“Hey, Lexi, what are you doing this weekend?”

Hearing her friend Gena's voice on the line cheered Lexi up considerably. Ever since Gena and her husband had moved across the country, life had not been the same. For a while, Lexi and her friend Caroline had continued to meet on weekends to experiment with the “Ultimate Potion” transformation potion. But Caroline had recently gotten involved with a man named Ryan, and they were already inseparable, so Lexi was left on her own.

“Lexi, are you still there?”

“Sorry! Sorry...um...what am I doing?” She paused, mulling over how empty her weekends now were. “Well, maybe I'll catch up on Netflix or something,” she mumbled.

There was a small silence on the other line. “You...you're not going to transform?”

Lexi sighed. “Into what, with who, and what for?” After Caroline had introduced her new boyfriend to the Potion, she had called and gushed about him for a half hour. “It's so much fun to turn into things with a man who totally understands me...” Lexi wished she had a man like that too, but she had not been as lucky in love as Caroline had. After this, Lexi had occasionally transformed on her own – one weekend she was a blue jay, another, a cougar... She had even gone into a toy store and become a doll. When she was purchased and handed to a girl who doted on her, she thought she had finally had found something enjoyable to do with her free time. But then the girl's brother got ahold of her and cut off her limbs, then her head...

...Which led to the night of turning into a sailboat and bobbing aimlessly on the waves...

“Lexi, you know we're still here for you. Now I know last time I saw you at Caroline's party I was kind of jerky...”

Smiling, Lexi recalled Gena's poorly-veiled jealousy as her husband Jim seemed so taken with Caroline's creativity. Unfortunately Caroline then requested to change him into a sex toy for her own usage, which only made matters worse...

“It's okay, Gena. It's very understandable – that whole thing with Jim was kind of nasty of Caroline, honestly.”

Caroline's slight was obviously still painful to Gena, and she simply skimmed past the comment. “I still want to make it up to you. Jim's got a business trip this weekend, and I was going to go with him as his suitcase...”

Lexi almost smiled at this. “Another way to save on airfare.”

“Yes...actually, it's more than that. We have this thing now, where we become an object solely to serve a purpose. I mean, instead of turning into a...I don't know, doorknob, and then fooling around and talking, we simply become the doorknob, and serve our purpose.”

“What does that even mean?”

“You know the way, like, when you're food, you want to be eaten?”

Lexi frowned. “Don't go there. Remember the party? I don't want to be eaten.”

Another pause. “Yes, we have to work on that with you, Lexi. But anyway, it's very calming to simply let yourself be that object. You're not a person. You're an object, and you don't talk, move, or interact with anyone. In doing this, you find your thoughts soon become very basic...almost non-existent, depending what you are. It's like the ultimate type of meditation. And in fulfilling your purpose, you feel a sense of accomplishment.”

Lexi burst out laughing. “Yes, allowing people in and out of doors can be quite fulfilling.”

“Don't knock it until you try it. But instead of being luggage for the weekend, as fun as that can be, I'm going to visit you. Watch your mailbox tomorrow. I'm overnighting myself to you.”

The doorbell heralded Gena's arrival late on Friday. As the mail carrier handed Lexi a box marked with an “Extremely Urgent” sticker, the box winked at her. Lexi cringed and yanked it away from the surprised woman, mumbling a thanks as she slammed the door shut.

“Gena! She might have seen you! Don't wink at people if you're a box!” she scolded. “That's something that Caroline would do!”

Before she could even set the box down on the floor, it had already begun to sprout limbs, and soon her friend stood before her. “Oh, come on, Lexi. You know I'm careful. I'm still a scientist, when it all comes down to it.” Gena made a deep stretch. “Ah, it does feel good to be able to stretch after you're a hollow cardboard rectangle. I think Jim overpaid for my postage, though. I was empty, after all.”

“He was probably enjoying putting stamps on his wife. Hey- what's on you?” Lexi yanked at Gena's shirt. She was glad that Mr. Wintergreen, the man who sold the potions, had managed to create one that retained their clothing. No more embarrassing naked scenes after transformations...

Giggling, she removed the over-retained “Extremely Urgent” sticker from Gena's blue shirt. A few stamps were then unceremoniously retrieved from her ankle as well.

“Ah, that's better,” Gena murmured, going over and lying out on the couch. “So, how's it going?”

Lexi could see the deeper meaning to Gena's words, and she took this as a much-appreciated invitation to vent. “Oh, I don't know. I feel like I have no friends anymore. Now that Caroline's with that...Ryan,” she spat out the name as if it were an obscenity, “I hardly see her. The three of us got together for dinner a few weeks ago – I think Caroline felt bad about dumping me–”

“Well, she really didn't dump you...”

Surprised that Gena was defending Caroline, Lexi raised her eyebrows. “All they could do was tell me about the stuff they do. The things they become, the things they...do in different forms...I knew Caroline was...imaginative, but she's...actually really...kinky...”

Gena smirked. “I got that from the turning my husband into a sex toy part.”

“Yeah, well they...oh, Gena, they even were in the computer somehow, and Caroline says there's a potion that's permanent now...like they don't need to keep drinking it...”

If Gena knew about this new development, she did not let on, and Lexi wondered if she was still in close partnership with Mr. Wintergreen. But no matter, she did not want to be a true shape-shifter. She liked being normal, and if the urge struck to become something else, she would rather take a sip of potion that would wear off – as opposed to changing whenever the smallest thought crept into her mind. That could be potentially dangerous...

Gena rose. “Let's walk outside,” she simply said, and Lexi followed her into the yard. It was a balmy midsummer night, and both girls paused under a mimosa tree that hung over Lexi's car. Gena leaned against it, then drew back, rubbing at her hand. “It's sticky!” she cried.

Lexi pulled at one of the fluffy pink flowers. “I know. I love these trees, but the sap gets all over my car. I wish I had a garage, but the previous owners converted the garage to a den...”

“Ah!” Gena cried, walking into a large open spot. “We can fix that...temporarily.”

“What do you mean? I'm not paying for a garage now!”

“First of all, at Caroline's party, remember she was a building, and Jim merged with her?”

“And you got mad at him.”

“Yup. Well, back home, Jim made me turn myself into a building so I could see how nice it was. It wasn't the same as being a cottage with you guys was, because I was doing the 'being only the object' deal, but Jim lived in me for the weekend, and I was so proud.”

“Proud?”

“Oh, I provided him with shelter, and comfort...I made such a good building...” She pulled her cell phone from her pocket. “Look how well-built I was!”

Lexi chuckled despite herself. “Well-built? Is that the word you want to use?” But she studied the picture of the impressive brownstone situated in the middle of the woods. “Wow. You did look...nice.”

“Thanks. Now give me your car keys.”

“Why?” Lexi handed her the phone back uncertainly.

Gena stuffed it into her pocket. “Turn yourself into a garage, and we'll use you.”

Lexi rolled her eyes. “Great.”

After delivering her keys and downing some potion, Lexi stood in the clearing, fighting her quivering body.

“Your body wants to change. Why don't you let it? What's with you, Lexi?”

Lexi was not sure herself. She was almost angry at the whole idea of transformation, how it had messed up her life, leaving her alone...

“Come on, Lexi. I'm telling you, be the object, and you'll feel so much better. Make yourself a cute little garage. Your car needs you to shelter it from the pollen.”

“Your car needs you...” echoed in Lexi's head. It seemed to flick a switch that had turned off weeks ago...Suddenly she was needed!

She let go, allowing the changes to take hold of her form, stretching it and enlarging it. She was becoming hollow and square, her limbs swallowed up into her increasingly boxy shape. The ground rumbled as she grew in weight and mass, and Gena chuckled.

“My dear building, your construction is causing an earthquake.”

But Lexi could only moan as she hardened into brick and wood. Shingles sprouted like scales on her head...only her head was flattening, stretching out with the rest of her body to form a roof. Yes, she needed to be water-tight to protect her car from the elements...She would make a wonderful garage for her needy car...

“I do need to be a good building,” she murmured as her last bits of flesh became wood and she grew still. “Am I a nice garage?” she asked hopefully.

“Beautiful,” Gena said, tapping at the shutter on her window. “I like how you even have windows. Nice touch. Charming. But listen, you're an object, not a person. Be the object, do what you're supposed to do, and that's it.”

“Okay,” the garage agreed, and grew silent.

Gena drove Lexi's car up to the new building, and without a word, the garage door rose invitingly. She pulled the car inside, trying to ignore the happy little sigh she heard from the wall. The garage door closed behind her, and she curled up in the car to go to sleep for the night.

The sun rose on Lexi's shingles, and it felt almost as good as if she were a plant. She was solid in the ground, providing a shelter for her friend as well as her car, and there was never a better garage in existence, as far as she was concerned.

“Good morning, Lexi! Did you enjoy that?” The car door opened, and Gena stepped onto Lexi's concrete floor.

The garage chuckled. “Lexi? Who's Lexi?”

Gena smiled. “You got the object thing down pretty well, I see. Isn't it satisfying that you did such a great job at it?”

As silly as 'doing a great job' as a garage sounded, it made perfect sense to Lexi. It was not as if she didn't have her mind anymore; she knew very well who she was. But at the same time, having let herself sink into 'garage thoughts' had freed her temporarily from the trials and tribulations of her human life.

Carefully, she maneuvered her changing form around the car that had been parked inside her. Soon she was beside it, breathless from the rapid change of size. “I did do a good job, didn't I?” She ran her hand through her hair, then checked the rest of her figure to make sure she was all intact.

“Yup. And now that we helped you there, we've got other things to do.”

Gena set a big pot on the stove and poured in a small bit of oil. “This is a fun one. Turn into a popcorn kernel.”

“OO!” Lexi jumped up, her curiosity piqued. Popcorn! She had never thought of this, and yet it sounded like it could be a lot of fun!

Then her face fell. What was her friend up to? She scrutinized Gena suspiciously. “Only if you don't eat me.”

Clicking her tongue, Gena turned on the flame. “First of all, I'm turning into one too. Second, Lexi, I have to tell you. With the eating thing, you don't know or understand what you're missing. Really! But right now, come pop with me. You first!”

Lexi got onto the floor and pulled herself into a ball. Slowly and luxuriously, she allowed herself to transform. Limbs and head merged with the rest of her until she was essentially a living ball. As she shrank, she rocked back and forth, enjoying the pleasure of hardening into a kernel.

Fingers grabbed at the new little popcorn kernel and hoisted her up. She was now looking into the face of her friend – who now appeared to be a giantess in relation to herself.

“Hey, cutie!” Gena giggled. “Ready for a bath?”

The bubbling oil made a harsh crackle, and for a moment, fear gripped the little kernel. It shivered. “I don't know if I want this–” it squeaked out.

Gena peered at her. “You're a popcorn kernel. Don't you feel the need to be popped yet?”

As Gena held her over the oil, Lexi could not argue that she did possess the increasing urge to be bathed in it; to let it bubble and massage her oval form, coaxing it to expand into fluffy whiteness...

“Make me pop, Gena! Please!”

Gena flung her into the oil. It was warm and inviting, and Lexi was only vaguely aware of the kernel that was Gena entering the oil beside her. The fantastic pressure building up inside of her was all she could focus on now.

The oil ate at her, tickling and pulsing at her surface...The pressure was slowly building, all of her hard body aching to explode...

“I'm gonna pop, Gena!” she yelled from beneath the liquid, resulting in bubbles on the already frothy surface.

She was almost there, the tension was almost impossible to bear...

An immense crack shattered her world, sending her form into ecstasy as she exploded. The force threw her from the pot to the counter, but she was completely oblivious to her surroundings. The sensation of bursting was electrifying, and she could only lay there, shivering from her amazing experience.

Being food was so satisfying...she wondered what it would feel like if someone would crunch into her fluffy, crisp form...

No, no, I can't do it...

A screech from the pot sent Gena careening overhead. She fell to the counter inches away, but it took her a moment to speak.

“Now,” she finally was able to gasp, “how's that for a food experience?”

“It was awesome. Thanks so much for suggesting it to me. I like how I feel in both forms – kernel, and piece of popcorn.” The Lexi-popcorn shivered delightedly. “I'm so fluffy!”

“So, listen, Lexi, I know what you like, and you trust me, don't you?”

The popcorn's eyes narrowed. “What now, Gena?”

Gena gulped. “Lexi, don't you feel this great urge to be...chomped?”

Lexi was silent. She knew very well what her friend meant, and it was not the first time she had noticed it. But whenever she had turned into something edible, she had always ignored that urge, as it seemed ludicrous as well as dangerous. Yet it was always there below the surface, nagging at her...

“Lexi, you can turn back at any point. You're completely in control. Whenever you're done with it, become yourself. Why don't you just let yourself be chewed? Even that...I mean, wow, you liked popping? You'll love this.”

Her friend was never wrong, and Lexi was curious. It was just the digesting part was so unappetizing...

“What should I be?” Lexi asked weakly.

Gena took human form a little too quickly, which made her nearly fall over. “Oh, dizzy,” she stuttered, grabbing at her head.

Lexi followed a bit more slowly. “Any suggestions?”

Gena now scratched at her temple. “Well, what do you like? What sounds appealing to you? What does your body ache to be?”

Lexi pondered this for a moment. She tried to hone in on what her body wanted to become next. “Something sweet, maybe candy...”

Gena threw up her arms. “Oh, God, Lexi, it's perfect for you!”

“What?”

“Turn into cotton candy.”

Her body was melting away. Lexi was hardly aware that she was shrinking as the change was unlike any transformation she had experienced yet. “I feel like...I'm drying up,” she exclaimed, as Gena watched with interest. Her body was becoming so soft, all of it thinning and twisting into a delicate circle of spun sugar. She giggled as she fell lightly to the ground. “I could stay this way all day. It's almost like being clothes, but better, because I'm sweet!”

“You didn't give yourself a stick or anything for me to hold on to,” Gena observed as she gathered up the soft mass of her friend in her hands. The slight pressure on Lexi's new form elicited a happy moan from the sweet.

Gena waited several minutes for Lexi to get used to being cotton candy. “Be the object only,” she purred. “Lexi, just be what you are right now.”

“Who's Lexi?” the cotton candy smiled up at her. “I'm just a bit of cotton candy...” The familiar urge to be sampled was pounding away at the little confection until it finally murmured, “Taste me. Please.”

Gena's lips met with Lexi first, and she could feel some of herself sticking to them. As Gena touched her with her tongue, she began to dissolve on contact with her friend's saliva. As disgusting as it sounded to her as a person, now, as a candy, it was wonderful. She was melting away, floating around Gena's mouth and teasing her friend's taste buds with her delectable flavor...

“You're delicious, Lexi.” She could hear her friend's words deep from the throat that yawned before her.

I can stop this at any time, thought Lexi, trying to reassure herself. At any point I want. I'm in charge.

Some of Lexi was falling down her friend's throat, while some remained in Gena's mouth, and the rest of her was safely ensconced in Gena's hands...

“Feast on me, Gena.”

The moment that Gena had consumed Lexi completely, her friend appeared back by her side. “Oh,” she uttered. “Oh...oh....”

“That was quick. Nice, huh?”

“Nice. Very...nice...I felt so...fluffy...again,” Lexi giggled, hugging her arms to her chest. “I'd like to hang around in that form when I'm bored and alone. It makes me happy.”

“No digesting, though?”

Lexi blushed. “No. I think a bit of me started to, but I turned back before things got out of hand. I guess, though, I kind was already being digested by the enzymes in your saliva. So I've gone farther than I planned.”

“Good job. Now I have some plans of my own.”

Gena took on a dreamy expression as she began to speak. “When I discovered the first part of the Ultimate Potion, the one where you simply become what you think, I couldn't control it for a while. I turned into a pile of fruit at work, then I became a pie. And I really liked that. The best part was when one of my co-workers found me and carried me off. I keep going back to how I felt as she held me, how cool it was that I was really and truly a dessert. I wished she could eat me, because the idea of letting people enjoy me was so appealing. I miss that place, and everyone there. I'd like to visit them without them knowing, and give them a good-bye treat. Me.”

Lexi blinked. “You want to be a pie for them?”

“Yes. A beautiful, golden pie, filled with fresh fruit...buttery crust...”

“You want your co-workers to eat you.”

“Ex-co-workers. I've never loved working at a place as much as that lab. Everyone was so nice – it's where I met Jim! I want to be the best pie ever, and I want them all to enjoy me. And them not knowing it's me...well, it's kind of titillating, honestly.”

Lexi ignored the last part. “For how long?”

“Being a pie?” Gena winked. “For as long as I want. Maybe days.”

Lexi frowned. That didn't sound so appetizing.

It was decided that Lexi would bring Gena to the lab, then remain with her as something inanimate. Gena said that this was not necessary, but Lexi insisted on protecting her.

“Pies don't need protection,” Gena said, positioning herself mid-room for her impending metamorphosis.

“Desserts that are really people do,” Lexi asserted. “Now change already.”

“What could anyone do to me as a pie, other than eat me, which I want anyway?” Gena asked as she got down on her side and curled herself into a ball.

“Did you ever see the movie 'American Pie'?”

“No.”

“Don't.”

Despite the many, many transformations Lexi had witnessed, seeing her friend turn into a pie was still rather remarkable. As the whole of her simply melted together, Gena was flattening into a pie-shape. Her bottom was forming into a silver pie-dish, while the rest of her became golden, her top knitting into a criss-cross pattern of dough. Just a hint of her delicious fruit filling peeked through the openings.

“Mm,” uttered the pie, shaking a bit. “I'm good.”

Lexi neared her, and the aroma of freshly-baked pie wafted through the room. “Oh, Gena, you smell...heavenly! What kind are you?”

“Summer berry,” the dessert chuckled. “My favorite.”

Lexi's mouth watered.

“Want to taste me?”

“Oh, God, no!” Lexi gathered up her friend and walked to the car.

As Lexi placed the pie on the break room table at the lab, her finger slipped into a crevice on Gena's side.

“Oo! Thanks! Do that again!”

Reflexively Lexi licked her finger off, reveling in the taste...

“Oh, God! I ate you! I'm sorry, Gena!”

“It's okay! Why do you think I'm here? I'm thrilled that you get to share me. Aren't I good?”

“Amazing, but...”

“Change! Someone's coming!”

Taken by surprise, Lexi shrank down, becoming an empty salt shaker.

Gary, Gena's old boss, came in mumbling. He tripped over the salt shaker and picked it up, cursing. “Who the hell dropped this on the floor? Someone's going to trip over it and I'll be sued!” He smashed it back down on the table next to the pie.

“I need pie. Now.” Gary looked around the room for something to cut the perfect dessert. “Where the hell is a knife, or a cutter, or–”

The salt shaker vibrated, then grew into a cake cutter before Gary turned back around.

“What the hell? It was there the whole time? I'm freaking losing it!”

He drove the cutter that was Lexi into Gena's soft form. Both girls were quite happy at this.

Grabbing up a plastic fork, he began to feast on the pie. Eyes widening, he uttered, “Damn, I think this is truly the best pie I ever had. I gotta find out who brought this in.”

He took two more slices of Gena, and she smiled inwardly. Her work here was done.

Several more lab aides and workers took slices of Gena. She found herself in so many places (most of which were inside of people), that she was overwhelmed. But it was invigorating as well, and she was happy to be on such an intimate level with her old friends. Her present to them was the best pie ever – herself.

At the end of the day, when most everyone had left the building, the pie cutter regained its human form. It gazed down on the empty pie plate which now had a blissful face emblazoned on its bottom. Gena's eyes were shut tightly, and the face was unmoving, simply a part of the metal plate.

“Gena? You ready to go home?”

The pie plate did not stir.

“Gena?” Lexi knocked against the metal surface.

One eye opened halfway. “Not now. Not now!” The face settled back into inanimateness.

Lexi glanced at the window. It was getting dark, and she did not want to be stuck in this place at night. She picked up the pie plate. “Come on, Mrs. Pie Plate. We're going home.”

“Hey, Lexi! Can you cook something in me?” Lexi heard from the kitchen.

Lexi followed the voice back to where she had left her friend on the table. Gena was still a pie plate, but she was alert and apparently full of ideas.

“Cook something in you? You sound like Caroline!”

“Well, this is just part of me. Most of me is still in–”

Lexi cut her off. “I don't want to know where the rest of you is. Too much disgusting info.”

“Can you bake a pie in me?”

“I don't want pie! And you really want to sit in a 350 degree oven?”

“We were just in hot oil!”

“Yes, but...” Lexi couldn't explain why that did not scare her as much as being baked in an oven. “You'd be trapped, and it's hot, and...”

The pie plate frowned. “Lexi, I'm a pie plate. That's what I'm used for. I want to have a pie baked in me. I'll give it such a nice shape, and I'll feel it cooking and crisping in me, while the fruits get all baked and runny...”

“Gena, sometimes you're worse than Caroline.”

“Never.”

Lexi managed to scrounge up some old fruit. She was a bit low on flour, but the crust came out fine nonetheless. As she lined Gena's edges with the dough, the pie plate began to giggle uncontrollably.

“Stop moving, Gena!” Lexi scolded.

“Sorry...that just tickles so much.”

Lexi put the fruit in and threw some pie crust over the top. The pie was no masterpiece, but it would do.

“Done?”

“Done. You sure you still want to go in the oven?”

“Lexi, please, I beg of you. I need to be in the oven. I need to be used. I want to make a nice pie!” The pie plate shook impatiently. “Please put me in already!”

Lexi obeyed. “What will you do in there, other than enjoy all the baking and stuff?”

“I'm not just in there, remember? I'm all over town, in my co-workers...”

“Oh, God,” Lexi gulped, imagining what kind of view her friend was having from people's stomachs...or worse... “Okay. Enjoy the view from...well, everywhere.”

The pie smiled in thanks as Lexi closed the oven door.

“Don't let me burn!” she heard a muffled voice remind her from inside the appliance.

Lexi sat at the kitchen table, deep in thought. Gena was right, being consumed had been fun, but she was quite content with where she had ended her experience. Perhaps she would get more adventurous in the future.

It was very warm in the kitchen due to Gena's baking, and Lexi's body was itching to transform. “Damn potion. I need to turn into something. Something cool, and small...” She took a glass of water and was about to add ice when her body determined what it would become.

She was growing cold and translucent, which was pleasant in the heat of the room. She quickly placed the glass on the floor and let her body shrink down to roughly the same size. She dove into the glass, standing on the bottom and clenching her limbs to her body. Completely transparent and hardening, her body was growing into a very comfortable and compact square shape.

The new ice cube bobbed happily in the glass, melting into the water over time.

“Lexi! I'm done!”

Lexi was now merely water, and she had been enjoying this almost too much to change back, but she had promised not to let her pie-friend burn. She slipped from the glass as a mass of water, growing into a five-foot tower of liquid and then becoming human. She turned off the stove, fetched a potholder, and pulled out the pie.

The pie plate had the same non-moving smile on its side as it had had before in the lab.

“Gena, you're done. Well, your pie is done.”

“I'm so warm...” murmured the pie plate. “Eat some of my pie.”

Lexi cut a slice, scraping hard against her friend's surface. “Sorry if I hurt you... Well, I guess I can't hurt you like this...”

“It just felt tingly,” said the plate. “Very nice and tingly.”

Lexi marveled that the pie it came out as well as it had. She was never the best cook. But she was sure her friend had been the best pie plate she could possibly be.

“Did I make it good?” asked the pie plate, basking in the warmth still radiating from the oven.

Taking a bite, Lexi nodded. “Delicious, but it doesn't taste as good as you did.”

“Thanks. That means a lot to me. I think everyone enjoyed me.”

Well, at least her friend was happy now. “Would you like some pie?”

“But I have to hold the rest of it until I'm empty. It's what I'm for.”

Lexi picked up her friend, held her over a plate, and dumped the pie into it.

“Hey, what are you doing? That's my pie!” Gena protested.

“A real plate can hold it just as well as you can. You're here to be with me, not to be a dessert tray. Now turn back to yourself and eat with me.”

Gena returned to human form, and the two feasted on the dessert. “Next time let's be cupcakes. Jim had this idea that we'd merge and turn into one big cupcake in a bakery and let ourselves get bought...”

“Ugh, Lexi?”

“What?”

“No icky couple transformation stories. Just eat your pie.”

Gena blushed. “Okay.”