“Did
you?” Tara asked in a tiny voice, an unlit cigarette still dangling
from her lips.
His
friends had remained utterly silent during the entire longwinded
recitation of his story, and for this Max was thankful. It was hard
enough for him to believe that the events of the previous night had
really happened, and if they had pressed him he might finally have
dismissed it after all as one long, incredibly vivid acid trip.
“Did
I call her, you mean?” Max nodded. “I was just getting to that.
There was no answer at seven this morning. I went in for my lab
hours, and Lily wasn’t there. So I called again at lunch. Still
no answer. I was getting ready to go over there as soon as I was
finished with my reaction, but then my phone rang, and it was her.”
“Yeah,
and...?” Bill prodded.
Max
shrugged. “She asked if I wanted to come over tomorrow night,
‘...to study.’ And I said I would.”
They
stared at him incredulously. “That’s IT?” Tara groaned. “Is
she okay? How big is she? Is she angry at you for...for....”
Melinda
chimed in. “I think the term you’re looking for is ‘blue
balls,’ hun.”
“Yeah,
that. The girl was literally throwing herself at you, and you turned
her down cold. If a guy did that to ME, and if I also happened to be
seven feet tall for some reason...I’d rip him in half like a phone
book.” Tara picked up a magazine from the coffee table,
demonstrating what this might look like.
“My
thoughts exactly,” Max said. “But she didn’t seem angry. Not
even a little bit. She actually sounded...cheerful.
And that’s what
REALLY has me worried. If you knew her, you’d understand why.”
“Alright,
let me see if I’ve got this straight.” Bill stood up, folding
his hands behind his back, and began to pace the room. “This girl,
Lily...your lab partner...caught you trying to make LSD. She told
you that she wouldn’t turn you in, as long as you cut her in on
half.” He looked to Max for confirmation.
“Right.”
“Then,
in some grandiose gesture, she decides to get herself high as shit,
and dare you to turn HER in. Like that thing those jack-offs at
business retreats do, where you fall backward and trust your partner
to catch you.”
“Yup.”
“But
this stuff DOESN’T get her high. It makes her GROW instead. You
sneak her out of the building, all the while fending off her sudden,
insatiable appetite for your nuts. When you finally get back to her
place, you decide, out of some sort of fucked-up notion of chivalry,
to turn down sex with an exotic, seven-foot goddess. You then manage
to tackle a girl who’s got a foot of height and a hundred pounds on
you, and you run away.”
Max
sighed. “Those are the major points.”
Bill
stopped suddenly, and turned to face him. “Okay then, it all
becomes clear.” He took a deep breath, and gestured with his arm
at Max. “Bullshit.”
Tara
and Melinda were nodding. “It was a nice story,” Melinda said.
“But you don’t really expect us to believe any of that, do you?
Now come on, why did you REALLY decide to skip your evening lecture
and come all the way out here tonight?”
“You
guys think I made it all up?” Max asked, giving them a
long-suffering look. “I guess I’ll just have to demonstrate,
then.”
He
reached into his pocket, and withdrew a small glass vial and
measuring syringe. Max held it up for them to see. “Now, is there
anyone here who would like to be a bit taller? It could be anyone in
this room. You know, someone who never stops complaining about how
short they are? Maybe someone wearing a tie-dye shirt and trying to
avoid eye contact with me?”
Tara
looked up at last, and Max could see a pink flush spreading across
her cheeks. “Okay, so what if my height DOES bother me? I never
said I wanted to be an amazon. Frankly, I spend enough time with my
head in the clouds without my head actually BEING in the clouds.”
“You’re
forgetting that Lily grew that tall after taking a triple dose,”
Max argued. “You’d only be taking one. Or even a half. Come
on, this is what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? You’re SURE
you wouldn’t like a couple more inches?”
“Don't
listen to him, Tara,” Melinda spoke up. “What does it matter if
you’re short? You’ve got a body most girls would kill for. So
what if it’s in a half-pint container.”
Tara
whirled. “HALF-PINT?” she squeaked in protest. “Being five
foot three HARDLY makes me a half-pint.”
“Okay,
three-quarters pint,” Melinda conceded. The taller girl rose to
her feet, and moved to stand next to Tara. “But it's just the
balance of nature, isn't it? You’ve got boob enough for two. So
let me handle the height. And don’t worry your pretty little head
about it.”
Tara
shot Max a fiery glance. “I’ll do it.”
Melinda
threw her hands up in exasperation and turned away, but not before
Max saw a faintly self-satisfied smile play across her lips. The
girl obviously believed this was all part of some elaborate prank at
Tara's expense. Little did she know that the joke would be on her.
“Okay,”
Max said, fishing a roll of blotter paper from his pocket. “So
just how tall do you want to be?”
“Oh,
you know, not THAT much taller,” Tara said, her eyes darting toward
Melinda.
Max
got the message. He measured a full dose.
“But
for the record, I still don’t believe this is actually going to
work,” Tara continued, putting her hands on her hips. “And I
have no idea what’s actually IN that test tube. So I'm doing this,
but on one condition.” She smiled wickedly. “Max, whatever you
give me, you have to take the same amount.”
Max
grinned, already undoing the top button of his shirt. “I thought
you might say something like that. After considering it, I decided
that it wouldn’t be so bad, being freakishly tall. Maybe I can get
a basketball scholarship or something.”
Bill
snorted. “Apparently this stuff also gives you coordination,
endurance, a basic understanding of how the game of basketball is
actually PLAYED....”
Max
ignored him. He passed Tara her dose, and began to prepare his own.
The
girl examined her square of paper. “Also, if my taking this
results in yet ANOTHER bad trip, the first thing I’m going to do
when I sober up is break your legs with a crow-bar,” she warned him
pleasantly.
“Bottoms
up,” he replied.
They
both dropped, Tara choosing to swallow her paper, while Max swished
it around in his mouth before spitting into an empty beer can. The
stuff had a hard, metallic taste, and it felt like it was making his
jaw go numb. “Oh, I almost forgot,” he added. “When Lily took
this stuff, she had really intense stomach pains for about ten
seconds. As soon as it was over, she started to...you know.”
Tara
nodded. “Thanks for the warning,” she said, her voice dry. “How
long does it take to work?”
Before
he had a chance to answer, Tara squinted her eyes shut, and let out a
soft grunt. She grimaced, her hands balling into fists, but
otherwise endured without objection. Max was suddenly enormously
proud of her.
A
moment later it passed, and she opened her eyes. “Wow, that was a
bitch,” Tara remarked, wiping a thin band of sweat from her
forehead. “How are you doing over there?”
“Nothing
yet,” Max reported. Even the initial wave of numbness had receded.
Maybe his increased body weight caused the drug to take longer to
kick in?
“Guys,
something’s happening.” Tara was on her feet, moving to the
center of the room. “I feel...it’s so....”
“Hot?”
Max supplied.
She
nodded vigorously. “And...there’s a tingling...like in the
morning when you crawl out of bed and need to take that first
stretch.”
Max
could see the first subtle signs of her transformation. Tara’s
pajama pants were infinitesimally tighter. The cuffs exposed a few
more millimeters of ankle. Her shirt was gradually rising, revealing
the faintest glimpse of her midriff.
“No
way,” Tara breathed.
The
changes were starting to become more obvious now. It looked as if
the girl was slowing pushing herself up on her tip-toes. She was
already at least an inch taller, and now the process was beginning to
shift into high gear. “This is incredible! I can see you
guys...see everything getting smaller.” Her face was lit by a
gigantic smile, a smile that seemed to grow larger and larger as Tara
crept toward the ceiling. Three inches taller. Four.
Max
spared a glance for Bill and Melinda. Both wore the same expression:
slack-jawed, vacant-eyed, completely enthralled by the spectacle
before them. He smiled to himself. Plenty of time for
I-told-you-sos later.
“What’s
it like?” Melinda asked, fascinated. “How do you feel?”
“Oh
my God, it’s GREAT – like one long, low-grade orgasm.”
Breathless, the growing girl turned to face Max. “Anything?”
He
was a moment taking her meaning – he had been so focused on Tara’s
growth that he’d forgotten that he had taken the drug, too. “Still
nothing,” he replied.
By
now Tara’s clothing was strained to its limits. Her tie-dye shirt
was stretched far out of proportion, and her breasts, dangerously
large even at 5’3”, were threatening to rip the garment clear in
half. Her chest seemed much more firm, her breasts perkier, but it
looked to Max as if they weren’t any larger in proportion to the
rest of her body. That was strange, because when Lily had taken the
drug, she had gone from an A cup to a Double-D in a matter of
minutes.
Now
that he looked, he could notice other changes in his friend, things
that the drug hadn’t done to Lily. The girl looked tougher, more
formidable in subtle ways. Her arms were larger, her legs thicker
and more muscular. Even her butt seemed to have tightened up
significantly. She was far from looking like a body builder, Max
thought, but could easily pass for a student athlete. Perhaps a
swimmer, or lacrosse player.
“Oh...oh
my God Max...thank you so much,” Tara whimpered, hugging her arms
to her chest. “This is better...better than sex.” She smirked,
and gave him a knowing wink. “Well, better than MOST sex.”
Max
blushed.
Tara
closed her eyes as she continued to swell bigger, her mouth forming a
soundless scream of ecstasy. It took her another moment to match
Melinda's height of five foot ten, and an instant beyond that to
surpass it. Her body exuded a healthy glow of vitality, becoming
more pronounced with every new inch she gained.
At
last the changes began to slow. She pulsed larger once, twice, and
then her growth sputtered to a halt. Tara stood before them a new
woman, tall, proud, and drop-dead gorgeous. The girl's outfit clung
to her like a second skin, her shirt stretched so tight that it was
see-through in a couple places. Every part of her statuesque frame
seemed fitter, more athletic. Her face had even lost a bit of its
characteristic baby fat. This had been a part of her girlish charm,
certainly. But Max thought the change did her good, making her look
thoughtful and mature.
“Wow,
I never expected all THIS.” She examined her new body, looking
pleased. “Look at me, I’m a fucking GIANT!”
“You
aren't THAT big,” Melinda objected. She had her arms crossed, and
it looked for all the world as if she were pouting.
Quick
to head off any confrontation between the girls, Max spoke up. “But
you look really good Tara! And damn, I wouldn’t be surprised if
you were even taller than ME. That would make you the biggest person
in the room.”
“Oh?”
Tara locked eyes with him, and Max felt his heart skip a beat.
There was something about that look...something alarming...yet
alluring. “Well let’s find out. I think I could use a
measuring. Max sweetie, would you like to do the honors?”