Is It Love?!

Part 1  - The beginning

Internet pop ups can be annoying and pointless at times but on this particular day, it happened to be just what I and a group of my friends were looking for.

The pain he had been in had been unbearable for him as we'll as his friends. It had been going on for months.

Around three weeks ago he had split up with his partner. They had been together for years and were close even from a school age. It may have only been three weeks ago, but the breakup had been going on for months. That was almost the end for him. He gave up and it was only his close friends that had supported him so well that kept him going.

I and a few others couldn't bear to see him so upset. We had taken him on lads nights out, had lads nights in, day trips to theme parks and the like. We had even tried taking him on a holiday last week. Nothing would get him out of the gutter he had fallen into. He used to be such a positive lad. But now his confidence was completely shot... It felt as though there was nothing more we could do.

That was until an Internet pop up came up on Brian's laptop screen. It offered the chance to swap your own body with that of anyone else and literally switch places with them. Become your favourite movie star, soccer player, your best friend or even your worst enemy. All without the other person knowing. It seemed too good to be true

There were different packages available each offering different solutions for different circumstances as well as the length of time the swap lasted for; all between one day and permanently. Our circumstance was probably going to be one the most expensive.

We had all agreed to help Alex out by each spending one week as him. Take away his pain and allow him to live away from his own body and life for a while. To sell it to him we didn't tell him that we were trying to help him. We told him it was just for a bit of fun.

We used the drop down menus, selected five people for one week each. The site told us that a special formula would be created and it would be as simple as taking a pill. The science was in that pill and the system that was fool proof would simply select one of the others that we had not been before. Providing that we each took the pill at the same time and in the same room with no other occupants. Then after 1 week we would simply switch back at night while we slept.

The five of us chipped in and it only came to $50 each. There was Brian (the geeky one). Alex (the one with the love problems). Craig (the gobby one). Damien (the quiet one). Finally, there was me Jake. We each entered our stats on the profile page. It requested all kinds of details. Shoe size, waist size, height, eye colour, hair colour and sexual orientation. Even weird things like favourite food. It was almost like an online dating site, not that I use any of them.... It then asked us to provide a DNA sample; it suggested a crop of hair, which we labelled up and packaged it was sent via courier the very same day.

When the courier arrived and he saw the address, He smiled and then winked at me, third one today he said. I bet you have some fun planned...

The pills arrived after a week to each if our home addresses. All labelled with our names, and marked week 1, 2, 3 and 4. It all seemed very exciting.

We each gathered in one of the back rooms where we worked and slipped a pill each with a glass of water. Things began to happen almost instantly. We all began to go pale in colour, and then our complexions began to change and appeared blotted. Then we all began to feel nauseated and all sank to the floor in a heap. Actually it was five heaps. We woke after what must have been an hour. Switched.....