“I know what you’ve been thinking about.” Tommy smiled.
“Is it that obvious?” The corners of Brandon’s mouth curled up into a smile for the first time in a very long time.
‘Very.” Tommy held up the bottle, which contained a minuscule amount of liquid, capped off with a dropper top.
“Wow!” Brandon raised his eyebrows and watched in fascination as the glimmering blue liquid swirled around in the bottle as if it were a living creature. It reminded him of something from Harry Potter. He wondered if this might have come from Dumbledore himself, but of course, Harry Potter was fiction. This was real life.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Tommy smiled, examining the swirling blue liquid for himself.
“Very.” Brandon couldn’t take his eyes off of it.
“I calculated on the walk over. You’ll need a little less than seven drops to be around seventeen or eighteen.” Tommy said as he lowered the bottle.
“That isn’t going to leave much, is it?”
“Maybe less than a drop.” Tommy held the bottle up again. “It might take a year or two off if Kathy and I decide to take it. Kathy’s afraid of it. Neither of us has seen what actually happens when it’s taken.”
Brandon nodded dreamily; his eyes still glued to his friend’s hand.
Tommy looked towards the two entrances to the kitchen. “It might be better if we go in the bedroom. We wouldn’t want Cam to walk in.”
“Yeah. That’s unlikely, but okay.” Brandon shrugged as he gestured for his friend to follow him.
They entered the bedroom, and Brandon shut and locked the door. He walked to the foot of the bed and sat down. Tommy stood close to the door, ready to administer the liquid that could either save his best friend’s life or end it.
“Do I need to do something to get ready?” Brandon asked as he looked down at himself, thinking of time travelers in The Terminator movies, who were required to be nude to side-step the laws of physics.
Tommy knew what he was thinking.
“You don’t have to go all Arnold.” He chuckled. “Underwear is fine.”
Brandon stood up and stripped down to his boxers and sat back down.
“What happens when it’s taken?” Brandon asked, watching as Tommy unscrewed the top of the bottle and pulled the dropper out. “I mean the process. Does it hurt?”
A clip of an old episode of a sci-fi television show popped into his mind where a man took a youth potion and ended up ripping his clothes off and screaming in agony as his body contorted and shrunk into a baby.
Brandon shivered.
“From what I’ve been told, it’s not painful,” Tommy said. “You just feel hot and itchy all over. Like your skin’s crawling. And you sweat a lot.”
Tommy carefully squeezed the dropper and put it back into the bottle, then let go, letting the dropper suck up the liquid.
“Do you just drop the stuff on my tongue?” Brandon looked at the dropper anxiously.
“Yeah. That’ll work.” Tommy said as he moved closer to his best friend like a doctor ready to administer life-saving medication.
Hopefully, I don’t end up as Dr. Kevorkian.
Brandon opened his mouth, ready for the precious elixir that would make him thirty-three years younger to splash against his tongue. He nervously tapped his fingers on his knees. Tommy held the bottle in one hand and raised the dropper towards Brandon’s tongue, but stopped mere inches from his mouth.
“You sure you want to do this?” He asked.
Brandon closed his mouth momentarily and looked into Tommy’s eyes.
“If something happens to me, tell Cam I love him.” He replied with finality.
Tommy nodded. “You ready?”
“I’m ready.” Brandon nodded shakily.
His mind flashed back to the photo of him from his senior yearbook. In a few minutes, I will look like that again if this works. He tried to fill his mind with positive thoughts.
Brandon opened his mouth once again. Tommy moved the dropper over Brandon’s tongue and squeezed the end of it. One drop hit Brandon’s tongue, and immediately Brandon tasted its sweetness, something he was not expecting. The second drop tasted even sweeter. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth came in quick succession. He anxiously awaited the seventh drop as Tommy applied the smallest of pressure to create a tiny enough drop that he had to push it against Brandon’s tongue to get it off the tip. Tommy moved away as Brandon swallow the sweet blue liquid.
They waited. One second passed. Two seconds passed. Tommy glanced at his watch. Just as Brandon’s mind started to fill with negative thoughts about how his friend had tricked him, he started feeling a tiny tingling sensation in his right big toe. The tingling began moving up his foot, spreading to his other toes. The same sensation began on his left foot before the sensation moved up both legs, his waist, his torso, and his neck until it reached the top of his head. He looked at Tommy strangely.
“What?” Tommy asked nervously, his eyes as big as saucers.
“Tingling all over,” Brandon said as a sudden feeling of warmth started from the top of his head and spiraled downwards towards his feet. Copious amounts of sweat oozed from his pores. The hair on his chest became matted as if he’d been running a six-mile marathon on a hot Arizona day.
“Hot,” Brandon said as he stood up and moved towards the mirror to see what was happening to his body.
Tommy stepped back. Brandon watched as the gray hair on his head, beard, and chest began turning brown, and the wrinkles on his face begin to tighten and smooth away.
“It’s working, Tommy!” He gasped.
Brandon watched the wrinkles on his face disappear, and his gray hair turned a dark shade of brown. Within ten seconds, he looked like he was thirty again. He noticed his sun-leathered skin regained its plump, youthful look. When he looked twenty-five, his eyes grew wide as he remembered how full of life they were at that age. At twenty, he watched with fascination as the hair on his pecs retreated into his skin, leaving him with just a patch in the center of his chest that trickled lower and traced a thick line down his stomach. Nineteen came and went, followed by eighteen. At seventeen, he put his hand on his stomach and felt the hair pull into his skin, leaving just a narrow happy trail leading from his navel down to the top of his boxers. His height began to decrease.
His eyes widened in panic as he snapped his head around to look at his best friend.
“Something’s wrong, Tommy! I’m getting shorter!” He spoke in what had been his sixteen-year-old voice, watching as the last of his chest hair disappeared.
He ran his hand over the splotchy patches of hair that had been his beard. At fifteen, he watched as the rest of the hair on his torso disappeared. Full-fledged panic set in as he lost another three inches of height.
“Oh, God!” He screamed in an even higher-pitched voice.
“Oh, shit.” Tommy gasped.
“Tommy! Make it stop!” Brandon’s voiced cracked as his now oversized boxers fell to his feet.
“I can’t, Brand!” Tommy said helplessly as his best friend edged closer to childhood.
Brandon watched in the mirror as the last of his facial hair faded away, leaving a smooth young face.
His journey was over. He and Tommy stood in stunned silence.
Brandon stared into the mirror with horror and fascination at his fourteen-year-old face and body. It took a few moments for what had just happened to register.
“Tommy!” He screamed in a voice belonging to a young teenager. “This isn’t seventeen!”
He ran his hands over his face as the horror set in. He looked down at his torso and felt somewhat relieved that he still had pubic hair. He lifted his arms above his head and spotted the small brown patches of hair in each of his pits, indicating the beginnings of manhood. He was practically a kid. He turned his head to glare at his best friend.
“I’m too young!” He screeched.
"I told you, Brand, this isn’t an exact science.” Tommy shrugged s
heepishly.
“Look at me, Tommy!” Brandon turned towards Tommy. “I barely have pit hair!” He pointed to the quarter-size patch under his right arm.
“How old do you think you are?” Tommy asked as he scanned his best friend.
“I’m fourteen!” Brandon yelled, remembering how he had been a late bloomer, and how jealous he had been of Tommy and the other boys in school who were getting their pit hair at twelve and thirteen.
Tommy stifled a laugh.
“It’s not funny, Tom!” He screamed as he looked down at himself again. About that time, the air conditioning kicked on, and a stream of cold air hit Brandon’s crotch, causing things to start rising. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Tommy lost it.
“Damn, dude! You just started puberty!” He threw his head back and laughed hysterically.
“No shit, Sherlock!” Brandon tried to stifle a laugh, but as he looked down and saw he was now at full mast, he started laughing. “It’s your damn fault. You never could measure worth a shit.”
Brandon thought back to high school chemistry class when Tommy would always screw up their lab assignments. Obviously, he hadn’t been smart enough to ditch his friend as a chemistry partner then, and he hadn’t thought to measure the blue liquid himself when it mattered most.
“Hey, don’t blame me for this.” Tommy laughed. “You wanted this.”
“Yeah. Seventeen—not fourteen!” He bent down and pulled his now too big boxers up and held them in place with his hand to cover his predicament. “Holy shit, Tom! I just realized I didn’t look like this when I was fourteen the first time!”
Brandon checked out his muscular chest, his v-shaped torso sporting a six-pack of abs, his defined leg muscles, and swollen arms. Although he was nowhere near the musculature of his adult body. He was a ripped young teen.
“The potion doesn’t turn back time. It just regresses the body you already have.” Tommy shrugged.
“Damn! I guess all that weight lifting paid off.” Brandon posed in the mirror while trying to hold his boxers up.
Suddenly, the thought of Trevor entered his mind. Holy shit! I’m young. Okay, really young, but I’m fucking cute! His mind drifted back to the high school P.E. locker room and the lust and jealousy he felt when he looked at other hot guys and how he yearned to be one of them.
Tommy glanced at the clock on the nightstand, declaring that it was eleven-thirty. It had been over two hours since the incident at the party, and he was sure the guests had all left, hoping his brother was among them. He looked at Brandon, who was still admiring himself in the mirror.
“Stop prancing around like Miss America. It’s eleven-thirty, and we need to get back.” Tommy’s lips pressed together, forming a slight frown.
Brandon turned to him and frowned. “Dude.” He still couldn’t get over his high-pitched voice. “I still can’t believe this.”
“Well, believe it. You’re a kid.” Tommy looked towards the door. “You need some clothes. Does Cam have any you can wear?”
“There may be some in his closet, but they’re going to be too big. Cam’s like six-two, and I’m like,” He looked down at himself and compared himself to Tommy, ”five-five. I feel short.”
“You are short!” Tommy teased over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.
Brandon stood close to the mirror, examining his face. He opened his mouth and examined his perfectly straight teeth. Thank God I already had braces and Lasik. Brandon was glad he wouldn’t have to once again wear glasses and braces during such a formative time in his life and when one’s peers are their cruelest.
Tommy returned with a pair of cargo pants, an Iron Man t-shirt, and a pair of Nike KDs. He threw them at Brandon.
“Here. Try these.”
Brandon pulled on the cargo pants. The pant legs covered his entire foot, leaving the cuff hanging past his toes a couple of inches.
“I can’t walk in these.” He looked down. “They’re too long.”
“They’ll have to do.” Tommy hurried him along.
Brandon looked inside the shoe.
“At least we wear the same shoe size.” He smiled as he slipped them and the shirt on.
“How do I look?” Brandon held his arms out like a scarecrow.
“Stupid.” Tommy chuckled. “But it’ll do for now.”
Brandon’s eyes grew wide as he stared up at his now taller friend. “I get to do it all again, Tom! I’ll get to go to prom, graduate high school, go to college, and be who I want to be.”
“Yeah, you will, buddy.” Tommy smiled.
“Thank you for giving me this. I love you, man.” Brandon smiled brightly.
“Just don’t fuck it up this time.” Tommy jabbed a finger into his friend’s chest.
“I don’t plan on it.”
“We need to go now, dude.” Tommy glanced at the clock again.
“I know.” Brandon bent down and tried to roll up the cuff of his pants as he hopped on one foot towards the door.
“Hey, Brand.” Tommy turned around. Brandon froze on one foot and looked up at him. “I love you, too, man.”
Brandon smiled and continued hobbling after his friend.
Tommy and the now-teenage Brandon walked through the front door of the Burkhart home. Tommy glanced around the empty living room, the sound of dishes clinking in the kitchen, drawing his attention. He led Brandon towards the kitchen but stopped before they reached the doorway. Tommy turned around, putting his finger to his lips, giving Brandon a mischievous look.
“What?” Brandon whispered with a smile.
“Play along.” Tommy peeked around the door, checking the room before looking back at his friend. “Wait here.”
Tommy entered the kitchen just as Kathy was reaching into the sink to grab a dirty cup to place in the dishwasher. The sound of footsteps caused her to look back. Seeing Tommy, she froze, her face panic-stricken from knowing Tommy planned on administering the potion to Brandon. Tommy had told his wife his plan when he had run home to get the youth potion.
“Please tell me that Brandon’s okay.” She desperately asked as a hand went to her chest.
Tommy, with all the flourish of a Vegas street magician, stepped back. “May I introduce the new Brandon Daniels.”
Young Brandon walked through the door as Kathy gasped, slapping her hands over her mouth. The cup in her hand clattered to the floor and rolled towards the refrigerator.
“Hey, Kathy.” Brandon greeted her in his new teenage voice.
It took a second for Kathy to pull her hands away from her mouth, but then all she could do was stare at Brandon as he stared back. Finally, she turned to glare at her husband.
“You should have let me measure the potion.” She snipped.
Brandon doubled over with laughter as he pointed at Tommy. “Told you!”
“Fuck both of you!” Tommy stomped towards the coffee machine as Kathy joined Brandon in laughing at his expense.
After pouring himself a cup of coffee, Brandon joined Kathy and Tommy at the table.
“My God, Brandon,” Kathy said with a disbelieving shake of her head. “You’re so young!”
“I know.” Brandon spread his arms wide and looked down at himself for the hundredth time. “I feel so different.”
“What does it feel like?” Kathy asked.
“Like I have tons of energy. I feel alive!”
“Probably all that coffee you’ve drunk.” Tommy scoffed.
“No. No.” Brandon dismissed him. “It’s not that kind of energy. It’s like exuberance. Is that the right word? I mean, I feel no aches or pains like I did before. I feel like…like I want to climb a mountain and stand at the top and yell—"
"If you say: ‘I’m the king of the world,’ I’m going to punch you.” Tommy grinned evilly.
“I wasn’t going to say that asswipe.” Brandon scowled, then turned to Kathy. “I was going to say ‘I’m free’!”
“Free?” Kathy’s brow furrowed as her head
tilted to the side.
“Yeah. Free from ex-wives, my shitty job, debt, responsibilities, and my fucking father!”
“Hell, yeah!” Tommy held out his fist, and Brandon gave it a bump.
“You two.” Kathy shook her head and smiled. “I guess some things will never change.”
Brandon smiled at Tommy. “I hope not.” He turned to Kathy. “Now I've got to figure out where to start.”
“Well, I don’t know about you two, but I’ve had enough drama for one day. I think we can work that out in the morning.” Tommy said as he stretched back in his chair with a yawn.
“Yeah.” Brandon looked up at the clock on the opposite wall. “It’s two a.m.”
“You can take the guest room, Brandon,” Kathy said. “I’ve got some extra blankets in the hall closet.” She turned to her husband. “Can you get them, babe?”
“Sure.” Tommy stood up, grabbing his empty cup from the table and turning to look down at Brandon. “Come on, kid.”
“Yes, Dad.” Brandon shot back.
Kathy laughed, but the interaction started the wheels turning in her head. She and Tommy had always talked about having children when they were younger, but after Tommy started his own construction company, they decided to put having a family on hold. Once the business started growing, she became focused on helping Tommy make it a success, and by the time it was a success, her biological clock had run out of minutes. What if? She thought to herself before quickly dismissing the thought. Nah. That’s crazy, Kathy.
Carrying an armload of blankets, Tommy led Brandon into the guest room.
Brandon glanced around the room at the very frilly and feminine décor.
“Kathy sure loves flowers, doesn’t she?” He sat down on the bed and crinkled his nose at the magnolia blossom wallpaper and matching bedspread.
“Eh.” Tommy shrugged. “It was like this when we bought the place.” He threw the folded blankets at Brandon.
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