Chords

Who

"I was right, this wasn't a good id . . ." Everything becomes unnaturally loose. Jess's fingers slack off my face and he recomposes himself; better posture, level shoulders, chin up. 

Ptolemy peers at his friend. "Good what?"

Jess folds his hands on his lap. "What's good?"

"You started a sentence back there."

"Did I?" His eyebrows go up unconcerned. Jess brushes himself off and looks over what he's wearing. He grimaces. "Oh, gross."

Ptolemy doesn't say anything, he just furrows his brows and shakes his head in misunderstanding. Jess springs to explain, throwing his hands up either side to display the predicament.

"How did you even let me in like this?" Jess almost laughs at how obvious it seems. "I look mannish, it's horrible. Almost embarrassing."  

Ptolemy opens his mouth but nothing comes out for a few seconds. " . . . Jess?"

He tilts his head. "Who?"

Ptolemy looks around the van for a moment. Nobody else is watching, so it's not some sort of joke. Mary is busy talking to Binny who has earbuds in and Tai is asleep. Ptolemy turns back to Jess. 

"You're weirding me out, Jess."

"It's Haley." He scoffs.

Ptolemy nods slowly, green eyes flicking to the side in thought every now and then. "Yeah. Yeah, there's something wrong with you. Glad we did this."

Jess puckers his face in confusion. "You have to start making sense, Tolly."

"Tolly." He looks back.

"I've called you that before!" He playfully hits his arm.

". . . I thought that was Jess screwing around this whole time . . ."

"Okay, who's this Jess? You have a crush on him?" He raises an eyebrow.

Ptolemy sighs, running a hand down his face. Maybe he can wait this out a few hours. Whatever's going on isn't permanent, obviously. 

Almost three hours of the trip go by and "Haley" is still bouncing around flapping her hands and talking like a gay man. Ptolemy isn't sure how long this is supposed to last - this has happened before, clearly, but it never lasted long enough to be noticeable. Even the others have taken in the information that something is going on.

"Is this a usual thing?" Mary mutters to Binny.

She shakes her head. "Maybe he smacked his head against the door on that sharp turn you took."

Haley sits on the edge of the car seat, swinging her legs and watching the road pass outside. Tai strapped headphones onto her to keep her busy and out of the conversation.

Ptolemy groans. "This was supposed to go away hours ago."

"So you knew about this." Binny states.

"No! Well, not really. All we knew was that Jess was having blackouts but was still somehow conscious." He attempts to explain. "We wanted to see what happens when he's on autopilot, and . . . this is it, I guess."

"That explains that moment parlor the other day, at least." Binny murmurs before continuing. "So it's never lasted this long."

"I don't think so, at least it wasn't this noticeable before." Ptolemy points. "I don't even know what this is though, it's not like I can stop it."

"Dissociative disorder." Tai says in the back, not looking up from his phone.

They turn. Tai continues. "It's kind of obvious, isn't it?"