The Wish Cards

[Demandred]

Part 2
Part 3
Part4
Part 5

Hi Long time reader, first time poster... there isn't much growth in -this- part.




The Wish Cards


Matt didn't enjoy his reflection, but he did the obligatory morning check-up in the bathroom mirror to make sure he was still there. Yup, same brown hair, same brown eyes, same stubble. He wasn't bad looking, but he did have what looked to be on the verge of an emo fringe. That was something else he had to do after college... he added it to his mental list of things to do as he brushed his teeth.

His local college was like any other, unfortunately. Matt chose this one because it was a 15 minute walk up the road, 20 if you went through the park. Matt often did in the summer - although, typical British weather (and humour) dictated that he took that route roughly 3 times in a year. Any other time the place was prone to gale winds, floods and the odd Sheffield Earthquake incident. Matt did get to walk by the park itself though, and he always tried to peer through the iron bars past the pine trees at the grass within. He sometimes caught a glimpse of the ducks in the central pond, waiting for some hapless chubby toddler to feed them bread. Then there was the homeless guy… Matt saw him that morning, sat on a park bench in that red jacket trying to look like he had a home whenever someone walked past. He wasn’t fooling anyone, Crazy Clifton.

Matt wasn’t picked on all that much. After doing their GCSEs, those kinds of people tended to become builders or something. Matt didn’t know what. Even Gransthorpe College had standards, 5 Cs and you could fail any A-levels you wanted. English Literature, Physics and Maths for example.

Okay, Matt -was- a bit of a geek. Not too tall. Pretty skinny. You know how they start in these stories. Faded blue jeans, dark shirt. He met his friend Tammy by the stairs near where they had Lit, their first lesson that day.

“Hey, you’re here before Adam.” Tammy remarked.

“I always get here before Adam.” Matt replied. He was met with a derisive snort only friends could get away with. Tammy was a nice young woman, Matt supposed, with a firm figure, loose black hair and clothes which never quite covered her cleavage. Adam, who just so happened to arrive right then, was as tall as she was pretty, and as cocky. Where Matt’s ruffled hair looked kind of messy, Adam’s was the right-out-of-bed-into-your-pants. His clothes fit his toned figure, from his wide shoulders to his tapered waist. His dark trousers hugged his long legs, and Matt always found himself wishing they were tighter.

“Mornin’” Adam said in that deep, confident voice only attractive guys could pull off.

“Hey Ad” Tammy replied a little absently. Matt didn’t even say anything. They were used to one another’s silence, when it was early and the morning wood wasn’t fully forgotten. They sat together at the back and helped one another wake up by talking about what colour Harriet would have her hair next (it seemed to change every week) or how Burger King was better than MacDonalds - or maybe it was the other way around, depending on their mood - before Adam would end it by saying he didn’t eat junk food, and Harriet would probably be unoriginal and have her hair bleach blonde again or something.

Looking at Adam - something Matt often did when the class started - you could tell he didn’t like junk food all that much. He wasn’t too tall, just around 6ft. Matt used to prefer sitting behind him to watch him work, before they had to do a group presentation some time ago and they didn’t move back afterwards.

“Oh great, what’s he doing in here?” Adam said suddenly, looking very irritated at the door. Jake Wilson stood there, holding onto a slip of paper and looking very pleased with himself for some reason. Adam grunted as if hit in the stomach. Jake made his way to the desk, where Mrs Lane hadn’t even started the lesson. Handing her the paper, he sat down and made himself at home right in front of Matt. At over 6ft and built like a wall, Matt couldn’t see over him.

“It looks like we have a new class member.” Mrs Lane said from somewhere beyond Jake’s bulk. “I’m sure you all know Jake.” Oh yes, he was the captain of the rugby -and- the football teams. Granted he did stay in the net in football, but Matt guessed he simply lay in front of the goal and so didn’t let anything past him. The lesson passed without incident really. Matt tried looking around Jake, failed and sat back eyeing Adam.

After the lesson the three of them were stood talking about whether Matt should get his hair cut or not when Jake strutted his way past, making a point of knocking into Matt hard enough to make him fall into Adam.
“Hey, your boyfriend caught you. Lucky for you.”

“He’s not my boyfriend” Matt said, beginning forcefully but tapering off as he straightened up and came a head short of Jake still. Idle fancies aside, Adam was a friend. And he wasn’t saying anything to Jake, either. Matt supposed he didn’t blame the guy - Adam was toned, but Jake was a big guy who took working out very seriously. It was his upper body which got Matt, chunky in all the right places before narrowing down to the waist, if not so gracefully as on Adam. Those broad shoulders, heavy pecs and thick arms always had people giving him second, then third glances. Matt didn’t get much of a chance to check Jake out righ then though. He knew how to be discrete, and standing right in front of him wasn’t exactly tactful.

Luckily Jake didn’t notice he was being thoroughly examined for a split second. He was probably used to being looked at anyway. “Hey” He said to Tammy, his baritone voice taking on what could only be described as an unusual sleazy purr. “What are you hanging around with these fags for. I’ll show you a good time.”

“Screw you… whatever your name is.” Tammy replied, cool enough to freeze the air.

Jake looked a little confused, then annoyed. “Fuck you.” And with that he left, but Matt knew things weren’t going to get any better anytime soon.
“Great. Just great.” He sighed. “Ahhh let’s just go get some dinner…”
So off they went, Tammy looking bemused, Adam a little like a rooster with his feathers brushed the wrong way and Matt… well, Matt had his arms folded and he was wondering what the hell Jake’s problem was.
It bothered him for the rest of the day. Matt had it down as one of those things some ice cream and a long sleep wouldn’t sort out. The problem would still be there tomorrow, but he liked ice cream…

The sun was shining as Matt left college that afternoon. Tammy lived in the opposite direction by the river, and Adam was practicing whatever martial art it was that he did after college 3 days a week, so he usually walked home on his own. Not that he minded, especially when he could walk through the park. It was the middle of May, it was about time it stopped raining. Matt made his way along the path, round the trees. The scenic route. He had no bread to feed the ducks, but a fat goose didn’t object to his half eaten sausage roll. Leaving the goose to gorge on the pastry pig, he left the dull whine of traffic behind and replaced it with the chirruping of birds and the odd scuttling of a rat. He thought he saw a squirrel, too. He was so busy watching what turned out to be a dead branch that he didn’t see Crazy Clifton until he was right in front of him on the park bench people usually avoided. This part of the park was a myraid of trees, the willow branches from the nearby pond plaiting a pattern against the sky and casting an earthy glow on the scene. Crazy Clifton, however, brought Matt back down to earth.

“Some change?” He half-asked, half ordered. Some used the “40p for the bus fare”, others needed it “for the phone”, but you could tell this guy would probably spend it on booze, and if you asked him he’d tell you what the tipple of the week was.

“Uhhh…” Matt was always too nice to people. He didn’t like watching game shows because he felt bad for the people who lost. So it’s not really a huge surprise that he fished a pound out of his jeans and held it out for the crazy homeless guy.

One fingerless-gloved hand took the coin. The other was holding a pack of cards. “Yer a good ‘un, son. Fancy a game of cards?”

“Uhhh… umm… I don’t really have the time-”

“It won’t take long, boy. These aren’t no ordinary cards.” They looked larger than normal, actually, and there was definitely more than 52 there. Face down, they were all pitch black. “These here are Wishes. You pick a card, and it’s your wish. They always come true. And they're always exactly what you want.”

What kind of Disney film crap was this? Matt kept his thoughts well away from his facial expression. Better to amuse the man and leave. “Ok… so what do I do?”

Clifton was off like a shot, laying his blanket down and mixing the inky cards all over. Still face down, of course. “You pick one, and it comes true! That’s what a Wish card does.” He looked up at Matt, grinning. The pound coin glittered between his less shiny if equally yellow teeth. Matt squatted down and looked over the cards. They were extraordinarily sleek to say that a tramp owned them… well, whatever. Matt waved his arm around as if deliberating over which card to pick, then took up a random one around the middle-left of the pile. Clifton peered too close to see what it was - Matt held it out - it was a picture of a minotaur, by the looks of it. Or was it a bear? It was a strange, blurry drawing, as if drawn in shadows and coloured by the night-time. Beneath, it simply said in bold letters “GROW”.

“What does this mean then?” Matt asked, gesturing for the man to take the card back. Clifton jumped back as if stung, but in fact he just looked a little offended.

“You keep the card, you fool. If you rip it in half then your wish is cancelled. If you fold it, your wish stays as it is at the time of folding.” He was collecting all the other cards, which looked much less shiny now for some reason. “And if you don’t know what ‘grow’ means then I have nothing to say to you.”

“Alright. Thanks…” Matt shrugged and backed away before heading home. Didn’t Clifton have a broader accent before he picked the card? That he sounded less like a lunatic was a small wish to come true, Matt supposed. He didn’t think about the card - he put it in his bag, went home and had a very normal evening making a semblance of doing work and having some ice cream before going to bed earlier than normal. As he tried to get comfy he noticed his upper body felt a little achy, as if he’d done too much stretching or something. Maybe it was falling into Adam...? Matt's final thoughts before falling asleep were Adam and his dull grey eyes weighing him, considering him.

***

The next morning, Matt woke up with a sudden grunt. Normally he rolled out of bed after hitting the snooze button a few times, but it was 7am and he felt wide awake. Apart from the fact that he was in bed, of course. He realised something else was amiss… what was it…? Aha. He pulled off the covers and looked down at his raging morning wood, tugging at his boxers. At 7 inches, Matt wasn’t ashamed of his man meat. He wore a t-shirt to bed, but he wasn’t ashamed of that either. Well, not really.

He got to his feet and went to the bathroom. Something was still off and it wasn’t his dick, which was still very much on. Nothing a long shower wouldn’t remedy. Locking the door (just in case anyone couldn’t hear the shower), Matt stripped off and threw his clothes into the corner of the white-tiled room. He looked in the mirror as he walked past - that obligatory morning check-up - but this time he did a double take for two reasons. One, his reflection… leaning closer, Matt raised his eyebrows with surprise. He couldn’t put a picture on it, but he looked… older? He definitely had more facial hair than he should have a day after shaving. Not that he minded, he liked stubble on guys so why not himself? He figured he’d skip his shave today. That reminded him that he’d forgotten all about his haircut.

The other thing that got his attention was the minotaur/bear card stuck to the mirror. What with, and how, Matt had no idea. It pulled off easily, leaving no marks on the card or the wall. Matt looked at the card closely this time. The lines seemed more fixed this time, but he still thought it was a toss between a minotaur and a bear. Whatever it was, it sure was beefy. Matt didn’t believe anything Crazy Clifton said, but how did the card get In the bathroom? And if he didn’t know any better, his erection had not died down a single bit. In fact… Matt chose that moment to look down. He was well acquainted with his equipment, being a frequent customer and all. He was pretty certain it was thicker than he’d ever seen it before. Maybe it was this newfound energy. Maybe he just needed to get more sleep, then he’d be more awake in the mornings.

The Grow card sat on the shelf as Matt took a very enjoyable shower.

[arpeejay]

Great start! I'm ready for the next installment!

xoxo

Richard

[Otaru_grower]

Yay, I love this so far.

[TheMM]

Originally Posted by Demandred

Matt wasn?t picked on all that much. After doing their GCSEs, those kinds of people tended to become builders or something. Matt didn?t know what. Even Gransthorpe College had standards, 5 Cs and you could fail any A-levels you wanted. English Literature, Physics and Maths for example.

Hey! My three worst classes!