All characters are over the age of 18.
For all of Rashida's big talk about how energized she felt throughout the day the sun hadn't even set when she announced that she was exhausted and heading to bed,
Aaron didn't object, of course, the day had been plenty exhausting for him as well and he anticipated that tomorrow was going to be equally or more exhausting thanks to his mother's planned outing where he would likely bear witness to several men, and probably a handful of women, perving on her as she walked down the street,
At least when Clark did it he did everything in his power to make sure no one notice him doing it, not to mention Aaron actually trusted Clark to manage his behaviour more than a random shmuck in the grocery store.
Rashida's early bedtime also gave Aaron the perfect opportunity to skim through the book Chloe had given him without being caught, he didn't feel like explaining to his mother why he had even the slightest interest in a book about nudie life so the minute he walked inside he ran to his room and hid it in a air vent next to the expired condom he got from Sex Ed class back in middle school and a small pile of failed tests and quizzes, all things he was desperate to keep his mother from discovering and sparking a conversation about,
So immediately upon his mother shutting her bedroom door and turning out the light, Aaron, as quietly as he could, sprinted to his room and locked the door behind him, shut off the lights and dove under his covers with the book in one hand and a flashlight in the other like a ten-year-old reading comics past their bedtime.
"I know my breasts are great but tell me anyway: A guide to Nudie living," was the title of the book, and for the first time he allowed himself to follow the advice of the title, ever since the Spell reared its ugly head Aaron had spent more and more time looking up at the sky, the last thing he needed to be doing was stare at a woman long enough and intensely enough to make her more uncomfortable that she might have already been, for months he kept his eyes locked on women's faces no matter how desperate he was to look down at what his biology demanded he look at,
But this woman on the cover wasn't really there, she was just a photo, there was no harm in looking at her,
So he allowed himself to stare, to analyze the curves of her body, to memorize the shape of her nipples and to titillate himself over whether or not he could see a bush or not from the glimpses of her pussy through the letters of the title.
With his erection half-cocked, pardon the pun, he flipped open the book and began to read,
He didn't start at page one, he jumped to the table of contents and used it to jump to topics that he was most interested in,
First, he sought out to confirm what Chloe had been talking about earlier that day,
'Chapter 5: Complimenting your fellow nudies,' he read, 'The transition from clothed to unclothed life is as much mental as it is physical, what was once protected by cloth, leather and linen is now open to public scrutiny, the feeling of eyeballs against newly exposed skin can burn like light from a child's magnifying glass, especially on one's most private areas only seen by a lover if at all. So as nudies, it's our job to keep each other from imploding in on ourselves like dying stars, we do this through honesty and learning not to hold our tongues, in the following chapter we will run through the various psychological and societal benefits to affirmations, both of each other's characters and more importantly for this book, of our beautiful natural forms.'
As he continued through the chapter it became increasingly clear that Chloe was telling the truth.
Even with the evidence in plain text right in front of him, it was hard for Aaron to believe the level of confidence it required to openly compliment other people's bodies like this without getting slapped,
Something told him he hadn't seen the last of people perving on his mother.
It was almost 10 am when Aaron came downstairs after a long night of reading, he found Rashida was already sitting at the island in the kitchen sipping her coffee and leafing through that day's paper,
He took it as a small victory that he no longer had to pause and compose himself when he saw her sitting there without a hint of shame, he simply sighed and accepted his defeat.
"How'd you sleep?" Rashida asked with a warm smile that Aaron had been a stranger to for a while,
"Fine," he responded, wiping the crust from his eyes as he poured himself a cup of coffee,
"You're still good to help me today?" She asked,
"Sure," Aaron nodded, bringing the mug to his lips and slowly sipping,
"Awesome," Rashida smiled, "We'll hit the road when you're done with breakfast,"
"Great," Aaron faux smiled back,
He considered how long could he drag out breakfast before she caught on.
The trip to the grocery store was about as painful as Aaron expected, she wasn't the only nudie shopping at that moment thank god, but she was the only bald woman accompanied by a shopping cart fit to collapse who insisted on asking the deli what felt like a hundred and fifty questions about the three bean salad why passerby shoppers examined her ass for defects, leaving pleased to find none.
He was able to breathe a sigh of relief when they entered the car and drove away, Aaron prayed this was the end of his torture but as if to personally slight him a few minutes later Rashida pulled into the parking lot of Clark's landscaping company,
"Umm... What are we doing here?" Aaron asked with slight fear trembling in his voice,
"Grabbing a bag of topsoil for my garden," Rashida explained, throwing open the car door and stepping out into the sun, "Come on lifter,"
Aaron groaned as he followed her into the building,
Quiet amazingly, Rashida acted as casually as ever as she walked naked through her place of work in front of people she had known for years and Aaron had known for his whole life, several averted their eyes, and a few of the more bold wolf whistled although there seemed to be an understanding between Rashida and her coworkers that this was all in good fun, Aaron averted eye contact with all of them.
Rashida noticed how low her son held his head as he threw the bag over his shoulder and walked it back to the car,
"We're almost done," she assured him as they pulled out of the parking lot, "I just have to swing by the treatment centre,"
"What for?" Aaron asked, slowly composing himself once again,
"They're checking out all the patients from the other day," Rashida explained, "Making sure they're are no complications, should be quick,"
A few minutes of driving later they arrived at the centre, a police car was still waiting outside the front entrance and scraps of yellow tape were floating back and forth in the wind.
"You should have seen it the other day," Rashida said as the two walked towards the front entrance, "Looked like one of those true crime things on Netflix,"
"I'm sorry this happened to you," Aaron said cautiously,
"Oh, we've been through worse hon," Rashida assured him with a bubbly attitude, "We'll survive,"
As Aaron held open the door Rashida once again strode in with her best foot forward,
For the first time, Aaron paid enough attention to see his mother's face as she did so,
He could see her taking a millisecond to actively psych herself up before entering, squashing any insecurities and marching forward with the same alacrity one would have pulling off a bandaid.
Her body language heavily contrasted with the other nudies in the office, all were curled up on their chairs trying to shield themselves from prying eyes, including the secretary who had lowered her desk chair all the way down so she could hide her breasts behind the wooden desk,
Aaron tried to stifle a lab as she reached up to awkwardly type, when she sat like that she looked kinda like a munchkin.
"Hey Lin," Rashida said, giving the secretary a warm smile, "How are you?"
"I'm fine," Lin choked, "You can go right in, Dr. Friedman's expecting you,"
"Thank you," Rashida smiled before turning to Aaron, "You coming in?"
Aaron took a moment to decide, glancing back over to the waiting room, he probably could've felt the depressed aura from the pharmacy across the street,
"I'll go with you," He finally answered, following her into the next room.
Aaron had met Dr. Friedman before, he was usually a very warm jovial guy, a personality that helped to keep the mood up in what was usually a very sombre office,
But like all things it was changed by the Spell,