A Touch Too Close - Part 1

Leading to and Including the First Incident

Codie Hewitt and Harper Melvang sat one row across from one another in their Introduction to Liberal Studies class. Then, they had adjacent dorms. They even passed each other in the halls on seventeen distinct occasions.

Codie's roommate pointed Harper out to him once, but Codie brushed away his dense, black hair from curling at his neck and said something non-committal. While Harper's sister said 'hi' to Codie and several times called him 'cute', she did not once truly notice him throughout her entire freshman year of college.

But then came to pass their Introduction to Psychology class. By happenstance, the two picked the third row on the right side of the room. They both picked it for similar reasons. It was close enough to see all the board materials and it was also not at the front where they were likely to be called on regularly. Also, it happened to have clear access to one of the exits.

Both sat. Both set down their far-too-expensive¹$347.99 new textbooks. And both heaved a tired sigh and cursed the gods of class scheduling for ordaining a course to begin at six in the morning. Then, more out of boredom than any actual interest at the time, they looked one another in the eye.

Codie looked at Harper. He noticed that her white, high-collared shirt seemed nice. So did her red-and-black checkered skirt. He once saw harshness in a glance at her narrow, red-framed glasses. Now, he saw only early morning lethargy and calm sympathy.

Harper looked at Codie. With futile effort, she unconsciously adjusted her flame-like hair and tried to keep a strange look off her face. She noticed that his black shirt accented the gentle shape of his chest. She tried not to linger on his gray cargo pants and felt a rush of fascination at how he didn't feel at all creepy and dark. To her, he looked as tired as she felt.

They smiled at each other and introduced themselves with all the enthusiasm the morning could afford.

In many situations, that would've been it. Maybe they would ask questions together in group work. Perhaps they'd even be study buddies of convenience due to proximity when exams rolled around. Their initial, purely physical, reassessment of each other may have even led to a few smiles when they happened to pass by again in a hallway. But, in this case, there was to be something more.

They chatted a bit when given group work and soon they were quietly chuckling with one another. They chanced upon a subject of mutual interest and a friendly ease passed between them. With the company of each other, that class session passed without any of the agony that they anticipated. However, it did not prevent the inevitable, first day homework assignment.

Together they walked out through their easy exit, having stowed their materials away several minutes in advance. They looked vaguely towards one another with a nervous uncertainty. They weren't quite walking together, but they were certainly going in the same direction. They didn't look at one another and just walked till they stepped through the same, sliding door into their dorm.

Their chuckles to no one in particular faded when they stopped and saw that their dorms were right across from one another. No memories of having been as close the year before tripped inside their heads. Instead, they smiled and traded a 'have a good morning' across the air.

Then, at almost precisely the same moment as both turned away, their stomachs gave a symphony of gurgles. It also occurred to both Codie and Harper, at that moment, that there was nothing the least bit edible in either of their dorms, excusing a quiche attempt by Harper's roommate. But that particular item was considered not even a measure of last resort for rat bait.

So, at exactly the same time and having no particular plan in mind, Codie and Harper asked each other out to "go have some breakfast" at the coffee shop²Humane Beans just off campus. Harper ordered a gigantic cheddar-and-jalapeño omelet with cilantro on the side. Codie ordered blueberry oatmeal and apple slices with a pinch of cinnamon.

They griped about homework. They chatted about a pop song permeating the air from a speaker in the ceiling. Codie asked for the non-fat milk for his oatmeal and Harper passed it over. When the transfer of milk was made from one to the other, their fingers touched for a little over two seconds.

It was long enough to raise the heartbeats of both parties by a statistically-significant amount, but it was not long enough to trigger any other unexplained effects. Both ate their respective meals slower than they would've independently. And each spent a high average of their time glancing at the other.

Despite the lingering, that breakfast passed into memory. However, plans were swiftly made for a study session by the end of the walk back to the dorm. During this period, Harper brushed Codie with her arm for a sustained time of 742 milliseconds.

Slowly, and after several quick, largely-accidental touches, the connection between Codie and Harper developed in the days and weeks to follow. The study session stayed long and led into a movie on DVD³Hotel for Dogs by DreamWorks Home Entertainment. Hands touched on the couch but for a mere, crudely-approximate four seconds.

While neither had serious deficiencies in the course material after a month, the study sessions continued at the same pace. Codie's hand always darted away faster than Harper's when touched but never for any clear reason he could understand.

Harper had taken to imagining Codie in different forms. In one, he was a doctor. In another, a lecturer in Ancient Greece. In one situation, Harper even imagined him as a young woman helping to deliver a baby. The image so struck her consciousness when she received it that she had a hard time meeting Codie's eyes for the rest of that day. What Harper didn't realize at the time was that Codie had taken to very similar imaginings about her.

Despite the tentative nature of their relationship, the two lingered in each other's orbits ever longer. Their momentary touches settled more. Codie's hand began to lose its initial skittishness and his old, lost memories softened their remnants.

Still, their contact was confined to a record of eight seconds in a noteworthy, experimental embrace. Certain dorm roommates observing this dance regarded it as having all the qualities of "a pair of sloths trying to mambo". The same roommates soon had light-weight projectiles, in the form of pillows, hurled at them by both Harper and Codie.

Inexorably, the fledgling relationship would come to a day where contact between the two parties was prolonged. That came exactly forty-two days after their first psychology class.

Both slogged their way back to their dorms after the first big test. Neither had any interest in talking and both figured they'd completely botched the examination. In fact, both had passed it swimmingly, but they weren't to find that out till after two subsequent sessions.

Codie looked at Harper with a bigger smile than he would've managed if more of his mind was free from the leftovers of Jungian theory and told her, "Looks like you could use a backrub."

Harper, in turn, responded with a smile just as big for the same reason. She leaned an arm ineffectually behind her and nodded. "I sure could. I didn't sleep much last night, because I was so scared I would oversleep."

Each gave the sort of cheesy grin to the other that a different time would've left them too chagrin to even attempt. Together, they made their way back to Harper's dorm.

While Harper picked a small juice carton out of the fridge, Codie settled his hands on her from behind. With momentary surprise from Harper followed by calm, his hands stayed there. More than ten seconds passed with his hands on her shoulders.

In the moment when ten seconds became eleven, a strange rush passed through Codie and Harper. Both staggered. Both felt like something had happened, but neither could understand quite what.

Harper looked down. Aside from the tumbling of his mostly-empty juice box ⁴Mott's Apple to the ground, Harper could see that his clothes were different and that the familiar contours of his chest were 'missing'. The juice box, fortunately, settled with only a small mess that Harper would later, easily clean up.

A series of changes affected him from all angles. Then, he turned to look at Codie, who had drawn her hand back.

Codie, who had been staring at Harper during this sudden change, knew well what he looked like now. Instead of a slender but tall redhead, Harper was still rather slender but much shorter. The red hair was gone, turned a muddy brown that ended against the shoulder. The hair looked fuller and more like the plush off a stuffed bear than the sleek, long locks he'd grown accustomed to.

While Harper's nose was about the same size, his face now looked more rounded to Codie. His glasses were silvery with accent to the frame. They seemed to overshadow his entire face due to their size. All the changes soon resolved themselves in Codie's morning-saturated mind to display a clear picture that Harper had suddenly changed into a boy.

Codie didn't even need to linger lower on the flat expanse of Harper's white dress shirt. The passing of Harper's skirt into the form of long, black slacks also escaped Codie's attention, along with the matching sandals on his feet.

What Harper saw in turn was no less surprising to him. While Codie's hair was still as black, her blue eyes no longer looked back at him. They were a dark brown that almost appeared black as well. Her arms were missing the smatterings of dark arm hair, replaced by silvery stragglers. Her nails were much longer than they were usually kept by nervous biting.

While her hair was recognizably black, it had unfurled far beyond her neck and down to her hips, where it flowed out in long, dense locks.

All these were ancillary alterations in Harper's still-hazy thoughts. What he was aware of more than any other feature were the large, twin curves of Codie's breasts through the pink, cotton top she was wearing. He didn't dwell on how Codie's pants clung to the sloping shape of her hips or how slender her legs looked in them. His mind immediately surged right ahead to panic and confusion. Codie's mind bubbled through panic slowly but soon shot ahead as well till both Codie and Harper released a gasp in the same instant.

Anyone would anticipate that after such sudden transformations of body there would be an expected amount of screaming and groping to commence followed by certain denial. From there, reactions would vary based on the incredulity of the persons involved and transition into stages of eventual acceptance or rejection.

From their gasp, Codie and Harper looked at one another until they finally found the need to blink. From that, each grabbed a chair around the dorm kitchen table and sat down. The first to tentatively speak was Harper, whose voice was more boyish than manly as he asked, "What just happened?"

Codie shook her head and felt the aftershocks of hair batting at her. She took a glance down at the rise of her chest, shifted her legs, and turned noticeably pale. Though she attempted words several times, she wound up just shaking her head in a mechanical motion till it tensed up and she lowered it to look at the brown, pressed wood of the table.

Swallowing simultaneously, the two slowly got up from their seats. Instinctively, they both turned to the mirrored sink down the hall. Out of reflex, they grabbed one another's hand for support and held for more than ten seconds as they took their careful steps.

By the third step, the rush had returned. Both jerked back, shut their eyes, and expected the worst. When no sign of sudden havoc came, they opened their eyes and looked to each other. They found themselves unchanged from minutes before. Codie looked back with blue eyes and short black hair. Harper looked back with her twin, crimson ponytails and red glasses.

The moment required several blinks before the two could break their fixed stare and start to shamble around the room. A few minutes of silence brought the first, careful laugh.

After it, Codie remarked, "I must be out of it. I could've sworn…"

Harper jumped into his pause, "It was a hard test and it's really early. We're both totally exhausted…"

Codie smiled back. "It was. That's gotta be it…"

Both nodded, satisfied with their mutual explanation for such a clearly impossible occurrence. Their satisfaction soon brought about more animated laughter.

They shared a jovial account of their 'hallucinations' through rubbed eyes and smiles. Harper made Codie stammer when pointing out the size of the chest he'd had 'in her head'. Codie noted that Harper was still a girlish boy 'in his head'. They both stopped short of trying to apply any psychological theories to what they'd witnessed.

On this note, they parted company.

While this marked the end of their first physical encounter sequence of more than ten seconds, their second would not be long afterwards.