Lion in the Mirror
Jake stirred in his bed as the sun peeked through the blinds and onto his eyelids. He didn't open them, no, he was still moderately hungover from the night before. With no alarm set, the sun was how he preferred to be woken on Sunday mornings, but today, a mild headache begged him to go back to sleep. The warmth of the covers hugged his body and he pulled them in closer, still not opening his eyes, but shifting to lay on his other side.
"What the-?!" He said in confused bewilderment.
In the quick motion he made, a sharp pain shot up from the base of his spine from a lump that he had rolled over on. Finally his eyes shot open. Blurry vision subsided and he couldn't believe what his eyes were portraying to him.
Thick yellow fur sat perched on his nose which now was wider and protruded further from his face than his normal. His attention snapped to his arm that had the same golden yellow fur fully encasing every inch of his skin beneath.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no -," He repeated to himself and flung the blankets off him and onto the floor.
He crawled desperately to the end of the bed and ran to the bathroom with the sole goal in mind of seeing his reflection and confirming or denying the new reality he was finding himself in. His now paw-like feet thumped across the carpet, step by step. The sensation of the pads and fur from the bottom of his feet was foreign to him and tickled. He subconsciously made observation to it and quickly changed sensory to the wind that caught his ears and how much more sensitive they were.
He reached the slightly ajar bathroom door, and slammed his whole body into it to push it open. A long yellow tail with dark brown fur at the tip whacked against the door while his body turned in the direction of the mirror.
Only a few more steps, now. His mind raced and the reflection came into view.
"Is- is that me?!" He questioned in disbelief while feeling the fur on his new lion shaped face.
He pulled at the fur, it was attached. He pinched his teeth, they were his. He rubbed his eyes, he was awake. What seemed like an hour rolled by as he stood in front of the mirror examining every inch of his body. He had longer hair which looked like a mane, he had new canines that were sharp enough to prick his finger, and he had new muscle definition which allowed him to see his pecs and abs despite the thick layer of fur covering them. With every brush of his hand over his soft fur, and every pose he flexed, he was starting to guiltily enjoy his new appearance.
His mind was still going a million miles a minute with questions, How? Who? Thinking back to last night at the bar.
"That has to be itβ¦" He muttered to himself and trailed off.
Finally breaking his gaze from the mirror. He turned back toward the door and made his way to the laundry bin in his closet with newfound determination. He lifted the pair of jeans from last night and dug his hand deep into the back-right pocket. Fur on the back of his hand brushed against its natural flow and sent ticklish pricks to his nervous system with every strand that passed the denim threshold.
He grabbed onto the thin piece of paper and yanked it out of the pocket, dropped the jeans back on the floor, and scanned the receipt with a gaze of ferocious intensity. He continued his examination until his eyes stopped on the two words he was looking for, Lion's Heart. The specialty cocktail from the night before and that hot bartender! Jake smirked and crossed his arms. He knew that drink sounded disgusting when the bartender pressured him to try it. Whiskey, gin, coke, sage, bitters, and tonic, and the bartender that was serving him wouldn't let up about how it would change his lifeβ¦
He looked down over the new muscle on his arms and then back onto his tail that swished at his command.
"Well, I guess he wasn't lying."
Jake recalled the bartender from last night. He had black hair, short stubble, and was extremely handsome with well defined cheeks and perfect skin. His deep eyes were a mysterious dark brown and his eyelids cast shadows over them for most of their interaction. Jake had been mildly flirting with him throughout the night and to what Jake could remember, the bartender reciprocated.
He reached for his jeans and crumpled the receipt while shoving it back into the pocket. One leg at a time, he put them on. He was going to go pay the bartender a visit.
