Life Swap Read Online Free Page A

general helplessness that were clouding whatever judgment got her into Oxford in the first place.
    As it was, she only had to chat to the physician for a few minutes before emerging with her prescription and the glow of somebody who will never, ever have unnecessary sex again. Morgan usually lasts about a week before jumping the next guy, but I’m betting Holly waits longer.
    â€œOK?” I ask, my ass already numb from the cheap Formica seats they have lining the small waiting area.
    She nods happily. “Yes. Thank god!”
    â€œCool.” I look around. The place is empty, littered with flyers and health-awareness posters. “Want to stock up on freebies while we’re here?”
    Holly blushes, but she goes over to the jar of condoms all the same. I browse the notice board instead. There’s no way I’m so much as going to
kiss
a guy while I’m over here. No dating, period.
    â€œYes, just let me check for you.” A voice emerges from a back room, and then the familiar stocky body of my classmate walks out. I cringe.
    â€œOh. Hi. Natasha, right?” Carrie looks as uncomfortable as me, frozen by the front desk with an armful of paperwork.
    â€œYup. Hey.” I give an awkward wave.
    â€œWhat brings you…?” Carrie glances from me, to the physician’s door, to where Holly is helping herself to a liberal supply of condoms. “Oh, right.” She gives me a knowing look. Of course the dumb Californian would be stocking up on birth control.
    I control my flicker of irritation and try and make nice. “You work here? That’s great.”
    Carrie looks surprised. “Yes, I volunteer. But not for long. They’re closing the place down at the end of March.”
    â€œThey are?” I look around again. “Why?”
    â€œNo funding.” Carrie gives a bitter laugh. “The benefactors leave thousands to the rowing clubs and libraries, but we get nothing. Typical, isn’t it?” She takes a paper from the desk and hands it to me. SAVE WOMEN’S SERVICES , the Day-Glo orange flyer protests.
    â€œIs there anywhere else in town to get this stuff?” I ask, worried. I may be planning to give nuns competition in the chastity stakes, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be concerned for everyone else.
    â€œThat’s not the point.” Carrie folds her arms, already defensive. “That’s only half of what we do here. There’s a support hotline and a night safety group and—”
    â€œI get it,” I cut her off quickly. She’s got an angry gleam in her eye, and I don’t want to be on the other end of it. “Well, good luck.” I put the flyer down and pick up my bag. “I hope you pull it off.”
    She turns back to her paperwork, while Holly and I push through the smudged glass doors onto the street. Students stream by on bikes, long striped scarves around their necks, and a bunch of Japanese tourists hover by the gates of the college next door.
    â€œSo…” I start, turning to her kind of awkwardly. Now that she’s OK, Holly probably has plans. “You’re all set?”
    â€œYes.” Holly smiles shyly. “I only have to go to the chemist’s.”
    â€œCool, I’ll just—”
    â€œWould you come with me?” Holly asks suddenly. “And then maybe, I know this great café nearby. We could get something to eat?” She looks at me hopefully. “I mean, you probably have things to do, but…”
    â€œNo! I mean, I don’t. I’m free.” I smile back, pulling my scarf tighter and thanking the god of coincidence for sending me a possible friend. “I’d like that.”

Emily
    Apparently the international office doesn’t subscribe to my standards of what constitutes a proper education, because by the end of the week, I find myself sitting halfway back in a cavernous lecture hall while our professor addresses us