The Body Swap (Completed ✔️)

9 // "You Better Be Praying That I Don't Ruin This Pretty Little Face Of Yours"

9.

Rubbing the eyes, Nathan yawns before knocking on Lana's door. He hears her padding across the floor before she opens the door and too yawns. Her dark frizzy brown is a tangled bush on top of her hair and he can see the silk scarf that has slipped off in the middle of the night hanging mercifully onto small tendrils of her hair. Her big brown eyes are wide and sparkling, still slightly puffed up from sleep and her freckles are dusted around her nose and under her eyes. Nathan sighs in content, soaking in how beautiful Lana is but he forgets that he is simply gazing at her face with wide startled eyes,

"Are you okay" Lana asks hesitantly leaning against her door frame. Snapping out his trance, Nathan shakes the head wondering why he's acting like such an idiot,

"I-I erm...just wanted you to help with my hair, you know, styling and stuff...," Nathan trails off uncomfortably, grabbing a fistful of the hair. Raising an eyebrow, Lana folds her arms across her chest,

"Did you watch that bloody video again?" Lana asks a wide smile forming across her face. Darting his eyes left and right, Nathan nods the head eagerly and forces a chuckle which Lana joins in heartedly, "come on let me help you this one time," Lana says slapping Nathan on the arm as she lets her door close behind her.

They enter Blessing's room and Lana motions for him to sit down on the chair. She gently throngs through the hair and grabs some coconut oil which she massages onto the scalp and grabs an tooth comb with a metal edge and begins tugging carefully on the hair. Relaxing into the seat, Nathan closes the eyes and feels the way Lana's hands work expertly on the hair and in no time Lana pats the head explaining that she's done.

Opening the eyes, Nathan gets up and gazes at Blessing's reflection in the bathroom mirror and smiles and how beautifully done the hair is. Lana's plaited the hair into two tight large separate cornrows which she knotted at the end and placed into a bun,

"This actually looks amazing," Nathan states taken aback by how lovely Blessing's hair looks. He remembers whispering to Blessing between silky sheets and heavy breathing how much he preferred Blessing's natural hair compared to her weaves. Blessing becoming the annoying feminist quickly dismissed his comment saying that his opinion on her hair held no bearing. He rolls the eyes at the memory as he turns to leave the bathroom,

"Do you want me to do your edges?" Lana asks settling onto Blessing's bed. Narrowing his eyes in confusion which he hopes passes off as thoughtfulness, he nods the head and sits back down into the seat. Anything to keep Lana close to him and in conversation. Unfortunately, it doesn't take her long to smooth down the baby hairs with some clear gel and soon she returns to her bed and goes to sleep.

Returning to the bathroom, Nathan inspects the hair closely and definitely concludes that Lana has done an amazing job. He gazes into Blessing's brown bambi eyes wondering how he is going to get Lana alone in a proper setting. It then clicks there and then that Lana is supposedly Blessing's best friend and therefore he can ask her to go to lunch and dinner just them two anytime. Mind you that is if the other weirdos don't decide to tag along, Nathan thinks bitterly.

With a sense of renewed confidence, Nathan opens the curtain and gazes out of the window and watches dimly as the sun rises a higher in the sky over the landscape. He knows for a fact that he's definitely not going to any of Blessing's boring lectures. He's fed up of talking about how to help people and caring about their feelings. Besides, who nowadays wants to be a social worker, he thinks to himself in confusion.

Rolling his eyes once more, Nathan takes off Blessing's clothes and pops into the shower before putting on some clean clothes carefully. Settling on the bed, he focuses his mind on the sunshine outside before realising how desperately he misses his family. He realises quickly the thought of missing his family will upset him so instead hopes that they are happy and thinking of him just as much as they he is thinking about them. Hopping off the bed, he reluctantly grabs a yoga mat from under the bed and places it facing the window and gets on his knees. He's already ordered a new prayer mat but until then he has to do with a skanky yoga mat.

He would go and fetch his own mat but it was becoming highly unlikely that Blessing even wanted him in his room. Part of her revenge has clearly included disrupting his prayer routine. Kneeling down, Nathan closes the eyes but before he can perform the Salat al-zuhr there's a loud insistent knock. Clenching the fists, he gets up and wrenches the door open surprised to find his own body standing in front of him in a glorious aura of golden light.

His green sparkling eyes begin glittering with anger and his own face contorts with anger,

"What have you done to my hair?" Blessing asks, her voice deathly low. Rolling the eyes, Nathan replies curtly,

"That's irrelevant, I'm busy, what do you want?" Furrowing the brow, Blessing shoves past Nathan easily and enters the room, inspecting carefully, making sure nothing is amiss. Satisfied, she turns on her heel and faces him. She's quite livid that Nathan has taken out her weave, most likely in an inappropriate fashion rendering it unusable but the hairstyle she realises makes her look rather sophisticated and smart. It's definitely Lana's work,

"Why's my yoga mat out?" Blessing asks kicking it under the bed. Groaning in frustration, Nathan snaps,

"Look I am trying to pray right now so can we please do this later," he says through clenched teeth,

"You better be praying that I don't ruin this pretty little face of yours," Blessing threatens raising her voice an octave. She's not at all surprised that Nathan has decided to miss her lectures and seminars. This is most likely the third one this week and will have floods of emails from her lecturers enquiring where she is. Unlike him, the one thing she was attempting to keep up with were the lectures and seminars,

"I am trying to pray-," Nathan begins, clasping the hands together but he's rudely interrupted by Blessing who is now wandering up down her room,

"Yes, yes, I read up on all of that. Five times a day sutra, shara something, you need to be clean and stuff-," Blessing dismisses impatiently with a wave of her hand, "-anyway, you need to come with me. I have something to show you which I think you'll appreciate," Blessing finishes starting towards the door.

There's a lump in Nathan's throat where all the anger and frustration is festering. He knows he doesn't look and appear to be a typical Muslim but his faith is extremely important to him and for someone seemingly righteous as Blessing to dismiss the importance of prayer stung and angered. Even when they were sleeping together she never seemed to grasp how a white teenage boy could be a Muslim,

"Are you coming or what?" Blessing calls back impatiently as she holds the door open. Swallowing down the bile that has formed in his throat, Nathan follows Blessing out of the door vowing to grab his prayer rug and beat Blessing with it. He doesn't even care if he bruises his own face.

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