Years for Sale - Chapter 5

“Ready?” Audrey asked.

The sun had set. They had eaten their dinner and made their preparations. All that was left to do was change for the party.

Caroline said, “We could just stay in. We could have our own party.”

Audrey shook her head.

Caroline sighed and slipped on the silver bracelet. “I’m ready,” she said.

Audrey glanced down at the golden bracelet on her wrist and smiled. Then, she shut her eyes and started to transform them.

As many times as she had experienced it so far, shrinking continued to unnerve Caroline more than any other change. That sense of subtraction, the feeling that you are disappearing slowly followed by the grim realization that you will be gone altogether if it did not stop was existentially frightening. That she had no control over the change made it many times worse.

Not wanting to pay attention to what was happening to herself, Caroline focused on Audrey’s changes. She wore a large robe that was fitting her increasingly better as she grew. Her height rose, and more and more leg was visible below the bottom of the robe. As her breasts filled out the top, it spread open a little, revealing a hint of cleavage. Then, Audrey’s face matured, losing all traces of childhood. For the first time, Caroline recognized that Audrey looked very much like her own mother when she became an adult.

Caroline barely noticed when her pants and underwear slipped from her narrowing hips. She did not care. Transforming into a child had become sadly routine for her.

Audrey stopped the change and examined her 18-year-old body. Without any sense of modesty, she removed the robe to get a better view. Caroline watched. She knew she ought to look away, but she was in awe of what a gorgeous grown woman Audrey had become. Audrey began making adjustments. She lengthened her legs a few inches, widened her hips a little, and swelled her breasts a couple of cup sizes. Aside from getting a little shorter, Audrey felt none of the opposite changes on herself, but she knew that she had lost some potential for growth, her future body, invisibly drained away into her cousin.

Audrey performed one final check and declared herself, “Done.” Still nude, she approached Caroline and held out her hand.

Caroline was too intimidated to do anything but stare, feeling so comparatively young.

“I’ll take the silver bracelet for now,” Audrey said, pointing at Caroline’s wrist. The authority of Audrey’s deeper adult voice was surprisingly persuasive. Caroline did as she was told and handed over the bracelet to her grown up cousin.

Audrey took the bracelet and removed the gold one. She held one in each hand, smiling down at the pair, clearly relishing in the power she controlled.

Caroline felt an equal sense of powerlessness as she gazed up at her naked cousin.

“Now,” Audrey said. “Let’s get dressed for the party.”

***

“So,” Audrey said, “I’m about to learn how to drive from you. What do you want to borrow from my mind?”

“Uh,” Caroline replied, still feeling intimidated by Audrey, even when both of them were fully dressed. Caroline wore a basic blue Sunday dress that she originally had outgrown in fourth grade. Audrey was showing off a good amount of skin still with her short jean shorts and yellow bare-midriff tank top. Caroline had managed to convince her to wear a plaid shirt on top of it, but Audrey had left it unbuttoned.

“Well?” Audrey prompted her.

“C-can you give me… anything that would keep me from getting bored?” If Caroline were being honest, she had no chance of getting bored and was actually looking for a distraction from worrying about Audrey.

“Hmm,” Audrey said, taking a moment to think. “Would you like to know how to speak French? I could lend you a book in a language you’ve never read before.”

Caroline shrugged. “Sure,” she said.

Once more, they put on their bracelets and made a trade. When it was done, Caroline tried to remember how to drive a car. The best she could come up with was knowing that the right pedal on a Go-Kart made it speed up and the left one made it stop.

Audrey nodded and said, “Okay, I think I understand. Hold on a sec.” She walked across the room to a bookshelf and returned holding a copy of Le Comte de Monte-Cristo.

“The Count of Christ Mountain?” Caroline translated effortlessly after being handed the book.

“They don’t normally translate the name of the island,” Audrey corrected her.

“Oh.”

“It’s a story about betrayal and revenge,” Audrey summarized. “Good stuff.”

Caroline nodded, feeling a little concerned about Audrey’s apparent enjoyment of the subject matter.

“Right,” Audrey said. “Then, we’re ready to go.”

They walked towards the garage, but Audrey stopped and said, “Hold on. I almost forgot.” She ran over to the kitchen counter and returned with the vodka, still in its grocery bag. “Can’t forget this.”

Caroline let out a soft sigh. She had been hoping Audrey would forget about it and, therefore, fail to get into the party.

“Now,” Audrey said, “it’s time to party.”

***

Caroline was afraid. She was not particularly concerned about Audrey’s driving. As far as she could tell, her cousin was doing well enough. It was a more generalized worry about the night ahead. Leaving Audrey unsupervised at a party full of teenagers was nerve-racking, but Caroline was almost as fearful about being at the party herself, looking like such a kid as she did. Even if Audrey did not really belong at the party, at least she looked like she did. Caroline just looked like she was up past her bedtime, and she dreaded being seen like this. The closer they got to their destination, the more the fearful Caroline grew.

At last, they turned a corner, and they were there. Audrey parked just down the street from Jenny’s house. Even if they had not known the address, they could have found the party by looking for where all the cars were parked on the street.

“Let’s do it,” Audrey said as she grabbed the bag with the vodka bottle in it. She got out of the car and Caroline followed her lead, not wanting to let Audrey out of her sight until she had to.

As they walked down the street together, Caroline tried to distract herself from her worries by considering the well-lit houses around them. They were impressively large. All had well-kept lawns and were spotlessly clean. Had Caroline not seen her aunt and uncle’s mansion, she might have considered the residents of this neighborhood to be rich. At best, these people were upper-middle class. Their houses were merely larger versions of average suburban homes. They had more doors on their garages, wider backyards, and bigger square footage of rooms within, but these were the kinds of homes that could be bought from the money that a person could earn at a high-paying profession. Executives, doctors, lawyers, and other elites lived here. Audrey’s father’s wealth was inherited. He had been rich since the day he was born. It was the kind of fortune that perpetuated and grew itself purely through prudent investments and compound interest, a fortune too big to be spent in a single lifetime. No one in Audrey’s family would ever need to work a day in their lives. That was what it meant to be truly rich.

Caroline knew that she belonged in neither economic group, and it was unlikely that she ever would. She was just a kid in over her head. In so many ways, she felt out of place, walking down that street towards the party.

As they made their way up the long driveway to Jenny’s house, Caroline had butterflies in her stomach. Soon, they noticed that one of the garage doors was open and music could be heard coming from within. Audrey entered first and Caroline hesitated at the door. She peeked in to watch as Audrey approached a group of guys sitting on lawn chairs, chatting with each other. They were smoking, and Caroline could smell that it was not tobacco. Audrey asked the guys a question, but Caroline could not hear it over the loud music. The guys replied and Audrey nodded and thanked them. Then, she walked back over to Caroline.

“What did they say?” Caroline asked.

Audrey said, “They told me Jenny was probably in the backyard at the fire pit. Come on.” She led Caroline around the garage towards the middle of the wide backyard where shadowy figures sat around a fire.

Some guy was strumming an acoustic guitar, but otherwise, it was much quieter than inside the house. They could hear a conversation involving about five other people, most of whom were drinking bottles of beer.

“Shut up,” Jenny said, giving Alex a playful shove.

“What?” he said. “I’m just being honest.”

“You’re being a jerk,” she said, chuckling.

“You like it when I’m a jerk,” he replied with a handsome smirk. He leaned in close, and she gave him a kiss.

Caroline felt her heart sink at the sight of the two of them together, one of her oldest friends and her ex-boyfriend seemingly flaunting their affection in front of her. Her heart ached to look at Alex and broke to see him kiss someone else.

“Hi, there!” Audrey said, sounding positively chipper. “I just got here, and I’m looking for Jenny. Someone said she’d be back here.”

The guy playing the guitar stopped. Alex and Jenny separated and she said, “I’m Jenny. Who are you?”

“Andi,” Audrey said. “And, this is my little sister, Carrie.” She gestured to Caroline who was half-hiding behind her.

“I don’t know you,” Jenny said, eyeing the slightly older and more attractive girl. She sounded as though she were about to tell Audrey to leave.

“Yeah,” Audrey said. “I know I wasn’t invited. I heard about the party from my cousin, and I thought I’d come check it out.” She lifted up the bag with the vodka in it and added, “I brought along something to drink.” She handed the bag to Alex.

He pulled out the bottle and said, “Hell yeah! This is some good stuff.”

Jenny gave him an annoyed look.

“That’s for everyone to share,” Audrey said. “So, can I hang out with you all?”

Jenny looked as though she were about to say, “no.”

“Sure you can,” Alex said, before Jenny could reply. “The night’s just getting started.”

Again, Jenny gave him an annoyed look.

This time he noticed and added, “Of course, this isn’t a daycare. No kids.”

“Oh,” Audrey said, glancing back at Caroline. “Carrie is just going to wait in the car. She’s not a big fan of parties anyway.”

Everyone turned their attention to Caroline, and she felt herself begin to sweat.

“You look… familiar,” Alex said.

For the first time, Caroline realized the mistake that Audrey had made in not changing their faces this time around. Caroline still looked like herself, only about half her normal age. Alex and the rest of the people there had known her since they were all kids. They could easily recognize her if they were willing to believe someone could age backwards. Hopefully, they were not.

“We’re just in town this week visiting family,” Audrey said. “I doubt you’ve seen us around before.”

Alex looked doubtful, but he said, “Yeah, okay. Come on. Let’s go in the house and mix this with something.”

“Okay,” Audrey said. Then, she turned to Caroline and told her, “Here’s the keys. Go hang out in the car. Come to the house if you need me for anything.”

Caroline took the keys and gave Audrey an uncertain look. Audrey gave her a reassuring little smirk and walked away with Alex. Caroline looked over at Jenny who was staring daggers at Audrey. Then, Caroline backed away from the fire pit and walked back to the car, wondering if she had made a huge mistake in agreeing to go along with this.

***

Later, Caroline sat in the back seat of the car, trying to read using a small book light, but she was having trouble keeping her attention on the book. As much as she was enjoying the novelty of reading in French for the first time, all the romance and jealousy in the story was making her uneasy. Somehow, her mind kept drifting to thinking about Audrey and Alex, as well as Jenny. With no concentration left, she gave up on reading, put the book down, and shut off the light. It seemed that she would need to find other ways of passing the time.

The only other novel thing around was her own young body, so Caroline tried to distract herself by becoming more familiar with it. While she had been younger recently, this was the longest time she had spent as a young child since she had actually been this age. There was time enough now to sate her curiosity and explore what it felt like to be so far below puberty again. With Alex and Audrey still in the back of Caroline’s mind, some perverted part of her desired to know how her immature body would react to certain types of stimulation. After some hesitation, she put her flesh to the test. However, she soon regretted it. In the darkness of the car, her soft little fingers had probed hairless places that had grown hair as she aged. She had found that things felt different, not quite numb but dulled in feeling and unwelcoming even to her own touch. Guilt filled her mind as she realized what she had done to such an innocent body. She now felt somewhat creepy whenever mature thoughts entered her head while inside of it, like dressing up in little kid clothes as a grown up. Undoubtedly, her teenaged mind did not belong here. She was an intruder in her own skin. It just felt… wrong.

To get her mind off of herself, Caroline's thoughts turned to Audrey and the actual teens inside the house, wondering what they might be getting up to in there and when they would be done. She decided that this whole experience could not end soon enough as far as she was concerned. Hopefully, the party would be over shortly. She checked the time on her phone. To her disappointment, only an hour had passed.

Caroline was ready to leave, now. She just needed to get Audrey to come drive them out of there. While they had only been there a short while, Caroline reasoned it could be possible that Audrey was having a bad enough time that she might want to leave early. As unlikely as that might be, Caroline saw it as her best chance for getting back to normal fast.

Unfortunately, to check on Audrey, Caroline would need to go back to the house, amongst the teens inside.

“I’ll just say that I need to go pee,” she told herself. “They’ll have to let me in.” Having said that, she hoped that she could avoid unnecessary interactions with her classmates. Ideally, she would go in the house, find Audrey, and convince her to leave right away. “You can do this,” she assured herself, but the butterflies had returned to her stomach. “Let’s go,” she said, getting out of the car and heading back to the house.

***

After checking the backyard and finding it empty, Caroline decided to check the garage next, but that was deserted as well. She would need to go inside, it seemed. She knew this house as well as her own, having spent many hours in it during her childhood, back when she would come over to play with her friend Jenny. It only took a moment to plan out a route that would efficiently circle through all the downstairs rooms. The music in the house was loud even in the garage, as though the building were trying to repel her from entering, like a growling dog. She pressed on and entered the house, nonetheless. It became so noisy that she felt like muffling her ears with her hands. Still, she continued onward.

Three guys were shouting over the music, pouring drinks for themselves in the kitchen when Caroline entered. After a quick glance around the room showed no sign of Audrey, Caroline hurried over to the dining room, which was unoccupied.

Then, Caroline passed into the living room where she was stunned to see a porno playing on the TV, right in the middle of a graphic scene. Not wanting to recall what she had been doing in the car, Caroline averted her eyes from the screen. On the couch, she noticed two teen boys sitting there who had recently passed out, it seemed. Several empty beer bottles stood on the coffee table in front of them.

When Caroline recovered from the shock of what they had been watching, she recognized the two boys, Pete and Pat, the same boys she and Audrey had met at the carnival. Here they were, apparently having indulged a bit too much in forbidden drinks and lost consciousness while attempting to watch forbidden entertainment. A quick check showed that they were merely passed out and not in any danger. Caroline considered Pat, thinking about the sloppy kiss he had planted on her cheek. They had been the same age then, only days ago. He had seemed so immature, then. Now, she could not help but see him as a good deal more grown up than she was. She wondered what he might think of her now if he saw her. The grunting and moaning on the TV began to disturb her, though, so she left the room and tried to put the boys out of her mind while continuing her search for her cousin.

The rest of the first floor was unoccupied, meaning that people were either upstairs or in the basement. Caroline considered heading upstairs for a moment but thought better of it after realizing what might be going on up there. Instead, she ended her loop back in the kitchen where the door to the basement was.

The noise of the first floor music died down as Caroline descended the stairs and became aware of the sounds of chatting and laughter below. At the bottom of the stairs, she paused and peeked around a corner. Then, she smiled when she spotted Audrey at last. Her grown up cousin was sitting on one end of a couch with Alex beside her and Jenny on the other end of the couch. Caroline nearly walked into the room but held back, wanting to listen in on the conversation for a moment before interrupting.

“So, where did you get the vodka?” Alex asked, his words slurring slightly.

Audrey smirked and replied. “Oh, you know,” she said, pulling something out of her back pocket. “It’s easy enough with a fake ID.” She handed it over for him to inspect. The look in her eyes was more relaxed than Caroline had ever seen her cousin appear. Caroline took it as a sign that Audrey was already quite drunk.

“Whoa,” Alex said. “This looks so real. It’s even got the hologram. Wow!”

The rest of the teens sitting around murmured to each other, sounding quite impressed with Audrey’s illegal identification.

Jenny did not appear at all impressed. If anything, she looked disgusted as she glared at Alex who had begun to ignore her to focus on Audrey.

Caroline found herself sympathizing with Jenny, feeling that Alex was giving Audrey a bit too much attention. Although it had been months since she had lost him to Jenny, Caroline could remember Alex looking at her that way when they were dating. To think that he might be looking at her younger cousin so intently made Caroline clench her little fists.

“Just where did you get that card?” Jenny asked, trying to take control of the conversation. “Do you hang out with many criminals?”

“No,” Audrey said. “I just know the right people online. I learned a lot about the dark web from a college friend of mine. If you’re smart enough, you can get just about anything you want there.” The smug look on her face seemed to aggravate Jenny even more. “Anything,” Audrey added.

“Do you think you could get me one?” Alex asked, sounding excited as he handed the ID back to Audrey.

Audrey smiled and said, “Anything you want.” She slipped the card back into her pocket, making sure to lean out her ass far enough for him to get a good look at it.

Seeing the look that Alex and Audrey were sharing, Jenny went on the attack again. “So, tell me, where did you hear about this party? You weren’t invited, remember?”

“My cousin told me,” Audrey said.

“Who’s that?”

“She’s in your grade,” Audrey said. “Her name’s Caroline.”

Jenny broke out laughing, a cruel and mirthless chuckle. “Caroline?” she said. “She’s your cousin?”

Audrey nodded and took a sip from a plastic cup.

Jenny continued laughing, glancing around the room to get other people to join her in laughing at Caroline. Still hidden, Caroline began to sweat.

“What is it?” Audrey asked.

“Caroline isn’t someone I would admit being related to,” Jenny explained, sounding as though she were pleased to have gotten the upper hand over Audrey.

“What’s wrong with her?” Audrey asked.

Just as Jenny was about to answer, a man’s voice behind Caroline said, “Are you lost, kid?”

Caroline spun around and backed away from the teen who had just appeared behind her. She recognized him as one of her classmates, one of the guys who had been in the kitchen. She had been so focused on the conversation that she had not noticed him walking down the stairs, it seemed.

“Carrie?” Audrey said, having noticed her.

Caroline turned to see that everyone in the basement was staring at her now. She felt like running, but she did not want to leave Audrey after searching so long for her. Instead, she walked over to Audrey, trying to ignore all the eyes on her.

“What’s the matter?” Audrey asked.

“I-I wanted to see you,” Caroline said, realizing how silly that sounded as soon as she was done speaking.

“Oh!” Alex said, sounding as though he had just figured something out. “That’s who you look like!”

Caroline turned to look Alex in the eyes as he pointed at her.

“Yeah,” Alex said. “You look just like Caroline.” He looked back at Jenny. “Doesn’t she?”

A murmur swept through the room as everyone agreed with him.

“Yeah,” Jenny said. “She’s like a mini Caroline. How cute! I hope you’re not too much like her.”

“Why?” Audrey asked. “What do you have against Caroline?”

“Well, she’s a liar, for one thing,” Jenny said, focusing her attention on little Caroline as she spoke. “You see, one day we were all talking about the cars we were getting when we turned sixteen. Someone asked Caroline what car her parents would be giving her, but I pointed out that they were probably too poor to afford one. Caroline, the little liar, told us the name of a car that they would be buying her. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was nothing special, pretty average, really.”

Caroline felt sweat drip down her forehead. She worried that Jenny might have actually started to believe that she was actually a younger version of herself.

“Anyway, her birthday came, and I mentioned the car again. I asked her why she hadn’t driven it to school. She looked really nervous. I bet she thought we had all forgotten about her lie. She made up another lie about getting it cleaned or something. Well, a day or two later, she showed up at school driving the car. Only…”

Jenny had to fight back a chuckle now as she spoke.

“What?” Audrey asked.

“It was a rental car,” Jenny said and broke out in hysterical laughter. Several other people joined in. Caroline felt her face flush warmly as she listened to them laughing about her. “She thought we wouldn’t notice the license plates,” Jenny continued once she had regained enough composure to speak. “As if anyone’s parents would buy their kid a car without vanity plates.”

Audrey listened but did not join in the laughter.

“Well, I called her out on it,” Jenny continued. “And, she confessed, but she said she would own the actual car by the end of the summer, meaning that she wouldn’t be a liar, after all. She swore to us she would have it.”

Audrey and Caroline exchanged a knowing look.

“So,” Audrey said to Jenny, “is that why she’s not here tonight?”

“Yeah,” Jenny said. “I mean, who wants to hang out with a liar like that? Besides, she’s probably working again. She’s always working, trying to save up for that dumb car. As if we even care anymore.”

More laughter filled the basement. Even Alex was chuckling along with everyone. Caroline had to fight back tears.

Jenny stood up and swayed as she walked up to Caroline, who was barely eye-level to her breasts. “What do you think about that?”

Caroline was terrified, uncertain if Jenny had figured out who she really was or if she was just too drunk to realize who she was talking to.

Jenny fell onto Alex’s lap and kissed his cheek. “Well,” she said. “I’m not complaining. Her loss, my win.”

Alex shoved her off of him and said, “Cut it out. Not in front of the kid.”

“Come on,” Jenny said, turning his face to her.

Alex shook his head free of her and stood up. “Not now. I’m going to get another drink.” He walked out of the basement as Jenny watched, a confused look plastered on her face.

Audrey stood up and rested a hand on Caroline’s shoulder. “Come on,” Audrey said. “You shouldn’t be here.” She walked Caroline up out of the basement. Caroline was too crestfallen to resist. They entered the noise of the kitchen where Alex was pouring a splash of Audrey's vodka in a plastic cup. Then, they walked over to the dining room.

“Let’s go home,” Caroline begged Audrey. “Please.”

Audrey looked back into the kitchen, over to where Alex was filling his cup with cola.

“Not yet,” Audrey said. “Here.” She pulled the bracelets from her bag and slipped the silver one on Caroline’s wrist.

“No more,” Caroline begged, reaching to take it off. “Come on.”

“You promised,” Audrey whined, holding the bracelet in place.

Caroline gave in, sighing as she waited for Audrey to put on the gold bracelet and shut her eyes.

Then, Caroline watched as her cousin grew another inch, her butt expanded, and her breasts swelled, forming a longer line of cleavage. Caroline felt some trace of the opposite changes in herself, but they were mostly borrowed in the form of lost potential.

Audrey opened her eyes and examined her body, smiling in satisfaction at her improvements.

Caroline handed back the silver bracelet, and Audrey stowed the silver and gold pair in her bag.

“Now,” Audrey said, glancing back into the kitchen. “You wait in the car.”

“Audrey…” Caroline said. “Please.”

“Go wait in the car,” Audrey said. “I’m not done.” She patted Caroline on the shoulder and sauntered over to the kitchen. Seeing Audrey strike up a conversation with Alex and watching him pour her a drink, Caroline decided that she would rather be somewhere else, after all. She left the house.

***

A half hour later, Caroline had changed her mind. As much as she was loathing the thought of going back, she was sick of waiting in the car for Audrey. Caroline could not wait another minute for this night to be over. She walked back to the party, feeling ready to drag her cousin out this time.

Once inside, Caroline began her search. The music, which had been so overwhelming before, had mellowed out. She found that the passed out boys in the living room had been joined by more teens, laid out asleep on the furniture and floor, but Audrey was not among them. In a back room, she noticed Jenny dancing with some of her lady friends and some random dude. They all seemed to be ready to call it a night soon as well. Still, they partied on with the energy they had left. Downstairs, the basement full of more passed-out teens. However, Audrey was nowhere in sight. At last, she checked the bathrooms, none of which were clean enough to use. No Audrey, anywhere, though.

That left only one place left to look.

Caroline stood at the foot of the stairs looking up them, dreading what she might find going on in the bedrooms. She climbed up, tripping a couple of times on the seemingly higher steps as she ascended on unfamiliar legs. At the top, the hallway was dark and the music downstairs was muffled enough that she had to walk softly to remain silent.

Creeping along, Caroline continued her search. Most of the doors were shut. She peeked into one open room, finding a pair of teens passed out on a bed. Fortunately, they were at least partially dressed. The bathroom door was shut, but there was the sound of someone retching inside. At first, Caroline worried that it might be Audrey in there, but then the person inside moaned with a deep male voice. Caroline kept going down the hall. She put her ear to one closed door, hearing nothing going on inside, she slowly turned the doorknob and cracked the door open. There was a guy inside watching anime on a TV with the sound turned down. He looked half asleep. Caroline shut the door silently and moved on.

The door at the end of the hall was shut, but she could hear voices behind it.

“Please,” a man begged. “Please give it back.”

“Put the bracelet back on, first,” a woman replied.

Caroline realized she had found Audrey. Who’s the guy with her?

“I’m sorry,” he said and whimpered as though he were fighting back tears. “I messed up.”

“You have to ask, first,” Audrey said. “You can’t just assume.”

“I’m sorry,” he said more emphatically, and Caroline recognized the voice, although she had never heard him sound so upset before.

“Alex?” she whispered to herself.

“I will always ask,” Alex promised Audrey. “I swear I will.”

“Good,” she replied.

After a pause, he asked, “Can I have it back now, please.”

“Put the bracelet on,” she said. “I can’t give it back unless you do.”

“Fine,” he said. “There. It’s on.”

“Good,” Audrey replied.

After a few seconds, he cried, “What are you doing?”

“Growing myself,” she said. “I don’t want you holding me down again.”

“Stop,” he begged. “Please.”

“Done,” she said. “Now, you want it back, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to use it first,” Audrey said.

“What?” he nearly shrieked. Then, he grunted and said, “Get off me.”

“How do you like it?” she asked.

“I don’t. Please stop.”

“Aren’t you curious?” she asked. “Don’t tell me you never wondered how it would feel on the other side?”

“I-I never…” he stammered.

“Kiss me,” Audrey said.

There was a wet sound.

“Do you want it?” she asked.

After a long, uncertain pause, he said, “I-I don’t know. Maybe?”

“I’ll be gentle,” Audrey said. “We’ll go slow.”

“Uh,” he said, sounding less conflicted now. “I guess, yeah. Okay.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” he said, more confidently. “I’m sure. Let’s do it.” Then, he quickly added. “But, don’t tell anyone. Promise?”

“I promise,” Audrey said. “This will be our little secret.”

There were more wet sounds and other intimate noises.

Caroline backed away from the door in stunned silence as she tried not to think about what was happening in there between her little cousin and her ex-boyfriend. She took a seat at the bottom of the stairs and stared off blankly into the distance. As she waited for them to finish, she wondered why she had not tried to interrupt them. Then, she recognized how unthinkable that had been when she was listening at the door. After all, they were grown ups doing a grown up thing. She was a child. It was beyond her to intrude.

***

Caroline nearly fell asleep waiting. Footsteps descending the stairs caught her attention. She turned to see Audrey approach, a big satisfied smile on her face. She walked right past Caroline without even looking at her.

“Audrey?” Caroline said, trying to get her attention.

Audrey looked momentarily startled and turned to see Caroline on the stairs behind her. “Oh,” she said, smiling even wider. “Hey, kid. Didn’t see you there. How’s your night going?”

“We need to go,” Caroline said, standing up.

Audrey swayed slightly and said, “Yeah, not a bad idea. We can go, I guess. Only…”

“What?” Caroline asked.

“I’m feeling a little…” Audrey lowered her voice to a whisper. “...drunk,” she finished and chuckled.

Caroline sighed. “Then, you can’t drive home.”

“Right,” Audrey said. “That’s… responsible of you, cousin.”

“What do we do?” Caroline asked.

“Well,” Audrey said. “Probably shouldn’t stay here after what I just did.”

“What did you do?”

“I…” Audrey started to say and caught herself, “I can’t tell.”

“Let’s go to the car,” Caroline suggested. “We can figure things out there.” Caroline took Audrey by the hand and led her through the kitchen.

“Hey, Jenny,” Audrey said as they passed by their host. “Thanks for the lovely party. I had a wild time.” Then, she started giggling like mad when she saw the annoyed look on Jenny’s face.

Caroline dragged her cousin out the front door and away from the house.

“Hey?” Audrey said.

“What?” Caroline said.

“About Alex…”

“I don’t care,” Caroline said, before a thought occurred to her. “Do you have the bracelets? You didn’t… leave one behind, maybe?”

Audrey opened her bag and pulled both of them out.

Caroline let out a sigh of relief. Then, she had an idea. “Give me one of them,” she said.

Audrey gave the silver one to Caroline and they both put on a bracelet.

“What now?” Audrey asked.

“Trade back the years you borrowed from me, and I can drive us home,” Caroline said.

Audrey took a moment to think and said, “But, then you’d rip your little clothes.”

“It’s fine,” Caroline said. “No one will notice at this hour.”

“Hmm,” Audrey said and thought for a long while. “Wait,” she said, smiling. “I have a better idea.” She shut her eyes and focused.

Caroline felt her mind grow foggy. Dizziness rushed to her head, and she felt as though she might fall over. An arm wrapped around her shoulder to prop her up, and her bleary eyes looked up at Audrey. “What did you do?” she asked as she leaned against her cousin for support.

“I just traded my drunkenness away to you,” Audrey said. “Now, I can drive home with no problem.”

Caroline felt queasy. “What?” she asked as her head spun. She had become totally confused about what was going on.

“I took back the French, by the way,” Audrey explained as she half carried Caroline to the car.

Befuddled, Caroline said, “B-but, then I won’t know how the story ends.”

“It’s all right,” Audrey said. “Don’t worry your little head about it.”

As soon as Audrey put Caroline in the car and buckled her seat belt, Caroline drifted off into a hazy slumber. After experiencing some car-ride induced sickness, she woke up briefly to vomit on the garage floor. Following that, she was out cold for the remainder of the night.

***

Caroline awoke the next morning to a throbbing headache. For a confused moment, she wondered what was wrong with her. Then, she remembered the party and what Audrey had done, and she realized resentfully that she was suffering through Audrey’s hangover. She groaned and wordlessly cursed her cousin for this pain.

Caroline lay there a long time, both wanting to lay still and wanting to get a drink of water. Better still, she wished just to be unconscious again, but she was in too much pain to fall back to sleep. There seemed to be no escape from the agony that did not involve movement, so she gave in and slowly edged her way out of bed. On her feet again, she realized that she was still a young girl. How unfair of Audrey to put an adult portion of drunkenness in a body as immature as hers. Squinting at the morning light, she slowly walked to the bathroom, relieved herself, and drank water from the sink, until she felt a little less terrible.

Walking down the hall toward the stairs, Caroline heard upbeat music coming from Audrey’s room. Looking in through the doorway, Caroline saw her cousin, fully nude, posing and admiring her curvaceous adult body in the mirror. The smile on her face expressed pure satisfaction and self-adulation for the body she had made for herself. Caroline was too mesmerized by the sight of her cousin to interrupt. She just watched and wondered what it must feel like to look that good.

Eventually, Caroline cleared her throat and said, “Audrey?”

Audrey paid no attention to her.

Caroline coughed a little louder, and Audrey noticed her in the doorway at last. “Good morning,” she said. “Sorry, I was kind of… lost in thought. How are you feeling?”

“My head is killing me,” Caroline said. “I could use some breakfast, and I’d like to get my body back before your parents come home.”

However, before Caroline was done speaking, Audrey had turned her attention back to her reflection.

“Audrey?” Caroline said. “Did you hear me?”

“Of course,” Audrey said, reluctantly turning from the mirror to pick up a robe from her bed. “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of you. After all, you held up your end of the bargain last night.”

As Audrey put on the robe, Caroline felt she had to ask something before they moved on. “About last night, what happened between you and Alex?”

Audrey finished tying the belt on her robe and thought about the question for a long moment. “I had a good time with him,” she said. “That’s about all I can say about it. I will say that I may have kept some of what I borrowed from him last night.”

Caroline felt a brief pang in her heart, thinking about her old boyfriend with Audrey. “I see,” she said.

“Just a little bit of muscle and some of his size,” Audrey explained. “I gave the important parts back.” Then, she smiled and said, “Hey, how would you like to have an inch of his height, as a tip for being a good babysitter this weekend?”

Caroline sighed and said, “Sure,” realizing that it might be the last thing she would ever receive from him.

***

Audrey’s parents returned a few hours after Caroline settled up with Audrey. First, there had been the money transfer, which had left Caroline stunned by the amount of money she had earned. Then, there had been the body transfers from the bracelets. Piece by piece, Audrey had given back the size and maturity she had borrowed. Caroline had kept a close eye on her cousin to make sure that she would not be keeping anything that rightfully belonged to Caroline. When they were done, Caroline had walked away with a little more muscle definition and an extra inch of length to her legs. Back in her regular body and ahead in a number of ways, she felt much more at ease, now.

Audrey’s parents were not as generous with their payment, but their praise was overflowing.

“We hope that we might get you back again sometime soon for another weekend,” said Aunt Beverly.

Caroline glanced at Audrey, who gave her a supportive nod. “I suppose, I might,” Caroline said, thinking that things could not get much worse than they had been. Plus, no doubt, Audrey had more money to share. “Maybe one more time before school starts.”

“I can’t wait,” Audrey said and chuckled along with her parents.

Caroline did not feel like laughing, but she joined in anyway.