Ty awoke to find himself bigger and more filled out from his lanky 15 year old form. It took a moment for the fog of exhaustion to clear from his mind and tell him that he now was 19 and a college Freshman rooming with three upper classmen. Three upper classmen? And suddenly his mind started to explain that after his first semester at college, he'd befriended a girl named Dustine who he had had a large crush on, and lived with her sister June and her boyfriend Mark, both of whom were Juniors and 21. Dustine was 22 and a Senior, being three years older than him, and she seemed to take a curious interest in Ty, loving the attention and attentiveness he gave her eager to please. Ty also no longer thought of Dustine as his foster sister, she was simply some girl he had met at college. They weren't dating, officially, nor had they had sex yet, but they had fooled around and come close to doing so in other ways. June disapproved of this behavior as far as Ty could remember. He'd nearly walked in on them with June scolding Dustine for "stringing him along" like she was, and Dustine admitting that she rather liked how eager to please he was.
Ty recalled Dustine admitting, "Most guys stop being sweet like that after a girlfriend or two..."
"Most guys stop being like that because girls like you break their hearts," had countered June.
June was a tomboy as far as Ty could remember, her hair cut in a pixie cut style, and preferring to wear more gender neutral clothing. Sometimes she'd be mistaken for being a boy, much to the consternation of June, who'd typically give the offending party a good slug to their jaw in response. June was much younger than Ty had ever seen her, and despite the growing gender neutrality of her appearance, was clearly lively and vibrant as a young adult. Ty wondered if this was partly due to the transformation or simply the life stage she was now at.
Mark meanwhile had returned to what looked to be the prime of his life, full of youth, vigor, and carefree of responsibility. At this age, Mark was much more of a mischief maker from what Ty could remember, sneaking Ty beers on the sly, performing pranks on the school property, and generally just being far more fun to be around by not taking himself so seriously.
This shift in personality of both his foster parents by becoming younger made Ty consider, what if their behavior had more to do with what stage of life they were occupying than just their overall personalities? Would he becoming his former foster family's age become likewise dower, embittered, and mean by 40? No. He wouldn't, he would make sure of that... he had to.