Worst hangover ever!

Jodie was still asleep when Lauren returned to the apartment that evening. “Hey, dork.” Lauren smiled as she sat in the kitchen chairs now relocated in the living room so they weren’t sitting on the floor.

“Hey, midget.” Lauren had caught Eric staring off into space deep in thought.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, noticing Eric’s face.

"Nothing's wrong really. Just... thinking."

“That explains the burning smell.” Lauren smiled when Eric gave her an annoyed look. “But seriously, what’re you thinking about?”

Eric shrugged, “Jodie.”

“Is she okay?”

Eric paused for a moment before answering, figuring there was no way to hide her new breasts. “She had her surgery today for uh...new or well I mean, bigger breasts.”

“That was today?! I wish she told me I would’ve gone with her.”

“You knew?!”

“Yeah, we talked about it on our girl’s day out. She seemed pretty excited.”

“She did?” Eric thought for a moment, “How long had she been thinking about this?”

“Probably a while, there were some girls like Jodie planning their surgeries in jr.high.” Eric thought back to Jr.high and it seemed like that’s when Jordan’s issues worsened. Was this something sh-he planned for years in secret and he just used the job as an excuse? Or...was it something he realized more recently? “If you want her to be open with her feelings you should too. If you make yourself **** with her she’ll feel safer around you. Most guys don’t get that.”

The siblings eventually made dinner, making sure to save some for Jodie in case she woke up hungry, with very few words spoken until much later that evening. “Say.” Eric said. “You never did say where you were today.”

“Oh.” Lauren failed to hide her smile, “I was doing some furniture shopping.”

“That all?”

“Yes. I got a nice bed coming tomorrow so you can have your couch back.”

“Uhuh, what’s with the smile?”

“...It’s a very good bed.” She lied. Well, it was a good bed but that wasn’t the reason for her smile.

“Yeahuh. Wouldn’t have anything to do with that guy you spent the night with saturday?”

“No. I mean. Maybe.”

“Hey, I’m not mom. I’m not going to ground you,

as long as you're being safe and he treats you right."

"He does."

Jodie slept hard through the night, so that he didn't feel a frustrated Eric climb into bed beside him. Eric, however, barely slept as he spent the night tossing and turning. Every time he would begin to drift off to blissful sleep he would wrap his arm around Jodie out of habit. It doesn't sound like a terrible place to anyone else but to Eric he didn't want his best friend and kind of girlfriend to think the second she has big breasts he would immediately start perving on her. He wanted to, he was a heterosexual man with a pulse after all, but that wasn't something your girlfriend wanted the first morning after surgery.

rEic finally passed out somewhere between 2 and 3am. Poor Eric only managed a few hours sleep before he was awoken by a pained yell. “Son of a bitch! What the fuck?”

“What, what?” Eric shot up frantically blinking the sleep out of his eyes.

“W-what do you mean what? I, like,have boobs!” Jodie stared in horror at his breasts as if they were a pair of venomous snakes poised to strike.

“Yeah. You don’t remember? You had your surgery yesterday.”

“No! I think I would, like, remember having...no...I didn’t…” Slowly the foggy memories of yesterday came through to the surface. “No...it was supposed to be,like, Tiffany.” Eric took pity on his girlfriend and pulled her into a hug she was too weak to resist. For Jodie it was little comfort. He had woken up with strange piercings and stranger people after a nice trip but never had he woken up with such an **** body modification as this. The pain, both physical and emotional, was too much for his already stressed out mind. Jodie pulled himself closer to Eric and cried into his chest.

Eric did what he could to comfort his friend, even as confused as he was. Jodie was upset because her breasts aren’t like Tiffany’s? He hadn’t realized she was a role model for her but he had to be honest. “Hey, it’s okay.” He said softly rubbing her back.

“What?” She slowed her tears a moment to look up at Eric.

“Yeah. Honestly, I think you look better than Tiffany.”

“Eric...I’m a freak!” Jodie shouted before collapsing back into tears still clinging to Eric for comfort and safety as he had come to do more and more of late.

Eric sighed and silently continued to rub Jodie’s back. Before bed he had done some research online to try to understand Jodie’s situation better and came to understand dysphoria could strike at even the happiest of times. “It’ll be okay.” his voice, soft and warm. “I’m here for you no matter what Jodie.” he hugged her tighter. It hurt him to hear her talk so bad about herself. Lately she had seemed more confident and her self esteem had improved but today she reminded Eric of how Jordan was inh highschool.

It was another half hour of crying before Jodie was all cried out, he cried over the breasts, his wardrobe, his heels, his boss, his job, his stupidity and how he had no other outlet for these emotions since he lost his keyboard. He hadn’t felt this bad since highschool after a long binge when the weight of the world would come crashing back down on him. “I didn’t want this.” He said softly into Eric’s chest.

Eric realized fighting her on the subject only made her more upset to fight her on the subject, sso until she was ready he would humor her. “I know, but don’t say you’re a freak. You’re not a freak. You’re my best friend.”

Jodie slowly pulled himself away from Eric’s hairy chest. “You promise?” The mere thought of going through all of this just to lose Eric anyway made him sick to his stomach.

Eric held Jodie’s face in his hands smiling sweetly, “I promise.” Without thinking Eric softly pressed his lips against Jodie’s. Jodie found the kiss so inviting he couldn’t resist kissing back. There was something in the kiss that did not disgust him the same way being with Adam did. “Okay. I’ll just talk to the doctor in the morning and get him to fix this.”

“He can’t.”

“What do you mean?!” Jodie’s voice rose in distress.

“I mean, you can’t turn around and have surgery in the same week. It takes a couple of months before any doctor will see it as safe to do anything.”

“I’m sure I can find someone who ca-”

“No.” Eric’s voice was hard and forceful. “I know you want to fix this but I’m not going to let you do anything that hurts you. Not again.” Eric had known Jordan was the type to take too many risks with his own life and health and he never liked it, but he never expressly forbade his friend from living his life. But Jodie, Jodie and he had a different relationship now.

Jodie started to get angry but felt it fizzle away when he saw the worry and fear in Eric’s eyes, he was right and Jodie knew that. He’d find some way to hide them until they could safely be removed. “Fine. Did...did they give me anything for after? My...chest hurts.”

“I’ll check your purse.” Eric kissed Jodie’s head and left to pick up her purse in the living room. Inside he found a bottle of some pretty powerful pain medications and a print out for post op care. Bringing Jodie a glass of water he gave her one pill. “Just one for now. You can get one later at lunch time.”

“Spoilsport.” Jodie pouted playfully before swallowing down the one pill. Jodie finished the glass of water, slowly tracing a finger around the wet rim. Jodie frowned, losing himself in thought. He wanted to wallow in misery but he knew Eric wouldn’t allow that, he was always trying to cheer him up. “If I had just, like, taken some burger flipper job when you told me too...this would never have happened.”

Eric smirked softly taking the glass of water, “I know. But you would’ve still looked as beautiful if it didn’t.” Jodie slowly looked up at his friend...did he think he was beautiful for real or was he staying in character? Jodie wasn’t sure which he wanted at the moment.

“I-I’m worn out...and you have work soon.”

“Are you sure? I can stay with you while you’re recovering.”

“No...I have Lauren. I know how much your crew means to you.”

Before he could argue the doorbell rang and Eric quickly put on yesterday’s pants and wife beater. Looking back he saw Jodie laying on her side curled up with the blanket, “Jodie?”

“Hmm?”

“...You’re supposed to sleep on your back.” Jodie rolled over onto her back and shielded her eyes with her arm.

Opening the door he saw Tiffany standing in all her voluptuous glory. She wore a sheer white blouse that exposed the black bra beneath it to anyone who looked hard enough, and therewere plenty. Her red velvet maxi mini skirt clung to her hips and legs, her feet wrapped in matching red high heels. “Hi. You’re Lauren’s brother right?”

“Yes?”

“Cool, so like, Jodie forgot her medicine before she left and she’s supposed to, like, take it every day and since she’s got, like, a week off it’d be totally better if she just kept them at home, right?”

“...I guess.” Eric held back on his anger, Jodie was taking **** again!

“Okay so, can I like, give them to her?”

“She’s asleep I’m afraid. Her surgery took a lot out of her.”

“I bet. Mine totally did too. I wish I didn’t have to go back to stupid work, I could’ve been there for, like, moral support you know?” Before he could respond Tiffany interrupted him, “So, like, since you’re Lauren’s brother I can trust you to give her her medicine right?”

“Of course.” He lied.

“Coolio. She’s supposed to take two of each in the morning and two of each at, like, dinner time.” She handed the unmarked bottles to Eric with an innocent smile. “Anyway, I’ve gotta get going. Tell Jodie I stopped by and I’ll come visit her later okay?”

“Okay.” Tiffany had already trotted off on her heels back down stairs to her car. Eric pushed the door closed and stared at its white molding for the longest time. His emotions warred with each other, he wanted to be angry at Jodie for going back on her word, but he understood the stress she was under and he shouldn’t be mad at her for self medicating again with everything he now knew or thought he did.

Eric went to his laptop in the kitchen to look up what exactly the pills were. The first was a little orange pill roughly the size and shape of a skittle. Typing in the description and the number encoded on it he found it was something called progesterone. A medication to help stimulate breast growth and development. Putting that aside he checked the second, a small football shaped blue pill. Which he found was Estrogen. Finally the last pill, a small white tablet. He was 85% certain this was a narcotic. Only, it was not. It was spironolactone. A testosterone blocking hormone.

Eric looked at the three pills laying out on the table for the longest time. There was no doubt in his mind anymore. Jordan...Jodie was trans. Had she been planning this all along or was it a fortunate coincidence he wasn’t sure. But one thing was for sure after all that had happened, he could never see her as a man again.