Wishing In A New Reality (Patreon)

Based on an idea from TheGreatStoryteller!

The young man let out a heavy sigh and wondered how his life had reached such a point. It had been almost ten whole years since Jared had flunked out of high school at the age of seventeen, and he’d spent much of that decade working in the exact same place. It wasn’t as if Keith’s Burger & Fries Kingdom was a bad job - it paid enough to cover the rent Jared’s parents charged him every month with a bit to spare - but it wasn’t exactly the most fulfilling. During the tumultuous saga that had led to him leaving his high school days behind, Jared had insisted that he was destined for something bigger and better. He wanted to escape his small town and see the world. Neither of those things had happened, not had his supposed destiny come forth. He was still the same loser he had always been, flipping burgers and making smoothies while simultaneously disappointing his parents. It was a miracle they hadn’t kicked him out of his basement studio, to be quite honest.

By the time Jared’s mid-shift break finally rolled around, he had built up quite the sheen of sweat from working in the kitchen. There was no doubt in his mind that the smell of fried foods would linger on his clothes even once he’d escaped the restaurant at the end of the night, but then it had become so familiar to him over the years that it might as well have replaced his own scent. He was mercifully able to escape the kitchen for his break, heading out into the fresh night air to have a cigarette in peace. The solitude he received on his smoking break would probably be the only moment of calm he’d receive all day: his manager had no concept of an “indoors voice” and his parents were always itching to start an argument with him whenever he was at home. Genuine quiet was about as hard to come by as an opportunity to escape his hometown.

Glancing briefly up at the blanket of stars above his head, Jared was caught by surprise to see a trail of light shooting through the sky high above his head. He thought back to what his mother had told him about shooting stars back when he’d been a kid and they still had a good relationship, something that always made him feel wistful. Still, hadn’t he been craving an opportunity to leave his miserable life behind? Fixing his eyes squarely upon that glimmering pixel of light, Jared tried to boil down all of his issues to their very core, and then made his silent and desperate plea to whatever higher power there was: I wish I’d tried harder at school.

Taking in a long drag from his cigarette, Jared closed his eyes and tried to imagine where he might have ended up under those circumstances. Back before he’d given up in his classes he’d actually been something of a maths genius - it was a fact his father regularly threw in his face when he complained about how much Jared could be earning, if only he wasn’t “such a lazy shit” as his old man so lovingly put it. As much as it pained him to admit, Jared supposed his father did actually have a point: his laziness was most definitely his downfall.

While Jared was lost in the world of his thoughts, the physical world around him became muddled and inconsistent - colours blurring, shapes melting, sizes warping - before finally settling into a new setting. The night sky Jared had been admiring just a few moments prior was hidden behind a tall ceiling, and his exterior setting was boxed in by sleek white walls adorned with various awards and certificates. A single wall was dominated by large panes of glass that permitted a view across a sea of skyscrapers and city lights. Instead of lounging against a picnic bench, Jared was now positioned behind a mahogany desk and seated in a plush leather chair. Even the smell that lingered in the air was different: gone was the stench of a fast food restaurant and in its place was a rich earthy scent that felt appropriately calming.

As the cloud of smoke departed from Jared’s lips, his own physical form began to transfigure just as the room had, molding into a new appearance that was still visibly him but with some marked changes. The small gut that he’d earned from his regular meals at Keith’s Burger & Fries Kingdom quickly deflated to leave him with a perfectly flat torso, while the flesh also tightened up around his arms and legs to reveal the firm and unassuming muscles underneath. His greasy skin was refreshed within a moment and the dark circles underneath Jared’s eyes disappeared, the combination of which helped him look several years younger. Finally his hair received a makeover of its own, the hairnet vanishing as the thick mane underneath sculpted itself into a slicked back style. Designer stubble then wrapped itself around Jared’s jawline and mouth, trimmed to perfection. He was so picture perfect that it was as if a stylist had only just finished doing him up; the various framed photographs on the walls and on his desk all showed him looking equally as polished and professional.

Jared’s eyes remained closed as he took another long drag from his cigarette, failing to notice as it reconstructed into a cigar while pressed between his lips. His ill-fitting Keith’s Kingdom uniform was the next thing to begin mutating, with the mustard colour of the shirt and the tan pants both darkening until they were completely black. The shapeless blob surrounding his upper half split down the middle to form the folds of a jacket, while a pristine white dress shirt formed underneath, the top two buttons undone to reveal the top of his hairy chest. While his pants shifted into a much more fitting pair of slacks, the beat-up converses he’d had for nearly a decade were molded into a pair of black leather loafers to complete his impeccable outfit.

After letting out the smoke he’d been holding, Jared finally opened his eyes and glanced around. He didn’t acknowledge the change in scenery, nor the different clothes he was wearing. Although they were unseen to the human eye, the waves of change had rippled through his mind just as thoroughly as they had with his surroundings and body. His memories of dropping out of high school and spending the next decade as a fast food restaurant employee were completely obliterated without mercy. Instead, he could only remember a life full of working hard on his career at the expense of everything else. He was one of the richest men in the state under thirty but he also had incredibly limited social skills and had alienated his parents after regular arguments about how unhealthy his work-life balance was. What do they know, he thought bitterly. In his eyes, they could have made so much more of themselves if his father hadn’t been so lazy.

Resting his cigar in the ashtray on his desk, Jared picked up his glass of whiskey and took a long swig from it. He glanced at the clock - eleven at night and there he was still working away - before turning to look out of the large windows of his office. He glanced up at the night sky, admiring the twinkling stars, and wondered if there might be a shooting star out there. As much as he was proud of his achievements and his wealth, sometimes Jared secretly wished he could have taken a more laidback route in life...