Chain Writing Stories

House

by Maddy

And then his clothes were no longer fitting that adult body he now had.

"Uh... Marie? I wasn't really expecting this..." The boy glanced down at himself, fidgeting around, which only made the fabric constricting his body dig deeper into his skin. He suddenly felt extremely awkward; everything looked and felt totally different and it made him uncomfortable.

"Shush, Liam, that's just how it is," Marie told him firmly, folding her arms across her chest. "You agreed to it, right?" She tipped her head slightly, her eyebrows rising as she waited for a response.

Liam scrunched his face up in discomfort, taking one last look around him before he answered her. His surroundings were also unfamiliar; he had never seen this house before. The only thing familiar was the girl standing in front of him, but even was different. It was only her personality and way of moving that had remained the same. He nodded yes.

"Right. Now, we need to do something about our clothes. These aren't right at all," she huffed, lifting a finger up to her chin as she looked to the ceiling in thought. "I think it should look a little more like this."

In a split second, Liam's clothes were no longer cutting off his blood flow. In fact, these actually fit him quite well. Instead of his t-shirt and jeans, he was now clad with grey dress pants, a white dress shirt, and a dark green tie. He was grateful to have his movement and feeling in his limbs back, but he had never worn anything quite like this before.

Standing in front of him, Marie had made a complete change as well. Her hair was shorter, hanging just below her shoulders in a single curl at the bottom, a headband holding her fringe out of her face. She wore a bright pink dress with white polka dots. It flared out at the bottom, and a thick white belt worn around her waist accentuated her curves- that weren't there before.

"Much better." She exhaled a breath of relief, smoothing the front of her new dress with her hands. "Those other clothes just didn't fit right anymore, right Liam?" She looked up at him with a sickly sweet smile.

"Marie, what's going on? I'm scared," Liam blurted. The girl's expression turned instantly sour.

"What is there to be scared about? This is normal. Look at our house, it's beautiful." She stomped her heeled shoe on the floor and crossed her arms again.

"I guess so..." Liam muttered, more nervous than before. He looked away.

Marie stayed quiet for a long time, then a realization hit her. "We're missing something. Someone."

"Someone?" Liam repeated, wondering what in the world she could be talking about.

"There's gotta be more than just the two of us, right? We're husband and wife. There's someone else, ya know," she told him pointedly. Without waiting for a reaction, she marched into a bedroom and returned with something carefully cradled in her arms.

Liam gasped: "A baby?!"

Marie hushed him. "You'll wake her. I just got her to go to sleep a little while ago," she snapped.

"What are you doing, Marie? I'm not ready for a baby," Liam whispered harshly. He was beginning to think that all women were crazy.

"You should have thought about that before we had her, then," she told him, but she was more focused on the bundle in her arms than anything. She didn't even sound bothered anymore. That is, until her face twisted up in displeasure. "She needs a diaper change."

"How do you know?" Liam inquired, now genuinely interested.

"Smell." She shoved the child in his face before he had the chance to protest. Soon his nose was filled with a foul smell that he believed he would never be able to forget. He thought he was going to throw up.

"Gross!" he exclaimed, recoiling and receiving another scolding for being loud.

"Go change her, I have to make dinner," Marie instructed, her arms outstretched in front of her. Liam scowled and kept his distance from her and the child. "Go on, take her. You're her daddy, you have to!" she insisted. He rolled his eyes and sighed, carefully taking the baby from her. "Good. Be quick, we're having potatoes and steak for dinner."

For once, Marie had said something that Liam could actually agree with.

Changing the baby was no easy task. At some point between daydreaming about dinner and getting her on the change table, she had woken up and refused to stop squirming around. Besides, Liam had no idea what he was even doing. It took him five minutes alone to figure out how to get the old diaper off of her. We wasn't sure how to clean her, so he had to sneak past Marie, who couldn't know he left the baby alone for a minute, and get some wet paper towels to wipe her properly. All he could think to do was lift her leg straight up into the air so that he could reach under, and-

"LIAM! THAT IS NOT HOW YOU CHANGE A BABY!" Marie shouted, suddenly standing in the doorway.

"I'm sorry!" he shouted immediately, gently lowering the baby's lower half back onto the table. She began whining and kicking her legs in the air.

"You have to be gentle." She stomped over and shoved him out of the way. "Watch." Marie carefully took both legs and lifted them slowly in the air, not nearly as high as Liam had thought he had to. She then wiped the baby's bottom and wrapped a new diaper around her. It looked lopsided and uncomfortable, but Liam knew better than to say it out loud.

"Oh. That's how you do it," he said. He thought to himself that he could have done it much better.

"Yes, it is. Now go sit down while I put her to bed. Dinner is ready and it's time to eat." Liam began to leave the room, headed straight for the table, but he was stopped at the door with more orders. "Wash your hands first, you just changed a baby!"

He groaned under his breath. Why had he agreed to marry her in the first place?

In a few minutes, the both of them were sat down at the table in front of their dinner. "I thought we were having potato and steak?" Liam said.

"We are," Marie sighed. "Can't you tell?"

"Not really..." In front of him was a plate of black mush and what appeared to be leather. "Am I supposed to eat this?"

"Stop whining, Liam!" Marie shouted, exasperated. "I burnt the potatoes a little, and overcooked the steak a little, sure, but it's still edible! Be grateful for what you have!"

Finally, something inside Liam snapped. "I don't want any of it anymore! I said I would marry you because I thought it would be fun, but all you've done is boss me around and make me take care of a smelly baby! And now we're supposed to be having a nice meal but you suck at cooking!" he yelled back. "I'm hungry and I want good food."

Marie was speechless. She'd never imagined that he would blow up like that. "Liam..." Before she could continue, a voice from down the hall shouted for them.

"Marie! Liam! Lunch is ready, come eat!"

Then Liam glanced around the room again. His t-shirt and jeans were back, and so were Marie's. He set down the toy plate piled with black clay and a toy football and got up from the floor, Marie jumping to her feet behind him. He had to step over a pile of blankets that hid a baby doll underneath them on his way out. He could finally get something good to eat.

Playtime was over.