Up until this point, Trevor had felt invincible. He wasn't necessarily happy with all of his choices, but he had not felt in any real danger. Now it was different. He knew that others, ones that somehow were connected to his shapeshifting curse, were all around, and closer than he had realized. He had discovered a psychic link in the direction of his hometown. Dread latched onto his mind, along with his dead mother's warning. She told him that everyone, even his closest friends and his father, would eventually use him for what he had become. He could be every person's vision of erotic fulfillment, would become anyone's heart's desire, would become a slave to absolutely anyone's lust.
He tried to read more of his mother's journal, but her next passage went on about how the first one hundred years or so would be the worst. All this rattled around in his head and he opted to tune it out for a time so he could process it. Procrastination had always been a gift of his. He turned on the television. He got comfortable and was grateful for the bed he had. The other night he had slept in his car. Now he had some money and friends that seemed to want to help him. And he had his mother's journal, which promised him a world of suck. His mind quickly clouded with negative thoughts again, and he found himself welcoming sleep.
The knock on the door to his room jolted him upright. He glanced at the hotel alarm clock and saw it was just past three in the morning. His first thought was that his dad had somehow tracked him down. He tiptoed to the door and looked out the peephole. He sighed in relief. It was just Max. He opened the door and whispered the obvious question in the silent hallway. "What the hell man? Why are you knocking on my door in the middle of the night?"
"Let me in so we don't have to whisper," Max said.
Trevor eyed his friend warily. His curse could sense desire, and his was burning up with it. "Do you think that's a good idea?"
"Probably not. But let's do it anyway."
Trevor was not fully awake, but he did remember how out of control things had gotten earlier. He wasn't sure if it was his own increased libido, or the fact that his friends knew he could be their fantasy lay, or a bit of both. But he really wanted his mother to be wrong. He wanted his friends to still be able to see him for who he was, not who they could make him become. He supposed this would be a good way to find out. He nodded towards his room, and let Max catch the door before it closed as he walked backwards, his eyes tracking his friend.
Once inside and closer to the beds, Trevor noticed Max was not adhering to the distance he was trying to keep between them as he kept inching forward. "What's so important it couldn't wait until morning?"
"Just hear me out," Max said excitedly, like he was gearing up for a big sales pitch. "I got two words for you. Sophia Cortez."
Trevor knew the name, and thought he knew where this was going now. Sophia Cortez was one of the more distinguished alumni of their highschool. She had graduated two years ago and had been hands down the most beautiful girl the entire time she had graced their halls. It turned out that wasn't just the opinion of their school. She had gone on to win the county beauty contest, and had then become runner up for their state. Their town had thought that decision was a terrible travesty as she had ascended to near celebrity status.
Max took Trevor's silence not as apprehension, but as a sign that his friend wanted him to continue. "Did you know she spoke to me once?"
"No, I didn't know that."
"Yeah, I was just a freshman and I didn't know where my class was. She was passing by and I must have looked super pathetic because she asked if I was lost. I nodded, she looked at my schedule, and pointed me in the right direction."
Trevor nodded. "Everyone said she was real nice. Well if that's it, we should probably..."
"Don't you see?" Max asked with a wild glint in his eyes. "She was always completely out of our league, but now, we could..."
He let it hang in the air, but Trevor refused to play ball. "We could what?"
"We could, you know, get with her. It'd be like a dream come true!"
"For who?"
Max didn't understand how Trevor wasn't connecting the dots. "For both of us! You would be the hottest girl in our state, or the world really! Those judges were blind. But anyways, we could fool around."
The war within Trevor's mind and body was growing at an exponential rate. His grogginess had faded completely, and had been replaced by anxiety and anger at Max's suggestion. But his body was responding to the seed Max had planted and was feeding off of his lust. He could easily shapeshift into Max's memory of Sophia, or his own for that matter. Trevor remembered watching her on the television, remembered very well two of the outfits she had worn. He could explore her skin very intimately. The trade off was that his friend, his male friend would be there, touching him as well. That thought alone should have outright repulsed him. It did in his mind, but his body knew the pleasures of a woman, and it made a strong argument for giving Max what he wanted. Regardless, he stood his ground. "You should go back to bed, Max."
Max cupped his hands together and pleaded, "This could be our only chance man. Who knows what tomorrow will bring."
"I don't think it's a good idea."
"But...but we, well, sort of 'we,' but at the same time not... I mean...okay just, saying it out loud, we fucked earlier."
Trevor cringed. It was a true statement. Trevor had even enjoyed it in the female forms he had shapeshifted into for Max. But it's also a bit like that thing you did that one time and then all agree to never talk about again. And now here they were, at 3am, one of them with a die hard erection, talking about it. "That was different."
Max folded his arms. "How? How is this different? You made the move down in the hot tub. I'm making a move now."
"That should have been a one time thing. And besides, I was sleeping, man, boundaries."
For a second, Trevor saw his friend's head dip and could feel the lust plummet. But then it spiked again as he begged, "C'mon man. Please. Tell you what. Just shapeshift into her real quick so I can see her. Then I'll go into the bathroom and jerk off."
"You're a sad man."
"I'll take what I can get."
