The Switch

SAGE'S POV

"Aahhh"

I covered my nose with my fingers as soon as I stepped into the apartment. The smell of whiskey was strong. The kitchen counter was the only surface in the entire place, so I dropped my helmet there. I shook my head in disgust when I saw the empty bottles lined up near the trash bin.

"Dad is getting worse". I said, in my mind.

"Sage? Is that you?" My dad said with a slurred and thick voice from the living room.

"Yes, Dad. It's me".

I found him passed out on the couch with the TV playing some late-night infomercial. There was a cigarette burned down to the filter in the ashtray, inches from his hand. Another fire hazard. Another reason social services would take one look at the place and ship me straight to juvie. I thought, frowning.

I grabbed a blanket from his bedroom and covered him. He stirred slightly but didn’t wake.

His face looked older than it should. That was what five years of drinking himself to death looked like.

"I'm trying to save us, Dad," I whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear me. "I'm trying to fix this."

But how would I fix anything when I was one mistake away from losing everything? I thought aloud.

My phone buzzed. It was a text from an unknown number: “Payment overdue. You have 48 hours. Don't make us come find you.”

My stomach dropped. Marcus. The guy I borrowed money from three months ago when Dad's hospital bills came due. The guy who said it was "no big deal, just pay me back whenever." The guy who turned out to be connected to people who made "whenever" mean "right now or else."

I owed him eight hundred dollars. I didn't have the money and I couldn't get it without a miracle.

I deleted the text and grabbed a beer from the fridge.

I'm seventeen and shouldn't be drinking but there were lots of things I shouldn't be doing.

Like planning to steal my sister's perfect life.

I couldn't sleep and every time I closed my eyes, I would see Aria's face on that stage. The way her hands shook before she started playing. The terror in her eyes that nobody else seemed to notice.

We used to be able to read each other's minds. We called it “twin telepathy”. Even though we hadn't seen each other in five years, I knew the second I saw her that she was drowning just like me.

My phone buzzed again. This time it was Madison Cross, the girl who had made my life hell at Lincoln High since freshman year.

“I heard you were at Ashford tonight, slumming around your rich sister's world? Pathetic.” She scoffed.

She mocked.

I didn't respond. Madison had hated me since I rejected her older brother two years ago. She has been spreading rumors, starting fights, doing everything she could to get me expelled. She was the reason I had three strikes. She set me up for the last one and claimed I stole her phone when she'd actually just hidden it herself.

Another text: “By the way, i saw you talking to Cole Morrison last week. Stay away from him. He's dangerous and people around him end up dead.”

I sat up in bed. Cole Morrison. The mysterious guy who transferred to Lincoln two years ago and doesn't talk to anyone. I did talk to him the previous week and he asked me if I knew anything about a party from two years ago.

A guy named Cameron who died. I told him I didn't remember much from that time and I was too messed up back then but Madison's text caused me goose pimples. People around him end up dead. I gasped at the thought.

“What does that mean?”

Before I could think about it, my bedroom door opened and dad stumbled in with unfocused eyes. I was startled.

"Sage baby, I need money." He said.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Dad, it's three in the morning…"

"I know what time it is!" His voice was too loud and angry. "I need money for medicine. I'm sick, Sage. I need my medicine."

"Dad, you need to sleep…"

"Don't tell me what I need!" He grabbed my arm, his grip was too tight. "You think you're better than me? You think you can judge me?" He said, angrily.

Fear spiked through me as I gasped. He had never grabbed me like that before. Never gotten violent but there was something different in his eyes tonight. Something desperate and mean.

"Dad, let go. You're hurting me."

He blinked and seemed to realize what he was doing and released my arm. His face crumpled "I'm sorry. God, Sage, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean…"

He backed away, tears streaming down his face. "I'm a terrible father. You should be with your mother. You should have the life your sister has."

"Dad…?" I called but he was already stumbling back to his room, sobbing. His door slamed shut.

I sat there, shaking and rubbing the red marks on my arm.

That was the moment I realized I couldn’t stay in my father's house anymore. If I didn't get out, something terrible was going to happen. To him. To me. To both of us.

The switch wasn't just a crazy idea anymore. It was survival.

Friday arrived too fast.

I spent the three days preparing everything. I stole one of Aria's old yearbooks from when we were kids, studied the way she signed her name, the way she dotted her i's. I watched videos of her piano performances online and memorized the way she moved, the way she smiled that faked perfect smile.

I also gathered everything I had of value. Some jewelry our grandmother left me. Things I can pawn if I needed money fast.

Marcus texted twice more. The threats were getting specific.

“We know where you live. We know where you go to school.”

I had forty-eight hours left before they would come for me.

On Friday night, I packed a small bag. I left a note for Dad on the kitchen table: “Staying with a friend for a few days. Don't worry. Love you.”

He won't even notice that I was gone.

At 2:45 AM, I rode my motorcycle to Ashford Academy's north parking lot. The school was dark.

There was no security in that section, it was the old maintenance area they didn't use anymore.

I waited in anxiousness looking around.

2:55 AM. No Aria.

3:00 AM. Still nothing.

She was not coming. I was stupid to think she would. Perfect Aria Chen would never risk her precious reputation for something that insane.

I was about to leave when headlights appeared. A car pulled in, it was not Aria's car. This one was expensive and sleek. A BMW.

The driver's side door opened. A guy stepped out. Tall, perfect hair and expensive clothes even at 3 AM.

Julian St. Claire. Aria's boyfriend.

My blood turned cold

"You must be Sage," he said, walking toward me. His voice was smooth. "Aria sent me."

"Where is she?" I asked looking around.

"That's complicated." He stopped a few feet away, studying me. "You look exactly like her. It's... unsettling."

"Where is my sister?” I insisted.

"She's safe but she can't come. Something happened tonight." His expression darkened. "Her mother found out about the medication. The panic attacks, everything Aria's been hiding. There was a fight and it got bad."

Fear clawed at my throat. "How bad?"

"Bad enough that Aria called me crying, saying she couldn’t cope anymore and that she wants out of everything. Her life, the pressure. All of it." He paused. "She told me about your plan. The switch."

"She told you?" Panic exploded in my chest. "She wasn't supposed to tell anyone…"

"Relax. I'm not going to expose you." Julian's smile was strange. "Actually, I want to help."

"Why would you help us?" I stared at him suspiciously.

"Because I understand what it's like to live a lie." He stepped closer, and I saw something in his eyes. Something desperate. "I know what it's like to be someone you're not. To play a role every single day until you forget who you really are."

"What are you talking about?" My face was puzzled.

"You want to switch places with Aria? Fine. I'll help you. I'll teach you everything you need to know about Ashford, about her life, about playing the perfect girlfriend." His voice dropped. "But in return, you have to help me with something."

"Help you with what?" I searched his eyes.

"There's someone at Ashford. Victoria Ashford. She knows something about me. Something that could destroy my entire life if it gets out. She's been blackmailing me for months."

His jaw tightened. "I need you to figure out what she knows and how she found out because if you're going to be Aria for the next three months and you'll be close to Victoria. She trusts Aria. She'll let her guard down around you."

My mind raced. That was more complicated than I thought. But I was also running out of options.

"And if I help you?" I asked.

"Then I'll make sure the switch works perfectly. I'll cover for you. I'll keep your secret." He extends his hand smiling slightly.

"Deal?"

I stared at his hand, slightly unsure. That was my chance to escape Marcus, to escape Dad's drinking, to give both me and Aria a break from our disasters but something about Julian felt wrong, like he's hiding something bigger than he was saying.

"Where's Aria right now?" I asked again.

"Waiting for my call. If you agree, she'll go to your apartment tonight. You'll go to her mother's penthouse and we start the switch immediately."

"Why immediately?"

"Because Victoria is planning something bad and it involves Aria." His eyes bore into mine. "If you don't take Aria's place right now, something terrible is going to happen to her. I can feel it."

My phone buzzed. A text from Marcus: “Time's up. We're coming for you.”

I looked at Julian's extended hand. At the BMW, at the dark, sleeping Ashford Academy behind him.

I thought about Dad's grip on my arm, the threats and the suffocation. The feeling that if I didn’t do something drastic then, I was going to drown.

"Deal," I said, and shook his hand. Julian's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Welcome to your new life, Aria Chen."

He pulled out his phone and made a call. "It's done. Bring her now."

"Bring who?" I asked.

He didn't answer, instead, he stared past me at something behind me.

I turned around.

Another car was pulling into the parking lot. The doors opened.

Two men step out. They were big and dangerous looking and they're walking straight towards us.

Fear gripped me.

"Julian?" My voice came out small. "Who are they?"

"That's the other thing I didn't mention," Julian said quietly. "Victoria isn't the only one with secrets. Those men work for her family and they've been following me for weeks." Julian replied.

He looked at me and I saw real fear in his eyes. "I think we both just made a terrible mistake.”