ASTERWICK 10 – June Part 2 (Patreon)

***I tweaked June's size a little from Chapter 9. I felt like it needed adjustment for continuity's sake. I uploaded a newer version of Chapter 9. There's no new content, just word clean-up and size conforming.***

10.17.26 – 9:20 a.m.

Asterwick Outskirts

June Park – Previous: 5’4” 120 lbs | Current: 6’2” 220 lbs

Change since last recorded: +10”, +100 lbs

As the Prius descended into the Asterwick valley, silver rain ran in crooked lines across June’s window. Every turn pressed her shoulder against the door. Her knees crowded the dashboard despite the seat being shoved back, and torn denim scratched against her thighs.

She had spent the drive trying not to look at her hands resting in her lap. They were still hers, but too large, too heavy, and attached to a body that occupied more of the car than she knew how to manage. Tears blurred the passing trees. She wiped them away, but more followed, hot and immediate. Her chest hitched once. Then she was sobbing. Mira glanced over, but no words came. “Pull over, please.” June barely managed the whisper.

Mira looked over. “What, here?” “Mira, please pull the goddamn car over.” June ran her large hands across her cheeks, clearing fresh tears. Mira stopped in front of the old wooden WELCOME TO ASTERWICK, OR sign. She put the car in park and turned toward her friend, placing a hand on June’s trembling knee. June looked over, and the concern on Mira’s face brought another round of sobs, stronger this time.

“I don’t want this!” June yelled. “I thought I was okay with all this weird shit happening to us, but I’m not.” She blew out a breath, trying to quiet her sobs. “I don’t want to be—be this!” She waved both hands frantically over her impressive physique. “I liked being me. Being June-sized. The ‘little firecracker’ and whatever else they call me when I’m not around.” Mira nodded slowly. “I know,” she said in a small voice.

“Do you?” June snapped. “This morning you were giddy about turning into She-Hulk.” Mira opened her mouth, then looked away. The silence landed harder than an argument. June heard what she had said and hated herself for choosing the one thing guaranteed to hurt. Mira was frightened too. She was only frightened differently. June pressed both palms against her eyes and forced herself to breathe. “I’m sorry. That was mean.” She lowered her hands. “Just because I don’t want this doesn’t mean you have to hate what’s happening to you.” “I’m scared too, June,” Mira said. “I thought we might find answers today, and all we found were more questions.” June nodded, her anger draining into exhaustion.

Before restarting the car, Mira made June step outside. June unfolded from the passenger seat awkwardly, one hand on the roof, and stood beside the weathered welcome sign. The wooden crossbar that had once seemed safely overhead now sat near her eye line. She raised one hand to it, stopped short of touching, and stared at the distance between her boots and the sign. Mira opened the rear hatch and found the emergency blanket. She wrapped it around June’s torn clothes, fastening it beneath her arms while traffic hissed past on the wet highway. Neither of them spoke until June climbed back into the car. The small practical kindness steadied her more than reassurance would have.

“I’d ask for you to take me home but I don’t know if Jake is gone yet and I’m not ready for that conversation when he sees me.” Mira’s eyes went wide, “Wait, Jake?” June blushed, “Oh yeah, Jake, I didn’t tell you about that I guess.” Mira waited. “Can we talk about it later?” Mira didn’t move. “Please? One crazy thing per day is enough.” Mira blinked once but remained still, expectant. “Jesus, fine! Jake and I met for drinks at the Giant last night, we had too many, or I did; and he came home with me.”

“I thought Jake was ‘forgettable’?” Mira’s face twisted into a grin. “He was. Is. I dunno. I think it was the whiskey making the moves last night.” June scrunched into the seat, trying to make herself small. It was not working. “It was weird. I was feeling free and confident. I called him because I was feeling frisky and wanted cuddles, and there was a little voice in the back of my head egging me on, rooting for me. No restraints.” Mira lifted an eyebrow. “Cuddles?”

“Cuddles!” June shot back. “But after some beers and whiskey, cuddles evolved into a little more.” Mira nodded. “He’s probably shopping for a ring right now, you know.” June blew out a breath, “I know. But part of me didn’t even care, thinking about it now, it’s kinda fucked up, I know how he can get. I knew last night was going to lead to trouble but something just came over me and I didn’t give a shit.” June’s face scrunched up and she looked away.

“I think what’s happening to us isn’t just physical.” Mira patted June’s knee and she looked back at her. “Whatever is happening to us is also messing with our confidence, brain chemicals, whatever.” June let Mira continue. “Last night, Grant and I were closing, and he got all awkward around me toward the end of the night. I just knew he was going to ask me out and I was cool with it, wanted it.” June’s eyes narrowed, “Mira, this is not news. You’ve used your special voice around Grant for a long time now.”

“I do not have –“ June held up a hand, “you do have a special voice for Grant and have wanted him to ask you out probably since you started.” Mira was defeated and she knew it. “Ok, maybe you’re right, still, this was different. I wasn’t nervous, there weren’t butterflies or anything. It was like I knew the inevitable and was thankful he finally got the balls to act.”

June’s eyebrows shot up, “Ok, yeah that doesn’t seem like you.” “That’s what I’m saying, maybe that’s what happened to you last night too!” June considered that, “well, that doesn’t make me feel any better. Not only are we changing physically, now we have to worry about losing our inhibitions? That feels scarier than the physical stuff.” Mira nodded slowly, “so what do we do, who do we go to? What is a hospital going to tell us, except what happening to us shouldn’t be possible?”

June stared through the windshield at the rain-dark road. Hospitals meant forms, photographs, blood draws, and strangers deciding when she was allowed to leave. The thought tightened her throat. Then another memory surfaced: a cramped university laboratory, a woman in safety goggles correcting a professor twice her age, and Mira whispering that nobody should be that confident while holding a vial of acid. June straightened. “What about Dina?” Mira frowned. “Dina?” “Dina Mahfouz. You remember her. She studies genetics in Portland now—or something close to it. I think she’s a grad student.”

Mira’s mouth gaped, “Keg stand Dina?” June nodded empathically. “I dunno June, I think she hated me.” June waved her hand dismissively, “nah, she thought you were stuck up, but she didn’t hate you.” Mira gasped, “stuck up?” June shrugged. “I don’t want to go to the hospital and start a fresh chapter in the book of medically weird shit.” “We might wind up in that book anyway.” “Maybe, but I’d rather talk to Dina first and see what she says.”

Mira turned toward the back seat, where her pack lay on its side. The sample tube was still secured in the outer pocket. Most of the residue inside had gone dull, but when June leaned across the console, a thin green filament stirred against the glass and pointed toward her. Both women saw it. Mira zipped the pocket shut. “If we contact Dina, we do not send her a picture of that until we know she’ll keep this between us.” June nodded. The possibility of an answer now had a cost: bringing someone else close to whatever had followed them out of the woods.

Mira nodded. “You need some clothes first.” June’s face turned red. “I guess these clothes are all torn up like some kind of bad ’80s music video.” “Okay, let’s go to your place and make sure Jake isn’t still there.” June hesitated. “He has some clothes in a drawer. I think.” Mira’s eyes went wide. “He has a DRAWER?” June shrugged again. Mira pulled the Prius back onto the road without a word.

June’s apartment was mercifully empty; Jake was nowhere to be found. Anime posters covered the walls, and statues of different characters adorned her TV stand and several shelves. June disappeared into her bedroom. Mira dropped onto the couch when her phone buzzed. It was Grant. Suddenly, the butterflies she had not felt before were fluttering around in her stomach. Are we still good for tonight? She typed a quick reply and sent it.

 June emerged from her bedroom a few minutes later. She wore a maroon Asterwick University sweatshirt, plain gray pajama pants, white socks, and white slides. Her muscular frame pulled the sweatshirt taut across her back, shoulders, and arms. The Asterwick logo distorted around her chest. The thin cotton pajama pants stretched over her flared hips and glutes, while her thick quads pushed the fabric outward above her knees.

Mira whistled and June blushed a deep cherry red. “Stylish, lady!” June rolled her eyes. “I definitely need clothes, will you come with me to Eww?” The mall in Eugene was the closest place that had a decent selection of clothing that might fit her. “I suppose but you have to buy me another coffee.” “Fair.”

The trip passed quickly with June driving. She had taken time to readjust the seat, steering wheel, and mirrors before leaving town. They arrived at the mall and went first to Old Navy. It did not take June long to notice people giving her second glances. She was not enormous, but she was definitely tall, and even in her modest, mismatched clothes, it was obvious that she was powerfully built.

June selected several items and went into the dressing room. Most of the jeans wouldn’t pull over her thighs. One pair did – barely but her hips and glutes proved too much so they were discarded as well. She settled on several pairs of sweats, they were still snug but serviceable. She pulled a cotton tank over herself, and she couldn’t help but smile in the mirror at her form. She was chiseled and firm with rock-hard abs but still, her full breasts were soft and defiant of gravity. Her hips and ass carried just a hint of softness to maintain her unmistakable femininity.

She turned sideways in the mirror and popped out her hip. The tank left little to the imagination as it strained against her chest and wide lats. She settled on another sweatshirt that sat more comfortably. She chose a few other shirts and checked out. The pair made their way to Victoria’s Secret, and they each picked up some better-fitting underwear. Back in the car, June turned to Mira, the fun of shopping for her new body gone from her face. “So when do you wanna’ go see Dina?”

Mira looked out at the traffic sliding past the windshield. “Going to see Dina feels like admitting this is real—that we might be stuck like this.” June nodded. “Yeah.” “And I have dinner with Grant tonight.” “Of course you do. Try not to tell him about the murder-hole before dessert.” Mira punched her lightly in the shoulder. “I’ll contact Dina and text you.” June pulled the Prius into Eugene traffic and headed back toward Asterwick. In the rearview mirror, the clouds over the Coast Range had swallowed the road they had taken that morning. Her phone buzzed in the cup holder. The screen lit with a number she did not recognize. One message waited: YOU BROUGHT IT BACK.