The streetlight buzzed and flickered outside of a convenience store. It went out for a few seconds before a drunk stumbled towards it and smashed his face on the pole. The light flicked back on and the old man grumbled and walked away.

Inside of the store, the clerk scanned a small box labeled Jillida.

"That'll be 70 cents. Do you need a bag?" He asked politely.

"Nope." The customer replied shortly.

"Goodbye." Daniel called out to the customer as they walked out. 'Please say thank you...'He internally begged, desperate for human interaction after a shift filled with awkward, clipped interactions with customers.

Yesterday after school, Daniel walked into the hiring convenience store looking for the job. The shop owner was extremely eager to hire him in his 'pretty' body, but far less enthusiastic when he saw Daniel walk in in his original body to work the shift.

The shopkeeper almost turned him away, but Daniel's extensive knowledge of cigarette brands allowed him to keep the job, even if the wage was lower than what he would've gotten in his second body.

Perhaps the years of abuse and cigarette delivering did come in handy?

Daniel sighed as he surveyed the store.

'I managed to get hired but... Why the salary difference?'

He remembers his employer urging him to bring his other body in to 'say hello.'

'I have two bodies... So I need expenses for two people.'

'New body for daytime, old body at night. School during the day, work at night.'

'Why does this happen to me?'

'What if my new body disappears?'

'If only this body would go...'

Damn right, horrible dream.

Daniel sat outside of the store bloody, bruised and feeling violated.

He had just been attacked by Zack after refusing to allow some of his other classmates to buy booze and cigarettes.

And to add icing to the cake, the bullies had forced him to take nude pictures on one of their phone's as 'insurance.' If he reported them, his nude photos would have been leaked.

"Whew." He sighed.

'At least I didn't sell them the smokes... I would've been fired on my first day..'

He scrolled through his phone and tapped on a contact before pressing the device to the side of his face.

'I can't just rely on mom. Shall I call her?'

He listened to the phone ring before there was a click on the other end of the line.

"Oh! Who's this? My son~"

Daniel smiled to himself, 'She's in a good mood hehe.'

"Son~ What are you doing up this late?" She cooed.

"Um, just taking a walk. The night air is so fresh, hehe." Daniel lied smoothly.

"Amazing!" His mother laughed, "I'm out on a stroll too!"

"Our minds think alike." He chuckled along.

"Son, goes school?"

"School? Don't worry! I'm really popular."

'But only during the day.'

"I was just with a few classmates."

'But they beat me up.'

"Mom, how have you been?" Daniel asked, wanting to change the subject.

"You know.. I'm doing fine~ Because you're away, I'm taking this night stroll. Son, don't you need more money?"

Mother and son looked up at the twinkling stars, taking comfort in the fact that they were both probably looking at the same sky.

Astrology was confusing...

"No mom! I'm fine."

"Just trust your mom, and study hard. Don't worry about money, okay son?" She reassured, sitting on the ground next to a stack of collapsed boxes.

She let Daniel finish whatever he was saying to end the conversation.

"Hehe, alright. Okay, I'm gonna walk a bit more and head home. I love you, son."

"Love you too mom.." and with that he hung up and walked back into the store.

Once he took his place behind the counter he looked at the ticking clock hung on the wall.

'3am, only 3 more hours to go...'

He sighed and drummed his fingers on the counter, looking at the empty, lifeless store.

'This time is the best and the worst. It's boring but hardly anyone ever comes in-"

Before he could finish his thought, the small bell attached to the door jingled, alerting Daniel of another customer.

'Do I cry or laugh in this situation?'

Daniel was so busy deciding how to handle his emotions that he zoned out, only to be brought back to reality when he heard another familiar voice.

"Rough night, huh?" (Y/N) asked from the other side of the counter, looking down at him from underneath her bright red baseball cap with a pizza slice embroidered onto the front.

Daniel's face turned red and he looked away, scanning her items as a distraction.

'Intense..'

"Y-Yeah." He answered.

She huffed a breath through her nose, "Same here. Just got off work." She said as she took her bag of goodies, looking down into the plastic bag to make sure everything was there.

He continued to look at her, waiting to see if she needed anything else when he saw a small trail of red coming from her nose, trailing down to her upper lip.

Daniel's eyes grew wide,

"Y-You're-"

(Y/N) looked up at him, eyebrows raised in question.

"Huh?" She mumbled.

"You're bleeding." Daniel pointed out.

"Oh!" She said, quickly wiping her nose with her hand, which caused Daniel to notice her scraped knuckles as well.

"Do you have any tissues I can use?" She asked, using her hand to cup her nose.

"Uhh, yeah!" He said, leaving his spot behind the counter to go and grab a cheap pack of tissues from the toiletries aisles.

He waddled back to the register and tore the package open and handed her the tissue.

"Here." He said.

She took the piece of paper, eyeing the newly opened package in Daniel's hands.

"Thanks... could you ring those up? I'll pay for them."

He stared at her dumbly for a minute.

"What? Are you sure?"

"I'm positive."

With that Daniel walked back behind the counter and scanned the tissues and she paid the $1.25 fee.

"Do you mind if I stay here until I stop leaking?" She asked.

"Uhh sure, no problem."

(Y/N) gave him a small smile. "Great, thanks."

She shoved a piece of tissue into her nostril so it stayed put and began to rifle through her bag.

She took out a pack of fruity flavored nicotine gum and a box of bandaids and put them in her backpack and put a six pack of strawberry milk and an ice pack on the counter.

She took the ice pack in her hand and shook it, making it turn cold and held it in front of Daniel.

"Here, you need this more than I do."

Daniel looked from her bleeding nose to her scraped knuckles, then absentmindedly put a hand to his swelling eye, flinching when he put too much pressure.

"... Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yeah, take it as a mediocre welcoming gift, because the pizza from my job sucks." She chuckled, pushing the bag of cold chemicals closer to Daniel, who reluctantly accepted and pressed it to his eye.

On the outside, he gave a grateful smile and said a shy "Thank you." On the inside, he was bawling.

'So kind!'

She broke the plastic seal on her strawberry milks, taking out one for herself and another for Daniel, sliding over the counter to him.

"Drink up, I need to make sure my brother doesn't know I got these."

"Okay, thank you."

After a few minutes of painfully awkward silence, aside from the sound of both teens sipping their drinks, (Y/N) finally got up and left.

"See you around. I'll probably be in your hair for a while now." She joked, before walking out the door and into the night.

Daniel cracked his eyes open, looking at his swollen, bruised body laying across from him.

He groaned and ran a hand through his soft hair.

'I feel so light.'

Daniel fooled around around in his apartment in his new body.

'So much power!' He thought as he flexed his arms.

'Light body!' He thought, jumping up and down with ease.

'So this is what it's like to be buff. When you're tall, the world seems tiny. I think I can fly.'

When he arrived at school, girls immediately began to whisper as he walked by in the hall.

"Hey, there he is!"

"Oh damn!"

"He's like a cartoon hero."

"Look at his figure..."

"Damn hot."

"He must be so happy to come to school with a face like that."

Daniel hardly tried to hide the fact that he was sulking as he made his way to class.

'I hate coming to school... I already got hit... They don't know it was me though.'

He slid the classroom door open.

"Suddenly this prick beat him up!"

"He flipped his lid!"

'Heh?'

"I took a picture to ensure he stays quiet." The skinny boy from the night before gloated.

"What picture?" Zoe asked, innocently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"You wanna see it or not? Hehe."

"Stop it, you think I'm proud of hitting that pig?" Zack snapped, even though he made no move to actually stop them.

"Oh, hi Daniel! Come here, he has something funny to show us." Zoe said with a smile.

"Yep, you wanna see?" The skinny guy asked, internally huffing at Zoe's change in object of attention.

"So what is it~?" She continued to press.

Zack became smug as he listened to the praise from his classmates.

'If he sees it, he might be scared of me.' He thinks.

"Yesterday Zack beat up a pig and it's a nude pic of the piggy."

"Geez, nude?"

Daniel's sleepy expression tensed and became angered as he clenched his fist.