As Tom entered the coffee shop, he looked around, running a hand through his shaggy red hair. Miguel didn’t appear to be there yet. A friendly female barista who was probably only a couple of years older than his current body walked over to the cash register and looked at him to see if he was going to buy anything. He walked up to the counter and was about to place his normal coffee order when he remembered the awful taste of the coffee he had earlier. “Umm…sorry, this is my first time here,” he lied. “What non-coffee options do you have?” The lady listed off several drinks, many of which were flavored teas or chocolate based. The list seemed to go in one ear and right out the other, as Tom found himself distracted by all the craziness of the baristas preparing drinks for customers in the drive thru.
“Uh…I guess I’ll hold off for a bit,” Tom said sheepishly. “I’m supposed to be meeting a friend here.” He awkwardly walked back to a table near the entrance and sat at it, running his hand through his hair. Why was he so nervous? He felt like he was a teenage kid on his first date. *I guess I technically AM a teenage kid, and I’m sort of waiting on a date…No! This is not a date!*
Before he could continue thinking further, the door opened and in walked Miguel. If Tom’s body had found the pictures of Miguel attractive before, the young Hispanic boy was all the more attractive in person. He had a lean build that had some decent muscular definition that peeked out from the sleeves of the black Metallica band T-shirt that Tom had seen earlier in the video chat. He wore fitted jeans that looked a bit faded and torn, but they seemed to accentuate his legs. The jeans tapered down to a nice pair of black Vans on his feet. He had a beat-up skateboard under his right arm. His curly black hair and slight stubble accentuated his youthful face, and when he saw Tom, he broke into a huge smile with several dimples. “Danny!!!” he said loudly. He dropped the skateboard and ran to Tom, grabbing him in a huge hug and leaned in for a kiss. Tom was taken aback by his sudden display of affection, frozen as he felt this young Mexican boy embrace him, and his body responded by becoming aroused, his erection starting to swell in his boxers. Tom struggled out of the embrace, turning his face so Miguel’s lips only grazed his cheek. He attempted pushing back against Miguel, which was easier said than done, as he realized that Miguel was a few inches taller and a bit stronger than he was.
“Miguel, please!” he cried out, perhaps a bit too loudly. “Sorry, but I’m not Danny.”
Miguel stepped away, looking deep into Tom’s eyes. His face looked crestfallen, as if someone had killed his puppy. Tom’s heart reached out to the young man, but he also tried to remind himself why they were there in the first place. “You aren’t him, are you?” Miguel said quietly. He looked around to see if anyone had seen the outburst between the two of them, but the coffee shop wasn’t too busy, and everyone seemed to be minding their own business and paying little attention to the two teenage boys at the front. Miguel looked at Tom once again, and then shook his head. “Shit, man…I need a drink…” he said. He picked up his skateboard and started to walk over to the counter. “Are you getting anything?”
Tom started to follow him. “Yeah, but…I’m still learning about this body,” he replied. “Apparently, my tastes have changed, and I have more of Danny’s tastes then my own, which is to say that I don’t like coffee…What would he normally get here?”
Miguel smiled at the question. “Danny probably wouldn’t ever come here normally, but he would usually get an iced green tea if I ever dragged him to a place like this.”
“Ah, okay,” Tom replied.
Miguel reached the counter and ordered a latte. Tom quickly came up behind him and ordered a green tea. “Don’t worry about it; I’ll buy,” Tom said, taking out the wallet he had been using that night.
Miguel’s eyes widened when he saw the wallet. Tom pulled out his credit card and paid for the drinks, then turned to see Miguel staring at him. “What?” he asked.
“You’re using Danny’s wallet,” Miguel said pointedly.
“Yeah…I don’t know why,” Tom replied, putting the wallet back in his pocket. “I just felt like I should earlier. It was like it was important or something. I’m sorry. Does that bother you?”
Miguel smiled slightly at this. “Not at all. I got Danny that wallet for his birthday two years ago. It was shortly after we started dating. I think it was the first present I ever bought him.”
Tom blushed when he heard that. He hadn’t expected THAT response. “Oh. Well, yeah. It’s a nice wallet,” he said lamely, unsure of how to respond. He ran his hand through his shaggy hair again.
The two of them sat down at a table in the corner of the coffee shop while they awaited their drinks. Miguel looked over at Tom. “So, tell me about yourself,” he said.
Tom shrugged. “I mean, there’s not much more to tell. My name’s Tom Allen. I’m an insurance broker with Stephens Insurance Company. I’ve divorced with a 14-year-old son, and I live in an apartment a few blocks from here. I’m getting married to a beautiful woman in a few months, and up until a few days ago, I had terminal colon cancer. Danny saved my life, but by ultimately giving up his own.”
Tom paused when he heard his name called from the counter signaling that the drinks were ready, and he went and grabbed his and Miguel’s drinks before returning to the table. As he took a sip of the drink, he was surprised to find that he really liked the taste. He had never been a fan of iced tea in his old body, but apparently Danny’s body really liked it. Another change he’d have to get used to.
Miguel grilled him about his personal life and the Mind Store Machine Project, and Tom tried to answer the questions as best as he could. He found that he didn’t mind answering Miguel’s questions. The teen had a natural and relaxed charm that seemed to allow the questions to flow smoothly, but Tom did find himself a bit distracted by the noise of the coffee shop, and he lost his train of thought a few times in the discussion.
“Did you take your…medicine…earlier tonight?” Miguel asked him at one point.
“Medicine?” Tom asked, taking another sip of his drink. “There wasn’t any medicine that I saw in Danny’s stuff. Does he normally take some medicine? I don’t know a lot about his medical history…”
Miguel rolled his eyes at this response. “MJ,” he responded in a low voice. “You know…” he made a smoking motion with his fingers.
Tom’s eyes widened at the response. “You know about that?” he asked quietly.
“Hell yeah,” Miguel replied with a smirk. “I’m the one who helps him get it. It really helps him concentrate and control his ADHD.”
“ADHD?!” Tom asked.
“Yeah, Danny has…er…had really bad ADHD, but the problem was that being in that shitty youth home, he never got good medical care, so it was difficult for him to ever get consistent medication. We found that a bit of MJ actually worked really well in helping keep his mind focused when he needed to.”
Tom thought back to his problems with focusing and concentration the past few days. He had thought it had just been a side effect of the procedure. But what if he was dealing with this kid’s ADHD? What would that entail? Would he need to get formally diagnosed? Should he report the symptoms to Dr. Pinkerton? The Doctor had told him to report all of the changes, right? Wait, were their other changes that he missed? What if they found out about the kid’s marijuana, though? Would this lead to some sort of problem? Even though marijuana was legal in Colorado, his body was still underage. But didn’t the doctor say that it was okay since he was legally an adult? But would it have an effect on his body since it was technically still growing? Was his body still growing? Tom felt his headache come back in full force as the thoughts bombarded his mind.
“Hey! Hey! You okay, man?” Tom snapped out of his thoughts to see Miguel looking at him from across the table with a look of concern.
“I don’t know what to say,” Tom said quietly. “I think you might be right.”
Miguel smiled at Tom. “It’s okay. I helped Danny walk through all of this. It was really hard for him, especially when he was younger. I can help you too, if you’d like.”
Tom blushed and ran his hand through his hair again. “I don’t know, Miguel. This is kind of weird…”
Miguel shrugged. “I’m not saying you have to date me or anything…but you seem like a pretty cool guy, and I think there’s more of Danny in you than even YOU realize.”
“Why do you say that?” Tom asked.
“Well, you keep doing certain actions, like running your hand through your hair, or the way that you chew on your straw. Danny always used to do those things.”
“I don’t chew on my straw!” Tom replied, looking down at his straw to see that the top part had been chewed on without him even realizing he was doing it. Tom blushed when he saw it.
“You yourself said that you have some of his likes and dislikes,” Miguel continued. “And whether you like it or not, you definitely have his ADHD.” He paused for a moment. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and pulled up a page in his phone browser. “Take a look at this,” he said, handing Tom his phone. “Can you read that okay?”
Tom looked down at the screen, which showed large blocks of text on a white background. The letters seemed to be dancing around, and it reminded him of the struggle he had when he had tried to read the papers at the doctor’s office earlier that day. He tried to focus, but he realized it was taking him quite some time to even get through the first line of text, and he kept losing his place. “Oh my God…the kid’s illiterate too?” he cried out as he put the phone down.
“No, doofus,” Miguel said, rolling his eyes. “He’s got dyslexia. Or rather, you do. Here, try this.” He grabbed his phone and changed apps to the text app, which had a dark mode similar to the one that Tom had seen earlier on Danny’s phone. Tom found that the text was much easier to read.
“So that’s why he has his phone in dark mode,” Tom said.
“Yeah, it apparently is easier for some dyslexic people,” Miguel replied. “I normally would say that Danny would be able to tell you better than I can, but I guess I can’t really say that anymore…” He looked off in the distance, a troubled look on his face.
“Well, maybe it would be good to chat with you,” Tom said. “You can definitely help me navigate a lot of these changes I’m dealing with. But I should get going. I’ve had some pretty annoying headaches the past couple of days, and I feel like I need to go lie down and take some Tylenol or something. Danny doesn’t have a problem with migraines, does he?”
“Tylenol isn’t going to help with those headaches,” Miguel replied. “You’re going through marijuana withdrawal.”
“Ugh!” Tom said, slumping down in his chair. “I don’t need to deal with drug addictions! This is not helping…”
“Hey man, just chill,” Miguel said, sliding his chair over so that it was closer to Tom’s. He put a hand on Tom’s shoulder. “Seriously, dude. I know you’re dealing with a lot of changes, but a little bit of MJ isn’t going to hurt you, and I think it will really help you get some perspective on everything.”
Tom felt himself getting turned on by Miguel’s closeness, and he tried to subtly adjust himself so that it wasn’t obvious. If Miguel noticed, he didn’t say anything. “Yeah, well, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’ve never smoked anything before in my life, and I don’t see any reason to start now.”
Miguel shrugged. “Hey man, it’s whatever. Do you have my number in your phone?”
Tom reached in and pulled out his phone, then paused when he realized that he had apparently grabbed Danny’s phone in his rush to leave the house, not his own.
Miguel smiled when he saw the phone. “Are you using Danny’s phone too?”
“No, that’s just it…” Tom replied. “I didn’t even realize I had grabbed his phone instead of mine.”
“Well, you can always get my number from that phone,” Miguel responded. “But please keep me updated on how things are going with you. And if you have any questions or just need to talk, I’m here. Seriously. Any time.”
“Thanks,” Tom said, smiling at him and reaching out his hand.
Miguel paused for a moment, bit his lip, and then returned the handshake. “Thank you. This really meant a lot to me that you came out and chatted with me, even though you had never met me before.”
“It’s the least I can do,” Tom replied. “I owe Danny my life. And you were a big part of his life. You deserved to know what he did, even though he himself isn’t aware.”
Miguel smirked. “Yeah, very true…” he looked at Tom thoughtfully. “I want to test something. Can you come outside with me for a few minutes before you go back to your place?”
“Yeah, sure,” Tom replied. The two got up and threw away their trash, then made their way outside into the cool night.
Miguel put his skateboard on the ground in front of Tom. “I want you to get on and try to balance,” he said.
“Umm….I’ve never ridden a skateboard before,” Tom told him, looking at the object with slight trepidation.
“That may be true, but you seem to have inherited a lot of Danny’s mannerisms. I’m curious if you have some of his muscle memory for skating too,” Miguel replied. “Worst case scenario, you can’t keep your balance, and you fall on your ass. Best case scenario, you find out you’re a killer skateboarder.”
“I take it Danny was pretty good at skating, then?” Tom replied, slightly nudging the board with his foot.
“He was sick!” Miguel replied with a smile. “Just try it real quick. Just one time.”
Tom looked at the skateboard. Part of him felt like it was a completely alien object that he couldn’t imagine being on. Then again, he had snowboarded before several times, and skateboarding theoretically wouldn’t be that different…And the street they were on was pretty flat and quiet, with little traffic on it. “Okay, here goes!”
Tom put one foot on the skateboard and started to push it forward with his other foot, slowly gaining traction on the sidewalk. As he sped up his pace, he felt his body seem to go into automatic, and he found himself moving both feet onto the skateboard as he smoothly glided his way down the sidewalk. He found himself grinding along the edge of the sidewalk and then seamlessly transitioning into the street before smoothly turning around and heading back in Miguel’s direction. He tried to brake himself by putting his foot into the street, but he ended up losing his balance and started to tumble off the skateboard and fall in Miguel’s direction. Miguel caught him with little effort, helping steady him with his arms while Miguel stopped the skateboard with one of his feet. There was an awkward moment where Tom realized that his face was very close to Miguel’s, and he pulled himself away, blushing. “Thank you,” he said quietly.
“Dude, that was sick!” Miguel replied with a smile. “That’s some downright Danny skateboarding right there.”
“Well, I have snowboarded a few times, and it’s not that different,” Tom said, trying to pass of the situation.
“Whatever, man,” Miguel said. “It was still impressive, whatever it was. You’re a pretty cool guy, Tommy. Can I call you that?”
Tom hadn’t been called Tommy since he was in grade school, but he figured he could throw Miguel a bone in this situation. “Sure, that’s fine,” he responded.
“Sweet! Well, shoot me a text if you need to chat or anything, and don’t be afraid of trying new things!” Miguel winked at Tom as he walked down the street, one foot gently pushing the skateboard. “I’ll catch you later!” He picked up speed and stepped onto the skateboard, skating down the street.
Tom stood for a moment by himself near the coffee shop, still lost in the thoughts of everything that had happened in his visit with Miguel. Being around Miguel had felt intoxicating and alluring, and yet taboo at the same time. Like a forbidden fruit that was tempting, but at the same time, potentially dangerous. He thought about Alice. What would she think about this situation? He shook his head, his shaggy red hair falling into his face. He needed to get home and take some medicine. He just hoped it would help him get rid of this annoying headache…