Chapter 9 - Trapped

Tyler

Nicole was staring at me. She seemed scared. Oh shit. I think I may have done this way too soon. I never saw that look on her face before. “Is it OK to talk?” I asked.

She nodded silently.

Thank God. I was getting ready to run out the door, but she’s given me an opportunity here. I swallowed hard, then turned to Alexis. “Lexi, can you give us a few moments?” 

Alexis looked at me, then Nicole for a moment, before she walked over to her and whispered “Are you OK with this?”

Nicole looked at her and nodded.

Oh my God, I must’ve really hurt her. Alexis is protecting her from me. I feel awful and now I suddenly feel like the bad guy here.

“If you need me, I’ll be in my room.” Alexis whispered to Nicole and walked away.

I put the flowers and my snacks on the counter. “I came to apologize. I got you something.”

She looked at the stuff on the counter and grabbed my Snickers. She opened the wrapper and took a big bite. 

I was baffled. I wanted to tell her that it was my Snickers, but since I didn’t want it anyway it seemed like no big deal. I was still hungry though and seeing her eat the candy bar didn’t help matters.

She then grabbed the Diet Pepsi bottle, twisted the cap off it and took a big chug out of it. She wiped her mouth with her forearm. “Oh yeah. That hit the spot. Thank you Tyler. What are the flowers for?”

I was stunned. This is not how I expected this to go. “They’re for you.”

“Oh.” she said. “Um. Thank you. They’re cool. I mean.. Um… lovely. You wanted to apologize? Let’s hear it.”

* * *

Nicole

I immediately called Lexi. One ring. Voicemail. Is Victor’s phone still blocked? 

I have to go help Victor. It’s time to tell Tyler the truth.

I’m still ten minutes away from my apartment.

I then tried calling my phone. Hopefully Victor picks up.

* * *

Victor

Tyler was hell-bent on making up and what he doesn’t realize is that I’m not Nicole. Earlier, Nicole was pushing this whole “selfless act” to help us swap back. I could attempt to mend her and Tyler’s relationship as my selfless act. This shouldn’t be too hard. As I understood it, Nicole and Tyler’s fight was over something stupid. What if I made him beg for it a little more? What if he thought Nicole wasn’t going to take him back so easily?

Just then, Nicole’s phone buzzed. I glanced down at it. The caller ID said “Body Snatcher.” Body Snatcher? Very funny, Nicole.

“Don’t answer it.” Tyler pleaded. “Please. I just want us to talk.”

“Fine.” I said, silencing her phone. “OK Tyler.” I took a huge breath. “Tell me, what couldn’t wait a few days?”

“Well, I have an evening class in an hour. I felt bad about Sunday night and I wanted to get my apology in during this small window of free time I had this afternoon.”

“OK.” I nodded.

“Nicole.” he said, putting his hand on my hand. 

I bit my lip as he did this. His hand was warm on top of mine. I wanted to pull my hand back, but it was slightly comforting so I left it there.

“I’ve felt awful for what I’ve put you through for the past two days. I’m sorry for calling your anxiety a crutch. That was wrong of me and very insensitive to do. I was frustrated. All I wanted to do was spend some quality time with my girlfriend.”

I looked at him and understood what he was saying. How would Nicole respond to this? “And if I have another of these anxiety attacks again?”

“I will do as I’ve done for the past three years and be there for you and help you get over it.” He squeezed my hand.

Was their fight really over Nicole’s anxiety attack? How often does this happen? “But Tyler, you can’t always be there. What if this break was the best thing that’s happened to Nic- I mean me.”

“Is that what this is to you?” he sounded dejected. “A break?”

Wait no. I don't want to break him and Nicole up, I just want him to come crawling back to Nicole. His eyes are looking watery. Is he crying? “No, no. I didn’t mean it like that. But what if... I start to learn how to manage my own anxieties? It may not be fair to you to be my keeper.”

He let go of my hand and put his head down, lost in thought. “It’s not lost on me that we might go our separate ways when we graduate. So I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been thinking a little about that too.” He wiped a tear away from his eye. “I’m worried a break is really a break-up.”

“What? No.” I said. Crap. This isn’t how I saw this conversation going. I have to abort this, I’m not Mr. Matchmaker. I can’t counsel a relationship I know nothing about. “Listen Tyler. I’m not really feeling like myself lately. It’s best if we just take this slow, OK.”

“I’m OK with taking it slow. But what about graduation?”

“Graduation is so far in the future, let’s not worry about that. We should work on our relationship. Work on you respecting me and my faults and me working on... whatever it is I need to work on.” That sounded better in my head before it came out of my mouth.

“Yeah. I’d like that. We can work on our relationship. Maybe we can go out tomorrow. See if we can be ourselves again. We haven’t gone out since the Spring.”

He wants to go out on a date? Tomorrow? What part of slow did he not understand? Well at least I avoided the break-up. What if we don’t swap back tomorrow? I can’t go on a date with a guy. What if I pretend it’s just two guys hanging out? Hmm, I haven’t had a guy friend in years. “I don’t really feel like going out. We can just stay in. Watch a movie or something.”

“That would work.” he said. A smile started to form on his face. “I can get us dinner.”

I can’t believe I’m doing this. Nicole is going to owe me big time, I just need to make sure Tyler keeps his hands to himself. “Sure. That works.”

Just then he came over to hug me. My eyes opened wide as he wrapped his arms around me. He is warm all over. He also smells good too. “I missed you.” he said. I hugged him back and patted his back twice.

He broke away from our hug and smiled at me. 

He does have a nice smile, I can almost see what Nicole sees in him. It’s warm and inviting. Tyler seems to have a sensitive side that I hadn’t noticed in other guys. Or maybe it was all a facade. I don’t entirely trust Tyler, but then again I don’t trust anyone. I’ve only recently come around to starting to trust Nicole and Alexis and even then, I think the only reason they’re being nice to me is because they have to be.

“See you tomorrow, Nikki.” he said, then walked out the door.

As he walked out the door, Alexis immediately came out of her room.

“How did it go?” she asked.

“I guess it went alright.” I answered. “I helped save Nicole and Tyler’s relationship. I think. He wants to hang out tomorrow and I agreed.”

“You’re going to hang out with him tomorrow?”

“Originally, he wanted to go out somewhere. I didn’t want to be wined and dined, so I told him we could stay in and catch a movie. You guys told me I should start making more friends.”

“Vic!”

“What?” 

“He thinks you’re his girlfriend. This isn’t just two guys bro’ing down. Dinner and a movie? He’s going to expect kissing and maybe even sex. Remember, he and Nicole haven't seen each other all summer!”

I was silent. I hadn’t considered that and now, I’ve just willingly walked into a trap. “Then, I’ll just have to make sure Tyler knows his boundaries. I’m a guy. It’s not like I’m going to let him make out with me.” As I said that, I remembered how I felt around Steve earlier. And how Tyler’s smile made me feel warm.

Alexis and I looked at each other for a long moment. I wonder if she knew what I was thinking. I took a deep breath and turned my attention to my phone. During the conversation, Nicole called me. She didn’t leave a message.

“Nicole called me.” I said to Alexis. I dialed the number but it went straight to my voicemail. 

Alexis pulled out her own phone. “I’ve got no messages from her. I haven’t gotten a message from her since - oh shit.”

“What?”

“I blocked your phone yesterday morning.”

“Why would you do that?”

“This was before everything. She had your phone and I thought she was a psycho stalker.”

“She should be home soon right?”

* * *

Nicole

It took way too long to get from my last class back to my apartment. Between that market in the quad and all of the “welcome back to class” events going on in my path, I had to cut through large crowds of students or sometimes even go around buildings.

In one of the quads there was loud music and a crowd. I pushed my way through and bumped into a larger guy. He turned around and looked at me.

He had a microphone in his hand. “Hey man, what’s your name and major?” His voice echoed over the music. Oh shit. He thrust the microphone in my face.

“I’m uh -” I could hear Victor’s nervous voice echo through the speakers. “I’m Nick. I’m a Marketing Major.”

“That’s great Nick!” the guy with the microphone says. “Here’s your hula hoop.” A hula hoop?  He handed it to me. “The stage is right this way.” The stage? He put his hand on my shoulder and led me through the remaining crowd and to the stage.

I walked up onto the temporary stage where I joined two girls and one other guy. The other three of them had their own hula hoops. Did I just walk into a hula hoop competition?  Dammit, I really need to get going, I don’t have time for this.

“Alright contestants!” the MC said. “Time to start swaying those hips!”

Then the music started. I sighed and started hula hooping. I used to do this as a little girl. I was great at it back in the day. It was kinda hard at first keeping it on Victor’s narrow hips, but once I found the groove I was able to keep the hoop spinning around my midsection.

One of the guys dropped his hula hoop and was escorted off stage. I suppose I could just lose and so I can get out of here.

Just then, one of the girls dropped.

“We’re down to 2 contentants left.” The MC said. “Nick from Marketing, and Krista from Education.”

Krista, who I’ve never met before, looked at me. “You’re going down, Nick!”

Oh no, this bitch didn’t!

We both kept spinning the hoop. The song ended and another came on. The crowd cheered. Krista looked at me and made a yawning expression. This was getting old and I really had to go, yet I didn’t want to lose either. What was I going to win anyway?

I really needed to get out of here, so I decided to distract my competitor. “Hey Krista! I think I see your boyfriend making out with someone!”

“What?” she said, losing her concentration and dropping the hoop.

“We have a winner!” The MC said.  I dropped my hoop, and the MC raised my hand up. The crowd cheered and he handed me my prize. A T-shirt with the logo of a credit card company on it. All that for a stupid T-Shirt?

I thanked my competitors and the MC and headed out of there as quickly as possible. 

I was about to get to the door of my dorm when I ran into Madison.

“Oh hey Victor.” she said.

“Hey Mads.” I replied.  “Madison, I mean.”

“That’s fine. If you’re Nicole’s friend, you can call me Mads too. Are you heading up to see Nicole too? She had this idea about all of us doing dinner tonight.”

“Oh yeah.” I said. I remember Victor suggesting that. “Lexi told me that Tyler is up there too.”

“Oh.” she said, looking disappointed. “In that case, then we should wait a little bit. I’m sure they’re working some things out. We should give them space.”

Ugh. But Victor needs me. Lord knows what he and Tyler are talking about.

She added, “I’m hungry anyway and I don't want to wait around for Nic and Ty to finish making up, so I’m going to get some dinner and come back later. Want to join me?”

Part of me wanted to join her. I’d love to sit and catch up with Mads - just not as Victor. Maybe this was a good opportunity to come clean to her, but I can’t do that without Victor and my body, or maybe even Lexi for good measure. If I tried it without them, Madison might react the same Lexi initially did.

“Thanks for the offer.” I replied. “Maybe another time.”

“OK.” she said. “See ya later Victor.”

I stood at the door waiting for someone to come out. Our dorms require you to slide your student ID in the card strip to unlock the main door, and I gave my ID back to Victor this morning. Up until now this door’s been propped open from people moving in. This is the first time it’s been closed and locked.

After a few minutes, someone finally came out and I walked in when they opened the door. I walked into my dorm and up the two flights of stairs and got to my door. I tried opening it but it was locked.

I knocked on the door. No answer. Where are they?

I dropped the bundled up t-shirt in my hand and pulled out Victor’s phone. It flashed “Low Battery” and shut off.

“Nooo!” I yelled at it. I tried turning it back on with no luck.

I was starting to breathe heavily. I knew an anxiety attack was coming on. Come on, hold it together Nicole. I slammed my fist on my door.

Just then I heard a girl behind me say something. “Can I help you?” she asked.

I turned around to see her. I recognized her as this dorm’s Resident Assistant, I met her briefly when I moved in a few days ago.

“I was just trying to um… visit my friends. They don’t appear to be home. I’ll just wait for them.”

“Do you live here?”

She won’t recognize Victor, and it’s likely she already knows the answer to that question, so I won’t be able to lie. “No.”

“Then I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” 

Damn. I looked at her. Then back at the locked door. Then at the dead cell phone in my hand.

She made an impatient “let’s go” motion with her hands.

I walked to the stairs and she followed me. 

She escorted me out of my own building. “Have a good night!” she said as I walked out of the door.

I walked a few yards and turned around. She was still watching me, making sure I didn’t run back in.

I had nowhere to go, and I was starting to hyperventilate. I wanted to run, I wanted to hide. I was starting to tear up as well. I needed my friends. I considered running to Victor’s place but that was too far away.

I found an empty gazebo in front of the dining hall and sat down at the table, put my head down and started to cry. This has been a rough few days. All of my pent up emotions came flooding out. My fight with Tyler, losing my identity, being forced to be a guy, trying to pretend to be someone else in classes I didn’t want to be in. Not being able to be comforted by my friends.

I heard a group of students walk by the gazebo. “Is that guy crying?” a feminine voice said.

I added that embarrassment to the list of things making me cry.

* * *

Victor

After walking around the dorms for maybe ten, twenty minutes, we finally found her. She had her head down sitting at a gazebo, staring straight ahead. I could see that her eyes were red from crying.

“Nicole, honey.” Alexis said, walking into the gazebo. “We’re here.” She started rubbing her back. She looked up and saw that it was us.

“I’m sorry I’m crying.” she said. “How’d you know I’d be here?”

We both sat down on either side of her.

“Because this is where I found you a few years ago, when nobody else was around during an anxiety attack.” Alexis said, rubbing her back some more.

“Sorry. I freaked out. I got your message that Tyler was over. I tried rushing home, but then I kept getting stopped. Then the phone died. Then the room was locked. Then the RA.” 

I reached out and held onto her hand and squeezed it. She turned to me. “Victor, I’m sorry, I’m crying in your body. I’m so embarrassed.”

“Nic, it’s OK. I’m just glad we found you. We got worried about you.”

She smiled at that. She sniffed and rubbed her red eyes. “What happened back home? Did you tell Tyler the truth?”

The truth? “I didn’t know you wanted me to tell him the truth. I was going on the assumption you wanted me to pretend to be you.”

“Our lie may be getting out of control. I was trying to come to your aid so we could tell him together, then maybe Mads too.”

“Oh.” I replied. “I didn’t tell him the truth.”

“If you pretended to be me, then how did it go?”

“He apologized. He wanted to go do something tomorrow. Dinner and a movie.”

“How did he take being rejected?” She looked at me but I avoided eye contact. Um. How do I tell her? “Victor?”

“I accepted.” I said. “On your behalf of course.”

“You accepted his offer to go on a date? But what if we don’t swap back tomorrow? We didn’t today.”

“You asked me to do something selfless for you, so I’m helping your relationship with Tyler.”

“So you’re going to go on a date with my boyfriend?”

That’s not fair, everyone keeps phrasing it like that. “It’s not a date. Well, I guess he might think it is. But you set me up on a date with a girl that you’re most likely going to go on. It’s only fair.”

We sat there in silence for a moment. Alexis was still rubbing Nicole’s back.

I decided to break the silence. “What’s for dinner? All I’ve had is a Snickers and a soda.”

We all laughed nervously at the change of subject.

“Yeah, let’s go to dinner.” Nicole agreed. “Where’d you get a Snickers?”

“Umm.. Tyler.”

“Tyler?”

“Yeah. He gave me flowers, a candy bar and a soda.”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “What? He gave me flowers? And I wasn’t there to accept?”

“Not to break up this moment the two of you are having, but I’m going to head back to the room. I just got a text that Madison is waiting outside.” Alexis said. “Nicole, you good?”

“I’m fine now,” she replied. “Thanks Lexi.” 

“They are pretty flowers.” I added.

Nicole giggled.

* * *

Nicole

Alexis started back home, and Victor and I walked to the dining hall. I got a salad, fruit cup and bottled water. Victor got whatever today’s entree was. It looked like Teriyaki chicken. We both sat down at a table together.

“How was today?” Victor asked.

“It was fine.” I replied. “Classes went well. I ran into my former roommate. Apparently she hates me.”

“That sucks.” he replied. “Wait - does she hate me or you?”

“She hates Nicole.” I replied.

“I’ll steer clear of her then.” he replied. “If I only knew what she looked like.”

“Don’t worry about it, Vic. I won a hula hoop contest.”

“You did? Where did you find a hula hoop contest?”

“At the west quad. I was trying to rush home to you and somehow walked into a hula hoop contest.”

“And you won?”

“Yes. People cheered for “Nick from Marketing.””

He smiled. “Good job, Nick from Marketing”

We both laughed.

“How was your day, Vicki from the Art college?”

I smirked at that. “Your friend Steve is in my class.”

“Steve? Who’s Steve?”

“I dunno. He seems to know you. Talked my ear off, though.”

“Ohh! I know that guy. He’s just some guy who awkwardly followed us girls around a few times last semester.”

“Yeah.” Victor chuckled. “He was trying to flirt with me.”

“That’s funny.” she said. “If only he knew he was flirting with a guy and his efforts were in vain.”

Just then, a cute girl I recognized from my dorm walked by and sat at the other end of our table. I watched her walk and checked out her outfit. I thought it was cute and really highlighted her shape really well. As I found myself admiring more than her outfit, an emerging erection interrupted those thoughts. Thankfully nobody will notice while we’re sitting down.

My gaze returned to Victor. He was looking at me. Did he notice me checking out that girl? My face suddenly got red from embarrassment. To his credit, he didn’t say anything.

“Victor” I asked. “Um. This may seem awkward, but I have a personal question.”

“Shoot.” he said. 

I whispered, “Why is this body always horny?”

Victor nearly spat out his food. He swallowed and cleared his throat. “Well. Umm.” he whispered. “Have you tried jerking off?”

“Eww!” I replied. “Wait. Oh my god. Have you masturbated in my body?”

“No! No!” he replied. “It’s barely been 48 hours since we swapped. We haven’t had that kind of time alone.”

We sat there in silence.

“You should,” he said, lowering his voice to a whisper again. “Before you get blue balls.”

Really? Is that how that worked? I didn’t know what to say. Did he just give me a green light to masturbate with his body? He did.

“I also haven’t found myself in the mood… yet.” he added. He looked at his food for a moment and then returned my glance. “If you find yourself back at my place tonight - and If you need it. I have some porn bookmarked on my computer in a folder called ‘Calculus Study Guide.’”

“Eww.”

“Seriously Nicole. You brought it up. Don’t tell me you never…”

“OK, OK.” I said cutting him off. I never talked about sex with anyone. Not Lexi and Mads. Tyler and I talk about it at the bare minimum. I don't talk to him about my “alone time.” In fact, I’m surprised I even started this conversation with Victor. Maybe I’m just feeling more confident in this male body. Or just hornier. Maybe after our shower this morning, I’m feeling more at ease with him. 

After all, we’re sharing each other’s body. So if he’s giving me the go ahead, should I give him the go ahead? I’m not totally OK with the thought of it. I’ve been actively trying to make sure he was never alone with my body - including this morning. 

But at the same time, I’ve been so horny these past 2 days. I really need a release of some kind. If he lets me masturbate, is it only right I let him? We’ve taken a shower together, so we’ve at least seen our bodies now. We’ve also been in these bodies almost two days. I know he’s a guy and he’s probably dying to try. The image of him in my body sitting on my bed, naked, fingering…

Oh my God. Shit. This is totally turning me on. My face turned bright red again. I expected Victor to be laughing, but his face was red too. 

Damn. I’m really erect now. I attempted to cross my legs, but it didn't work and I could see my shorts tenting up. “OK Vic, I’m totally gonna regret saying this. But um…” I paused. He was listening. “If you are going to do anything… make sure to put a red hair tie on the door. Lexi knows what it means.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes. Let’s just - not talk about this again.”

“Fine with me.”