John, home alone

(By mariofan of writing.com, edited by Vestiphile)

John lives alone with his mom. His dad divorced her a few years back when they got into an argument over her time at work. Mom was dedicated to her job--some would say to the point of obsession. When he was younger, John couldn't want for anything, and as he grew up, he had an independence that a lot of teens didn't get. So now, in junior college, he and mom didn't see a lot of each other. Her job kept her extremely busy, but somehow she managed to still get everything done around the house.

His mom called earlier, telling him that she was out of town until Monday to head to an expo for work. That meant, of course, that he had the whole house to himself for five days. Naturally, the first thing he did was drift straight to her room to inspect a certain product he'd heard her on the phone with clients and buyers about.

She'd been mentioning something called "self-fitting clothes," on the regular--talking up how revolutionary they'd be, and how groundbreaking they were to the apparel industry. Also...they were apparently made with a few well-protected trade secrets. As these were her new star product, she had a bunch of samples socked away at home. John asked about them once or twice, but she was elusive--telling him either that it was 'highly technical' or 'a girl thing', and that he wouldn't be interested.

So he absolutely went straight to her closet to have a look. He opened the doors, took a glance around at some things, and shuffled a few hangers. To his surprise, he found himself looking at more "Self-fitting LLC" tags than he could count. A couple dresses, a bunch of skirts in wool, leather, and probably some acrylics or other artificial polys...blouses, slacks...they seemed to make all kinds of things.

He didn't get what was so 'groundbreaking' about them, though. They looked and felt like regular clothes.

When he broke from the closet and headed over to a dresser, he slowly pulled open the bottom drawer, revealing long- and short- sleeve tees, neatly folded sweaters and other types of specialized outerwear tops like halters. More 'Self-fitting LLC' tags, too! It was as if mom had stocked her whole wardrobe full of work samples--which seemed strange since these were all such different styles. Didn't she have any other brands?

The next drawer up--little camisoles, sleep and yoga pants, and a couple sports bras with moulded cups. John smiled a bit at the way the cups stuck out--like there was still a heaving chest in them even when they weren't being worn. He reached out to run has hand along the curvy surface of one of them, feeling the softness of the fabric...

"Whoa!" John jumped back. He swore the thing moved under his touch. When he got a grip, he took a step forward and looked into the drawer--seeing nothing out of the ordinary. He picked up the red and black sports bra and shook it before feeling the inside of the same cups. Strange that he had the impression that they were moving.

He finally opened the top drawer. Socks. Stockings. Bras. Panties. He was taken aback when he saw the same delicate tags sown into the items in cotton, lace, satin and nylon. Almost everything he'd seen was this 'Self-fitting LLC' brand.

"She talks about this stuff like it's gold," he muttered to himself, holding up a pair of pantyhose. "I don't really get it." What did 'self-fitting' mean, anyway? Was it just one-size fits all? That was their big trade secret? John laughed aloud, completing his thought audibly. " Maybe if they, like, put themselves on or something, I could see big dea...yahhh!"

Now he really jumped back. Things shot out of the opened drawer right in front of his eyes, propelling themselves into the air. The drawer half-shut itself, and the next one down popped open again, spitting even more items out at him. The sports bra he'd put back even righted itself--in mid-air--and clipped around nothing but thin air.

Behind him, items in the closet fluttered off of their hangers. Even a vanity drawer opened up, producing scarves and gloves. His mom's clothes started to fly wildly around the room, and making an attempt to back out of the impossible storm didn't do him any good--he tripped over a pair of pants that had purposefully stuck out a leg behind his reversing paces.

Luckily, a pair of red satin evening gloves and a pair of silky brown leather gloves caught him by the wrists and around the trunk, guiding his body to the bed. He panicked, trying to sit up again, but now they then held him down. He struggled against them, but the gloves were too strong despite being filled with nothing but empty space--which he confirmed when he was able to momentarily hook a thumb inside one of the brown leather gloves.

By now, he noticed the storm of clothing had calmed down, as many of the items were assembled into various outfits, standing around like his mom was invisible and wearing them. A couple orbits of clothes still levitated, circling the room, but the motion was more organized than before--as if they were surveying the human trapped on the bed.

"Hey! Let me go!" John shouted. The clothes didn't make any sign of following that request.

Another pair of gloves--wrist length in gleaming red leather--floated over him on the bed and shrugged. He took it as a sign that they meant to communicate.

"I-I was just curious about when mom meant by 'self-fitting clothes'." he stuttered. "I didn't mean to say you weren't anything special--I...I just didn't get it." John shook his head, squinting at the red leather forms, and then at the pairs holding down his limbs again. He was really seeing this--really feeling it--though he wasn't sure how it was possible. These weren't just 'self-fitting'...these clothes were acting on their own! The gloves shifted as a black leather miniskirt came between the pair, inflated to a shapely pair of invisible hips--which the leather gloves promptly placed themselves against. With some nervousness... he then asked, "I'm really seeing this, aren't I? You really are a big deal." The leather form seemed to shimmy in front of him.

No wonder mom avoided all his questions about these things. They had a mind of their own! They were pretty groundbreaking after all--and now John seemed to be at their mercy--with days until she'd be back from her expo.

"W-well...now that I know this, uh--trade secret--what are you gonna do to me?"