Second Puberty 2

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I pedalled home as fast as I could, wondering if this day could get any weirder. If I had only known.

I came in through the kitchen door. I tried to be quiet but Geoff’s shoes were too big for me and they flipped up and down like clown feet. Mom was cooking dinner and she looked up at me as I flip-flopped by. First she noticed the shirt.

“What’s with the baggy shirt? You’re not going gangsta on us are you?”

Then the shoes.

“What have you got on your feet?”

And finally the eyes.

“And what have you done to your eyes?”

“Mom,” I said, “It’s a long story. And if you don’t mind I don’t want to tell it more than once. So maybe tonight, after dinner, we could have a family meeting and I can tell you all at the same time.”

Mom paused for a minute, stirring spoon in her hand. “Are those contacts?”

“Mom!”

“Okay, fine. Dinner’s in an hour.”

My family is great. I mean it. I know most people have a least one trouble maker but not us. We all got along. We all helped each other when we could. No one judged. It was amazing.

I think part of the reason is that my parents could never have kids the usual way. They had to adopt, so all three of us were adopted, my brother, my sister and me. There wasn’t that sense of “I’m the real kid and you’re just a guest.” We were all guests. Sure we fought from time to time but for the most part we were as close a family as you could want. And one of our traditions was the family meeting. If one of us had an issue or problem we sat around after dinner and talked it out. It almost always helped. Tonight would be my turn, but as close as my family was, I didn’t know how they would take the news that I had been genetically engineered, and had started to undergo certain changes, the full significance of which I was only starting to guess.

I spent the next hour in my room, pouring over my homework. I barely acknowledged my brother when he came in. He was a good guy, a year younger than me and about 4 inches taller, lanky, another geek. Let’s face it, we were all geeks. It ran in our unrelated family. Most of it came from our upbringing I think. TV was strictly limited. Reading was encouraged. Dad was always throwing out math problems at the dinner table. We had a word-of-the-day calendar. You get the picture.

But when Joe came into our room, I didn’t look up. I wasn’t trying to be rude but the eye color thing was sure to come up and I really didn’t want to deal with it before the meeting.

“Mom says you called a meeting tonight.”

“Hmm,” I mumbled.

“What’s up?”

“Come to the meeting and find out.”

“Must be pretty big.”

“Yup, it’s pretty big.”

“So are you coming out or what?”

I gagged and practically swallowed my tongue. I knew my brother didn’t really believe what he said. He was just trying to goad me into telling him what was up. But the fact that he went there, and right after that incident with Geoff… Well, it practically killed me. I was coughing and gasping for five minutes. Joe was slapping me on my back asking if I was okay.

“Fine!” I cried as soon as I could. “I’m fine.”

“Oh my God, that’s it isn’t it? You’re banging Geoff. That’s why you’re wearing his shirt.”

“How did you know it was Geoff’s shirt?”

“I didn’t,” he said grinning, “but I do now.” That’s the problem with having a smart brother.

“I don’t notice any denials,” he said.

“At this point,” I said, still facing away from him, “any denials would be pointless. You wouldn’t believe them anyway.”

“Come on, bro, what else could this be about?”

“You want a hint, Joe? Fine.” I turned around and looked at him. The grin fell from his face.

“What the fuck happened to your eyes?”

“Let’s just say Geoff fucked them blue, and leave it at that.”

“No, dude, seriously, what happened?”

“You want to know? Be there after dinner.”

“Come on, bro, tell me.”

“I will, with everybody else, after dinner.”

“Okay, fine, let’s go eat dinner.” I looked at my watch. Dinner was in five minutes. And I have to say, now that the time was approaching, I was starting to get a little nervous.

“Come on, let’s go,” said Joe impatiently. I got up from my desk and started toward the door.

“Are you going to wear lover boy’s shirt to dinner?” asked Joe. “You could use it as a visual aid.”

Christ, no. The last thing I wanted was to bring Geoff into the conversation. I was pretty sure I still had a clean golf shirt hanging in the closet. I headed in that direction pulling Geoff’s shirt off as I went.

“Holy fucking Christ on a stick!” I heard my brother shout and I froze. Changing my shirt in front of my brother is something I have done about a billion times. I never thought twice about it. This time I should have.

“You are not my brother.”

“Joe…”

“You are not my brother.”

“Of course I’m your brother.”

“My brother is a skinny kid with brown eyes. He doesn’t have… muscles. Now, I admit you look kind of like him. But you are not the same kid I saw drag his scrawny ass out of bed this morning.”

There was some truth in that. But Joe was so upset I wasn’t going to get anywhere using reason. “That’s right, Joe. You caught me. I’m an alien and I’ve come here to suck out your brain.”

“Go ahead. Make jokes. But I know the truth.”

Did I really say my brother was smart?

“Do you actually want to know what’s going on?” I asked, pulling on my golf shirt. It was a little tight but I guess that was only to be expected. “Then be at the meeting after dinner.” I stormed out of the room and ran down the stairs.

That meal was one of the most awkward dinners I could ever remember. Joe would hardly look at me and Kelsey, my 15-year-old adopted sister, could hardly keep her eyes off me. She kept staring at my eyes. Mom and Dad tried to keep the conversation light, artfully steering it away from anything to do with physical appearance.

The tension didn’t affect my appetite, though. I was starved and I ate like there wouldn’t be a tomorrow. But I always ate a lot, so it didn’t raise any eyebrows.

Finally the meal ended and the meeting began.

“Mom, Dad,” I began, “what do you know about where I originally came from.”

“Not much,” my Mom answered. “We didn’t ask too many questions. The adoption agency frowned on that sort of thing. Anyway I don’t think there was much they were allowed to tell us.”

“Well, I had a visitor today.” And I went on to tell them all about Professor Grant and everything he told me. When I was finished I could tell they were skeptical; and if it hadn’t been for my new baby blues I doubt they would have believed me at all.

“Genetically engineered?” my mom asked.

‘That’s what he said,” I replied.

“And he actually changed your eye color just like that?” asked my Dad.

“Yup.”

“Second puberty?” asked Joe. “Is that what all that was about,” he said gesturing toward my upper body.

“Ah, yeah.”

“Are you going to grow any more?”

“I think so.”

“Are your eyes going to change color again?” asked Kelsey.

“Probably not.”

“Good. I think they’re pretty.”

“Do you have this Professor Grant’s phone number? I’d like to have a word with him,” my dad said.

“No, but he’s at Stanford. He shouldn’t be too hard to track down.”

There were many more questions, mostly from my parents, and several I couldn’t answer. Joe was strangely quiet. He seemed a little sullen and moody; it wasn’t like him.

After the meeting, my family all hugged me and promised to support me whatever happened. I can’t tell you how much better I felt having it all out in the open. We all agreed, though, to keep it quiet from everyone else. There was no telling how people might react to someone they knew to be genetically engineered.

My family all went into the TV room to watch some History Channel special on the fall of Rome, and I headed up to my room. I told them I had to do some homework, but really I wanted some alone time.

I entered the darkened room and turned on the light. I peeled off my shirt and stood in front of the full length mirror; for the first time I got a good look at my new body. I could see why Joe reacted so strongly. It didn’t look like me at all. I had always been pretty skinny. But now I had a lean muscular stomach with each abdominal sharply defined. I ran my hand over them feeling the hard bumps and ridges, defiantly not something I was used to. My pecs had only expanded slightly but their shape had fundamentally changed. Instead of flattish nubs, they were rounder, fuller and hard as a rock. I flexed my arm and watched the bicep slowly swell up to a size roughly between a golf ball and a tennis ball. I wondered how much stronger I was. I didn’t have a weight set. I thought there might be a weight room at school. I made a mental note to check the next day.

I was just about to try a most muscular when I heard Joe come in behind me. Crap. He caught me checking myself out. Oh well, what did it matter? We were brothers after all.

“I thought you were watching that thing on Rome,” I said.

“That’s okay. I know how it ends.”

I laughed.

“Dude, you should see your back,” he said. “You’ve got all these little tiny muscles bulging up all over it.”

“Really?” I said, turning and straining to catch a glimpse of my back in the mirror, but I wasn’t a contortionist.

“Here, I’ll go get a mirror from the bathroom,” Joe offered.

“That’s okay,” I said. I was starting to feel a little self conscious and foolish, staring at myself in front of a mirror.

“It’s no problem,” said Joe and he darted out of the room. In a second he was back with one of my mom’s hand held mirrors. I took it from him and was able to angle it so I could get a good view of my back. He was right, and as I moved I could see the muscles sort of pop in and out.

“Well, that’s enough of that.” I said putting the mirror down. I suddenly felt tired and I wanted to go to bed. It had been one hell of a day. “I’m going to crash.”

I stripped down to my boxers and heard an audible gasp from Joe. “Jesus, your legs too?” I looked down and noticed my thighs had gotten thicker and become pretty well defined.

“Anything else?” asked Joe.

I found myself wondering what else was there? Then it hit me. “Jesus, Joe!”

“I only asked.”

“Well, don’t.” Secretly, though, I was kind of curious myself.

I went into our bathroom—Joe and I had our own—and began to wash up before bed. As I was relieving myself, I gave it a good look. It looked pretty much the same as it always had. I guess I was a little disappointed, not that I’d ever really given it too much thought before. But now that things were changing…

I tucked it back into my boxers and went back out into our room. Joe was already in bed; he was just lying there, watching me.

“Not going to wash up?” I asked.

“Nope,” he said.

I went to my dresser and pulled out my sleep shirt. It was a ragged old t shirt I’d had for years. It was worn around the shelves and collar, had a couple of holes here and there. That and my boxers were pretty much my standard sleep ware. I slipped it on and, like my golf shirt, it also felt kind of tight. But somehow I didn’t mind. I kind of liked the tightness, the feel of my new, hard muscles pushing out against it. It felt kind of sexy.

“So, did it get any bigger or what?” My brother’s voice jerked me out of my reverie. “Come on, I know you looked.”

I was not going to have this conversation with him. “Go to sleep, Joe,” I said as I turned out the light and climbed into bed.

As I lay there, I discovered something else. My new muscles were lumpy. They were not comfortable. I tried several positions until I finally settled with lying on my side.

“What are you doing over there?” asked Joe. He must have heard the rustling.

“Just trying to get comfortable.”

“Yeah, I bet.”

That didn’t deserve a response. I lay there for a while while the day’s events buzzed through my head. I kept coming back to the fact that I was genetically engineered. Somehow I had always thought I had a mother and a father out there. I might never meet them but somehow it gave me certain sense of identity. To know that I didn’t actually have parents like that was kind of disturbing.

“We’re not really related, you know,” came Joe’s voice. I was kind of hoping he had fallen asleep.

“No,” I answered. “I guess I’m not really related to anyone, except maybe a test tube.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said. “We’re not really related so if you wanted to try anything it wouldn’t be too weird.”

Suddenly I felt like you do when you enter a TV show in the middle, a little lost. “What are you talking about?”

“You know,” he said. Then I did.

“Holy fucking shit, Joe! You had better not be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting because that is just wrong!”

“Why? What’s wrong about it?”

“It’s wrong because you’re my brother.”

“But we’re not really—“

“—related,” I finished for him. “It doesn’t matter. It’s still wrong.”

“Why? What’s the harm?”

“The harm? The harm is my fucking sanity; that’s the harm!”

Then there was silence. I was beginning to hope he had gone to sleep but then I heard the slow, rhythmic squeaking of his box spring.

“Holy Christ, Joe, what are you doing now?”

“Guess.”

“How the hell am I supposed to sleep?”

“Well, if you’re not going to sleep, could you at least turn the light on so I can see you?”

“Fuck no!” I screamed. I rolled over and grabbed my Ipod off the night stand. I had a nice set of headphones designed to cancel background noises like airplane engines. I wondered if it would do the same for a wanking teenager in the next bed. I chose some soft music, hit play and closed my eyes. It took a while but finally I fell asleep.

My dreams were no escape. In them I was back at Geoff’s, only this time he wasn’t taking no for an answer. He chased me all around his house which eventually strangely morphed into the school. I was running up and down dark corridors and hiding in classrooms, but somehow he always seemed to find me. Finally he caught me and threw me face down on the floor. I could feel his weight as he climbed on my back, his warm breath as he breathed on my neck, then his hot dick as he slipped it in my ass. Breathing was getting difficult. I could feel him pumping, filling me with what felt like fire, a fire that burned me with ecstasy.

Suddenly I was awake. The dream faded but the fire remained. It was running all through me. I rolled over. Everything was wet. I realized I had been really sweating in my sleep. My shirt, shorts, the sheets, everything was soaked through. And breathing was still hard. I felt like I had a fever, but this burning was the most tremendous feeling I had ever experienced. I felt like every nerve in my body was lit up and dancing. I wanted it to go on and on. I realized I was moaning. Suddenly I thought I was going to be sick. I jumped out of bed, raced to the bathroom and slammed the door behind me. That must have woken up Joe, because a second later he was pounding on the door asking if I was alright. Thank God, I’d locked it.

The nausea passed quickly and I found myself leaning on the sink staring at myself in the mirror. I was beat red. The arteries on my neck were standing out. If I had seen a picture of myself like that, I’d’ve guessed I was trying to lift something very heavy. And my muscles seemed to be straining exactly as if that was what I was trying to do. I could feel the blood was rushing into my muscles, engorging them, making them swell, they were swelling with fire. I still couldn’t breathe right and I tugged at my shirt collar to give my neck more room to breathe but I wound up tearing it. I pulled at it and pulled at it until it came right off. I stood there looking at my naked torso and I actually saw it grow. My shoulders got broader. My chest became more pronounced. And my neck thickened. But it didn’t last long. The fire began to fade, my skin color returned, and my breath became normal.

“Are you ok in there?” I’d forgotten about Joe.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I managed.

I stood there staring at myself. I was pumped. I looked exactly the way a weightlifter looked after a hard work out. My muscles were all swollen and hard, veins were standing out; it was impressive.

I started to leave the bathroom, but then I remembered Joe. I didn’t want him to see me like this. I grabbed my poor torn shirt and managed to sort of put it on. There were tears in it; there was no way it would cover me completely, but I reasoned some cover was better than none.

As soon as I stepped back into the room I realized what a mistake I’d made. About the same time Joe saw me, I caught sight of myself in the full length mirror. I was standing there drenched with sweat. I think it’s fair to say I glistened in the early morning light. My sweat soaked shirt and shorts were plastered to my body, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. The tears in my ragged shirt offered glimpses of veiny, bulging muscles, significantly larger than they had been yesterday. I was the cover of a fucking romance novel.

“Holy fuck!” yelled Joe. And he raced to his bed, hopped on top of it, and just started banging the mattress, shouting, “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” over and over again.

I thought about saying something, but that would only have made it worse. I went to my closest grabbed my school clothes and took them into the bathroom with me. There was no way I was going to change in my bedroom now.

I climbed out of what was left of my sleep ware and got into the shower. As I washed, I checked out the changes. I was defiantly bigger. I had half expected to be the same after the pump wore off but I wasn’t. And this time there had been some growth down below as well.

Suddenly I heard the door open and close. Crap! I had forgotten to lock it. I pulled back the shower curtain and looked out into the bathroom, but it was empty. I heaved a sigh of relief, quickly finished up and dressed. As I got ready to leave, I went to get my sleep shirt and shorts but I couldn’t find them. Then I realized what must have happened when the door opened.

I stormed back out into the bedroom. Joe was in his bed covered from head to foot.

“What the fuck, Joe?”

“I’m not giving them back.”

I was speechless. Truth be told, at this point I didn’t want them back. “Fine. Keep them.”

“Really?”

Christ. He was hopeless.

I turned to check my reflection and I noticed my new build. I didn’t want to notice my new build, because if I noticed my new build, everybody else would too. And after the craziness of yesterday—and so far today—that was the last thing I wanted.

My pants were okay. They were pretty baggy to begin with and didn’t show anything, but my shirt would have to go.

I tried on another shirt. And then another. And then another. They all did a great job of showcasing my new pecs and shoulders. Big problem.

Then I noticed a small heap lying on the floor. It was Geoff’s shirt from yesterday. I tried it on. It was still big on me, and my body was swallowed up inside it. Perfect.

Joe was still lying on his bed, all covered up. I realized he had been watching me through a crack in his blankets. I waved at him and the crack closed up.

“Bye, Joe,” I said as I hurried from the room.

As I entered the kitchen I remembered that none of my shoes would fit either. I tried on my dad’s sneakers. They seemed to fit ok, so at least I was spared the humiliation of having to wear Geoff’s clown shoes to school.

I sat down for breakfast—I was starved—and was surprised to see my sister, Kelsey join me. Usually she stumbled out of bed, headed straight for the bathroom and didn’t emerge until she was running for the school bus.

My sister was naturally pretty, a little plump, but the roundness suited her. And today she was all made up.

“Well, look whose here,” said my mom as she placed a plate of eggs in front of Kelsey. “Must be a big day today.”

“Sort of,” she answered.

Mom served me my usual double helping. I ate it up asked for more.

“Where’s your brother this morning. He’s going to be late.”

I was temporarily at a loss for words. I finally came out with, “I don’t think he’s feeling too well.”

“That’s too bad,” she said. “I hope he gets over it.”

“That goes double for me,” I said. “Mom, we need to go shopping today after school. I need some new clothes.”

“You didn’t grow again already?”

“Yeah. This is the only shirt that fits.”

“Why don’t you borrow some of your brother’s things for now?”

“NO! I mean, I don’t think that’ll work. Joe needs all the clothes he has.” Mom gave me a look like she guessed there were things I wasn’t saying. Thank God she let it go.

“Okay, we’ll go this evening.” She kissed me on the cheek and bustled out of the room. I turned to my sister.

“So, what are you all dressed up for today?”

She looked at me and blushed. “You know we’re not really related, don’t you?”

I stood up like a shot. Suddenly I wanted to be anywhere but that kitchen. I kissed Kelsey on the cheek, said a quick goodbye, rushed out of the door, hopped on my bike and peddled my ass off trying to get away from there.

To be continued

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