Jake thought for a moment, looking at his now teenaged friend, and then back into his room.
"Alright, Matt, I've got a plan," said Jake.
Matt was rubbing his bare chin thoughtfully, probably still considering what having a beard felt like.
"Hey," said Jake, snapping his fingers in Matt's face. "Matt, I need you to focus here."
Matt nodded quickly. "Yeah, sure. What's your plan?"
Jake dug though a nearby hall closet until he found what he was looking for, a retractable dog leash. He clipped the end to a belt loop on the back of his new pants and handed the handle to Matt.
"I'm going to go in there and see if I can find out what's causing this," said Jake. "I need you to stay out here and watch me. I won't be able to notice any of the changes, but you will. If I take to long, or if there's an emergency, I need you to reel me back out."
"One question," said Matt. "How do you know when you find the right thing?"
Jake shrugged and made a face. "Hopefully I'll be able to... turn it off?"
"What if it doesn't have an off switch?"
"I'm hoping it'll be obvious," Jake sighed. This might take a couple tries. Seeing how quickly Matt aged last time, he wouldn't have much time. That was assuming he and Matt were effected the same way by the... whatever-it-was. There were so many variables.
Jake turned to face his bedroom. "Ready, Matt?"
"On one condition," Matt said, crossing his lanky arms.
"Yeah?"
"We can go to the cinema after this."
Jake smirked. Even though they were vastly different ages, he and Matt were still the same. "Deal."
With that, Jake stepped into his room.
His clock immediately set to work, beginning its magic, which was currently set to aging people at the rate of 1 year every 3 minutes.
Jake began looking in his closet. Maybe there was some sort of mystical totem of magical doo-dads here that he hadn't noticed before. There was always weird stuff like that floating around.
Matt waited impatiantly as he watched Jake begin rooting through his room. After a bit he grew bored. He was really beginning to feel exposed in his tattered clothes. He was sure it wouldn't hurt if he popped to the garage for a better fitting set. Jake didn't seem to be changing at all, and Matt would be quick.
Matt set the leash handle down and called to Jake. "Be right back!"
Jake, only half listening, concentrating on find the whatever merely replied "Mmm-hmm."
Matt padded into the garage and found an open bag of clothes. Jake must have been looking though it earlier.
After looking through his closet for a minute or two, Jake laid eyes on his new alarm clock. He noticed that the alarm hand wasn't where he'd left it. Well, it didn't matter. The alarm didn't work anyway. After jiggling the knob on back he set the clock down. He didn't have time to be messing around. He had a magical doo-dad to find.
The light jiggling left the "alarm" hand resting on the first minute.
Matt pulled out several sets of clothes from the clothing bag. They all seemed to be Jake's old clothes, more fitting for a ten year old or younger, which Matt was no longer. There had to be some good clothes here somewhere.
Jake had been searching for what felt like too long. He had confidence that his friend would know when to pull him out, though. He could feel his pants felt tight. He was beginning to develop a gut and his stomach was pressing against the waistband of his pants. More and more grey hairs were appearing in his beard and head hair. Jake glanced at his mirror to see his hair had retreated some more. The hair on the back of his head had thinned to the point of becoming a bald spot, and was coming close to connecting with his frontal hairline. He was also beginning to develop a second chin. He looked older than his actual age of 35, that was for sure.
Matt tossed aside more and more clothing. Wasn't there anything his size here? Wait! Here it was. He came to a bag of clothes that seemed to be around his size. Now, which would he wear?
Jake checked under his computer desk, looked through his dirty clothes, and even under his bed. Nothing that looked even vaguely mystical or magical. These pants were really getting to him. Why had he chosen these in the first place? They were obviously too small for him. He unbuttoned them and let his stomach free. It slumped over the edge of his waistband. He patted it and it jiggled slightly. He would have to lay off the fatty foods. A man of 40 had to be careful what he ate. He definitely had a second chin now and his face had become quite rounded. His beard was mostly grey, with flecks of grey in his head and body hair. His bald spot had conjoined with his forehead, leaving him with a fringe of black hair with wisps left on top.
Jake's eyes were drawn once again to the alarm clock on his nightstand. Now that he thought about it, it did make sense. He had bought it right before the strangeness had happened. Also, if Matt had tampered with it, that would explain the increased aging.
Jake picked up the clock and went to his door to show Matt what he'd found. Only, Matt wasn't there.
Jake swore to himself and rushed into the living room, taking the clock with him.
"Matt!" Jake called.
Matt was still in the garage, trying on a pair of pants. When he heard Jake's gruff adult voice he began to panic. How long had it been? How had he gotten so sidetracked?!
Matt rushed into the living room to see Jake, only he looked older and had gained quite a bit of weight. He was holding the alarm clock.
"What are you doing?!" Jake yelled. "I told you to keep an eye on me!"
"Er, sorry," Matt said sheepishly. "I, uh, got sidetracked. Is that your alarm clock."
Jake sighed. "Yeah. I grabbed it when I noticed you were gone."
Matt glanced down at Jake's new bulging gut. "Um, aren't you going to turn that off?"
Matt was steadily growing, inch by inch, unbeknownst to him.
Jake turned the clock over to look at the back. He squinted to read the labeling on the back. He'd been having trouble seeing recently. That's what happened when you turned middle-aged.
Matt was slowly beginning to develop dark hair along his jawline and the hair on his arms and chest was beginning to darken. He took the clock from Jake and flipped the switch to the off position.
After a moment, Jake took notice of his change.
"Ough! What?! How long was I in there?!"
Jake put his arms under his stomach and jiggled it. He then felt the loose skin under his chin, and then his nearly smooth scalp. He certainly looked like his new age of 43.
Matt realized he'd aged a year to 16.
"This is getting problematic," Matt murmured.