“Have you talked with anyone yet?” Sarah asked with a look of care.
“No, I just got here. Though I do feel out of place. I wish I fit in more with this crowd.” The bracelet grew warm on Jon’s wrist and he knew he had made a mistake. Jon felt a wave of unease and discomfort pass over him as he clutched his now churning stomach.
“What was that?” Sarah said, seemingly oblivious of Jon’s affliction but also somehow aware that something had happened.
“I don’t know,” Jon half-lied, “But I don’t feel good. Can you show me to a restroom?”
“Uh, sure,” Sarah replied, glancing briefly over the party and the mass of people before looking back to Jon. “Just follow me.”
Sarah grabbed Jon’s hand as she led him through the crowd. The press of the crowd was oppressive even if people weren’t paying much attention. He could feel his body shifting somehow. Bones creaking and fat buzzing. What had he done?
It didn’t take long for Sarah to find a bathroom and pull them inside. It didn’t feel long. Sarah shut and locked the door behind them and flicked the light on. Sarah looked into the mirror, her eyes meeting Jon and gasped.
“What is happening?!”
“I don’t…” Jon trailed off as he shifted his gaze from Sarah’s reflection in the mirror to his own. He could feel his body, how weird it felt but he was more caught up in what looked back at him in the mirror. He could see why Sarah was so shocked. In front of their eyes, Jon’s features were changing. His slight double chin quickly disappeared as his short beard pulled into his face. His lips became fuller, cheekbones shifted, skin smoothed and his dark blond hair shifted and grew slightly, staying short but taking on a slightly more feminine appearance.
Feminine. Shit. He was so busy watching his visage in the mirror that he missed everything else. He quickly padded down his body, watching in horror as his clothing started to shift.
“What the fuck?” Sarah whispered in almost as much shock as Jon as the changes in his face stopped and the shifting clothing started to reveal what had changed underneath. The t-shirt underneath his unbuttoned flannel tightened, shrinking slightly to fit on a smaller frame and to show the slight swell of what had to be breasts.
The flannel and the t-shirt shifted higher as his blue jeans moved with them settling in just over Jon’s belly button. Jon gasped as the belt on the jeans sinched in to conform with his now slimmer waist. The last few changes settled in, a slight outline under his t-shirt relayed the presence of a bra he never felt forming, his jeans grew a few inches in the leg to compensate for their new higher resting position on his waist and his plain vans shrank two sizes.
“You’re a girl,” Sarah said with equal parts wonder and confusion coloring her voice.
“Yeah,” Jon dragged out with a voice that wasn’t quite his own having just completed his patdown which confirmed Sarah’s statement. He had boobs and his penis was gone. In the mirror stood a not unattractive but otherwise plain-looking college-aged woman, the same height as before. The structure of her face and the fit of her clothes which displayed a slightly slimmer figure and the small swell of breasts differentiated the woman in the mirror from the man that had been there minutes prior.
“You can make wishes?” Sarah asked with an unlikely sureness.
“How did you know?”
Sarah laughed but then spying the expression on Jon’s face of unease and fear, stopped. “You wished to fit in then suddenly you’re in pain and in need of a bathroom then you turned into a woman.”
“You noticed?” Jon asked glancing at Sarah before going back to examining himself in the mirror, a bit unnerved as he felt the unease and fear slowly fade away to be replaced by mild curiosity. He would curse this damn bracelet later.
“How could I not?” Sarah said also examining Jon’s figure before catching herself, not wanting to make Jon uncomfortable, and looked away.
“Why did you invite me to the party?”
“Umm… Because I’ve heard the stories about you from Karyn, how you were thick as thieves until you destroyed her chances at getting into Harvard-”
“It was a mistake-” Jon interjected, not quite used to his higher voice. A voice that while feminine was still quite low and unremarkable.
“I know.” Sarah conceded. Well, maybe not conceded. Perhaps she did know.
“Anyway, I had seen you around and never saw you with anyone. And then I asked around and that confirmed that you really didn’t have any friends. I hoped that maybe you could have some fun, and make some friends. Maybe make up with Karyn.” Sarah said earnestly.
“Really?”
“Yeah, she was at that party,” Sarah gestured to the sounds of partygoers coming through the bathroom door. “Though admittedly the last part was too ambitious. Karyn isn’t ready to forgive you.”
It took a moment for Jon to take it all in but he finally replied, “Oh, so you don’t know anything about a wish?”
“Of course, you are a girl and you don’t seem too scared about it either.”
“That’s not what I meant and yeah I don’t quite get why I am not freaked out. But I wished, accidentally, that I could have gotten invited to one of these parties and then you called.”
“Huh. So you must have to hear it then. I heard your wish to fit in and I seem to be aware of it but you say you wished to be invited and it seemed natural, if a bit out of my normal behavior, to invite you.”
“yeah …” Jon replied thinking.
“Are you okay?” Sarah asked, placing a comforting hand on Jon’s shoulder.
“I guess I am,” Jon replied thoughtfully, “I kind of want to rejoin the party. I feel… more confident.”
“Your wish to fit in more…” Sarah replied.
“Must be,” Jon said, eyes meeting Sarah’s with a small awkward smile.
“You’re really sure you are okay? Have you tried wishing to be a guy again?”
“It doesn’t work that way. It has to be unintentional wishes. I accidentally made a wish hoping to understand what it was and it told me. Any time I intentionally wish nothing happens.” Jon turned to the mirror and said, “I wish I was a man again.” The two of them watched on for several moments as the bracelet didn’t warm and nothing changed in the mirror, the same unassuming woman looking back.
“Ok well,” Sarah did one more once over of Jon’s new form, “if you seriously want to join that party you won’t be wanting to wear that.”
“What? Why? What’s wrong with this,” Jon asked gesturing to the flannel and jeans.
“You’re not hot enough to pull off the flannel and jeans look. You don't have the body. To look good you need to do more with with clothes. Besides, flannel and jeans are low effort I don’t really want to explain to my friends who organized this party how someone so, unassuming was invited.” Sarah explained.
“They’ll seriously ask that?” Jon asked a little surprised.
“Well probably not, but if we get you something better to wear and you are good at mingling I will get kudos for inviting you,” Sarah said looking at Jon with a pensive look.
“What are you saying?” Jon said, a sense of fear and excitement creeping into his voice.
Sarah sighed and said, “Are you dense? I’m going to give you a makeover. Now, come on.” Sarah grabbed Jon leading him out of the bathroom and out of the party to… who knew where.
