The Switch [COMPLETED]

Chapter 28

Paisley Monroe:

Tired was an understatement. I was EXHAUSTED. Interviews, concerts, meet and greets, and hotel after hotel after hotel were leaving me wishing for nothing more than a long day at the spa and the blissful sound of silence. 

The boys were great, really, and were being remarkably respectful of Asher and I during our current...predicament. In public, I was treated like one of the guys in order to keep up appearances. In the private of the tour bus or the hotel rooms, though, I was given an astounding amount of privacy. It was almost funny the way the boys seemed to tiptoe around me as if I was something delicate that could easily be broken. 

Leo was by far the most "adult" of the group. Every night, he would round everyone up to have a mini meeting regarding Asher and I's situation and to brainstorm leads on the mysterious bearded man from the commercial. We were no closer to finding him then we had been at the beginning, and it was hard not to feel discouraged. It was clear that the lack of progress was taking its toll on both Asher and I.

It was fun being a rockstar, but I was beginning to worry how much longer I could keep this up. The fans were definitely starting to notice that something was very "off" about their beloved Asher Halen, and I wasn't sure how many more nervous breakdowns I could suffer in silence before I finally exploded on live television again. 

As for Asher, he had been noticeably subdued since our heart-to-heart about Maddison. Some of the spunk seemed to have left him, and it seemed that even when I went out of my way to push his buttons he would respond with little more than a weak eye roll.

It was weird for me to admit, but I was actually starting to worry about him. I missed his annoying superiority and sass, even when it was being directed towards me. 

It was also getting increasingly more difficult to hide our secret from the other members of the band's team. Ellie was getting more and more suspicious around me whenever she styled me for concerts, and Lenny, the boys' manager, had asked me on multiple occasions "what had gotten into me." 

It wasn't just the team that had noticed. Asher confided to me that he was starting to get messages from past flings wondering why he hadn't contacted them, and complaining that they hadn't seen him around at any parties lately. It seemed to be stressing him out. The longer I was in his body, the more damage I was doing to the playboy reputation that he had worked so hard to steadily create over the years. I wondered if his frustration with my performance as "Asher" had anything to do with the way he was distancing himself from me. The thought both irritated and saddened me. 

As for me, I didn't have much to worry about. My messaging app was as dry as a bone. Not once since I had left home had I received any sort of contact from my mother, father, or sister. The most word I had received from my "past life" in my own body was an email from my school informing me that my extended leave of absence had been accepted, and that as long as I kept up with my schoolwork via email that I would still be able to graduate with the rest of my class in the spring. 

It was all a bit pathetic, really. 

I was starting to lose hope of ever returning to a normal life when I finally received some news that lifted my spirits: Tucker had stumbled across a lead on the commercial guy. 

The boys and I had all been sitting in the living area of the tour bus - I was doing homework on my laptop and the boys were working on some new songs - when Tucker suddenly burst through the door looking like he had seen a ghost. 

"Guys, I found him!" he gasped, pointing frantically to his cell phone. 

In a flash, Asher and I had both leapt out of our seats and crowded around Tucker, pushing and shoving each other to be the first to see the image on the small screen.

My heart sunk when I saw the picture - Tucker smiling with his arm around a girl with windswept red hair, some of which had blown over the lower half of her face to look like a beard. 

"Tucker, that's not funny," I groaned, slumping my shoulders as I slowly began my journey back to my seat on the couch. 

"Wait...no, Pais, look!"

I stopped and turned around when I heard Asher's euphoric exclamation. He took the phone from Tucker's hand and rushed over to me, holding it out so I could see. 

He had zoomed in on a small poster attached to a store window in the top right of the photo - something that I had completely overlooked while observing the bigger picture. The poster contained the name and address of a local self-help seminar and listed a few of the speakers who were expected to appear. That wasn't what excited me, though. 

What excited me was the large, clear image of the man from the commercial underneath the headline: KEYNOTE SPEAKER.

My heart beat wildly as I snatched the phone from Asher's hands and zoomed in and out of the photo, refusing to believe what I was seeing until I was absolutely certain that there was no mistaking the sly smile and twinkling eyes of the man in the image. 

"That's him," I finally whispered, lifting my gaze from the screen to stare at Asher in amazement. "It's him! It's really him! Tucker, you're amazing!" I gushed, throwing my arms around Tucker and letting out a girlish squeal. 

Tucker immediately stiffened and threw an uncomfortable glance over to Asher, who was trying to keep a straight face while watching the exchange. 

"Um...not that I don't appreciate the gratitude, Paisley, but I would definitely enjoy this a lot more if you were in your own body..." Tucker mumbled as he gently tried to extract himself from my crushing grip.

"Oh, right," I said before pulling away from the embrace, although I was too excited to be properly abashed. "Well, when is the conference?" I shouted gleefully, barely managing to hold back a wave of giggles at the relief that was currently washing over me in large waves.

"Tomorrow," Tucker said proudly, tucking his phone back into his pocket. "Lucky I caught this photo when I did! Plus," he began, wiggling his eyebrows with a self-satisfied smirk, "I also caught the number of the cutie in the photo. High five!"

He held his palm up to me, but quickly lowered it once I simply shook my head at him with a disappointed expression on my face.

"The real Asher would have given me a high five," he mumbled under his breath. I ignored him and bounded over to where Asher was standing just a few feet away looking dumbstruck. 

"Tomorrow!" I whispered excitedly, throwing one arm around him in a little half-hug. "One more day until this nightmare is officially over!"

I expected Asher to be over the moon with joy, but he simply turned his face up to look at me with a little half-smile. 

"Tomorrow," he repeated evenly, although it sounded a little flat. "Can't wait. I'm a bit tired, I think I'm gonna head to bed. Big day tomorrow and all..."

He shot me one more tight smile before gently shrugging my arm off of his shoulders and walking towards the back of the bus where he collapsed into the nearest bunk without another word. 

"What's his deal?" I asked the rest of the boys, a little miffed that Asher didn't seem too affected by the wonderful news of our impending separation. 

"Beats me..." Tucker drawled uninterestedly before shrugging and pulling a soda out of the fridge. "Lady troubles?" he guessed as he flopped onto the couch. 

I shrugged nonchalantly and joined him on the couch before trying to return to my homework, but my eyes kept drifting over to the huddled form of Asher dozing on the bunk.

What was going on in his head?

I contemplated all of the possible options for a moment, but in the end forced myself to decide that it didn't matter why Asher was acting strangely. What mattered was that we finally had a real, solid lead on getting out bodies back. 

Tomorrow was the day.

Tomorrow, everything would be put right...