The barista is the obvious choice: She’s a lot shorter than Thom, thin rather than athletic. It should be easy enough to overpower her, even with your lack of experience at fighting of any kind. Claire has undoubtedly been trained in CQC and she might react badly if you tried to absorb her. That’s assuming you can even have two people absorbed at the same time anyway. Yes, the barista is by far the safer option.
You walk purposefully towards her. Then, just as you get close, her cell phone rings once. You stop for a second, not wanting whoever is on the other end to overhear you. She fishes it out of her pocket, looks at the screen and starts fiddling with the buttons. It’s a text message. Excellent, the extra distraction makes it even easier for you to walk up behind her and seize her. You cover her mouth with one hand, restraining her arms with your free arm. The barista drops her phone to the floor in shock. It takes her precious seconds to realize what is happening and by the time she reacts you have already pushed her inside the store cupboard.
She starts to struggle frenziedly, but by now you have already started thinking about taking her. As she tries to open her mouth to scream, all that happen is that your liquefying hand gushes inside, muffling any sound she makes. She thrashes about, right then left. Some brooms get knocked over, but she only gets drawn deeper and deeper inside you with each passing second.
Then she is gone, and the changes begin. Bones grind and pop as they shift themselves into new shapes. Flesh bubbles and swells, padding out some areas and thinning in others. Impossibly, you can feel you hair starts to lengthen, even lift itself up of its own accord and ties itself into the bunches the barista had.
You are Summer Nguyen, 19 years old and an arts student at Keyserling College. You only work here to help make ends because you are estranged from your father. He doesn’t approve of your being a lesbian, and he certainly doesn’t approve of your current girlfriend Rhonda. Rhonda who had just messaged you to let you know she was going to be kept late at college.
The immediate rush of Summer’s memories subside and you pick up her cell phone to complete the reply she was creating: ‘Going to DiMarcos with Courtney + friends, come over later’. The tiny keyboard on the phone is easy to manipulate with Summer’s slimmer fingers. You hit the send button and slip the phone back into a pocket in your freshly formed tight jeans.
Summer isn’t an ideal catch: She’s an arts student rather than the scientist you would have hoped for. You’d be lying though, if you said you weren’t just a little bit curious about what her love life is like. Even dredging up Summer’s recollections of it makes your new cheeks glow red. Regardless, it’ll be easy enough to sideways hop through her friends, and then their friends and so on until you find someone more appropriate.
Either way, you don’t need Thom any more. It takes a moment to recall the sick to your stomach feeling that preceded your ejection of Darcy. Within a minute, an unconscious Thom Allen lies on the floor of the storage cupboard. He’s breathing shallowly, but is otherwise fine. As you close the door of cupboard behind you, you can’t make up your mind if it would have been more cruel to keep him inside you rather than leave him at the mercy of Karin’s ire. Probably not.
“What are you smiling at,” asks one of your new co-workers as you return to the main floor of the coffee house. A quick examination of Summer’s memories reveals her to be Courtney.
“Oh, nothing,” you reply, glancing briefly at where Karin Allen is tapping her hands impatiently on a table. “I asked Rhonda to come over to Di Marco’s with us later. That OK?”
“Yeah, sure,” Courtney replies with a smile. “The more the merrier.”
“Only she’s going to be a little late,” you explain slightly nervously, matching Summer’s personality. “She’ll be stuck at Keyserling for a bit.”
“It’ll be fine Summer,” insists Courtney. “Sometimes it’s like you’re still that shy little girl at Eastman.”
You blush in a very Summer like way at Courtney’s mention of Summer’s former school. From her memories it seems Summer was actually very retiring right up until her senior year when she came out.
“Thanks,” you smile brightly. “I better get back to work.”
You make a start on mopping the floor now that the lunchtime rush in the coffeehouse is dying down. It’s hard work, especially for someone with Summer’s physique. You do enjoy a moment of guilty pleasure when Thom finally emerges from the restroom area and gets chewed out by his wife, but otherwise the afternoon is a long, boring, grind.
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