Switched Ch. 05

Dismayed, Tawney said, "I thought she was okay with the body thing."

"She is, but it was something that was done to her without her choice. It makes her feel helpless."

I took a deep breath. "It gets worse. To keep anyone from investigating what happened, 'Dear Old Dad' the Senator has blocked all related records. Jessica can't even get a driver's license."

Tawney took a slug of her drink and when she lowered the glass, I saw a tear trembling in the corner of her eye. "No wonder she didn't call. She's humiliated."

I nodded dolefully and had some of my bourbon and coke. "She needs every friend she can get. She needs every assistance."

With a frown and a raised eyebrow she asked, "You still got a thing for her, do ya?"

The guilt again, gnawing at my insides. I nodded. "That's another whole issue."

We sat and sipped our cocktails and thought through the ramifications of what I'd just said, her for the first time and me for the hundredth.

"How are you holding up?" she asked me.

I set my drink down so I could rub my face with the cool, damp hand that had held it. I looked at her from between the fingers, then said, "That depends somewhat on your answer to this question."

I sat forward, "Do you think it's possible to truly love someone when they're the only person in your world?"

"I don't know. Maybe?"

The disappointment I felt then told me I'd been hoping for an answer here, but she was as lost as me. "Yeah," I mumbled, "Maybe she loves me back, like she says. And maybe it's just Stockholm Syndrome."

This was the scariest bit. Tawney had been teasing Jess and me since day one about being a couple, back when we weren't. It drove Jess up a wall because she thought of herself as a guy back then, and that's what made the teasing so irresistible for our friend. Now I had just admitted that we were together romantically, and instead of doing a touchdown dance and mocking me for a solid hour, Tawney just came over and sat next to me and rubbed little circles on my back.

*

Cocktail Hour

Jessica

When I awoke, I went looking for Tawney and Bryan. They were having a Serious Adult Conversation on the terrace. I walked out to join them, glad I was wearing a top this time.

"Cocktail hour, eh?" I'd noticed their now-empty glasses.

"Want some?" asked Bryan, causing me to narrow my eyes.

"Now I can drink?" I demanded.

"It's a special occasion," he shrugged. "I'll be right back."

I sat next to Tawney.

"How did you sleep?" she asked. "You weren't out very long."

"I can never stay asleep," I admitted. "Ever since I got back to the world."

She ignored this, which was refreshing. "Why don't we go get dinner?"

I knew she was trying to get me out of the apartment. That was Bryan's chief concern lately as well, but this afternoon's mannequin massacre had left me hungry. "I'll go get changed," I said.

"Take a shower, too," Tawney suggested.

I stopped and looked over my shoulder in what I hoped was a sexy way. I was wearing a cutoff tee and panties, so I figured I was at least in the ballpark. "Wanna come wash my back?"

"I wouldn't want you to cheat on your boyfriend," she gibed with a grin.

"Shut up! Cheeky." Bryan better not have told her. I wanted to surprise her with it.

"Calling me cheeky? I can see most of your ass."

"Nothing you haven't seen before," I smiled, all saucy.

After a quick wash, I dressed myself for a night out. Nice undies, my short black pencil skirt, the daring wraparound top the lady at the store said only I had the body for, and that perfume that Bryan and I liked so much.

"Shoes," warned Tawney, the instant I came out.

"I'm wearing shoes!"

She twirled her finger and pointed as she stepped toward me, the meaning clearly, 'turn around and go back to the shoe closet.' I did so, with her on my ill-chosen heels.

We emerged soon after. "You've got to take her shoe shopping," she told Bryan.

"I've got shoes!" I protested. "I've got, like, nine pairs!"

She started ticking them off on her fingers. "Gladiator sandals, ruby slippers, combat boots, flats, monster foot slippers, heels that will break the poor girl's ankles, sneakers, more sneakers, and those."

I stuck a model pose. "Aren't they great?"

"No, Jessica, they are lunch lady shoes."

"They're designer!"

"Yeah. Designer lunch lady shoes. And sadly, they're your best option."

"I'm chastened. You have chastened me in the matter of footwear." I felt so strangely dejected.

Tawney faltered, the context of her statement coming into focus. She'd just cracked on me, someone with virtually nothing, for not having a shit-ton of shoes. Her eyes filled with horror.

I jumped, turning most of a one-eighty, and pointed, "But lookit dat ass!"

On her face now was amusement and gratitude, and the relief I'd hoped to see there.

I strutted forward, collecting them by the arms in passing, "C'mon, bitches. Take me somewhere nice."

We decided on a nice steakhouse for dinner. Bryan set up the reservation and Tawney hit the powder room to primp for departure.

"Don't be mad, but I told her," he said abruptly.

"Way to screw it up, Coleman," I said. I'd been really looking forward to seeing the look on her face, but it didn't bother me as much as it might have. It was small, compared to everything else.

"Hey," he said to me. "Listen. If you and Tawney..." he trailed off.

"If we what?" I so knew what he meant.

"You and I haven't talked about being exclusive. We should do that sometime, but as far as she's concerned, go for it." He was sincere, but I worried that his fear for me was the thing driving this.

I could have told him that or told him that I loved him for his considerate nature. Instead, I raised an eyebrow and said, "You just want to watch us."

He raised his in response. "Can you blame me?"

"Fuck, no!" and I was in his lap. While I kissed him, I thought about putting on a lesbian sex show for him and it got so hot. When Tawney came out to see what was keeping us, he was kneading my ass through my hiked-up skirt while I rubbed my tits on his chest and sucked his earlobe.

"Y'all need Jesus," she laughed as she walked toward the front door, leaving us to scramble to get ourselves together and follow. I had to fix my lipstick in the elevator.

Bryan had put up a perfunctory objection to us taking his car instead of a cab. As the driver, he wouldn't be able to have more than one drink at dinner, but there were significant compensations.

To the hotel staff, he let it be known that he'd be taking his car tonight, so when we walked out the front doors, his Audi R8 Spyder was waiting for us with the top down.

It looked like something that just landed on this planet. Three hundred thousand dollars worth of pure engineering artistry, easily the hottest vehicle in town. There were fighter jets that wished they looked this cool, and there were motorcycles who were jealous of its speed.

It was just a two-seater, but I was perfectly happy riding in Tawney's lap. The V10 spun up, and we were gone. That thing was a growling, fully tamed beast. It was the kind of thing that would have gotten us pulled over even a few years ago, but the crime rate lately had the cops focusing on other matters than traffic enforcement. Tawney held me tight during the turns, which made the ride even better.

It was impossible not to notice the way people watched us. I'd been in public before, but like this, where I'd be seen.

Eyes followed the three of us into the steak house. I'd never felt so desirable in my whole life.

The last time Bryan and I had seen Tawney was the day we went on the run together. With almost no warning, we'd disappeared from her life for two months before popping up again. We filled her in on everything that had happened, and since Bryan had already spilled the beans, we even told her about our romance.

It was the best. For weeks, it had been the Jess and Bryan show. Tawney was a fresh breeze through all that. Our old stories and jokes became new again, relating them to her. Things that only we had shared became more real, when we included our friend. She helped us see it all from a new perspective, but that was not always comfortable.

"What did you expect, you dummies! You were living in a carnivorous plant!" she exclaimed, when we'd told her about hiding in the lawless, mutant landscape of an Exclusion Zone. "Of course it would try to eat you!"

When we told her about the night of our big fight, she surprisingly took Bryan's side. "The poor guy was dying! After all that time, sleeping next to the girl he loves? I'd go crazy, too!"

"There was a sheet between us!" I protested.

"Where was the light?" she smirked.

I said, "On my side, so I could turn it on when I went pee."

"Yeah," she nodded. "So with you and a sheet between him and the light, there was a huge silhouette of you on the other side whenever you moved around."

"No there wasn't!"

"There was," admitted Bryan. I smacked his shoulder while Tawney laughed her ass off.

We told her the tale of our romance. While Bryan tried to avoid the naughty details, I had a ball by repeatedly going there. He ended the story with, "And then we had amazing sex," but I provided all the prurient details.

"So I'm naked, right? Just daring him to. And he tries so hard to resist, but then he just breaks, and sets my butt on the edge of the counter and licks me like a thirsty Labrador."

Tawney squealed with delight. I continued, "It couldn't have taken more than four licks to get to the center of this Tootsie Pop, looking down at my best friend between my legs munching my muffin. So it's so good I'm calling out to Jesus. And then he stands up, and he is stark naked.

"Ooh!" enthused Tawney. "Did he look good?"

"Incredible. I've never wanted a man so bad."

"Or ever," added Tawney with a twinkle.

"Why," groused my lover, covering his face. But I noticed he doesn't want to miss Tawney's reaction to all this.

I go on, "So in it goes. And—"

"Hold it," interrupts Tawney with a smile that I'd learned to be wary of. "You can't just gloss over that part!"

"Yeah," agreed Bryan, "you wanted to tell her details." That handsome bastard was getting his revenge.

Blushing, trying to keep up a bold front for my two smirking friends, I leaned in. "Okay. Okay. I was fighting it. Fighting the femininity. But this motherfucker right here..." I pinched his cheek. "Let's just say he wasn't the only one being tempted that whole time." Bryan's face registered shock and I gave him a fond look, saying, "I denied it, I admit. I did. Which is why feeling his body against me, his fat cock filling me up... Whew! It was like an epiphany and a new best friend, all at once."

"Kinda like my first time, except less vodka," commented Tawney with a wistful smile. The way she approvingly looked at Bryan and me making moon-eyes at each other, it was a relief to me. I'd been worried she'd be jealous, since she and I had hooked up prior to that.

Quietly, looking into my eyes, Bryan said, "I've always envied your bravery."

"I was brave, wasn't I?" I remarked.

While they rolled their eyes at me, I decided to get back to the story. "So he stands up and just..." I grasped for the appropriate word.

"Penetrated you?" suggested Tawney.

I remembered I was supposed to be brave. "Yes. He's just penetrated my needy little pussy, and we are fucking like rabbits. I just came from his tongue, right? So now I'm riding this wave of total ecstasy. And I'm bouncing on the counter with every stroke because believe me when I tell you that this man fucks hard."

"Is that so?" wondered Tawney.

"Hard. As. Fuck. And I bump my head against the mirror, and he's suddenly all worried about me."

"I'm still amazed that thing didn't break," said Bryan, though he'd gone back to covering his eyes with a hand.

"So he picks me up, right? And what does this wild-ass motherfucker do?"

"What?" Tawney was loving this more, maybe, than teasing us about our romance.

"He spins around, rips a towel rack off the wall, and next thing I know, my back is to said wall, and the only thing holding me up is his hands on my ass and his dick inside me."

Tawney narrowed her eyes. "Wouldn't that hurt? It was, like your first time."

"It wasn't this body's first time."

"Yeah, but you hadn't had anything in there since..." she gave Bryan a sly look, "Since I did you with that vibrator. Remember?"

"I'll never forget," I told her, and that was true.

"It's a Metahuman thing," said Bryan. "She's tougher than she ought to be, and she heals fast."

"And that was a good thing," I explained, "because Bryan then proceeded to absolutely wreck me."

Tawney sat back. "Whoa!"

"Yeah. It was like riding a pneumatic hammer."

"Didn't you try that once? In my shop?"

"That was an angle grinder!"

"What the hell?" asked an amazed Bryan.

I shushed him. To Tawney, I went on, "And we both have mind-blowing orgasms. And then he says..."

"Aww shit," complained Bryan.

"He says, 'That was the best sex I ever had'."

I was ready to whoop up some laughter with Tawney. I mean, this was embarrassing for him, right? Instead of taking advantage of the opening, though, she just reached over and patted his shoulder sweetly.

"Why is this happening?" whined Bryan.

"It's only fair," I pointed out, then turned to Tawney. "I told Bryan about us. He liked me to tell him about it while he was nibbling my cookie."

She directed an appraising look at our dirty little selves. "You two owe me, then."

"What do we owe you?" puzzled Bryan.

She sat back. "I'll decide what. And I'll decide when." She gave us a moment to consider that, then moved on, "You're a cute couple, though."

"I deserved that," I admitted as she laughed at my discomfort.

"Yes, you did," she affirmed. She gave me an appraising look and asked, "So what did you have him talk about while you took care of him?"

She had a pretty good idea what that answer was, as she and my man had hooked up at a party once and it would have made a terrific and relevant subject. Her goal was to make me more uncomfortable by making us all think about me sucking him off.

Hah. "I haven't done that," I answered with a sassy grin.

"Haven't you now?" she wondered, and her dark amusement and calculating stare were, frankly, unnerving.

"Hey, fuck off, okay? I'm embracing all other aspects of female life."

"Except haircuts," grumbled Bryan.

"And not cussing like a sailor," teased Tawney.

"Not smashing mannequins with a machete."

"And wearing bras," added Tawney.

"Closing your knees when you sit," pointed out Bryan.

"Being polite."

Bryan looked down at his plate and added, "Don't forget dieting."

"Okay!" I laughed. I had eaten my whole steak and some of Bryan's.

"Not drawing attention to your farts," added Bryan belatedly, and while Tawney laughed, I smacked him on the shoulder.

I needed to change the subject, "So back to business. The question I want to ask all of us is,—"

"Ooh!" Bryan interjected, "Not subjecting your boyfriend to a Dutch oven'."

"No way, I do that all the time," protested Tawney.

Bryan sipped his soft drink and said, "Anyway, the question is: 'What now?' We've covered the past and the present. Let's talk about the future."

"I'm thinking about a change," Tawney blurted.

I told her, "You'd be an incredible mechanic—are an incredible mechanic—but you're too smart. You'll get bored in a few years."

She tried to disagree, but it was just the kind of modesty that keeps polite Southern society together. She knew we were right. "Okay," she said, "there is something I've been thinking about." Her face lit up and I found myself eagerly anticipating what she'd say.

She looked from me to Bryan and back and said, "I want to get into the hero business."

"As in..." promoted Bryan, trying to figure out where she was going.

"I want to make cool stuff. Things that will make a difference. Maybe something to help turn the tide of chaos. Maybe a nuclear-powered dragster. I don't know." She grinned. "I wanna find out what I can do."

We all thought that was a great idea.

"You'll need a bigger garage," suggested Bryan.

Tawney agreed, "And nursing care for my grandma. She got triaged out of her retirement facility. The bureaucrats said she was too physically fit, can you believe that? Gave her spot to somebody sicker."

"But she has dementia!" I exclaimed. "She can barely feed herself!"

"They don't care. After that old elephant guy destroyed most of Sun City, they're really low on space."

Bryan and I thought Tawney would be great in the hero business, and we encouraged her. Bryan tried advising her, but she didn't let him mansplain how to work with capes.

"What about y'all?" she asked, once she'd talked all she wanted about her career ideas. Bryan had no idea, except we had to visit his parents soon.

Hoping to avoid such a horrifying subject, I blurted, "I want to do something with my powers. For a living."

"Why?" asked Tawney.

"Process of elimination," I wiped my mouth and set the napkin on the table beside my plate. "I've got four assets: my looks, my Variant abilities, a smattering of musical talent, and my friends. Neither of you can give me a job, I'm not good enough to make it as a musician, I doubt I have the chops to be a model and I'm not yet desperate enough to be a webcam girl or a stripper, so that leaves superhero."

They started to reply but I had more to add, "Also there's the matter of my father. If I draw too much attention to myself by being successful or something, he'll shut the whole thing down."

Tawney scowled, realizing. "He hasn't just disowned you. He's your actual enemy."

"Right. So step one: superherodom, and step two: destroy Senator Cal McKenna and everything he's built. Now who wants dessert?"

Dessert was a good bit more subdued, Tawney and Bryan exchanging their 'let's all be worried about Jessica' looks. I was even too distracted to enjoy the thrilling and dangerous ride home. I kept thinking about my first day back in the world.

The room was gorgeous, as befit a place with this kind of price tag. Ignoring that, I went straight into the bathroom. In front of the mirror, I peeled off my blouse and slacks, my not-quite-fitting bra, my outlet store undies, everything.

Bryan poked his head in. "Taking a shower?"

"Taking inventory," I said.

This body was all mine. This was me now. Petite and busty, with an angel's face and a hobo's haircut. It was damn near the tightest body I'd ever seen. If I'd been born like this, I suppose I'd be used to it, but I'd only moved in a few months ago, and it was like having a new car. It was all mine, and I was still getting used to that reality.

All this time, I'd expected to go back, to return to my original body and my life as a twenty-something Senator's son with a reassuringly boring college career. My life clearly had other plans, and lately it had revealed an astonishing penchant for curveballs.

Today was the first day of my new life. My birthday. And this feminine form was my birthday suit.

Bryan watched me examine myself minutely. I took note of the mole above my belly button and the short scar high on my inner thigh. Mine now. The marks from my battle with Jezebel the plant monster had all healed and left behind unblemished, velvety skin. My skin. My formerly long, gorgeous brown hair was now short and uneven and generally fucked up. That one was even more mine, as I'd had a hand in making it that way.

I'd kept my weight down with daily physical activity and unappealing food, but now I reckoned I'd need to start a workout program. I also needed clean clothes; what I'd just removed constituted my entire wardrobe.