Chapter 3

Quinn awoke panicked. Her ankles kicked away water. There was only water, sloughing placidly over her toes, water as far as she could see. She screamed, or at least believed she did. The emptiness was impenetrable; she couldn’t see down and up was empty sky. She shivered. There was light but no sun. It was a world with neither cold nor heat. She lifted her foot from the water and took a step forward. She felt like her heart should be beating a mile a minute. She felt her throat. She couldn’t find her pulse.

Every step led nowhere. She once fell to her knees, but the water stung her skin when it touched above her ankles and she scrambled back up to her feet. She swatted the droplets off her skin and tried not to scream. Where was she? Why was she naked?

“Hello? Hello! Help me! Please...” Her words rasped out into the nothingness. She kept looking, kept turning, kept scanning the blue but eventually she stopped walking.

She thought back through the fog. She remembered flashes and sensations: faces of friends, birthday candles blown out, the taste of lasagna. She screamed again, favoring wordless shrieks and the foulest swear words she loved.

She looked down at her feet again. Shadows and reflections of her were cast out like the prongs of snowflake. Fractal impossibilities of her unprotected nakedness. She covered herself and felt silly. She opened her arms and felt vulnerable. This empty place was horrible.

Timeless eons passed between breaths. Was she even breathing? The water was rising, imperceptibly. She had no recollection of until it reached the bulge of her calf muscle. Terror melted to anxiety which evaporated into boredom. She kicked and waded and gave up talking to herself.

“I’m sorry I took so long,” Quinn swirled to the voice behind her. Her arms snaked across her breasts and she tried to hide her crotch behind her right leg, “It’s a change of pace to be the one who’s dressed.”

Quinn had sketched this angel. The silver breastplate and blue fabric had existed only in her mind’s eye. Maybe once the angel had been a copy of another drawing but over five years she had become Quinn’s. Strawberry blonde hair scattered out from behind her helmet. She floated above the water, broad white wings reflecting an iridescent halo all around her. Armored boots and plated shin guards were swathed behind a flowing diaphanous skirt. She carried a sword, aways in her left hand, Quinn was left handed. The sword was always the first part of the pictures Quinn drew but the angel just left it limp to her side. A weight she deigned to carry.

“What’s this?” Quinn murmured in her impossible confusion. She had barely strung together the two words. The angel looked down. Quinn had never settled on her eyes, steel to accent the armor or blue for the cloth, but this angel’s irises flared scarlet behind impossibly dark pupils, like sunfire around eclipses.

“This is temporary.”

“Do I look OK? How’s my hair?” Kristi panicked as she trotted up the concrete walkway to David’s front door. Curtis tried to stare her down but that just made her insecure about wherever he looked, “You really should’ve let me change my shirt.”

“Your shirt’s fine, you fucking girl.” He laughed exasperation, “What’re you fucking worried about? We’re going to see David. He’s seen you in that green top, he clearly doesn’t give a fuck about how you dress.”

“What the fuck does that mean!” Kristi chomped back at Curtis. She reached for the bell but Curtis had just opened the front door and walked in.

“I’m not worried about David. I haven’t met your families yet.” Kristi entered the house whispering over and sheltered behind Curtis’s shoulder.

“Dude, it’s Wednesday. David’s dad won’t be home before 10,” Curtis huffed before calling into the house, “David!”

David trundled down the stairs, surprised to see his best friends. Curtis had flopped down onto an armchair in the front room. He held Kristi’s magic filled bookbag across his lap. She was circling looking at the paintings and family pictures.

“What are you two doing here? We can’t do anything today. I’m going to dinner with Leanne. Remember?”

“Yeah, I figured you could use a girl’s eye picking out your shirt, or...” Kristi put the picture of David’s mom in her dress uniform back onto a bookshelf.

“Jesus! That’s why we had to come over?” Curtis slumped further down, “You crazy bint.”

“Um, actually, thanks Kristi,” David scratched his head, “You want to come up to my room?”

“Sure, we’ll be right up, kay?” She smiled at him and he shrugged before trudging back up the stairs. Kristi dashed over to Curtis and slid down to her knees before him. He grinned stupidly as she pulled the zipper open, “What?”

“I like you down there,” He laughed.

“Yeah, later, I promise, kay?” She mumbled to herself.

“Sexy...” Agreed Curtis.

“Great!” She bubbled up a smile and wiggled the green sports bottle she had pulled from the backpack, “Drink up!”

“No! It’s David’s turn this time.” Curtis shook his head.

“Please! I mean you heard him, he welcomes a girls eye,” Kristi started pushing the nippled top to Curtis’s lips.

“But--”

“Oh, come off it, you love being Shannon,” Kristi fell back on her ankles. Curtis had the bottle in his hand now.

“I do, yeah. It’s always weirdest just before we drink. You know how gross it feels to change something so fundamental about yourself?” Curtis sighed.

“Please? I’ll be your friend, your very good friend,” She pouted with bedroom eyes knowing she had already gotten her way. The trio had spent part of every day together since becoming friends and each other’s firsts just over a week before. So far, at least someone everyday had had some sort of potion.

Kristi hopped back as Curtis scrunched his nose and took three quick shots of Blossoming Beauty. Kristi had seen Shannon become Curtis while naked. Magic didn’t happen with some smooth blending transition. It was like there was Curtis and there was Shannon. The same mind, but different bodies. As same as a mind can be in a totally different brain. Curtis was there, in a superposition with Shannon. Then the magic was complete and Curtis was elsewhere. For as long as the potion lasted or the antidote, The Charming Prince, was administered.

“Hey girlfriend!” Kristi beamed up at Shannon who didn’t quite fit in Curtis’s clothes. Three inches too short now and fifty pounds too light. Curtis’s belt had a notch from when Shannon had forced those jeans to fit. Today Shannon just wiggled out of Curtis’s pants and underwear. The shirt covered enough.

“Hey bitch,” Shannon zipped and slung the backpack over a shoulder and then offered both hands to Kristi to pull the redhead to her feet, “C’mon that boy needs us.”

“You call David a boy the same way you called me a fucking girl at the door,” Kristi collected Curtis’s pants and underwear and followed her friend.

“You were being a fucking girl,” Shannon recalled, “You want to meet Michael come by on a Tuesday, he’s always home those nights.”

“What’s wrong with my green top?” Kristi demanded as they crested the landing. David’s room was behind through the open door to the left. He looked up.

“On me? Nothing. Couldn’t be cuter,” Shannon explained, “Hey, dude, you owe me two now.”

“What?” David scowled at Shannon, “Why is she here?”

“You’d trust Curtis to tell you if a shirt looked good?” Kristi rolled her eyes, “Let’s see what we’re working with.”

“Dude, don’t be such a preppy,” Shannon crossed the room to take the pair of dress pants off David’s bed and toss them onto the dresser. David just watched Shannon’s long legs.

“I’m not sure I’m the one having clothes troubles right now,” David mumbled. Kristi chuckled.

“Oh we’re sure you’re the problem,” Shannon had this quick lash of a smile that shook David. The culture shock was burning away quicker. Shannon was Curtis and Shannon was Shannon. The trick wasn’t to forget about Curtis. The trick was to recognize Shannon. Still each time someone was changed there were moments of unease as libidos aligned themselves. Shannon was ready by the time she had dropped trou. David was when Shannon had slammed the dresser shut and tossed David a pair of jeans.

“I dunno,” Kristi murmured. She was at the closet going through the shirts that David hung up. She liked three, “Those pants would go good with the blue.”

“Maybe if David was dating a prissy princess like yourself,” Shannon fell onto the foot of the bed and judged from the eyes on her kicking legs that things had equalized, “Leanne’s much more of straightforward girl. She’s used to David in jeans and t-shirts. We want him to make it look like he made the effort but isn’t changing himself.”

“Eh? Leanne’s straightforward?” David asked.

“Yeah, Curtis couldn’t see it either,” Shannon laughed, “Jesus boys are idiots.”

“Boys are idiots, I’m a fucking girl,” Kristi lifted two shirts off the rack. One was muted red and the other was dark green, “Is there a gender you do li--mother fucker! Shannon!”

Kristi turned and found Shannon had dragged down David’s pants and was encircling his cock with her fingers. She tilted her head beyond David’s hip and smiled into Kristi’s green eyes. “I dunno, can we put this dick on your body? Oh and maybe demon wings!”

“What are you doing?”

“Did you forget already?” Shannon widened her eyes, “This is a handjob.”

“But he’s got a date with Leanne!”

“At like six. It’s quarter to four,” Shannon brought her other hand up to David’s cock as he ran fingers through her hair.

“I was kind of in the middle of this when you two showed up in the first place,” David followed Kristi as she walked around him to sit down next to Shannon. She was befuddled but eager. It was a good look on her.

“But--Why?”

“Clears the head, calms you down,” Shannon explained.

“So it’s like grocery shopping, if you don’t eat first you might end up getting something you didn’t really want or need?” Kristi reached over.

“I wasn’t really thinking that far ahead,” David half-laughed.

“Not for this one, but for the one at 5:30?” Shannon shared the shaft with Kristi. David’s breath seethed through a toothy smile.

“Oh!” David realized happily, “Yeah, the one in the shower.”

“What?” Kristi scrunched her nose, “That’s not how I’d do it.”

“Well you don’t have a dick,” Shannon looked flatly at the redhead, “So I’m stuck with a boy and a fucking girl.”

“Maybe we should pick the shirt before he gets all sweaty?” Kristi had happily admitted to herself that she liked giving a handjob. She liked sucking dick. She liked getting fucked. She liked riding hard. She liked dick. She was quickly becoming an expert at Dave and Curtis’s. She rolled the foreskin over the head, squeezing him hard into the palm of her hand as Shannon accelerated on the shaft. David looked tense. She sat up tall and he leaned in and kissed her.

David was the better kisser. Well, if she was truly honest the best kisser was Shannon, then David, then Curtis and then Dee. She kissed him hard as he cupped her face. Their tongues fighting and taunting like matador and bull. She kept all the motion in her wrist as her off hand swirled over David’s shirt. Oh God! She couldn’t get cum on her clothes! She had nothing else to wear!

“Kristi?” Hitched David as she scampered aside.

“Leave the prissy princess,” Shannon steamily pulled David to her by the butt. His cockhead was laying on her shirt right below her breasts, “And take this off of me.”

David and Shannon struggled only removing the shirt one arm at a time. Kristi shut and locked the door red-faced and terrified. She then scrambled out of her boots, socks, jeans and g-string.

“What are we doing?” She asked as a naked Shannon slipped onto the carpet and squeezed her breasts around David’s dick. This was as close to the mouth as either transformed girl would let the boy get. Kristi shivered to see the energy pass from David’s eyes to Shannon’s. Not only because it was as reflected. She had been there. She had tried to be there. She was slightly less endowed than Shannon. She would’ve wanted lube beyond David’s dripping pre-cum over Shannon’s tits.

“This thing kind of happens every time we use magic,” David pointed out. He had Shannon by the shoulders as she arched her back so he could fuck her tits.

“Yeah, do you think it’s the magic?” Kristi worried.

“No, I think it’s just who we are,” Shannon turned and grinned at Kristi, “Now help me.”

“Um...” Kristi pulled off her top and slipped her bra down off her breasts, swirling it around her waist so she could unhook it and drop it behind her. She should’ve grabbed a pillow to kneel on as she took her place next to Shannon again.

David was a mess of half finished breathing. He became rougher and needier. Kristi leaned over Shannon’s breasts, her right hand cupping Shannon’s right hand that held the cleavage tight for David. Kristi’s lips swirled over David as he slid across the tops of Shannon’s tits. She moved her head in an eight counter to the track of her tongue. She shivered at the taste of cum that stuck her cheek to Shannon’s chest. Shannon nibbled at her ear. David’s fingers tightened on Shannon’s shoulders.

“Ready Kristi?” Shannon whispered into the ear she had wetted. Kristi nodded and slipped herself over and onto David. He moved one hand to her hair. She recognized the tightness on her scalp and took a deep breath through her nose. Her tongue was over the top of his cock head when he burst. Shannon and David had her so tight she was owned but so close she was loved. She closed her eyes and sealed her lips tight. He had some more left to give her.

“Oh, hell yeah,” David moaned limply.

“Alright, toss that shirt and I’ll grab us towels,” Shannon squirmed up and forced Kristi to stand too. The redhead was hot and Shannon stroked her cheek as she wormed by. This was promising. There was Charming Prince in the bag but that might take them long past their 6 O’Clock deadline. Shannon was determined to finally cross Kristi’s hang-up without the magic. She returned just a moment later, two towels in hand. David had stepped out of his pants and had tossed the shirt towards his hamper. Kristi was flitting about, not nervous but energized, Shannon felt much the same way.

“Here, towel down. Kristi grab him something clean from the underwear drawer,” Shannon was wiping herself up as David caught the other.

“Where’s mine?” Kristi had saliva and other spatter running down her chin and speckled over her breasts.

“We’re all a mess, come over here and I’ll wipe you down,” Shannon turned to David, “And the jeans, don’t worry about socks for now and you’ll wearing your black sneakers.”

“For someone who knows so much about clothes, it’s a shame you don’t own any,” David smiled at Kristi as he accepted the boxer briefs. He pulled them on quickly. He then crossed to his bed for the jeans Shannon had chosen.

Shannon was looking into Kristi’s conspiratorial eyes. Shannon threw half the towel over Kristi’s face and started rubbing up her body. Kristi giggled and cleaned off her face. One laugh infected another and the two of them tickled and tugged back and forth. The towel fell away and they both laughed brightly again. David goggled watching them, recovering his erection with ease. The two naked girls turned to the mostly dressed boy.

“Well? Try on the shirts for us, doll,” Shannon demanded with a cocked smile.

“Ha, doll, nice!” Kristi still hadn’t overcome her fits and giggles.

“Um, yeah,” David hadn’t touched the shirts in the closet since it had become warm enough for t-shirts months ago. They were mostly untouched, dad gave him some clothes alongside a birthday gift every year. Truth was he had grown, not much, but his dad had either planned ahead or overestimated the size of his son. They fit really well. Kristi rushed over.

There was much tugging of sleeve cuffs and refolding of collars. Shannon came over and watched as Kristi decided on how many buttons should be undone. 3 was too much, 0 suggested much stick up much ass.

“Two,” Shannon decided for Kristi. Kristi agreed but pouted and stepped back.

“So?” David asked the four breasts in the room.

“7 out of 10,” Shannon gave of thumbs up.

“Boo!” Kristi booed Shannon, “David’s clearly an 8.”

“We’re judging the shirt, not Mr 6 over here.”

“Ow, my feeling,” David feigned hurt into Shannon’s eyes but just got an honest smile back.

“A high six, surely,” Kristi pled David’s case.

“Very high!” Shannon agreed, “As high as a six can be that you wouldn’t round it to 6.1.”

“Girls are mean,” David pulled Kristi to himself, “Quick protect me.”

“Fight your own battles,” Kristi pushed off with a smile, “I’m on team Shannon.”

The girls high fived and laughed. David just drank in the carousing nudity. He looked up to see four impatient eyes.

“What?”

“The red shirt now,” Kristi lifted up her other choice.

“OK.” David just unbuttoned the third button and took the shirt off as if it were a pullover. Kristi rolled her eyes looking for solidarity with Shannon.

“That’s how I take off those shirts,” Shannon shrugged, “Don’t use these things though,” She brandished the wire coat hanger.

“Yeah, that’s cause I have Cold Womb.” Kristi waved to her bag and Shannon shuddered.

“Ew.” Shannon grimaced. David had put on the next shirt. Kristi closed on him like a lioness on an easy kill. This shirt was older and thus didn’t fit David as well as the green. Judging by Kristi’s tuts and hmms, the green had won. Still he was forced to pose, to turn, to button, to unbutton, and to quit fidgeting Goddammit!

“It’s too small,” Shannon finally announced to the room that was well aware of the problem.

“Oh,” Kristi sighed, “I narrowed it down to two shirts so we could pretend David had a choice.”

“What why?”

“It’d make you feel better,” Kristi pointed out, “It’s good to think you’re helping.”

“You know, it might have been better to keep that strategy back pocket for any future decisions you needed future me to pretend to make,” David slumped. He started out of the shirt.

“Maybe, what now? It’s only five after,” Kristi looked at the clock on the bed. David followed her eyes and stopped for a moment. It read seven after when Shannon’s finger snap in front of his face.

“Jesus, you’d think the clock had tits,” She sighed.

“Oh, sorry, just, I don’t know,” David shook his head. Kristi appeared distressed and was looking up at him. Shannon schemed and was looking right into his eyes, “Um, what now?”

“What now?” Shannon stepped in and rubbed his bare chest and slid her thigh up his, “We’ve got you for an hour and a half.”

“Oh,” David grinned. Kristi laid her hand on Shannon’s back. Everyone turned to the redhead.

“Are you sure? I mean shouldn’t he, I don’t know, save something for Leanne?” Kristi asked.

“Please, he’s got dinner and a movie to recover,” Shannon rolled her eyes, “I say we send in our boy at his very best.”

“How do you feel about this David? About doing this and then going out with Leanne?”

David thought for a moment. Without thinking, he was all for it. Without emotion, he wanted to meet Leanne with a clear head and he would have masturbated to achieve that state in the shower. But then he felt. Kristi and Shannon were his two best friends. His only close friends, except for maybe Avery and Victoria, Shannon’s sisters. Leanne was Kristi’s idea, a buffer between being overrun by relationship statuses. Another bucket to keep the messy boy-girl stuff away from the core that was Kristi, David, Curtis, Shannon and Dee. Before he asked Leanne out it had seemed like a shit idea, but now, it was a great idea.

Yesterday, he had caught up with Leanne between classes. She was so easy to talk with. They had bitched about teachers, laughed about movies, waxed poetically about food. That was just such of thin layer of who she was. He wanted to get into her so much more. He desperately hoped she wanted it too. He could recall her scent on a stray thought and not be able to fight of the grins for an hour.

He had asked her out on the premise that he wouldn’t stop the magic with Kristi and Curtis. That was his anchor. He decided to sidestep the emotion for the time being. “This is us. Leanne is something else. I’m still in for us.”

Kristi leapt when David grabbed her butt and walked her around the bed. Shannon picked up David’s other hand. They made a mad dash across the second floor landing to the washroom. The house was bigger than two men needed. Another second story bedroom was for storage and the guest room down stairs was more an office for David’s father. This bathroom was David’s. It was his responsibility. His mess. Or it had been. Since that first night with Kristi it had become far cleaner than Curtis imagined it could be. Kristi was pushed in first and David dragged in Shannon next.