For Zach on the inside of the booth, the experience was entirely surreal... yet somehow anticlimactic. He noticed the flash of light. 3 times. One for each "photo" taken. Each flash had brought about a greater degree of unease washing over him, almost like the lights were inducing a sickness he could only throw-up to quell. But then, by the time of the third flash. Everything felt normal again. He almost wondered if anything had changed at all?
Zach stepped outside with a soft clack from his new heeled sandals. Recognizing his... no, that didn't seem right. Something was off... still, standing there was his boyfriend Andrew, who could only look dumbfounded at Zach.
"Whoa...", was all he said.
"Did it work?," Zach responded in a squeaky, if not absurdly peppy, voice.
"Uh, you tell me." Andrew said gesturing to the full body mirror next to the booth.
Zach took a brief glance and froze dead in his tracts. That was not HIM in the mirror. But the image did look oh-so familiar. It was a girl. Fifteen years of age, soon to be sixteen in a few weeks. She had bronze tanned skin, with still visible bikini-lines underneath her pink tank-top. Her face was made up in a modest but noticeable amount of makeup; pink lips, eyeliner, mascara, the whole works. It really made the bright blue of her eyes stand out. Her hair was an, obviously dyed, honey blonde. It looked like it was well taken care of; long and wavy, going down to her tailbone and bordering on 'curly'. The impressive length of her hair only further highlighted her short stature. Probably no more than five feet even. Then again, her mom did say she could be a late-bloomer. All the more reason for her high-heeled sandals, perfectly accentuating her polished pink toes. On her hands were similarly painted long and artificial pink nails and a smattering of rings and bracelets. Lastly, she was snapped back to reality feeling a breeze from the shop door blow her pleated miniskirt around. A chilling reminder that these feelings, as familiar as they might be, were brand new.
"Zoey? Are you good?" Andrew asked.
"This is, like, so... Wait! Did you just, like, call me Zoey?"
Andrew paused to realize his transgression, "Oh my god, I did!?! That's so weird, it just slipped out, almost like it's easier to think of you as that."
"Zoey... I think that's, like, my name now! It feels more right to me than Zach does at this point!" Zoey replied.
"Did the machine force you to change your name? I just picked Andrew because it sounded close enough to Anya."
"Hmm," Zoey said running a manicured finger on her chin. "Maybe it's because you, like, put in that I was your girlfriend on the box? So you'd know who I was when I finished, then you'd, like, probably know my name already."
"Well it's a good enough theory as any." Andrew replied.
"Dayumn this is so weird. When I look at you all that I see is Andrew my boyfriend! Wow, that is, like, so weird to hear me say that. I know you're, like, normally a girl and whatever. Anya. My girlfriend. Who's, like, totally younger than me. But now I just see my sexy senior boyfriend!"
"Yeah, and when I look at you I see my younger sophomore girlfriend! I have memories of going on dates with you! We've been dating for a year when you moved from San Diego." Andrew was abruptly cut off by his supposedly younger high-school girlfriend.
"We've been dating for six years when I met you in grad-school! Let's, like, not get our realities mixed up. Remember, this is, like, temporary."
"Right, sorry "Zack", my "older boyfriend". Andrew said with heavy air quotes. "So how does it feel being half your normal age?"
"Hmm? Ohmigawd! I really am half my age! I didn't even think about that! This all just feels so natural."
"No, you're right, this is definitely weird indeed. By the way, what's up with the voice?"
"Hmm," Zoey quipped.
"Your voice. You're dropping 'like's' and 'totally's and stuff."
"Huh, now that you point it out, it's lik-. It's super obvious isn't it. I didn't even, like, realize I was doing it!"
"You just did it again." Andrew said with a blank face.
"Oh."