That night, Tom had another dream. This time he was in a room that he didn’t recognize, lying down on the bottom mattress of a bunk bed. He could hear a voice screaming from outside the room. “That little shit! I know he’s the one who did it!!”
Suddenly, the door to the room burst open, and a large, intimidating man entered the room and grabbed Tom by the shirt and pulled him up off the bed till they were face to face. “You broke my fucking drone, didn’t you?” the man yelled.
“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Tom replied, terror filling his mind as this man who was clearly much larger than him in this dream held him firm by the shirt.
“You fucking liar! I know you did it. Ray told me he saw you messing with it. Probably trying to show off to your stupid skater friends. I told my wife you were a waste of space. No one on earth would ever want to adopt a little shit like you!” The man reached back and slammed his fist across Tom’s face. Tom fell backwards, not really feeling pain due to being in a dream, but still felt the rising fear in his mind.
“You’re grounded for a month!” the man said, throwing Tom to the ground. “And all the money that we get for you is going to replace my drone. So if you need anything, you’re out of luck. Maybe next time you’ll think twice before you touch my stuff.”
The man walked out of the room and Tom got up, only to see a teenage guy with brown hair and a smirk on his face. “Thanks for taking the blame for me,” they guy said to Tom. “I can always pass my screw-ups off on you, and Dad will always take my side over some stupid foster kid that no one wants to adopt.”
Tom’s anger boiled against this kid, and he reached out to punch him. The kid tried to fight back, but Tom had taken martial arts when he was younger, and he easily bested this jerk kid. But before he could really inflict any pain to this teen, the man was back, throwing Tom against the wall and checking on the guy who had mocked Tom. “Ray, are you all right??” the man asked.
Even though Tom had done nothing to actually hurt him, Ray definitely pulled some sympathy tears and was holding his arm like it was severely injured. “He just started attacking me for no good reason, Dad! You know how he is! I was just trying to ask him to move his stupid skateboard.”
“How dare you fucking touch my son!” the man said. “Get out of my house! Don’t show your face here again!” The man got up from the floor next to his son and started making his way menacingly towards Tom, his fist balled up in anger.
Tom ran out of the door and found a skateboard on the ground. He started skating down the nondescript street, his red hair blowing in the wind. Tears stung his face as he tried to focus on where he was going.
He eventually realized that he was at his apartment building. He ran to his apartment door but found that it was locked. He didn’t have any keys on him, so he knocked on the door. Steve answered, looking at him confused. “May I help you?”
“Steve, it’s me, Tom! I need you to let me in! There’s some crazy guy who’s trying to attack me!”
“Look, kid, I don’t know who you are, but you’ve got the wrong place,” Steve replied, closing the door in Tom’s face.
Tom started running down the road, seeing Alice in the distance with her back to him. “Allie! Babe!” he cried out to her.
She turned to him with a look of concern on her face. “What’s the matter, sweetie?” she asked.
“I need your help! Some guy is after me and Steve didn’t even recognize me!”
“Aw, honey! You’re just imagining things! Don’t worry! Mommy will look after you!” Alice said, pulling him into a hug.
“Babe, really?! I’m an adult, not some little kid!!” Tom replied, pulling out of her hug.
“Of course you are, sweetie. Whatever you say!” Alice responded, grabbing Tom’s hand.
Tom pulled his hand away from her. He didn’t know what Alice was thinking. He started running away from her. “Thomas Walker! You get back here or you’re going to get a spanking!!!” Alice cried after him.
Tom found himself on a skateboard again, eventually reaching what looked to be a slightly run-down inner-city school. He saw a familiar figure of a Hispanic guy with curly black hair and piercing brown eyes standing near one of the walls. “Hey novio!” the guy said. “You need to relax. I’ve got what you need right here…” the guy held up a rolled joint, which Tom took into his mouth and instantly all of his fears and concerns flew away, and it was just him and this incredibly hot guy, together, making out, feeling each other up…The boy pulled Tom’s pants down and started sucking on Tom’s dick. Tom held the teen boy’s head in his hand, running his fingers through the boy’s thick curls. The whole feeling was incredible…
“Mr. Allen? Mr. Allen!” he heard a voice calling him.
“Huh? Wuzzat?” Tom mumbled, the school and the guy vanishing in an instant, quickly replaced by a hospital room where a nurse was standing next to his bed. Tom realized that he had his arms around a pillow, and he also became instantly aware that he had a massive hard-on. Fortunately, though, he was on his side and under the sheet and blanket, so it wasn’t incredibly obvious. He also had a slight headache.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Allen, but we just need you to fill out all of the discharge paperwork,” the nurse was saying. Tom struggled to figure out what she was talking about, but he was also scared to move for fear of making his pressing boner obvious to her.
“Discharge…paperwork?” he said, still confused. He realized he was looking at her through a reddish haze.
“Yes sir. I can leave the paperwork here to be signed. It’s not much. Just explaining everything that you might need, all of the care that was done, the procedure, and everything…Dr. Pinkerton should be by shortly to also complete your exit interview.”
Tom finally realized what she was talking about. He remembered where he was and what was going on. “Right…yeah. I can get that done. No problem. Sorry. Just woke up from a deep sleep,” he said. He realized that the “reddish haze” he was looking through was his long hair partially covering his face. He swept his hair from his eyes and slightly sat up, still keeping himself under the blankets so as not to reveal his hard-on.
“Is there anything else that I can get for you?” the nurse asked.
“Yes, actually. Can you please get me some Tylenol and some coffee?”
“Certainly! I’ll be back shortly!” the nurse replied, leaving the room.
As soon as she left, Tom got out of bed and headed towards the bathroom. Despite having a younger body, he felt the sluggishness of his teenage self not wanting to fully awaken. Although he had always been a morning person, clearly this body did not agree with that mindset. He walked into the bathroom and closed the door. Pulling down his athletic shorts in front of the toilet, his boner was already slipping out of his new foreskin and dripping pre-cum.
*Morning wood…another thing I’m going to have to get used to all over again…* He slowly started rubbing himself, his thoughts drifting towards Alice. He knew he had a dream last night, and it had gotten really steamy, but he couldn’t remember the details. But he definitely thought that there had been a blow job in it….He closed his eyes and pictured Alice giving him a blow job, but just for an instant, her figure seemed to shift…Her hair darkening and getting shorter…more curly…before he could think more of it, he reached his climax and shot several loads into and on the toilet. He started to clean up when he heard the muffled sound of a knock to his main hospital room. He quickly cleaned up the rest of the cum that hadn’t made it into the toilet and flushed, pulling his shorts back up and washing his hands. The athletic shorts had a definite stain from the pre-cum he had been leaking in his sleep, but they were dark, and it wasn’t super obvious unless you specifically looked at it. He rubbed at them with a paper towel to get rid of any obvious wet spots, and then made his way back to his room, where a cup of coffee with cream and sugar, some toast with jam and butter, and a paper medicine cup with two pills sat on his bedside table.
His head was still throbbing a bit, although the orgasm had helped take his mind off of the pain. He took the pills and then followed it with the coffee. Although he swallowed the pills, he started gagging at the aftertaste of the coffee. *Ugh! What is this coffee?! It tastes terrible!* he thought to himself. He normally drank his coffee black, but this coffee tasted so horrible he couldn’t help but add all the cream and sugar in an attempt to make it somewhat drinkable. Even after adding the cream and sugar, though, he found that the taste of the coffee still disgusted him.
He turned his attention to the toast, where he added butter followed by strawberry jam. Normally he preferred grape jelly or peanut butter on his toast, but the strawberry jam actually tasted really good.
As he was finishing eating, there was a knock on the door, and Dr. Pinkerton came in. “Hello, Mr. Allen! How are you feeling today?”
“I’m feeling all right,” Tom said. “Have a slight headache, but nothing too serious. I think it’s just caffeine withdrawal. Would I still have that in this new body?”
“Well, most of our patients who have undergone the procedure have reported that they often have slightly different changes to their food and beverage likes and dislikes, as I mentioned before. Theoretically, though, unless your new body also had a caffeine addiction, that shouldn’t carry over with your brain functions.” Dr. Pinkerton began to check Tom’s vital signs.
“Yeah, I discovered that I actually liked the strawberry jam that came with my toast. Not something I was a big fan of before. But I’m curious. What if there were other addictions or anything like that?” Tom asked.
“If there’s anything that you feel that is abnormal, or anything that seems significantly off your normal style of thinking, I would want you to write it down. A lot of our patients find that recording a journal of their first few months to be very therapeutic to acclimating to the change. Obviously, it’s your choice, but I highly recommend it.”
“Thanks, Doc. I understand,” Tom said while the doctor checked his heartbeat.
“The nurse said you slept all right after that medicine last night? Do you normally struggle to get to sleep at night?” Dr. Pinkerton asked him.
“I mean, sometimes. It’s not consistent or anything. I think it was a mix of this body having been unconscious for most of the day combined with my thoughts about everything relating to the change. I’m not too concerned about it.”
“Well, if you find that you are consistently having trouble sleeping, please let me know. Your host body may have struggled with an insomnia disorder that we were unaware of, and that might have affected you. I can refer you to a psychiatrist who can make that determination.”
Dr. Pinkerton went on to discuss other psychological symptoms and concerns, but Tom found his brain wandering as he listened. *I don’t need to go to a psychiatrist, do I? Would I have to sit down on a couch while they talked to me? Or is that a psychologist? What’s the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist, anyways? Aren’t they both shrinks? Doesn’t one have to go to med school? I bet the doc enjoyed med school. He’s a good doctor. I’m glad he was able to refer me to this program. It really saved my life…*
“Mr. Allen? Are you all right?” Tom was jarred from his stream of thoughts when he realized that Dr. Pinkerton had asked him something.
“I’m sorry, Doc. My mind wandered for a second. What were you asking?” Tom said, running a hand through his shaggy red hair.
“I was just asking you if you had any further questions.”
“Oh! No, I think I’m good,” Tom said with a smile. He hoped he hadn’t missed anything important in the doctor’s spiel when his mind had started wandering.
“Well, then, if you don’t have any other questions, you of course have my number. Feel free to contact me at any time if you think of something or you are concerned about any thoughts or experiences that you might be having. We’ll schedule a consultation in one month to make sure that everything is going well and that there aren’t any problems.” Dr. Pinkerton started to head towards the door.
“Oh, wait, dOC!” Tom called out, his voice cracking at the end. He winced at the sound. Another thing he would have to get used to. “Sorry, I forgot. When will I be getting discharged?”
“Ah, yes. I don’t think you heard me earlier. Once you complete the discharge paperwork, we should be able to discharge you within an hour. Do you have a ride scheduled to pick you up?”
“Yeah, I’ll have one. Thanks!” Tom said. Dr. Pinkerton left the room, leaving Tom alone once again. He sighed and picked up his phone. He realized he had several texts and a couple of missed calls from Alice. He had apparently been so tired he had slept through all of them.
9:35AM
Hey. Just wanted to check up on you and see how you’re feeling this morning. Any word about discharge? Love you!
10:15AM
Is everything all right? I haven’t heard back from you yet, and you’re usually up before I am. Were there some complications?
10:30AM
Missed Call – Alice
11:00AM
Called the hospital and they put me through to your room and there was no answer. Are they running more tests on you? CALL ME!!!
11:00AM
Missed Call – Alice
Tom hadn’t realized how late in the morning he had slept. Was it really already past 11? He had slept for almost 12 hours! No wonder he was so groggy when he woke up. He unlocked his phone and called Alice.
“Tom! Thank God you’re all right! I was about to head down to the hospital to make sure you hadn’t collapsed or anything!” Alice said as soon as she answered.
“Yeah, Babe, I’m good,” Tom replied, lying back on the hospital bed. “Sorry. I had trouble sleeping last night, and the doc prescribed some sleeping pills that knocked me out hardcore. I just woke up a few minutes ago and had to meet with the Doc.”
“Aw! Poor sweetie!” Alice said. Although Alice normally called him that, he felt slightly put off by that pet name for some reason. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why, though. “Do you know when you’re getting discharged?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’ve just got to fill out some paperwork, and then they should be ready to discharge me within an hour, the doc said.”
“All right. I’ll go ahead and take an extended lunch and come meet you at the hospital. Do you need me to bring you anything?”
“Actually, yeah. Can you get a black coffee from McDonald’s, please? Their coffee here sucks hardcore.”
She laughed in response. “Of course! No problem. I’ll see you in about 30 minutes or so. Love you!”
“Love you too!” Tom hung up the phone and sighed. He looked at his phone and started checking his social media accounts. One of his friends posted a funny video on Facebook, which led him to watching several other funny videos, and before he knew it, there was a knock on the door. He looked up and saw Alice walking in.
“Oh my gosh, Tom! You’re so skinny! You haven’t gotten dressed yet?” she asked as she walked in, carrying a McDonald’s coffee cup in her hand.
Tom looked down and realized that he was still just wearing the athletic shorts that he had slept in. He had completely forgotten about getting dressed.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. I just got distracted. Let me do that real quick,” he said, his cheeks turning red in embarrassment. There was something about this grown woman seeing his thin teen body that didn’t sit well in the back of his mind, even though he had seen her naked numerous times.
He got up and walked over to the box, where the shirt, boxers, and flip-flops that he had worn the night before lay on top. He quickly put the shirt and flip-flops on, stuffing the boxers into the box. He would go commando for now. Once again the sweet earthy aroma that accompanied the contents of the box filled his nostrils, relaxing him slightly. He turned to see Alice, who was looking through a stack of papers on the table in the room.
“Are these copies of your discharge paperwork? When are you getting discharged?”
“Oh. Yeah. I was supposed to fill those out. I completely forgot,” Tom said sheepishly.
“Are you kidding me right now? You know I’m having to take leave to take an extended lunch to pick you up. You could at least have had everything ready by the time I got here,” she said, an annoyed look on her face.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I’ve just gone through a crazy weird procedure and there’s a lot that I still don’t understand and I’m trying not to freak out or anything about the fact that I’m now in a 16 year old kid’s body that looks nothing like I used to! A little sympathy would be appREciated!” Another voice crack. As if he wasn’t embarrassed enough already.
Alice looked at him, her frown fading into a look of concern. “Oh honey! I’m sorry! I know you’re going through a lot.” She walked over to him and hugged him. “It’s just been a stressful day at work, and I’m still just a little freaked out because I thought something had happened to you.” Tom still couldn’t get over how she was now actually taller than he was. It made the hug feel really weird for him.
“Here, let me fill out that paperwork, and hopefully they can get us out of here soon,” he said as he walked over to the bed and sat on it, glancing at the papers. He picked up the McDonald’s cup that Alice had placed next to the papers. “Thanks for the coffee!” He took a sip and immediately spit it out. While not as bad as the hospital’s coffee, it still tasted horrible. “Ugh! That coffee’s disgusting too!”
“Really?” Alice said, walking over and taking the cup from him. “I had some sips on the way over. I mean, I’m not a fan of black coffee, but it tasted normal enough to me.” She took a sip of the coffee. “Yeah, tastes like normal black coffee.”
“Huh. Apparently, that’s another food taste that’s different in this new body. No coffee. That’s going to make work mornings a biiiitch,” Tom grumbled.
“Oh, have you had other taste differences?” Alice asked.
“Yeah, I apparently like tabasco sauce now, which is really weird, because I hated spicy things before.”
“Ooh, we can go on all sorts of foodie adventures and discover what your new palate likes and dislikes!” Alice said with a squeal.
Tom smiled at her energy. “Yeah, well, let’s get out of the hospital first.” He looked down at the stack of papers and was concerned. The text seemed to be moving, and none of the letters seemed to be in the right places. He tried to read what it was all saying, but he was having difficulty doing so. It took him a couple of minutes just to read through the first paragraph. He felt his headache starting to return…”Ugh…” he closed his eyes and started rubbing them.
“What’s wrong, are you all right?” Alice asked, walking over and sitting on the bed next to him.
“Yeah, the text just looked kind of weird. I think I’m having a severe caffeine withdrawal and it’s giving me a migraine. Can you just point where I need to sign, please?” He asked, opening his eyes again.
Alice looked at him with concern, but then nodded. She pointed out all the places that he needed to sign, and he quickly signed his name. It was weird holding a pen in this new hand, and he felt his signature was not quite as normal as he was used to. He finished the last of the paperwork and Alice took the hospital copies out to the nurse’s station. A few minutes later, she returned with the nurse.
“Everything looks good, Mr. Allen. We’ve scheduled an appointment with Dr. Pinkerton on April 15th at 9:30 AM. Do you have all of your personal items?”
“Oh yeah,” Tom said, looking over at the box of clothes and other things that had belonged to the kid whose body he now lived in. “Let me get all of that.” He went over to the box and tried to pick it up but found that his strength was significantly lacking. He blushed at his lack of strength in his new body, but the box was rather heavy. He probably would have had difficulty even in his old body. Probably.
“Here, let me see if I can find someone to assist,” the nurse said, leaving the room. After about 15 minutes, she returned with a muscular orderly.
“James here will help you get all of your belongings,” the nurse said, indicating the orderly. “Is there anything else that you need before you go, Mr. Allen?”
“No, I’m good. Thank you so much for everything!”
“Of course!” the nurse replied. “Have a nice day!”
James went over and picked up the box quite effortlessly. Tom grimaced at the fact that his new body was so weak. He grabbed his phone, wallet, keys, and his discharge papers and walked out the door of the hospital room, followed by Alice and James. He couldn’t wait to get home and try to start to return to some level of normalcy.