SyFy_Gender_Swapped_in_Space_Bundle Page 11

  “Michael Dean Wantry! What the hell are you doing?”

  His father’s sudden roar yanked him back into reality for the second time tonight. He spun around to see his dad’s towering form at the top of the hallway staircase. His face was bright red and his fingers were digging into the wood of the bannister so hard that his knuckles were white.

  “N-nothing, sir,” Mike stammered. Behind him he heard scrambling and then a click as Kyla unjacked herself, the virtjack volume sensors tripped. He turned to see her shaking her head, long brown curls flying back and forth. She was blinking rapidly, vision clearing, and then she looked up at him.

  “Mike? You asshole! Were you spying on me while I was jacked in?” She yanked the crumpled blanket back up over her exposed body.

  “No! I wasn’t, I swear…” Mike said. Sweat broke out across his back as his father advanced down the hallway and came to stand behind him, arms folded. “She left her door open, and I thought she made a noise. I was worried so—”

  “So you thought you might just stand there and creepily gawk at me?”

  “No, I literally just walked in when—”

  “You’re so gross, Mike!”

  “If you’d just listen—”

  “Dad, do something!” she said. “I shouldn’t have to worry about being spied on by a pervy brother in my own bedroom. God! This? This is why I need a lock on my door.” She pouted at their father.

  “No locks,” he snapped, tired of having the argument, and then grabbed Mike by the shoulders and roughly shoved him forward. “You, get your ass back to your bedroom! We’re going to have a little chat.” His voice was deadly serious.

  Mike knew better than to protest as he stumbled back down the hall, his dad marching right behind him. He sat down on the edge of his bed, hands shaking, not sure what to expect. His chest was tight, and his stomach was doing backflips. His dad hardly ever got physical with him like that. Tears formed at the edges of his eyes, but he couldn’t think of anything that would make the situation worse than crying right now. He forced them back, forced himself to look up at his father. Joe Wantry stood quivering in the doorway, massive form silhouetted in the light of the hallway. His face was all in shadow. He had one finger raised up towards Mike, primed and ready to launch into a tirade, and one hand balled into a tight fist at his side. He stood like that, frozen in anger for several seconds, as though trying to decide exactly which profanity-peppered words would give Mike the flaying he deserved. But then his shoulders slumped, and he slowly lowered his hand. His balled fist uncurled, and he tapped one hand against the other as he looked away. Mike wondered what he must be thinking.

  “Mike, Mike…” he said. He took a deep breath and walked over, plopping himself down heavily beside Mike on the bed. Mike shied away, still cautious. His father wrapped his big arm around Mike’s shoulders and gave a deep sigh, pulling him closer.

  “Listen. I remember what it’s like to be your age,” his father said. “ And believe me, I understand what your step-sister must look like for you. But you need to control yourself. Do you understand?”

  Mike was horrified. “I wasn’t looking at her like that,” he protested. “I mean, she’s family! I just wanted—”

  “Don’t play stupid, boy.” His father’s eyes were hard. “I’m very disappointed in you. What you did was wrong. Those feelings you have? Bottle them up, son.”

  “Do you know what she was doing?”

  “She wasn’t doing nothing but jacking into one of her little adventure games before bed.”

  “But sir—”

  “I know, because I have access to the logs for both of your accounts. Just like I know you’ve been playing Killpoint 3 all night.” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and waved it in front of Mike. “Now stop it. Your sister is a sweet, innocent girl, and she’s right. You need to quit it. Why don’t you get a girlfriend? Christ, find a magazine. But leave your sister alone.”

  Mike wondered how his sister had faked the logs on her account. It was infuriating. There was nothing he could say now, though. “You’re right, sir,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry sir. It won’t happen again.”

  “It’d better not. Next time I catch you doing something like this, I’ll break your console in half.” Mike’s breath caught in his throat. His father’s tone implied he wasn’t joking. He really would break Mike’s virtnet console.

  “Never again,” he promised. His dad nodded, patting him on the chest.

  It was bad enough that Kyla was getting laid in virtnet on the sly and he couldn’t prove it. The last thing he needed was his dad also thinking he was attracted to her. It wasn’t like that at all! It was just… she was so lucky, looking the way she did, and it wasn’t fair! But there was no way he’d be able to explain that to his dad. Better to let him think what he wanted and just move forward, hoping he’d forget about this. Stupid girls. They got away with everything.

  After his dad had withdrawn his arm and left the room, making his way back downstairs to return to his TV shows, Kyla slinked over and leaned against Mike’s doorframe, smiling sweetly at him. She’d slipped on a pair of tight yoga pants for modesty’s sake, but all it did was show off her curves. She was teasing him.

  “Enjoy the peek?” she asked.

  “Fuck you,” he said.

  “No thanks. That’s Amy’s job.”

  He flopped back onto his bed and rolled onto his side, ignoring her soft laughter.

  “Go on, laugh. It won’t be so funny when I tell them about Amy, will it?”

  “Like they’d believe you. Please.”

  “Go to hell, Kyla. You think you’re so clever, so sneaky. You’re just lucky because you’re a girl. Try being me for once. It’s bullshit.”

  “Cry me a river. You don’t have a clue what my life is like. Stay the hell out of my bedroom, ‘kay?”

  The words stung. It was true. He didn’t have a clue what her life was like, anymore. “Whatever...” he muttered. “Nice job with your logs, by the way.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Well, don’t think my logs are the only logs I know how to fake. I can just as easily make dad think you’re enjoying Trailer Sluts 5 up here. Or actually, Backroom Boytoys is probably more your speed, huh?”

  Mike sat up and glared at her. She glared back, amusement gone. So much for his fond memories of their playtimes together. He missed the Kyla that was on his side, the one that he could talk to about anything. What a raging, epic bitch she’d turned into.

  Then she thumped her hand twice on the doorframe, smiling sweetly again. “Well, I’m going to go jack back in. Can’t get enough of these great adventure stories. I hope you have sweet dreams, Mikey.” She grinned. “As long as they’re, you know, rated PG.”

  Her laughter floated down the hallway as she returned to her room, leaving Mike alone in the dark. He thought about jacking back in, but it didn’t seem nearly as appealing, suddenly. Why was life so unfair?

  Beseeching

  The next day at school was miserable, as usual. Grey, gloomy hallways matched the grey, gloomy sky outside, and Mike’s classes crawled by in a dreary procession of formulas, facts, and dates that he could barely pay any attention to. His mind was elsewhere, focused on concocting his own imagined scenes lifted out of Kyla and Amy’s secret virtchat sessions, except in his imagination it was Christy Parker and Amy, and he was there between them… no, he was Christy. That was even hotter. Wearing her little cheerleader outfit, bouncing those perky breasts up and down, rubbing those silky thighs together as she writhed against Amy’s soft fingers… He realized he was swelling beneath his desk and he blushed, glancing around quickly to see if anyone else had noticed. No one had, of course. Who would ever pay any attention to boring little Mike Wantry?

  If they noticed him at all, they knew him as Kyla’s brother. It was humiliating that his sister was way more popular than he was. Not that that was her fault, he supposed. Mike was basically invisible. He heard them talk about Kyla in the locker room
all the time, like he wasn’t even there. “Hey, did you get a load of Kyla Wantry today?” Pete Wills would say.

  And then some other meathead would grin back, replying, “More like Kyla Wants-it, huh? God, the tits on that girl…”

  Then they’d all join in: “I could teach her a thing or two, if she ever gets bored of that Amy chick…”

  “Why wait? I’d just show her my dick and she’d come running to gobble it up.”

  “In your dreams!”

  “Nah, in my dreams I’d be bending her over a table, like this…”

  But it wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was that Mike couldn’t help but feel a little… jealous? The talk was embarrassing, but he’d bet no one talked about him that way in the girls’ locker room. Just one more example of how Kyla had everything he didn’t: the looks, the attention, their parents’ trust. He wondered if she even knew how lucky she was.

  At lunch, if she wasn’t off hanging out with Amy, she sat with the cool kids. That was where she was today, right next to the table where Chuck Higgins and all his cronies hung out. Chuck’s arm draped over the shoulders of Christy Parker, of course, but Mike saw that he was fixated on Kyla’s table, stealing sidelong glances down her shirt whenever Christy wasn’t looking. Everyone knew Chuck had a thing for Kyla. If Kyla noticed, she didn’t seem to care.

  Mike grabbed a tray, got in the lunch line, and shuffled along, watching them. Up ahead of him a lunch lady in a frumpy gray frock was serving food to kids as they passed by her, but Mike’s attention was on Kyla. She was smiling, laughing about something with Amy right now.

  What wouldn’t Mike give to be sitting in Kyla’s shoes, or even in Christy’s? He wished somebody would look at him the way Chuck looked at them, even if it was a weird thing to wish. He shook his head, suddenly embarrassed. Why did he think those things, feel those things? If only there was someone he could talk to about it… but there was no way he was going to tell anyone he was jealous of some girls. They’d just call him gay, make fun of him, and he’d feel worse than ever. Why did his body have to feel so awkward and stupid to him? Did other people feel this way and just hide it better?

  “I can tell,” said the lunch lady.

  Mike jumped, startled. She was standing in front of him, smiling from under her hair net. He felt a flush creeping up the back of his neck.

  “Uh… tell what?” he asked.

  “Tell that you want the burger,” she said, shoving a hamburger onto his tray. “Boys always want their meat.” Behind her the lunch menu sign read, “Your choice of lunch today: Hamburger or Fresh Garden Salad.” Mike frowned down at the greasy bun. He’d wanted the salad. He sighed and paid anyway, and then went to sit by himself at the edge of the cafeteria.

  As he choked down his food, he watched Christy lean back against Chuck and play with his curly, brown hair, right above his virtjack. All the cool kids had had them for ages. He wondered if Christy’s parents put any controls on her account. Probably not. Life for the cool kids was just one big sex-fueled party. He felt like the guy who hadn’t been invited, standing on the corner, watching everyone else have fun.

  He frowned. Maybe he’d never be happy with who he was, and maybe he’d never know what it felt like to be Kyla or Christy, but he shouldn’t have to sit on the sidelines completely. He could have his own sexy fun in virtnet, if he could just figure out how to get past his dad. Kyla had a way to fake the logs, at least. Maybe she also knew how to hack his account settings? She’d have to want to help him, though, and it didn’t seem likely… but what did he have to lose?

  After lunch, he chased after his sister in the hallway. “Kyla! Kyla!”

  She was walking away with Amy, and when she looked back to see who was calling for her, she frowned at him. Kyla paused while Mike caught up to them, Amy waiting at her side. Mike hesitated. He always felt a little shy around Amy. She was tall, blonde, and pretty, and she often seemed to be laughing to herself at some private joke. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail today, and her green eyes peeked out from behind the rimless glasses she wore. One of the smartest girls in school, it didn’t seem fair that she was also one of the hottest.

  “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t talk to me at school,” Kyla said. “What do you want?”

  She was wearing a tartan skirt with knee-high black boots, and her breasts strained against the fabric of a tight grey sweater. It was layered over a white cotton button-up whose cuffs poked out the ends to fold back against her arms. Her hair looked sleek and perfect, just like it always did. She must have been going for the slutty Catholic schoolgirl thing. It worked for her. Despite being only 5’6”, her striking presence made Mike feel like he was the short one. He took a deep breath and then launched into his plea.

  “Kyla, listen… I know you think it’s funny that my virtnet account is all locked down, but these parental controls are killing me. I know you know how to fake your logs, and I bet you also know a way to get past the account protections dad’s got set up on me. Can’t you please help me out, just this once?”

  She was already shaking her head as he finished. “No way. If I tell you how, you’ll get caught, and then you’ll get me in trouble.”

  “Why would I get caught?”

  “You always get caught. Why should I help you, anyway? Especially after last night.”

  He flinched. “That wasn’t what it looked like, Kyla… and for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

  Amy cocked an eyebrow at Mike, smiling. He felt his face go red.

  “Don’t make me beg, Ky. Please?”

  His sister glared at him, hand on her hip, and then shook her head. “Figure it out yourself, Mike. I can’t help you.”

  She was going to make him do it, then. In front of Amy and everything. Fine, she wanted him to play the cookie card? He’d play the cookie card. He dropped down onto one knee, grabbing her hand. She looked around, startled.

  “What are you doing?” she said. “Get up! What if someone sees?”

  “Please, Kyla… help me out. Please. Do you remember that time when we were kids? We were maybe five or six, and you were reaching for the cookie jar on top the refrigerator, and it fell down and broke and you were crying and crying?”

  She glowered at him with lowered lids, hiding behind her thick mascara, and didn’t say anything.

  “And then mom came in,” he continued, “And I told her it was my fault, and said I did it, and I got in trouble for it…”

  He paused, and she grudgingly nodded.

  “And then what happened, Kyla?”

  She sighed and rolled her eyes.

  “What happened, Kyla?”

  “You waited until she sent us both upstairs, and then you took two cookies out that you’d hidden under your shirt, and you gave me one. And we sat and ate them together.”

  “We sat and ate them together.” He paused to let that sink in. “I’ve never asked you for anything, Ky, not until now. I know we’re not close anymore, but come on! I don’t even need a cookie, here. I’m dying. I’ll take your crumbs. Just tell me how to fake the logs, and I can figure out the rest…”

  For the briefest second her face wavered, pity and empathy rolling across it, but then a scowl slammed down.

  “How dare you?” she said. “Playing on my emotions like... You know what? No, we’re not close anymore. And no, I’m not helping. If you want it so bad, figure out how to fake the logs your own damn self. I’m not giving you the keys to set me up in front of mom and dad just because you gave me some stupid cookie once.”

  “But—”

  “Hey, you wanna masturbate secretly in virtnet? Take a few computer classes, like I’ve been. It’s not that hard, dumbass.” She whirled away and stalked off in a huff, hair fluttering behind her.

  Amy stayed behind, watching Mike. Her glasses had fallen down her nose a bit, and she pushed them back into place with a long, thin finger. Mike had the sense she was about to say something, but then she just smiled and shrugged
apologetically before turning to follow Kyla. He shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked at the ground in front of him. If he had a cookie now he’d throw it at them. Stupid girls. Stupid parents. Stupid everything! If he’d enrolled in the same computer classes Kyla had been taking since middle school, he wouldn’t need her now. He’d even tried one or two, but he’d found it so boring. Now he was screwed.

  There had to be a way to get in without her help. He couldn’t search the net for an answer, since his dad checked those logs too, but maybe there was something else he could try. If he only had access to her console, maybe he could dig around in her files, find her log hacker… He smiled to himself as an idea started forming. Today was Friday. Friday nights, Kyla always went out with friends. His parents did too; some boring board game night with their friends. More than enough time for a little detective work.

  He’d spent enough of his life on the outside of the cool kids party, looking in. It was time to roll up his sleeves and break in.

  Trespassing

  After everyone had hustled and bustled into their evening clothes and hurried out the front door, Mike locked up the whole house and then crept silently upstairs. He paused before his step-sister’s room with the slightest twinge of guilt, but he smothered it when remembered her withering denial of his plea that afternoon. Once more, the door swung open on silent hinges. This time the room was still. The faint scent of her cocoa butter lotion permeated the air, and the unicorn nightlight glowed softly in the corner. It gave him just enough light to get around. He was careful to leave the other lights alone. If someone came home early, he didn’t want them wondering why Kyla’s bedroom light was on.