When he was a kid, he’d wanted a cat, but his mother was allergic to them, and he didn't think about asking for a pet of any kind when he moved in with his aunt and uncle. Wanting to pet Tanner's cat, he looked around from where he was sitting. He wondered why he hadn’t seen a cat the night Tanner showed him around the apartment or why his friend never mentioned he had one.
Crawling on his stomach, Star began looking for the cat. “Here, kitty, kitty. Come, little kitty, and meet Uncle Star.” Star's brows furrowed as he sat up. “That's funny. How is it that I can hear the cat meowing, but I can't find them? Huh, there it goes again.” Star stopped speaking when he noticed the cat would meow every time he said a word.
Could Tanner be pranking him? Deciding that Tanner was an asshole, Star was going to give his ex-friend a piece of his mind. He walked toward Tanner's bedroom door, which was closed, but he didn't care. He would let his friend have it.
“Tanner, you fucker! Stop it with the ca...t.” Star's words got stuck in his throat when he noticed his shout sounded an awful lot like an angry cat. Not only that, the closed door appeared much taller than he remembered. He wasn't six feet tall, but the last he knew, he was taller than two feet.
Did I shrink in the middle of the night?Remember the meowing he heard earlier, a sick and terrifying feeling settled at the bottom of his stomach. Closing his eyes, Star chanted a quick prayer, hoping he was still in dreamland.Please let this be a dream.Taking a deep breath, he brought a hand up, slowly opened his eyes, and froze like a statue when he saw an orange-and-brown paw instead of the hand he was familiar with.
This has got to be a fucking dream.He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Instantly, he ran to the bathroom and was thankful that Tanner had a mirror on the door. Slowly, Star crept up to the glass and sat in front of it for a few seconds before doing a few tricks to test the theory. And everything he did, the cat did. Star sat back down, feeling as if his entire world had just come crashing down. There was no denying it; the orange-and-brown cat with his colored eyes was him.
How? How the fuck did I get turned into a cat?
Star let out a howl of despair, not caring that he sounded like a cat. He was too distraught to care. He'd finally been given a new lease on life, and now he was a fucking cat. Star sat in front of the mirror crying until he was too weak and fell asleep.
* * *
Star groaned,sitting up and leaning against the wall for support, since his body was aching from head to toe. “Fuck.” He froze when he heard a sound coming out of his mouth that wasn't a meow. However, his voice was a bit hoarse, probably because of the screaming he had done earlier.
I can talk.
His eyes instantly went to his legs, and he happily wiggled his toes, ignoring his body's pain. Star would have been convinced he was dreaming earlier if he had woken up on the couch and not naked in the hallway. But that was something that he would have to work out later, about how or why he turned into a cat. A giggle bubbled out of him as he opened and closed his fists.
“I'm back to normal!” He was so happy that he stood and danced, twerking his ass. “Oh shit,” he screamed in fright when he turned to face the mirror and spotted two pointed orange-and-brown cat ears sticking out of his head. “No, no, no, no. This can't be fucking happening. Go away!” He pulled on the ears but winced, realizing that was a terrible mistake because it hurt like a son of a bitch. “Damnit, they’re attached. Fuck, what am I going to do? Where did you come from? Did I die and come back as an alien? There's no fucking way a human being can turn into a cat. What am I going to do?”
Just as Star posed the question, his cell phone rang. Seeing that there wasn't anything he could do about the cat ears, he hobbled over to the couch and searched for his phone. Seeing Tanner's name on the screen, he answered it immediately, thanking the universe that his friend wasn't home to see his mini mental breakdown.
“Hey, Tanner, what's up?” Star hoped he sounded normal and not as freaked out as he felt.
“Did I wake you? You sound weird,” Tanner said.
Star cleared his throat. “Yeah, I just got up. But what's going on?”
“Oh,” Tanner said, then sighed. “I hate to do this to you, but I gotta cancel our lunch and tour date today. Well, it's more than just today.”
Star furrowed his brows. “What? Why?”
“I know you were looking forward to it, but my boss has to go out of town for a few days, and I need to go with him. Dude, I'm sorry for bailing on you like this.”
Although Star was disappointed, he couldn't help but be pleased, since he had fucking cat ears sticking out of the top of his head. How was he going to explain that shit to his friend?
“Tanner, it's all good. I didn't expect you to put everything on hold for me while I'm here.”
“I know,” Tanner said softly.
“How about this? When you get back, we'll hang out.”
“That's if you're not busy or have already returned to Hollywood.”
Star rolled his eyes. “You never know what will happen.”
“True,” Tanner said. “Oh, hey, one of my guys will stop by and grab a few things for me.”
“Okay,” Star said, looking down at his undressed state.
“I don't know if I'll be back in time for your audition, but if you need me for anything, call.”
“I will.”
