The morning sun leaked through the curtains, dragging Luke out of his futon. Even though he'd had a few weird dreams, he still slept like a baby.
If he were still employed, he would have been rushing to work by now.
He laid on his futon, wide awake but refusing to get up. The events of the previous day were still fresh in his mind.
Luke had just realized something: he didn't hear the usual moans from Trish—his long-time crush. That was strange. For as long as he could remember, having sex every morning and moaning loudly had been her number-one daily activity, like clockwork.
I wonder what happened, he thought. Well… it's none of my business.
He leaned back and sighed. "So… do I wait for a sign? Or some kind of luck?" he muttered, looking around as if the universe might answer him.
His gaze landed on the mystical coin resting on his desk. He picked it up. The metal glowed faintly, a soft pulse of light running along its edges, and a subtle vibration traveled through his fingers.
"What does that mean…?" he whispered. He had no idea.
A few minutes passed before raised voices echoed from the hallway outside his door. Luke frowned and stepped out to see what was happening.
There she was—Trish—locked in a heated argument with her boyfriend. He was a tall muscular light skinned dude, sporting a baggy jeans and black jacket. Their voices clashed in the air, sharp and tense. Then Trish's eyes slid toward Luke, and for a moment everything seemed to halt. She stared at him, stunned… and lingering a bit too long, as if remembering something from the previous day she couldn't quite shake.
He still looks so good… she thought, her gaze tracing him. Her boyfriend noticed immediately, his anger flaring even hotter when he realized she was no longer focused on him.
"What are you even—" he started, then turned to see what had captured her attention. His words dried up.
Luke stood halfway in his doorway, the light behind him outlining the shape of someone far more muscular, far more imposing, than the skinny, average-height guy he remembered living there.
"I… didn't know someone this ripped lived here," he muttered under his breath, confused. When did he move in? he wondered.
But Luke hadn't moved in recently. The truth—the part the boyfriend didn't know—was that the skinny guy from before and the powerful man standing there now… were one and the same.
He wondered if this ripped guy had anything to do with Trish's strange behaviour that morning.
So he decided to confront Luke.
As he started walking toward him, he realized—far too late—that Luke was taller, more muscular, and annoyingly better-looking than he was. He had come with the intention of intimidating Luke, but that idea died instantly. One look at the guy and he knew Luke could probably beat the living crap out of him if he made one wrong move.
"Hey there, man," he greeted casually, trying to sound relaxed.
"Hey…" Luke's deep voice boomed out—so deep it almost tore his ears, or at least that's how it felt.
Ever since his metamorphosis, Luke hadn't actually spoken to anyone. It had only been a day—less than a day, really—since everything changed.
Damn… is that my voice? Luke wondered, genuinely surprised.
Trish's boyfriend, meanwhile, felt his spine shrink. This had been a massive miscalculation on his part.
"Oh—sorry. Good morning, sir," he said quickly, abandoning whatever plan he originally had.
"I'm Dave, your neighbour's boyfriend," he introduced himself properly.
Luke didn't even question why he was being greeted so formally, even though the two of them looked about the same age—Luke at twenty-six, Dave probably close to that or might have been even some months older.
"Oh, nice to meet you," Luke replied with a smile.
"So… sorry if we disturbed you," Dave added, trying to slip an apology in as smoothly as possible.
Luke raised an eyebrow. "Disturbed me? With what?" trying to feign ignorance
Dave swallowed. He had not thought this far ahead. Trish refused to have sex with him that morning and she insisted that she was okay, but the way she'd acted that morning—nervous, jumpy, distracted—had eaten at him until he convinced himself something was going on.
It was the main reason for the heated argument that had been going on for some minutes
"Well…" Dave scratched the back of his neck, stalling. "I just thought maybe, uh… maybe we were being too loud with our quarrel. Or something."
Luke tilted his head slightly. The movement looked casual, but on his new, broader frame it felt intimidating—like watching a boulder shift.
And his towel was still on his waist exposing his six pack abs
"I didn't hear anything," Luke said honestly. "I was asleep."
Dave blinked. Somehow, that made him even more suspicious, but Dave could not question him.
"Oh. Well, that's good then," Dave said, forcing a laugh that sounded like a cough. "Heh."
An awkward silence followed. Dave glanced back at Trish, as if considering a tactical retreat.
Luke, still adjusting to both his new voice and his new body, studied him. "Are you sure everything is okay?"
Dave could feel his nerves climbing out of his throat. "Yeah—yeah, all good.
Luke smiled again—warm, friendly, now completely aware of the intimidation factor his new appearance radiated.
"Thanks. That's cool of you."
Dave nodded quickly. "Yep. Cool. That's me.
Another silence. Longer. He was dying inside.
"So… uh," tell Trish I said hi, I guess?"
With that, Luke was pretty much signalling for Dave to go back to his girlfriend. He shut his apartment door and headed inside.
"Well, that was weirdly fun," Luke chuckled to himself. "I just intimidated a guy by talking. The guys won't stand a chance."
Then it hit him.
"Oh yeah—I need to brush and take a bath." He'd woken up and immediately been dragged into someone else's relationship meltdown, completely forgetting his own morning routine.
A sharp ding sounded from his phone. Luke walked over and picked it up.
"Whoa… eight hundred messages? From the Delight's Superstore employee group chat?"
He blinked.
"What the hell… it's only been one day."