I let out a huff, reaching over to my coffee before draining the cold milking beverage away as I heave myself back up into a seated position. With phone in hand I lurch up from my seat, walking back to the kitchen with my mug in order to make yet one more coffee as I mull over my answers.
"Gotta really think this over..." I sigh, my thumb flicking across the screen as I send the Swap Clinic app lunging between profiles. "This could be... for quite a long time..."
As the water boils one last time I look between the pictures, my lips pursing as I stare at Stephanie for a while before closing out of the profile. She was cute and seemed to have a fine enough life, but did I really want to be a young woman in my mid-twenties just getting by with a part-time job at some discount store in the country? Probably not.
"One down..." I mutter under my breath, spooning out some more instant coffee as I fumble with getting all of it into the mug.
If Stephanie was out, then I suppose that Astrid was out as well. While a year younger than the grungy girl with strawberry blonde hair the short bottom heavy brunette had the similar problem, approaching her mid-twenties and just only recently getting a job at some small town bakery. Was there a future there? Maybe, but with so many other options she simply fell short in my head.
My lips purse as I close out of Lucy's profile, the young busty nurse simply having too stressful a job for me to even consider taking over her for. I had wanted a change of pace and something a little more quiet and simple, the idea of being in-charge of the health and well being of vulnerable people simply being too much for me.
This simply left Kiara and Adrianna, two very different women who seemed eager to slip into my life while dumping me into theirs. Both were so very different, the towering willowy blonde looking after the old family farm and living off of her wealthy parent's estate or the fit and beautiful island girl working to serve those from the blonde's tax bracket. While the wealth difference was a bit staggering there were other consideration.
"I've never lived near the beach..." I mutter under my breath, my gaze lingering on the young woman with light brown skin as she stands in the pristine sand. "Only nineteen... plenty of time to test things out and organize another swap if I..." continue, my lips twisting into a bit of a smirk.
"I can't believe I'm doing this..." I chuckle, reaching for my coffee as I stare at my ghostly pale hand. My mind reels for a moment as a shivers runs up my spine, my heart picking up its pace as I envision Kiara's soft and darker hand reaching for the same mug.
Bringing the hot drink to my lips I take a small sip, turning around to lean against the kitchen counter as I begin to message the young Hawaiian woman.
J-Hughes :"Hey, yeah I'm down to swap. You free today?"
Pushing off the kitchen counter I begin to shuffle back towards the couch, my phone buzzing in my hand before I can even make it back to the living room as I receive a message. Looking down at my phone I cock my eyebrow, a slight wave of confusion washing over me as I read the reply.
Kiara-Akana: "Fuk off"
Kiara-Akana: "At work"
Pausing for a moment I go to close out of the messaging app, or at least Kiara's message, my mind turning to Adrianna and potentially messaging her as a second choice.
Kiara-Akana: "WAIT"
Kiara-Akana: "U wanna swap!?"
Kiara-Akana: "Ur serios!??!?"
As I plop back into my seat I kick my legs up, watching the little typing bubble appear and disappear over and over as the young woman frantically types and deletes her message again and again. I slowly begin to message her back, only for another flurry of messages to rip their way into my phone.
Kiara-Akana: "Can swap later"
Kiara-Akana: "Boss wont let meeeeeee leeeeeeeave"
Kiara-Akana: " :'( "
Kiara-Akana: "But like porbly later I can get 2 the clinc"
Chuckling a little I finally get a chance to message back, taking a moment to try and plan my response around what seemed to e the frantic young woman's busy day.
J-Hughes: "All good, yeah I'm down to swap. Body and Life? I can call the Swap Clinic and organize things, but you'll still need to call in and confirm before we can go ahead with this. Can you call over your lunch break?"
I sit waiting for a response, minutes passing as the young woman on the other end seems to get distracted from our conversation. After nearly ten minutes, my coffee cooling and nearly being finished by the time she snaps back with another flurry of messages.
Kiara-Akana: "Shti srry"
Kiara-Akana: "Fking hate checkins"
Kiara-Akana: "Sure I can call!"
Kiara-Akana: "U can hav alllllllll this"
Reading the message on the screen I quickly switch out, searching online for the Swap Clinic website and for their phone number. To call is the simplest method, just explaining to them who was wanting to swap and what they were swapping with the physical appearance of both parties to the Clinic being enough to lock everything in at the end of the day.
Before long I'm navigating a phone tree, rolling my eyes as I'm asked by a recording about whether this relates to a pre-existing appointment or if I had a customer ID from a previous swap. Before long however I find myself on the phone with another person, the bright and chirpy woman on the other end seemingly more than happy to set up my end of the swap.
As the first person to call in this little arrangement a lot of the organizational aspects somewhat fall to me, from explaining the extent of the swap to the breakdown of costs and timing largely being left for me to explain and to negotiate while Kiara would simply need to authenticate things before we could go ahead.
As I ask for a life and body swap with the young woman over a decade my junior I hear the woman pause, the lack of any money really exchanging hands leaving her confused for a moment before she simply move on. Oddly the woman asks whether we were doing a full swap or merely a body and life, the woman noting that my education as a certificate is a part of my life while the smarts and knowledge behind that piece of paper didn't quite full into either body or life.
I pause in thought for a moment, the thought having not crossed my mind when I had put the pseudo-ad out on the Swap Clinic app. I had offered to give up my education and degrees, and some of the women had specifically asked for them, but Kiara... hadn't..."
Smirking as I speak I simply tell the woman on the phone that we agreed to just body and life, though if the smarts become a sticking point then we could add that at the time of swap.
Thankfully, the customer service rep seems to accept that answer as she quickly begins to book in a time for the life-altering swap to take place. Thankfully, the Maui Swap Clinic appears rather disused towards the evening as most holiday goers had already built their 'beach bodies' while the sun was still out. I on the other hand would have to go out towards a more distant Swap Clinic than my local in the hopes of getting an appointment before the end of the day.
As the afternoon rolls on I slowly begin to get dressed in something a little more proper than my pajamas, the lazy outfit of a simple set of black jeans and a plain white t-shirt soon coming together as I potter around my apartment.
By the early afternoon I get a message on my phone, the text quickly getting followed by an email from the Swap Clinic confirming the details and time of my and Kiara's swap. My heart hammers in my chest, the location of Maui listed beneath the young woman's name simply making just how distant this swap was going to be.
Slipping out of the apartment and driving to the quiet little Swap Clinic in the outer suburbs leaves me coated in a fine cool sweat, the nerves being given a chance to build more and more as I languish in traffic before finally making it to the parking lot.
"I didn't even say goodbye..." I mutter under my breath, slamming the car door behind me as I begin to shuffle towards door. "... Though I guess it's not like I'm leaving..."
Inside the clinic itself is dead quiet, the lack of any appointments or people waiting helping to make sense why this location was chosen for me. I'm practically rushed off as I arrive, the receptionist herself taking me down a short stubby hallway that is little more than an alcove to one of the two offices they had.
It doesn't take long at all to set me up inside the large metal booth, the door remaining open as I watch the receptionist leave me unattended to fetch what I presume was the only technician on staff. My heat pounds, my hands and fingers patting at my legs nervously as I sit on the little stool in the center of the ominous machine.
When the technician arrives he barely even looks at me, my late appointment seemingly being more of a nuisance for the middle-aged man than anything else. He barely even spends a minute with me, his eyes darting to a small computer screen before he simply looks up at me with a nod before pressing the enter key.
I let out a wheeze as I wince in discomfort at the pressure building in the side of my skull. It's like my ears need to pop, the jaw moving back and forth as I try to relieve the mounting tension in the right side of my head to no avail. My breath turns to huffs as I struggle with the growing almost painful sensation building inside my head, my eyes watering a little as I feel myself reaching some kind of breaking point.
With what feels like a pop the pressure suddenly releases, the void it creates tugging at my mind as my whole body begins to shudder and shake. My brain feels like it's unraveling, my mind being ripped from the soft and supple gray matter as it's pulled out my ear and into parts unknown. I open my mouth to say something, to ask if this was normal, only for my mouth to fall open as drool drips from my parted lips.
For a second I feel like I'm seeing double, the rather plain and simple Swap Clinic around me flickering with the image of one that felt far more lavish. The unspooling of my brain finally runs it's course as I feel the last of myself slide out of my skull with a wet plop, the long single strand of thoughts and experiences soon landing rather haphazardly inside someplace else.
My eyes struggle to focus, the warm dribble running down my chin feeling as though it was different than mere moments ago. A soft voice calls out to me from the haze, my throbbing head making it hard to focus on just who it was coming from.
"How are you feeling Ms Akana?"
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