Frank comes clean

John lies in the bed feeling awful after the days events, however he isn't the only one, as his father lies next to him guilt eats away at him for his infidelity. He internally berates himself for losing control, although he knows that's no excuse, of course unbeknownst to him it actually was a valid excuse given the magical pendant that had been weakening his resolve as a result of exposure to it. John remains silent trying to fall asleep but being wide awake regardless, usually his dad would have said something but so far he was silent too, "what if he knows?" John thinks to himself.

Eventually the guilt gets to Frank and he speaks up "I-I slept with someone today... Someone else" he says into the void of the darkened room, "what?" John replies, his dad props himself up "I'm sorry babe, I don't know what came over me. I don't know if I can make this better but I can't lie to you" he says voice shaking with nerves and emotion. John is stunned, he didn't know how to react was this his parents marriage falling apart? Was he mad? Did he even have a right to be mad or is that hypocritical? The silence continues while John processes what exactly has just happened, his fathers eyes barely able to be made out in the darkness of the room, looking at him expectantly. John needed to answer but how could he? This was something between a husband and wife, not him. He needed his mother to weigh in. "Uh can you give me a minute, I need to process this" John says getting up, if it was any consolation the revelation had certainly taken his mind off of the afternoon.

John leaves the bedroom making a beeline for his old bedroom, opening it he finds his mother on his phone in the darkened room "are you ok?" his mother asks as he enters clearly shaken up. "No" John answers sitting on the edge of the bed, his mother sits up and wraps an arm around his shoulder "what's up?" she asks her voice filled with concern, John braces himself he knows that this could end his parents happy marriage, but he couldn't keep this a secret. John explains everything that he knows about his dads infidelity to his mother and to her credit she doesn't explode with emotion despite the relationship ending nature of the topic. However that doesn't mean she's immune to the news, as her face does drop and her eyes water. "I am so sorry mum" John says nervously wondering what this meant for everything, Sally takes a moment to breathe deeply and then says "what did you say back?"
"uh nothing I told him I needed some space to process this" John answers, Sally breathes a sigh "that's good" she says confusion drapes across Johns face like a mask prompting Sally to explain "look the last thing we need is anyone flying off the handle and making anything worse." She takes another deep breath "ok well let's just think about this, I need to talk to my husband about this properly..." she looks John up and down the implication clear she couldn't have this conversation until she was back in her own body "we have a month till we swap back?" She asks, John nods "yeah" he says keeping the fact that it could take longer secret. "Ok we can work with this. Your dad and I once talked about the idea of having an open relationship" John crinkles his face despite having an incredibly intimate familarity with his parents love life it was still weird to learn that his parents considered sleeping around; Sally continues "your father eventually decided that it wasn't something he wanted to do seriously. I want you to go in there say you're gonna treat this as us trying this out, just for a month. It should buy us enough time for us to get back into our own bodies." John nods it was as sound a plan as he could come up with and it had the benefit of not having to have a very serious conversation that could determine the fate of his parents marriage while trying to pretend to be his mum. "Only thing is you're gonna need to uphold your end. As you may have noticed your father and I well we're pretty open with each other he will want to know what's going on with us now that we've opened up" Sally explains, John grimaces part of him was relieved that at least his infidelities would no longer need to be hidden, however he did recognise that they shouldn't exist in the first place. "Ok so who would you recommend?" John says nervously, he needed his mothers advice to see who exactly she would choose if she controlled her own body, Sally blushes "well um, I don't know but what about your friend Sam? He said something today that well lets say expressed interest" John soul almost leaves his body yet again, "what!?" Sally cringes "sorry I didn't think of how awkward and weird it would be for you... I just was thinking well that it would be a more easy solution not any other reason" his mother trails of nervously. Not only had John slept with his best friend but his mother would be interested in doing just that if she was piloting herself, "god this is so fucked up" John says realising that if his parents keep their open marriage after he returns to his body there's a high likelyhood that his best friend will be blowing his mothers back out and he will just have to deal with that. Sally nods "this whole situation is fucked up. I am sorry... You can pick who you sleep with just let me know so when I'm me again I know who I need to speak to" John looks at her realising he probably should come clean about what he's done thus far but he just cannot bring himself to do so.

With his mothers guidance John walks back to his parents bedroom, his heart pounding out of his chest. Upon opening the door he finds his father sat up in bed resting against the headboard, his eyes were that of an inmate awaiting sentencing, John takes a deep breath and tries to channel his mother as best he can. "I have calmed down and I want to talk about this" Frank goes to speak but John holds up his hand silencing him "not yet though. You remember back when we discussed having an open marriage?" Frank nods "well consider this month a trial, I want to get even and I want time to forgive you. I don't know if I can but I want to, so we won't address this we just open the marriage you can sleep with whoever and I'll do the same then we can sit down and figure this out and where we go from there" John says with authority trying to break the news while not just letting him off the hook and asserting that a conversation needs to happen. John's dad looks at his wife and relief covers his face at that this mistake hadn't cost him his relationship, "thank you, I promise we will talk about this. Are you sure about the open relationship?" He asks, "yes it's something I still think about sometimes and while this isn't how I wanted to go about this I think at the very least even if the worst comes to pass it will be an experience for us both" John says before following it up with "also tonight you're sleeping on the couch." He knew he needed to still be angry and this would also keep him from asking any further questions at least till he's had a chance to speak to his mum again. Franks eyes are downcast but he knows he fucked up and should be glad it's just 'sleep on the couch' and not 'get the fuck out the house', "ok dear" he says before getting up and like a wounded animal retreating from the bedroom leaving John alone with his thoughts. "I really hope we can pull through this" John says to the now empty room, it felt cruel how much damage the charm had caused and how much worse it could get, Fate really had screwed up his life and potentially could make it even worse.