The door opened and Diego walked in. He was wearing a tank top and shorts. "Hey Chico" Diego greeted. "You're still here huh? I didn't think you'd come back so soon."
Eddy turned his head and saw Diego's reflection on the mirror. He could see now why Diego was taller than him, he was short too! He smiled at the memory of when they first met. "Yeah, I'm still here, but I don't know why you're here"
Diego shrugged and grabbed his phone.
Eddy wondered if maybe Deigo was supposed to be older. He used the Chronivac to age Diego up to be older.
Diego was indeed older now, and the memories were correct, but something was off. He had long hair he hadn't had before, he was more muscular, and he was taller than him.
Deigo was now 35 years old, which was much older than Eddy, but he didn't think the reality change would affect him. Eddy was now 23 again, and around the same height, and only half his weight. "What the hell is this" He said out loud. His mind became foggy as he forgot to set the option to remember previous realities, his mind formed new memories and lost all his previous ones.
"You didn't like it?" came a familiar voice, but not one he recognized.
Looking again at his reflection in the mirror he saw a young man, except his face looked much older. He had a patchy beard and mustache. "Who are you? How the hell did this happen?
The man walked out from the bathroom and froze when he saw the changes to his now older reflection. "I'm sorry Eddy, but something happened to us."
"What the actual f..." Eddy said as he looked at the man in front of him. The man was much older than him, and had short hair. He recognized him though as the 1st marine he met when he came back from leave. The man was now in his late thirties.
The man raised his hand to stop Eddy from speaking. "I know this is confusing, but please calm down, and tell me what you remember."
Eddy was very confused, but tried to answer the man's questions.
Eddy remembered he was in the army, and had just come back from leave. He was with his boyfriend at the time, but his boyfriend left when he found out they were going to celebrate his birthday there.
The man started writing notes on a pad, as Eddy talked. Soon he was done and he looked up at Eddy. "Well that's all good, but I have to ask you this, what are you?"
"I'm 23. Don't you know, I was supposed to be 23?" Eddy asked.
The man looked concerned, "No, I don't think you know, you don't remember anything do you? Before we can go any further I have to ask you this, what do you remember?"
"I remember basic training, then I went on leave..." Eddy started to say, but the man interrupted him.
"No, before that. Before you even joined the army. Before your 18th birthday."
Eddy was getting angry, but the man was being very professional. He didn't even know this man, and was just following his orders. "I remember when I was a kid, and then I was 18, I don't know what you mean."
"OK, calm down, this is going to be hard for you." The man said in a soothing voice. It was then when Eddy realized that he didn't know the man's name. "I'm Lieutenant LaRosa, I'm your former lover changed by the Chronivac."
Eddy's eyes grew wide, as he tried to ask a question, but lieutenant LaRosa stopped him. "Before you go jumping to conclusions, I'm trying to find out what's going on with you, so that we can fix this."
Eddy took a deep breath, and calmed down. He still had questions, "How did this happen to me? Why can't I remember anything before my 18th birthday? Will it fix itself over time? Why am I suddenly much older than what my real age is now? And what the hell is a Chronivac?"
The lieutenant had his own notepad out, and was writing down everything Eddy said. He looked up and began to explain. "I'm not exactly sure how this happened to you or me, but it has a lot to do with this machine. You were born on... May 21st, 1997. Your actual age is currently 23, but your a lot younger than that if I can remember right.
This machine changed both us several times, and you forgot about who you were. I'm not sure why it did that, but it seems your mind doesn't seem to want to let go of who you used to be. It's likely that this will get corrected itself, so don't worry about it.
The other thing you should worry about is the fact you're a lot older than you should be. The machine did that as well, so we don't know why. Fortunately, the Chronivac has the ability to fix this sort of thing."
Eddy took a deep breath, and asked him the question that had been on his mind. "And if it doesn't? What then? And how do you know all of this?"
Lieutenant LaRosa looked down at his notes, and began to read from them, "Because I am or was Deigo your lover, but you changed reality and I still remember being a 28 year old marine. Even though I have new memories of being Lieutentant LaRosa who is 35 years old."
Eddy looked stunned he didn't really remember having a boyfriend named Diego but it made some some sense to him. Eddy quickly replied "But if you're older than me, why are you working with me to fix it. I mean wouldn't you be wanting the world to stay how it is?"
The older man smiled and said "The world was already how it was when I was born, so it wouldn't make a difference if I stayed 25 or became 35 right away. My point is, it's not me that wants the world to stay the way it is, it's you. You're happier when you're younger and I'm happy when I'm with you. So it works out."
Eddy thought about this for a moment, then he looked at the pile of cigarettes "So why are you helping me with this?"
"Because as much as I like making you happy, I also like myself happy, and if this is what it takes to make you happy then so be it. I'll help you any way I can, because besides my sanity, you're the only thing in this world that I care about."
Eddy began typing on his keyboard, "So what does this thing do?"
"It should be able to change you exactly however you type it or wish it."
Eddy looked at him, "so if I want to be 18 again, I just have to wish for it?"
Lt. LaRosa smiled and nodded. "That's about the size of it. The machine is actually more powerful than that, but the wish has to be exactly as you typed or it won't work. For example, if you type 'I wish I were 18 again' you will become 18 again and you can add any other changes you want."
Eddy was eager to try it, but he wanted to make sure Lt. LaRosa was aware of every possible scenario. "So if I type 'I wish I were 18 again, with my old self dating you', will that work?"
The man frowned as he thought about it.
"Well it would work but reality would change so that you were dating me, who is 35 years old, is that what you want?"
Eddy's eyes widened, "But I do want to date you!" he exclaimed.
"Sorry son, you only get one chance at this."
Eddy slumped back in his chair in defeat, but his expression suddenly changed to a smile when he thought of an idea. He quickly got up and grabbed the man's arm. "Well can't I wish for you to be 18 again, so we can date?" he asked hopefully.
"Well it would work but... it would also make me 18 again, and 18 years old is when I joined the marines."
"It's not something we need to worry about " Eddy said.
Eddy sat back down, and did his best to calm himself down. He had so many things he wanted to do, and all this was taking was about five minutes of his time. He looked around the room for anything that might happen, but as far as he could tell, all he could rely on was the machine and himself. He took a deep breath and started to write down his thoughts on paper.
"What are you doing?" Lt. LaRosa asked walking back into the room with the machine. Eddy didn't answer, he waited patiently and than typed on the machine.
"Are you done?" the machine asked.
"Yes."
"Alright let's get this wish done then."
Eddy waited patiently than followed directions on the screen. He typed in his name Eddy LaRosa followed by "I wish was 18". The screen began to flash for a bit, and eventually it stopped flashing and characters appeared on the screen.
"You are now related to 1 person by blood." the machine told him.
"What does that mean?" Eddy asked.
"It means you now share blood with the person you just wished for."
"I did that?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't it work? Should I try again?"
"Yes."
Eddy did so, but with different wish from the first time. This time he wished that he was 18 and dating Lt. LaRosa. He got the same message as before, but this time it ended with an exclamation point.
"Is that good or bad?" Eddy asked.
"It means your wish came true."
Lieutenant LaRosa entered the room and said "Eddy, we need to go.Hey Chico, looking good, hope you are ready to spend time with your sexy papi." Eddy was stunned it worked.
"You're joking right?"
"No joke pendejo, your wish came true."
Eddy looked at the screen and saw that it was telling the truth. He couldn't believe it...yet it made sense. He was 18 and now he could go out with Lieutenant LaRosa? He couldn't believe it!
"Are you ready for this pendejo? Your wish just came true, you can go out with me, for real this time. We can finally spend time together like a normal couple."
"Are you serious?"
"Very serious, now let's go!"
Eddy was in shock, he wished that he could be 18 again and well...he was. He couldn't believe it. Everything that happened seemed unreal.
"Follow me pendejo."
Eddy followed him outside.
"You don't know how long I've waited for this moment. Now it's finally come to pass and I can't wait to spend time with you, like a normal couple. You think you're ready? I mean this is a pretty big step for you."
Eddy was still in shock that everything was happening so fast. He couldn't even think straight.
"Well pendejo, are you ready?
"Yes."
"Perfect, now hold my hand."
Eddy looked at his hand. It felt weird to hold it, considering the sexy man was 35 years old and seemed way to old for him now. He grabbed it though, to please his boyfriend of one day.