***
Aron had just come back to their city after building up a career away from home. Carter had been so excited to get together with his longtime friend. He had been pretty lonely since Aron had left, but it was not like he was going to admit it. He was always surrounded by so-called friends. Guys he didn’t particularly like. Not one like Aron. But now that Aron was back, they were going to have so much fun, hitting the bars together, playing basketball in the summer, hockey in winter, and drinking beer, and all that.
Yeah, things had been looking up until Aron, seated across from him in one of their favorite dives, with a few empty beers in front of him, and more on the way had dropped the bomb on him.
“I’m getting married.”
He had said that matter-of-factly, with a bit of determination in the way he had held his palms flat against his thighs.
“Cool,” Carter had replied with a grin. “Who’s the lucky lady? Does she have a hot sister?”
“Actually,” Aron had replied after a few awkward seconds, as he seemed concentrated on peeling the label off of one of the beer bottles on the table, “it’s not a lucky lady.”
“Oh, she’s not lucky?” Carter had grinned, not getting the gist of the matter. “Of course, she’ll be stuck with your ugly mutt face for the rest of her life. Yeah, I get it why she’s not lucky. But what about the hot sister? Any chances?”
“Carter,” Aron had been a bit too forceful in cutting him short. “It’s a … guy I’m marrying.”
If the dive hadn’t been so busy at that hour, Carter was certain he would have been capable of cutting the silence falling between them with a Swiss knife. Or at least poke at it with a spork.
“You’re joking,” he had said flatly. “Right?”
Aron had stared at him, his original awkwardness now turning into something akin to confusion, just a short stop on the way to anger.
“Is that a problem?” he had asked, his eyes trained on Carter.
“Yeah, it’s a problem. You’re not gay!”
A few other patrons had turned to look at them, and Aron had looked at him with reproachful eyes.
“Big news, Carter. It looks like I am because I’m marrying a guy.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Carter had raised both his hands off the table. “Where’s the hidden camera? Who asked you to prank me? Was it your idea? Really, Aron?”
“Carter, there’s no hidden camera,” Aron had slowly shaken his head. “Just your best friend who happens to be gay and in love with another man.”
There had been another shocked silence from Carter. He could not face this. No, it could not be right. So he had just stood up and left.
And seen the two at their wedding, which he had crashed while being terribly and helplessly shitfaced. There the memories were getting a tad blurry. He might have spouted a bunch of homophobic shit until some well-built dudes had dragged him outside and thrown him into the street.
And that had been the last time he had seen Aron until today.
***
“The homophobe?” he repeated like he could not believe it still.
From that moment onward, he had often wondered how come he had had no idea he was such a bigot. He could not care less if half the male population on the planet was fucking the other half in the ass. But Aron was a totally different thing. The guy could not be gay. That was just plain fucking wrong. So maybe he was a homophobe only when it came to Aron. Otherwise, he could face an entire pride parade, and maybe even join in for a dance or two.
“Yes,” Aron confirmed, with a tired sigh. “Will it bother you if I go and check on him? He … there is just no one close that could visit him at the moment, that’s all.”
“No, of course not,” he mumbled.
Aron was staring at him like he could not make sense of him. Not of Carter. Of Alex. Because Carter was apparently in a coma, with no high chances of getting up anytime soon.
“I thought you hated him,” Aron spoke softly.
“Well, the guy’s in a coma. What’s he going to do? Get up from the bed just to give me a thrashing? Hey, maybe that can be motivation enough for him to get up off his sick bed,” he said brightly.
Marge burst into laughter again. Funny how funny everything seemed to her. Carter wanted nothing else but to go see the body. His body. Well, it was not like he was dead. Just partially.
“I’m coming with you,” he tried to get out of bed, and this time Marge hurried to push him back in the bed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll check on him,” Aron said, blinking like he could still not understand what was going on.
“No way, I’m going with you,” he began fretting while trying to fight the nurse off. “Marge, I swear, this IV pointy thing will hurt,” he struggled with the small tube hooked into his hand.
Marge pushed his hand away from the other with a quick move and he dropped back on the pillows, with a loud groan. Apparently, he was so weak that he could not even fight a woman. Jeesh.
“Mr. Ruskin, play nice,” she chided him.
“What? I’m no longer ‘dear’ to you?” He jibed.
“You are a dear only when you don’t threaten me with the catheter,” Marge replied dutifully.
“Ah, is that how this is called?” Carter took a look at his hand and examined it carefully. Hmm, it looked like he even had a manicure. “I thought that was the thing that goes into your ...” he swallowed his words, thinking that spouting four-letter words in front of such a nice, yet devious, lady in white, was not exactly advisable.
“When you get better, we’ll go together to see him,” Aron promised him. “If you still want to, of course.”
“Then I should just get better soon,” he said and crossed his arms over his chest, as much as the IV tube was letting him.
“Stop frowning, dear. It will give you wrinkles,” Marge chided him, seemingly more concerned with his complexion and youthful appearance than anything else. That was highly unprofessional of her.
“So what?” he replied.
“So what?!” both Marge and Aron said together in shock.
Oh, right. Alex was some face lotion ad star or something. Great. He was stuck in the body of a total douche who thought his looks were enough to get him everything in life. Including an awesome guy like Aron, as a husband. Who was surely, undoubtedly, completely straight.
Alex must have used some magic on Aron. That was the only explanation. Seeing how he could switch bodies with Carter, just like that, that had to be it. Alex was Harry Potter. A gay Harry Potter. Or something.
TBC
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