Who Invited You to Dinner?

This is going to take some getting used to. I've been resisting Luck's interference up until know, but I basically just gave her full reign to do whatever she wants. Sure, she did agree to my terms to not take things too far, but it's hard to say what that actually means to someone like her. For now, I'm trying my best to follow her advice to just relax and let it happen. It's not easy, given how much control I like to have in most situations, but with a few deep breaths, I manage to steady myself enough to make it back home in one piece.

As Luck and I walk through the door, I see that my mom Melinda is already here and is currently working on dinner. I wouldn't call her great in the kitchen or anything (honestly, I think I'm better at cooking than her), but considering that I didn't even have dinner last night, I definitely won't complain. She must have just gotten home, as she's still in her uninteresting grey jumpsuit, which probably isn't the best outfit to be cooking in, but whatever. Hearing the door open must have caught her attention though, as she seems to perk up after we enter.

"Hey, sweetie. How was your day? I didn't think you'd be home this-" She suddenly stops as she turns around to see me and Luck standing in the living room. "Oh. It's just you."

Wow. That was cold. For a second there, I almost thought she cared about me. How foolish of me.

"Nice to see you too," I respond sarcastically.

"Don't take that tone with me, young man. You already know that- Huh?" My mom once again interrupts herself "Who is that?"

I glance over to see that she's looking at Luck, who, unsurprisingly, is still smiling.

"Hi! I'm Luck!" She greets my mom warmly.

"Uh... And what are you doing in my house? Kyle, is this woman supposed to be your girlfriend or something?" My mom asks as she turns to me.

"No, nothing like that, Mom," I tell her. "She's just a... friend. From work."

"Really?" Mom replies, her tone indicating that she doesn't believe me. She scans Luck up and down with her eyes. "I didn't think you actually had any friends. Makes sense you're not dating, though. This girl's way out of your league."

And just as gracefully as she started this conversation, my mom turns back around and returns to her cooking without another word, leaving me and Luck to look at each other.

"Did you hear that? She thinks I'm out of your league! Isn't that such a sweet compliment?" Luck says.

"Pretty sure it was more of a jab at me," I whisper back to her.

"I don't know. I think she might've been staring at my tits..." Luck responds smugly. "Fun fact: when I turned you dad into Alana, I was going to alter Melinda to make sure she was still attracted to her new wife, but it turns out that I didn't have to! It looks like your mom swings both ways, if you know what I mean." Really? I had no idea my mom was bi. I'm about to ask Luck a follow up question, but she turns to the blonde woman before I can say anything. "Mrs. Evans? Kyle told me I could join you for dinner. I'd love to get a chance to learn more about you and your wife."

"Oh, did he say that now?" My mom asks, not bothering to look back. Despite not being able to see her face, I can sense the annoyance hidden in her voice. "I'm afraid I don't have enough for an extra plate."

That's code for "I'd rather die than have one of Kyle's stupid friends eating at the same table as me," in case you were wondering.

"What are you doing?!" I whisper-shout at Luck. "I said nothing of the sort! Are you trying to get me killed or something?!"

"Chill out. I have it handled. You just head up to your room, and I'll work my magic," Luck assures me.

"I thought you said it wasn't magic," I point out. "This is the second time you've called it magic after specifically saying it wasn't."

"Look at you, pointing out my contradiction! You're like a little detective! Maybe there's hope for you yet!" Luck says in what is a bit too condescending of a tone. "I was mainly just using it as an expression, but I still appreciate your perception.

"Whatever," I roll my eyes. "Just be quick about it."

I walk through the living room towards the stairs without saying another word. I can hear the start of my mom yelling at me for leaving without finishing the conversation, but she's quickly cut off by what I assume is Luck turning her brain off like she did with Carmen in her office. It's probably for the best that I try not to think about what Luck might do to her, so I try to put it out of my mind as I make my way towards my room.

Once I put all my stuff down and change my clothes, I take a moment to catch my breath and finally relax. It feels like it's been forever since I could just be alone with my own thoughts. I have to admit, it's nice being able to make it to my room without having to go through another lecture. When it comes to Luck, you have to learn to take the good with the bad. I need to start getting better at that if I want any hope of surviving while she's around.

Based on how my mom reacted when I walked in, it's safe to say that Alana isn't home yet, which isn't that shocking. It makes sense that when you work as a manager at a big company, you end up working late pretty often. But at least that means I won't have to deal with either of my parents for a while. Now I guess I have to find a way to kill some free time. I'm not really used to have spare time on my hands anymore. After giving it some thought, I decide to bust out an old game I haven't played in a while on my childhood handheld. Yes. I like to play the occasional video game. So sue me.

I pop in the game and boot it up as I sit down at my desk. It's been a bit since I last played, but I take back to it like riding a bike. Overall, the experience ends up being pretty relaxing. The game I chose is a lot easier than I remember it, but I guess that happens when you get older. A few minutes into playing, Luck appears in the center of the room. I wouldn't be surprised if she was striking some kind of pose, but I don't even bother looking up.

"And done!" She triumphantly reports.

"Any chance you'll actually tell me what you did?" I ask, not expecting to get an answer.

"Just the basic spiel about not being bothered by my presence. I wanted to add something else in, but I wasn't sure what yet. I feel like giving Melinda something extra spice, but I need to know more about her before I decide exactly what," Luck explains.

Hearing that cause me to finally look up at her.

"Really? I find that hard to believe. How do I know you're telling the truth?" I raise an eyebrow.

"If I had done something, I would tell you. Or at least, I wouldn't so directly say I didn't do something," Luck elaborates.

I have to think back briefly to try and confirm if that's true or not. There aren't a lot of examples to go off of, but from what I've seen so far, Luck usually like to be pretty coy or tease me a little after she does something. While I have no way to know for sure, the fact that she's saying all this with a straight face does lend credence to the fact that she's being truthful. And it's not like she really has anything to hide at this point, given that I've already said she can help me.

"Alright, until I see evidence of the contrary, I'll trust you on this one," I tell her. "And by the way, I hope you know that no matter how 'spicy' of an idea you come up with, I still have no intention to fuck my parents."

"We'll say how you feel once all's said and done," she replies with a knowing smirk, which makes me roll my eyes again. That's probably something I'm going to be doing a lot from here on out.

Luck and I spend the next little bit chatting while I continue playing my game until dinner is ready. At one point, Luck even decides to look over my shoulder and watch me play. Once my second mother gets home, we all gather around the table and get ready to eat. I won't lie, even though I'm doing my best to refer to her as "her," seeing Alana at the table still throws me for a loop. I just can't get over how the woman seeing across from me used to be the man who terrified me for all those years.

Anyway, after I get reacquainted with the new appearance of my father-turned-mother, we all start digging into our food. Neither of my parents seem the least bit concerned with Luck's presence at the table. Granted, they don't exactly seem happy that she's here, but they at least aren't throwing a fit. I can only assume that Luck did the same thing to Alana that she did with Melinda and Carmen since she has the same neutrality towards the mysterious brunette as her wife. If I had to guess, I'd say Luck probably went ahead and installed that when she first turned Alana into a woman, but I have no way of knowing that for sure. Either way, Luck tries her best to have a friendly conversation with them, but even in their altered states, neither seem all that interested in talking to her.

Luck seems a bit perplexed by my parents' lack of willingness to open up. However, their behavior doesn't surprise me in the slightest. It takes more than a five minute reprogramming to make Mr. and Mrs. Evans (or I guess... Mrs. and Mrs. Evans? I still don't know how exactly that works) to be polite. I didn't have a lot of friends growing up, but even the few I managed to get never seemed to last after meeting my parents. There's just something about how cold they are around anyone associated with me. It's more than a little concerning. But hey, I'm still standing, so I can't complain too much.

"So, Melinda?" Luck pipes up after swallowing a piece of chicken. "I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about yourself. You know, give me a peek inside that head of yours. For example, is there anything out there that really gets you going?"

Realizing what Luck is getting at, I quickly kick her under the table. She lets out a muffled grunt as she tries her best to maintain her mischievous grin.

"Excuse me? What exactly are you implying?" My mother asks, sounding a bit offended. "Kyle? Why did you bring this freak into our house? I just want a plain old, normal life without a son who causes problems nonstop. Is that too much to ask?"

Once again, Luck seems caught off guard, but I think I see what the problem is. I noticed something similar that happened with Carmen, though to a lesser extent. Luck may have made it so they don't have an issue with her, but she did nothing to affect how they see me. Because of that, both my mom and Carmen immediately shifted their attention to me after interacting with Luck. Carmen insisted that Luck's performance was my responsibility, while my mother seems to have taken her presence as the newest excuse to talk down to me. For someone who specializes in psychological changes, it seems like a bit of an obvious oversight. Although maybe that's where the other changes she's planning are supposed to come in. Who knows? Certainly not me.

"Sorry, Mom," I say apathetically to try and smooth things over.

"Ugh. More apologizing," Alana adds as she picks at her food, seemingly uninterested in any of the items on her plate. "If you were a real man, you would stop saying worthless garbage that means nothing and actually start taking action."

I notice Luck chuckle to herself at the irony of that statement, but I just sigh. I hope this experience was worth it for her, because I am not having a good time right now.

The rest of dinner is either more of my parents finding things to complain about or dead silence. Luck doesn't end up asking any additional questions, and overall seems fairly contemplative as she eats. Eventually, we all finish eating, and I collect everyone's dishes to wash. After that, Luck says goodbye to my moms and leaves out the front door, only to already be back in my room once I get there.

"I hope you were able to get whatever you were looking for," I say in annoyance.

"Actually, I was," Luck confirms.

"Wait, really?"

"Yep. And let me tell you, those two need some work. Well, Melinda does. I already did my thing with Alana. You just haven't done what you need to do to get the ball rolling on that one."

The hell is that supposed to mean? I have to do something? But if she won't tell me what she did, there's no way for me to know what I have to do. God, this just keeps getting more and more confusing.

"Anyway," Luck continues. "Melina may be a hottie, but she seems like a bit of a stick in the mud if you ask me. A bit too rough around the edges too. I have quite a few ideas for ways to fix that, but I need to think about how exactly I want to do it."

"Well, can you figure it out somewhere else? I think I'm about ready for bed," I tell her while stretching.

"No problem! You get some rest, and by the time you wake up tomorrow, we can REALLY get started!" Luck asserts as she cracks her knuckles. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot to do tonight. Bye!"

And in an instant, she vanishes once again. The fact that I'm starting to get used to her teleporting all over the place is a little concerning. Is that how long it takes for this stuff to no longer phase me? One day? Well, whatever. I'm more than ready for some more time by myself. Besides, I need time to prepare myself for whatever Luck is going to do.

Let's see. She's probably going to do something to both my mom Melinda and Carmen tonight. And she said she'd reverse what she did to Rae. Not to mention I still don't know everything she did to Alana. Oh boy. That's a lot of stuff I'm going to have to work out. I really do need to get ready. After some consideration, I come to the conclusion that my best option is to try and take things easy for the rest of the day so I'll have as much energy as possible for tomorrow. I spend a bit more time unwinding with my game, then head to bed early for some extra shuteye. As I lie down and start to drift off, one final thought occurs to me: in addition to everything else, Luck is probably going to meet Audrey tomorrow. Dear god, am I going to need strength for that...