Roleplay

13

(Justin's POV)

I hung up the phone after talking with Michelle and handed it back to Miley. She nodded and placed it on the table next to her.

"If you're trying to pull a prank on someone," I began, "you're gonna have to figure out some other way; I'm not gonna be the guinea pig."

"It's not of my doing," she replied calmly. "But I can assure you that you'll be back home doing whatever before tomorrow morning. Selena is just trying to stir-up some trouble. I don't see how because the victim hasn't called."

"Jessica?" I asked sarcastically. "Does she still think-I don't see why she wants to go through all this just to get one of us to fess up something that ain't even true."

I knew I was lying, but it wasn't the time or place to bring Miley in to my confidence. I sighed and waited for Selena to return. I needed to hear it from her that she wasn't going to cause any harm to Jessica's health. She wouldn't be able to withstand it.

(Jessica's POV)

I did my best to keep Aria from finding out about my 'new' life; she still thinks my name 'Amy'. I could tell that she was totally in love with Jason; you could see it in her eyes. As for what was going on with Justin, he texted me twelve times saying: You know who is doing this. And to my surprise, I did know. But I wasn't going to let Aria onto it until I knew I could trust her.

"So are you going to tell me who he is?" she asked as we sat in the food-court. "You keep checking your phone."

"Nope," I replied teasingly. "Besides, you wouldn't be able to keep hold of yourself if I did. I remember how you are about this subject."

Aria has had the odd habit of never letting you forget who you like at the present. It was so annoying while I was at school. She smiled and shrugged. Jason had gone to the game-stop so that we could have a little 'girl time'.

"How's your fam?" she asked.

"I'm not living with my fam," I replied, remembering that she didn't know. "My parents' died and I don't have any other family that could've taken me in. I'm staying with someone really cool."

Aria perked up and raised her eyebrows repeatedly. Did she get the wrong idea? I bit my lip and quickly wrote something on my phone before passing it to her. She looked at me before reading. Her eyes grew white as she covered her mouth with her hand.

"You better take me to see this house!" she said passing my phone back. "And I am totally gonna stay over tonight. Jason can stay at the hotel."

I laughed and nodded. Aria will not let the subject pass until she's seen where I live, I thought.

After we left Starbucks', I convinced Aria to have Jason stay over too. To be honest, I liked watching them together. They were just so cute!

My mom wasn't home, but it didn't matter because I wasn't ready to risk Aria and Jason recognizing her yet. Although she had told me that there was no problem with them staying over.

We were chilling in front of the TV when my phone rang. It was Alex. I hadn't talked to him in a while.

"Hello," I said making Aria and Jason hush.

"I want to apologize," he said in a hushed voice. "Can you open the window to the den? For a face-to-face?"

"I have guests," I replied looking out the window behind the sofa; I could see Alex there. "Like out-of-town guests."

"Please?"

"OK."

I hung up and turned to open the window. This is not going to be good, I thought. I'll have to tell Aria and Jason about my new life; I'll have to tell Alex the truth. Alex came in and closed the window behind him. Aria took one look at him and gasped.

"Omigosh!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide with excitement. "You're Alex Pettyfer!"

Alex looked at me uneasily "Jess?" he asked doubtfully.

"Jess?" Aria and Jason said in unison. "Her name is Amy," Aria said alone.

Here I go, I thought.

"It's both," I said, "I had my name legally changed to 'Jessica Rodriguez'." I turned to Alex. "I'm not the real Jessica; she died un-expectantly some time ago. I came to LA for a change; because I had no family waiting for me in Atlanta; and bumped into Michelle when she thought I was her daughter. She offered a place for me to stay until I got things together and I told her yes. Then the next day was the premiere and she asked me to go as 'Jessica' because no one knew that she was gone yet. So I did. Then afterwards when we came back I asked Michelle if she wanted me to continue to be 'Jessica' until further notice. We agreed, I changed my name, and I've been enjoying every second of it. But now I think that Jessica is going to die again... publically this time. I have asthma, diabetes, and to top it off... cancer. I tried to keep things the way Jessica left them, but it appears I've screwed them all up! And yes, I slept with Justin that day you were over. I know you were wondering about that."

My breath became ragged; I fumbled in my pockets for my inhaler. I didn't have it on me.

"Oh shit," I said as my knees buckled under me.

Then I remembered that I hadn't had my next insulin shot yet. Then I was puking.

Jess! Amy! Jess! Amy!

Both of my names were being shouted; overlapping each other. Then I blacked out.

I felt myself being lifted; then I was standing in a long dark tunnel. I began to walk through it as I glimpsed a distant light. I wanted to go to it.

I heard a low distant sad voice.

"Oh Jess," it whispered sadly. "Or Amy... Amy, if you can hear me... fight. Fight to stay with me, please. I can't let you leave yet."

The voice was so sad that I turned away from the light and ran towards whoever was speaking.

"I will fight!" I wanted to shout, but I had no voice. "I, Amy, will fight!"

I kept running when I felt a jolt at my heart. Then again. Again. Then finally one jolt made me fall to my back. The impact of my fall was so hard that I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I knew I'd won the fight.