Seasonal Vacation (Patreon)

While everybody was enjoying the festive spirit that the Christmas season brought, Toby was miserable. The winter season brought about a whole horde of unpleasant memories for the thirty-three year old office drone and he bitterly counted the days until the twenty-sixth of December when the decorations would be taken down and the chant-like repetition of carols on the radio would finally cease. Until then he was forced to endure as supposed ‘festive cheer’ spread around him and he was labelled by his coworkers as a ‘Grinch’ who ruined their mood merely be refusing to wear a wooly jumper and a Santa hat for the duration of his shifts.

There was only one person in their labyrinth of tiny cubicles that Toby could really tolerate considering the seasonal snark of the masses and that was Kyle. The other man was a new starter in their office and seemed destined for greater things rather than to remain trapped in their dungeon of mediocrity. He even looked like he deserved more: broad shoulders, square jaw and the promise of abs hiding just beneath the thin fabric of his tight-fitting shirts. He would have looked at home on any runway and yet somehow he had found himself among the shuffling horde of zombies in their office.

Even though there was an ocean of differences between them both in physicality and temperaments, Kyle had been friendly to Toby since he had first arrived. There was no denying that the new starter was little more than dumb muscle but he was always kind and to Toby that counted a whole lot more than smarts. He was surrounded by assholes with high IQs on a daily basis and Kyle was a breath of fresh air in comparison. Still, the idea that a hunk like that would want to befriend a lump like himself was always a little surprising, if not outright madness. Toby had been picked on throughout high school for being a dweeb by guys who looked just like Kyle and yet the other hadn’t addressed him negatively at all and had even stood up for him when he was getting chewed out for not decorating his desk by a stroppy colleague.

Kyle’s kindest act by far though came just a week before Christmas Day. Tensions between Toby and his cubicle neighbors had seemingly skyrocketed over his resistance to join in with their celebrations and it was taking a toll on the former’s wellbeing. He was struggling to sleep and regularly excused himself to shed tears in the privacy of the bathroom after overhearing the derogatory remarks whispered about him when they thought he couldn’t hear. To make matters worse, Kyle was working his last shift before going off for ten whole days on a beach vacation and Toby’s only line of defense would be gone. That was when Kyle pulled him aside and made a declaration that stunned the embattled man to the core:

“I want you to go on my vacation for me.” There was such earnestness in Kyle’s pretty blue eyes that Toby was left at a momentary loss for words. “I’m serious, dude. I’ll stay here and take all the heat, you escape and get that sun you desperately need.”

“You know the boss won’t just let us swap vacation days,” Toby sighed, finally finding his voice. Their office manager loved Kyle - everybody did - but had never once offered Toby any praise despite all of the good work he did for their company. “It’s a really nice offer, dude, but it won’t work out.”

“It will if you go in my body. They’ll never even know,” the younger man fired back without a hint of mockery in his tone. Despite that, Toby opened his mouth to chide his friend for trying to play a stupid joke on him. He hardly had the time to formulate the thought before Kyle grabbed his hand in an iron-like grip and muttered a few words in a language Toby had never heard before. For a moment Toby felt absolutely fine. A second later and his very soul was trapped in a whirlpool and rocketed down into the depths of the unknown.

Within a heartbeat the momentary panic Toby had felt was over. He stared down at his own smiling face through new eyes - Kyle’s eyes. His heart thundered in his chest as he looked down at the muscle-bound body he had been switched into and immediately felt something stirring in his pants. “Like I said,” his own voice remarked, distracting Toby even as his cheeks flushed with colour, “They’ll never even know.”

It took some further convincing for Toby to agree to go along with Kyle’s insane plan - although the other choosing to withhold the information about how he’d actually swapped their bodies in the first place meant that he had held total power over the conversation anyway - but eventually he relented and agreed to spend Kyle’s arranged ten days away under the bright sun while he left his friend to suffer in his place. No matter how hard he protested that it was unfair, the other refused to hear it. “Let me do this for you,” he had insisted every time Toby tried to put forward a new argument. 

Finally, when the overwhelmed office veteran had asked why the young stud would give up his body even temporarily for a guy like him, the other’s face - his own, really - split into a shy smile. “You’re the only one here who’s never treated me like a piece of meat or made jokes about me flunking outta college.” Toby had heard those jokes previously but never thought anything of them; Kyle had always laughed them off in his usual charming manner. To think that they had bothered him and he merely hadn’t said anything was bewildering. He felt guilty for not coming to Kyle’s defense as the other had done for him but when he expressed as much it was waved off yet again. “I might be a whole load smaller than you right now but I still know how to kick your ass,” the other remarked, although there was no real threat to the words. “Go on, dude, it’s five. Clock out and go home, the address and key is in my wallet. The flight’s at six tomorrow morning, everything’s packed and I left the ticket out for you. Enjoy yourself.”

Needless to say, in the ten days that followed Toby really did enjoy himself to the fullest. Never in his life had he expected to occupy a body so well-defined with its muscles and model-like good looks, nor did he have any idea of the privileges that came with it. There was no shortage of people buying him drinks and attempting to sweet talk him, although he resisted all attempts to be lured back to somebody’s bedroom. While he hadn’t quite been able to keep his hands to himself with Kyle’s body, Toby still respected the other enough not to take things any further than that.

Christmas Day had passed without issue, spent just like any other day of his vacation: drinks at the bar, a dip in the clear blue ocean and a mouth-watering fest that he made sure not to overindulge in, lest it negatively affect Kyle’s perfect abs. The only downside was that the island upon which his getaway took place had little to no phone signal and Toby found himself cut off from his new best friend who was surely regretting his decision to pass up such a glorious escape in exchange for more miserable days in the office. He only hoped that he could find a way to repay Kyle for what he had done for his mental wellbeing, although matching up to such a kind gesture was a daunting and potentially impossible task.

Ultimately though, repayment was hardly necessary. When Toby returned to the office after a blissful ten day break he found there was something off about the other who had taken his place. His request to end their exchange was met by a confused look and even a nervous laugh. “What’s so funny?” he asked, scratching the back of his head in confusion. 

“I’m just a little confused, buddy,” the other replied in a small voice, hardly able to meet Toby’s intense gaze. “I don’t remember anything about switching bodies with you and I definitely think I’d remember because you’re--” He motioned towards all six-foot-three of the muscular body Toby and occupied. “--and I’m, well, this.” Then, after a pause, he asked in a timid voice: “Is this a joke?”

Toby was at a total loss. Had Kyle really forgotten switching bodies with him? How was that even possible? His initial alarm soon began to die down though as the other excused himself and disappeared back to his cubicle. It was clear from the way that others smiled at him and asked about his vacation that they were no longer going to walk all over him, in fact they wanted to be his best friend! Kyle had a good life, much better than his own, and if he couldn’t remember living it then was it necessarily wrong for Toby to continue in his shoes? 

Besides, the other had refused to explain how he had switched their bodies in the first place, so what could Toby possibly do? The only choice he had left was to continue to live the life that had been gifted to him and, considering how friendly his boss had been upon his return, reap the benefits that came with being Kyle. With the other’s body and life in his hands, it was very possible that he’d be able to escape the monotony of office drone life in more ways than one!