It was kind of funny that after two weeks of being in this body, Natalie still wasn’t used to everything. Sure, things like shaving her face were pretty easy to figure out, but things like the occasional erection still caught her off-guard and she had no idea what she was supposed to do about them.

When waking up with the dreaded morning wood wasn’t the most embarrassing part of the day, it was pretty bad.

She fought back a cringe as she walked out of the grocery store, recalling the moment in question.

***

Since the apartment was running out of food more quickly than Natalie thought, she decided to stop by the local stores. Having loaded most of what she needed into the cart, she decided to stop by the aisle with cleaning supplies to get some hand soap, which she had just realized that morning was nearly depleted.

Then she made her way toward the period product aisle, stopping right when she turned into it.

Oh, right.

Well now she just felt like an idiot.

She exited the aisle and hoped she didn’t look too much like a dumbass. She didn’t think she did a very good job.

***

Natalie unloaded all of the groceries into the trunk of her car, which she only just now appreciated being the exact same model from her reality. Who knew how far a little familiarity could go?

Turning on the car and exiting the parking lot, Natalie continued to obsess over all the little ways she was fucking up trying to be Nathan. For instance, the way she walked. Was she still walking like a woman, with the hip swaying and everything? She didn’t know, but the moment she thought of it she made a concerted effort to not do it, lest she humiliate herself for the umpteenth time.

That wasn’t all, she also learned the hard way that men were pretty fucking horny. Well, obviously she knew that from her fictional days as Natalie, but experiencing it first hand was a rude awakening. How often did she masturbate as Natalie? Couple times a month? As Nathan she was doing it basically every day. It was insane. Was it something about testosterone that caused it? How in the world did men deal with this?

She should really focus on driving, anything instead of this.

So for the next few minutes, she did, or tried to. She drove along the three lane freeway thinking of nothing but the road. When she saw the exit coming up on the right side, he flipped the turn signal and-

“Fuck!”

Nathan grabbed his head, moaning as if in pain.

Not now. Please, anytime but now. Not while he was driving.

He forced his focus back on the road and made the turn onto the exit just before he was about to miss it.

These switches might end up killing him.

For the past few days, the switches hadn’t stopped. If anything they’d become more frequent. And they could occur at literally any time, without any kind of pattern to follow. At random intervals, his memories of his life would suddenly switch from Natalie to Nathan and so on.

Was that normal? Considering how shit this situation has been, probably.

He hoped there was a way to fix it. There was no way anyone could live like this.

***

Nathan still hadn’t switched back by the time he got to the apartment. It was by far the longest he had ever been in control. And he did not like it at all. It should’ve been just like old times, before all this stuff about transformation and identity death.

Except it wasn’t.

Nathan quickly worked at unloading all the groceries in the fridge and cabinet, waiting for the inevitable switch to Natalie.

It never came.

Later on, Nathan found himself sitting on the couch, staring at the wall, trying to gauge the limits of his memories.

He sat down and tried to recall where Natalie had gone to college. He couldn’t do it. He assumed it was the same place he’d gone to, he couldn’t imagine their lives were that different, but he wasn’t able to know for sure.

Having so many fragmented memories like this was only going to get more and more confusing the longer it went on. He had to do something to soften the blow.

Natalie had gone far out of her way to learn so much about his life, maybe he should do the same. Maybe he should try and communicate with her.

So he took out a piece of paper and began writing.

“Hey Natalie, it’s Nathan. I was wondering what college you went to and if it was the same as mine. I’m very curious.”

And then he wrote the name of the college he went to.

He laid the paper down on the end table next to him, for Natalie when she eventually came back.

Not wanting to be in control any longer, Nathan laid his back on the couch and pulled down the covers. Sleeping usually helped with the switches, and the sooner Natalie was back the better.

She wasn’t one to mess things up.

***

The lights of the local nightclub blazed fiercely in the dark sky, just as they did every time the week had come to an end. The club was brimming with life, and full of party goers from all across town. For many young people, Saturday night was the time to be alive.

For people like Nathan, it was the time to lock yourself away. The bright lights and loud music were an immediate turn off for him, and even if he could get past that, he would never, for the life of him, be able to go up and actually talk to someone, let alone chat a woman up for a possible date. He was far too nervous for that, and nervousness was unfortunately a quality he’d had for his whole life.

When he was in eighth grade, a girl went up to him and said she liked him. She said she wanted to go out on a date with him.

Nathan proceeded to go to the bathroom and throw up because he was so nervous. And once word of that spread, he was the laughing stock of the school. Even in high school when that kind of teasing died down and he won some people over with his eagle project, that incident pretty much killed all his chances of getting a girlfriend. No girl would ever want to be with the guy who threw up when he was asked out. And honestly? He couldn’t blame them.

So Nathan was spending his Saturday night like he always did, playing a video game with some leftover slices of pizza and a cold bottle of wine. The only real difference was that this time he was taking it easy on the wine. Even after two weeks of not having drinken at all, he still didn’t feel like drinking a lot. Maybe that was why he was becoming skinnier.

Nathan leaned forward in his desk, recoiling when his chest brushed against the wooden corner.

“Ow.” He whispered.

The sensation made Nathan’s hand meet his nipple, feeling that it had become much more sensitive. It was painful in a way that was completely foreign to him.

Nathan slammed his hand hard into his desk, enough to make its contents shake. It had just then occurred to him that his chest, his nipples specifically, had been sore for the past day or so. Why he didn’t notice before, he had no idea. Probably because this was one of the more subtle indications that he had some kind of disease. God, what the fuck was wrong with him?

He paused the game and was about to go to the bathroom to inspect himself for what was likely the hundredth time that week, but he willed himself to turn away. No, he wasn’t going to do a repeat of that. He was fine, the doctors said so themselves. Or would have, if they had gotten his blood results.

Speaking of which, where were those results? Shouldn’t he have gotten a call back by now?

Well, to be fair, it was the weekend. He just had to wait a few more days and he’d get them back.

Nathan crossed his arms over his chest and stared straight down.

It was just a few more days.

His back hit the wall.

Just a few more-

“Nathan, you mind getting out of the way?”

Nathan looked up and saw Astian standing there, holding a box. Damn he was good at catching him off-guard.

“Sorry.” Nathan walked to the side. “What's in that?”

“My sister's clothes.” Astian answered. “Let's hope this time it actually is her clothes.”

He brought the box into Nathan's room and threw it on his bed. He took out his pocket knife and sliced away at the tape.

Nathan followed him back into the room, annoyed. “Why are you doing this in my room?”

“Because.” Astian began. “Your closet’s bigger than mine. I thought you could help me out and store these clothes here. Maybe even let her sleep here too.”

“She’s your sister, Astian. You’re the one allowing her to stay in this place.” Nathan responded. “If she should be sharing a room with anybody, it should be you.”

“Well look man, I've been pretty busy lately, and I promise this won't be for long. It's not like she needs to sleep here, she just needs some place to keep her stuff.”

“I'd really rather it not be in my room.”

“Then where would you put it?” Astian asked. “This apartment doesn’t exactly have many rooms.”

“I don’t know, put it in a closet or keep them in the box or something. Just not in my room.”

“My sister’s been going through a rough time, alright? Would it kill you to just work with me a bit?”

Nathan paused, taking a deep breath before possibly saying something very insensitive.

“Fine.” He replied. “But it better not be a lot.”

“It won’t, I promise.” Astian answered. “At the end it will still be your room, there’ll just be another person in it. You can handle that, right?”

Nathan looked on, refusing to answer as Astian finished slicing the tape.

“And would you look at that.” Astian reached into the open box and pulled out a skirt. “It actually is her clothes.”

Astian laid the skirt down on the bed, then got out a blouse and a pair of stockings to go with it.

“I don’t think we need to unpack this quite yet.” Astian said.

“What are you talking about? You were the one who put the box on my bed, you’re the one unpacking it.”

“Of course.” He said. “I’m just saying I don’t think we need to do it yet because, well I wanted to go out and have some dinner.”

“Since when do you do that?”

“Been doing it ever since I finished college. Right about the time when you shut yourself up in your apartment and hardly talked to anyone for two years.”

Nathan’s face flushed with guilt, and Astian kept a stern face focused right at him.

“Try to dress nicely.” Astian said. “And be ready quick, I set apart the whole night for this.”

Astian walked out of the room without even glancing at Nathan.

***

Twenty minutes passed before a disgruntled Nathan left the room, all dressed and ready. He wasn’t exactly excited, but he felt he should go out of obligation.

That stung, real bad.

After throwing the half-eaten pizza slices in the trash, Nathan made his way to the front door, seeing Astian right there waiting for him, wearing a nice striped button down shirt and jeans. He swore Astian was taller than usual, must have been his shoes or something. Astian also had a slight smile on his face, which was a bit confusing considering how intent he was on bringing Nathan down just a bit ago. What could he possibly be smiling at?

That’s when Nathan looked down and realized he was wearing the skirt Astian had put on the bed, along with the blouse and stockings.

His face went red immediately, embarrassed out of his mind. When did that get there? He distinctly remembered not putting it on, how did it-

“Well, we better not keep waiting.” Astian said, opening the front door. “Let’s go.”

Nathan stared confused at Astian. “Really? Aren’t you gonna like, say something about…”

“Say something about what?” Astian asked.

Bewildered, Nathan looked down, his mouth agape and his eyes narrowed. Astian was literally seeing his best friend decked out in a skirt right in front of him and he was acting as if there was nothing out of the ordinary.

“Nathan, you there?”

Nathan’s head jolted back up.

“Uhh… yeah, sorry.”

“Well then.” Astian said. “Let’s go.”

Nathan looked behind him at the apartment another time before deciding that Astian wasn’t going to let up and he should probably go along with him. He waited for Astian to leave the apartment for a few seconds before stupidly realizing that he was holding the door open for him. How thoughtful.

On the way to the car, Nathan’s entire body was shaking. Not due to the temperature but rather due to the fact that he was about to go in public in a fucking skirt. Everyone at this restaurant was about to see a man wearing women’s clothes. God, what the hell was he thinking? Or wasn’t thinking apparently, because somehow he’d put the skirt on without realizing it. Everyone was going to-

He felt a hand on his back.

“Stop worrying so much, you’re gonna make yourself sick.”

At that, Nathan suddenly felt calmer, almost as if he didn’t know why he was worried in the first place. Astian really knew how to make him feel better. Surely he’d be there to keep him safe if any trouble arose.

…Wait, what did he just?

Astian opened the passenger seat door, holding it so Nathan could enter the car. Again, how thoughtful of him. Astian revved up the engine and Nathan tried his best to forget about what he was wearing.

“Do you know how much the food is there?” Nathan asked as Astian pulled the car onto the road.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll pay for everything.”

“What? Really?” Nathan asked. “Even the tip?”

“Yes, everything. This was my idea. Just relax, okay?”

That was new, Astian had never just allowed him to not pay on any of their previous outings. He was really going out of his way to be nice here. It made Nathan feel a twinge of guilt, but also a bit touched. After two whole weeks of living in that apartment doing fuck all, Astian was still willing to take him out to places like this and pay for it all. He must really care about him to do all this. The edges of his lips curved into a smile.

***

When they finally got to the restaurant, Nathan didn’t have the time to leave the car before Astian had already gone over to open the passenger seat door for him.

Again, and Nathan couldn’t overstate it, how thoughtful of him.

With Astian acting like this, Nathan almost expected him to hold his hand.

The two walked in tandem with each other toward the restaurant, and Nathan found himself looking at Astian almost expectantly, but soon turned away.

Why did he actually expect…

A breeze hit Nathan’s legs and he was soon reminded of the fact that he was indeed wearing a skirt in public. With stockings. And a blouse. And as he took a very quick peek down his skirt, he confirmed that he had put on panties as well. The very same pink panties he accidentally bought at the store the other day had somehow ended up around his hips.

Dear god, what the hell was wrong with him?

When they got inside, to Nathan’s dismay, the place looked packed. There were a lot of people in line to get checked in, and he felt that same twinge of discomfort he always got in places where there were a lot of people.

And then it got a thousand times worse when he thought of his outfit.

If it weren’t for Astian putting his hand on his back again, Nathan would’ve passed out.

“Calm down, please.” Astian said. “I’ve got everything under control. I’m not gonna let you run into any trouble.”

Nathan felt himself calm down, but he was still pretty tense. How in the world was Astian going to do that?

He certainly wasn’t stopping all the people looking at him weird.

***

“Alright you two, here’s your food.” The waitress said with a smile on her face as she handed out the plates.

“Thank you.” Astian replied.

The waitress nodded and left the table. Once she was out of their earshot, or at least once she thought she was, Nathan heard her say “was that a guy or girl?”

He took a deep breath and gritted his teeth. It wasn’t the first time that night he’d heard someone make a comment like that. And that was one of the better ones, usually they were “yo, look at that fag in the dress” or “is that a tranny?” It was stuff like that that made him not want to stay in his room and not go out ever again.

“Nathan? You there?”

Nathan turned to face Astian, sat in front of him.

“Geez man, I’ve been trying to talk to you this whole time. You haven’t said a thing.” Astian said. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just a little…”

“A little what?”

“Oh, I don’t know, I can’t really say.” Nathan answered.

“Well, whenever you’re done thinking about that, I was hoping you’d like to hear that I got a stream box for your room. You know, so you don’t have to torrent things.”

“Oh, really?” Nathan asked. “Thanks, that’s… nice.”

“Yeah, have a streaming service with a lot of anime on it, which I know you like for some reason.”

Nathan rolled his eyes. “Alright, let’s not get into that.”

Astian chuckled. “Yes! I knew there was someone in there.”

Nathan managed a grin. “Okay, you got me, I’m here.” He raised his left hand. “But if you’re gonna knock on one of my interests, I’m gonna knock on one of yours. Most Call of Duty games are trash.”

Astian scoffed. “Look, I haven’t played those games since I was 17, alright?” He shot back. “And some of those games were really good.”

“They’re all pretty similar though aren’t they?”

“So are the games in a lot of franchises”

“Okay no, that’s just not true.” Nathan answered. “It’s not true at all.”

***

It felt good to reconnect with Astian and talk about the things they used to back in high school. It brought Nathan back to a time when the future was much brighter, back when he actually had potential, back before he screwed it all up.

He was having such a good time that at some point he actually forgot he was wearing a skirt. It just didn’t register to him anymore.

That was, until he had to go to the bathroom.

How was he supposed to go into the men’s bathroom looking like this? He’d get beaten to a pulp. At the very least he’d attract a lot of attention.

But, he really needed to go, so he gritted his teeth and just went in, prepared to deal with the consequences.

Thankfully though, nothing happened. No one else was even in there when he went in. He could just get to the toilet, get his business done and leave, which he did with no problem. The most that happened in there was someone giving him a funny look as he left, which he was very used to at this point.

When Nathan got back to the table, he noticed the tip left on it and took out his wallet to add to it. Even if Astian said he was paying for everything, it just felt wrong not to tip.

Astian took his card out of the scanner. “Well that’s everything. Let’s head out.”

“Wait, Astian.”

“Yes?”

Nathan stood in front of Astian, making sure all of him was in clear view. He couldn’t help it, he needed to see if Astian had some kind of reaction to his outfit.

Nathan motioned down his body. “What do you think of what I’m wearing?”

“You look fine.”

Nathan made a faint hum in annoyance. “What about the skirt, do you like that?”

“Yes, it’s lovely.” Astian answered.

What a bizarre response. Nathan wondered if something at work was frying Astian’s brain. It’d make a lot of sense.

“Come on, bud. Let’s leave.”

Nathan followed Astian out of the building and tried to forget about how weird Astian was acting, instead choosing to focus on the positives. Like how Astian and him had a real conversation during the meal. When was the last time they had talked like that? And when was the last time Nathan went to a restaurant like this? It had been far too long.

Nathan spent the entire drive home in a state of bliss. By the time they’d gotten back to the apartment, he had a permanent smile etched on his face. And that smile stayed on him as he was taking a shower.

It was only when he was getting out of the shower that he came upon a realization that made him stop dead in his tracks.

Was that night… a date?

No, that would be ridiculous. Astian wasn’t gay, he wasn’t about to date his best friend that he’s accidentally seen the penis of in a locker room. That wasn’t happening. He was just being nice.

And holding the door open for him.

And paying for the entire night.

And complimenting his looks.

And not finding it at all out of place that his best friend was wearing a skirt in public with him…

That wasn’t even counting the weird things that turned up in Nathan’s head from time to time. And the fact that Nathan was second guessing whether Astian had said “bud” or “love” once they left the restaurant. It was almost like they were-

“No, no. Stop it.” Nathan admonished himself. “We’ve been over this. Don’t start getting paranoid at every minute thing again. Everything is fine.”

Nathan jumped onto his bed, staring up at the dark ceiling and sighing.

It sure didn’t feel fine though.

***

Natalie was beyond groggy and disoriented when her eyes began to open. Mid-day naps, always good before the fact, never good after. It’s a horrible experience waking up from them, especially when-

Natalie jumped up from the covers, feeling a cold sweat run through her.

Another one? That was the second one this week! Was the potion even working?

She rubbed her hands through her face in exhaustion, her annoyance being doubled by the instantaneous ring of the telephone.

“Who the hell could that possibly be?” Natalie grumbled, grabbing the phone. “Hello?”

“Is this Nathan Parker?” The voice on the other end asked.

“Yes, what do you want?”

“I’m calling from Home Depot. Wanted to let you know you got the job.”