What have you done

 “Oh jesus,” Dustin said in shock, staring at the reflection in the mirror. “Katie, what have you done?”

Up until that moment, Dustin had his life right where he wanted to be. A solid business that was just starting to pay off, a good chunk of money sitting in the bank for the first time in a while, and a new apartment he had just signed the lease on with his girlfriend, Rachel. In fact, the only real complaint he had was how often he had to deal with his girlfriend’s sister, Katie. Family was family, but the difference between the two was like night and day. While Rachel was hardworking and kind, Katie was clearly suffering from youngest child syndrome: Lazy, bratty, and mostly uninterested in anything that didn’t involve her or the revolving door of short-term boyfriends she kept. In short, the complete opposite of Dustin, which was probably why they argued so much. One of their arguments had come to a head just the night before when he refused to lend more money to her that she clearly would have just spent on more clothes. She had stormed off, fuming about how it wasn’t fair he had such an easy life and exactly what she’d do if she was him.

Now, staring at Katie’s face in the mirror, Dustin realized she had somehow done exactly that. He had noticed something was off the second he opened his eyes and found his vision obscured with strands of long, dark hair. Confused, he went to brush them out of his eyes before the sight of his hand stopped him in his tracks. Thin, manicured fingers had replaced his usual ones, each one capped with light pink nail polish.

Dustin shot up, pulling away the flowery bedspread in shock as he felt the unfamiliar sensation of breasts moving under the oversized shirt that obscured the rest of his body. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Dustin was starting to realize exactly why the room felt so familiar. Looking to his left on the nightstand he knew he’d find, Dustin noticed a familiar purse with its contents spilling out, clearly thrown there carelessly the night before. Tentatively, he reached his hand out to grab the first ID card he saw to confirm and flipped it over, revealing Katie’s smiling face on the other side. 

He didn’t know how, but something had swapped his body with his girlfriend’s spoiled little sister overnight, and as he slowly paced towards Katie’s mirror for a closer look, something was telling him that it wasn’t just his body that he had lost. He had noticed it as soon as his body came into view, his shock quickly fading into something more like familiar recognition as if he’d seen the same view a thousand times before. His makeup could use a touch-up, he thought, not noticing how strange it sounded calling it “his” makeup. Absentmindedly, he picked up a hair tie and pulled his hair up and away from his face, sitting down in front of the mirror to get a better look when he noticed her phone laying on the floor next to him.

He brought Katie’s phone up to eye level, unlocking it with Face ID and swiping onto Instagram almost thoughtlessly, like he had seen her do so often. “God, she’s such a bitch for not inviting me out” he thought, annoyed at seeing a video of one of her friends taking shots with her boyfriend. “He’s kinda cute though, I’d let him hit”

The thought almost froze him in his tracks, his mouth open in shock the second he realized what he just said. For a second there, he had acted exactly like Katie would have. Even more concerning, he was finding it harder remember how “he” was supposed to act in the first place. Nervously, he tried to recall some facts about his life to ground him. First things first, age: He was 27, right? at least he thought he was, but something about that number felt wrong. Wasn’t he younger? The date on Katie’s ID card would put her at 19, that sounded more realistic. He felt the same confusion when he tried to say his name: After a few seconds the name Dustin came to mind, but that was his sister’s loser boyfriend’s name, not his. He didn’t know why he had woken up so disoriented, but he should at least know his name, right? Catherine Smith. It came to him naturally as the fog started to clear from his head, although all his friends called him Katie. Maybe that’s why she’d been so disoriented, she thought. After all, who else would she be?