Flipping the Switch

Chapter 4: Trust

"Really?" Astrid's eyebrows jumped up as she quickly turned to sit on the edge of her bed to face me, her feet touching the floor. "How?"

"The janitor!" I was almost panting. "At the movies- in the bathroom- and then the lights went out and then they came back on and he was gone and then-"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Astrid said, standing up and placing her palms out towards me. "Slow down. Janitor? What janitor?"

I paused for a moment, collecting my thoughts and memories. The janitor in the bathroom at the movie theater last night had had a name tag with a weird name, but I couldn't remember it. And out of nowhere the lights in bathroom had gone out. He'd told me to flip the switch, and he had somehow known my name. And once the lights were back on... He had vanished into thin air. And when I woke up this morning...

No, it couldn't be.

"At the movies last night. There was this janitor, and old man," I began, "Mopping up in the guy's bathroom, and- well, he began talking to me, and then out of nowhere there was that blackout. Remember?"

Astrid narrowed her eyes. "Blackout? No."

"What?"

"There was no blackout. Ever."

"But the lights in the bathroom-"

"So?"

Okay, well that was kind of weird.

"Well- the lights in the bathroom went out. And then the creepy janitor told me to flip the switch to turn the lights back on. And he knew my name, which is the weirdest part, because I didn't tell him my name."

She lifted an eyebrow, looking unsure on how to react.

"And after I switched on the lights, he was gone. It's like he fucking vanished into thin air. Either that, or he was able to sneak past me and out the bathroom at the speed of light."

Astrid bit her bottom lip and then sat back down. "What the hell? That is a little weird..." She huffed. "But wait," she said, briefly shaking her head. "This isn't making like, any sense. What does this have to do with anything?"

I swallowed, and peered up at her with my eyebrows pulled in. "I know this sounds crazy. But I think he has something to do with us switching places. I think he might have been some... deity or witch doctor or some shit. I think that when I flipped the switch... it somehow switched our lives, too."

Astrid scoffed. "You can't be serious."

"Astrid, we're in each other's bodies. I'm not sure it gets any fuckin weirder than this. Gotta better theory?"

She tilted her head slightly. "Okay. Fine, you have a point. But explain this." Her last statement had a sassy flair to it. "Why me? How did I get pulled into this and not some other random person?"

A sudden pang of guilt hit deep in my stomach. I kind of left out the part where I talked about Astrid to him.

I planned to keep it that way.

"Wait a sec... Was this after we bumped into each other upstairs?" she asked.

My eyebrows jumped up. "Yes! I was on my way to the bathroom when that happened."

Astrid clenched her eyes shut and let her head fall back. "This has to be some kind of curse," she moaned. "Oh God, what did I do to deserve this?"

Well, that was kind of fuckin lame. We were stuck in this together, it wasn't just about her.

I narrowed my eyes at her and then crossed my arms. "Well excuuuuse me, princess. I'm sorry that life is now so hard for you and that of all people to be stuck as, it's me. But if we don't get off our asses and try to get to the bottom of this mess then nothing will get solved."

It was quiet for a moment. Astrid brought her head back forward and then slumped, pouting at me like a child who wanted something but knew she wasn't getting it. Then she released a short breath through her nose and sat up straight. "Okay," she said submissively with a shrug. "So what now?"

I brought my hands up to the back of my neck and rubbed it, relieving some of the tension I felt building up there. Despite my eagerness to go hunt down the evil witchdoctor janitor man, I was tired, and I was fucking starving, and in all this excitement I had totally forgotten about eating. A nap sounded nice, too. Maybe. And as much as I secretly found Astrid's tight little gym clothes to be sexy as hell, I really wanted to change. Oh, how I missed the comfort of a soft cotton tee-shirt and jeans. None of this sports bra bullshit.

"Fuck, I'd like to change first. And maybe eat something."

Astrid squinted at me, and I imagined the gears turning once again. Poison seeped from eyes. My eyes. "If you so much as take a single peek, I will murder you."

I tried not to blush, the thought of Astrid's naked body coming to mind again.

"Look. Astrid." I took in a quick breath, casting aside any distracting thoughts. "Until we figure this out and change ourselves back, we're going to have to trust each other. I know you don't know me very well. And I don't know you either. "

Astrid's expression didn't change.

"I know you're scared. I'm scared out of my fucking mind too. But I can't do this shit with you if you can't trust me."

Okay, so maybe I was overdoing it. But I had to get through this fucking girl's head somehow.

Blink. Blink.

"Okay?"

Astrid's bottom lip jutted out, her eyes flitting back and forth before she finally peered up at me through her lashes and gave a soft but affirmative nod. "Fine. Just- try not to get weird about it."

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Before we left, Astrid picked out a fresh set of clothes for me to change into- a pair of denim cutoff shorts, a lacey black camisole, and a dainty baby pink bra and matching thong. Fuck. Hot.

"Alright. Change," she commanded, shoving the folded set of clothes into my arms.

"Uhh... Okay," I replied, trying not to stammer as I held the pair of clothes to my chest. I began to head towards the bathroom when I felt her hand grab my shoulder.

"No. Here."

I squinted, stopping in my tracks and turning around. "Wait. What?"

"You're changing right here," Astrid said firmly, sitting on her bed with her arms and legs crossed in an unmistakably sassy manner.

"Why?!"

"I'm monitoring you," she replied, tilting her head slightly with heavy-lidded eyes.

"Monitoring me? Fuck that!"

She sneered at me. "It's my body. It's not like I haven't seen it before. I'm making sure you don't pull anything sneaky, like take a peek or something."

I brought my free hand up to my forehead. "You can't be fucking serious. Didn't we just talk about-"

"We did. But I don't fully trust you. Not yet."

I used every amount of strength I had to restrain myself from strangling her.

"Come oooon, the clock is ticking. We don't have all day," Astrid chimed. "Just do it already!"

I felt my ears turning hot. Fuck, this was so fucking weird. Though I guess she had a point. It wasn't like she was watching me change. It was her body, after all. Despite that, however, the plain act of someone staring at me while being fully exposed made me uncomfortable either way, and the fact that I had to do it while she was in my body and I was in hers just made it all the more fucked up.

"Fine, fine. Fuck," I muttered under my breath, placing the set of clothes next to her on the bed. Then I clenched my eyes shut while I pulled my shirt and sports bra up and over my head and then dropped it to the floor.

"Here," Astrid said, tossing her bra to me. I caught it, and then I stared at it like it was some intricate contraption. Never had I viewed a bra from the perspective of the person wearing it. They were easy to take off of other girls, but putting one on myself was an entirely different skill that was completely foreign to me.

"Uhh..."

"Do I have to do everything?"

Astrid stood up and snatched the bra from me. "Hold you arms out."

I obeyed, keeping my eyes forward. I felt Astrid slip the straps over my shoulders, one by one, and then she stepped behind me to clip the back.

I won't go into any further details about how Astrid undressed and then dressed me into her clothes while I was in her body and she was in mine. To say that it was awkward and uncomfortable is an understatement. Alas, it was a successful operation. I'll leave it at that.

Once that was over, we headed downstairs and then out the door, set on a mission to find the sketchy janitor and hopefully fix this mess as soon as possible.