Raveled 7
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Tess blinked a few times.  She existed again.  She looked down at herself, but all she could see was the living room table.  She looked up at Jess, sitting naked on the couch.  In her body.  "Wait, it's dark out... how late *is* it?"

Jess blushed a bit, and tugged at her neck-line.  "Um... well, it's still Saturday!"  A little more tugging, and she could wriggle her shoulder out.

"How late?"

Jess was a bit distracted with the struggle to free her arms.  Once she was done, she blushed and admitted.  "After eight."

"Dan's going to be pissed."

Jess sighed, and wriggled her 'dumpy' body out of the neck-hole of Tess' slim, athletic one.  "I passed him in the hall.  He was pacing."

"He'll be fine.  Once you pay up."

Jess pulled her legs free, and the neck of Tess' body snapped back into shape.  "It was worth it," she breathed.

Tess scooped her head up from the table, and settled it onto her body.  "Do tell.  Where's the ribbon?"

Jess pointed to the counter.  As Tess started ribbonizing her breasts, she talked about dancing with Ed again at the dance class.  Then about the lunch they had, discussing their lives over … she couldn't even remember what they ate.

Tess tugged Jess' breasts free of her chest, and smoothed them over her own breasts, greatly enhancing her bustline.  "Got a bra handy?"

Jess handed over her shiny green bra, one Tess had bought for her not too long ago.  "Remember to keep it on until they settle.  No falling apart!"  She resumed her discussion of her afternoon with Ed, walking around campus, sitting by the stream, just talking.

While Tess was ribbonizing her bum, Jess carried right on talking, about dinner this time.  Somewhere fancy, she didn't remember the name.  The food was tasty, but the portions too small.  They'd had dessert at a burger place on the way home.

Tess slid on Jess' rump like a pair of shorts.  "Ooo, wiggly.  Thanks!"

Jess looked down at her detached legs.  "Oh.  Hm.  Well, enjoy.  But not too much!"

Tess disappeared into her bedroom, but not for long.  She emerged in a tight, stretchy dress that clung to Jess' rump like a second skin.  Jess sighed wistfully at the sight.  "How is it my parts always look better when you wear them?"

Tess leaned down to give her friend a kiss on the cheek.  "Don't wait up."

Before the door to the apartment closed, Jess could hear Don's annoyed voice.  Followed by an admiring "Whoa."

Jess chuckled to herself.  At least two people were enjoying her bum more than she ever had.  She looked down and sighed.  Tess had taken a bit more than they'd agreed on - her legs were gone to just above her knees.  Jess shrugged, and snagged one of her textbooks from the stack on the coffee table.  She couldn't go anywhere, so she might as well study.

A few hours later Jess came up for air, and looked around.  She was hungry, tired, and stuck on the couch without legs.  Well, not entirely without legs.  Jess looked down at the half-legs Tess had left her.  Not terribly useful.  Then she looked over at the ribbon, where it was lying on the couch.  Normally she'd grouse about how Tess always left it lying where it could ribbonize the furniture.  She'd even gotten stuck in a half-ribbonized cushion, once.  Today, however, it was handy.

Jess picked up the ribbon with a grin on her face.  "This has potential..."

Sunday evening, Tess and Don finally returned.  Tess giggled when she saw Jess puttering in the kitchen.  "Your arms look funny."

Jess shrugged, waving her half-length arms about.  "I had to do something."

"About?" Tess asked, confusedly.

"My legs.  You took half of 'em when you took my... you don't even remember, do you?"

Tess shook her head.  "Las' night's kinda a blur.  Tonight, too."

Jess pointed at Tess borrowed chest with her stubby arm.  "You took those..."  Then she pointed lower.  "And my butt.  And most of my legs, too."

Tess was just pointing and giggling at Jess' arm.  "What did you do?"

Jess sighed, and with some effort struggled out of her T-shirt.  When her arms were revealed it was obvious why they were so short - her elbows were mounted where her shoulders should be.

Tess frowned in puzzlement.  "Where's the rest of your arms?"

Jess leaned over and tugged at the drawstring of her track pants.  Once the waist was loosened, they fell to the floor past non-existent hips.  Where her hips should have been were two shoulders.  Below that, her missing upper arms, joined to her knees.

"It turns out my upper arms make decent thighs," Jess noted with amusement.  "I think I actually look better like this."

Tess pondered that for a moment.  "You may be right.  Except you don't have a bum to speak of.  Where did it go?"

Jess sighed much more loudly.  "You're wearing it.  And my boobs.  Can I have them back, please?"

Tess clutched her arms to her voluminous chest.  "My boobs? These are..."

"Mine, yes."

"Awwwwww."

Tess pouted even more when some deft ribbon-work revealed her normal breasts.  "Oh, these are just pathetic."

"No they're not.  They're lovely.  Just... not as big as mine.  Come on, hips too.  I want to be normal for classes tomorrow."

Tess stripped down, then ribboned off her borrowed hips and thighs with ill grace.  "Don really liked these.  Heck, I really liked them."

Jess giggled.  "Well, maybe you two can borrow 'em again.  Just the bum next time, OK?"

Tess grinned.  "Aww, not the whole leg?  You've got nice legs, too."  She started toward her and Don's bedroom.  His snoring could already be heard from within.  She stopped at the doorway, looked down at her body, and sighed.

"You're drunk. You'll feel normal in the morning."

"What if I don't want to feel normal?"

"Ditch Don and we can play with the ribbon every day."

Tess turned to the bedroom, lost in thought.

Jess grinned as the door closed.  She hadn't said no...  "Ah well.  Time to put myself together."


Over breakfast the next morning, Jess kept up a cheerful dialog.  She was a bit extra-loud, grinning every time she saw Don wince.  "You know, yesterday made me think.  It's not my arms I want to get rid of, as such."

Tess gave her a pained look.  "Really?  That's nice."

"No.  It's just my upper arms.  They don't fit.  Too bulky."

"All those chores on your family's farm.  You better keep working them, or they'll get all flabby."

"I know.  Using them as legs was a pretty good workout.  I'll have to do that again."

Tess laughed. "I was thinking free weights."

Don grumbled something incoherent and left, slamming the door behind him.

"What a grump."  Jess laughed.  Tess chuckled with her.

That evening after dinner, Tess commented idly, "Something weird happened to me at lunch.  This guy came up to me and started talking to me as if we were old friends."

Jess took a moment to register then her eyes widened.  "About your height, wavy brown hair, thin, kinda cute, has a great smile?"

Tess shrugged.  "Cute if you're into nerds, I guess.  No fashion sense at all."

Jess practically shouted, "That's Ed!  What did you say?"

"Your boyfriend?  Why was he... ohhh..."

"What did you say what did you say what did you say?"

"I... uh, kind of brushed him off."

Jess' face fell.  "Oh no," she whispered.

"I wasn't mean!  I just said he'd mistaken me for someone else.  Which is true enough."

"I guess.  Um, if he does the same thing tomorrow, can you say you're my twin sister or something?"

"False face must hide what the false heart doth know.  This won't end well."

"Please?"

"As you wish."


As soon as Jess got home, Tess met her with, "He wants a date."

Jess bounced happily.  "Yay!  When?"

"Tomorrow night."

"That's great!"

"Have you really thought this through?  He's expecting you in my body.  But I'm having dinner with Don that night."

"Oh.  Foo.  Maybe you could have your date later?"

"And have you talk to Ed for hours and forget?  No."

"OK, then how about Ed and I have the date later?"

"Maybe..."

"Thank you thank you thank you!"

So it was settled.  Ed would meet "Jess" at the same restaurant as Tess and Don were going to.  Jess would be waiting at the bar, and text Tess when Ed arrived so they could meet in the washroom and Jess could take over Tess' body for her date.

The first part worked fine.  Ed showed up a few minutes early, and the text prodded Tess into excusing herself from the table.  As she was heading to the washroom, Ed spotted her, and made a beeline for her.  "Jess!  I'm so glad to see you again."

Tess shot Jess an apologetic look, then took up her role with gusto.  "Ed!  It has been too long."

Jess sighed, and sat back down at the bar.  She continued to nurse her drink while watching Tess chat with Ed.  It was actually pretty impressive to watch - it had been almost two years since they'd last been able to play the twins game, but Tess still knew Jess' body language.  She felt as if she was watching herself on her own date.

Then Jess looked about, and noticed that Don was still at the table. He looked a bit ticked off.  Fortunately, Don's table and Ed's table were tucked into opposite corners of the restaurant, and they couldn't see each other.  He wouldn't be happy seeing Tess with another guy.  When he got up and started pacing, Jess started to worry.

She sent Tess a quick text, [Don is looking for you.]

[Distract him, get him to go home.]

Jess sighed again, and walked over to Don.  "Hey there."

Don looked down at her as if looking at a bug.  "What do you want?"

"Um, Tess is doing me a bit of a favour.  It'll be a while..."

Don grumbled and sat down.  "Fine.  I'll wait."  He signalled the waitress and ordered another beer.  He looked away from Jess, making it clear that watching the game on the restaurant's big-screen TV was vastly more interesting than anything else she could say.

Jess retreated to the bar once more.  Tess and Ed were sharing what looked like a plate of nachos, and the sight of the food made her stomach rumble.  Since it looked like she'd be stuck at the bar much of the night, she ordered a veggie plate to give her something to nibble on.

Two beers later, Don started pacing again.  Jess sent another text, [He's still here.]

[Argh.  Try again.  Tell him I'll do whatever he wants when I get home.]

Jess approached Don, but he didn't even deign to look at her.  She didn't quite catch what he muttered under his breath, and decided that it would be better to retreat.

[He won't talk to me.]

[Bother.  OK, I'll send him off.  Cover for me.]

Jess watched as Tess excused herself from Ed's table, slipped into the women's washroom, and came out the other side.  She could see the animated discussion between Don and Tess, and then saw her lead Don out the door of the restaurant.

[For how long?]

Jess didn't get a reply.  She watched Ed, and saw how disappointed he was getting as the delay stretched on and on.  Eventually, she couldn't stand it any more and went over to his table.

"Hi."

Ed blinked at her owlishly through his glasses.  "Um, hello."  He stood up, and shook her proffered hand.  "I'm Ed."

"I'm …"  Crap.  Tess was pretending to be her, so who should she be?  "I'm Tess.  Jess' roommate."

"Oh!  What an odd coincidence, that she has a sister and a roommate with the same name."

Jess grinned, trying to remember Tess' mannerisms.  She schooled her face into a confident smile.  "Yeah, it made things a lot simpler.  She doesn't forget my name."

"So what do I owe the pleasure to?"

"Ah.  Jess had a minor emergency to deal with, and texted me to ask me to cover for her for a bit."

Ed gestured to Tess' vacated seat.  "Then by all means, let us sit and chat.  No harm in that."

"Thank you, gallant sir.  I'm afraid I'm no substitute for her."

Ed chuckled, and sat down after Jess did.  "Nonsense."

They chatted for a while.  Jess tried to maintain a certain detachment, keeping Tess' personality in mind in place of her own.  It was hard, though.  And she had to be sure not to nod along with stories that Ed had already told her as Jess-in-Tess'-body.

Thankfully, Jess' phone finally beeped with a short text.  [Back.]  She got up, and waved to Tess as she walked back to the table.  "Everything resolved, Jess?"

Tess and Jess shared a quick hug before Tess sat back down with Ed.  "Yes.  I hope you weren't too upset with me scooting out like that, Ed."

"Not at all.  Tess proved an able distraction."  There was a twinkle in Ed's eye that Jess wondered about, but she headed back to the bar to await an opportunity to swap bodies with Tess.  Which left her well positioned to see Don storming back in.

[HE'S BACK!]

Tess jerked upright, and excused herself more hastily.  She jerked her head at Jess, and headed toward the door.  Jess returned to Ed's table, and resumed their conversation as if nothing had gone wrong.  She winced a bit as she heard Don's voice boom from outside the restaurant, but couldn't make out what he was saying.

When Tess returned she was looking somewhat disheveled.  "Sorry about that."

This time, Jess didn't even make it to the bar.

The rest of the evening was spent in an odd three-cornered dance.  Tess spent half her time at the table with Ed and Jess, and half of it trying to keep an increasingly drunk Don from finding out what she was doing with the other half of her time.

This kept up until closing time.  Don got drunker and drunker, louder and louder.  By contrast, Ed seemed to be amused by the whole production, as if he was in on some joke.

At the end of the date, when Ed asked, "Can I see you on Friday?", both girls answered "Yes."

Walking home together, Tess and Jess couldn't help but giggle.  Jess looked around to make sure Ed wasn't nearby.  "I never thought we'd do the twins thing again.  That was insane.  Fun, but insane."

"The best laid schemes 'o mice an' men..."

Jess laughed wryly.  "Indeed."

Friday night before dinner, there was a knock at the door of their apartment.  Jess walked up to it, puzzled.  Nobody ever knocked - if it was Don, he'd have just barged in.  When she opened it, Ed was standing there, wearing a slightly rumpled blazer.

"Hi, Tess," he said.  "May I come in?"

Jess took a few seconds to process that, then put on her most confident smile - one that she didn't feel in the slightest.  "Of course you may.  Just a moment, I'll fetch Jess."

"That would be great," Ed said as he walked into the apartment.  "You look nice tonight."

Jess turned away to hide her blush.  She always dressed up for Friday dinner, it was part of a deal with Don that let her and Tess use the ribbon more often.  She tapped on Tess' door, and called out loudly, "Jess!  Ed is here."

Tess opened the door, and yanked Jess inside.  The door slammed perhaps a bit too loudly.

"Ed is here?  But... Don's going to be home any minute.  Can't you get him to come back after dinner?"

"During ribbon time?"

Tess giggled.  "He'd probably take it better than Don."

Jess nodded.  "I bet.  C'mon, just go out and play Jess for a bit, get him to come back in a couple hours."

So Jess watched from the slightly-open door as Tess greeted her Ed.  Her eyes grew as wide as saucers as Ed scooped her into a hug and what looked like quite the sizzling kiss.

The apartment door banged open.  A loud, drunken Don yelled, "What the HELL are you doing with my girl?"