Peer pressure for the win

Westfield Galleria, Ridgemont, at 2:52 PM on Saturday, June 15th, 2024.

Your mouth goes dry as you feel all four pairs of eyes settle on you. The anxiety that's been simmering in your chest suddenly roars to life, but something about the moment—maybe it's the boredom of the summer, maybe it's the desperate need to prove you're not completely useless to this group—makes you push forward before your brain can stop you.

"I'll... I'll do it," you manage, your voice cracking on the second syllable. The words feel alien coming out of your mouth.

Marcus's eyebrows shoot up. "Wait, seriously? Nate's actually volunteering?" He exchanges a look with Tyler that's part amusement, part genuine surprise.

"Dude, you don't have to," Evan says quietly, and for a moment you appreciate him—but the moment passes just as quickly.

"Hell yeah, let's see what happens," Derek says, his massive frame practically vibrating with excitement. His twelve-inch cock shifts in his shorts at the prospect of witnessing something wild, though you're mercifully unaware of exactly what.

Your scrawny legs carry you toward the machine's narrow door on shaking knees. Each step feels like it takes an eternity. The neon pink and violet glow makes your pale skin look almost corpse-like. Your friends cluster behind you, egging you on with increasingly enthusiastic commentary.

"Bro's actually doing it," Tyler laughs.

You reach the door. It's smooth, seamless, with a single raised circle marked "PRESS TO ACTIVATE." Your hand trembles as you push it.

The door slides open with a hiss of hydraulic pressure.

Inside, the chamber is small—barely larger than a phone booth. The walls glow with the same neon colors, and there's a pedestal in the center with that activation button repeated in larger form. Your heart hammers against your ribs as you step inside. The door seals behind you with finality that makes your stomach lurch.

For a moment, nothing happens. Your friends' voices muffle behind the sealed door.

Then the lights intensify. The neon pink and violet swirl around you like liquid, engulfing your vision. Your body tingles—every nerve ending firing at once. There's a sound like electricity crackling through copper wire. Your small frame locks up, unable to move, unable to scream. Heat floods through you, concentrated in your chest, your hips, radiating outward until every cell feels like it's vibrating at a frequency just beyond human tolerance.

Your bones feel like they're rearranging themselves. Your chest suddenly aches with a pressure you've never experienced—something blossoming, swelling, pressing against nonexistent skin. The sensation is overwhelming and terrifying. Your hips seem to widen, your body reshaping itself into curves you've never imagined. Your hair grows—you feel it sliding down your back, lengthening impossibly fast, and somewhere in the chaos of sensation, you register that it feels... different. Colored. Pink.

Then, silence.

The chamber powers down. The light fades. A new door slides open—a different door, on the opposite side of the chamber from where you entered.

You stumble forward on pure instinct, your legs—suddenly longer relative to your new proportions—carrying you out into the food court again.