The day passed in a blur that almost seemed like it was one of the mind slips. After finishing up in his friend's room, Abby and Sara spent the rest of the morning hanging out in front of the television, barely watching anything as they talked and laughed about various things. After they had had lunch, they wandered downtown, where they hung out at the mall. Browsing various clothing stores, but never buying anything, Abby continued to find that so long as he didn't fight against what was happening, he didn't suffer one of those mind slips, as well as discovering he was having a good time.
After the clothing stores, where they had spent time going through the racks and trying on various garments, they wandered a bit. Checking out boys, Abby at first thought wasn't a good thing, as he was seeing Thomas, but then figured it might be okay to look, so long as he didn't commit to anything. When they grew bored with that, they shifted to laughing and giggling at things that, before, he would have considered to be silly, girly, trivial things, before jumping back to talking about clothing and what worked and what didn't work.
When the topics exhausted themselves, they wandered into a couple of the music stores and spent the rest of the afternoon together purusing the music selection, in which he found he was more into rock, but was willing to listen to some pop, whist Sara was into pop, but was willing to listen to some rock.
Sometime later, he found himself standing back at the bus stop, and slightly taken aback, Abby was surprised at how fast the day had seemed to pass. Worried for a moment it might have been because his mind had slipped, he listened as Sara asked, "You sure you can't come over."
"Yeah, sorry," Abby replied and assuring himself it had only seemed that way because of how much of good time he was having, he peered down the street, looking for the bus. Spotting it about a block or so away, he said, "My mom wants me home by dinner time. Apparently she has got something she really wants to talk with about. Something she acts like it is really important," and as the bus drew to a stop and the two got on, he listened as Sara asked, "What do you think it is?" as he paid for the fare and requested a transfer.
Unsure what his mom wanted to talk to him about, he took a seat. And when the bus started moving, he waited until Sara had sat down next to him before shrugging and saying, "I don't know," before changing the topic.
The bus ride home passing like the rest of the day, Abby found himself caught up in talking about one thing after another with Sara. Almost missing his stop, he had just enough time to grab the pull cord to signal. The bus slowing, he stood and told the other girl, "Call you later tonight?" to which she nodded and replied, "Talk to you later."
Home, he kicked off his sandals by the front door and as he wandered toward the kitchen, he could smell the chicken his mom was preparing. Stepping into the kitchen, he noted the table was already set, which was a task his mom usually asked to do, but then saw that it was set for three instead of two. His mom coming out the pantry with a, "Oh, good, your home," he waved and then indicated the table and asked, "Dad going to be here for dinner?" to which his mom nodded and told, "Dinner will be ready in about ten, fifteen minutes. Why don't you go freshen up. You know your dad doesn't approve of your crop tops."
"Okay," he replied before turning and exiting the kitchen, deciding put on a t-shirt.
Dinner passed in mostly silence, with most conversation being between his mom and his dad, who Abby found he was no longer as close too as he had been before. Wondering about, if it was normal, he took the offered desert plate and listened as his mom told him, "Don't run away just yet, okay. I have something I want to talk with you about after desert," and wondering what, Abby forced himself to remain sitting at the table after he'd finished his slice of pie.
When the dishes had finally been cleared away, and both his parents had a cup of coffee, his mom took a moment to gather herself before asking, "You remember you aunt Carol? And your cousin Dennis?"
A slow nod as he thought about Carol, his mom's sister, whom he hadn't seen since before he'd been ten, and Dennis, who the only thing he could recall about him was that he was like four or five years younger and liked playing with dolls. And as his mom explained, "She's been having a bit of a hard time. What with the divorce from Kevin, having to move, look for a new job, and Dennis deciding he no longer wants to be Dennis, but Kailey," Abby wasn't the least bit surprised to hear the last bit. Wondering where she was going with this, he listened as she said, "Well, the thing is, Carol has asked me to come out to New Mexico for a bit. And I was thinking, with how things are, and how it sounds, well, I might move out there for a bit."
Shocked by what he had just heard, Abby sat in silence before, in a hushed voice, asked, "What about me?"
"I'd want you to move out there with me," his mother said.
"Why cannot I stay here? Dad's staying here, right?"
A heavy sigh from his dad, who that said, "I am. But that's because of your grandparents," before his mom interjected and explained, "I was hoping you could with me and give me a hand helping your aunt Carol, and offer advice to Dennis, seeing as it seems he is serious about wanting to be a girl. And then there is that you yourself are a teenage girl. Your father is not exactly the best when it comes to raising a girl, let alone a teenage one."
Inside his mind, as he he heard his mom explain this and more, something seemed to click into place and suddenly he thought he had a better understanding about why everything around him seemed off. Hearing that his mom had finished talking, and that his dad wasn't going to say anything, he whispered, "Can I think about?"
"I won't be going out there for another week or so," he mother replied as he dad told him, "Sweetie. It will be all right. It will only be a couple weeks. You'll see. Everything will work out and you'll be back before before the start of the school term."
A simple nod and as he whispered, "Yeah. Okay," he stood and headed for his bedroom.
Upstairs, he flopped down on the bed and gazed at the room without really seeing it. His thoughts roiling, he tried to calm himself and focus, but found he couldn't and instead the best he could do was tell himself, "Why didn't I see it before. It all makes sense. I should have seen it. Why I cannot get a hold of the other boy-turned-girl. Why something about reality seems off," before standing and drifting over to the mirror.
His reflection peering back at him, he studied the girl he was being turned into before something else came to him. Turning away, he fetched a cloth tape measure from his vanity and taking his height, he realised that at some point he had shrunk, as he was now five foot one. Returning to standing before the looking glass, seeing only a teenage girl reflected back, but knowing he wasn't one just yet, he nearly wailed, "And I will have to be one, cause I cannot never go back," he instead turned away, marched across the room and flopped back down on his bed. Staring up at the ceiling, putting it together, he heaved a sigh.
"I should have seen it," he muttered as he thought about his grandparents, remembered slips of his life from when he had been guy, recalled when his mom and dad had separarated, "But never divorced," he amended, and then went back over the news he'd just gotten and found, if he had been paying attention, it would have made sense earlier. Rolling over, he sat up and reached for the date book he kept on the nightstand. Flipping it open to the current date in mid-July, he whispered, "Four years," as he recalled, from when he'd been a guy, how his mom had gone out to help aunt Carol when he'd been fifteen. And had ended living with her sister for three and a half years, moving back shortly before his graduation.
"Only, then, I had stayed with dad," he thought as he tossed the date book back where it had been. Lying back down, he curled around a body pillow as he tried to wrap his mind around the fact that not only was he turning into a fifteen year old girl, but reality had rolled back four years, making it impossible for him to go back to being a guy, as the amulet and the one who had come up with the idea of them being girls was four years in the future.