A young man finds an app that lets him possess any of his online followers and live a month in their body in Instaswap (part 1 of 3), available on Body Swap Stories, Smashwords, and (soon) Amazon.

On his InstaPix social media page, Charlie keeps up an image of a successful, carefree young man. In real life he's broke and working a miserable, dead-end job. But everything changes when he discovers Instaswap, an app that lets a user enjoy a month in the body of any person who follows them on InstaPix. Expecting a scam, Charlie nonetheless gives it a try and selects a former (and seemingly successful) college classmate of his: Sophie.

Instantly, he finds himself in her body, looking out at the world from behind her eyes. He can do anything he wants, and uses his time to explore her body to the fullest. The only difficulty is that he doesn't have her memories. But with the help of his friend, Devin, who possesses Sophie's roommate, he's going to have the time of someone else's life.

Charlie poured the frappe into plastic cups, snapped on the lids, and slid them onto the front counter before returning to rinse the blender. This was what a four-year computer engineering degree and a shitty economy had come to. Selling overpriced over-sweetened coffee to a parade of people who barely thought of him as a person.

Charlie hadn’t even finished rinsing the blender when more orders came through. Around him his coworkers had even stopped their chatter during the lunch rush, concentrating on the work at their stations. The line was still out the door and people were starting to get grumpy.

Charlie’s supervisor, Wendy, came up behind him and observed him for a minute. It was creepy the way she stood just behind him, watching him wordlessly. The sweat patches beneath his skinny arms grew beneath her gaze.

It galled Charlie that she was only a few years older than him and had never been to college, yet here she was in charge of him. She was officious but not mean, and she took this job way too seriously. It wasn’t like they were brain surgeons. It was just coffee, for god’s sake.

Charlie’s black hair stuck up all over, refusing to be tamed even by the visor that hung down over his forehead. His forehead was greasy, his legs hurt already, his fingers were chilled from the ice. Working at a corporate coffee shop wasn’t even a job he wanted but he’d been desperate to pay his bills.

After graduation he had an internship lined up at large software developer. He’d gone in hoping he would come out with a job. Everything seemed to be going so well until the layoffs came, coinciding with the end of his internship. All his contacts lost their jobs and there were no vacancies for a fresh graduate with no experience.

Charlie kept up with the orders. Fill, drop, blend, pour. The occasional special order came through to break up the monotony. A half caf, four shot, vanilla-hazelnut blend with almond milk. A skinny decaf unsweetened mocha. A soy-cow milk blend with extra ice and four pumps of pumpkin spice.

After the rush came the cleanup, when the chatter among coworkers resumed as everyone washed and cleaned and dried their stations. His coworkers clumped into groups, joking with each other as they cleaned up. Charlie hovered on the outside of their groups, occasionally chiming in with a remark that would earn him a brief grin. He’d never been much good at making friends. He always felt awkward and fake. Embarrassed at who he was.

“Okay, Charlie,” Wendy said once Charlie had cleaned the blenders. “Take your ten.”

Ten minute break. Charlie grabbed a drip coffee from the machine and hurried outside to enjoy some fresh air. He took a seat on the bench of a small parklet next door and pulled out his phone. He framed the coffee in one hand, careful to keep his uniform out of the shot. He clicked the button and uploaded the picture to his InstaPix page with the hashtag #justchilling.

On InstaPix, he was a successful young programmer. Like everyone else, he chose to post only the best moments of his life. Online he was beautiful and carefree and living the good life. In reality, most of his day was spent in drudgery, or anticipation of the next day’s drudgery, or recovery from the previous drudgery.

A text message popped up from his best friend, Devin:

Right. The muffins were usually tossed out after a day. If Charlie was responsible for trashing them he could usually squirrel away a bunch in his car. It saved a couple of bucks on breakfast and both Devin and Charlie needed to save everything they could. Devin was in similar dire straits, though he could at least fall back on his parents if he really needed money.

Charlie texted back.

Devin texted.

Charlie responded.

Heaving a sigh, Charlie flipped aimlessly through InstaPix, checking in on his friends and former classmates. They all seemed successful. Were they acting as much as he was? Here was Sam in front of a waterfall somewhere. Angelina surrounded by coworkers as they smiled beneath a major software company’s logo. Sophie on a rooftop bar overlooking a twinkling city. Even his best self was worse than theirs.

An email alert popped up. His rent was being increased. Great. He was barely making it as it was. Would he need to take on another job?

Three minutes left in his break. Charlie returned to InstaPix, wishing he could live someone else’s life. As if on cue, he scrolled by an ad. Swirly text: “Be Someone Else” above a smiling woman running along a beach. Usually he scrolled right by these things, but something made him pause. What could this possibly be advertising?

He clicked on the link and it took him to an app called Instaswap. The explanation of the app wasn’t much clearer:

Ever wanted to be someone else? Now you can! Instaswap allows you to become any of your followers. Just open the app, select your follower and press the button, then enjoy being someone else.

The rest was something about a tiered system and limitations and terms and conditions. Charlie had never been one for reading directions so he downloaded the app. When he opened it, it made him log into InstaPix. He scrolled through his feed, not really considering his choices because he wasn’t really sure what he was choosing. He settled on Sophie.

Sophie was in his internship and had been a classmate at Berkely. In the picture she held up some sort of lanyard to the camera. A sexy, confident, close-lipped smile on her face. She was Korean-American and had the stunning cheekbones and sharp features of an actress.

Charlie clicked her profile. A pop-up appeared: Are you sure?

Charlie clicked yes, not expecting much. As soon as he hit the button, the bench, the coffee, the park and his own body blinked out of existence.

2

Suddenly, Charlie was sitting in front of a computer displaying some sort of presentation with graphs and figures. One of his hands was poised on the keyboard as if caught in the act of flicking through the presentation. But the hand wasn’t Charlie’s. The fingers were longer, more slender. The nails gently curved and the knuckles bereft of hair. A woman’s hands.

He jumped in surprise and swore under his breath, “Fuck!” The voice was lighter, seemed to come from someone else.

Charlie dropped his gaze and found that he was now looking straight down into someone’s – his?? – tight cleavage. A white blouse with a pink flower pattern hid two small bumps. Breasts. Jesus, he had breasts!

Charlie raised his hands to his face. His scratchy bits of stubble were replaced with completely smooth cheeks. The shape of his nose was different. His lips softer. Even the way his tongue sat in his mouth felt off.

Now the sounds of the room around him invaded his awareness. The soft chirp of telephones, tapping on keyboards, soft murmurs of talking. He sat at a desk in the middle of an open office. A few photos were arranged on his desk. In one, Sophie smiled out at him, surrounded by friends. The desk was otherwise neatly arranged with several binders and stacks of paper filled with what looked like budget figures.

Read the rest on Body Swap Stories, Smashwords, and (soon) Amazon.
https://bodyswapfiction.com/enter/?p=13367