Sweet Celia: New Flavors (Commission)

Commissioned by randomguy93.

Chapter 4

At the bus stop, Tom stood wearing a backpack, waiting for a big yellow school bus to arrive to take him to his old middle school. He sighed, still struggling to believe this was what his life had become. Quietly, he cursed Celia for ruining his life this way. Just days ago he had been an adult with a job and a life. Now, he was just barely prepubescent with homework and another decade of school ahead of him.

“Hey,” said a girl standing a few paces away from him. “You’re Celia’s boy, aren’t you?”

Tom looked at her. At thirteen, she was about a year older than him, or at least as old as he was now. Her hair was shimmering dark, like Celia’s, but her eyes were a brilliant shade of emerald instead of Celia’s blue. He had seen those green eyes before, years ago, in the Merriweather house. They had belonged to a petulant toddler back then. Now, they had a knowing look to them, as if she were looking right through him. He shivered.

Esme Merriweather sauntered over to him and stood beside him, looking him up and down, apparently relishing the half a head of height she had on him.

“W-what do you want?” he stammered out, hating how weak and small his voice sounded as he did every time he had to speak now.

Esme smiled and said, “I just wanted to say ‘hello’ to my old babysitter.”

“Hello,” he said and looked away from her, trying to appear more interested in watching for the bus, hoping that she would leave him alone if he bored her. The last thing he wanted was having to deal with another witch.

“I hear that Celia’s the one doing the babysitting now.”

Tom cringed. His mind flashed back to being trapped at home, alone with Celia. Her grabbing hands and excited lips touching him. Him trying to repel and escape her. Her threatening, if he kept resisting, to force more peppermints on him. Him surrendering, letting her treat him as her own personal Teddy bear for the night, hugging him to her, snuggling close to him. Him passively enduring her affection until his parents returned and he was freed from her. Her accepting his parents’ money and promising to babysit anytime that they need someone to watch him.

“So what?” Tom said, pretending that he did not care.

Esme inquired, “Did you enjoy it?”

“No.”

“Do you want to go back to normal?” she asked.

He turned to her and said, “Yes. Of course. Can you do that? Can you change me back into an adult?” He felt a glimmer of hope.

She shrugged and said, “I might be able to… but…”

“But what?”

“We’ve got, kind of, an agreement to stay out of each other’s magic. She doesn’t mess with my spells, and I don’t mess with hers. It’s safer that way. Everyone’s magic is a little different. It’s hard to predict how spells will react to other spells. Even if I didn’t have an agreement with her, I might only make your situation worse if I tried to help you. Not that I have any reason to help you, though.”

“Why’d you bring it up, then?” he replied.

“I don't know. I guess I just enjoy watching boys like you squirm,” Esme said. “I think Celia does as well, now that I look at you. You’re such a stubborn little cutie.” She brushed her fingers through his hair above his ear.

He slapped her hand away and said, “Leave me alone,” taking a few steps away from her.

Esme chuckled to herself with malevolent glee. “Fine,” she said. “Suit yourself. Only, there might be a way to break your spell.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t do it,” he replied, with suspicion tempering his hope.

The school bus appeared around a corner and slowly approached them.

“You can break it yourself,” Esme explained. “You just need to find someone who remembers you as you used to be.”

“Then, what?” he asked as the bus stopped beside them and turned on its blinking red lights as its stop sign and door opened.

Esme walked to the door of the bus and, before she got on it, said, “Convince that person of who you used to be, and the spell will weaken. It will probably break on its own soon after that.”

“How do I find someone who would recognize me? Everyone I’ve talked to since I changed has forgotten how old I should be.”

The bus driver grunted and said, “Let’s get a move on it, kids. School’s starting soon. Don’t want to be late.”

Esme said, “You’ll need someone who knew you before but would rather forget you now.” Then, she turned and entered the bus.

Suddenly, Todd knew exactly who he needed to find.

“You coming?” the bus driver asked him.

Tom shook his head and took off running.

The school bus driver sighed and shut the door and drove off as a smirking Esme in the back seat watched Tom run away.

***

Through some miracle, Tom found that he had just enough money in his pocket to afford a ride on a public transit bus across town. Fortunately, it was still early enough in the morning that most people just assumed he was on his way to school. He got off at the bus stop just down the street from her apartment building. Hiking up to her door on the second floor was no problem. There was no need to buzz in. Every unit door opened to the outside air. After a moment’s hesitation, he knocked, hoping that she was sleeping in today.

After an anxious minute, the door opened a crack and Tom could see his ex-girlfriend’s right eye peeking down at him. “Who is it?” she asked.

“Janice,” Tom said, wincing at the sound of his voice. “I need to talk to you about Tom. It’s important. Please let me in.” All the way there, he had been considering what to say to her to get her to speak to him. This was the best idea he had.

Janice shut the door, and for a hopeless moment, Tom thought she had shut him out for good. Then, he heard the security chain slide away, and the door swung open. “Come in,” she said, taking a step back and gesturing him inside.

After explaining that he was Tom, Janice quizzed him for the next ten minutes or so, trying to trip him up, getting him to reveal embarrassing, intimate details about experiences they had been through together, secrets only the real Tom would know. All the while, Tom glanced around nervously at the apartment they had shared together. It was so weird being in there, like coming home while feeling like a stranger. The place had not changed, but he was very different now. He wondered if he would ever be welcomed back in here again. Maybe after the spell was broken. Maybe.

When she had run out of questions, Janice was silent for a long while.

“I’m not making this up,” Tom said. “I only wish I was. I know how impossible it sounds, but it’s true.”

Janice stared at him a long while, looking him up and down, trying to identify the man she had known hiding in the boy in her living room.

“Tom?” she said with a half smile.

He nodded. “It’s me… well, what’s left of me.”

She chucked and shook her head. “I can’t believe this,” she said. “You actually managed to become interesting.”

“Uh,” he said. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We talked about it when you left.”

“When you kicked me out.”

Janice shrugged. “You’ve always been Mr. Vanilla, never taking risks, never trying anything new. You shouldn’t have been surprised that I got bored.”

He sighed. “I get it,” he said. “I’m not exciting. I told you before that I would try to be more interesting, if you gave me another chance.”

“Well,” Janice said. “I suppose you kept your word.”

“Not really what I had planned. I was thinking about taking up a hobby. Still, you do recognize me now, right?”

She nodded.

“Good,” he said. “That’s supposed to weaken the spell.”

“Now what?” she asked.

“I guess we wait,” he said with a shrug.

“I’d better order us some lunch,” she said. “Want me to get you a kids’ meal?”

“Ha ha,” he said as she located her phone to make the order.

***

To lessen the awkwardness of a grown woman and middle school boy spending time together, Janice turned the TV on and took a seat on the opposite end of the couch from him. Things began to feel oddly normal again as if they were settling back into their old life together with no interruption.

There was a beep on Janice’s phone and a sudden knock on the door. “One sec,” she said, as she got up to answer it. Tom’s attention stayed on the TV, while she interacted with the delivery woman, until Janice returned to him with a bag of food.

“Grab your stuff,” she said as she walked to the kitchen. “I’ll get us something to drink.”

Tom fished out his burger and fries, and Janice returned to hand him a can of cola before pulling out her own meal. They ate together in near silence, while Tom waited, hoping that, at any moment, he would feel himself begin to grow up again.

“Oh,” she said, when she was half done with her meal. “I just remembered.” She fished around in the bag and pulled out a smaller brown paper bag inside. She handed it to Tom. “The delivery woman wanted you to have this. I guess she saw you sitting there. She said you had to eat her candy.”

“What?” Tom said, opening the bag. Inside were two pieces of candy: a small chocolate treat that you might find in a box of chocolates and a licorice strip. “No,” Tom said, shaking his head. “Did the delivery woman have dark hair and blue eyes?”

“Um,” Janice said before taking a quick sip of her cola. “I think so.”

“That was her!” Tom said. “The one that did this to me!”

“Really?” Janice said, taking another bite of her burger.

“This is more of her candy,” he said, pulling it out of the bag to show Janice. A slip of paper fell out of the bag when he did. He picked it up and read it, “‘No running away from me. It’s time that you know what it feels like.’ What does that mean?”

Janice shrugged and finished chewing her food. Noticing the hungry look in his eyes, she swallowed and said, “I think you might be about to find out,”

“I don’t want to change again,” Tom said, but before he could stop himself, his trembling hand popped the chocolate into his mouth. It gushed out cherry filling when he bit into it, eliciting an ecstatic moan in response to the tasty surprise. The chocolate was rich and creamy, and the cherry flavor was a perfect sugary compliment to it. He let it melt in his mouth, savoring it as long as he could before swallowing it down.

As the peppermints had done before, he felt the essence of the flavor spread throughout his body, filling him with a tingling cherry energy.

“Ooh,” he moaned, as he felt himself begin to change.

“What’s it feel like?” Janice asked.

“Warm,” he said, his breathing getting heavier. “And, icy at the same time.”

Unlike with the peppermints, there was no obvious size change happening from the cherry magic. Just many subtle reshapings. His legs stretched a little longer without gaining much thickness. Something strange happened around his hips and butt. He began to put on weight just below his skinny waist. A sudden, pulling sensation in his crotch left him feeling as though he had just been kicked between the legs, but it quickly faded away as his equipment down there was swallowed up inside of him. Twin mounds of fatty flesh swelled into existence on his chest, as his hair grew long, hanging down past his chin almost to his shoulders.

The cherry feeling faded, and he noted that he was still 12 years old, only he was no longer a 12-year-old boy. One hand probed his crotch as the other cupped one mound on his chest. He found very different and very sensitive flesh in both places. Realizing that he had an urge to explore those parts even more, he pulled his hands away and stood up to find a mirror. A quick jog to the bathroom, accompanied by bouncing in unfamiliar areas, brought him face to face with the reflection of a pretty young girl, who looked well on her way to becoming a woman.

“Oh my God,” Tom whispered and heard an even higher voice escape his somewhat thicker lips. “She turned me into… I’m a…” He refused to speak the word, feeling that he would be surrendering his masculinity altogether if he did.

“Are you going to finish your food?” Janice called to him, seemingly either unaware or unconcerned about his transformation.

Tom thought of the licorice strip, and replied, “I think… I have to.” He gave his new girlish reflection one more worried look as he wondered what the next piece of Celia’s candy would do to him now.