Chapter 3

The next day was Friday and Cameron felt mostly great. On the plus side there was fucking Jessica Redstone, and nothing more needed to be said about that. Given the way she had thrown herself at him he didn’t think he’d have any trouble going after any of his other crushes.

But there were a couple big points on the minus side. One was that after being the chiseled god last night, finding himself in his real skin was a rude awakening of weak flabbiness. Second, he was worried that the attractiveness effect was a little too powerful. He’d almost been jumped by that woman at the school and he didn’t want too much unwanted attention. Third, Jessica might have seen him changing back to his regular self and he didn’t know what that might mean for today.

If what Ben said was right, she’d have had enough fun last night that she would still be interested in him without the pills. Or even if she wasn’t interested he could always use the pills on someone else -- there were a lot of hot girls in school.

“Next time,” he thought, “I should pick a girl with bigger tits. Maybe Holly. mmm Holly.” Cameron had enjoyed many a pep rally watching Holly’s tits as they strained against her cheerleader’s uniform. But why stop at girls at school? His horizons seemed limitless, and for a while he stayed in bed, entertaining fantasies of showing up at the playboy mansion ripped and ready to go.

After he re-awoke to the sound of his mother calling, Cameron realized he was going to be late for school and hurried up.

He spent most of the morning looking for Jessica, but it was she who found him first.

“Oh, hi Cameron, can I talk to you for a sec?” she asked, pulling him aside by some lockers and away from anyone who might overhear. She looked anxious and was talking quietly. Cameron decided to follow her lead, not sure what she had seen yesterday.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Did you ... get what you wanted last night?”

This was an odd way to put it, but this seemed like a school-friendly way to ask if he’d been pleased with her performance. Cameron smiled wide -- he didn’t see a need to be school-friendly.

“Oh hell yes, you were awesome. We should hook up again.”

Jessica blanched. “Excuse me?!! Are you out of your mind? I only went out with you once to be nice, we’ve never hooked up.”

“Didn’t you enjoy it? You must have come at least four times!” Cameron didn’t understand why she was in denial. She wasn’t claiming the sex was bad, after all how could she honestly do so? Instead she was acting like it had never happened.

“Cameron, if I hear that you’ve been spreading lies about me at school I swear to God you will regret it. I’m not some slut who fucks on the first date.” Jessica looked livid, but her eyes were also very wide. She looked almost afraid.

“Then what happened last night? What do you call that?”

“That? That?! You came by to get your, your bio notes or whatever. God how could you lie like this? This conversation is over, if I have to listen to any more of this I’m going to start crying. See you later, asshole.”

And Jessica, the girl he had fucked last night and had tried to drag him back in for more, stormed off. Cameron was left standing there, trying to figure out what was going on. She didn’t seem like she was pretending at all. As she left he could see real tears forming in her eyes. She must actually not remember a thing, only him coming to the door and then leaving again.

Ben was wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. Not only was Jessica not going to want to go out on a date with him, she didn’t even know about the good time he had shown her! What good were the pills if the girls didn’t remember anything? He’d go broke in a month if he needed pills every time he wanted to fuck. Cameron and Ben would need to have a little talk.

Later that afternoon Cameron found himself again at the heavy ornate door of Magick Within Reach. He pushed and let himself in the cramped store. He saw Old Ben behind a bookshelf, diligently dusting the tomes on the lower shelves.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Cameron.” he said without looking up. “Did you enjoy your free sample?”

“I got some complaints old man. Your crappy product doesn’t work as advertised.”

“Oh?” Ben stopped dusting and came around to the front. He wore the same faded apron, but not as much jewelry as their last meeting. Cameron wondered momentarily which of the baubles he wore gave him that annoying ability to know who was at the door.

“You said if I showed a ‘lady’ a good time she would remember, but I hooked up with a chick as muscle-man and today she totally has no idea it happened. All she knows is that I showed up at her place to drop off some notes.”

Ben’s brow furrowed and he looked around. “Fascinating. Must be some sort of interaction...”

“Fascinating!!?” Cameron couldn’t believe Ben could be this casual about a major product defect. “If that went wrong, what else could have gone wrong? It could have killed me!”

“Well yes, Mr. Cameron, it might have killed you, but it didn’t. My spells aren’t exactly evaluated by the Federal Drug Administration after all! Magic is a very complex art with many intricate interactions, and sometimes getting the balance of properties correct is a bit of a process.” While he talked, Ben made his way behind his sales counter and rummaged behind it. He eventually pulled out a ratty-looking notebook, filled with many loose pages.

“Maybe you’re just bad at it.”

Ben slowed down and his face became grave. “Tell me, Mr. Cameron, tell me what worked, and what didn’t. If you are detailed and specific, I can refine the recipe to the point at which it may finally please you.”

“Number one, the chick don’t remember shit.”

“Yes yes of course,” Ben said dismissively, paging through the notebook. It was annotated everywhere with cryptic bits of writing that Cameron couldn’t make out. He seemed to find the appropriate page.

“Number two, the moment I take the pills everyone wants to jump my bones.”

Ben looked up from his notebook and over his glasses. “You did say, of course, that you wanted to be more attractive?”

“Sure, but it’s way too strong. I have girls a block a way trying to get at me when all I really want is to impress the chicks I want.”

Ben nodded. “Ah yes, that’s a good point ... anything else? Anything wrong with the actual transformation?” He continued to look at his notes and made small marks with a pen.

Cameron thought a moment. “No I guess. That was good.”

“Funny,” said Ben with a grin, “how the most complex part of the process worked just fine ... yes.” He paused for a while.

“Well? Can you get it right?”

“You know sometimes, Mr. Cameron, I wonder why I bother at all if you’re going to be so ungrateful. I can correct the recipe and the next supply of pills should be more amenable to you. Do you have the funds we discussed?”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Cameron shook his head vigorously. “I’m not paying a cent until you give me a sample that works as we promised. How do I know the next bunch won’t cause me to fart uncontrollably? I think you owe me another sample pack, ten this time, and if I’m satisfied then I’ll promise to buy two batches.”

Old Ben’s look of outrage seemed put-upon to Cameron. “Ten? For free? Surely you jest? I have a business to run, and I won’t be running it much longer with a policy to give every snide, good-for-nothing customer free spells as long as they claim they are unsatisfied.”

He paused.

“I’ll give you the same four. No more.”

“Seven.”

Ben grimaced. “And you’ll buy two subsequent supplies for 250$ each?” Cameron knew he had won.

“Yes.”

“Done.”

Ben gave him a mean look and headed toward the back of the shop. His voice drifted from behind the shelves. “Just give me a few minutes to whip up the new mixture...”

A few minutes later Ben returned holding another prescription bottle and clutching something else in his other hand. He gave the bottle to Cameron.

“Remember, these pills are very strong and you should not take too many at once. I think anything above four at a time may be dangerous.”

“May be?”

“There’s no way of knowing for sure, but if you take too many pills the consequences could be devastating.”

“Or maybe there might be no consequences at all?”

Ben sighed. “Yes, that is a possibility. However, I would strongly urge you to follow the dosage guidelines and limit yourself to four in a 24-hour period.”

“And will my girlfriends remember me?”

Ben held up his clenched hand. “That’s where this comes in.” He opened his hand, revealing a red gem pendant. It was almost two inches long and somewhat roughly cut. A tarnished gold cap was affixed to it top, and a thin gold chain was threaded through a small loop in the cap. It was quite tacky.

“The previous pills incorporated a spell to cause others around you not to notice your change in physique, however this also caused them not to remember what you had done while transformed. I have removed this spell from the pills so that people who are around you will remember everything. To ensure that others perceive you as normal, I have endowed this pendant with a charm that will reveal your new shape to only those you touch. Only --”

Cameron interrupted. “That’s pretty ugly, couldn’t you have charmed something cooler?”

Ben shot him a nasty look. “No. Ahem, only those you make skin-to-skin contact with will see your new physique and react to it, everyone else will perceive the usual you. And despite its gaudiness, no one will notice the pendant.”

“I guess that will work.” Cameron reached out to take the pendant. Ben snatched it away.

“Because I am now giving you a second sample and a magical pendant, I really must insist that you pledge a small token of intent, so that I know you aren’t just going to keep extracting free services from me.”

“Oh I see how this works. How much did you want?”

“Sixty dollars. And Cameron --” he spoke before Cameron could start to haggle, “-- you have been very rude today. If you aren’t willing to pay my price then I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

Cameron tried to stare him down, but there was a look in the old man’s eye that made it clear he was serious.

“Fine.”

Soon he was headed downstairs, a new bottle of pills in his pocket and an ugly-ass pendant around his neck and stuffed down his shirt. He was kicking himself for not trying to haggle just a bit on the price of the pendant. Seeing as he had never seen any other customers in the store, Old Ben was probably desperate for business. He probably would have cracked.

And yet, Cameron could now see someone coming through the door from the street.

It was Chelsea.

She had black tears painted on her face today. How original. What was she doing there? Although, now that Cameron thought about it, a goth would like a place called Magick Within Reach. It seemed right up her alley.

If it was possible, she turned even whiter than normal when she saw him.

“Oh. Hey Cam. What are you doing here?”

He decided to play dumb.

“Uh, Hey Chelsea, how ya doin’. I must have the wrong address or something, I thought this was going to be the new taco place.”

“Taco... --?”

He kept moving, not wanting to get stuck in conversation. “Yeah, oh now I see, it’s across the street. Sorry about yesterday, I was just really busy and all.” And without thinking, he added, “I’d love to hang out some time.” He bit his lip. Why did he have to say that?

She turned around. “Oh? If that’s OK. Sorry I was such a bitch.”

Cameron pushed out the door, his mouth still moving without him wanting it to. “Yeah, no problem. Maybe we can get some tacos next week. Tacos on the brain. OK, see ya.” And he made sure his legs carried him away before he could do any more damage.

Cameron kept himself distracted that weekend, playing Xbox Live with his friend Alex. But his eyes kept drifting back to where the pill bottle was hidden on his shelf, and couldn’t stop thinking about the next step. He tried wearing the pendant over his shirt, and sure enough neither his mom or dad noticed -- or at least they didn’t say anything.

On Sunday he actually did his laundry to try to pass the time and realized in the process that he needed to get more large clothes if he was going to be spending more time as Hunk Cameron. He couldn’t keep wearing Aunt Susan’s shirt to every date.

He spent an hour at the mall trying on various shirts and pants, never quite sure if they were going to fit. There was no way he was going to waste a pill on his shopping trip -- he would just have to guess. The sales chick with the stupid ear piece and tight-fitting top was pretty confused, cracking her chewing gum while ringing him up.

“Are you sure these are gonna fit?” Crack crack crack. “They’re kinda baaag.”