”

“I don’t know. I hope not.”

~Nick’s point of view~

I wasn’t that bad, I’d thought to myself after leaving Brian’s house yesterday. He hadn’t been able to concentrate on the book at all with the TV on. It was as if all I would need to do to distract him was dangle something shiny in front of his face.

It was a good thing I’d come over and actually gotten the reading done. Who knows when he would’ve gotten around to doing it, he was so irresponsible.

But it was hard to worry about that right now. I was in the recording studio, and nailing the vocals for another song on the record. When I set my headphones down, I was smiling from ear to ear.

“Great job, Brian,” Kevin said. “You sounded really focused today.”

“Thanks, cous,” I said.

I, I mean Brian, was really talented with his music. I had always admired that about him- he put his heart and soul into the music. That was something I’d forgotten about. I hadn’t paid as much attention during this album, given all the problems going on between us, even before the switch had taken place.

The work day passed by pretty smoothly. I was in a good mood. We ended early afternoon, and I was starving. We had skipped lunch today because we didn’t want to stop working on the song. I walked out with Howie and spotted Kate.

“Hey, what are you doing here?”

“Brian called me a little while ago. We’re going to get an early dinner,” she blushed a little.

It was really cute, I thought. I hadn’t noticed how pretty she was before.

“Do you know where the studio is?” I asked.

“No, I’ve never been here before,” Kate admitted.

“Howie, I’ll see you later, okay? I’m going to show her how to get inside.”

“No problem. You guys have a good one,” Howie smiled and headed over to his car.

I slid my card, which gave us access to the building. “Alright” I sang and I held the door open for Kate.

She laughed and followed me to the studio.

Brian was already rushing down the hall. “Sorry! I didn’t realize it was already four. I was about to come find you!”

“That’s fine,” Kate said. “Can I see the studio?”

“Sure,” Brian said. We gave her a quick tour around and then headed back outside again.

“Where are you guys going to eat?”

Brian shrugged. “We were thinking Mexican.”

My stomach growled. “That sounds good. I’m starving.”

Just then I heard another familiar voice. “Hey guys. Did Kevin already leave?”

It was Madeline. I saw Brian smile a little at the sight of her.

“Yeah,” I said. “You just missed him. Anything we can do?”

“No, I just wanted to get him his key back. I borrowed his spare when we were planning the party. Maybe I can swing by tomorrow before work.”

“Or else I can give it to him. Once we get rolling on a CD the five of us are practically tied by the ankles.”

Madeline laughed. “That would be wonderful.” She pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to me.

“You guys threw a great party. That was nice of you to do it for Kelly,” Kate told her.

“Oh, it was fun. I’m glad we got it past her. It can be hard to surprise her sometimes! Thanks for coming. We’ll all have to get together again sometime.”

We all agreed.

“Alright, well… I guess I’ll see you guys later?” Madeline said after a short silence that followed. “I’ve gotta run to the grocery store and grab something for dinner. My cabinets are pretty bare right now.”

“Oh, well we’re about to go grab some Mexican if you want to come?” Brian offered.

Kate looked surprised, but quickly covered it up. As though she was trying to sound convincing, she said, “Yeah, you’re more than welcome.”

“Are you sure that’s okay?” Madeline asked. “I don’t want to intrude if it was just the two of you…”

“Well, it can be the four of us,” Brian offered. “You said you were hungry, didn’t you Brian?”

I had never gotten to spend a lot of time with Kate, oh and of course I was excited to see Madeline more, so I quickly agreed and the four of us headed to Brian’s jeep for what was, I realized, sort of a double date.