My Bestie Wanted My Boyfriend; I Lent Her My Family

On my twenty-fifth birthday, my family held two votes.

In the first, by a count of four to one, they decided to lend my boyfriend, Chester Floyd, to my best friend, Wendy Pruitt, for a month.

In the second, by a count of four to one, they decided to throw me out of the house.

I dragged my suitcase through the pouring rain for three hours when a line of text suddenly popped up in front of me:

The Life Swap System has been activated.

You will swap bodies with Wendy Pruitt for one month.

She will experience for you a life ruled by family democracy.

The next day, I woke up in Wendy Pruitt's three-hundred-square-meter bedroom.

On her phone sat a voice message Chester had just sent:

"Wendy, when are you going to dump that loser Jordan Gilbert and officially be with me?"

I burst out laughing.

She only wanted to borrow a boyfriend from me.

Instead, I'd lent her the man and my whole family, all at once.

... ...

My family loves to talk about democracy.

Dad, Mom, my brother, my sister, and mefive people, one vote each.

It sounds fair enough.

The problem is, those four have four hands, and I only have two.

When I was seven, my sister took a liking to my birthday cake.

Dad asked, "Raise your hand if you agree to give the cake to your sister."

All four hands shot up at once.

I never even got a taste of what the frosting was like.

At seventeen, I was accepted into the gifted youth program at Northfield University.

My sister said she couldn't bear to have me so far from home.

The whole family voted.

Four to one.

My application was changed to the local state teachers' college. My sister hugged me, smiling. "I always knew you were the most family-minded one."

At nineteen, my brother was short of money to start his company.

They voted again and sold the gold bracelet my grandmother had left me.

At twenty-one, I finally scraped together eighty thousand dollars for grad school.

My mother said my sister couldn't get married without a dowry.

Four to one, again.

Looking at the eight dollars and sixty cents left on my bank card, I asked my dad for the first time:

"Since the outcome is always the same, what's the point of my vote?"

Dad held his tea and spoke earnestly.

"It gives you a sense of involvement."

After that, I finally understood.

So-called family democracy just meant the four of them could legally decide what I lost each day.

On my twenty-fifth birthday, they set out a whole table of food for me.

I was pretty surprised.

After all, in the past few years, they'd either forgotten my birthday or told me to go buy a cake for my sister.

It wasn't until Wendy walked in on Chester's arm that I realized this meal wasn't for me either.

Wendy wore a new white dress and, around her neck, the necklace I'd had my eye on for half a year but never let myself buy.

She pushed a small box in front of me.

"Happy birthday, Winnie."

I opened it.

Inside was a complimentary silk scarf.

The tag hadn't even been removed. It read: Free gift with purchases over one hundred thousand dollars.

Chester coughed softly beside her.

"Wendy picked this out especially for you, so don't turn your nose up at it."

I looked at him. "What did you just call her?"

Chester froze.

"We're all friends. What's wrong with using a friendly name?"

Wendy covered her mouth and laughed.

"Winnie wouldn't get jealous over something this small, would she?"

Halfway through the meal, she finally got to the point.

In a few days she was going to be on a couples' travel reality show.

But her fianc, Jordan Gilbert, refused to go on the show with her.

"Winnie, Chester looks good and he's easygoing. Lend him to me for a month."

I almost thought I'd misheard.

"Lend you what?"

"Chester, of course."

She blinked, all innocence.

"I'll give him back once we finish filming. A sister's boyfriend is my boyfriend toowhat's wrong with borrowing him for a while?"

I looked at Chester.

He wasn't angry. He rubbed his nose instead.

"It's just acting. Wendy has a lot of fans, so I can use the chance to promote the company."

"You agree to this?"

"Winnie, don't be so petty."

Mom set down her chopsticks.

"Wendy has helped your brother so many times, and you can't even lend her one boyfriend?"

My brother jumped in at once. "My company's counting on Miss Pruitt to invest next month."

My sister laughed too. "Relax, Chester's not some object. Lending him out won't take a chunk out of him, will it?"

I nodded.

"He's not much of anything, that's for sure."

Chester's face darkened. "Winifred Fox, do you even know how to talk to people?"

Dad tapped the table.

"Stop arguing. We'll decide by vote."

"Raise your hand if you agree that Chester should go on the show with Miss Pruitt."

Dad, Mom, my brother, my sister.

All four hands went up at the same time.

I looked at Chester.

He slowly raised his hand too.

I laughed.

Five to one.

Now they'd even given my boyfriend a vote on my behalf.

"Fine."

I picked up my bag and got ready to leave.

But then Dad spoke up again. "Wait, there's one more thing."

"While Wendy's filming the show, she wants to live somewhere with a bit more everyday warmth, so she's going to move in with us. There aren't enough rooms, so you'll go stay somewhere else for a month first."

I asked, "Stay where?"

"You've got a job. Figure it out yourself."

Mom frowned. "Wendy's a rich young lady, and she's willing to stay in our housethat's her showing us respect. Stop being such a killjoy."

The second round of voting began.

Still four to one.

Dad pointed at the door.

"The minority yields to the majority. You move out tonight."

As I dragged my suitcase downstairs, Wendy chased after me.

She held the umbrella over me, her voice sickeningly sweet.

"Winnie, don't hold it against your uncle and aunt."

"They just like me more, that's all."

She leaned close to my ear and let out a small laugh.

"People are the same way."

"Some things are useless in your hands. Lend them to me, and only then can they show their value."

I pushed her umbrella aside and stepped into the downpour.

Three hours later I was sitting outside a convenience store, soaked through.

Suddenly lines of golden text appeared before my eyes.

Host's resentment level detected breaking past the critical point.

The Life Swap System has been bound successfully.

Swap target: Wendy.

Swap duration: thirty days.

During the swap, both parties can view each other's key events through the system.

Special notice: The items she borrowed from you will all be returned at the end of the term.

I wiped the rain off my face.

"Including Chester?"

Included.

I frowned in distaste.

"You return the trash too? Your system doesn't support refusing delivery?"

The system went quiet for two seconds.

The host may request destruction upon receipt.

Fairly humane service, that.

I tapped confirm.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on Wendy's huge bedbig enough for eight people to sleep across it sideways.

The phone screen lit up.

A voice message from Chester popped up.

"Wendy, have you thought it over?"

"When are you going to dump that useless fianc Jordan Gilbert and officially be with me?"

I listened to that message three times.

The first time, I felt sick.

The second time, I realized how blind I'd been before.

The third time, I picked out my sister Jasmine's laughter in the background.

Wendy, Chester, and my sister.

The three of them made quite a set.

One more player and they could deal a full table of cards.

A system notification popped up.

Item available to query: borrowing records.

I opened it.

A list too long to see the bottom of appeared before my eyes.

Age seventeen: admission spot at Northfield University.

Handled by: Wendy.

Method: Paid Jasmine twenty thousand dollars to initiate a family vote on the grounds that she couldn't bear to be parted from her younger sister.

Age nineteen: gold bracelet left by grandmother.

Beneficiary: Aiden.

Note on actual source of funds: Wendy once promised to compensate the Fox family one hundred thousand dollars, but never followed through.

Age twenty-one: grad school savings.

Handled by: Wendy.

Purpose: To buy the dress worn on her first date with Chester.

I stared at that last line for a long time.

So it turned out my sister's wedding dowry was fake.

My eighty thousand dollars ended up on Wendy's body, sharing a candlelight dinner with my boyfriend.

My stomach churned.

I rushed into the bathroom and threw up for ten minutes.

It wasn't grief.

I just felt filthy.

The phone rang again.

This time it was someone saved under the name "Mom."

"Wendy, are you up? Jordan's coming over for dinner tonight, so don't start throwing fits."

"A guy like Chester is fine for a fling. Are you really planning to break off your engagement for him?"

Just as I was about to reply, a semi-transparent screen suddenly opened up in front of me.

On the screen, Wendywearing my facesat at my family's dining table.

She had clearly just woken up, and her face was still full of terror.

"Where is this?"

Mom set a bowl of oatmeal down in front of her.

"Are you still half asleep? Hurry up and eat, then get your bank card out."

Aiden, my older brother, was chewing on a hash brown, not even looking up.

"The company's still short three hundred thousand in working capital. Miss Pruitt's coming this afternoon, so don't let her think our family isn't sincere."

Wendy shot to her feet.

"Are you all insane? I'm Wendy!"

My sister burst out laughing.

"Last night you fought tooth and nail against letting Winnie move in, and now today you're pretending to be her?"

Wendy rushed to the mirror.

When she saw my face clearly, she let out a scream.

Mom slammed her hand down on the table.

"What are you screeching about!"

"Get your bank card out."

Wendy clutched her bag.

"The money in here is mine!"

Dad came out of the study.

"Since we don't agree, let's vote."

"Everyone who agrees to give Winifred's money to Aiden for working capital, raise your hand."

Four hands.

Neat and orderly.

Wendy trembled with rage. "I don't agree!"

Dad looked at her coldly.

"Four to one. Passed."

My brother stood up and grabbed her bag.

Wendy hung on and wouldn't let go, and they started wrestling over it in the living room.

"Let go of me!"

"That's my card!"

My brother shoved her down onto the sofa.

"What's this 'mine' and 'yours'? We're familywhy draw such sharp lines?"

In front of the screen, my shoulders were shaking with laughter.

The system asked:

Host emotional state abnormal. Is a calming service required?

"No need."

"I've just realized for the first time how well breakfast goes down around here."

Wendy's bag was taken.

Her phone, ID, and bank cards were all confiscated.

She screamed my name toward the direction of the screen.

"Winifred Fox!"

"Get out here!"

"Switch us back right now!"

I picked up the coffee on the table and raised the cup to her.

"Miss Pruitt, that was only the first vote."

"And you already can't take it?"

"I've gone twenty-five years without a single day off."

But who could have guessedJordan arrived at noon.

He wore a black shirt, cuffs rolled up to his forearms. After stepping inside, he first glanced at the breakfast on the table.

"You eat cilantro?"

I looked down at my bowl.

A whole handful of cilantro, which I'd just tossed into my noodles.

"Am I not supposed to?"

"Wendy throws up at the smell of cilantro."

Then he looked at my hand.

Wendy likes long nails; normally she gets other people to twist bottle caps off for her.

The nails had been in my way earlier, so I'd already trimmed them all down to nothing.

Jordan sat down across from me.

"Who are you?"

The man was taking this better than I'd expected.

I played Chester's voice message for him.

"Your fiance wants to borrow my boyfriend."

"There was nothing I could do, so I had to borrow her life for a while."

Jordan listened without any expression on his face.

He simply reached out, took my phone, and scrolled through dozens of chat logs.

In them, Chester called Wendy "baby."

Wendy called him "Chess."

The two of them had been carrying on together for three years.

Three years ago, I had only just said yes to Chester's confession.

He'd laid out nine hundred ninety-nine roses downstairs at my building, saying he'd had a crush on me for a full seven years.

Looking back now, I figure he must have found time to love quite a few other people during those seven years too.

Jordan set the phone down.

"I don't believe the body-swap thing for now."

"But I'm going to look into what's going on between Wendy and Chester."

"You're not angry?"

"Getting angry won't solve the problem."

I nodded.

"You're a cut above me."

"When I first found out, my first instinct was to find a recycling bin and stuff the two of them into it together."

Jordan looked at me for a few seconds, and the corner of his mouth seemed to move.

The system screen lit up again.

This time it was the afternoon family meeting.

My brother Aiden owed 1.2 million dollars.

The company had no investors at all.

His so-called startup was borrowing money to rent luxury cars and stay in hotels, then filming videos to teach other people how to achieve financial freedom in thirty days.

Whether he was free or not, I couldn't say, but his creditors were about to take away his personal freedom for good.

Dad pushed the loan guarantee document in front of Wendy.

"You have a steady job and clean credit. Sign it."

Wendy glanced at the amount and tore the contract up on the spot.

"One point two million dollars? Why don't you just go rob a bank?"

Her older brother's face darkened. "You eat under this roof, you live under this roof. What's wrong with asking you to help out a little now?"

"This shabby little room isn't even as nice as my walk-in closet!"

"Your home?"

Her older sister sneered.

"You really think you're the Pruitt family's precious daughter?"

Mom came out of the kitchen.

"Winifred, you've been getting more and more out of line lately."

"Have we ever mistreated you, from the time you were little until now?"

Wendy pointed right in her face.

"You stole her money, changed her college applications, and now you're saddling her with the debt. And that's not mistreating her?"

The living room went dead silent in an instant.

I was startled too.

So it turned out that as long as the fist wasn't landing on her, Wendy's mind always knew the difference between right and wrong.

Dad's face turned grim.

"Everyone who agrees that Winifred should co-sign for her brother, raise your hand."

Four votes.

Wendy shrieked, "I won't sign!"

Dad locked the front door right away.

"You don't sign, you don't leave."

They took away her shoes and coat and locked her in my little room.

At midnight, the system opened a call between the two of us.

The moment Wendy saw me, the tears started falling.

"Winifred, I was wrong."

"Can you please switch us back right now?"

I asked her, "Wrong about what?"

"I shouldn't have borrowed Chester."

"You call that borrowing?"

I pulled up the chat history between the two of them.

"Borrowing something requires the owner's permission. What you did is stealing."

Wendy bit her lip.

"He and I were just messing around. The one I really love is Jordan."

Jordan Gilbert, standing beside me, looked up.

Clearly Wendy hadn't expected him to be there, and her face went white in an instant.

"Jordan, let me explain..."

Jordan muted the call.

"Keep digging."

On Wendy's computer, we found an encrypted ledger.

Starting when she was sixteen, every month she had transferred thirty thousand dollars to my family.

The memo line was never alimony, and never a thank-you fee.

It was just three words.

Support-fee payments.

Jordan stared at those words.

"Supporting what?"

I thought back over the years, and almost every time my family bore down on me, it had something to do with Wendy.

They wouldn't let me go to Northfield.

They wouldn't let me go to grad school.

They wouldn't let me change jobs.

They wouldn't even let me move out.

They weren't raising a child.

It was more like they were guarding a piece of cargo on Wendy's behalfsomething that couldn't be lost, but couldn't be allowed to live too well either.

Just then, a line of red text floated up from the system.

Warning: Jasmine Fox will cause a drunk-driving accident tomorrow night.

Originally assigned to bear responsibility: Winifred Fox.

Solution: family vote.

I watched Wendy on the screen, trembling and in tears.

Suddenly I was in no hurry to save her.

Some lessons are useless no matter how many times other people explain them.

She had to sit in the driver's seat herself and smell the gasoline coming straight at her.