Annie had been my best friend since - well, I barely even know. Around the start of high school, at least. It really felt like we'd always known eachother. I remembered so much about us growing up together - we'd been the same height, then she'd got a growth spurt and teased me endlessly for a few weeks, patting me on the head and leaning her elbow on me when she was bored. A few weeks after I'd hit my growth spurt and eventually ended up about a head taller than her, gleefully getting back at her for all the teasing from before. My point is, we've known eachother long enough to see eachother grow up. That was all changing now.

"You know the Internet still exists, right? It's not like I'm just going to dissappear into the void." She told me, grinning.
She was wearing tight blue jeans with a small back top that showed a little of her midriff and left her shoulders and most of the top of her chest exposed. She was going to a hot country, she reasoned. Her hair was dark and mildly curly with bright blue eyes that never failed to show a bright spark of imagination behind them. She was shorter than me, and though she was thinner than she was curvy her hips and chest cut a very womanly outline which I tried my best not to pay too much attention to, fearing being too rude.

"Yes, I know, but - you'll be on the other side of the planet. That's a lot different from being on the other side of the road." I pointed out.

"So? Video call me whenever you need. I always want to see you, it's not like you'll be getting in the way." She said.
I smiled for a second, looking around at the airport we were in. I looked at her for a second before curling my arms around her, taking in a deep breath while I still could. I could feel her laugh a little while I did it. Sure I was being a bit dramatic, but I didn't care.

Annie had got an offer from a University in LA all the way over in America specialising in specific types of micro-biology. All the stuff she said about it went over my head but as far as I could tell it was a big deal, and not many people got the marks to go there in the first place. She was kind of brilliant, my friend. The only problem was that left us with what was roughly an 8 hour time difference from our home in England. And, especially with the differences in the shifts I was working and when her lessons were, it roughly worked out we only had a couple hours when we'd both be up at the same time.

That hurt me in a weird kind of way - this person I'd known so long and been around so much, and now I was only going to see her for a couple hours, even if I was lucky? I couldn't count the amount of time I'd spent at her house, or she'd spent at mine. All the myriad times we'd both fallen asleep watching some TV show and awoken in some tangle of limbs, her legs splayed on top of my head or something like that. Falling asleep alone was almost weird now.

After a long moment I let go of the hug with a deep sigh. "I've got to board soon." She said with a hint of sadness. I knew she wasn't as bummed out about it as I was as she had the excitement of a whole new life - I just had the boredom of my old one without her.

"Before you go," I began, reaching around into my backpack, "Take this. It's a present. Kind of a going away gift, from me to you." I said, passing over a small cardboard package with a bow on top.

"You still have the interface app?" I asked.
I knew she would. It wasn't something I'd used properly before, but it had become a big thing recently. School had definitely made us try it in science lessons. A couple years ago the neuro-hack had hit the market for dirt cheap. It was like a small, black headset that had a tube going into one of your ears, but for the most part was lightweight enough to be hidden beneath your hair. It picked up brainwaves, plugging straight into the mind and let you control different devices. It had first been used by mostly private businesses - sending miners into dangerous situations in robot bodies while the people behind them were safe at home, and so on.

Lately it had hit the public and people were doing all kinds of crazy, extreme sports with it. Stuff like skiing down an active volcano, racing the lava so the body wouldn't burn up. Sure, you shared your senses with it. The human mind didn't react well to a body in which it can't access the five senses, so when people died in the body it still hurt, but there were various pain dampners and at the end of the day you were still alive.
I had a personal guilty pleasure. The governments of the world were worried about what this meant for privacy when someone could put their consciousness into a small, metallic insect and watch your life as a bug on the wall. There was still various legislature being passed to protect this kind of stuff, and products being made to block neural signals in specific areas, but the technology was still new enough most people were getting away with it.

What I enjoyed though was hidestreams. People would stream themselves, in their robot bodies, usually something innocuous like a fly but some were brave enough to try it as 1/16th replicas of human bodies (those were the really interesting ones, as they were more easy to spot and had to react like a real person to get out of danger) while they saw how long they could stay in another person's home, or the storefront of a business or something without being spotted. There were leaderboards for it as well, some people going weeks without being spotted. They all ended the same though. Sometimes there was anger being it, most of the times a dismissive smear, but it always came back to the stream cutting out after the sole of a boot or a rolled up newspaper crushed the body to pieces. That was always my favourite bit, though I'd never tell anybody.

Annie's eyes lit up when I mentioned the interface app. "You didn't." She said. I nodded, putting on the small headband and sending her the link on my phone.

"Just tap that link and you should turn it on. I should be able to see, hear, touch, smell and taste everything from there. It'll be like you never managed to get rid of me." I joked.

"Taste and smell?" She asked. "So, for instance, I could dump the thing into my dirty laundry and you'd have to feel the whole thing." There was a devious smile on her face.

"Well, yes, but you wouldn't do that." I bit my words. "Would you?"

She laughed. "Oh, don't worry. I wouldn't. I mean, maybe only for a few minutes to freak you out, but past that..." I scowled at her. She laughed at that, too. "Oh, relax! I'm only joking." She said, before elbowing me lightly and winking up at me. "Mostly." She said and laughed again. I sighed in exasperation.

I saw her fiddle about with her phone for a few seconds before triphantly tapping down on the large green button on the app. I instantly knew it had worked. If you've never used a neuro-hack before, I can tell you it's by far one of the strangest possible sensations for a human to have. I was simultaneously aware of the bright, expansive airport around me, Annie smiling up at me and my feet planted firmly on the floor while also being completely aware of being confined in a small, dark space with my hands and feet tied down so I couldn't move. Packaging, I realised. Though I couldn't move myself I was strongly aware of the gentle up and down motions as Annie held the world, no, the box, I corrected myself, loosely in her hands.

"So you're really in their right now?" She asked excitedly, holding the box up to her ears and shaking it. I immediately recoiled in both bodies, my human one taking a step back as I felt everything around me begin to move impossibly fast, banging around like the whole earth had been thrown into a twisted orbit, even though on the outside I knew it was only being jiggled by a few inches at the moment.
She saw my reaction and stopped immediately, holding the box tightly to her chest. I could feel a dull pressure from inside, but not too much through all the cardboard. "Sorry." She said hurriedly.

"It's okay." I replied. "Anyway, it's always more trouble trying to do both bodies at once. When you're settled in at your new place the time difference should work out that I can control the robot body while my human one is asleep. That should make it easier."

She nodded. Just then a large, booming voice came over the speakers announcing her plane was departing soon and that she should get ready to board. The voice probably sounded so loud because I was hearing it twice, I realised, the second time with much more sensitive hearing.
I took in one last, good look at her. This was ridiculous. I'd see her again soon enough anyway if this all went to plan.

"See ya, then." I said, pulling her in for a last hug and weirdly feeling my own body press up against the box, compressing even harder against Annie's chest. I tried not to think about that too hard.

"See ya soon." She joked, pulling away from. Me and gesturing with the box. I recoiled a little, but it wasn't too much as to be noticeable. I watched her turn and walk away, only shouting one last thing before she left.

"Please don't swing the box so much while you walk!" I called after her, her arms swinging in time with her steps. She looked back at me and stuck out her tongue, giving it a small shake before holding it tightly against herself again, slightly minimising the sense of seasickness I was getting. Even though it minimised it a bit I was still dimly aware of the motion of her steps in the back of my head.

Thankfully it was easy enough to ignore as the inside of the box didn't provide too much sensory information. I got into my car and took off the headset, sad as I was to do it so I could focus on the road. I promised I'd put it back on as soon as I was home.

Those tens of minutes felt like hours as I drove home from the airport and I dismissed my parents as I walked back through the doors. I really needed to find my own place soon, but that was a worry for another time. They left me alone, thankfully, probably reasoning that with my best friend leaving that I wanted to stew in my own feelings for a bit.
The first thing I noticed as I walked in was one of Annie's jackets strewn over the back of my desk chair. It was an old one, probably not one she'd miss, but I still cursed myself for not noticing it before and resolving to give it back as soon as possible. I picked it up and folded it, holding it against me for a moment before tucking it away in a drawer.

I lay back on my bed, scrolling through various social feeds, feeling the neuro-hack in the back of my pocket. The signal probably wouldn't work for a moment with the plane taking off but as soon as it hit a solid altitude the connection should be good enough again. Don't ask me how the connection still works with things like airplane mode - people much cleverer than me made it all function properly.

Nevertheless I put the neuro hack on, pointing the little tube down my ear ready to pick up on short range brainwaves. I tapped the button to connect but it was still unavailable. Probably still taking off.
I scrolled for a bit, checking out some pointless but nonetheless entertaining videos on YouTube - ooh, that hidestreamer had lost just before getting into the top ten for the house leaderboard. Crushed underneath an ass exploring the living room. It would have been bad enough but the death wasn't instantaneous and he had to end the link himself instead of being kicked instantly.

Finally, I tapped back to the interface app. To my surprise I started to see the loading wheel, meaning it was establishing connection and that it may take a moment with the long distance. I closed my eyes, blocking out the world with a pair of headphones, and got ready to see the world from a whole new angle.