That night, Tom had another dream. He was at a large table at a Mexican restaurant sitting next to Miguel. A huge number of people were around them, most of whom were Hispanic. The table was filled with delicious looking food, and there was a large cake in front of Miguel. An older woman who strongly resembled Miguel stood next to him.
“Aye! ¡Mi hijo menor tiene ahora dieciocho años!” she said. Tom knew she was saying that her youngest son was now 18 years old. Miguel blew out the candles on the birthday cake.
“Mijo!” An older Hispanic gentleman from across the table cried out while taking pictures on his phone. “What did you wish for?”
Miguel turned to look at Tom. “I wished that no matter what, that you and I could be together for the rest of our lives. I love you so much, Babe!” Miguel leaned in and kissed Tom to the cheers of everyone around the table. The kiss was an incredible experience…But Miguel and the restaurant faded in Tom’s mind, and he found himself in a room crowded with bunk beds, where several guys of various ages lounged around. A tall, menacing figure appeared before him. “Yo, Walker!” the figure said. Tom looked up to see a young man around 17 or 18 standing above him. “I heard you got kicked out of your last foster home because you beat the shit out of one of your foster parent’s kids. Or did they kick you out because you’re always making out with that fucking wetback you call a boyfriend?” Tom felt intense anger rise up in him, and he rose to face his attacker, even though this guy had at least six inches of height and 150 pounds on Tom. “Don’t even try it, twerp!” the figure said, pushing Tom back down onto the bed. Tom started to get up and was knocked down by a hard blow to the face. The dream changed scenes again, and he was looking at a black eye in a bathroom mirror, barely hidden by his shaggy red hair that hung in his eyes. He ran out of the bathroom and found himself behind a building. He pulled out his pipe and started smoking a bowl, attempting to find some escape from the horrible place he was in…
Tom awoke, finding himself in his bed. For a second, he was disoriented, as he had no idea where he was, but he soon recognized his room in his apartment with sunlight shining through the window blinds. He rubbed his eyes and pushed his red hair out of his face. The visions from the dream had seemed so real and vivid…Where they subconscious ramblings of his mind? Or could they be some of Danny’s memories?
He looked over at his phone and saw that it was already 11AM. What had happened last night? He remembered smoking the pipe…he had gotten high. Without even intending to! Had anyone seen? Did Steve know? How did he get back to bed? Where was the pipe and the marijuana?!
He quickly jumped out of bed, trying to ignore the massive hard-on he had awakened with. He ran over to his underwear drawer, and dug through the drawer, breathing a sigh of relief as he found the pipe, the bag of weed, and the lighter all safely hidden. He looked around the room. He had apparently fallen asleep in his clothes last night, still smelling strongly like weed. The suits had been knocked to the ground in a heap at the foot of his bed. Otherwise, the room looked the same. He really needed to hang up those suits, but he had another need pressing hard in the front of his jeans.
He made his way into the hallway, glancing across the apartment to see that Steve’s door was closed. Tom worried that Steve might have seen him smoking last night…What would he say? He decided to not mention it for the time being, instead heading into the bathroom, where he closed and locked the door after turning on the light.
Tom walked over to the bathtub and slipped off his clothes, still coming to grips with his incredibly slender body and uncut cock, which jutted out of a field of bright red pubic hairs. As he turned on the shower to start it warming up, he went over to the mirror and looked at his reflection. He remembered the black eye he had in his dream…he wasn’t sure how long ago that had been, but any damage had healed since the incident. He wet his toothbrush and started brushing his teeth. As he did so, he looked at his face up close in the mirror. *Damn, I really DO look young.* His face had light acne mixed with freckles, and the braces on his teeth reminded him that he should probably try to schedule a dental appointment. *No telling when this kid last saw the dentist regularly…* He wondered who Danny’s orthodontist had been. Weren’t people with braces supposed to go regularly? He had a feeling that Danny did not make his normal trips to the orthodontist…Was Tom even brushing his teeth properly? Weren’t their special ways to brush your teeth if you had braces? Tom realized that he had no idea. He also really wished he knew more about this kid’s medical history. Did he have any pre-existing medical problems that Tom was unaware of? Was there anything that he should be concerned about?
Tom realized that his mind had started wandering again. “Ugh! Stupid ADHD!” he said loudly. He walked over to the shower and realized that it was already really hot. He got in and started cleaning himself. As he was soaping up his groin, he pulled back his foreskin and started jacking off, enjoying the still-new sensation of his sensitive cock. He started thinking about Alice, but just like the day before, he felt like it wasn’t enough. He fantasized about having sex with her, which usually put him over the edge, and while the feeling was enjoyable, the fantasy wasn’t doing it for him. He shifted the fantasy to picture himself fucking Alice while he was getting fucked by Miguel. The latent sexual fantasy coupled with his raging teenage hormones caused him to quickly climax, and he shot against the shower wall in ecstasy. *Damn…am I bisexual now?* he thought to himself as he cleaned himself up. He had always been very much heterosexual in his old body, but there was no doubt that he was now attracted to Miguel in Danny’s body. He thought about Alice…was his body still physically attracted to her, or was it the memories of his old self that still led to his attraction? Unfortunately, since the change there had been little time for the two of them to be intimate, as Alice was still struggling to overcome the fact that her fiancé was now in the body of a 16-year-old kid. Conversely, Tom had felt an instant attraction to Miguel upon seeing him…(hell, even just seeing his picture!), and he realized that he had not felt that same strong attraction when being around Alice. He tried not to think about it too much.
He finished cleaning himself and got out of the shower. He dried off and wrapped a towel around his skinny waist, still surprised by how small he was compared to his previous body. He walked back into his room and looked through the piles of clothing. He found a clean pair of boxer shirts, a red Quicksilver T-shirt, and decided to wear the same jeans that he had worn the previous day. He looked over at both his and Danny’s phones, and he saw that Miguel had sent a text to Danny’s phone at some point last night.
*Hey man! i was serious about what i said tonight. If u need to talk about anything, call me. Anytime!!!!
Tom looked down at Danny’s phone. The picture of Miguel on the lock screen looked so handsome, and he really felt a connection to the young Mexican teen. Then he realized something that he hadn’t noticed before. The background of the picture was familiar…It was the Mexican restaurant from the dream he had last night. In fact, it looked like the picture came from the same birthday party that Tom had dreamed about the night before. He unlocked the phone went to the Pictures app. There were several photos of different guys skateboarding at a skate park, including Miguel. Tom watched a brief video of Miguel skating down a steep ramp before making a complicated jump and landing perfectly on the skateboard again. Tom didn’t know a lot of about skating, but it looked impressive nonetheless. He continued to scroll backwards through the photos when he saw several photos taken at a Mexican restaurant. Sure enough, it was the exact same restaurant from the dream. Even the cake looked the same. The pictures were dated from two weeks ago. Tom shivered for a moment when he realized that the dream he had wasn’t just a dream…it had been Danny’s memories. He looked through more of the photos to see different friends of Danny’s at school or at the skate park, along with several selfies of Danny and Miguel together. Another group of photos he found from a month prior showed Danny sporting the same black eye that Tom had seen in his dream…is there actually still some of Danny left in me? He remembered what Miguel and Alice had said the night before, about how Tom had taken on several of Danny’s mannerisms subconsciously. He tried to remember the research he had done when he had first heard about the Mind Store Machine project. He knew that some patients experienced some changes to likes and dislikes, he didn’t recall any of the stuff he had read prior to the change mentioning such a strong connection to a previous hosts’ thoughts and memories…Then again, Dr. Pinkerton had told him that he and Danny had the highest brain compatibility that had ever been shown in the project…97 percent…It was like the two of them were almost merging. He needed more answers about Danny. He looked up Miguel’s number in Danny’s phone. He got his own phone and unlocked it, dialing in Miguel’s number before hitting the call button.
The phone rang a few times before Miguel picked up. “Hello?”
“Umm…Hi, Miguel. This is Tom Allen. We met last night…”
“Tommy!!” Miguel said with a happy voice. “I was hoping that you would call me soon. How are you doing? Do you still have a headache?”
Tom smiled at the fact that Miguel actually remembered. “No, uh…actually, I um…I took your advice last night. It actually really helped.”
“See, man?! I told you it would be all right! And I bet you feel a lot better today, don’t you?”
“Actually, yeah…” Tom said, surprised at his response. “But I don’t really remember what all happened last night afterwards…”
“Damn, Tommy! You got completely high last night?! If I’d have known you were going to get high, I would have come over myself!” Miguel teased.
“Gah,” Tom said, shaking his head and letting his red hair fall into his eyes. He pushed it back behind his ear. “I don’t WANT to get high…I’ve never even smoked anything beFORe!” He winced at the voice crack.
“Hey man, I’m just messing with you,” Miguel said, his voice calming significantly. “I know you’re going through a lot…Did you need to talk about something?”
“Actually, I’ve been having some dreams lately,” Tom said, “And I think they may actually be some of Danny’s memories. I need to talk to you. Would you be able to get together sometime?”
“Yeah, man, of course!” Miguel replied. “I’m about to start my shift at my family’s restaurant, but you’re welcome to come down here and chill. Shit…actually, that might be kind of weird with my family and everything. I mean, I haven’t told anyone yet about Danny and all, and they’d probably think that you’re him…Hmm…”
“What if I pretended to be him?” Tom said. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing himself saying, but he really wanted to see Miguel again, and with Alice busy all day, it’s not like he had a ton of other stuff to do.
Miguel didn’t respond at first. “That…would be…interesting…I dunno, man. I mean, Danny was my boyfriend, and my whole family was aware of that. Besides, would you feel comfortable with that?”
Tom thought about it. He really wanted to see Miguel…Not just want…it was almost a need. Just like he had needed to get high the previous night…Tom was a little scared, but at the same time, his hormones seemed out of control, and something in his mixed-up brain told him that Miguel could help solve some of his desires…
“I just feel like I really need to see you,” Tom finally replied.
“Well, tell you what,” Miguel responded. “After the lunch rush, things usually die down around 2, and don’t pick up again until around 5. I can talk with my mom and see if I can get away for that time. If you want, we can meet at that coffee shop that we met at last night, or a park or something like that nearby. I should be able to be there by like 2:30. Does that sound good?”
“That sounds great! I’ll see you then. Thank you so much, Miguel!”
“Cool.” Tom heard someone talking loudly in Spanish in the background. “I gotta go, man! I’ll talk to you at 2:30!” The phone disconnected.
Tom got up, glad that he was going to see Miguel. He had really enjoyed hanging out with the young teen last night, and he understood what Danny had seen in him. He had an easygoing, relaxing personality…not to mention a hot body to go with it.
*Ugh! I’ve got to stop thinking all these gay thoughts!* Tom thought to himself. *I’m an engaged man! I’m supposed to be getting married in six months!* But he realized the thought of getting married to Alice didn’t have nearly the same effect that it had before the switch. He still loved her; he knew that. But the physical desire that had existed in their relationship previously was no longer as strong as it once had been. What was worse, he really was beginning to wonder if she felt the same way…
His train of thought was derailed when he realized that his suits that he had been neglecting to hang up were still in a pile on the floor. “They’re probably going to be so wrinkled!” Tom muttered to himself. He quickly picked them up and lugged them to his closet, making room on the rack to hang them up. Finally glad to get that out of the way, the suits reminded him that he still hadn’t talked to his boss, Bill, since he had awakened in this new body. He figured that Bill was letting him have time to get adjusted, but he knew he would need to chat with him at some point, so he went back to his phone and dialed Bill’s number.
“Tom!” Bill’s deep voice cried from the phone. “It’s good to hear from you! Alice called me yesterday and told me everything went smoothly with the procedure. I take it that you’re okay?”
“Hey Bill!” Tom replied. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just weird. I mean, I’m still me, but I’m in the body of a teenager, and that’s taken a lot to get used to.”
“I understand that,” Bill said. “Do you still think that you would be able to manage everything with work? You didn’t lose any of your knowledge of our insurance policies or anything like that from the switch, did you?”
“No, not at aLL,” Tom stated, annoyed that his voice cracked while on the phone with his boss. “I still have all my training and knowledge from before. But Bill, I look like a kid. It’s definitely a weird experience…”
“Well, how about I treat you to lunch, and we can discuss the whole situation,” Bill replied. “If you end up needing some more time off, we can certainly arrange that.”
“Sure! But I still don’t have my license updated, so I can’t really drive yet.”
“That’s all good. I’ll come pick you up at your apartment. You’re still in the same place, right?”
“Yeah, same apartment. 1627B.”
“All right. I should be there in about 20 minutes. We can grab lunch and discuss things from there. See you then!” Bill hung up the phone.
“Well, that takes care of that,” Tom said. He contemplated whether he would have time to smoke a quick bowl…Wait, that wasn’t right! He didn’t normally smoke weed! Especially not right before a meeting with his boss!
He walked out of his room in an attempt to put as much distance between him and his weed pipe as possible. Right now, he didn’t trust his instincts, and he was afraid he might end up getting high if left to his own idle devices. As he walked into the living room, he saw Steve coming out of his room. He froze for a minute. He realized that he had no memory of whether or not he had interacted with Steve last night after he got high…
“Mornin’,” Steve said, making his way into the kitchen and turning on the Keurig. “Sleep well last night?”
“Umm…. yeah….” Tom replied, a bit uncertain. “What time did you come home last night?”
“I dunno. 2, maybe 3? I peeked in your room because you left your door open, but you were out cold.” Steve put his coffee cup under the Keurig as it began pouring his morning coffee.
“Yeah, I guess I’m still getting used to all the sleep that teenagers need,” Tom replied, breathing a mental sigh of relief. Apparently, whatever had happened, he at least had the sense to put up the marijuana equipment and make his way to bed the night before.
“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Steve said, taking a sip of his coffee. “Do you think your donor body smoked weed?”
“Huh? Why do you think that?” Tom said, a bit nervous by Steve’s question.
“Don’t be an ass,” Steve replied with a chuckle. “Surely you’ve realized that all of his clothes smell like weed.”
“Do you think it’s super obvious?” Tom asked.
“I mean, not unless people get right up on you,” Steve said, shrugging. “I mean, it’s no big deal to me. You know I partake from time to time. It’s quite relaxing.”
“Yeah…well, I mean, I don’t smoke weed or anything,” Tom replied, hoping that Steve wouldn’t catch him in his lie. Did Steve suspect? He felt like he was sweating bullets…or was it just the apartment’s heater?
“I know,” Steve said, taking another sip of his coffee. “Just curious if you have any cravings or anything. If you feel the need to, let me know, I can let you have some of my extra stuff.”
“Oh yeah, man…thanks….” Tom was desperate to change the subject. “Oh! I’m about to go have lunch with Bill. We’re going to discuss everything with my new body and all. But Matt is supposed to be home at some point too. He spent the night with Brad last night.”
“That’s cool. I don’t have any plans for the afternoon. Probably just chill and watch TV or something. I’ve got poker night tonight at 6 at Gary’s if you want to come.”
Steve often played poker with a bunch of his friends on Saturday night. Usually, it was an excuse for all of them to get drunk and hang out, usually ending up with some ridiculous shenanigans. Sometimes Tom joined them, but he found Steve’s friends a bit too rambunctious for his tastes.
“Nah…Alice is supposed to call me after she finishes her baking day with her friends. We’ll probably do something tonight. Thanks for the invite, though!”
“It’s all good. Have fun at your lunch with Bill!” Steve walked back to his room and closed his door.
Tom walked into his own room and slipped on his skate shoes. He grabbed his phone, double-checking to make sure that he actually grabbed the right phone this time. He paused for a moment, then looking at Danny’s phone and the picture of Miguel on the background. The picture caused his dick to slightly twitch in his jeans. He went ahead and grabbed it as well, putting it in his opposite side jeans pocket. He walked back into the living room to wait for Bill, but not before taking one last long glance at the top drawer of his dresser, and the hidden treasure that was stored within…