Alex Price, Ashley's ex-boyfriend as of two weeks ago, glowered in resentment as Ashley paraded herself and me up to the register. She had only invited me out to the beach as a ploy to make him jealous. To make it appear like she had moved on from her previous relationship, even though she was still very much heartbroken and confused about the breakup. She didn't like me, she was using me!
That was the first shock. The second one came when I looked over Alex's body!
It obviously wasn't his own!
Restrained in the blue and white company top, two enormous boobs pressed out from Alex's chest. Forming an impressive valley of cleavage below his neck. His bullet-sized nipples indenting his top quite conspicuously. Below his neck, his body looked like that of a woman in her late 50s with an excessive devotion to plastic surgery. Besides her silicone-enhanced breasts, Alex was also sporting a mouth-watering bubble butt, peeking out from the confines of his white shorts. His skin looked leathery, wrinkly, and shaved. Spider veins ran over the tops of his wrists. Despite wearing high heels, Alex was even shorter than me, standing no taller than 4'10 or thereabouts. Above the neck, his skin was comparatively pale and youthful. He wears square-rimmed glasses and has spiky black hair. His ears are studded with a couple of gauges, fashionably lengthening out the lobes a little bit.
"W-wait, this isn't what it looks like..." I gulped, backing away from the arguing ex-couple.
"Stay out of this, idiot!" Fumed Alex, turning his attention to Ashley.
"What is the meaning of this cunt?" He hissed quietly so as not to disturb the other customers in the store. "If you think he's supposed to make me jealous, you've got another thing coming."
"You're so easy to read, Price. I can tell you're jealous by the way you're comparing yourself to him!" She retorted. "He's much more attractive than you too. That natural handsomeness, you wouldn't know about that."
He moaned, "Please, just leave me alone while I'm at work! We can talk about this after my shift is over."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you? I bet you regret treating me like crap those last few weeks, don'tcha?"
"You just don't understand what I've been going through lately."
"Understand what? You not talking to me, or wanting to hang out, or shutting out people in your life who are trying to help you?" She raged. "Fine then, loser, enjoy being alone! If you can't open up to others, then just shut yourself away!"
"Go to hell!"
"Bye creep!"
Ashley took out her handbag and shoved my backpack into my arms. Then, she stormed out of the store, refusing to give a second glance at anyone still inside, including me or Alex.
"Wait, Ashley!" I called out to her but to no avail. She had disappeared. "My ride home..."
Well, this wasn't good. I tried dialing her cell number, but she had turned it off. How was I supposed to get home now?
Returning back into the surfing store, some of the customers had gone back to shopping. Seemingly discounting the fracas as another example of short-lived teenage heartthrob drama. Alex had a morose expression on his face as he sulked behind the register.
Approaching him cautiously, I began, "Alex, is it? I'm really sorry about what happened back there. I had no idea you two had just broken up..."
He looked away. "Yeah... well... what do you want? Can't you leave the store in peace?"
"I promise I will, if you'll answer one question for me first." I swore to him. "Can you tell me why you have a woman's body below your neck?"
Alex's eyes shot up at my own, his expression changed from sullenness to... fear? It was that same boggle-eyed look from earlier.
"What's it to you?" He said quietly, scratching the back of his neck with his long fingernails.
"You can see it too, can't you?" I persisted. "You see my body below my neck. It's not mine, either! I got swapped with somebody I know and have been stuck like this for a month. What about you? What's your story? Did you get swapped with somebody else too?"
Suddenly, Alex tore himself away from his duty at the register. "Just go away, Michael! Go away and never come back!" Before he could get far, however, I grabbed him by the shoulder across the counter.
"Please, you've got to help me. You're the only one who can see me for what I've become." I begged. "For God's sake, I don't want to bear this lady's children! Help me swap back in whatever way you know how!"
His eyes rolled down to look at my bulging, pregnant body. Trying to free himself from my grip, but I sank Mary's nails into him, clinging on tight. This being the only major discovery I've had since the initial swap one month ago. And I wasn't about to let him get away.
Other customers had turned their attention to the both of us. Alex exhaled deeply and pursed his lips. "Okay. Okay. I'm getting off of work in 30 minutes. Since Ashley seemed to have stranded you here, I'll give you a ride home. Wait for me outside this store. We'll talk in the car."
"Thanks again for giving me a ride home, Alex." I nodded appreciatively, sitting in the front passenger seat of Alex's car. "It was getting late into the afternoon, and Mom wouldn't have been happy to come and pick me up. As far as she knows, I never went to the beach today!"
"Don't mention it, Michael." He replied.
"So can you tell me what's going on?" I asked.
"I can try to explain it to you, but to be honest," Said Alex, "I'm kind of new to this myself. You see, I head swapped with this woman about 3 months ago."
"About the same time you started having problems with Ashley?" I interjected, things clicking together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
"Exactly. She still thinks it has something to do with me not going on vacation with my family. As if, by choosing to stay home with her for her birthday, I was blaming her for missing out. But the truth is... I stayed home because of the swap!"
"And she couldn't see that you had swapped with this woman?"
"No. And reality changed for everything in my life to make it like I had always had this woman's body from the neck down. I didn't want to try explaining it to anybody because they might think I'd gone crazy. So I had to skirt the issue. Make up excuses. That's no doubt why Ashley thought I had become anti-social and reclusive."
"I can empathize with that." I replied. "That's like how I felt shortly after swapping with Mary, my pregnant next-door neighbor, a month ago."
"So you got swapped after she got pregnant?" Alex clicked his tongue. "Wow, that really sucks."
"Tell me about it. I have to find a way to swap back before these babies come due."
Alex frowned and cleared his throat. "I've got bad news for you, Michael. These swaps that happen to us, they're permanent. There's no way to switch back to your normal self. As far as the world and reality is concerned, this is the new normal."
"I can't accept that! There has to be a way of switching back!" I yelled angrily, slamming the dashboard with my fists.
"It's impossible. The sooner you accept that fact, the easier life will be for you." Replied Alex somberly.
"But how are you so certain? Maybe there's some method, some device that can undo both of our swaps."
He sighed. "I can tell that you're not satisfied. I wasn't either one month into the swap. But I found a support group full of people like us. Well, actually, they found me. It's called the Lives Changed Forever Club, and we meet once a month. The next meeting is this Friday."
"The Lives Changed Forever Club?" I repeated.
Alex nodded. "That's right. We meet in the back room of Leo's Pizza Parlor. Do you know the place? Good. If you show up there on Friday night at 8:00 pm, you'll get the answers to your questions. I can't promise you any more than that. Just be there on time. You don't have to look for us -- we'll find you. That's how it always is."
I mulled it over in my head for the rest of the car ride. It was silent inside the car, just the rumbling of Alex's car engine and the low static of the radio turned down.
Pulling up to my house late in the afternoon, I got out with my backpack.
"Thanks for the ride. I'm glad I found another person like me." I said.
"I said don't mention it." Alex replied tersely. "Remember, Friday night at 8:00 pm."
"Wait!" I cried to him before he pulled out of the driveway. "How many people are there out there? People like us?"
Alex looked away and answered, cryptically, "You'll just have to wait and see. Your questions will be answered. Trust me." He then backed the car into the street and drove off.
What happens next???
