by Sophie Pert
And reputation is everything.
So now Ali, spurred on by the rejection she felt I had shown her, had decided to spread these rumors. Well are they really rumors if they’re true?
All of the greatest hits came out. You know the type of story, the type that from your past that makes you cringe even to think of it.
She told all of them to everyone.
Within a day my reputation was ruined.
Within a week I was isolated and alone again.
No reason, no reason whatsoever for what she did. She just didn’t want me to get close with anyone else.
Now none of my friends will talk to me, no girls want to be around me. I’m two months into my second year at college and my life is completely empty.
So after a week of dealing with this I figure if she wants to do that to me fine, I’ll get my revenge. I’m not going to come crawling back to her no she burned that bridge. She thinks reputation is so important lets show her what it feels like to have a reputation ruined.
With that in mind I started to plan.
At first I figured a good round of rumors would be best, feed her a bit of the same she had given me. But the problem is she did too good of a job. No one will talk to me anymore, let alone believe what I have to say.
So instead I went with something different.
The college is in a small town and there isn’t much in the way of shops, but there is one small weird place on the edge of town that every student knows about. It’s a shop of ‘oddities’ run by a weird old kook. I’m not one for superstition, but let's just say this place lives up to its reputation. It is definitely an odd place and has this weird feeling to it. As if it is a place of supernatural power.
It probably says something that when I went in and explained the situation to the old shopkeep they were more than happy to assist me. Probably says something that they even gave me a discount on the tool of my revenge.
But I decided not to think about it.
It was a crystal that was supposed to hypnotise her with a single touch. All she had to do was come in contact with the crystal, just touch it with her bare skin, and she’d become a zombie and incredible susceptible to suggestion. I figured I would get her to touch it and then blam, order her to do a bunch of embarrassing and out of character things.
Maybe I could even ruin her reputation enough to redeem myself.
I still had her number, and somehow I managed to convince her through text to meet me in the empty caf between meals. I billed it as some sort of truce, an attempt to broker peace between us.
I appealed to what little humanity she had.
When she showed up she didn’t look impressed and spent the first few minutes complaining about how she had a test to study for. Who studies for a test on a Saturday night?
But I tried to appear open and honest, apologizing for the inconvenience and becoming her little puppy once again.
And while she blathered on I couldn’t help but watch her, couldn’t help but feel the slightest memory of why I had fallen so hard for her. Sure she was a bitch but my god she was gorgeous.
As I said before she was tall and thin, her body was like that of a model and I knew for a fact she spent more than her fair share of time at the gym. She kept herself in fantastic shape, doing yoga and running and even weightlifting. But she never got bulky or muscular. Her body had a lithe flexibility to it instead, a flexibility that made it so you couldn’t help but picture bending her into a pretzel and fucking her.
Her long legs were smooth and toned, and her upper body was tight and perky. She was wearing this dress that just clung to her upper body and flared out at her waist. It was black and white and just seemed unusually fancy and expensive. She always kept her appearance perfect and spotless.
Her blonde hair was down to her shoulders and had a bouncy wave to it. Her blue eyes were alight and alive, which made it almost seem as if she really had a soul. Her ruby red lips were plump and full and just made me think of all sorts of thoughts ranging from the relatively innocent to the exceptionally dirty.
Ali just screamed elegance and class. It was an affectation she had worked hard to build up and tried hard to maintain. I couldn’t wait to ruin that for her.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the crystal, careful to only grab it by the cloth surrounding, to not touch it with my hand. I placed the crystal onto the table between us and pulled the cloth away, revealing it like I was unveiling a magic trick. I suppose I was.
It was actually quite beautiful, a deep crimson red that seemed to shine and shimmer with flashes of dark blue in the right lights. It was cut and multifaceted and if you stared at it for too long you could get lost in the patterns trapped inside it.
I unveiled it to her and watched her face as her expressions went from annoyance to surprise to interest to suspicion. She looked up at me with her brow furrowed, clearly thinking I had some sort of ulterior motive here.
“What is this?” she asked, her voice heavy with suspicion.
I tried to sound as open and forthright as possible, “It’s a gift for you. A gift to make up.”
She didn’t say anything, just scrutinized my face looking for some indication of what was really going on and so I continued to try to cover my tracks.
“Look I just miss us. I miss being friends with you. I miss hanging out. It’s not secret really that things have gone sideways for me this year and I’m lonely and want a friend. I don’t know how we drifted apart but I feel like it was my fault and I wanted to make up for it so I got you this as a way of making up.”
“I don’t want it,” she said, pulling back from the table.
This was my one shot. I had to have her just touch the damn stone. If I didn’t make it happen now she’d never meet with me again.
“Take it,” I said, my voice growing a bit hard.
He raised her eyebrows, “No.”
My hand shot out and grabbed hers, if she wouldn’t touch the stone willingly then I would just have to make her. She had a surprising strength to her and it made struggling with her arm difficult. We played tug of war as I pulled her arm towards the stone in the center of the table. So close, I could almost feel it and-
There was a flash.
A flash like a bright light going off and then I was all out of sorts, completely disoriented and unable to make heads or tails of anything. Everything felt somehow wrong. Somehow off.
It was like there was a filter over the world, like everything was almost the right color but just shifted slightly, just enough to make the world look somehow unfamiliar.
I shook my head, reaching out to steady myself on the table. I placed my long and slender hands on the edge of the table, holding them there to still myself.
I must have touched the stone as well. Oh man that must mean I’m susceptible to suggestion too. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything out of the ordinary though. I still feel like I’m in control.
But I did feel weird.
I had to steady myself, to concentrate on something familiar. So I focused down on my hands, on the long slender fingers, on the red tipped fingernails.
Wait- What?
These weren’t my hands. I pulled them up and stared at them, turning them around back and forth again and confirming that no, these weren’t my hands.
Then I noticed my clothes, a black and white dress. It clung to my top and flared out at my waist to reveal my tapered and flawless long legs.
I was-
I stared across the table, looking at myself in my old body going through the same sort of motions I was.
My old body.
We had switched?
Ali in my body looked up at me, her eyes seeming to come into focus as she realized what had happened.
“Alex?” she asked and I gulped and nodded.
We both sat in stunned silence, this wasn’t the way this was supposed to go at all.
“What the hell happened?” she asked in a hushed whisper, staring
at me.
“I… uh…” I struggled to find the right words, her voice coming out of my mouth soft and light and utterly strange. I didn’t know what to say and I settled on lying, “I got that rock from the strange shop in town. It was just supposed to be a gift. I don’t know what happened but when we both touched it we must have switched bodies.”
The lie was lame and she didn’t believe me, I could tell.
But even in my body she was still Ali and that meant she was still in charge and quick to make decisions.
“Touch it again,” she ordered, “Both of us, again at the same time.”
“What?” I asked, still trying to process everything that had happened.
“Both of us touch it,” she insisted, “Same as last time. We’ll switch back.”
She reached out and took my hand in hers and she tugged it towards the crystal. Just like last time we both touched it and-
Nothing. No flash, no switch.
We touched again and once more but still nothing.
She let out a frustrated sigh and I pulled my hand back and looked down at the crystal.
It looked different, somehow less bright and less vibrant. Honestly it looked like the battery was dead or something. Like it had run out of juice.
She reached out and picked it up, shaking it next to her ear and turning it up to the light to look through it.
“It isn’t working,” I said dumbly, “I guess we’re stuck.”
This seemed to set something off in her. She turned to look at me with a particular sort of crazy glint in her eyes.
“Oh no we’re not,” she hissed, “We’re going to fix this right now. We’re going to the shop.”
I might not be the most decisive, I might not know what exactly I was going to do. But I was damn sure I wasn’t going to go anywhere with her.
Pushing back from the table I stood up and started to back away from her slowly. She got up too, and made her way around to follow me.
My old body wasn’t tall or particularly muscular, but there was something intimidating about the way she was stalking me.
“No,” I said firmly, “I’m not going to the shop.”
Ali lunged towards me, moving with a speed that surprised me. It seems like she had adapted to her new body faster than I had adapted to mine because I tried to dodge only to find that I was just too slow.
Her hand snaked out and wrapped itself around my forearm, her grip like iron. I pried at her fingers, trying to get her to release me but couldn’t get under her grip to pull at them.
I briefly contemplated trying something more desperate, a kick or scratch, something to cause her pain and make her want to release me. But then I remembered that she was in my body and I didn’t want to do anything bad to it.
She dragged me and though I resisted she managed to pull me out of the caf and down the hall. It was getting later in the day and the halls were empty. I struggled to pull away but she kept her grip firm on me, holding me still and keeping me close to her.
“Let go of her,” I heard the voice from behind us, firm and deep and masculine. It was a statement, an order, and it made both of us freeze and whip our heads around to look.
The man was a stranger to me but he was big and strong, his shoulders wide and his build that of a man who spent more than his fair share of time in the gym. He had dark hair that was cropped short and was wearing jeans and a long sleeved black shirt that clung to his muscular upper body.
His hands were balled into fists and his eyes were cold and hard, locked onto Ali as she held me.
This stranger took a step towards us and his bulk was intimidating. It seemed to suck up all of the oxygen in the room and block out the light.
Ali immediately released me and this big and tall stranger stepped between us, putting his strong bulk between me and danger. Had to respect a guy like that, the sort of man who doesn’t shy away from danger, the sort who is willing to help a girl in need.
“This isn’t what you think,” I heard Ali whisper with my voice, obviously intimidated by the situation.
“Sure it isn’t,” the tall man said to her before tilting his head slightly over his shoulder and asking me, “Want a walk back to your dorm?”
My own personal hero, I thought with a grin. Maybe this plan will work out after all.
I wrapped my arm around his bulky forearm, pressing myself against him and smiling up at him. Giving him my best innocent damsel look.
As we walked away arm in arm I threw a look over my shoulder at Ali, who just stood there in my body looking stunned. I stuck out my tongue, making my face look as bratty as I could.
We walked in silence for a bit, walking out of the building we were in and out into the open courtyard. I shivered slightly with the chill of the air and this stranger peeled his arm out of my grip to wrap it around me and rub my arm slightly, a gesture that sent warmth of a decidedly different sort into me.
Ali’s body seemed to respond to the touch of this handsome and strong man, heat radiating through her body as she enjoyed his strong touch on her.
I shook it off at first, but then embraced it, maybe this was all going to work out afterall.
“Are you okay Ali?” he asked, looking down at me as I batted my big eyes back up at him.
Oh shit, I thought, he knew Ali which meant she probably knew him. Fuck. My whole plan was going to be up before it even started.
He must have seen the expression on my face and read something into it I couldn’t imagine because he put his other hand out palm out to reassure me and said, “Whoa, sorry. Yeah I know your name. I’m James.”
So he didn’t know me, I calmed, well that was good to know, “How do you?”
“From the gym,” he explained, “I’ve seen you there more than a few times. You… You draw a bit of attention.”
His grin was almost sheepish, almost apologetic. I blushed slightly then remembered that he wasn’t talking about me. He was talking about Ali.
Of course I knew all about how much attention Ali could draw, after all she had drawn my attention for years.
Still it was odd, the blush came from someplace natural, someplace inside of me. It was like this body was thrilled at the attention it was receiving from this strong and handsome man.
“Plus,” he went on, “We live in the same building, though I’m on the second floor and I think you’re on the first But yeah I’ve seen you around and I might have asked someone what your name was.”
I smiled and turned my eyes forward, letting us walk in enjoyable silence for a little while.
“Thanks for back there,” I said suddenly, “For stepping in back there.”
“Hey no problem,” he said, “Should we be reporting that guy to security or something-”
“No,” I blurted out, the last thing I needed was to get myself in trouble here, “No that guy was just an old friend. We were playing around and it got out of hand. He’s innocent, really.”
“Oh,” he seemed to chew on this information for a while, “He doesn’t seem the type for you.”
I tried to process that, what was that supposed to mean? And then I realized. ‘My Type’ meant ‘Boyfriend’.
I had a flash of revulsion at the idea, some sort of unconscious behaviour that made me shiver at the thought of it. So that was what she thought of me. She thought I was some sort of disgusting…
“Not a boyfriend,” I clarified, “Don’t worry about that.”
The statement was automatic, so automatic I could barely control it and then afterwards I was left feeling angry. Hot, flashing anger. Who the hell was she to judge me like that? Who the hell was she?
I could understand not wanting to be with me, people have tastes and opinions and everything like that. But why the disgust? Why the rumors? There was no earthly reason for it.
Oh this revenge was going to be fun.
We stepped up to the door of our building and he released me to unlock it. I shivered and craved the feeling of him against my
body, standing out there without it. My god if this was what Ali felt all of the time it’s a wonder she was able to resist it. It’s a wonder she hadn’t wound up pregnant by this point.
How in the hell had she maintained a reputation as a prude this whole time.
The door opened and he held it for me like a perfect gentleman, I gave him a slight smile as I walked past him and stepped into the lobby.
The stairs were off to one side and her room was just down the hall. Ali lived on the first floor of the building, on a room facing out into the courtyard.
The tall dark and handsome stranger seemed to know where she lived as well, he must have been watching her for quite some time. He gestured down the hall with a nod of his head and then turned to me and said, “Well I guess you can make it the rest of the way. Have a good night.”
Shit, I thought, he was going to be a perfect gentleman and leave me here. I had half expected him to press his luck and then I figured I would do something to stir up the rumor pot. Maybe make out with him or let him feel me up. Just enough to get things started, to start a campaign of escalation that would result in her not being able to show her face around the school.
But here this guy had to go and be a gentleman which meant I had to make the first move, and frankly I didn’t have the slightest idea what to do.
I was nervous, butterflies in my stomach and the whole thing. I looked at him as he looked at me, stared deep into his dark eyes and said fuck it.
I leaned and kissed him.
Our lips connected, lightly at first and then harder as I pressed further into him. I stepped forward, pressing myself against him, feeling my breasts press against his firm chest.
He seemed confused at first, shocked maybe that this had happened. His hands were out to one side but they fell to my waist, lightly resting there as my lips parted slightly and our kiss went on.
God the feel of him touching me excited me, it made me want more, maybe my body feel alive with electricity and desire. Gone was my nervousness, gone was my apprehension. I didn’t have to worry about what would come next, this body knew what would come next.