Once we decided to do this, I was very nervous. This was big. More significant than I had thought when we first saw the glowing blue tubes. I knew it was going to be life-changing. It was alright for Luke to be a bit casual about it; he had already been enhanced, and my god, was the change good. He had gone from dorky, good-looking to smoking hot. It was hard not to be distracted. Even his eyes had gone from that lazy, sexy look straight to smouldering. Shit. Just when I was getting a handle on things.
Dallas and Jean seemed close-knit; if they were willing to go ahead with this, I was too. Our medic seemed more intelligent than most of us, and I had expected him to be more reluctant, but again, he was confident that we would be ok, so I was fine with getting some alien blue nanites injected into me.
That was a lie. I was shitting myself. There was no turning back, and nothing would be the same. There were too many unknowns. Mind you, if it had the same effect on my body as Luke’s, I was all for it. Crap. If I got this, I’d have to rethink my stance on cosmetic surgery. Fuck. Did this count as surgery? I mean Botox is a non-invasive plastic surgery, so what the hell would this be? I was proud of my no-plastic surgery look, which I worked hard for. If a super body was just a blue goo injection away, that was not fair.
Crap, this could earn a fortune. If we could bottle it, market it, since it already came in little tubes. I’d be a billionaire rivalling Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the cosmetics queen, and move aside L'Oréal.
I smiled.
We all decided that we would lie down, two to a room, although Dallas was going in Jean's room, so I asked Luke if he minded if I was in his room. I was very nervous at the thought. He was so sweet about it.
We were going to do this after dinner. A last supper, so to speak. Uber Eats again, more Chinese and Indian, a weird mix for our bizarre crew. There is nothing like a light meal shared before you potentially face an answer to life, the universe, and everything from the sounds of it. Those of us getting enhanced didn’t eat much and didn’t have any drinks. We all remembered the gunk that Luke had expunged.
Once again, Luke picked up the tab for dinner, which was getting slightly old. I sometimes felt guilty seeing him pick up the bill when it was unnecessary. He didn't seem to mind, but that was not the point, as he was too sweet to say anything. I seemed to be the only one who cared. Mike would just shrug. Such a guy thing. My guilt was also because I knew he had a torch for me, not that I would be reluctant. I didn't want to destroy our friendship. It was hard. Luke certainly didn't seem to care about money, and as he said, he had to spend all his money in three weeks anyway.
It would be nice not to have to worry about money. Mum and I had to be careful, we're not broke, but she had to work too hard for what we got. I helped out where I could, but there was not a lot left over between Uni, my job and having to look great. I tried not to be too vain, but sometimes it was just the easiest thing to fall back on, and unfortunately, there seemed to be more opportunities for attractive people. Fortunately for me, I could exploit it in my work. The tips were nice.
I was nervous enough during dinner and even more shocked when Luke asked me out on a date. Dinner and a beach walk. Damn him. I was so excited until he said, "Once I was enhanced". Of course, I said yes. It was a positive thing that he was asking. I gave him a hug, which was nicer.
Milke had told me that Luke was scared of getting "friendzoned". It was weird, and I had never really dated someone I cared about. Come to think of it, I had not really dated anyone much. I had a policy and standard. Looks were in it, but they had to have at least laughed at some of my sicker humour, and they had to have at least not been a jerk or a bitch. When girls asked me out, I got nervous and curious, too. Arrrrh. I needed to stop this train of thought. I’d have to have a girls' talk with Jean later. She was solid with Dallas, so she’d know what's what with guys. I’d ask Mike, he sometimes would open up a bit, but he got all mucho when I dug too deep.
I don't know if I was more nervous about how I felt about Luke or what was coming up. I was so out of my depth. For most of my school life and even at Uni, I had kept everyone at arm's length with some pretty crude humour at times. Still, deep down, I hated myself for it. I wanted to be a bit nicer, but crude and slightly dark humour was easy. I was nervous about Luke. He had finally stepped up. I was more than okay with how he filled out the underarmour. Hell, before he bulked up, I would have been fine to say yes. Now, it was a Hell Yes!
I took some time to think about the last few days. The feeling of him maybe not coming out of the glowing cocoon, and now that I knew a life-changing moment was coming up, that had me all jittery. Still, it didn't help that I had really felt genuine feelings towards someone for the first time, and those feelings were being returned. It seemed that life was getting complicated in more ways than just relationships. I didn’t like complex. I wanted it nice and simple.
My god, had he bulked up and filled out. Very nicely. Whatever caused it, it moved him from being cute to OMG cute. He had broad shoulders already, but now they were sculpted and filled out, and his arms had gone from thin, firm arms to nice, rock-solid muscle arms, not too big but rock-solid. Biceps and abs were a thing for me. I had not seen his abs but caught the definition under the armour. He didn't have a lot of fat anyway, and I hoped that my imagination and my innocent grope lived up to reality. His abs felt good. I tried not to show it, but I was a little bit of a mess as we got ready for the injection.
I wish I could be calm and collected, my feelings contrasted with Jean. She was so cool. I'd really have to ask her about her and Dallas. She was confident, beautiful, and had the entire don't-mess-with-me attitude rolling off her in spades. She also gave off the Mum vibe, the whole do as I tell you or you are in trouble, go to your room, but I still love you heaps. I so wanted to be as cool as her and not disappoint her. Funny, I had only known her for a couple of days.
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The last couple of days had been weird and wild. Luke was such a sweetheart. He looked out for others without really knowing. I'd been kind of interested in him since we met. No one knew much about him at school when he was new and mysterious. He was friendly, and he also faced his problems either head-on or by running away. Initially, he had been a bit snobby and standoffish, but when Mike started hanging out with him, it became easier for me to hang with them. They were kind of not cool, cool. They were some of the few who appreciated my sense of humour without judgment. Maybe they were too scared or grateful to say or try anything. My looks could be intimidating for some people, and I got sick of guys just wanting one thing.
I knew it grated some people, it was a little dark and sometimes too edgy, and I knew I got away with it because of how I looked. That made it even sadder, really. I wasn't vain, but I put quite some effort into my appearance, keeping fit, eating well and making sure I always rocked a great look. I had always worked with what I had to take advantage of. Despite what people thought, it was often hard to be attractive.
My god, that sounds so awful and vain. But it was one thing that annoyed me. If you are good-looking, there are so many more expectations of you. People look to you for no real reason, you stand out, and it is impossible to fade into the background. You get attention, good, bad and very ugly - even if all you want to do is fly under the radar. My humour had become part of my self-defence mechanism to ensure people kept their distance. Deep down, I knew I was shallow and used my looks to deflect and seem more than I was. I was trying hard to be nicer to all these new people, they had no expectations, and all seemed nice and treated everyone professionally.
It didn’t help that I was also slightly impatient. While waiting for everyone to get ready, I told Mike about my upcoming date. I had to brag somewhere. He was super sweet. He first said, "About time!" and then hugged me. That broke me. I did something I had never done before. Maybe it was all the dust in the air. I was going to blame the nanites that Luke was emitting or absorbing or whatever.
After I stopped crying, we had a great talk, not about me or Luke. I could be not vain sometimes, but about what we thought was happening, who or what and why all this was happening. None of us had any ideas that made sense.
The truth was crazier than we first thought. When Luke first told us, Mike and I both secretly called BS. I mean, it couldn't be real. Finally, after seeing him stab himself and the wounds heal up, I was sceptical but eventually convinced. It finally sank in when I tried my hardest to stab him and could not make a mark. Luke smiled at that.
A smile was rare from him since his dad passed away. I knew that he kept a lot bottled up. I think I was the only one who knew that his mum had died when he was young, and his dad had been doing time before he passed. I knew he didn't really talk about his feelings to Mike. But then again, did any man? I smiled at visions of Luke and Mike sitting around chatting about their feelings over a cold beer. Not that I could speak, I had no idea who my dad was, and my mum was struggling as a clerk in a booking agency. We loved each other but didn't have the time or energy to show it.
My thoughts were jumbled, and I was in a messy headspace. Thinking back, I had been waiting for Luke to ask me out. I had even worn the red bikini that I knew he liked. It was not that I would not have done something eventually. I would have asked him to our Uni Prom later in the year, but I still felt that the man should be the one to show courage and all that. Shit. Wasn’t that a little hypocritical, but aren't we all, in some things, expecting equality then expecting men to follow societal conventions?
Go, girl, way to send mixed messages. Fuck is that what Mike meant about Friendzoned? I was impatient at times, but for Luke, I would wait. It was not as if I had already been waiting for some time when I thought about it. I could be distracted and angry at him, but I would wait for him. Besides, he said he was waiting for me to do this.
Thinking about it, I was sure we would get together after, and I was happy to take it slow. It would be new. It wasn't love yet, but it was something that I was chasing to see if it could be.
Our goodbye, if it could be called that, was a too-short but sweet kiss. It was not quite all I wanted, but we were in public, and I am unsure if I was up to a full-blown PDA.
Luke had Rashaan come with us into Luke's room as he led me through the enhancement. Luke was not confident to jab the idiot-proof injector into me. It was funny that Rashaan acted professionally as if he had been doing this all his life. His bedside manner was better than my GP's.
Luke's room was small and relatively simple, with a small bed and some space to put personal belongings. No way was I stripping to my underwear with Rahsaan here, maybe if Luke had been alone. I was in some nice leggings and a slightly tight T-shirt, which was easy enough to move around in. I smiled and thought Luke did look a little disappointed. I was getting nervous as he said, "Sit on the bed. We need to sort some things out."
I sat, and he sat beside me, quite close. He had a long cylinder—a needle.
"Now, this should be simple for you. Don't complicate it as I did. Normally, it is straightforward. You get injected, you get enhanced, and you get to assign stats, pick a class and then complete a brief tutorial. It can take a few days, mainly in the tutorial. Now, to make things easy, you explain what advice I gave you, as sometimes I can be an idiot and not explain things well, and I want to make sure you understand."
It only took a couple of minutes because I didn't know much. The only thing I knew was that I wanted some magic! When he said it, I fell in love with the idea and spent some time reading up on different ideas about magic online. It was going to be something that called to me. I was going to be a spell caster.
"Those Karass bastards really came through for you on this. It would cost a small fortune to buy these from what Sprite told me, so if we see Amy's boss, we can smirk and owe Amy big time. She managed to steal mainly Tier 2 boosters. See, you can see the markings on the base." He showed me, and I couldn't see anything, so I just smiled, "You will get your base stats, but instead of 1, they will be 5 or 10 or something, I can’t remember. We are still unsure what earth racial adjustments are, as there needs to be a bigger sample than me. It was pretty low, though."
I smiled. I knew Luke was hiding something, but I would press later.
He stroked my hair absently as he said, "Your class choice is your own, but you should know that a Mind builds as a primary is a rare pick and tricky, and not many people take it. That is why Mages are rare. The body stat is much easier to understand, and people want instant, easy, visible power. People with high Body stats tend to survive longer at lower Tiers and energy levels. Any last questions?"
It was nice. He stroked my hair. I focused and shook my head. There were heaps of questions, but I was too impatient and wanted magic now. I lay down, then felt a slight jab on my neck and the feel of something cool spreading across my body.