I want to thank Lilith for taking the time to help me refine this story and for letting me post as a canon author.
Three Cheers for Lilith Langtree!
Maria was at a party but she wasn’t having any fun. No one was paying any attention to her. Or rather no boys were paying attention to her. She wasn’t usually happy getting attention, it made her nervous, but this once she’d been actually hoping to be noticed. Her friends had all chipped in and paid for her to visit a dermatologist as a birthday present. He had told her that what she thought was either acne or a persistent rash was actually eczema. He given her a skin cream and a list of common irritants that might be causing the flare-ups.
Her dad had tried to get her to one but he was a single parent and barely making ends meet so he could never quite afford it. She was going to school free because he taught at the school and he made sure she had the basics but she was sure she was the poorest person in her class. That plus the eczema is why she normally didn’t want to be seen.
She sighed, it looked like even when she wanted to be noticed she was invisible. After her skin had cleared up her girlfriends had convinced her to go to Janie’s sweet sixteen party. They’d given her a makeover and loaned her a dress and everything and she’d arrived halfway hopeful only to find nothing had changed. Boys occasionally started towards her but as soon as they got close they seemed to lose interest and went to talk to some other girl. She eventually went to the bathroom to see if something was wrong.
Looking at herself in the full length mirror she sighed. There was nothing wrong with her makeup, it was applied better than she could manage and she hadn’t smudged it nor was there anything wrong with her dress or her shoes. So it must be her. She was simply too bland. Brown hair, brown eyes, and an average figure. A little too hippy and her thighs could use more work but the dress hid that.
She sighed again, “I must be too plain to even bother talking to.” She only realized she had spoken out loud when a voice answered her, “Is that why you’re hiding in the bathroom?” She looked and her friend Briana was standing in the doorway. “If it is, “ Briana continued, “then you need to leave because that is SO not true.” Briana grabbed her hand, “Come on,” and pulled her out of the room and on to the dance floor.
While dancing she forgot her troubles with boys, ‘I wish I was gay,’ she thought. I’d have no trouble dating someone as nice as Briana or any of my other friends. As they danced several boys watched them but she didn’t notice any of them and if she had she would have been convinced they were looking at her friend.
After a few dances they left to go something to drink and a boy came over and asked Briana if she wanted to dance. She smiled at the boy but answered, “No, I’m going to sit out the next few but my friend here still has energy. Maybe you should ask her?”
The tall boy looked over at her and she made herself meet his eyes hoping her luck was about to change but fearing it wouldn’t. He gave her that up and down look that guys do and then met her eyes. Her emotions spiked and then he just wandered off not even bothering to say anything.
Maria was crushed and Briana was livid, “That was just terribly rude! I’m going to go set him straight. He can’t just dis my friend like that!”
Maria mumbled something about it being okay but Briana stalked off after the boy leaving her alone. Maria went to get some punch but it smelled alcoholic so she passed. As she left the table she decided to leave the party too and walk home. She’d come by car with her friends but it wasn’t too far to walk, not really. She grabbed her coat without anyone seeing her and started for home.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t notice the women walking up behind her until one of them spoke, “You are lucky we found you. It’s not safe for a girl to be wandering the streets alone at night.”
Maria spoke over her shoulder determined not to stop walking, “You’re from the party? I’m not going back, it’s just too embarassing. I’m going to go home and put on my own clothes and eat a pint of chocolate ice cream.” Her voice was bitter but determined. She was also planning to skip school the next day and possibly forever.
“What happened?” said the voice. She couldn’t place it which was weird but it had to be somebody from the party right? Why else would they care?
“I got ignored by the boys as usual,” she sighed. “I swear it’s enough to make me wish I was gay!” She blushed because it was the first time she’d said that out loud. But the girls behind her didn’t react badly, they just sped up until they were walking on either side of her then one of them said, “Or enough to make you wish you were a guy?”
“Heh, yes. Then I could show the assholes how to do it right!” They passed in front of a house with motion sensors and she got a good looking at the two girls. They might be about the same age but she’d never seen them before, either of them. She stopped, puzzled but not scared; they hadn’t harmed her or anything. “Who are you?”
“I’m Lili and this is Heather,” the girl who’d been doing all the talking said pointing to the other girl.
“Hi!” Heather waved at her with a bright smile, “I’m sorry you’re upset but soon you’ll get a whole new start! Cool huh?”
“Heather, let me explain please?”
Maria groaned, “All this day needs to be perfect is for me to be kidnapped by some freaky cult or something.”
She would have continued but the first girl interrupted, “No, this is not a kidnapping. We just want to explain something to you. Are you hungry? We could buy you something to eat.”
“Good, then you can buy the ice cream. There is a place up ahead that’s still open. But I know the owner so if you try anything there...”
“Perfect!” Lili replied, “Let’s go.”
Once there she ordered the biggest, gooiest sundae on the menu. It wasn’t like she needed to watch her weight anymore. If she never had a boyfriend then she could indulge and spend more time studying. This was a good thing she told herself. She missed the most of Lili’s speech trying to convince herself until one of them said, “... and intersexed.”
“What?” How could they know that? Her doctor had promised never to tell! “How did you find out?” she whispered urgently as the guy behind the counter frown at them. Maria smiled at him and he went to cleaning up.
“We are all were born that way. Haven’t you been listening?”
Maria blushed, unwilling to admit she hadn’t been, “Well it’s just two unimportant bits. The doctor was worried they might interfere with puberty but they didn’t so who cares.” She paused to eat some minimarshmallows covered in caramel and chocolate. “I’m going to die a virgin anyway. Can you tell me one thing that’s more important than that?”
They did and she fainted face first into her sundae. Things might have gotten sticky then but Lili telepathed the sitch to Ray who managed to divert the 911 call from the ice cream place and he and his team were the “EMTs” that showed up and carried her out into a very realistic looking ambulance.
Looking down at the unconscious girl Heather said, “Look on the bright side! Now we have the perfect cover for her disappearance!”
“Well that is true and at least I think she’ll be listening when we explain this time,” Lili agreed. “Let’s get going. If she comes out of it before we get to the Center I’ll restart my spiel. If not someone else can do it. I don’t why you had me come along on this one anyway.”
“It’s because of her power. When she’s scared she disappears,” Ray replied.
“Invisibility?” she asked.
“Not really, according to Dani she just seems to make people stop noticing she exists. It’ll triggered by fear at first but maybe we can get her to do it at will. If she can learn that she’d be a great asset. Kris figured a good telepath would be immune so you got to make first contact, being our best telepath and female.”
“That might also explain what she was so depressed about,” Lili added. “If every time she got scared people forgot her then whenever a guy she liked came close he’d forget she existed and that would just make her more scared and nervous the next time until it snowballed.”
“Oh god,” Heather replied, “that would royally suck. I hope we can help her get a handle on that.”
“We’ll do our best,” Ray said.
She came to as they were parking in the Center garage, “Man I had the weirdest dream.” Then she noticed she was strapped to a gurney and glared around at them.
“It was no dream, you have manifested a psychic power and will soon become a boy,” Lili said. She started to add something when she noticed that Kris had been right as usual, the others were acting like the girl wasn’t here. “Hey!,” she said, snapping her fingers in front of their faces, ‘Help me get her down from here.” Seeing their faces as they realized what happened was pretty funny.
“We are going to need a way to defend against that,” Ray said frowning and purposely not looking at her.
“Duh,” Heather replied, “just don’t meet her eyes.” She shrugged, “It can’t be that hard. People do it in vampire novels all the time.”
“Alternately we could just try not scaring her,” Lili said. Leaning over to look at Maria she said, “We are taking you to the infirmary. You’ll be safe there and after your change someone will come to help orient you.” With a lopsided smile she added, “If you think you can pay attention I’ll give you the basics on the way. Are you willing to listen now?”
“Yeah, sorry about before,” Maria blushed again.
“There was a water bottling facility on a river once. It closed around seventeen years ago. Well upstream from this bottling plant was a company called Genetech. Both are also no longer in business. The company got hit by a group of fanatics. The group’s name is not important but among the other damage they did was dumping test tubes down the sink. The sinks emptied in to a lake and the normal filters while good enough for their purpose were not good enough to filter out what was in those test tubes. The lake fed in to the river and the river into the bottling plant. Are you with me so far?”
“Yes, am I going to die some of horrible disease?” It would be just my luck Maria thought.
“No, but as you may or may not have known your mother drank the water from there while pregnant and in a nutshell that is why you have to come with us.”
“So that’s why we all have this power and why we all have … extra bits?”
“We don’t all have the same power. It’s always psychic but it varies greatly but otherwise you are correct. I used to be a guy once, so did Heather if you can believe it, and Ray was a girl once just like you.”
Maria looked at Ray and couldn’t quite believe it, “So by this time tomorrow...” she trailed off.
The boy nodded, “Next time you wake up you’ll have male genitals.” He patted her shoulder, “These ladies will take good care of you and I have to head back to my room and start writing the report.” He waved at Heather and Lili and he took the next left while the rest of them went straight. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll fit in fine.” He called over his shoulder. As they went the two girls made sure she knew the basics and by the time they finished she was in the infirmary.
A nurse walked over with a syringe, “This will put you out while you change. You are lucky you have a subtle power otherwise you’d be in the bunker and much less comfortable. Now before I give you this shot I’ll tell you a few things that might help. If you have a positive attitude going into the change it will help and if you have a mental image of what you would like to look like that might influence things as well.”
“Might?” she asked.
“It depends on how hard you imagine it we believe. Also I should caution you not to over exaggerate the image as you will be living with the consequences. If you can’t settle on a good image then don’t try.” She gave Maria the shot then unstrapped her and assisted her in removing her clothes and jewelry. As she helped the increasingly sleepy girl into the hospital bed she said, “I’ll be monitoring from the next room. If the shot wears off or you need anything just call out, okay?” Maria nodded sleepily and the nurse kissed her forehead before leaving.
Maria awoke and looked around confused, wondering where she was at first. Then as it all came rushing back to her she tried to grab her crotch with both hands but discovered herself restrained. She called out as struggled against the straps, “H-hello? Could somebody please untie me before I start screaming?” As she struggled she felt something flopping around between her legs. She was afraid she knew what it was and just as she was about to scream the door opened and a boy walked in. Maria’s scream became a startled peep as she saw him.
“Hi, I’m Christopher. I would have been here sooner but when you were transitioning you apparently zapped the nurse on duty a good one because she forgot she had anyone here and went to bed. I’m sorry about that. Once you learn to control it the power should be useful but in the meantime only empaths like me and strong telepaths are immune. I’ll introduce you to some of them later if you like.” He smiled as he walked towards the new boy and started unstrapping him.
“Can you tell me why I was restrained?” Maria asked.
“To keep you from hurting yourself as you changed,” he said.
Given that fresh reminder and having her hands free she grabbed herself with both hands then blushed as she remembered she was not alone. “It’s okay,” Chris soothed, “Everyone does that. I did it myself.” He released the last of the straps and came over to the front of the bed. “It does get easier as time goes along and you will have a lot of support. We’ve all gone through it too so we know what it’s like and we’ll help.”
“Wow, you’re so different from the boys at school,” Maria marveled.
“The fact that we’ve all gone through it ourselves makes us tolerant.” He frowned briefly, “Well most of us. I hope you’ll be tolerant with those who are having a harder time than most and the premenstrual.”
“I’ll sure try, I know how it goes,” she, now he smiled. “I guess I’ll need a new name, Maria just doesn’t fit this body.”
“Hmm, come stand in front of the mirror and we’ll see if we can come up with one you like,” he said.
He got out of the bed with a steadying hand from Chris and walked slowly over to the mirror. The mirror showed a very tall boy with shoulder length black hair, black eyes, and a sharply planed face with a square jaw. He removed the paper gown, wanting to see his new body fully. He now had an athlete’s body, all streamlined muscle and very little body hair on his bronzed flesh. He was surprised to find he looked Native American now.
“What the freak?” he said then flinched at the bass voice. He wondered if that was really what he sounded like.
Chris smiled reassuringly, “Yes, that is what you sound like now and it is a good voice, trust me on this. As for the ethnic change, we don’t know why that happens sometimes but it’s harmless at least. You’ll see people of all sorts here at the Center. Two dozen of us now and I think all ethnicities are represented.” Chris took a deep breath, “Now before I go get you some clothes and take you to get oriented I have one last delicate matter to advise you on. Hey, are you listening?”
She, no he, hadn’t been, he’d been staring at his crotch. It looked huge ungainly, and vulnerable. He noticed with some satisfaction that his new complexion hid blushes better. “Sorry, is it just me or this larger than normal? I mean I’ve never seen one close up but it looks too big.”
“It’s proportionate to your height don’t worry about that but my advice concerns it,” Chris grinned. “In no time at all you’ll be wishing it was larger by all accounts. Listen up now though, you will probably have to pee soon if you are like the rest of us new guys. I’ll leave you to go in peace while I scare up some clothes that fit well enough to leave the infirmary in but I warn you if you try to go standing up and make a mess the nurses will make you clean it up yourself! So sit until you get the hang of things.” He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “We usually practice in the bathroom of the boy’s locker room since the janitors are responsible for that one and they can’t pin it down to any one person. Just don’t tell anyone,” he grinned again. “It’s our little secret right?”
Maria snorted, “If you say ‘Bros before hos’ I’m going to hit you.”
He broke up into laughter, “Nope! Not going to say that.” When he finally got the laughs under control he continued, “The other piece of advice is that you will get erections. Don’t feel bad about it but don’t flaunt it either. There are some ways to deal with the problem and we’ll share them with you but it will probably take you a little while to master them. If a girl is upset just apologize sincerely and that will usually be all that’s needed. In fact you may not even need to do that, as I said, we are a pretty tolerant bunch here because of our circumstances so as long as you aren’t trying to be offensive or flagrant nobody should get in a huff.”
“Thank you but I can’t imagine...” he paused remembering yesterday. She had been wishing she was gay and now she was a he so he couldn’t rule it out. “Well let me just say thank you.”
“You’re welcome! I’ll just go get those clothes now. Be back in a jiffy.”
Soon he was back with button fly jeans and a muscle tee. “Sorry,” he said sincerely. You’re pretty tall and this was all I was sure would fit until we get to wardrobe. At least there is no zipper to worry about.”
Soon Maria was dressed and as they were leaving he said, “Mark.”
“What?” Chris replied.
“I decided I look like a Mark,” he answered.
Chris smiled, “That’s a good name. Come on Mark, let’s go get you some clothes and find you a room. Once we’ve done that we’ll go get some lunch. Sound good?”
“Sounds good yeah,” Mark replied. On the way to wardrobe he discovered he had a type. She was tall and slender with black hair and dark blue eyes. Her skin was pale and shining like fine porcelain and her lips were very red. He actually stumbled over his feet he was staring so hard.
Chris looked back, “Are you okay?” Then he smirked a little on realizing what happened.
Mark blushed, “I’m not used to being this tall yet.” He said thinking it sound plausible.
“Sure, whatever you say. We’d better you some looser pants soon though,” he repied his eyes going down then back up to Mark’s eyes.
Mark blushed again as he followed Chris, it was true his pants felt a few sizes smaller just then but he hadn’t realized it was so obvious. Fortunately embarrassment worked as well as any cold shower and by the time they reached wardrobe it wasn’t a problem.
Inside were enough clothes to start a store. “Wow,” he said. “I get to pick from all that?”
“Okay chuck that junk and we’ll get some uniforms that fit and help you pick some other stuff,” Chris said. Another boy came up from inside the stacks. The new boy was about 5’6” and a sandy blond with watery blue eyes.
“Hi, I’m Anders. Still got the shopping bug?” He held out a hand and Mark shook it.
“Never really had the chance to indulge before,” Mark replied.
Anders smiled, “No problem, you can now. Let’s start with boxers. Later you might get be able to switch to briefs but at first it’s boxers and sleeveless tees.” They led mark to a set of drawers they contained a large variety.
“The boy’s uniforms are rather … plain,” Chris said. “Either black or gray with white shirts and tee shirts so if you want to express your style on school days it will have to be with these and to a lesser extent your tie.”
Mark nodded and chose several wild prints. The only one that was black and white had peguins sipping martinis on an ice shelf. The wildest was four colors and had tiki idols in aprons making waffles in a giant kitchen.
“Wow, I love them! I would never have the stones to wear them but I love them!” Anders said and they all had a chuckle.
The boy’s uniform turned to be white shirt with mandatory tee underneath, “As a guy you can show your nipples when topless but not through your shirt,” Chris said shrugging. “Not sure I understand it but them’s the rules.”
The trousers were slacks in either grey or black, the shoes were black loafers, and the ties were black, white, or grey but a pattern was allowed as long as it followed the color scheme.
“Surely not all boys are this boring?” Mark asked.
“Not at all. This is merely the uniform. We have considerably more leeway in our leisure time,” Anders looked at Chris and started to say something then stopped.
“What?” Mark asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Chris replied. “Now let’s see if we can find you some Hawaiian shirts to match those boxers.”
“Sure,” Mark nodded. He also got some solid colored polo shirts as well. Along with sneakers and some shorts he was set.
Chris said, “It will get sent to your room once you pick it except for the outfit you wear out of here. Since it’s Sunday you can wear whatever. Once you’re dressed we’ll head off to lunch and I’ll introduce you around.”
Mark ended up wearing a shirt with tropical birds on it and cargo shorts over sneakers as they left for the cafeteria.
They grabbed some food and Chris pointed him towards the Salisbury steak, “You’ll need a lot more food than you were used to Mark. And more protein to feed the new bod. Try to eat at least some meat with every meal until you check with the docs. If you’re a vegetarian then they are other things you can eat but if you eat like you used to you’ll be malnourished and always hungry.”
Mark nodded, “I think you’d be surprised at how much I used to eat but it makes sense that I’d need a bit more to fuel this Zongor the Barbarian body I have now.” He smiled as he saw Chris try to figure out who the heck “Zongor the Barbarian” was. Mark tended to make up these names and drop them in conversation as if they were famous, it was a bit odd but his friends got used it and it gave them a source of in jokes that never died.
“Hey, can I ask you something?” He said reminded of his past life, “Do you know if they’ll let me check the news from home? I’m wondering how things are going and if my friends are alright.”
“The news? Sure. These days you can get most national papers as hardcopy in the library and most others electronically. You can’t surf the web without permission and you can’t go visit them but you’re not cut off entirely. The Colonel who runs this place and his second in command, Kristyn, are good people. She’s actually one of us so she knows what it’s like.” He led us to a table with several kids our age and made introductions, “This is Dani, she’s an empath too and a precog. She’s actually a stronger empath than I am and she can project too. Lili you know and Heather too. They brought you in. That’s Ray,” he continued.
“I’ve met him before,” Mark added. “He was there when Lili and Heather brought me in.” I nodded to everyone, “Hi I’m Mark and my power is apparently to be forgotten.”
“Good name,” Heather said. “I like it.” She frowned then, “Your power is cooler than that! You could be a ninja or something once you control it because nobody would remember you being there.”
“Thanks,” he smiled at her and she grinned back. He blushed suddenly wondering if this was flirting and was glad when Chris started talking again.
“Well after this I’ll take you to your room. You get to relax for an hour and set stuff up how you like it. Later someone will come get you and take you to testing.” He smiled, “Don’t worry, it won’t be like a cartoon ‘danger room’ or something. It might be a bit strenuous but you’ll be fine.”
As he was taking his tray up a guy stepped right in front of him and glared sticking his face just inches away from Mark’s and looking right in his eyes . Mark felt scared, he was a big guy now but he wasn’t used to it yet and besides most guys in here must really know how to fight right? So he was expecting to get beat up on his first day when the guy suddenly looked blank. His pupils were huge and his face was slack as he pulled back and wandered off. As Mark turned to walk in the opposite direction he saw Chris standing there, “Did you do that? Thanks! I thought I was going to get beat up on my first day.”
Chris shook his head, “I was going to help but that wasn’t me it was you.”
“Me?” Mark’s bass was a bit too deep to squeak but it tried.
“Yep, you. I can’t wait to find out what they say your power is officially. It’s a new one on me and I’ve been here forever. How about I come get you for dinner?”
“Sure,” Mark put his tray in the alcove. “You said we were going to my room first? Do I have a roommate? You mentioned there were two dozen of us so I guess I do?”
“Nope! You lucked out. There may be 24 of us but you are the eleventh guy so you get a room to yourself. Even when we get another guy you might get to keep it. We have plenty of space right now. Eventually you will have a roomie I guess but not anytime soon unless you want one.”
Mark picked an empty room and soon was putting his stuff away. Before he finished there was a knock on his door and a woman stepped in. “I’m Ms. Fine. I am head of security here. I’d like to welcome you personally and state that if you experience any problems with the other students you can bring them to me or to any of my people.” She gestured, “Now unless you do have a complaint I’d like to escort you to testing.”
He goggled at her. The head of security came to escort him? His thoughts must have shown on his face as she chuckled, “It’s true that normally I don’t do this but I’ve heard about your apparent power set and I wanted to get a good look at you while I still can. It might help me see through your invisibility.” She grimaced, “Or help me describe you if you go rogue and manage to give us the slip.” She stepped back and held the door open, “Come on, you don’t want to be late for your first appointment here do you?”
“No,” he answered and followed her to a room with Chris and an adult in it but nothing else. The guy’s name turned out to be Steve. There he tried to reproduce his ability consciously and failed the first three or four times before getting it right once.
Chris snapped his fingers by the guy’s ear and snapped him out of it.
“Wow,” the guy said. “That is a wild one but I have an idea as to what it might be.” He smiled at Mark, “Tell me are you adjusting well?”
Mark replied, “It’s pretty freaky alright but I’m trying to just roll with it. Shit happens, you do your best to deal, then you move on right?”
Steve grinned, “Right! Now if you’ll just follow me we want to get a few blood samples and to hook you up to an EEG. Do you know what that is Mark?”
Mark followed him out of the room and down the corridor, “Nope.”
“It stands for electroencephalograph. What that means is that it records brainwaves, not what your thinking but what synapses are firing. We’ll see if we can get you to use your power while hooked up and from your pattern and the patterns we’ve already collected we’ll learn something and usually enough to place your power in an already established family of similar abilities. Once we know that we can help you train your ability better.” Steve led him into a lab with a big comfortable chair in the center.
There was a woman on either side of it in a labcoat, “Hi, we’re going to be testing you but don’t worry it won’t hurt.” They both smiled at him and he smiled back. Steve went and got a few vials and a finger stick, “I’ll be drawing a bit of blood first but it’s just a pinch. You’ll barely notice it.”
Mark felt like saying that he wasn’t sure of that but something in him didn’t want to admit fear in front of the two women so he just sat down in the chair and tried not to wince while Steve filled two small vials with his blood. After they hooked him up though he got to practice his talent on Steve again and he got better at it. After about fifteen minutes they seemed satisfied at the results and he was back in the corridor and on the way to someone they said would explain the results.
He ended up in an office across the desk from a middle aged man in a three piece suit. “I’m Doctor Thripp. I will be your counselor while you are here. I am a psychologist and I’ll both explain the results of testing and answer any questions you might have about today. Naturally given the nature of this place all of our student are assigned counselors that are either psychologists or psychiatrists.” He waited for objections or questions and hearing none he continued, “You are what we are calling an “anti-dominator”. The Dominator powerset is able to control other minds and make them do what the dominator wants.”
“That’s horrible!” Mark said, utterly revulsed.
“Yes,” Dr. Thripp agreed, “it is and it one reason we bring all the children with powers here until we know what they can do and get a feel for them as individuals. Some people with powers go nuts and some turn their abilities to selfish or malicious ends. We call them rogues.”
“I’d hate to run into a dominator that’s for sure,” Mark said and shivered.
“Actually I think you might be safe from going rogue if not from the rest Mark,” Dr. Thripp said.
“Because of being and Anti-dominator? It means I’m immune?” Mark asked.
“Because of your power yes. At least if my theory is correct then anyone with your powerset will adjust rapidly and well to the changes involved in emergence. I hope that while we help take full control of your power and get the most out of it you will also help us understand all talents better.”
He smiled at Mark, “Now why don’t we get to know each other a little better?”
After the session he was guided to the gym where he started learning what his new body could do and how to use her old skills in his new body. Afterwards he showered and redressed and was reading some of the textbooks they had given him when there was a knock at the door. He called out, “Come in!”
“Hi,” Chris said, “I was going to head to dinner. Want to come along?”
“Sure,” Mark agreed. When they got to the line he wished he hadn’t. The girl from the hallway walked up to them.
“Hi!” she said with a little wave as Mark’s face turned red. “I was hoping to see you here. I’m an Empath too so I heard about you before we … passed in the hall.”
Mark tried to say something but what came out of his mouth was pretty incoherent until she raised a hand and stopped him mid-stutter.
“It’s okay. All part of being an empath. I can’t hold it against you and in fact I’m flattered. You’re a good looking guy, once you get a bit more used to,” she smiled, “things. Come look me up. We could maybe eat somewhere semiprivate or watch a dvd together.” She waved again and walked off.
Mark looked at Chris and finally got a word out, “Wow.”
Chris smiled, “Wow indeed. I’d say your luck has definitely turned. Now let’s go eat.”