The Cardona twins reached out to hug, but then thought better of it. They just smiled at each other instead, their expressions communicating more than they could say with words.

Even if they really wanted that hug.

“Matt?” Kat chuckled, coming out from behind Amber. “Didja get that from the yoga mat Fer tripped on?”

Matt blushed. “Is that weird? Dumb? Names should have more meaning than that, right?”

“No, not at all! As long as you like it!” Kat grinned, then gave him a bear hug, as she loved to do. “Plus, bonus! We rhyme now!” Matt smiled at this realization.

“Amber, huh?” Fer commented, peeking around the embracing duo. “Yeah, I can see that for you. It fits, in a way.” He shot Amber a big, friendly smile as well as she went for a much less aggressive hug than Kat’s.

Then he pulled away and sighed. “You two are some lucky ducks, you know that? You got the multi-use Button.”

Matt was confused. “The what? Multi button?”

“It’s a thought experiment used to try to help trans people think through what would happen if they had a magical button they could press that would instantly change their bodies to the opposite sex. There’s quite a few variations on it, but something that doesn’t ever change is that the button is single-use only. No going back once you press it. Obviously, if you could press it more than once, everyone would do so, rendering the thought experiment useless. With it being single-use, however, I struggled with my answer for a long while before coming to a conclusion.” He gestured to the two Cardonas. “But you two… You lucky bastards not only got a real-life Button, but it’s even multi-use!” He gave them a lopsided grin, but from what Matt could make out, it seemed to be a mask over some other emotion buried underneath.

Matt felt he knew what it most likely was.

Envy.

Amber seemingly didn’t notice this hidden layer. “Oh right, yeah. I came across it a few times, and I could never commit to one side or the other. Even in the remote island one, it was like… too big of a commitment regardless.”

“That raises some questions,” Jessica chimed in, having joined the conversation from her spot in the dining room. “Are you two committed to staying like that?”

Matt and Amber looked at each other.

He saw the expression on her face, knowing his own was mirroring it.

Fear that the other would reject the idea.

Hope that the other would accept.

Begging, pleading for this to be okay.

He gave her a subtle nod, and her fear gave way to a hesitant smile and her own nod in return.

Relief washed over him, cleansing an anxiety that had been gripping at his heart like he had been gripping the sofa mere hours ago.

“So then… who returns to Matt’s original world?”

They both turned back to Jessica and blinked.

Matt was surprised that Fer didn’t look shocked by the revelation that he was from a different dimension, but then again, he’d probably been going over that information with Jessica at the table.

“Well…” Amber faltered. “I mean… Matt would, right? Obviously? It’s his home, he doesn’t belong here.”

“In that world, how would he explain his sudden miraculous transition to, for example, his friends? Family? The government, for that matter?”

Matt shrugged. “Magic or something? I’ll tell them something only I could know, maybe they run some DNA tests, and then they’ll have to believe me, right?”

“Possibly, but possibly not,” Jessica said. “Not to mention, the government believing you about magic doesn’t sound great, regardless. Another option, of course… is that Amber goes back in your place.”

The twins gaped at her.

“The end result would be that both worlds would contain a version of you suited for that world,” she continued. “No other person in either world would see any physical changes. Mental changes could be explained away by turning over a new leaf, misremembering, or simply misspeaking. You could even teach each other major differences between your personal histories, of which it appears there may be few, to reduce occurrences of this happening. It would be as if you both wished to have been born in the correct bodies for your gender identities, and reality and history warped themselves around you to match.”

“But…” Amber murmured. “We’d still know that we left behind our entire worlds. Our friends, our families. And that we chose to do it.”

Jessica nodded. “Yes, that’s true. Still, it’s the cleanest option to consider, from both a logistical and a don’t-get-tested-on-by-the-government standpoint.”

Matt plopped down on the futon from which he had just stood up. “Dude, that’s… that’s heavy-duty. Holy shit.”

Could he just… do that? Abandon his old life and take Amber’s very similar but not identical one instead? Faced with the possibility of never seeing his dimension again, he suddenly felt an acute stab of homesickness through his heart and looked down at the plastic container sitting innocuously on the coffee table before him.

“Amber, do you think my phone is safe to plug in now?” he asked, trying not to let his pain show through too much. “I… I really want a nugget of my old life right now.”

She gave him a knowing smile. “Let’s see.” She opened the tub and took out the shattered phone from within. Giving the exterior a thorough examination, including checking the USB port with the flashlight from her own phone, she handed it to its owner.

“Can’t see any indication of moisture from the outside, and we’d have to crack it open to check the indicators inside… and I doubt your screen would survive that. The display doesn’t seem to be damaged, thankfully, just the glass on the outside, though we won’t be able to know until we turn it on.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Wanna give it a shot?”

Matt gave her an unsteady smile. “Sure, sis, let’s do this.”

Amber giggled and happily skipped away into her bedroom, retrieving her charger and plugging it into an outlet below the kitchen sill. Matt still struggled to comprehend how anyone could be cute in (what used to be) his body, but damn if Amber didn’t somehow manage.

It really fits her better than it ever fit me, huh.

He stood back up and went over to where Amber was waiting, cord and phone in opposite hands. Fer, Kat, and Jess crowded in around them.

“Will it charge? That is the question,” Amber said, imbuing her sentence with a little flair that reminded Matt of a TV show presenter, or possibly someone from an infomercial. With a nod from him, Amber plugged in the phone.

And it lit up with a low battery indicator.

Matt released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in.

“Thank goodness the USB-C spec hasn’t changed between our dimensions, huh?” Amber quipped, setting the phone down on the sill.

“Why did we all come over here to watch a regular phone being plugged in?” Fer mumbled.

“A regular interdimensional phone, dumbass,” Kat kindly reminded him. He scoffed at this.

“It may be from another dimension, but it’s still very clearly just a Pixel. Now, if it was on…”

“Guess we’ll just have to wait,” Matt concluded and flopped back onto the futon.

From behind the blinds covering the living room window, a flash was seen, and a second later, the rumble of thunder rattled the walls of the apartment.

“Oh shit, is it raining? Again?” Amber rushed over and pulled up the blinds, revealing an early evening twilight that had been darkened further by the appearance of storm clouds. It wasn’t coming down yet, but it surely would soon.

“I’d better go back to my flat then,” Fer said, making his way to the pile of shoes by the door. “It’s getting pretty late, and I don’t want to be caught out in the storm.”

Jessica yelped. “It’s nearly six?! I have to be at the lab in ten minutes!” She grabbed her already-worn-out notebook and hopped next to Fer. “Would you mind driving me into campus? I need to go to the BAP on 26^th and Don Rutger.”

Fer slipped on his sneakers, not bothering to either untie or retie them. “Yeah, but we do still have to get to my car. We walked here, if you recall.”

 “Two blocks is eighteen less than twenty,” Jessica replied, flats already on. “Thank you so, so much!”

“Not at all, Jess.” He opened the front door, then looked back at the other three. “Good luck with everything, and…” He gave them one of his signature wide, warm smiles. “Congrats on figuring yourselves out, you two.” Again, Matt could sense there was another emotion hidden under the surface. He and Amber really had gotten incredibly lucky, and he felt bad that he couldn’t offer the same to Fer… and others like them, for that matter.

As drops started to fall from the sky, Jess turned back to them as well. “Once I’m done with my work at the lab tonight, I’ll return so we can try to sort out your problem. I wish I could skip the work tonight, but it’s critical to my research. In the meantime…” She lowered her voice to a quite serious growl. “Avoid doing anything that could trigger another swap, or even so much as a spark. I’m not saying this because you’d want to, but… just in case. The time spent between bodies growing exponentially seems potentially dangerous to your health.” Warning sufficiently delivered, she darted outside. “Let’s go, Fer, we need to hurry!”

“I’m coming, hold your horses,” Fer chuckled. He carefully shut the door behind him as he left, sending a goofy salute to the friends remaining indoors.

They all looked at each other.

“So…” Matt began.

“So,” Amber replied.

“So?” Kat continued. “So we don’t have our resident Jesspert for a couple hours. We’ve figured out weird shit before without her, and we can figure this interdimensional shit out too.”

“I don’t think that’s what we’re saying ‘so’ about,” Amber nervously giggled. “I think it’s more that we haven’t really gotten a chance to talk about… all this. This big trans decision shit.”

“But it’s right, right?” Matt responded, choosing to flop down on the futon in what he hoped was the last time for a while, because he was getting tired of this whole jack-in-the-box, stand-up sit-down schtick.

Amber nodded and sat down in the Jessica-vacated chair. “I feel more right than I can ever remember feeling before. Like here I was, going along thinking I was some boring straight guy like a dumbass, when it turns out I’ve been a lesbian this whole time, and I’m not just some guy that fetishizes them!”

Kat laughed, plonking herself down on her favorite yoga mat. “Yeah, I doubt those horny bastards get that warm, tingly feeling when they see girls simply cuddling and being sweet to each other, and they definitely don’t fucking want to be one of the girls!” She turned to Matt with a cheeky grin. “Right, our newly minted resident straight guy?”

“Well, uh… I don’t think I’m straight exactly, but…” Matt chuckled. “Yeah, no, I may find girls hot, but I certainly don’t want to be one.” He laughed now, a deep belly laugh that reverberated through the room. “Been there, tried that, no thanks.”

Amber rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but grin. “Typical guy, I guess.”

Matt wanted to playfully punch her in the shoulder, but couldn’t. Annoying.

“So much shit makes sense now, right??” Matt replied. “Like I always felt I wanted to be with guys but in a gay way, and shit never really worked out that way when I’d try to date them. At least with girls, I could sorta fall into that ‘protector’ mode I always wanted to be in, but it still wasn’t good enough.”

Amber nodded rapidly in agreement. “And of course I never cared about the clothes I wore! I could never wear what I wanted to, so what did it matter? So much shit makes way more sense through this lens.” She tugged at what had formerly been Matt’s usual tomboyish outfit. “Speaking of which… I’m totally buying a whole new wardrobe ASAP. This look is not doing it for me, and nothing in my closet makes sense anymore, or even fits.”

“Nothing besides your… uhh… ‘crossdressing’ clothes.” Kat punctuated her sentence with air quotes and a mirthful expression. “Can’t really call them that anymore, huh.”

Suddenly, Amber jumped up from where she was sitting and clapped her hands together. “Ooh! Yeah! You just reminded me! I gotta go try something now!” With that, she practically hopped out of the room, throwing the door closed behind her as if it had done something rude.

Matt raised an eyebrow. “You know what that’s about?”

Kat grinned back. “Oh, I have a few ideas.”

Matt’s phone buzzed from the kitchen sill, declaring its partially-charged-ness to the room. He jumped up to grab it, scooting the now twice-abandoned chair over to the sill so he could use the device as it continued to suck up juice from the wall.

Miraculously, the display and touchscreen functionalities were still intact, despite the cracked glass over top. Matt’s lockscreen image, a cool cityscape photo he’d captured in downtown Salinas a few months ago, was glowing invitingly. He tried the fingerprint unlock a few times, like a dumbass, before realizing he would have to input his PIN manually.

No cell service, but the Wi-Fi autoconnected, interestingly enough. A review of the settings showed that it was seeing the network “Troy and Abed in the Modem”, just like his own. Amber was streets ahead, as expected. Then he started getting notification spam about being unable to sign into his various accounts, which he dismissed.

“It’s on? It’s working?” Kat had snuck up behind him and was now peering over his shoulder. “Ooh, do you have any pics of me? Other me, I mean?”

“Yeah, one sec…” He opened his photos app and scrolled a bit. “Here’s us all at last week’s game night, actually.” He held the phone up and Kat hungrily snatched it out of his hand with a squeal of excitement.

To him, it was an incredibly mundane photo: the six of them were seated around a card table they’d set up in the middle of his living room, playing a game of Secret Hitler. David, on the futon, was mugging the camera with a ‘Blue Steel’ look from Zoolander. Tim had gotten too high and slumped over onto David’s shoulder, a look of dreamlike bliss on his face. Fer was on the far side of the table, peace sign held out. Jess was ignoring the camera entirely, leaning back in her chair in apparent deep thought about who Hitler could be (she was bluffing, she had been Hitler that round). Kat was next to her, close to the camera, winking and sticking her tongue out very cutely; her one partly open eye tinged red with the aftermath of THC. Finally, on the other side of the frame, Matt was visibly very drunk, with a dumb lopsided grin and a finished can of cider in his other hand.

He hadn’t noticed it at the time, but now he thought he could make out a hidden layer of sadness in his past self’s eyes.

“Shit, this is so trippy, man…” Kat gushed, looking back and forth between the phone and Amber’s apartment. “It’s the same, but like, it’s not, y’know? Like, that’s me! But it’s not me, that’s another me! So fucking cool!”

The rain was picking up a bit now; Matt could hear its pitter-patter against the front windows. Another rumble came from outside, a signifier of a lovely Texas rainstorm.

Then a rumble came from inside. Specifically, from behind the door to Amber’s bedroom came the sound of a crash and a jingling sound.

“Amber?” Kat called out, not looking away from the photo. “You good, buddy?”

“Yeah, just… gimme a sec! I fell over…”

Kat just snorted, clearly used to Amber’s antics. “Any other pics of us? Of me?”

Matt took the phone back. “Oh yeah, for sure…”

He minimized the photo and was about to go searching for more when the handle on the bedroom door made a sound. Slowly, cautiously, the handle was turned and the door creaked open. Two cat ears popped out, followed by a shy face.

Oh my god, no fucking way.

“Don’t… please don’t laugh… I’ve always really wanted to do this…” she mumbled, opening the door a bit further and revealing a choker with a bell on it.

She’s… a catgirl.

Amber let out a long exhale, then opened the door the rest of the way.

A fucking MAID CATGIRL.

Indeed, she was dressed from head to toe in full catgirl maid regalia. Ruffles and poofy bits Matt had no name for were on display all over the dress and apron. She had long white gloves and long black socks, with cute little white bowties at their tops. He could even make out a tail drooping to the floor behind her. He hoped it was a clip-on.

And god, was she adorable.

Kat clearly agreed, as before Amber could even say another word, she loudly squealed and glomped her catgirlfriend, nearly sending the pair of them to the floor.

“OMIGOD OMIGOD AMBER YOU LOOK SO CUTE AAAAAAAAA”

“Kat! Air! Need… breathe!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, you’re just… AAAAAAH!” Kat was over the goddamn moon.

After she caught her breath, though, Amber looked up at Matt with a wary but hopeful expression. “This is… okay, right? I can do this?”

Matt nodded and gave her a thumbs up. “It’s your body now, right? Have fun with it!” Then he got a realization of his own. “Wait… do you own a suit?”

Amber grimaced. “Yeah, though I haven’t worn it since high school prom… It probably doesn’t fit anymore, but I guess you could try? No harm, no foul.”

Giddy with his own excitement, he quickly shoved his phone into his cargo shorts. They were ugly and he would have preferred to use something less baggy, but they had their uses, like damn these were massive pockets. With that set, he stepped into the bedroom and closed the door gently behind him, choosing to spare it from further punishment.

Heading into the closet now, he saw some boxes moved around from near the back. One was sitting open on top of the dryer, and peering inside, he could see some assorted outfits and costumes. Matt chuckled and began his search for the suit amongst the various graphics tees and jeans hanging on the hooks.

He felt a vibration in his pocket. Thinking it was another failed sign-in notification, he ignored it. Then another vibration came. And another. Suddenly, a whole slew of vibrations were all arriving at once. He rolled his eyes and pulled out the device, cursing whoever had made auto-retry-on-login-failure fire off new notifications.

Then he squinted his eyes.

Wait, these are coming from the messages app…?

Unlocking his phone so he could read the contents of the notifications, he was greeted at the home screen with a “99+” sitting in the corner of the messages app icon.

But… I don’t have…?

He blinked.

Service.

Weak, but he had one bar of LTE.

Before he could process what this meant, the entire screen went blank, and the device started buzzing rhythmically. A new UI lurched into place.

Kat’s goofy smiling face splashed across the screen.