Fantasy/Fanfiction Contest Entries

A Magical, Romantical, Alternate Reality

You're going to get a few phone calls that change your life.

That's just the truth of living in a digital age. At some point, you're going to pick up the phone and listen to someone say that they're getting married, having a child, giving you a promotion, losing someone. I'm not saying all the phone calls will be positive or negative. I'm just saying they're going to happen.

The jury's still out regarding one particular phone call I got.

I was in the middle of a nightclub, fighting down a potent mix of various alcoholic beverages - which, let me tell you, isn't really where you want to receive a life-changing phone call. Maybe after a long day of work, settling into your apartment. Or on a gentle walk down the street, free of stress. Not muscling through nausea while a deep bass rattles your freakin' ribcage.

It was only by some miracle that I even realized my phone was ringing at all. I wouldn't have answered it if it had been anyone else - but that caller ID read Jimmy, and so I felt a certain level of obligation.

I gestured to my friends, pointed at my phone. They didn't care at all, of course. I doubted they even remembered my name, they were so wasted.

Stumbling into the bathroom, I tugged off my high heels and held them under my arm, savoring the chill of the tile floor as I answered the call.

"Hey, Jim. What is it?"

"I need psychic Nina, not party Nina."

I closed my eyes, making the distinct mental shift from play to work without question. "Okay. What is it?"

"Oh my god, I love your shoes," a drunk girl drawled behind me, her vomit-laced breath wafting over me. I crinkled my nose, knowing she was too far gone to take offense at facial expressions.

"Thanks."

"What?"

"Oh, not you, Jimmy. Anyway, what did you need?"

"So you know that theory we've been exploring for a little bit? One about alternate dimensions?"

It was about that time that I realized this was a life-changing phone call. It was very shortly after that realization that I wished I was not having this particular life-changing phone call in a nightclub bathroom with a drunken girl lazily trying to steal my shoes.

"Yeah. Did you get something?" I tried to disguise my hope, failing miserably.

"Uh...yeah. Like, the biggest something."

"I'm taking a cab to your house and punching you in the face if you don't tell me what it is right exactly now."

"Oh, you're going to want to do that anyway. The coming to my house thing. Hopefully not the punching."

*

Jimmy was not alone in his apartment, as was usually the case. Instead, he was sharing the couch with another man, wrapped in a blanket and looking strangely harried.

I clutched the key that he had hidden under a rock outside, eyeing the man uncertainly. "Come in," Jimmy ordered. "You're letting all the cold air in."

I took another step forward, letting the heavyset door crash shut behind me as I continued to survey the man. Tall, lanky, not too bad-looking, if you disregarded the dark bags gracing his eyes and the wildness of his hair.

"You don't need to look so shocked that I have someone over."

"Did you invite this someone, Jimmy?"

"No, I did not."

"I appeared in his bathroom. While he was showering. It was an unpleasant experience for both of us." The man looked at me with hooded eyes and a hint of a smile around his lips and I couldn't hold back a snort of laughter, both at the image flashing into my head and the unexpected humor coming from this exhausted man.