Witch Way Home --

The bottle beneath the visitor's bleachers at my high school told a simple tale. It was shattered meaning it had been dropped through the gaps in order to hide its existence. Probably some drunk student on Friday during the game tossed it away so he would get caught with alcohol during the game. Or, he used it to get his girlfriend open to his suggestions and it was broken down here. Now, in the light of day, I couldn't help but see that it represented shattered lives. It had dulled the senses of the persons who drank it. Maybe to the point they wouldn't remember what they did the night before. A sad thought. I had volunteered as a student to be part of the clean up crew to help the school. Alcohol was a problem for me. I had seen it misused before.

And, as the only volunteer, my bag, laden with empty popcorn bags, half eaten hot dogs, and other filthy garbage, wasn't easy to pull through the metal bars that cris-crossed the frame beneath the structure. However, I soon was planted in front of the broken glass.

As I reached for it, something extraordinary happened. The glass reassembled before my eyes revealing a bottle of Cutty Stark scotch. To my surprise, because I thought one had to rub these things, the bottle then began to smoke. Like an old episode of 'I dream of Genie,' the smoke intensified and swirled before me growing in size until it was just about twice my size too. Then, poof, the smoke cleared and there was a handsome teenage boy in front of me dressed in ordinary clothes sporting a football jersey. He had longish hair and an impish smile that would melt any girls heart. As a teenage boy, it made me jealous not to look as handsome. I was too geeky. Well, ugly.

He looked at me and stated, "I suppose you are waiting for the usual 'I am the genie of the bottle and I am here to grant you three wishes, blah, blah, blah." the genie said dismissively. He brushed dirt off of his number four jersey. "Well, I am a genie, but I only grant two sex crazed wishes to teenagers with conditions. It was a curse put on me by my witch of a girlfriend who placed me in this bottle to remind me that a relationship is a sobering thing and sex should never be taken for granted." His tone betrayed a desire to end his imprisonment.

"Hi," I said as I reached out to shake his hand, "I'm called Dell by my friends." He didn't take the hand I offered. "What are the conditions?" I asked sounding incredulous.

Sounding bored as all get out, the genie replied to me in a deeply monotone, "One, you are granted the chance to have sex and it has to occur at a high school football game. Two, the sex has to occur at a rival's football game. Your second wish you get a normal chance to keep the girl or guy for the season that you had relations with for as long as you can keep them after which the bottle will disappear and land at some other place where it will be found by another sex crazed high school student." The genie slapped himself as if to wake up.

"Wow! What a weird wish, Mister Genie!"

The genie sneered at me. "Name's Bill. Except in your case, it will be a miracle if a girl falls for an acne pitted short ugly blob like you. I may have to change your looks along the way in order for you to get laid. I have had to do it before." he added sarcastically.

"Hey, I am just a sophomore. My doctor says it will clear up." I retorted.

"Heard that one too many times before. So, when is your team's next away game?" the genie asked.

"Next week, against Central High." I answered. "But, how do I ..."

Before I could ask another question, the bottle disappeared. I heard, "Look for me under the bleachers at the game. I will be there."

The next week found me sitting in the visitor's section waiting for the game to start in an hour. In an instant, I was transported underneath the bleachers with the genie standing before me. I noticed again how really sad he was and it was clear he wanted to get this over with.

"Okay, who is going to be here that you want to have sex with?" he said with a feigned smile.

"I don't see any girl here that I want. But, find me a five foot four, long brunette hair, a 34 C chest, a narrow waste, nice curves, a pretty blouse and skirt. A warm wrap that she could make love on. And, she has to be kind too. With nice blue eyes and a pretty face. With that, I think any man would be happy."

The genie glared at me as if I described his worst nightmare. "You just described the witch who cursed me!" he pronounced with tear in his eye. "I can't have that, can I?"

In the next instant, I found myself to be a different size. Looking down, I realized I had breasts. I was wearing a blouse and skirt too. I looked in the reflection of a window next to us and saw I was a beautiful teenage girl and no longer a geeky teenage boy. "See how you like being her!" he stated with a hint of scorn.

To the genie's surprise, I responded with, "Thank you. I like this very much."

"You do?!?!"

"No, I don't." I said firmly. "Change me back now, please." I added coldly.

Laughing, he said. "Just as I thought. No, you will be a girl tonight! I promised you sex, just not what kind."

In another instant, we were both up on the bleachers watching the game start and it was clear he was resolute in my staying the way I was. "Well Ms. goody two shoes, point out who you would like to have sex with and I will make it happen." He started to laugh and then stopped. I could sense he was frustrated.

Unfazed by his statement, I answered, "Okay. Anyone?" Rather than looking around, I wiggled my chest to see what my breasts felt like and then made sure my skirt was covering the view of my panties like I had seen girls do.

"Anyone. And, after you have sex with them, I will change you back to your ugly self." he said coldly as if that was an incitement to end my current dilemma.

I smiled, not wanting to give him an inch, and said, "Okay. How about with you?"

"No way, Jose ... er ... Josephine! Having sex with the genie isn't possible." He blushed which gave me the indication something was wrong with his hard ware. He shrugged his shoulders and explained, "Part of the horrible curse I am under. No can touchy!"

"But, what if I can't choose before the evening ends?" I whispered realizing my wish could be lost and never fulfilled.

"Then you get your automatic second wish and I change you back before I leave."

"Well, I guess that is a relief." I giggled at his ignorance and pointed out the flaw in his logic. "Of course, I could just go to the ladies room, take off my clothes, and play with myself." He shook his head and rolled his eyes. I scanned the bleachers pretending to be interested and inquired casually, "How did you get cursed in the first place?"

"I took my girl to a game to watch me quarterback. After we won the game, I boozed up and took her to a secluded place. I tried to make love to her figuring that I was owed for having won the game. Well, she cursed me then and there. Until I found someone who really wanted me for me, I would have to watch others have meaningless sex."

"Oh. So, you want me to have meaningless sex too?" I glared at him. "No thank you!" I looked around for the little girls room. Maybe I should do the obvious and not punish someone who had no choice either. The genie's attitude stank.

He blushed and said, "There is a nice guy down there. And a cute girl over there." I glared at him even more.

He finally caught part of my meaning stating surely out of guilt, "Yeah you, I mean she, was hot. But, I forgot there was more too her than her looks. Sure, you look like her for the moment. But, I don't think I will ever get her back to tell her how sorry I am for the way I acted." Well, at least he was lamenting something.

I sighed, "No, I don't see anyone here. They don't interest me." I took to watching the game crossing my legs and noticing the absence of something between them that was supposed to get used in this wish.

Just down the bleachers, I saw a junior who was on the baseball team. He started to stare at me with a smile that he thought hid his inner thoughts. He sauntered up the steps until he reached us. "Hi. I haven't seen you at the games before. Don't we have a class together? Maybe, English?"

I cut straight to the point. "No, I think I would remember someone whose eyes and nose are bigger than what he has in his pants."

"Hey, I can prove that you are wrong. Just give me a chance, honey." he responded to me as though in his self assurance he must be Casanova in disguise. The wolf was certainly licking his chops.

With that, the genie appeared to him in corporal form. "Hey dude, the lady is with me?" Startled, the wolf backed off and retreated.

"Thanks." I said.

"Sorry. I think he was going to rape you if I hadn't appeared."

"I think you are right." I couldn't resist adding a dig. "At least you have some respect for my well being."

After a bit, Bill, the genie, seemed to slump and rethink his actions. "Look, I wasn't thinking what was best for you. No, I don't want you to have meaningless sex or to be picked up by some jerk. If you just want to watch the game, I will understand. After what I have seen over the years, it isn't worth it. So, why don't I change you back."

He needed a lesson tonight and I figured I would be the one to deliver it. "No, I don't want to get you in any more trouble than you are in now. Your curse might last longer if I don't play along."

"No trouble. What I did wasn't part of the standard wish. And I could get in trouble for that. Plus, you're a guy. It's not a fair trade. Let me make you a handsome dude some girl will swoon over."

I rolled my eyes at the suggestion. "Yeah, that is what I want. Have meaningless sex with a girl who thinks I am hot only to find out after sex that I am an ugly duckling sophomore in disguise." In my best Betty Davis voice, I said, "What a dump!" Resigned to my fate, I continued with dripping sarcasm from the verbal blade I stuck into his sexy six-pack, "Well, I think I will just sit here with the handsome genie who brought me here and watch the game." I paused and reflected on this bizarre circumstance. "So, you were a star quarterback?" I asked changing the subject, more to point out his abject poverty of choice.

Looking awkwardly at the game in progress, he revealed his torment. "Yes. I dreamed of going pro after college. I chased all the girls at my school and a few others from other schools because I was prideful. Then this happened."

"How long ago?"

"Seventeen years. Since then I have seen well over two-hundred sex crazed dreams fulfilled. I feel like a burger chain. Have it your way. Except I am stuck with the bill."

A chilling thought occurred to me. "If you don't mind my asking, do you watch them have sex too?"

"I am forced to watch as part of the curse." came a frustrated response. His facial contortions revealed his disdain for what he had to witness.

"You don't sound happy about it. I mean, isn't that why we guys, I mean while I was a guy, like to watch porn? The thrill of objectifying women. Turning them into toys for our amusement."

"In the beginning, I was. I saw some great sex. But, after a while, it became more and more meaningless. None of the couples, I could tell, were going to stay together. After a while, surprisingly, that came to matter to me." I saw in his face and heard in his voice real pain.

"All of them fell apart?" I asked seriously.

"Well, maybe a few made it. But, they were the exception, not the rule." Now the genie changed the subject. "How about that guy in the front row? He looks like he would enjoy getting lucky with a hot babe like you are now."

As I looked over this wonderful body he had given me, I asked, "So, you think I am hot? What would my friends say at school when I tell them. No, wait. I can't tell them because I am your fantasy, not mine."

"Really, I should change you back. I'm so sorry. I did it out of anger over the curse."

I didn't want this curse or fantasy either. But, then again. "No, I like getting a chance to see things from the other side. Do you miss your folks?"

"Orphan. Nope, nobody missed me. Not even my foster parents."

"Maybe that is why you played the field. You were in so much pain from being lonely you needed the sex to ease the pain."

"Yeah, I think about it a lot when I am in the bottle waiting. I think it was my way of having my cake and eating it too. Someone to make me feel like I belonged to them and at the same time not holding me down in case they leave me. After watching teen after teen have sex, I began to think it was no way to live. I longed for family and relationship. I wanted more out of life than just sex."

I began to cry. His frankness touched me. "It must be lonely in there for you."

He enjoyed having a sympathetic ear. "It is. And it is tough to watch people play the game I was really good at playing, but know they don't get it. Life is much more than what you can do in bed."

"And how about the witch. Did she mean anything to you?"

His honesty was amazing at this point. "Yes and no. Like me, she was an orphan too. I think if I hadn't been such a horny jerk, I would have stayed with her. We had a lot in common. I knew, despite my being horny, that we were meant for each other. Guess it is too late now. She must have found someone else by now and has a real life. I am just a memory to be cast away after she makes love to her husband."

The genie became flustered and climbed down the stairs to watch the game leaving me to ponder the things he said. After about ten minutes, he came back up to me. "Okay, whether or not you like it, I am changing you back." He waved his hands and nothing happened to me.

"What is this?" he asked. "I know I have the power to change you back!"

I reasoned with him. "Not if I don't want it? This is my night and my sex fantasy, not yours."

Flustered, he sat down next to me. He began to cry silent tears. I responded by cuddling up against him like I was his girlfriend. "Don't do that!" he said, but didn't resist.

"I can and I will. This is my night, not yours." In a moment, he melted into my arms and began to sob uncontrollably. "That's it. Let it out." I stroked his back and soothed his hurt.

At some point, he exclaimed as he regained his composure, "Thank you. Oh why did I have to make you look like Wendy?"

"Do you think she wanted your love, not just your body?"

Like a light switch that turned on a burning sun, he saw the truth for the first time. "Yes. She wanted me to love her. How could I have been so blind!"

"And did you love her?"

"No. Not in the way she deserved."

"Intimacy is much more that sex. It is the act of taking the hand of the one person you are most alive with today knowing it could be the one hand you will also hold when life is no longer in it. Till death do us part. That is the beauty of a lifetime together and worth all the tea in China."

I snuggled closer to him enjoying the full pleasure of my female body. "Do you think she cursed you because she loved you and wanted you to be free of your pain of rejection?"

Squeezing my hand in affirmation, "Yes. If I could make it up to her and love her as she loved me. We were both orphans. I ought to have known how rejection would be more painful to her than most. She wanted me for me. Her heart was broken too. And, until lately, I didn't know how my broken heart made it worse for both of us. She wanted us to share our pain. She wanted to heal our pain together." He sobbed again.

Then I looked him in the eye and proclaimed, "You know, for the last seventeen years, I have been this geeky teenager named Wendall. I have learned to see things from the side of guys so I would understand your broken heart better. Seemed only fair. So, for my second wish, I now wish the time for you to come out of the bottle was now."

He saw the bottle smash into a thousand pieces over my shoulder and the curse lift from his body. Looking at me, he couldn't believe his eyes. I smiled and kissed my handsome quarterback.

"Wendall?"

"Don't you mean Wendy? The curse I caste required me to recipicate too. I have been in this journey with you all along making sure you were safe. I waited until I saw you knew that love was much more than sex. All the meaningless sex you saw would have happened anyway. I granted you the illusion, or curse if you will, that it was you that made the sex happen."

Bill confessed, "I still have rough edges."

"So do I. I think it is time we worked our rough edges together, don't you?"

The couple held hands as they walked off into a more certain future.

A few days later, after using the last of my magic, at a new high school, we had new foster parents and he was once again my handsome quarterback and we were now a forever couple focused on laughter and healing.

Truth is, I only became a witch so he would learn which way he should go in order to go home with me. I never really wanted to hurt him. Now that it is done, I have switched off the witch for good.

[Author note: This story was originally going to have been a playful poke at a BRU story. But, as I wrote it, it started to morph into a more serious tale.]

Copyright © 2021 by AuP reviner