Love Swap: The Wildflower and The Elegant Lotus
Rosemary is as reserved as a person can be. Most of her time is spent in isolation, fingers often grazing the keys of a piano as she tries to run away from the sad reality of her life—the reality that it's all been planned out. Set in stone from the smallest details to the most major life events. From inheriting her father's business to an engagement with a mere family friend, Hayes, who just so happens to attract a rather erratic group of lovesick girls, all who are constantly coming for Rosemary out of envy, the girl wants none of it. Especially since none of it wants her back, not her father, not her fiance, none the girls that surround her that suffocate her with the offer of superficial friendship. Daisy is on the other side of the spectrum. Free, yes, but a bit more lost, impulsively jumping from opportunity to opportunity, knowing nothing of what she wants in her life. Unfortunately enough, recklessness gets you a lot of scars. From her cheating ex-boyfriend who just so happens to be the school's heartthrob to her estranged best friend who mysteriously catches everybody's eye. What happens when a strange pattern begins to emerge and they swap bodies every other day? Will Daisy's carelessness be able to rearrange Rosemary's fate? And will Rosemary's meticulousness be able to get Daisy's life together? When love enters the mix, things get complicated. Because in a single day, Rosemary's fiance is enamored with whoever took over his fiance's body. And Daisy's best friend suddenly has the drive to talk to her again.
The Elegant Lotus: Unresolved Bonds
The girl with the ginger hair turns out to be Chloe as I've learned. And the person whose body I've inhabited, Daisy. The other girls, ones whose names I haven't asked for yet (for the fear of being suspicious), have been spending the entire morning trying to remove what they call "the cocks" off of my— well, Daisy's face.
Strangely enough, despite the grating feeling of cotton and napkins against my face, a prickle of warmth blossoms from my heart. I've never had the chance to have friends, especially not female ones my age. So to be surrounded by them, laughing and bickering about an endless list of trivial things has my face flushing. Something about the familiarity of it all makes it feel as if I'm sinking into the sun, embraced by the warmth of summer sand.
They give up, eventually. And it's with great humiliation that I realize I have to wait a few hours for the drawn genitals to fade away. This body's friends, the rather eccentric girls I've woken up to, learn to accept the cold, hard truth as well. Almost instantly, they get to their knees, begging for my forgiveness.
I have no idea how to respond, the situation so surreal that it makes me dizzy.
"Ah. Well. It's something you shouldn't do again, but what more can we do? I'd rather not melt my face off with chemicals."
They look at me as if I've grown a second head, questioning gazes shared between them as they absorb my words. I worry I've said something uncharacteristic and realize that I know nothing of Daisy, not the way she speaks, not the way she acts, and definitely not her dynamics with these strange girls.
"Is that an 'I forgive you guys?'" One of them asks eventually.
"Ah, yeah!" I do my best to impersonate their mannerisms, my grin unnaturally wide and two thumbs pointing upwards.
They start cackling once again. They laugh and they laugh until tears leave some of their eyes. There's about three, no, four of them and all their laughter blending in together is a cheery sound.
"What the hell did you take? Are you alright? Are you secretly plotting our death?" One of them asks, her name unfortunately not a part of my memories.
"What? Certainly not! I have no such intentions to do so."
She raises her brow at me, another one resting her head on her shoulder as she tries to control her laughter. "Leave her alone. You know how D is when you wake her up too early."
"Totally bonkers." The comment flies from someone else.
"Whatever, losers." Chloe stands from her seat on the ground, feet resting on the mattress we'd used to sleep. "We only have a few hours before class starts anyway. We need to get up."
"Oh right, it's a Tuesday today."
They all look back at me, expressions of empathy and regret reflecting in their eyes.
School. I have to go to school... absolutely andalized.