chapter 1

I guess I was born with my unique ability, even if I didn't realize it at first. When I was a little boy, my uncle would put a piece of candy in one hand, put his hands behind his back, and put them back in front. "Guess which hand the candy is in, Tommy. Guess right and you get the candy." I always guessed right. In fact, I shouldn't say that I guessed. I always knew which hand it was in. My uncle never did figure out how I always got it right. As I became old enough to play card games, I realized that I could know what cards the other players had. At first I didn't understand how I knew, I just knew. So I could win anytime I wanted. I realized that if I won all the time, no one would want to play with me anymore. So I taught myself to not know the other players' cards. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was training myself to be able to enter someone's mind. Or to not enter someone's mind. As I got into my teens, I found that I could enter someone's mind without their knowing it. I could roam around in their mind, and learn their thoughts and memories.

That was also when I realized that I shouldn't just randomly intrude into someone else's mind. It just wasn't right to invade their privacy. Besides, I learned that everybody had thoughts that were different that from what they said and did. At first, I thought everyone was a fake. Eventually I realized that it wasn't being fake, it was just that everybody has a filter. And without filters, no one could get along.

I was always pretty good in school, at least as far as getting good grades. I was no kind of athlete. Maybe it started with always getting my uncle's candy, but I was a chubby kid and I became a chubby teenager. I got into on line gaming. That appealed to me because I won or lost on my own ability, with no possible help from my unique ability. So I got good at gaming. Football, basketball, whatever, forget it. Which also meant I got plenty of teasing growing up, especially in high school. Some jock would make fun of me in the hallway, showing off for a cheerleader type. When he walked away, I could make him trip over his feet. Or instead of turning right to walk down the hall, I could make him turn left to walk into the lockers. I could do it without them knowing it was me. Or even knowing that anyone had slipped into their mind and made them do what they wouldn't normally do.

I finished high school and went to college. I didn't get teased nearly as much in college. People were more grown up, and besides, there were a lot of chubby gamers. Gaming was how Danny and I became good friends. We met through gaming, hit it off and got to be buddies. Danny is what I guess you'd call husky. I'm about 5'10" and about 220 pounds. I've got kind of a belly on me. Danny is about six feet even, and probably 200 pounds, maybe a little more, but it's spread pretty evenly on him. Besides his build, Danny is just a better looking guy than I am. But he never acted stuck up, never looked down on me. I thought about rummaging through his mind to see if he was sincere, but decided that he wouldn't be such a good friend if he didn't mean it.

I was happy to be Danny's wing man. When we'd meet a hot girl and a chubby girl, I'd always go for the chubby girl. That left Danny to charm the hot girl, while I kept the chubby girl company. Sometimes it worked that I'd get to take the chubby girl home, too. I realized that I liked sex with the chubby girls. It felt good to get my fingers into their soft, spongy flesh. It was fun to play with their jiggly bellies, and it was fun when they played with mine. Anyway, I was happy to be Danny's wing man.

I wasn't with Danny when he met Crystal. They were in Senior Level Finance together and he struck up a conversation with her. One thing led to another and they were soon seriously dating. Crystal was hot. Medium height, blonde, a lean body except for those 34C cups, and round, tight butt. And she knew she was hot. I didn't have to read her mind, it showed in how she carried herself. I could tell that she tolerated me because of Danny, but if not for him she'd never have spoken to a chubby guy like me. But Danny was head over heels for her, and did everything he could to show her a good time. He blew through the money he'd earned the previous summer, taking her out to places he really couldn't afford. He bought her presents, flowers, the whole bit. At Spring Break, Danny scraped together enough for them to fly to Daytona for the week. Actually, I found out later that he maxed out his credit card. And that's when Crystal did Danny wrong.