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The Twenty Year Reunion (Part Two)
🕑 Added 2022-08-13 11:14:00 +0000 UTCMake sure you've read Part One of this mini-series first! A third and final entry should be arriving at some point next week.
That first morning after the twenty year reunion would forever go unrivaled as the most bizarre experience of Ben’s life. He had been absolutely frozen in place, staring at the unfamiliar eyes in the reflection of the rear view mirror, for several long minutes without saying anything. His chest rose and fell with each heavy breath as he continued to stare, scared that any sudden movements or noise might snap him out of what had to be the most fascinating dream he’d ever had. He would soon come to learn that this was no dream but rather an indisputable reality, one where he was now residing within another man’s skin. A white man’s skin.
A distant car horn snapped Ben out of his temporary paralysis, but it didn’t break him free of the “dream” like he had been anticipating. He was still right there in Julian’s body behind the wheel of his vehicle and a throbbing in his skull that was starting to become louder and angrier as the seconds passed. Looking back down at the hands, Ben’s vision then moved up to the forearms that were heavily decorated in ink. Julian had been wearing a dress shirt the previous night and had rolled the sleeves up to his elbows, but Ben had seen from the pictures on the man’s social media profiles that he was in possession of full tattoo sleeves on both of his arms. Now that he was able to see them up close, Ben’s enjoyment of the inked artwork escalated from mild interest to outright appreciation. Julian’s body wore the tattoos well, to say the very least. He wears anything well, Ben’s subconscious chimed in. There was definitely no arguing with that!
After coming to accept that perhaps this wasn’t part of some wild dream, Ben decided that the most sensible thing to do would be to drive back to the hotel where he’d been renting a room for the duration of his stay back in his hometown. If the sci-fi B-movies and comic books he’d read as a kid were to be believed then there was a good chance that he’d find the real Julian in his body. It was either that or he’d be finding a lifeless body and that really wasn’t a scene he wanted to stumble across. Truth be told, Ben wasn’t sure what to anticipate; this whole situation was such uncharted territory for him (and likely anyone) that there wasn’t any way he could even really begin to formulate his thoughts in a coherent manner!
Driving Julian’s truck was notably different from Ben’s experiences behind the wheel of his own vehicle, a beat-up Ford that he’d bought for dirt cheap almost a decade ago. The truck might as well have been a tank given its humongous size and Ben drove slowly and cautiously, fearing that his inexperience with such a large vehicle might cause him to take a turn improperly and cause an accident. After an extended period of time, he finally arrived at the hotel and was flushed with relief when he discovered a chain of empty spaces next to each other, allowing him to swing the truck in rather haphazardly. Attempting to squeeze the mammoth vehicle into a space between two others would have probably been stressful enough to give Ben an aneurism, so he was glad to avoid that. While he had no idea what his conversation with Julian would be like, he was thankful that he wouldn’t have to share the news that he had damaged the man’s truck. Judging by everything he had learned from Julian’s rather sparse postings on social media, the man was rather fond of his vehicle. Such a straight man thing, to get attached to cars, Ben thought to himself as he stepped out of the driver’s seat and locked the vehicle behind him. Like, what’s up with that?
Although the hotel doorman gave him a strange look as he entered, Ben ignored him and walked with a purpose towards the elevators that would take him up to the floor he was staying on. He had actually been rather caught off guard by the doorman’s reaction to him, particularly because the same man had been particularly polite to him just twenty-four hours earlier. What was it about Julian’s body that made the man’s opinion of him differ so greatly? Ben highly doubted it was the skin color, so logic dictated it was probably the tattoos on display on his forearms. He thinks they’re unbecoming of hotel guests, the body-swapped man realized in bemusement. The hotel was hardly highbrow - nothing in their hometown could really be referred to as such - and yet still Julian’s indistinguishable working man image set him apart. If it wasn’t all so overwhelming, Ben would have been fascinated by the sociological messages he was picking up on.
Reluctantly abandoning the elevator after it became clear that he would need a key card to get it to activate, Ben changed course and entered the stairwell instead. He was staying on the third floor (out of six) so he wouldn’t have to ascend too high, but given his relative dislike for any sort of cardio, it was still somewhat intimidating. That proved to be unnecessary though, as Julian’s long legs allowed him to move quickly up the flights of stairs and he’d barely even broken a sweat by the time he got to the third floor! Stopping outside of the hotel room he had checked into the previous afternoon, Ben paused for a moment to catch his breath and steady his heartbeat as much as possible before lifting up a hand and gently rapping on the door with his knuckles. Given he was unused to the strength of the body he was currently occupying, his attempt to be gentle had failed and the knocks had been more like booms. If Julian wasn’t already awake inside then he sure would be after those!
The sounds of stirring from within the room made Ben’s heart rate pick up and by the time the latch was undone and the door was slowly pulled open, his heartbeat was almost deafening in his ears. His breath caught in his throat momentarily as he locked gazes with a familiar set of eyes and the two men stared at each other in silence for several seconds. Ben thought that being reunited with his body would be akin to looking in a mirror but this was a whole different beast! Something about seeing his body move without him being in control of it was almost nauseating. Suddenly the body and face that had been reflected back at him his whole life seemed alien to him - what was up with that?
“J-Julian?” Ben’s original body asked sleepily, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hands. “Wh-what are y-you doing here?” The question left Ben flabbergasted, not only because he was caught off guard by how different his own voice sounded from an outsider’s point of view, but also because the other man hadn’t responded how he’d expected him to at all! Did Julian not realize what was going on? But he called me Julian, Ben realized, So… he thinks he’s me? Still attempting to get his head around what was happening, Ben remained silent. “Is everything alright?” the other man asked meekly, his eyes briefly dropping away from their locked gaze to stare at the flesh exposed by the open collar of Ben’s shirt. As brief as it was, the lustful look didn’t go unnoticed. He thinks like me too - or he’s at least inherited my attraction towards him! Oh heavens above, this is getting weirder and weirder!
“I-- um-- you haven’t noticed anything weird this morning?” he asked, flinching as he heard the deeper tones of Julian’s voice speaking his words. Every new experience inside the other man’s flesh made Ben’s heart race. He wasn’t exactly hating it (in fact, there was quite a sizable part of him that was secretly enjoying it) but he wished he understood why it was actually happening to him.
“Other than you showing up here and my killer hangover, no,” Julian (was it even Julian if he couldn’t remember switching bodies?) replied, his gaze once again hungrily darting across the body he had once occupied. “So, uh, what are you doing here? D-did I say something last night? I’m sorry, things are still a bit fuzzy…”
He really doesn’t know. Holy shit, he doesn’t know! Ben’s mind was working overtime as he battled with this news. He knew that the morally right thing to do was to attempt to explain what had happened to the other man, but something held him back. Instead he stood there with his mouth agape for a few moments before shaking his head. “It’s, uh-- I must have got the wrong room,” he suggested, hoping that his bluff was somewhat believable, “I was looking for Deacon. He, uh… borrowed my tie and… and I wanted to get it back.”
The other man raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “Why would Deacon be staying in this hotel? Doesn’t he still live in town?” he queried, a tone of suspicion starting to creep into his voice. Apparently Julian had also inherited Ben’s distrust for his peers.
“Oh, um-- yeah but he told me he was staying in the hotel tonight,” Ben stammered while scratching at the back of his head. “Uh, anyway, maybe I’ll just phone him or whatever. I’m sorry for bothering you… bro.” That was the kind of thing the real Julian said, right?
Before the awkward situation could continue any further, Ben scrambled back towards the stairwell and quickly descended back towards the lobby. His heart continued to thunder in his chest and a thousand thoughts raced through his brain at once. What had already been a strange morning was only becoming even stranger!
Retreating to the parking lot (after receiving another sneer from the doorman), Ben considered what the hell he was going to do. He needed to find a way to make sense of what was going on but he didn’t even know where he was going to start! The loud rumbling of his stomach interrupted his thought process though and so Ben decided that he’d need to get some breakfast before trying to make sense of anything. After getting back behind the wheel of the truck, he discovered Julian’s wallet on the passenger seat and inside the first fold was his driver’s license, including his home address on the outskirts of town. With nowhere else in mind to go, Ben let out a heavy sigh, put the vehicle in drive and took off for his new body’s home.
After a short journey and a few accidental wrong turns thanks to the decades away from his hometown softening his memory, Ben was finally able to locate the property and swing the truck onto the driveway. The house itself was small and unassuming, built in a typical suburban style with large blue panels and a white trim roof. Ben recognised it as being the same one that Julian had brought with his ex-wife (that bitch Kelsey Minette) shortly after their wedding, which had been detailed in one of the few posts on Julian’s Facebook page. With this in mind, Ben thanked the heavens above that Julian’s marriage was a thing of the past because having to navigate a wife - especially one as high maintenance as he was sure Kelsey had probably been - on top of a body swap would have simply been one thing too much for him!
Despite the fact that anybody who might have been watching him at that moment would have only seen Julian Westbrook entering his home, Ben still felt incredibly cautious and guilty, as if he was trespassing somewhere he shouldn’t be. Hastily closing and locking the front door behind him, Ben then took a few seconds to calm his breathing and kick off his shoes before continuing further on into the house. It was fair to say that Julian wasn’t the tidiest of individuals, as there was a small stack of pizza boxes and empty cans of beer piled up in the hallway and Ben wrinkled his nose in disgust at the smell that permeated the air. He felt an intense urge to give the place a good clean tugging at him but he pushed the concept away, reminding himself that there were much more pressing things to do first.
One of said ‘things’ was to get in front of the mirror in the master bedroom and properly inspect Julian’s body up close for the first time. Although knowing that he was toeing the line of acceptability and morality, Ben remained on his best behavior as he started to unbutton the white shirt that Julian had worn to the previous night’s function. He watched in extreme interest as inch after inch of heavily tattooed skin was revealed, each piece of art that adorned his chest more intricate than the one before. Beneath the artwork were a pair of well-muscled pectorals - firm to the touch with sensitive nipples, but not overblown to the extent that folks might joke about him needing a bra. This innocent exploration of his pecs had Ben absolutely fascinated; he’d never had muscles like this before! Julian’s body was so different to his own and that was even without regarding the fact that their skin color was entirely different. Ben’s head still spun in bewilderment whenever he caught sight of the pinkish flesh underneath the dark ink. He wasn’t sure it was something he’d ever get used to… not that he expected that he’d have to. Sooner or later he’d switch back into his real body and everything would be normal again, right?
Casting this probable future out of his mind for the time being, Ben turned his attention back towards the unfamiliar reflection. He let both his gaze and his hands move lower on his torso, from the pecs down to the abs, and this region was perhaps even more fascinating to the man. Julian’s abs weren’t quite as defined as the likes of a runway model (although in their high school days Ben had caught a glimpse of Julian’s bare chest in the locker room and back then his muscles had been even tighter) but the six blocks of muscle were still clearly visible and it was much more than what Ben had ever had in his own body!
There was some hesitancy before Ben reached for the waistband of the pants and started to unbutton and unzip. While checking out Julian’s upper half had been easier to excuse as just innocent curiosity, the same couldn’t really be said when it came to the other man’s junk. Although he attempted to justify it to himself by pointing out that he’d eventually see Julian’s cock when he eventually needed the toilet or to shower, Ben still felt like something of a pervert when he pushed the pants down past his body’s muscular thighs and stepped out of them. He was left in just his boxers (of course Julian was a boxers guy, compared to Julian who had always preferred briefs) and socks and even though the undergarments were loose fitting, it was impossible for Ben to ignore the notable lump in the front of his boxers. Just how big was Julian below the belt? It’s time to find out--
Ben hadn’t so much as put his hands on the waistband of the boxers when a loud knocking sounded out somewhere below him. Stopped in his tracks, Ben waited a moment to ensure that he hadn’t imagined the sound and sure enough, a few seconds later, there it was again. That’s the door, he realized, scrambling to get his clothes back on, Could it be Julian? Has he finally realized what’s going on? It seemed strange that he’d have such a delayed realization, especially after already seeing his own body from an outsider’s perspective, but the mere act of body swapping was strange in itself, so Ben wasn’t ruling anything out anymore. “I’m just coming!” he called out, confident that Julian’s booming voice would carry all the way downstairs and outside. The blush that covered his cheeks as a result of the double entendre in his words was much more prominent given his lighter skin tone, painting his pale cheeks a rosy pink. Thankfully by the time he’d hurriedly restored the clothes on his body and jogged down the stairs, his whole face was flushed to effectively hide his momentary embarrassment.
Upon opening the door, Ben was greeted by a familiar face. “Jenny Hanover?” he exclaimed, just as he had the night before. “What are you doing here?” Why would she be visiting Julian Matthews at such an early hour? Their conversation back at the reunion had suggested to Ben that Jenny didn’t really have much to do with Julian other than longing from afar, just as he did. Had she been lying to him about that?
“Here to see you, silly!” the red-headed woman exclaimed, her face lighting up with a bright smile. “Now are you going to invite me in or leave me out here like a stray dog?” Jenny had retained the high energy levels that she’d displayed the previous night which didn’t really surprise Ben all that much. Even back in high school she had been an incredibly social and popular individual; the fact she’d ever bothered to give Ben even a few minutes of her day had always been surprising to him. None of that explained why she was at Julian’s door that morning though, and so in order to get answers, Ben stepped aside and allowed for her to enter.
“Uh, excuse the mess,” he mumbled as he closed the door behind her, “I guess I need to do a clean up or something.” Ben was the type to get mortified at having guests see his residence in a state of chaos and even though this was Julian’s home, the fact that he was currently Julian meant that his embarrassment had persisted. “Can I, uh, get you something to drink?” he asked, although he quickly realized that he wasn’t even sure which door from the hallway led into the kitchen, nor what Julian would have to offer as a drink. Probably a fridge full of beer, if I was a betting man…
“Oh, there’s no need!” Jenny replied pleasantly, not even seeming to notice the mess that surrounded them as they stood in the middle of the living room. “I just wanted to swing by and see how you’re doing this morning, Ben?”
“It’s been a-- wait, what did you call me? I-- I’m not Ben, I’m Julian. Are you still drunk or something?!” Ben really hoped that the panic wasn’t too obvious in his voice. Why had Jenny called him by his real name? There wasn’t any possible way she could know what had happened… was there? Suddenly he was able to see something hidden just beneath Jenny’s expression: pride and satisfaction.
“You don’t have to play that game with me, Benley Snow!” Jenny chided, her expression shifting subtly into a smirk, “I know about your little Freaky Friday situation. Or, well, Switchy Saturday given it’s the weekend now!” She giggled lightly, as if they weren’t having the most bizarre conversation a pair of humans had ever had. “Of course I know! Who did you think was responsible? The universe doesn’t just throw out body swaps left, right and center, no matter what people on the internet suggest!”
Ben stared at Jenny as if she’d just grown a second head. She was responsible for switching him and Julian? “B-but why? How?” he asked, struggling to find his voice all of a sudden. Just when he thought his morning couldn’t get any weirder, this revelation was added onto the crazy pile. Jenny Hanover had knowingly switched his body with Julian Westbrook, the guy they both had a crush on. What was going on in her head to lead her to that wild decision?
“Why don’t we talk about this over coffee, like we said last night?” the woman replied sweetly, “Don’t worry, I’ll ignore the fact that Julian’s body still reeks of booze.” She lightly slapped his shoulder and then nodded towards the door. “Well, are you coming? I need coffee more than I need oxygen right now, you have no idea!”
Knowing that he wouldn’t be getting any answers out of Jenny unless he complied with her demands, Ben let out a sigh and nodded in confirmation. As he hastily put his shoes back on, he spared a moment to sniff close to his armpit. Sure enough, not only could he smell Julian’s natural musk (something he’d failed to notice up to that point) but the scent of alcohol did indeed linger around him like Jenny had suggested. Guess I better shower when I get back, he thought to himself, trying to ignore the fact that his brain had immediately jumped to the fact that he’d be putting his hands all over Julian’s naked body…
Jenny had insisted that Ben drive, so he had been forced to get back behind the wheel of Julian’s truck and fire up the engine. Although it had barely been twenty minutes since he’d last been in control of the vehicle, Ben actually felt surprisingly more confident in the bulky vehicle and was no longer moving at a snail’s pace. During the drive he attempted to broach the topic of the body swap but Jenny had expertly diverted the conversation towards more trivial matters, informing him of her career in marketing and how her little brother was now playing in the NFL (albeit as a third string quarterback for a team with absolutely no chance at reaching the playoffs).
Once they were in the café, had their drinks and had taken seats in a private corner of the establishment, Jenny finally allowed the conversation to settle back onto the extraordinary circumstances that Ben had found himself a part of. “I started dabbling with magic when I was in college,” the redheaded beauty explained, “Just little stuff like enchanting my plants so they didn’t need to be watered so often. It turned out that I was pretty good at the whole magic thing and it just spiraled from there, you know? I try not to use it for everything, but when there's a good reason…”
Ben remained silent for several moments in an attempt to get his hand around the tale he’d just been told. Had he not already experienced magic for himself (courtesy of the body swap), he would have dismissed Jenny as talking nonsense and potentially even needing a fitting for a straightjacket. Given that he was currently living proof that magic very much existed though, he could find no fault in her words. So magic’s a real thing and Jenny’s, what, a witch? Yeah, those are two totally normal things to learn on a Saturday morning.
“What ‘good reason’ made you cast a body swapping spell on Julian and I then?” Ben asked curiously, narrowing his eyes in mild suspicion. “And on that note, when I saw Julian this morning, he seemed to think he was me. What’s up with that?”
Jenny took a long sip from her coffee before offering up her response: “You’ve always been curious about his body, haven’t you? I thought you might appreciate the opportunity to get better acquainted with it! As for him acting like you, that’s just an insurance policy. I want you to have fun in his body and you can’t very well do that if you think he’s going to expose you at any minute, can you?” She shrugged her shoulders as if the whole thing was no big deal rather than a potentially life-changing event for Ben. “If you’re not happy with it though, I can switch you back right now… but I honestly think you should wait it out a few days at least. Think of it as a learning experience!”
Despite his initial desire to request immediate passage back into the correct body, Ben held his tongue and forced himself to think about it for a little longer. As Jenny had pointed out, this would probably be the best opportunity he’d get to see Julian’s beautiful body up close for himself. The prospect of switching back without even so much as looking at Julian’s cock felt like it would be perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of his life. There was also a part of Ben that was mildly curious as to what it might be like spending time in the body of a man who didn’t just have a different skin color from him but also a wildly different lifestyle.
“Fine, I suppose you’re right,” he agreed after thinking it over, “A few days it is, then back to being Ben.” A smile settled onto his face as he spoke, with his expression quickly mirrored by Jenny.
After they had cleared the air surrounding the body swap, the conversation shifted back towards their lives in the twenty year gap between graduation and the previous night’s reunion event. Ben listened eagerly as Jenny shared stories about both her working and romantic lives but also gossip about the other townsfolk, including people they had gone to school with. Ben was pleased to discover that Jenny shared his disinterest in associating herself with Deacon Hargreeves, the high school bully who had gone on to become the town’s favourite gay. She deemed him “as arrogant as ever” which Ben had been all too happy to agree with and salaciously shared that she’d heard his husband was having an affair with a closeted firefighter.
When the conversation shifted towards what he’d been doing after leaving town two decades prior, Ben opened up about his experiences moving to a big city and getting to be an openly queer black man. He shared a few stories of his experiences at university and his disastrous dating adventures, which Jenny listened intently to, laughing and making sounds of sympathy at precisely the right moments. It was strange for Ben to hear Julian’s deep voice telling his stories, but given how pleasant he had always found the other man’s voice, he wasn’t exactly complaining.
Before long Jenny had taken charge of the conversation again and Ben was back in listening mode. While he did this though, he found his eyes absently wandering down from Jenny’s face and settling on her chest. The woman had a nice pair of tits, even a gay guy like Ben could recognise that. Plenty to wrap your hands around but not so much that they were comically big, plus she seemed to be all natural too! What are we thinking, D cup? Double D’s? The thought was so out of character for Ben that it was enough to snap him out of his momentary daze and he forced himself to look back up at Jenny’s face, hoping that she hadn’t noticed him ogling her breasts like some straight guy who only saw her as a piece of meat. If she’d seen then she mercifully chose not to comment on it, although that didn’t spare Ben from his own embarrassment. He could hardly believe that he’d done such a thing, it wasn’t like him at all!
While he had hoped that his unconscious staring would be a one time thing, only a few minutes later Ben caught himself doing it again. Jenny had risen from her seat to use the ladies room and as she’d walked away from the table, Ben’s gaze had lingered on her ass, admiring how her backside swayed with each step. The fact that she was wearing a tight-fitting skirt only accentuated the curves of her rear, which in turn prompted a surprising twitching in the front of the man’s pants. This physical response snapped Ben out of his momentary daze and he was once again flushed with shame. Just what was coming over him?
Shortly after Jenny returned from her bathroom trip, the pair decided to part ways so that Ben could properly experience some time as Julian, something that his old school friend seemed very keen for him to do. They agreed to get back in contact the following night so that Ben could switch back into his body before the work week began; he wasn’t sure how well he’d perform at Julian’s job in construction. Still, a weekend in the body of his high school crush was too good an opportunity to pass up and now that Jenny had assured him that Julian would have no memory of what had happened after she switched them back, Ben was feeling a little more daring…
