TWV: Sleepover

"Hey, Zack!" Zack groaned and threw his headset on his desk. Cayden had been shouting nonstop for ten minutes now. He just wanted to be left alone with his game, not having to see what the latest thing his dorky little brother wanted to show him. "Zack!"

"Doesn't he have some friends over or something?" He muttered. Cayden was always having dumb little sleepovers, he thought, pushing his gaming chair back and storming across the hall. "What?" He glared at the assembled twelve year olds, stting there, grinning at how hilarious it was to ruin his evening. One of them was even twirling some dumb necklace in his hands. Was he this much of a twerp in sixth grade? He doubted it. That felt like a lifetime ago, even if it had only been four years.

"We're thirsty." Cayden said innocently. "Go get us drinks."

"I'm not gonna do that."

"Until you're properly dressed."

"What?"

"Do it, Alex." Alex, the kid with the necklace, stopped twirling it and pointed to Zack.

"What is that supposed to do?" Zack shivered and realized that, in his rage, he had mistakenly stomped across the hall in just his boxer briefs. No, wait, those weren't boxer briefs! He looked down in horror at the starch white briefs he now wore; the only thing he had on. "What the fuck did you do?" He glared from grinning face to grinning face.

"Go get us drinks." Cayden said firmly.

"Give me my clothes back and get rid of these... these..."

"Tighty whities." Alex said, smugly spinning the necklace again.

"Whatever you did, fix it." Zack snarled, but the boys only laughed, snapping photos of him in his juvenile underwear. He had not worn them since like third grade. How had they...

Fuming, Zack stomped back to his room, but the door was closed and locked. He was trapped in the hall wearing nothing but underwear. Not even my underwear, Zack thought angrily. Groaning melodramatically, he returned to Cayden's doorway.

"Get us drinks from downstairs and we'll fix it." Cayden said.

"Fuck you."

"Alright," Cayden shrugged. "Have it your way." He nodded to Alex, who pointed again. Zack looked himself over. Nothing had changed. He smirked triumphantly at the boys, but froze as he heard a voice behind him.

"Zack, what are you doing?" He turned and looked at his mom, head spinning. How had she gotten so tall? "Zack, come on. Leave the big boys alone. It's time for your bath." She picked him up before he had even processed her words. Bath? Did she just say bath? "Yes, Zack." She said when he stammered out the word, his voice cracking in his confusion. "Friday night means bath time for my wacky Zacky."

"But... you don't understand." He cleared his throat to try to force his voice down an octave, but it stayed high pitched, almost prepubescent.

"What don't I understand, snugglebug?" She asked as they entered the bathroom. Zack saw his reflection in the mirror and gasped in horror. The boy looking back at him was him, but he could not have been a day over five years old.

Zack tried in vain to get his mom to listen as she gave him a bath, but he had to drop it as her hand moved lower.

"Mom! Don't touch me there!"

"I have to get every nook and cranny. You boys get so dirty in so many places. I'll be done before you know it."

"But I'm not a little kid!" He shrieked loudly enough that he knew Cayden and his friends must have heard it. When they did not come to investigate, he resumed trying desperately to get his mom to believe he was a teenager, refusing to give up even as she dried him and wrapped him in a shark hooded towel.

"You and dad just had a talk with me about the C I got in Geometry." Mom did not seem to even register that. "I was a lifeguard at the community pool last summer, for god's sakes! Mom, you have to believe me!"

"That all sounds very exciting, Zack, but it's time for bed."

"No, mom! Listen! I'm older than Cayden, I really truly am!" He tried to get her to believe him, but there was no use.

"I know, sweetie. You want so bad to be big. You've always been jealous of your big brother, but you just have to be patient, okay?"

"But mom!"

"But nothing, snugglebug."

"Don't call me that!"

"But you are my snugglebug!" She pulled him close to her and nibbled playfully at his shoulders. "My little wacky Zacky snugglybug! Yes, you are! Yes, you are!" She scooped him up, spinning around and around with the former teenager cradled in her arms. "Now, I know you want to be big, but we both know you still need to wear what to bed?" Zack tried to remember what life had been like when he was five. This had to be some kind of weird dream, right?

"Dunno." He shrugged.

"Your Pull-ups." She tapped his nose. Zack felt numb as she carried him down the hall. Cayden's door was closed, which Zack was thankful for since the way his mom held him did nothing to cover his naked bottom. The room she entered was his, but how it had looked a decade ago. He groaned. Alex or Cayden or whoever better fix this!

Shifting him to one hip, his mom opened his boxers drawer, but it no longer held those. One half was dedicated to white briefs, the other had nothing but Goodnites in it. Great, he thought. The only time he was out of tighty whities was when he wore diapers.

No matter how Zack tried to resist, his mom dressed the squirming teen turned kindergartener in his Goodnites and Spider-Man pajamas. His head spun with how quickly he found himself lying in bed with a stuffed wolf tucked in next to him.

"There we go. Snug little snugglebug." She cooed, kissing his forehead. "For the sweetest dreams a little boy could want." She whispered, turning out the orange and white striped lamp beside his bed. A nightlight bathed the room in a cozy glow as she left him there to wonder if he would be back to normal come morning. He heard laughter from across the hall and shuddered. Something told him the best he could hope for was dry Pull-ups.