Page 13 of Exchange of Heart

Corey’s grey eyes.

My heart pounded in my throat, fighting for a place with the rising bile. I spun around to stare at Nora 2.0.

‘Holy fuck, it’s happened. I’ve officially lost my mind. Why do I look like Corey Flemmington?’ I shrieked.

‘Probably the same reason I look like Nora Claremont,’ the imposter exclaimed.

She slapped her hands to her face, dragging them down and stretching my skin as her enormous pants fell to the floor.

‘Stop stretching my skin, you’ll give me wrinkles,’ I shrieked. ‘Wait…’ My hands groped my flat chest, patting the firm muscles down my torso, further down until… ‘Ouch!’ I slumped forward and bent my legs into a huddled crouch.

‘You chicks never believe how sensitive it is down there.’ Nora 2.0 pulled her pants back up.

Holy shit.

A penis. There was a penis between my legs.

I lunged forward and wrapped my fingers around Nora 2.0’s ankles. She screamed and tried to shuffle away, but my grip was an iron fist. Her ass hit the floorboards, and I dragged her closer. I swung my leg over her right hip, then my other over her left. Her hands – perfect replicas with the pink manicure I’d gotten last week – gripped my nightie and yanked it until the stretched seam gave up and ripped.

‘That was my favourite!’ I roared. ‘First my body, then my pyjamas?’

‘Get off me!’ she yelled.

‘Not until you give me my skin back!’

I was now naked other than my tiny black lace underpants stretched across this giant body. Nora 2.0 continued to buck beneath me as my hands fought hers. My weight and muscle won against her skinny arms, and my hands gripped her shoulders.

I froze.

What now? Was I really going to peel the skin from her like a banana and glue it to me like paper mâché? She even had a darker freckle beneath her right eye, just like me.

Me.

I stared at me. Bile trickled up my throat like an upside-down waterfall, an abomination against nature. Just like me. I was an abomination against nature, trapped inside Corey Flemmington’s body.

Corey.

I rolled off his body – my body. My head lightened so much I thought I might float away, and my chest tightened more with each passing second. I was a piece of paper, scrunched into a ball and thrown through the air, waiting to crash to the floor.

‘I’m sorry, but this is some Freaky Friday shit. I need to go back to bed so I can wake up from this nightmare.’ I turned towards the bed, cupping the tender real estate caged inside my lace underpants.

‘It’s not a dream,’ Corey called after me.

I tried to curl into a ball, but my body covered most of the double bed. The overpriced silk sheets I’d splurged on were like nails on a chalkboard against these hairy legs, then when my stubbly chin grazed my pillow it sent my legs kicking in a fit of sensory overload. Nothing was right.

‘What is this magical shit?’ I flinched at the deep anguish in my voice. Men and emotions, why was it so hard to combine them?

‘I don’t know. But when I tried to pee this morning…’ Corey gestured to his groin as he paced the discoloured timber floor from the bookshelf in my living room to the pantry in my kitchen.

‘I look like a fucking dungeon troll,’ I moaned.

Corey’s mouth dropped in offence. ‘Excuse me?’

Lucky weaved between us, stopping to sniff each leg in confusion. I crouched down to run my hand along his soft fur, but he hissed at me and ran under the bed. I pulled my hand back and noticed his left palm was marked by the umbrella, just like mine had been. I suppose instead of good luck, we’d both been treated to monstrous bad luck.

‘Good riddance. I can’t stand cats.’ Corey scrunched my adorable little nose on his face.

My fingers pressed against my temple, wishing I could perform a lobotomy on myself. My stomach twisted, pulsed, and shoved my organs around. Nothing was in the right place. My heart – which may or may not even be my heart anymore – pounded hard enough to thump through my head.