Life's New Changes Part 6

“Ryan, Please! Be alive,” whimpered Tiffany as she slid down onto the ground and seized Ryan’s chest with her four arms and squeezed.  She felt Ryan’s chest rise up softly as his lungs filled up with air and then sink as his lungs let go of the air.  

Smiling, Tiffany sighed in relief.  He was alive.

“Ryan? Ryan, wake up.  I’m here.  Just wake up ok?  I need you wake up for me,” said Tiffany as she shook him gently.

Ryan groaned in pain.  

“Come on, Ryan! Wake up please.  I need you to wake up,” begged Tiffany, grasping Ryan tighter as her eyes started to tear up.

Ryan moaned again.  This time his eyes seemed to flutter.

“Ryan, please, Ryan,” said Tiffany.

Blinking several times, Ryan opened his eyes.  Taking a deep breath he looked up at Tiffany and said, “Hey girl.  Glad to see you.”

Laughing through her tears Tiffany said, “After that phone call all you could say is ‘Hey girl. Glad to see you’?   You nearly gave me a heart attack by how you sounded on the phone.”

“Sorry honey,’ said Ryan.  ‘But could you let me go now.  It’s kind of hard to breath with you gripping me with all four of your arms.”

“Oh,’ said Tiffany as she realized that she still clung to Ryan and let him go.  ‘I’m sorry Ryan.  I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Well I’m fine as you can see,” said Ryan as he stood up.

“No, you’re not.  You wouldn’t have called me if everything was fine.  I wouldn’t have found you unconscious on the floor,” said Tiffany, looking up at Ryan with a frown, folding her four arms onto her lap.

Clearly annoyed Ryan said, “Fine.  I took those pills that we keep from when you grew your arms.  It just didn’t work on me. I called you because I panicked and then I passed out.  Nothing happened OK? Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“I wasn’t accusing you, or judging you, of anything Ryan.  It was a simple statement of what I heard and saw with my own eyes,” said Tiffany, standing up and looked hard at Ryan.

“Well it sound like you were saying something other than what you were saying,” said Ryan, pouting.  

“Ryan, you never have to worry about my opinion of you.  I will care for you, with your mistakes and all; bad day or good day.  You are my boyfriend and the best thing that has come into my life.  Besides, the pills are working,’ said Tiffany with a smirk.  ‘Look down at your shirt.”

Curious, Ryan looked down.  What he saw surprised him, he gasped and widened his eyes in surprise.  Ryan saw four different ‘sticks’ pushing outwards from the side of his body, two on each side.  Before long the lumps started to feel tight in his t-shirt.  Ryan tried to pull his shirt off, only it was too late, his new extensions burst through his shirt.  They ripped through, almost all at the same time, causing his shirt to rip apart at the seams.  Ryan shifted his stance towards his left; he looked up at Tiffany with confusion, mouth agape.  

Tiffany deviously smiled, putting her upper left hand over her mouth to hide her smile from Ryan.  

Ryan looked back down to his changing body.  The four extra sticks growing on his body started to grow hands and grown to nearly the thickness of his original upper arms; yet where still half the length of his original arms.   “No, I thought….This isn’t what I expected. How? Why!? Oh MY,” stated Ryan.

Continuing their growth, the four extra arms and hands filled out and grew out from the side of Ryan’s body quickly.  Tiffany watched in fascination, Ryan’s eyes grew wider and wider in terror.  Seconds seemed like minutes for Ryan.  

Another Thirty seconds went by as Ryan’s new arms completed themselves.  Ryan looked at his new arms in horror.  Tiffany just smirked.  

“Oh! My! God! I’m a freak, a fraud, a crazy person who thought that more arms would make me a ‘whole person’.  Now I realize I’m just a freak,” stated Ryan on the verge of tears.  

“Ryan, come on.  Don’t say that.  You didn’t say that when I choose to change my body.  Now I have to say that for the most part people accept me with my four arms.  Why wouldn’t they accept you with you’re newly found six arms?  I bet that people will accept you for who you for being the new you that you are now,” said Tiffany.

“No, you don’t understand. I’m a freak.  It was cool that you had an extra pair of arms.  But now that I see myself with extra arms and I’m ashamed of myself.  I’m a freak, a monster.  Don’t LOOK at me Tiffany!  You must think I’m a hideous creature-thing indeed with six arms,” said Ryan.  Shamefaced, Ryan looked away from Tiffany and towards the bedroom door.  Looking back at her once more he looked at her as if to say ‘I’m sorry’ and ran out the bedroom door without a word.  

“No!  Ryan, come back,’ said Tiffany, reaching out to him with her two left arms.  ‘I still love you.  You’re perfect just the way you are.  Please come back to me.”

Falling on deaf ears, Ryan just ran through the out and out the front door.  Promptly going to his car Ryan tried to pull his keys from his pocket, only to find that all three of his left hands reached for his pocket; restricting him from getting his keys.  Ryan panicked and ran down the street towards the empty and undeveloped part of town.  

“Ryan! Please don’t run away from this. Let’s talk about all of it.  It’s a lot to take in for sure.  I promise I will understand.  You are still a ‘man’ to me.  I love you,” yelled Tiffany as she ran out of the front door and into the street, trying to keep up with Ryan.  

Stopping in the middle of the street, Tiffany looked around for Ryan.  A beep came, startling Tiffany.  Looking to her right she saw a Prius slowing to a stop not ten feet from her.  The middle-aged driver looked angry, he beeped at her again.  Tiffany quickly moved to the other side of the street, mouthing an “I’m sorry” to the driver, and let the car pass.  Looking around again, she didn’t see Ryan anywhere.  Rolling her eyes, she figured that he ran off to his favorite hiding place near the brook in a groove of trees near his childhood home.  

With her lower right arm she pulled out her cell phone and called his mother.  

“Hi, Mrs. Walker; I mean Stacey,’ said Tiffany.  ‘It’s Tiffany.  Ryan took a few of the ‘pills’ and now he’s having a difficult moment adjusting.  I think he may be headed towards his ‘secret spot’.  Could you meet me there in like five or six minutes?”

“Sure thing sweetie,’ said Stacey.  ‘I’ll see you there.  What exactly happened?  Just so I’m not surprised when I see him.”

“He grew another four arms.  So don’t be surprised to see him shirtless with six arms,” responded Tiffany.  

“Ok, good to know.  I’ll see you there Tiffany,” responded Stacey.  She hung up without another word.  

Putting her phone into her pocket, Tiffany walked off towards where she thought Ryan had run off to with authority.  Wanting to get to the bottom of Ryan’s reaction to his own changes, Tiffany was still a little annoyed by his reaction to his new arms.