Frantically I looked side to side and found my way blocked by a pair of pillows taller than prison walls that I had no chance of climbing.  Behind me the cavernous gap between mattress and headboard offered a long drop into darkness should I slip into it.  A tremendous wall of shapely flesh had driven me here and was now boxing me in.  Above, the room’s dim light cast shadows over an attractive face framed by long, chestnut brown hair with large, expressive brown eyes.  Hot air rushed from her rounded nose, blasting my naked body, and her full cheeks were dimpled with a sly grin.

 

“Nowhere to go, little man,” she purred, hunger evident in her eyes.  Her voice was deep and amplified by her immense size, with a velvety undertone that lingered once my bones recovered.  “You’re entirely at my mercy, and I’m not feeling too merciful right now.”

 

“Please, no!” I begged.  Her face drew closer as I pleaded, and her tongue purposefully slid over her narrow lips, leaving behind a thin film of saliva.  “I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t hurt me!”

 

She laughed, a series of low booms that made my insides tremble.  “I may play with my food, but I don’t negotiate with it,” she said, then parted her mouth slightly.  Past her lips I saw rows of straight white teeth and an enormous pink tongue laid flat.  It continued slowly encroaching on me, and I took an involuntary step back toward the precipice.  Even though there was no way I’d be able to outrun someone so much larger than me, my survival instincts told me that I had to try.

 

Suddenly she shot forward, and my survival instincts were useless.  Her lips engulfed me and clamped around my legs, then she leaned her head back.  With a single finger she pressed on my feet, pushing me the rest of the way into her mouth.  I landed face-down on her tongue, and before I got settled she slammed it against the roof of her mouth, sandwiching me between two walls of tissue.  Slowly she dragged her tongue back toward her gullet, raking me across the ridges of her palate.

 

The tongue accelerated and began sliding back and forth rapidly, forming around my body each time it moved.  All the motion, lubrication, and friction caused my dick to get erect, and each time her tongue moved over me it became more engorged.  Gradually it pumped faster, and I felt my body start tingling.  Her tongue kept moving, and soon I could no longer hold it back.  I came, gushing semen on her tongue, drawing a thin line on it as it continued moving.  My cock twitched, spurting out more on the enormous tentacle until I was dry, and kept trying each time her tongue moved even though there was nothing to give.

 

Rivulets of saliva gushed past me, washing my jizz toward her gullet while the tongue held me in place.  A tremendous roar of satisfaction filled the chamber, and with a schlorp her gullet opened, dropping my semen down it.  Her tongue dropped, allowing me some freedom, but a pair of digits clamped around my feet before I could move.  She dragged me out of her mouth and laid me down on a pillow before her gaze.  With some of the pillowcase’s loose fabric she dabbed me dry.  Briefly she giggled at my predicament, a strangely enticing sound that I wished could have lasted longer.

 

“I’ll never get tired of that, Meredith,” I said in the throes of post-coital bliss.  “Everything from you chasing me down to gobbling me up was magnificent.”

 

“I bet you didn’t mind the blowjob either, small fry,” she teased, then let out a sigh.  “All those women out there sucking dicks, and they’ll never know the joy of sucking on the entire man.  I feel a little bad for them, you know?”  Meredith gave me a single, gentle stroke with an index finger, then let it linger on me like a blanket.  “They can’t experience the rush of power I get when I feel you squirming around on my tongue.”

 

“And those men won’t know how great it feels to be sucked on, or to look up at their girlfriend’s lips poised and ready to devour you,” I continued, “but don’t pity them for their ignorance.  Think of it as something that makes what we have just that much more special.”

 

“You always know the perfect thing to say, pipsqueak,” Meredith replied, grinning.  “That’s what keeps me from swallowing you.”  I had regularly been spending time in Meredith’s mouth, and though I was yet to end up in her stomach I had not ruled it out.  That way there would always be the spark of fatal excitement between us.

 

Meredith and I had been dating for the past two months, one of the most bizarre and pleasant twists of fate, and probably the strangest couple in our senior class, though we were not sure if anyone else even knew we were together.  We decided that the first time she shrank me should be our anniversary, even though she had only done it as a way to more effectively bully me.   Now we were coming out of winter break, and despite spending most days shrunken in her room we were far from tired of each other.  Besides, having to be regular sized again for a whole day of school sounded dreadful in comparison to spending it in Meredith’s palm.

 

“Hey, I’ve been thinking about something,” I announced.

 

“Oh yeah?  What’s that?” she asked.  Meredith nuzzled her face into the pillow, deepening the crater enough that the only thing keeping me in place was the tip of Meredith’s finger.

 

“Have you considered making me other sizes?”  She looked at my quizzically, so I elaborated.  “Don’t get me wrong, I like being this size!  But different sizes have different possibilities.  Like, if I were bigger you could grip me with your whole hand, and if I were smaller I could get stuck in your lip gloss.  It might be fun to explore the possibilities, is all.”

 

“Hm, I’ll think about it,” she cooed.  “But I have my own ideas for how I can have fun with you.”

 

“Such as?”

 

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out, now isn’t it?” she shot back, and gave me a light nudge.  “Now come on, let’s get you into your jar so we don’t have another close call.”  She was referring to an incident last week when she rolled over and trapped me beneath her cheek.  I had narrowly avoided suffocating by worming my way toward the nearest edge and opening a narrow airway.

 

Her thumb joined her forefinger to grasp me, and there was a loud scrape when she pulled the jar off her nightstand.  Meredith moved me slowly, well aware of how rapid movement in her hands made me feel, and held me above the jar’s opening.  She sank her fingers into the jar, bringing me to the glass bottom before releasing me.  Carefully she twisted the lid onto it, three wide holes poked through the metal with an ice pick, then lowered it onto the ground beside her bed.  We had decided that was the best solution: not only was it the least likely to be hit by a sudden spasm there, but I would wake up to see her towering over me, acting unaware that I even existed.

 

I crawled into the makeshift bed she provided for me, in reality just a cotton ball and a square of wool she had cut out from one of her socks.  She initially planned to give me a proper place to sleep, but the mattress was surprisingly comfortable, and I enjoyed curling up beneath her scent every night.  Soon the air was filled with the slow, deep roar of her snoring, and I fell asleep soon after.

---

The next day, just when we had broken for lunch, I pulled my locker open only to have a hand swing in from behind me and slam it shut.  I turned and saw Meredith looming over me, glowing like a cat who had just caught a mouse.  With her other hand she shoved me back into the wall of lockers, then stepped into the empty space that moving me had opened.  She slammed that hand against the bank of lockers beside me, making a loud crash that demanded my attention.  I looked up and saw how much she towered over me while gazing down at me hungrily.

 

“Trying to get by without saying hi, little guy?” she asked, sliding forward to come in contact with my body.  “I’m disappointed.  After the last ten years I figured you’d at least come to me to offer tribute!”  She leaned in until her lips brushed my ears and whispered, “You smell really good, little guy.  Now act like I just made some unreasonable demand that you can deny without undermining my power over you.”  Meredith pulled back so she could glare down at me, allowing me some freedom with what I could do.

 

“I’m really sorry, Meredith!” I shouted.  “It’s just, I don’t think my pants would fit you!  “How about instead I have lunch with you all this week?  I’ll do whatever you want there, just let me have a little bit of dignity.”

 

“Fine,” she growled.  “I’ll take your lunches for the next week instead of your pants today.  Tomorrow afternoon you’ll wish you had just brought some shorts to cover you for today.  Maybe if you didn’t aggressively avoid gym class you’d have some.”  She leaned back in until her lips were mere millimeters from my nose.  “Not like you need lunches when you’re an inch tall, but I’ll give you a fry to tide you over.”  Meredith pulled back so she could glare down at me smugly.

 

“This starts today.  I’ll see you in fifteen minutes then, right?” she challenged, and I nodded fervently.  “Good.  You better not be late, or else.”  She pounded the locker bank one more time before turning away and striding toward the cafeteria.  I exhaled deeply, giving me ample time to watch her leave without raising suspicion.

 

I could revisit my locker later, so I stepped out to rejoin the flow of traffic.  Halfway through my first stride, however, I bumped into a firm barrier.  Reflexively I stepped back, and found I was eye level with a woman’s chest.  A firm hand grabbed my shoulder when I tried to step back, holding me in place.  Nervously I looked up at the wall of a woman I had encountered, trying to make sense between her and my expectations.

 

The towering woman scoffed as soon as she noticed me.  “What the actual fuck?” she shouted.  Her blue eyes blazed with a fury I hadn’t seen before, and her wavy blond hair bounced to emphasize each syllable.  Her T-shirt was a generic jersey, too small for her enormous frame, and her pair of tight jeans was too short to cover her bootlaces.  “Why don’t you watch where you’re going, you little freak?”

 

“Uh, I’m really sorry,” I said, trying to back away.  Her grip kept me firmly in place, however, and I was going nowhere without her permission.  Looking into her eyes was unnerving, so I picked a ceiling tile above her ear and focused on it.  That seemed to annoy her even more, and she loudly exhaled when I broke eye contact.  “Could you let me go now?”

 

“No.”  She squeezed my shoulder tighter, to the point that it began to hurt, then suddenly let go.  In a flash she bent her knees and grabbed me by the armpits, then hoisted me into the air.  Without any visible strain she lifted me to eye level, then spun and slammed me into the wall of lockers with a bang.  Every eye in the hallway turned when my head hit metal, and for a moment stars danced in my vision before giving way to furious blue eyes.

 

She stepped closer until our noses almost touched and I had a chance to study her face up close.  There was nothing playful about her expression, not even a hint that she was enjoying this, unlike all those times Meredith did this to me.  “You just messed up big time, little man,” she hissed.  My feet dangled helplessly above the floor, making any sort of escape impossible.  “I’ve had a real shit of a year already and you just piled on it, and I can break you in half if I want to.”

 

“And what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” a voice shouted in the silence.  The crowd parted, and Meredith stormed through the opening.  “That is my property you’ve got there, bitch, so let him go!”  She continued toward the angry blond and looked ready to fight if need be.

 

The blond let me go and I dropped to the floor, stumbling when I landed.  She reached out and grabbed Meredith by the front of her shirt and dragged her close, taking her off-guard.  “What’re you gonna do about it?” she challenged.  Meredith’s eyes were wide while she regarded her assailant, realizing that she may have gotten herself in over her head.

 

Literally-speaking, she had.  When I was sized right to go out, Meredith stood a head taller than me.  This new girl was a head taller than Meredith.  No doubt she felt the same animal fear I used to when she would do this to me, small and helpless and at someone else’s mercy.  The blond looked down at her and smiled for a change, which only made Meredith look more nervous.

 

“I think I’ve made my point,” she declared, then rotated her arm so Meredith crashed into me.  As we laid there in a pile she looked down at us smugly and snorted, giving a little nod.  “Next time you want to get involved with me, remember this and don’t.”  She gave one last chortle and walked away, her point made.

 

The other students followed her for a moment before going about their business, leaving Meredith and I in peace.  She got off me and stood, and in case anyone was watching glared down at me while I dragged myself to my feet.  Meredith placed a hand on my chest and shoved me back into the wall, pressing hard enough to keep me still.

 

“You okay, little guy?” she asked.  Her teeth were bared as though she were angry, but I saw the concern in her eyes.  “I came as soon as I heard trouble, but it looked like she was really hurting you.”

 

“I’m fine,” I assured her, making weak attempts to get away from her that I knew would fail.  “It wasn’t much worse than anything you’ve done to me before, and it’s nothing a few seconds in your mouth won’t make better.”  Both of us decided to ignore the implications right on top of that statement.  “Who the hell was that, anyway?  I think I would’ve noticed someone like that walking around before now.”

 

“That was Tanisha Kraus,” Meredith began.  “Her dad’s a colonel in the Army or something and had to move here from Alaska last month, and this was the only school she could get into on such short notice.  From the look of it, she’s not handling it too well.  You better look out: she’s apparently an overachiever like you and might be in a couple of your classes.”

 

“That’s just what I need,” I moaned.  “Some giant woman with a chip on her shoulder and a strong interest in me.”

 

“Hey now!” Meredith protested, slapping me weakly with her other hand.  “Don’t you go get all googly-eyed over her, especially not while I’m standing right here!  There’s a good chance you’ll end up in her food or chair if you do.”

 

“Don’t worry about that,” I said.  “She may be big, but I don’t think she’s quite big enough to fit me in her mouth.  And if she were, there’s a very real chance she’d chew.”

 

“What if she can shrink you too?”

 

“Then she’d shrink me, put me in her mouth, and chew,” I answered.  “I saw her eyes, there was no joy or pleasure in them.  Just malice and hate.  If she knew how to shrink people, I don’t think we’d be standing here right now.  And besides, she wouldn’t be nearly as fun a giantess as you are.  She’d probably demand I worship her as a goddess or something, and I’m not really into that.”

 

“Well, at least I’m fun.”  Meredith acted dejected and flicked my forehead, then clenched her fingers on my shirt.  “Now come on, let’s go get lunch before you become part of it for someone.”  She walked toward the cafeteria, dragging me along with her, and we both cracked a little smile.  

Every time I turned a corner or walked into a room I was on edge.  If I ran into Tanisha again Meredith would not be there to get her attention and I would be stuck, either until the next class or she got bored.  It was difficult to pay attention in class since I kept running the encounter over in my mind, trying to figure out if there was anything I could have done differently, even though it was an honest mistake.  Hopefully, by the time I saw her again she would realize she had gone overboard and acted inappropriately.

 

Physics rolled around and I started to believe I’d make it through the rest of the day without bumping into her again, making that just an unfortunate chance encounter.  I was one of the first students in and took my usual seat on the front row, then began getting my things ready.  Right when I got everything situated, however, a towering figure stooped through the doorway.  Blond hair fell back onto her frame when she stood upright, then she surveyed the room.  Tanisha spotted me, and her boots sounded like the pealing of bells as she came toward me.

 

“Hey, you little freak.”  What a charming greeting.  She placed her palms flat on my desk and leaned forward so she could loom over me.  “Why don’t you scurry off somewhere else and let me have a seat up front?”

 

I looked to the sides, where there were still three vacant desks.  “If you want to sit up front, why don’t you take one of those?” I retorted.

 

“Maybe I wasn’t being clear,” Tanisha said.  “Get up, or I’ll make you get up.”

 

I looked her in the eyes and immediately regretted it, shifting my focus to her chin.  “Listen, I think we got off on the wrong foot,” I started, and her left eye twitched.  “Silly mistake.  I’m –“

 

“If you don’t get up right now you’re going to be under one of my feet,” she growled.  “Now move.”

 

“If you wanted my seat, you should have gotten here earlier.”  I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, probably from the strange sensation of growing a backbone.  If I was going to stand my ground without Meredith backing me up, I’d need one.

 

Tanisha stood back to her full height and glared down at me.  “Have it your way, twerp,” she spat, then walked past me.  Seconds later there was a loud thump behind me, and I turned to see her sitting there with a smug smile.  “You just keep digging yourself deeper, and you can’t handle much of a hole.”

 

I faced forward, and Tanisha began what I’m sure she considered a clever campaign to change my mind.  She repeatedly kicked the back of my chair, her foot striking once a second.  “Sorry, I really don’t mean to keep doing that,” she lied, “it’s just that my legs are so long, and your chair’s blocking them!  If only I could stretch them out...”  While it was obnoxious, she would have to do more than moderately annoy me if she wanted to get her way.

 

The kicking stopped, but Tanisha didn’t give up.  Her legs swung around the chair from behind, and her enormous boots landed hard on my legs.  Her feet ran the length of my thighs and began digging into my skin.  The corners of her boot soles nearly cut into my quads through my jeans the moment she applied pressure.  I tried to push one of them off, but her legs were strong and it was already too entrenched.  In response she pressed down harder, and I suppressed a wince.

 

“This is much better,” Tanisha said, grinding her feet harder into my legs.  “When your legs are as long as mine it feels so good to stretch them a bit, not that I’d expect you to understand.  In fact, this feels so nice I think I’ll leave them there for the whole class.  And next class.  And the rest of the semester if I feel like it.  How’s that sound?  Good?  Worth giving up your stupid desk yet?”

 

It felt pathetic to cave so quickly, but I cared about this much less than she seemed to.  The first time I tried to stand her feet held me in place, and I barely even got my butt out of the chair.  Tanisha realized what I was trying to do, however, and released her legs’ grasp on me.  Her feet slapped hard enough on the tile to echo through the room, drawing a couple disinterested looks from other students.  With the pressure gone I thought about changing my mind, but knew it would be back just a few seconds later and got up, grabbing my things with me.

 

She stopped slouching, sitting as tall as she could in her chair as I approached.  Standing next to Tanisha was unnerving: despite being mostly legs, she was as tall sitting as I was standing.  With a smirk she looked me in the eyes, then swept her legs out wide and stood.  Her legs pushed me out of her way, and she took a moment before glare down at me from her full height and chortle before moving to take my seat.

 

“Glad you saw sense,” she said, swinging her hips wide to hit me in the chest.  “I guess sense lives somewhere around my belt.”  Tanisha eased down into her new seat and I flopped into mine, already regretting I had given up so easily.  She was a poor window, and her head and square shoulders blocked my view of the whiteboard.

 

I did not have much time to regret my decision before class began, though I still had to live with it.  The teacher walked in and stood in front of the boards, then turned to face the rest of the class.  “This is unusual so close to graduation, but we have a new student today!” she announced.  “And I see she’s sitting front and center, how nice.  Tanisha, why don’t you stand up and say a few words about yourself?”

 

The amazon in front of me stood and turned to her audience, seeming like an entirely different person from what I had seen.  She exuded warmth and had a positively bubbly demeanor about her.  “Hi everyone!” she began.  “This is this sixth time I’ve given this speech today, and I know some of you have already heard it, but I’m glad to give it again.  Like Mrs. Roth said, I’m Tanisha!  My family just moved here from Alaska, and I’m very excited to meet all of you!  I was an all-state volleyball player where I came from and I’m trying out for the team here, and I think I’ve got a pretty good chance of making it.  Before any of you ask, yes, I am tall, exactly seven feet, to be exact.  Now, I’ll go ahead and let Mrs. Roth get on with the lesson.”

 

Tanisha sat down, doing her absolute best to block my view of the boards.  As I tried to see past her she always moved to compensate, shifting just enough to block my sight.  Eventually I gave up and just hoped the book lined up with the lectures.

---

After classes were over, I walked the halls in what most would consider an aimless, wandering pattern.  A lot of students stayed late for extracurriculars, or simply to get high under the gym bleachers.  The lack of a book, bag, or any sort of supplies did not draw any undue attention to me while I traced the agreed-upon route and did my best to avoid bumping into any other students.

 

I bumped head-first into something solid as a wall, stopping me in my tracks.  I looked up to see chestnut brown eyes glaring down at me just before I was shoved away to crash hard into a bank of lockers.  Before I could recover an enormous figure was upon me, pressing on my shoulders and pinning me against the metal.  Nervously I looked up into the dark brown eyes again where a swirling, manic energy threatened to draw me in.

 

“Looks like you’re lost, little guy,” she teased, slamming a hand against my shoulder.  She stepped closer, pinning me against the bank of lockers while she loomed over me.  “Just be glad I’m the one who found you, do you know how many people want a piece of you these days?”

 

“Listen, Meredith, I’m not sure what you’ve heard, but –“

 

“But what?” she challenged.  “You’re on track to be valedictorian and everyone assumes you’ll get at least a 4 on all your AP tests, yet you keep harassing the captain of the volleyball team.  Seems like you’re not that smart after all.”

 

“Hey, if Tanisha sent you I think we can work something out,” I pleaded.  It was a foregone conclusion she’d get the position; most of the team was my size at best, and they’d been on hard times for several years.

 

“I don’t work for Tanisha, or any of those other jealous bitches,” Meredith declared.  “In fact, I’m here to get you away from them.”  She smirked.  “Get you below their notice, as it were.”  She glanced to either side before turning her smoldering attention back to me.  “And I think I know just the way.”

 

One of Meredith’s favorite characters over the past couple months had been the mysterious benefactor, coming out of nowhere to promise I could only be safe at her hands.  “Well, I don’t see anyone else trying to help me,” I said, “so let’s see what you can do.”

 

“I was hoping you’d say that,” she replied, and began focusing on me much more intently.  Meredith seemed to shoot up several inches in a second, the familiar, comfortable sensation of her shrinking me.  Still, she looked incredibly proud as I passed her waist and continued to get smaller, leaving behind the realm of common human sizes.  Her legs grew longer and she became more massive before my eyes, and I was still trapped between her and the metal wall at my back.

 

Meredith continued growing in my view until I was level with the cuffs of her Doc Martens, where my shrinking suddenly stopped.  I tore my eyes away from her for a moment, and to my surprise I saw a figure filling the doorway behind her.  Blond eyebrows were raised over her blue eyes, and her mouth was wide open in surprise.  It was unbelievably bad luck that Tanisha had not only spotted me, but also watched Meredith shrink me.

 

Meredith was oblivious to her one-woman audience while she stared down at me, satisfied to just be so much bigger than me now.  “Let’s get out of here, huh,” she said, squatting over me.  “I know just where to take you, too.”  Her hand came toward me, and while I wanted to focus on it I kept an eye on the titaness on the other side. Strong fingers wrapped around me, pinning my arms to my sides.  My whole body except for my head was wrapped in Meredith’s hand, forcing my attention back to her.  It was well enough, since Tanisha had ducked behind a wall to avoid being spotted by my much larger partner.

 

She held me tightly while she stood, making sure the only discomfort I felt was from the ascent.  When she reached her full height she leaned toward me, touching me with the tip of her nose that was the same size as my head.  “Well then, little guy,” she began,” looks like you’re about the size of a doll, if I’m being generous.  That should be small enough to get you out without anyone else noticing.”

 

“I’m so glad you came along,” I said, squirming in her hand to get comfortable.  This was the largest she had ever left me, and I still felt puny in comparison.  “I’d hate to see what Tanisha and her friends would do if they found me like this.”

 

“Don’t sweat it.  The question is, what should I do with you once I’ve gotten you to safey?”

 

“I’m the size of a doll,” I began, “so I guess you could treat me like one?”  Everything had been planned that morning, and the day’s events made it easy to improvise.

 

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Meredith confirmed.  “I think I still have some of my old toys in a closet somewhere, you could have fun with them.”  She leaned in until her lips nearly engulfed my head and whispered, “And I think I could have a lot of fun with you, once I tear you away from Barbie.”  She planted a kiss that covered my whole face then turned, making the whole world spin with her.  We left the school while I stared into her great brown eyes and she tried to ignore anything was happening outside of her view.  In her hand, I could forget all about Tanisha until tomorrow.

 

When I got out of Meredith’s car the next morning, I felt like a million dollars again.  Spending the evening as her doll had helped me forget about Tanisha’s malicious bullying and focus on Meredith’s good-natured bullying instead.  Her dolls towered over me then as she did now, and she did her best to manipulate their arms to push me around as she did.  Still, it was nothing compared to the feeling of being gripped in her hand, her fingers wrapped securely around my body.  Looking up into her big brown eyes while she playfully batted my head to and fro, I felt a soothing sense of security that was amplified when she snuggled me close that night.

 

Now, though, I was walking in alone while she sat in her car messing around on her phone, and the illusion of safety began to fade.  We had agreed that giving me a five-minute head start in the morning would help dissuade suspicions that she had gone soft, but that did little to comfort me now.  Tanisha could be anywhere, and I wasn’t sure how much she had picked up on yesterday.  If she got to me before Meredith did, there was no telling how far she would push her knowledge.

 

A curtain of blond hair that nearly reached the ceiling drew my attention the instant I passed through the doors, and my heart skipped a beat.  Before I could press myself against the wall to slip by, however, I saw that Tanisha had been waylaid by one of the teachers.  Though she dwarfed the instructor, Tanisha must have been reluctant to throw away her image as a goodie two-shoes and just gave me a quick, furious glance.

 

“Miss Kraus, I know you’re new but this is unacceptable!” the teacher scolded.  “You’ve had ample time to review our dress code, and your outfit is in clear violation!  I demand an explanation right now before I send you to the principal.”  Tanisha’s denim skirt didn’t even make it halfway down her creamy thighs, and her red top exposed her midriff if she leaned back even a little.  Though I found the dress code asinine and unnecessary, I suddenly found myself supporting it when it was thrown at this would-be tyrant.

 

“You don’t understand, Mrs. Reynolds!” Tanisha shot back.  “They just don’t make clothes big enough for me!  Retailers expect women to be sized more like you, and women like me can’t find anything that fits.  I’d have to wear a trash bag to fit your dress code, and I hardly think you want me walking around like that.”

 

Mrs. Reynolds considered Tanisha’s response for a moment, and I took the opportunity to slip by them.  “Well, okay,” she finally said as I did my best to get lost in the crowd.  “I suppose you have a point.  But if I see you dressed like this again, I guarantee you’ll be sent home for the day or made to wear a parka!”

 

“I understand, ma’am,” Tanisha said, and I knelt to open my locker.  Hopefully I’d be below her notice, and I could gather my books and go about my day in peace.  I took a few moments to sort out what I needed before placing it on the floor, then closed the door.  Before standing I checked behind me, and saw what might as well be an immovable object standing there.

 

Tanisha loomed over me, and I quickly scanned from her knees up to her calculating blue eyes glaring down at me.  Her hands rested on her hips, and something inside me said this was the most appropriate way of looking at her.  “Hey there, twerp,” she said.  “You’re looking a bit bigger than the last time I saw you.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied.  I gathered my books in my arms and stood, turning around to face her as I did so.  My eyes were around her navel, but she no longer felt like she dominated my whole world.

 

“I’m sure you don’t,” she countered before taking a couple steps closer.  I retreated, and found myself pinned between metal and her towering frame not even an inch from me.  “Listen, pipsqueak, I don’t have time for your shit right now, but I guarantee you and that brute of yours will be seeing more of me today.  I’ve gotten my schedule changed so I’ll be in more of your classes, too, so you might not want to get too attached to your seats.”  Tanisha moved closer, her body nearly engulfing mine until she looked straight down at me. 

 

“Or maybe you might,” she whispered.  “If you resist I can make you feel really small, you know.  Maybe even smaller than you were yesterday.”  Tanisha sneered and took a step back, freeing me from her oppressive presence.  “I’ll be seeing you, little guy.”  She walked away, and I had the terrible feeling she was right.  I walked to my first class, full of the same trepidation of seeing her I had felt the previous afternoon.

 

---

Tanisha was in two of my morning classes now, and I made it through by immediately capitulating to her demands.  It saved us both some time, and my legs were still bruised from her feet pressing on them: her black sneakers today would be lighter, but I imagined still unpleasant.  Despite giving her what she wanted, she still sat right in front of me, even asking other students to move so she could sit near her “new best friend.”  They agreed, of course, and I got to look at her shoulder blades for an hour straight.

 

 

When it was time for lunch, I raced past her before she could block my path, clipping her waist with my shoulder.  She tried to stop me, but my excitement to see Meredith kept me moving quickly and her hand brushed off my back.  I got a few students between us, and Tanisha was unwilling to rampage through them to get to me.  There was nothing between me and my lunch date, and I hoped that my new tormenter would have enough restraint to lay off me until we were stuck together again in the afternoon.

 

I got my food and headed toward the table where Meredith sat in isolation, doing my best to act resigned.  She spotted me from a table away and sternly pointed down at the seat next to her.  “Hurry up and sit down, nerd,” Meredith commanded.  “Don’t make me get up and grab you.”  I slumped my shoulders and quickly shuffled my feet toward her, then took the seat beside her.

 

Meredith peered down at me, narrowing her eyes in judgment.  “Could’ve been faster,” she said, then quietly added, “so I’ll just grab your hand.”  After a moment to make sure no one was watching she slid her hand around mine, engulfing it with her much longer digits.  Her expression immediately softened, and she let out a quiet giggle before lowering our hands onto her thigh.

 

“So, how was your morning?” she asked.  Her voice was always bubbly when it was just the two of us, like talking to me caused her to become nervously excited.

 

“Not great,” I answered, and her expression dropped.

 

“Aw, I’m sorry to hear that!” she replied.  “There anything I can do to help?”

 

“Not unless you think you can take Tanisha in a fight.”  Clearly, she was not thrilled by the prospect.  “She’s out to get me worse than you ever were.  She’s changed her schedule to match mine more closely, and makes sure she can spend our classes together subtly tormenting me.  Worse than that, she…”  I trailed off, but Meredith’s eyes pleaded for me to finish.  “She saw you shrink me yesterday.”  Her eyes widened in shock, and I explained, “I saw her in the room behind you once you stopped, and she confronted me about it this morning.”

 

Before Meredith could say anything, a large hand clamped around my shoulder and jerked me backwards.  A dark blue blur flashed in front of my face, then a tremendous weight crashed onto my lap, causing me to grimace.  I looked up to see what had landed on me, and long blond hairs tickled the tip of my nose.  Tanisha had managed to track me down.

 

“Hey, why don’t you find a fucking empty seat, huh?” Meredith protested.  She tried to shove the enormous blond off me but only made her wobble, causing her butt to grind into my thighs.  I felt the same fear and helplessness as the first time Meredith shrank me, and my dick twitched involuntarily.

 

“Hm?  I didn’t see anyone sitting here,” Tanisha replied, simultaneously feigning ignorance and saying I was too small for her to see.  She pushed my tray away so it was just out of my reach, but well within hers.  “Thanks for getting me lunch, though!  This goes a long way toward making up for that unpleasantness between us the other day.”

 

“Don’t play dumb,” Meredith shot back, and I let out a low groan.  “You know you’re sitting on him.”

 

Tanisha chuckled and leaned back, pushing me along with her.  “You must be mistaken,” she countered.  “Look, I’ll level with you.  We’re the two tallest girls in this school and we love it, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be friends.  We can make a sort of tall bitch alliance, maybe even rope in a couple of the slightly less gifted girls.  If we worked together, we could run this place.”

 

“I can think of a reason,” Meredith said, completely deadpan.  “You’re moving in on my territory.”

 

“Oh, that little twerp?”  Tanisha was doing a fantastic job of feigning ignorance even while I struggled to get out from beneath her.  “I was just asserting my dominance.  You know how it goes, right?  No hard feelings on my part.”  Each time I failed to budge her from atop me I got a little more erect, and Meredith was powerless against her.  I hated to admit that she was insanely attractive, and I was very into how she was treating me.

 

“Let’s cut the shit, okay?” Meredith began, anger creeping into her voice.  “You started moving in on my favorite bullying target the instant you got here, and you’re sitting on him right now.  You need to at least admit that before we can even start talking like we’re friendly.”

 

“Yeah, let’s cut the shit,” Tanisha agreed.  “I watched you shrink that little shit until he fit inside your hand the other day.  It’s a neat trick, and you’re going to teach it to me.”

 

“That’s insane,” Meredith countered, “people can’t shrink, you know?  Were you on something, or something?”  I struggled to move Tanisha from atop me, but she was just too heavy.  Her complete control over me made my mind run wild, and I could do nothing to stop it despite my best efforts.

 

“You’re a terrible liar,” Tanisha replied.  She looked down, and saw my fingers entwined with Meredith’s.  “I doubt anyone would even believe your denials after I told them you’re dating this twerp.”  Her confidence had an even stronger effect on me than her physical power did, and no matter how much I hated it, I was fully erect now.

 

“Why would I deny it, huh?” Meredith deflected.  “He’s probably the sweetest guy in the world, and any woman would be lucky to date him”

 

“Even someone who’s built half her identity on treating him like garbage?  I don’t think your reputation will hold up once everyone in school learns you’re fucking your favorite victim.  All you have to do is teach me your secret, and I’ll let you keep yours.”

 

“What do you think I am, twelve?” Meredith replied.  “You can’t get me to do whatever you want by threatening to tell people I like a boy.  Like, I’ve had a good run as the school’s top bully, but if it’s between that and him I’ll take him every time.”  Even in my wildest dreams I never imagined women fighting over me, let alone two women who towered over me to the point I might as well not exist compared to them.

 

“Okay, fine, I respect that,” Tanisha admitted.  “Here’s a better deal: you teach me, and I leave him alone.”

 

“You’re kidding, right?” Meredith asked.  “You’re awful now, and I can only imagine how bad you’d be if you could shrink people.  Go find someone else to mess with, because you’re not going to get anything out of me.”  I knew she was doing the right thing, but I was still struggling to do more than wave my arms futilely under Tanisha’s mass.

 

“Maybe you’re not thinking right, so I’ll give you another chance,” Tanisha offered.  “I’ll be the best friend you could ever ask for, and I’ll even be cool to your boyfriend here!  All you have to do is teach me how to make people tiny.  We could have every guy in school the size of your boyfriend.”  The more she disrespected me the harder I wanted to cum, though I made myself resist.  I could not imagine the storm Meredith would raise if she noticed, and justifiably so.

 

“Okay, sure, I’ll let you know.”  Meredith’s voice dripped with sarcasm, but Tanisha was unperturbed.  “Mind if I take until the end of the semester?”

 

“Tell you what: because I like you, and I can imagine our total reign of terror, I’ll give you until the end of the week.  But if I don’t hear from you, we’ll be enemies, and I’ll keep treating him like he’s dirt.  Got it?”  Meredith didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to.  “Hopefully, I see you before Friday!  I really do want to be your friend: it’s worth giving up the easiest bullying target I’ve ever met.”  She shoved her whole weight against me before standing, then walked off without looking back.  In the short time she was here she had cleaned my tray entirely and given me the biggest erection I’d ever had.

 

“Well, what do you think?” Meredith asked once she was out of earshot.  “You have the most to lose or gain out of all of this, right?”

 

“You did the right thing,” I replied.  Even though I was lightheaded, I could see the long-term consequences of what Tanisha wanted.  “If you teach her, who do you think will be the first two people she shrinks?  Then there’ll be no one to stand between up to her.  I can deal with her being mean to us for a few months.”

 

Meredith looked me up and down, her gaze coming to a stop on my crotch.  “Well, I think you’re leaving a few things out,” she began with a jovial tone, “but I know what you mean.  If it’s just her being a bitch to us until we leave, I can deal with that if you can.  I’d rather it stay limited to the two of us if it has to happen.”

 

“I’m glad we agree on yet another thing,” I said, leaning my head against Meredith’s shoulder.  “You might even say we see eye to eye.”

 

“Keep dreaming, squirt,” Meredith retorted, shoving me hard on one side while holding me close with the other.  “Even if I put my chin on the table you’d have to stand on some books for that.”  We carefully snuggled each other while Meredith did her best to make it look like she was holding me in a headlock.

 

Suddenly, her arm relinquished its grip on me.  “Oh, you’ve got to get to class!” she announced.  “And I probably should, too.  Meet me by the yearbook room after school though, okay?  Maybe I’ll dye my hair blond, you seem to like that.”  She winked before getting up, smiling from ear to ear.  Meredith strode toward the exit, swinging her hips wide, and I watched them move, entranced.  By the time I realized she was gone, I had to run to be on time for my next class.

I did my best to stay out of Tanisha’s way in the afternoon, and she was content to merely continue her harassment by blocking my view.  Maybe she’d gotten her fill at lunch, or thought that laying off me would encourage Meredith to give in.  Whatever her motive, I was glad for the reprieve.  My thighs had taken a pounding from her the last couple of days, not to mention my ego.  Not only that, but my physical response to her terrifying presence worried me.  I’d reacted this way to Meredith, and I doubted she was just flirting with me.

 

When the day was over, I went to wait for Meredith outside the yearbook room.  It usually took her about a half hour to finish whatever she was doing in there, and I had the time to myself.  After school the halls were almost empty, particularly this far from the exit.  I simply leaned against the wall, pulled out my phone, and began idly scrolling until it was time for us to go.

 

A shadow fell over me, and two strong hands grabbed my shirt.  Before I saw who it was, they yanked me into the middle of the hallway, then gave me a firm shake.  “Why you creeping around, creep?” they demanded.  I recognized Meredith’s voice and relaxed, then gazed up into the burning intensity of her brown eyes.  “Waiting for someone to walk by so you can creep on them?”

 

“No, I’m just waiting for a friend!” I protested.  “I’m supposed to be doing a lab experiment with my partner this afternoon, they’re running a bit late is all.”

 

Meredith scoffed, then replied, “It’s always something with you creeps, isn’t it?  A lab partner, or meeting with a teacher, or your parents are late to pick you up.  Well, I’m sick of it, and I think it’s time I taught at least one of you creeps a lesson.”

 

“What’re you gonna do to me?”  I did my best to act afraid: Meredith said it was more satisfying that way. 

 

“Nothing for you to be worried about.”  She gave me a smug grin and leaned down until our noses touched.  “In fact, it’ll make it easier for you to creep around.  You’ll just have to be more alert instead of playing on your phone, is all.”  Quickly she looked around to make sure no one else could see us, then let go of my shirt.  The shrinking process rooted me to the ground – at least, that was how we liked to play it – so there was no chance of me running away.

 

Though she was practiced enough she could make me the desired size in a split second, we both preferred when I dwindled a little more gradually.  I liked the increasing feeling of powerlessness as she became taller and wider in my view, steadily changing from a woman who loomed over me to what looked like a skyscraper that had taken human form.  For her part, she liked watching me get smaller and weaker, less able to resist her strength so she could do whatever she wanted.  This time she stopped when I was just a smidge taller than the toes of her ratty gray hi-top Converse, but significantly shorter than their tops.  Tonight, I would likely not be playing with her dolls.

 

Meredith spread her fingers and got ready to snatch me up before we were interrupted.  “Meredith, can you come here a second?” a voice called.  “We need you to help with something.”  She balled her fingers back into a fist, squeezing it tightly to dissipate the rage. We both knew carrying me in there would cause an uncomfortable amount of questions.

 

“I’ll be right in!” Meredith replied, then turned down to me.  “Okay, stay right here and don’t move, all right?  I’ll be right back.”  She walked away, leaving me with nothing to look at but the open fire doors that had been behind her, leaving me feeling exposed and vulnerable.

 

As soon as she vanished into the room, a figure turned the corner at the end of the hall.  A blond, feminine figure, that was demonstrating her height by dragging her fingers along the ceiling.  A small maroon t-shirt and tiny black shorts clung to her body, identifying her as a member of the volleyball team.  Two things were certain to me: this was Tanisha, and if she saw me I was in big trouble.

 

What could I do, though?  Meredith had told me to stay put, but in the middle of the corridor I’d stick out against the white tile.  If I stayed I was sure to be seen, but moving across the floor would draw her attention too.  This small interruption was turning out to be a tremendous problem.

 

I realized if I explained the danger Meredith would surely forgive me and figured I’d try the best way to avoid her notice.  Tanisha was walking down one side of the corridor so I headed for the other, sprinting for the wall as quickly as I could.  Black smudges and gray textures on the tiles were the landmarks as I sprinted over them, leaping between the cracks.  I’d always been fast, and even at my diminished size I could still blaze a trail.

 

When I was just under a foot away from taking shelter beneath the lockers an enormous black wall swung down in front of me, blocking my path and hitting me with a strong gust of wind.  I looked back and saw another black shape blocking my way back, but with more distance I could clearly see it was a shoe, complete with a black swoosh in relief.  Fearing the worst, I looked up and saw a pair of tremendous, toned legs above, converging toward the middle until they met at the crotch of a pair of black, spandex shorts.

 

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Tanisha proclaimed.  I got the impression she was trying to be quiet, but her voice was still terrifyingly loud, more like a tremendous rumble than human speech.  “It looks like the littlest guy in school found a way to get even more little.  I wonder how that happened?”

 

“Okay Tanisha, look, there’s no reason we can’t both walk away from this!” I started, but her laughter cut me off.

 

“Your voice is so small!” she exclaimed.  “And high!  It’s just like in the movies!”  Her laughter continued, just as strong as before.  I wanted to wait until she was done to continue, but at this rate that might take all day and I wanted to have this settled before Meredith came back.

 

“There’s no reason you have to do anything here!” I shouted at the titaness standing over me.  “You can just walk away and forget you saw anything without doing something you regret!”

 

“Oh, you itty-bitty man, I would love to!” Tanisha retorted.  “I could have done that just earlier today!  But then your girlfriend had to turn down all my generous offers and refuse to teach me how to make people like you.  I really do want us all to be friends, but she’s refusing to teach me a fun skill, so… you’re a bargaining chip now.”

 

Before I could reply, a loud “Hey!” cut through the corridor.  “Get away from him!” followed, then a black streak slammed into Tanisha.  She crumpled with the hit, and the floor quaked from the impact of their two enormous bodies landing on the ground.  I was now trapped between two upturned black sports shoes with faded jeans laying over them, coming to end in a pair of ratty gray Converse.  Meredith had immediately realized what was going on and decided to rescue me.

 

There was no way I could be safe amid two tussling giantesses.  At this size, even a stray kick or throw that landed on me would be fatal, leaving little more of me than a smear on the tile.  As I withdrew Tanisha pulled her black Nikes up, making them scream as they dragged across the floor.  Colors whirled above me, then a wall of denim shoved me back, followed by a tremor from them crashing into the ground again.

 

I was no longer between their legs and ran to put as much distance as I could between us.  There was a loud scream, then two clangs as something slammed into metal – Meredith had told me that the yearbook people wear headphones while working, but this seemed like a lot to ignore.  Someone groaned, and I heard shuffling behind me while the other got up.  Without looking back I continued on my way, sure I could guide Meredith to me later with my phone.

 

A tremendous black shoe slammed down in front of me, killing any notions I had of evasion.  “And just where do you think you’re going?” Tanisha asked, her voice smugger than I could have ever imagined.  I stopped dead in my tracks.  “To the victor go the spoils, as it were.”  She bent over and one of her hands came toward me, its fingers spread wide.  It shot forward in a jab, and her fingers clenched around me.  Everything was dark and it felt like being inside an oven, and my insides dropped out from beneath me as she stood.

 

The sudden ascent stopped abruptly, and it felt like not only did my guts catch up to me, but they kept going.  Light struck me when she opened her fingers, and I could breathe freely again.  Unfortunately, I was between a pair of tremendous blue eyes with both pupils focused on me.  Each of her features I could see were my size, and there was nowhere to run.  Instead, I simply stood in the middle of her palm, trying to decide which eye to look into while she regarded me like, at best, a toy.

 

Her other hand reached toward me, thumb and forefinger extended, and I made no move to resist.  Tanisha pinched the back of my collar and plucked me out of her hand, then dangled me in front of her face.  She swung her hand back and forth a couple times, and I saw the sheer delight in her eyes watching me dangle from her fingers.

 

Suddenly she stepped forward and held me down to Meredith, just out of her arm’s reach.  She was in no shape to fight, and all I could do was look at her exquisite face clenched in pain.

 

“You know what this is, right?” Tanisha asked, shaking her hand just enough to start me swinging again.

 

“That’s my boyfriend!” Meredith said, trying but failing to get back to her feet.

 

“Yes, but he’s more than that,” Tanisha replied.  Even though there was no chance of Meredith snatching me out of her hand, Tanisha yanked me back hard enough that she knocked the wind out of me.  “He’s leverage.  You passed up all my offers of friendship, but now I have something you really want.”  She gave me another jerk to make me start swinging.  “It didn’t have to be like this, but you refused to negotiate.  Now he’s with me until we can come to an agreement.”

 

“Give him back!” Meredith spat, but Tanisha just laughed.

 

“I don’t think you understand the idea of leverage!” she said, laughing.  “Meet me in the cafeteria at 7:30 tomorrow morning and we’ll decide where to go from there.  Until then he’s mine, and I think I’ll have some fun with him.”  Tanisha pulled me back, and my view of Meredith was blocked by her fingers.

 

She let go of me, dropping me into her palm, while Meredith writhed helplessly on the floor.  “We’re going to have a good time, right?” Tanisha asked, nudging me with the tip of a finger.  She was talking to me like she would an infant, or a particularly cute kitten.  “Yeah, we’ll have a lot of fun!  At least, I will.  I’m not so sure about you.”  My body betrayed me again.  Though I wanted nothing to do with Tanisha, it seemed that with how helpless I was part of me did.  I just hoped we could keep that under wraps until this was over.

 

The world gently swayed back and forth, with Tanisha’s gait as she walked away.  Meredith moaned in protest, but there was nothing she could do about it now.  I was trapped under the gaze of two brilliant blue eyes and subject to the occasional jab from a finger when she wanted to make sure I knew who was in control.  When we got to her place, I figured, there would be no question at all, and she would unleash her full fury.

Tanisha kept me sealed inside her fist for the whole drive home, her fingers closed so tight I could not even move.  She sang along to generic pop music playing from the stereo, so in addition to sweltering heat and pressure inside her hand I had to deal with her singing off-key to a song she only knew half the lyrics to.  Each turn of the wheel took me along with it, rotating me with her hand.  With the constant changes in orientation I had no way of knowing which way was up after few minutes of driving, and I had to deal with blood rushing into and then out of my head.

 

The car stopped and Tanisha got out, keeping her fist clenched.  Car doors opened and shut while she grabbed her backpack, and she kept loudly humming the song she had been listening to.  Her attitude about this whole thing was shockingly casual, like kidnapping a shrunken man and bringing him home to torment was a daily occurrence for her.  Certainly she did not seem too worried about the consequences: probably she had never faced any.

 

She pushed the door inward, and after a moment to check that no one was around opened her hand.  When the shock from suddenly being exposed to light wore off my view was dominated by her beaming face, but I noticed that she apparently lived in a palace.  The foyer alone was cavernous, and the adjoining rooms could have comfortably fit one of my classes inside.  A stairway half as wide as my house led up, with a thick banister that curled at the end, and large black and white stone tiles covered the floor, polished to a bright shine.

 

“Mom, I’m home!” she announced, and I recoiled from her voice.

 

“How was school honey?” her mom called back.  “Did you make the volleyball team?”

 

“Of course I did!” Tanisha answered.  “They almost made me captain on the spot!”

 

“That’s great, I want you to tell me all about it!”  Her mom was very excited by the news, and Tanisha’s eyes widened.  She probably did not expect such enthusiasm and wanted to get right to her fun with me.

 

 “Sure thing!” Tanisha replied.  “But, um, I’ve got a lot of homework this week, can it wait until the weekend?” 

 

“Okay honey, I look forward to it!”  With her mom’s interest defused, Tanisha ran up the stairs.  Her long legs took the steps three at a time, and her eagerness jostled me vigorously in her hand.  I was tossed back and forth in her palm, bouncing off the curved ridges around the edge.  She was fighting a smile as she speedily walked toward her room and practically threw the door open, then slammed it behind her.

 

Everything in the room was bright white – the dresser, shelves, desk, even her bedspread and pillows were an unblemished, pure white.  Tanisha set her hand atop the dresser by the door and turned it sideways, dumping me out of her palm.  I spilled onto the white surface and collapsed, landing hard on my knees.  While I got back to my feet and tried to rub away the pain of the impact, Tanisha bent over and untied her shoes.  She slipped her feet out, and I was a little relieved that she would not be stepping on me with them.

 

She stood back to her full height and turned, then stood so she loomed over me.  Even though she was blocking the room’s light and heavily backlit, I could see she was grinning from ear to ear.  “Now that we have some privacy, are you ready to have some fun, twerp?” she boomed.  “Of course you are!”  I still had no idea what she meant by fun, but she was already reaching down for me, two fingers outstretched, and I didn’t flinch: in her room, there was nowhere for me to run.

 

Tanisha’s fingers clamped on my sides, pinning my arms as she plucked me from the dresser.  She held me up to her face, about an inch from her nose, and proudly beamed down at me.  My stomach jumped when she turned around, then she took a step toward her bed.  “You know, I had a long day, and volleyball practice left me kind of sore,” she said.  Tanisha flopped down onto the bed, making a loud thud when her body hit the mattress and causing powerful tremors to run through my body.  “I could really use a thigh massage, and your puny self is all I’ve got.”

 

She turned on her side, and my vision was a rush of white blurs as she moved me around her body.  Tanisha held me over her thigh and let go, dropping me onto her hamstring.  I tumbled to my face upon landing, my puny body dimpling her smooth skin.  With a groan I got back to my feet, but a quick shake of her leg brought me back to my knees.  “How’re you going to rub my thighs if you’re standing?” she asked.  “Now get to work.”

 

Dutifully I began rubbing her tender hamstring, though I didn’t know what good I could do at this size.  No matter how hard I pressed down my hands didn’t make much more of an impression than my whole body did, and my hands covered a pitifully small area.  Looking up the great length of her leg, I saw my work was cut out for me.  It would take me all night just to do this one hamstring, and that was without any breaks.

 

The pressure from my hands didn’t even reach through her dermis and could not have been having any effect on the muscle below.  I decided to go through the motions while admiring the view.  Tanisha was a horrific monster who had decided I was subhuman just for being short, but I had to admit she had an amazing body.  Her thighs were so toned they were like rocks, and her immaculate, toned ass loomed at the far end like a great black hill in those tiny shorts.  Reaching that was motivation enough for me to move up her thigh like this.

 

I had only made it a couple inches when Tanisha turned around, bringing me under the powerful gaze of her blue eyes.  “Okay, you can stop massaging now!” she said.  Her voice traveled through her body and down to her legs, making the ground under me vibrate.  It felt surprisingly good, and there was a familiar, uncomfortable twitch following it.  “It’s time for us to really have fun.”

 

“But I’m not done massaging your thigh,” I replied, confused.  It wasn’t that I wanted to finish this impossible task.  If anything, I was just apprehensive about what she had in mind for the real fun.

 

“I’m sure you’d love to spend all night stroking my legs you little perv, but that was just busy work to keep you from bothering me while I did my homework,” Tanisha explained.  She punctuated it by slamming a book shut then grinning.  “Let’s start off with a game.  I’ve always found pachinko interesting, haven’t you?”  Her leg swung to the side then stopped abruptly, sending me tumbling over her thigh’s curve.  The smooth, hairless skin gave nothing to grab onto, and I careened over the side of her bed.

 

The entire length of Tanisha’s bedframe was lined by shoes.  She had a tremendous variety of them, and seemed to have them arranged by amount of material and formality.  Beside her head were several pairs of flip-flops in pastel colors, and by them were two pairs of barely worn Birkenstocks.   Next to those were red, yellow, and blue hi-top Converse, then a series of black tennis shoes around where I was, with a single pair missing.  After those came a series of enormous flats, one for each color of the rainbow and various hues of pink, then a surprisingly complete collection of high heels.  I wasn’t sure why a seven-foot-tall woman wanted to be taller, but she loved lording her height over other people, and these let her do it in a variety of outfits.

 

I plummeted from the edge of the bed toward the line of shoes, spinning out of control.  My path took me over some Adidas running shoes, then gravity strengthened its hold on me.  The sudden drop pulled me toward the vacant spot, and I landed where the right shoe would have been.  Her room’s carpet softened my fall, but I ended up deeply embedded in the white fibers and would have to fight my way out.

 

“Aw, you lose!” Tanisha said, and the squealing bed springs pierced my ears when she sat up.  She swung her tremendously long legs over the side, putting her feet on a trajectory for me.  There was no way I could get out of the path of her gigantic feet, so I hunkered down and hoped I could endure the assault.  Her feet crashed onto the floor, hitting with such impact that every bone in my body rattled and I felt my insides shake.  Even though one of her socked feet was directly on top of me I was not smashed, merely trapped beneath it.  Tanisha let out a booming laugh, and I felt its power both through the air and her skin.

 

I crawled through the carpet mashed down by her foot, trying to get out from under her.  Her foot was much too long for me to get out that way, so I went for the side.  As I squirmed through the floor she pressed her feet down harder and ground them onto the carpet as much as she could.  Tanisha’s socks hooked some of the carpet fibers and pulled them out with their movement while her feet beat the carpet down even further, finally reaching me.  There was enough pressure from it that I was pinned in place, unable to drag myself through the carpet any further.

 

“Hm, I seem to have lost you,” Tanisha said.  “Maybe smashed you.  Well, it’s not like I really needed you.  If I’m being honest, it barely seemed like Meredith shrank you at all.”  She laughed at her own joke and pressed down harder, making my ribs compress.   I could only breathe in short, sharp breaths as her tremendous weight kept my chest from fully expanding.  “You were bound to get stepped on sooner or later.  I’m honestly surprised it took this long.”

 

The pressure suddenly vanished when Tanisha raised her foot, and I was torn away from the carpet.  I had become stuck to the sole of her sock, and it carried me along during its rapid ascent.  A couple feet off the floor it began curving, swinging me over her leg still planted firmly on the ground.  She crossed the leg with me on it over the other, and the ride came to a stop abruptly enough that I was knocked free of her sole, dropping onto the toe of an Adidas sneaker.

 

She glanced down at me, and her eyes briefly widened from excitement.  “Oh, there you are!” she exclaimed.  I could not tell whether she was acting or really did think she had smashed me.  “Let’s make something clear: if you escape, you’re dead.  If I leave the room and lose you, get my attention or get back here.  Neither my mom or my older sister would believe some story about a tiny man, shrunken or not, so I won’t even try to explain it to them.  If they see you, they’ll think you’re a bug, and we don’t do any of that ‘gently place bugs outside’ shit in this house.  Got it?”

 

I nodded, but I could tell from Tanisha’s harsh glare she wanted more.  “Yeah, I got it,” I shouted.  “No escape, no getting lost.”  The responsible thing would be to not let me get lost in the first place, but I kept that to myself.

 

“Good.”  She leaned forward and swiped and arm at me, knocking me off the shoe with the tip of a finger.  I flew off it, going fast enough that I sailed over the next shoe down before hitting the carpet and skipped a few times before rolling to a stop.  Mattress springs squealed when Tanisha stood, and the floor shook from her footfall.  Her shadow fell over me, and I gazed up at her.

 

Tanisha’s feet alone were taller than me and so massive that, if my house had been scaled down with me, it would fit under one.  Her ankle socks barely contained them, making the distinct outline of her toes and arches obvious.  She was mostly legs and hers were toned to perfection, prominently displaying well-shaped thighs and quads that strained against her tiny black shorts.  It seemed her maroon jersey was a size too small, making her curves more noticeable, and she had a contemptuous glare fixed on me.  From this angle she was even more terrifying than usual, and I felt the unwelcome twinge of an erection developing.

 

“You like this, don’t you, twerp?” Tanisha asked coldly.  “Yeah, I felt that shit at lunch.  Just so you know, I don’t find it cute, or endearing, or whatever that savage of yours tells herself to justify it.  I think it’s sick and weird, and if I didn’t need you for leverage, she would’ve had to scrape you off the floor today, so don’t get any gross ideas about me.”

 

Someone knocked lightly on the door.  “Tanisha, who’re you talking to in there?” a feminine voice asked.

 

“Uh, nobody!  I’m reading through a play for English class,” she answered.

 

“Okay.”  A few seconds passed, then they continued, “Anyway, mom made sandwiches for us, I’m leaving yours by the door.”  There was a series of thuds, then a door closed nearby.

 

“I’d never lie to my sister, especially not for you,” Tanisha said.  “I really was reading a play earlier, and you’re nobody to me.”  She stepped over me, buzzing me close enough with her foot that a ball of lint hit me in the face, and the floor quaked when she set it down.  Tremors continued on her way to the door, then it swung open.  A moment later she shut it again and turned around, holding a white plate in her tremendous hands.  Carefully she lowered herself onto the bed, making it groan under her weight, then kicked her feet up.  Her legs were long enough that her ankles hung over the footboard, and she began idly kicking them in the air.

 

“Get up here if you want dinner, twerp,” Tanisha said.  “I’m sure as hell not giving you anything.”  First she stole my lunch, and now I had to fight her for my dinner?  If I didn’t die from her physical abuse, she just might starve me to death.

 

Her bedspread was neatly tucked into the mattress, so I’d have to find some other way up.  I headed to the nearest high heel and used the sole as a step to climb onto the toe, then scampered over the strap and buckle.  Suede crushed underfoot like grass as I jogged toward the heel, quickly arriving at the opening for her foot.  Carefully I straddled the side and pulled myself up, making sure I wouldn’t fall in.  It was not as steep as I expected a six-inch heel’s shoe to be due to her tremendously long feet and I eventually reached the back.  Making sure of my balance, I stood on the side until I could reach the very base of her bedframe.

 

Fortunately, there was a knot in the wood providing me with an easy handhold, and I seized it.  Briefly I dangled from it, kicking at the air to push myself up.  When I had ascended just a little I took a risk, grabbing for a higher hold, and luckily found purchase in the wood.  I curled my body so that my feet could set down inside the knot, then stood and reached higher.  The rest of the frame had enough scoring and divots to serve as hand and footholds, and in a few minutes I stood atop the plank.

 

Tanisha’s comforter was within arm’s reach from here, and I looped my feet into two loose stitches of fabric before grabbing two handfuls.  As long as I was careful, climbing the blanket was the easiest part of my journey yet: it was billowy, and there were easy to spot stitches running in straight lines.  My arms were starting to get tired, but I reached the top of Tanisha’s mattress without slipping and falling into the shoe below.

 

The plate rested on Tanisha’s stomach, and I needed to get on top of it.  I started running toward her waist, moving in the trenches made by stitching so I wouldn’t have to fight the puffy white fabric.  It was a long way from her ankles, but after about a minute I finally saw the black fabric of her shorts to the side.  Quickly I cut toward it, moving as fast as I could, with the promise of a few morsels to eat as my motivation.

 

At last, I reached Tanisha’s leg and probed her shorts for the best place to grab.  Surprisingly they were not made of spandex, and the soft fabric left plenty of places for my limbs.  I proceeded similarly to how I had with the comforter, but the curvature of her thigh and butt gave an added level of challenge.  It was an inverse climb at first, and I had to strain to even make it to the vertical slope.  The climb got easier as I went until I stood beneath the lip of her plate.

 

Resolutely I reached up and grabbed the edge, and with a final surge of adrenaline pulled myself onto it.  Once I got back to my feet I dashed toward the center, only to find it empty save for crumbs.  I looked left and right, but the only sign of a sandwich was at Tanisha’s mouth.  She made eye contact with me as best she could, then opened her lips and pushed it in with a single finger.  If it was possible to chew smugly, she had found a way.

 

“Should’ve been faster, small fry,” Tanisha teased after she swallowed.  “Looks like it’s crumbs for you.”  I got here as quickly as I could, but she might’ve been holding onto that last bite just so she could taunt me with it.  My stomach growled, and I knew she was right.  Heedlessly I threw myself onto the crumbs, throwing what I could into my mouth and barely even bothering to swallow.  It was the only food I’d had since a breakfast bar, and I was starving.

 

Tanisha pinched my right leg and pulled back, slamming me face-first onto the plate.  Her fingers dragged me along the ceramic surface until reaching the edge, where my fall was only arrested by her grip.  Slowly she lifted me from plate-level until reaching her face, dangling me upside down the whole time.  A chilling, malicious laugh escaped her throat while she smirked at me.

 

“Seeing you on that plate got me thinking,” she began, “I could use some dessert, and how many people can say they’ve swallowed another human being whole?  After today, just me.  See you tomorrow, you little shit.”  Tanisha’s mouth opened, and past her pink lips I saw white teeth lining a cavernous maw with a pink, undulating tentacle in the middle.  She drew me toward it while I screamed, then tossed me inside.  I landed on her tongue, then she sealed her lips, plunging me into complete darkness.

 

Tanisha slammed me against the roof of her mouth, knocking my breath out and coating me in saliva.  She cupped me with the tip of her tongue and began slowly pulling back, dragging me along her palate.  Each ridge was like a punch, dazing me just long enough to reach the next one until I reached the back.  A horrifying schlurp filled her oral cavity when she swallowed a pond of saliva and some leftovers from the sandwich, then she relented.

 

Her lips parted, allowing some light into the moist cave, but what I saw beyond them was surreal.  Tanisha was holding her phone up with the selfie camera on, giving me a full view of myself inside her mouth.  My existential terror upon seeing this was cut through by a tremendous rumble that emerged from her throat, blasting me with hot air as it went by.  “Any last words, twerp?”

 

“Yes!” I answered, seizing on the chance to save my life.  “When you learn how to shrink people, you can swallow dozens of them whole!  You can have a whole buffet of people!  But Meredith isn’t going to teach you if you kill me!”  It was cowardly, but it was the only way to not end up inside her stomach.

 

“You make a good point.”  Inside her mouth her voice was more like the rumble of thunder when she spoke, and it took a moment to piece together what she said due to the distortion.  “You can live, and you’ll be responsible for what I do!”

 

Before I could reflect on that, she reached in and plucked me off her tongue with a pair of fingers.  Without a word she dropped me onto her shirt, then wrapped the fabric around me.  She pressed it against my saliva-covered body, drying most of the burning liquid away.  When she was done, she unrolled the shirt from around me, then picked me back up.  Tanisha gave me a stern stare, and I wanted to look anywhere but at her.

 

“I’m going to take my plate downstairs,” she began,” and I don’t trust you to stay here.  I just want to make sure you know I’m only doing this because I don’t have any pockets in this outfit.  If you do anything pervy, at best I’ll tell that mess of a girlfriend of yours and let her deal with it.”  With that she let me go, and I plummeted toward her chest.

 

Tanisha had pulled the collar of her shirt out, and I dropped inside the fabric.  I tumbled from her clavicle to her breasts, where I tumbled inside her cleavage.  Her tits stopped me partway down, and she gave her chest a light pat to make sure I was situated.  She pressed her breasts together, making sure they’d hold me, and got up to venture outside her room.

Being dropped down a woman’s shirt was far from the joyride one might expect.  It was so hot I began sweating immediately, and the persistent musk of sweat all around made it difficult to breathe without gagging.  When Tanisha mashed her breasts together one of them won the tug of war after she let go, leaving me stuck to the side.  I lingered for a moment, then a slight vibration caused me to fall away and gravity took over.  Her sports bra caught me, and I bounced off the bottom like it was a trampoline before coming to rest.

 

Trapped inside her bra, Tanisha’s gait was a new and unique form of torment.  Vibrations from her feet hitting the ground traveled all throughout her body, and though they were weak when they finally got to me, they still gave me the jitters.  These vibrations hit me out of sync with the bouncing of her chest, normally almost imperceptible but impossible to ignore now that each of her breasts battered me and her bra bounced me with them.

 

Everything came to a sudden stop and I heard a door open.  When Tanisha started moving again, I was thrown backward until I slammed into an immovable wall of flesh.  My feet slipped between her skin and bra, and I was just able to brace myself with my arms.  I tried to pull myself back up, but every single time she took a step it erased my progress until I was buried up to my armpits and barely hanging on.  Still exhausted from the climb up to her bed, I knew it was only a matter of time until my arms gave out.

 

It took just a few more steps for my tenuous hold to slip, dropping me into the open cavity of her shirt.  I managed to grab on to her bra with a hand, but another step was enough to set me loose, and I began to plummet.  Though it was tight around her chest, Tanisha’s shirt did little to arrest my fall, and I desperately clutched at her smooth skin for something to stop my descent.  I slipped out from her shirt and tumbled along her shorts, then got caught for the ride as she took a step.  My body fell along the slope of her long thigh until going over the precipice of her kneecap, finally landing hard on the carpet beside her foot.  The familiar sight of it grinding against the carpet greeted me, then her sock wrinkled and she stepped away, the pounding of her footfalls getting weaker as she left.

 

Tanisha descended the stairs, and I realized she had not just been messing with me with that warning about getting lost.  She should be back this way later, I told myself, but there was no sense inviting danger; if she was serious about this, she just might be right about her sister, too.  I trudged through the carpet back to her room, keeping an ear out for her sister as I stepped over the fibers.  When Tanisha came back this way I could grab her attention, but I needed to minimize my time in the open.

 

Her room looked to be a few hundred feet away, hardly an insurmountable trek.  Even with the added challenge of practically having to climb over the carpet, it should only take about ten minutes to get there and squeeze under the door.  The odds of Tanisha’s sister leaving her room during that time were low, and even if she did there was no guarantee she’d spot me.  Besides, Tanisha would not pass up her chance to spend the evening torturing me, and her long legs would make the journey even quicker.

 

Feet thudded on the stairs, and I got ready to act.  A curtain of blond hair rose into view, and I called out, “Hey, Tanisha, over here!  I’m on the ground!”  She continued her way up the stairs, paying my desperate plea no attention.  In just three more strides she reached the top, and the floor began shaking with each step again.  I began jumping up into the air and waving my arms while yelling something I never expected to.  “Tanisha, please help me!  I’m on the floor and need you to save me!”

 

The tremors got stronger with her approach, and there was no sign she had noticed me.  She did not even look down as her feet slapped ever closer toward me, and I began to doubt my plan would work.  When she was practically on top of me, I was sure she was going to step on me without even knowing it.  Outside of her twisted games, this would be fatal.  I was looking at the sole of her sock as it descended, and finally gave up.  With a great leap I dove to the side, just clearing the area before Tanisha’s foot landed with a bone-rattling quake.  To my dismay she continued on her way, completely unaware of where I was, let alone that she had just nearly squished me.

 

It was unfortunate, but this just meant I would not have quick transport back to her room.  I got back to my feet, dusted myself off, and resumed my course to her room.  Navigating my way there was easy enough with the wide open space, and I had just watched her massive frame duck into a door if there was any doubt which was hers.  All I had to do was ignore my burning muscles and intense desire to rest my legs until I was back with someone who at least needed me as a bargaining chip.

 

When I was just a couple yards away from Tanisha’s room, a door down the hall opened.  I froze and turned my head just in time to see a dark-haired woman step into the corridor and close the door behind her.  Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and a pair of large, round glasses magnified her green eyes.  She was thin, but her high cheekbones made her look downright gaunt in contrast to the rest of her soft features.  The enormous, lanky body was pale, but not pallid, making her crimson tank top with white Greek letters across the chest stand out more.  A pair of tiny black shorts barely even began to cover her thighs, leaving her long legs bare down to her navy-blue ankle socks.

 

She turned toward me, and the world shook with every one of her steps.  There was no way I could make it to Tanisha’s door before she overtook me, so I was once again forced to decide how best to avoid getting noticed.  In the middle of this cream-colored carpet it would be easy to spot my outline no matter what, but burrowing into it was not an option either: I needed to keep an eye on her in case she did spot me.  There was nowhere else to take cover, however, and in my indecision I defaulted to standing still and hoping she just walked by.

 

The pounding stopped when she was mid-step, and my stomach sank.  There was no doubt in my mind that she had spotted me, and my eyes darted up her tremendous frame to see her looking right at me with a disgusted sneer.  We stood there in a tense stand-off, neither quite sure what to do.  If I moved, she might panic and smash me out of reflex, and though I was small, I was probably the biggest “bug” she’d ever seen.

 

 As often happens, the giantess acted first.  She finished her step, then raised a foot as high as she could.  Immediately after it reached its apex she brought it down, and I realized that Tanisha had been toying with me.  Her sister’s foot came toward me with unimaginable speed, and before I realized it was even moving the dark blue sole of her sock blocked everything above.  Reflexively I jumped back, but my legs snagged on a fluffy bit of carpet.  I fell backwards, and the friction kept me from sliding any further.

 

Fortunately, I had moved just enough to keep from getting smashed.  Her foot slammed into the ground with the force of an asteroid, making an incredible thud with the strike.  A shockwave emanated from the point of impact, powerful enough to make picture frames on the wall shake.  Once it passed through me, I felt tears welling in my eyes and I nearly lost what little food I had eaten.  The tremor made my body shake so violently that it almost did not matter that she had missed with her foot.

 

Before I could get back up, she noticed she missed and quickly moved to correct her error.  She raised her foot and slid her heel forward, nearly centering it over me before bringing it to a halt.  It swung down in a flash, and there was nowhere for me to go this time.  Her entire foot slapped me, making my skin sting from the blow even as it pushed me into the carpet.  For all the difficulty it had given me, I had no doubt that, had the carpet been just a little thinner, I would have been killed instantly.

 

With her foot on top of me, however, I was far from safe.  The immense amount of weight on me became even greater when she lifted her heel, allowing her to press down on me with the ball of her foot.  I did not see how it could get any worse until she started grinding her foot back and forth, rotating me with it while she put even more pressure on me.  I gritted my teeth, expecting the end to come at any time, but it never did.  Although the amount of force pressing down on me was excruciating, it was just short of the amount needed to flatten me outright thanks to the plush carpet and her soft socks.

 

When her foot finally lifted off me a bit of carpet snagged my clothes, keeping me from getting stuck to her sole.  Again, I had been narrowly saved by the carpet – if I ended up under her foot with her full weight pressing down, I doubted even soft materials would save me.  She kept her green eyes focused down on me though, watching for any sign of life.  I did my best to stay perfectly still, but even then it would only be a matter of time until I tipped her off.

 

Another titanic figure had appeared beside us, staring down at me with a pair of brilliant blue eyes.  “Oh, hey Eve!” Tanisha exclaimed.  “I see you’ve met my study partner!”

 

“Your study partner is a bug?” Eve asked incredulously.  Her voice was softer than Tanisha’s, more like velvet, but still absurdly deep with a terrifying rumble to it.

 

“He might look like one, but he’s not!” Tanisha answered.  “He’s one of the students in my English class.”

 

“Your school has a student the size of a bug?”  Eve was having trouble with the situation, but not as much as Tanisha said she would.

 

“Yeah!  Well no, but yes,” Tanisha struggled to explain.  “He’s a student, but he’s also only, like, five feet tall or something?  I haven’t seen anyone so small in a long time.”

 

“Five feet?”  Eve smirked, picking up on Tanisha’s joke.  “Well no wonder I thought he was a bug, that’s puny!”  She waved down at me sarcastically then squatted, framing her face between her pale thighs.  Her glasses made her gaze seem even more imposing, and the way her hair fell made a dark border around them.  “I promise if I see you again, I’ll do my best not to step on you!”  Each word was carefully enunciated and spoken loudly, like she thought I didn’t understand English. 

 

“I’d introduce the two of you,” Tanisha started, “but it looks like you’re already pretty well-acquainted.”

 

Eve stood back up, and I was again stuck between two towering women.  “Does mom know you have a boy over?” she asked, smiling.

 

Tanisha let out a single, booming laugh before answering.  “What boy?” she replied, still grinning.  “Look at him!  Look how small he is!  Even if I wanted to do something with him, he’d get pulverized!”

 

A thoughtful hum radiated from Eve’s throat.  “Yeah, I guess you have a point,” she said.  “He really does go to school, though?”  Tanisha nodded, and she continued, “How has he not been stepped on yet?  I feel like someone would have slipped up after all this time.”

 

“You know, I ask myself that every time I see him.  Guess he’s just lucky.”  I certainly didn’t feel lucky as Tanisha knelt to pick me up.  My body was so drained by this point that even if I wanted to get away from her, I simply did not have the energy to move.  Her outstretched fingers and palm overwhelmed me, and when they clenched, I was gripped in her fist.  Their abuse had exhausted me so much that I barely even registered the rush of her standing despite how uncomfortable it always made me.

 

“Well, we better get back to studying.”  The sisters said their goodbyes, then Tanisha withdrew into her room.  I heard the door close, then another weak rush when she brought me to her face.  She opened her fingers, and on her titanic face I saw her usual cold, calculating demeanor.

 

“That’s twice I’ve saved you now, so you better convince her to teach me how to shrink people.”

 

“Once,” I corrected her, not mentioning all the times she – and her sister, now – had brought me to the brink of death.

 

“Twice,” she insisted with a growl.  “I didn’t swallow you earlier.”

 

“Fine, twice.”  She was even more stubborn than Meredith and arguing with her was an exercise in futility.  Naturally, I did not agree that it should count if she was the one who put me in danger in the first place, but if I brought that up the count would keep increasing while she refrained from squashing me in her hand.

 

“Anyway, I have an early day tomorrow since I need to convince that so-called girlfriend of yours to teach me how to shrink people, so I’m gonna hit the hay early.  There’s no way I’m letting you sleep in my bed since you keep getting aroused around me, so I’ve made alternate arrangements for you.”

 

Tanisha carried me to the far side of her dresser, and with her free hand she picked up an empty jar, about the size of one used for cloves of garlic.  She set her hand on the rim of the jar and turned it so I slid out of her palm, landing hard on the glass bottom.  Before I could stand up she screwed the lid on, giving me a single hole punched through it for air.  When I did try to stand, I found that the new ceiling was too low even for me and I had to hunch over to keep from bumping my head against the metal.

 

She held the jar delicately by the lid, pinching it between her thumb and middle finger, and held it up to her face.  While she was already imposing, the warped glass added to her presence, making her face seem to warp around me while she gazed smugly at me trapped inside the glass.  A low, rumbling chuckle emanated from her throat, and she set the jar down on her dresser.  Even from this elevated spot I was only level with her stomach.

 

“There, that should keep us both safe,” Tanisha declared.  “I won’t roll over on you, and you won’t hump my leg or whatever weird-ass thing you want to do.”  She walked away, and with the flick of a switch the room went dark.  Her comforter and sheets rustled loudly while she got situated, then the noise died off when she got comfortable.  I curled up on the glass floor, devoid of any comforts, and reminded myself that I’d get to see Meredith again tomorrow.  That thought was the only warmth I would have for the whole night.

 

I awoke to the sounds of Tanisha stomping around to get ready, my body still sore and bruised from the night before.  To my surprise, when I tried to stand my head bumped into the metal ceiling, making me hunch over while I tried to stretch.  Sleeping on the bare, hard glass floor left my muscles stiff, and when I shook my head the fog did not clear out of my head.  It seemed that, even for someone my size, a jar this cozy needed more than one hole in the lid.

 

The broad white mesa of her dresser shook each time she pulled a drawer out to grab some clothes, then shuddered when it banged shut.  Tremors made the jar wobble forward, moving a little more each time as the ground became less stable.  My glass chamber began rolling on its edges, and I ran along the wall to keep from getting tossed around inside it.  In the end, it did not matter how hard I tried to stay standing when the jar toppled over the edge.

 

It was spinning fast enough to hold me against the curved walls, which may have been what saved my life.  I still landed hard enough that I felt in in my bones, however, and the jar’s rapid revolutions made it start rolling when it hit the ground.  My vision blurred from the constant view change – one moment nothing but carpet, then the wide open space of Tanisha’s room – and I felt nauseated.  If I’d had anything in my stomach, it would now be spewed against the glass.

 

The jar finally stopped when it bumped into Tanisha’s foot.  I slid to the bottom, so dizzy that the jar felt like it was still rolling, and curled into a ball.  Her steps made my tiny glass vessel hop off the ground, and the bouncing made it impossible for me to stay in the fetal position.  One gigantic foot was on either side of me, clean white fabric pulled tight enough to show off each contour.

 

“Going somewhere, twerp?” rumbled from the sky.  I looked up, and saw Tanisha standing astride me.  The jar’s curved glass warped her legs, making them appear even longer than they were.  Tall white socks pulled up to her knees acted like stockings, giving her toned calves even more definition, and a long, pleated black skirt hung down to her knees like a curtain.  Her hands rested on her hips, giving a full presentation of her chest and the crimson shirt bearing her hopeful college’s name in white.  She grinned down with the smug superiority that comes with knowing you had bested someone without having to do anything.

 

Tanisha nudged the jar with her big toe just hard enough to get it rolling, then stopped it with her foot.  Her sole curved around the glass, acting like a bridge for any theoretical carpet-dwellers who might want to walk over.  “Normally I’d kick your little hamster ball around for a while,” she said, “but I’ve got a very important meeting to get to today, in case you forgot.”  She moved her foot away, letting the sight of her enormity reach me again.

 

Her foot was gone, but Tanisha’s hand quickly came in to seize the jar.  She grabbed the lid with two fingers and picked it up, lifting me so fast I thought I was going to pass out.  The abrupt ride stopped in front of her face with me dangling between her eyes, and she batted her eyelashes at me.  With a flick of her wrist she shook the jar, tossing me between the walls and floor before I came to a stop in a heap.  A rumbling chuckle permeated the jar, then she carelessly tossed it in her purse.  I had just come to rest between her wallet and cell phone case when she zipped it, plunging my surroundings into darkness.  With a sudden lurch she picked it up, and a moment later I was swaying with her on the way to negotiations.

---

A loud bang accompanied by a strong jolt informed me that we had arrived.  During the trip the contents of Tanisha’s purse had been thrown around, and my jar was now upside down.  I rested on the cool metal for a moment, making sure not to block the single airhole she had given me, when I heard the most wonderful sound from outside the leather bag.  “Let me see him.  I need to know he’s okay before we talk.”

 

“He’s fine!  All in one piece, even.  Don’t you trust me?”

 

“You know, I really don’t.  Something about you kidnapping my boyfriend and bashing my head into the wall rubbed me the wrong way.  Put him on the table, now.”

 

“Okay, fine.”  Tanisha sighed heavily, then the purse growled when she opened the zipper.  Her face appeared overhead while she scanned for me, spotting the jar when she caught a glint of light off the glass.  She reached in and grabbed my container, almost completely enclosing it with her tremendous digits, and withdrew it.  Once it was oriented properly, she set it on the table with a clang that echoed off the walls and made my heart skip a beat.

 

Though her face was distorted by the glass, I saw wide-eyed shock on Meredith’s face when she spotted me.  Her expression quickly turned to anger, and she thrust a finger at me and hissed, “That’s the jar you’ve been keeping him in?  That’s way too small, even for him!  Look at him, he can’t even stand up!  Take the lid off.  Now.”

 

“My, you’re being demanding for someone who needs something I have,” Tanisha said, giving us her familiar, self-satisfied grin.

 

“He’s a someone, not a something,” Meredith corrected her, “and you’re being a real bitch for someone who wants to learn something only I know.  Now come on, you’re hurting him.  Open the jar and let him stand up, at least, then we can start talking.”

 

Tanisha rolled her eyes and replied, “Fine, if you’re going to make such a big deal out of it, I’ll take the lid off.  But he’s staying in the jar until we come to an agreement.”  Meredith nodded her agreement, and Tanisha wrapped a hand around the glass again.  She grabbed the lid with her other hand, and the screech of metal on glass filled the jar while she twisted.  After a few turns it came loose, and she carefully placed the lid beside me on the table.

 

I stood for the first time since she sealed me in here, making each of my vertebrae pop when they clicked into place.  At last I could stretch my arms, and I groaned loudly as I spread them as far as I could, making my muscles and ligaments tingle from being at their full extent.  While I did this I shifted from foot to foot, making sure my calves and tendons got their taste of freedom too.  It felt great to finally be able to move again, and my lungs filled with fresh, properly oxygenated air.

 

“There, you see?” Tanisha said.  “All in one piece.  Uncrushed, still has all his arms and legs, and they’re not even broken!”

 

“Yikes, though,” Meredith replied, looking me over from a distance.  “Still looks like he had a rough night.  What the hell did you do to him?”

 

“He can tell you himself if you ever get him back,” Tanisha answered, “but for now, I’d like that to stay between he and I.  I doubt it’ll even be a highlight of his time with me if you take another day.”

 

“How about you stop fucking around and say what you mean?”  Meredith looked like she barely slept last night, and Tanisha’s way of never saying anything was making her more frazzled.

 

“Sure thing.”  Tanisha looked Meredith square in the eyes: she was done playing.  “Every day we walk away from here without coming to an agreement, I pull off a limb in front of you.  If he’s still alive once all his limbs are gone, on the fifth day I’ll eat him.  Is that simple enough for you?”

 

“You’re not really encouraging me to teach you how to shrink people, you know.  If you’d do that to him, you could do that to anyone.”

 

“Anyone except the two of you.”  Meredith seemed taken aback by that, so Tanisha continued.  “If you agree to my terms, for the rest of our senior year I’ll leave you and him to your baffling and frankly weird relationship where it seems he likes being tiny and dominated.  I don’t get it, but you can do your thing.  I’m even open to being friends with you: we can bond over our shared ability to shrink people!  Maybe I don’t even want to do it, and I just want to know how.”

 

“I seriously doubt everything you just told me.”

 

Tanisha smirked.  “Then I guess the only way to know for sure is to let me in on the secret, isn’t it?”  I recognized this as a dangerous line of thinking, but the alternative was a certainty of her pulling my arm off in a few minutes.

 

Meredith looked conflicted, and I felt the sadness in her wide brown eyes when she looked toward me.  “What do you think I should do, little guy?” she asked.  This was the exact sort of spotlight I hated having shined on me.  “You’re the only one who’s been this size with her, so how do you think she’d handle other people?”  Tanisha meaningfully cleared her throat, and Meredith added, “Of course, if she chooses to make them about your size, too.”

 

“Tiny,” Tanisha clarified.  “If I choose to make them tiny.”

 

No.  Absolutely not.  No way.  Should never happen.  She’s a monster.  It’s a terrible idea, and you should get rid of her right now.  I’ll sacrifice myself to spare everyone else.  Under no circumstances should she be allowed to shrink people.

 

These were all things I wanted to say but didn’t.  Despite Tanisha’s threats, I didn’t think about how she “saved” me last night.  Instead, I thought of Meredith crying as she watched Tanisha tear off my arms and legs, then finally devour me.  I imagined her going through the rest of her life alone, never finding anyone else she could be fulfilled with until she finally settled.  Of course, that was if Tanisha didn’t beat her to death after she got through with me.

 

I had to trust that Tanisha would keep her word to us, no matter how unlikely.  Otherwise, I had no doubt she’d keep her word about dismembering me.  “I think you should do it,” I said, and immediately felt dirty.  People would suffer and probably die from my decision, but I couldn’t bear to have Meredith go through all that on my account.  “It’s a good deal for us.”  We both knew it was a terrible deal for everyone else, but neither of us were born to be heroes.

 

Meredith took a deep, steadying breath.  “Well, if that’s what you think is best,” she said.  For us, I silently added, and hoped she understood that.

 

“Glad we could come to an agreement,” Tanisha said, reveling in her feeling of supremacy.  “Now teach me how to make people smaller.”

 

Meredith took a moment to consider her words.  “The thing about that is I can’t.”

 

Tanisha shot forward, banging her elbow on her table when she stopped to loom over Meredith.  “Can’t or won’t?” she demanded.

 

“Cool your fucking jets!” Meredith shot back without flinching.  “I was going to say that I can’t teach you right now, as in before class.  It takes time to learn even the basics.”

 

“In that case,” Tanisha began, seizing my jar with a single tremendous hand, “you’re not getting him back before class, either.”  She cupped her hands around me so all I could see was her palms pressed against the glass.  “Meet me at locker 138 at 3:30 this afternoon or I start tomorrow by tearing off his right arm.”  Her hands made some effort to keep me stabilized as she stormed off, and as long as I laid down I could avoid being tossed into one of the walls. 

 

The sudden, loud clang of metal meant I was sealed in for the rest of the day.  My ears were ringing from the sound, but it was better than having my arm pulled off.  Tanisha had not even put the lid back on.  Enough light streamed through the three slits near the top that I could see my surroundings, and I climbed out of the jar.

---

It was a remarkably uneventful eight hours.  Tanisha kept all her books in her backpack, leaving her locker empty except for a few stray bits of lint.  The first thing I did was push these bits together, making a very rudimentary couch pressed into the corner.  At least it was a cushion, and more comfortable than the bare metal floor – or, for that matter, the glass jar.  I laid myself across it with my back to the wall and tried to get some decent sleep.

 

Sleep never came, however.  Every time I closed my eyes, I replayed what had happened that morning, and what it would mean for everyone else.  Tanisha would learn how to shrink anyone she wanted, and unless she wanted to sacrifice me there was nothing Meredith could do about it.  There was no doubt in my mind she would immediately use this power to subjugate everyone around her, even if she left us alone.  Hadn’t she already beaten us, anyway?  She knew our weaknesses and exploited them to make us agree to her demands.

 

Would we be culpable for the people she hurt once she learned how to shrink them?  The question weighed heavily on my mind.  After all, she couldn’t do much more than beat someone up right now, and with her academic career and a likely volleyball scholarship on the line I doubted she’d risk getting caught pounding on too many people.  We were giving her a force multiplier as well as plausible deniability in exchange for our lives.

 

On the other hand, she’d just be learning a skill, right?  Teaching something couldn’t be harmful in and of itself.  The only thing in Meredith’s control was whether to teach the skill to save our lives.  What Tanisha did with that knowledge was up to her, and any resulting blood would be on her hands.  If someone got hurt as a result of her shrinking them, it would simply be a gross misuse of knowledge.

 

My ruminations were interrupted by the locker’s dial clicking, then a bang that rebounded off the metal walls.  The door swung open, and I saw an enormous billboard for Tanisha’s preferred college.  This was the first time I’d gotten a good look at it, and I realized it was one of two places I’d been accepted to based on early admission.  Hopefully, this was just a dream of hers and I would not have to deal with her for four more years.

 

“Two steps back!” Tanisha declared, not even looking at me.  “You’re not getting him back until I can shrink people, and if you reach for him, he’s dead.”

 

“It’s not that simple,” Meredith replied.  “There are rules, methods, theorems that all factor into it.  You can’t just shrink someone; you have to form a deep connection with something deep inside of you that you don’t even know is there yet.”

 

“Then you better give me a quick run-down,” Tanisha responded, “or your little boyfriend here will be learning how to climb those stockings of yours with one hand.”

 

Meredith inhaled, taking time to gather her thoughts.  “Okay then.  First, you should know that this is ancient magic, dating back to the time when people first started living in villages.”  Tanisha nodded, undeterred by the incredibly nerdy preamble.  “As such, it’s particularly effective against men, though with patience and skill it’ll work on other people too.  Second, it works best on people shorter than you.  I don’t think that’ll be an issue for you, but it could come up.  Should you ever need to shrink someone bigger than you, all you have to do is establish control over them somehow.”

 

“This is cool and all,” Tanisha cut in, “but it just sounds like you’re saying I’ll be really good at it already.  Why don’t you go ahead and teach me how to shrink people?”

 

Meredith paused a second before answering.  “That’s the thing.  I can teach you how to learn to shrink people, but I myself can’t just tell you.  It’s not like telling someone a secret, it’s something you develop through learning how to connect to the inner core of your being, something we lost a long time ago.”

 

“In that case,” Tanisha began, “I think we can reach a compromise.  Until I can shrink people, we’re going to meet every day at this time and you’re going to help me learn how to do it.  If you miss a day, you and your pathetic boyfriend here are going to be subject to the most exquisite punishments I can think of until we meet again.  Does that sound good to you?”

 

“Yeah, sure, “Meredith agreed.  “As long as you don’t hurt either of us, I’ll help you on your path.”

 

“Good.”  Tanisha knew she had won a complete victory, even if it took the rest of the semester for her to get her ultimate prize.  “And with how long it might take, I suppose it’d be cruel for me to keep you and that twerp apart for the whole time.  You can take him home with you tonight.”  She already had an arm out to stop Meredith from rushing forward.  “But!  You two can’t hide your real relationship anymore.  Starting tomorrow, you have to at least be open that you’re together.”

 

“Are you kidding?” Meredith asked.  “I was already going to do that soon.”

 

“Then go ahead, take the pipsqueak and get out of here.  And if I don’t see you right here at this time tomorrow you’re going to pay.”  With that, Tanisha turned and walked away to drive back to her mansion.

 

Meredith rushed to fill the open space, and I rejoiced in every aspect of her enormous face looming over me as she leaned forward.  Her wide, expressive brown eyes had tears welling in them even while she suppressed a smile.  She reached a hand down toward me, and I stood still while she gently pinched me between two fingers.  Carefully she picked me up from the metal floor, making sure not to move too fast, and raised me to her lips.  A tear rolled down her cheek while she softly pressed me against her lips, lightly flicking me with her tongue before pulling me away.

 

“Come on,” she said with a quivering voice, “let’s go back to my place.”  I never thought I’d hear such amazing words, and when she slipped me into her palm I was glad that, for the moment at least, our lives were back to normal.

It was a quiet car ride home.  Meredith kept me in her upturned palm, cupped so I would not slide around with the vehicle’s movement.  Every few seconds she glanced down to make sure I was okay, as though concerned I would suddenly shatter like glass.  Even her music, which was usually loud enough to be heard clearly outside the car, was kept at a reasonable volume.  Several times I could tell she wanted to say something, but this was not the right environment for the conversation we were going to have.

 

When we reached her house, Meredith hurried to her room as quickly as she could while keeping me stable.  Her parents never seemed to be around, so there was very little chance of her being discovered with a tiny man in her palm, but she was eager to get me to what we considered our space.  She opened her door just enough to slip through, then moved to her dresser.  Slowly she flattened her hand and lowered her fingers until they touched the top, forming a ramp.  I walked down her middle finger until I reached the dresser, then turned around to face her.

 

Meredith squatted so we could see eye to eye, even though her beautiful, cedar-colored eyes were on either side of me.  “Before we do anything else, let’s get this out of the way,” she said, practically whispering.  “Are you comfortable being this size right now?  I know you just went through something traumatic, so if me being a giantess makes you uncomfortable, just let me know and I’ll make you your regular size.”

 

“I’m fine like this,” I replied.  “Really, I prefer it.  Ever since you started shrinking me, I didn’t feel comfortable when I was bigger.  I can endure it to go about my day with everyone else, but I don’t like it.  I’m always looking forward to the next time you’ll shrink me, since how I feel I’m supposed to be.”

 

“Since I started?” Meredith asked, echoing my words.  “Does that include before we were dating?”

 

“Yes,” I answered, “even then.  Every night I fantasized about you towering over me.  It seemed like the most natural thing, and I liked seeing it even more than I did picturing it.”

 

“Do you have the same thoughts about Tanisha, then?  If you do I won’t be mad, I just need to know.”

 

I recoiled from the very idea.  “No, of course not!  With you it’s always been playful, or at worst an extension of your bullying, but you’d still need me alive afterward so you could do it again.  I think she legitimately enjoys seeing me suffer, and I have no doubt she’d follow through on her threats.”

 

“Then the boners you got from her were…”

 

“Just a physical response,” I assured her.  “I like it when a big, strong woman controls me, but my dick doesn’t know the difference between you doing it for fun and her trying to kill me.  She felt them, too, and made it a point to say I was disgusting and weird, and that our relationship was bizarre.  She has nothing but contempt for me, and doesn’t seem too fond of you, either.”

 

“Well, good, because I would’ve been at least a little mad.”  She chuckled, and I was glad we could joke about something again.  “I was worried about you, you know.  The whole night I was worried I’d never see you again, and I could barely sleep imagining what she was doing to you.  If she’d really hurt you I’d put her in the ground, I don’t care if she’s got a foot on me and is the embodiment of physical perfection.”

 

I stroked the tip of her finger reassuringly and said, “I know you would.  No matter what, I knew she would pay if she did anything serious to me.”

 

“What did she do to you, anyway?” Meredith asked.  “Yesterday, you were pretty intent that she should never learn how to shrink people, but today you gave me the go ahead.  What gives?”

 

I recounted the whole experience with Tanisha as best I could remember it.  All the time she gleefully spent stepping on me by “accident,” having to eat crumbs she left behind, time spent in her mouth.  When I told her about my time spent in the open, I made it clear that Tanisha left me out there on purpose, and that her sister seemed to accept seeing a tiny man too readily.  Eve’s attempt to kill me was featured heavily, because I felt it was genuine and Tanisha had tacitly endorsed it.

 

“The main thing that changed my mind though,” I started, “was imagining how you’d feel watching her destroy me.  All the times she claimed to save me were obvious bullshit, since she was the one who put me in those situations to begin with.  I couldn’t bear the thought of you watching me slowly get picked apart, though, and that would make Tanisha’s year.  One way or another she would get what she wanted.”

 

“Do you think we did the right thing, though?  I’ve never shrunk anyone besides you since it would seem inappropriate, but she doesn’t seem like she’d think twice about it.”

 

“I think we did what’s best for us,” I replied.  “Maybe she’ll terrorize everyone we know once she figures it out, maybe she’ll try it out a couple times and get bored.  Whatever happens is on her though, since she’ll be the one doing it, and we’re just trying to save our skins.  The big question is whether she’ll honor her deal with us or go after us immediately, I don’t see much chance of her doing anything else.”

 

Meredith nudged me with her finger, then stroked up and down my side with its tip.  “You know why I like you?” she asked.  “You like being small, and you’re smart.  Macho head games just don’t suit you.  If our roles were reversed, I would’ve at least lost an arm before coming to my senses.”

 

“Come on, you’re plenty smart,” I reassured her.  “And I don’t just like being small, I prefer it.”

 

“Well, in that case,” Meredith began, and started to stand.  She caught herself and brought herself back down to my level and added, “If you feel uncomfortable or scared at any time just let me know, okay?  I’ll take it easy on you, but I don’t want to push you too hard right now.”

 

I nodded my acknowledgment, and Meredith stood to her full height.  She towered over me once more, and I stood no taller than her navel even standing on her dresser.  Her eyes cast down, and I felt like they were locking me in place.  After a moment she got back into her role, regaining the usual confidence she had while looking down at me.  Standing in her shadow, I felt like things were back to normal.

 

“I just want to make it clear that you’re mine,” she said.  “No matter how horny you get for that overgrown blond, you’re with me, and for the moment I’m the only one who can grow you back.  Is that motivation enough for you?”  I shook my head vigorously, and she grinned.  “Good.  I didn’t want to spend time reasserting my authority here.”

 

Meredith reached for me, and despite my token efforts to get away she caught me handily.  She pinched me between her thumb and forefinger, then let me uselessly churn my legs in the air for a few seconds.  When she was tired of watching me try to run, Meredith lifted me to her face, moving just fast enough that I could feel the movement.  When she stopped I was a few inches from her mouth, bearing the full brunt of her eyes’ intensity.

I wanted to engage with her, but after a night inside a tiny glass jar I was too exhausted.  I let loose with a big, jaw-stretching yawn, committing myself to it so completely I almost forgot I was in her hand.  Meredith responded with a yawn of her own, much larger, and revealing her enormous maw to me while exposing her enormous teeth nearly the same size as me.  As her yawn went on I watched her tongue waggle back and forth while she blasted me with hot air, leaving some of the moisture stuck to my body as it dissipated.

 

“Looks like you’re a little tuckered out,” Meredith boomed.  “Don’t feel bad, I am too.  What would you say to us just being, like, a normal couple tonight?  We can snuggle and stuff.  I think it’ll be fun, don’t you?”

 

“I’ll give it a try,” I said, and Meredith was already growing me.  After just a moment I was my regular size, laying in the middle of Meredith’s enormous bed. 

 

The mattress sagged in front of me, and Meredith landed on her mattress with a thump.  I slid into her, and my smaller body formed around hers.  “Since you didn’t call it, I get to be the little spoon,” she said.  “Everyone loves being the little spoon since you feel safe and secure, but you’re always so little it wouldn’t work otherwise.  So today I’m the little spoon, and if you don’t agree I’ll crush you.”

 

“I can be the big spoon for a night,” I said, wrapping an arm around her waist.  “I think we’ve both earned this.”  When I tried to pull her close I just dragged myself into her, but it had the same result.  I snuggled against her back, and after a few minutes we were drifting off, content in our embrace.

 

“Oh, by the way,” Meredith groggily began, “if Tanisha shrinks you, you’re still mine.”

 

“No shit,” I answered, “I’ll always be yours.”  With that last bit out of the way, we fell asleep against each other with me using her shoulder as a pillow.

---

The next morning Meredith kept me my regular size for the whole drive to school.  When she had a free hand, she used it to stroke mine, sometimes letting it linger to give it a tight squeeze.  We were both nervous, but this was something that had been a long time coming.  Tanisha’s demand may have sped the process along, but this was something we had been planning for a while.  Choosing the right time and venue had been the biggest issues, but given the circumstances we would just make it as public as possible.

 

When the car stopped we got out at the same time, a first for us, and met in front of the hood.  I looked up into her big, welcoming eyes, and she peered back down at me.  “Once we announce this, there’s no going back, you know,” she said.

 

“There was no going back months ago,” I replied, placing my hand in hers.  I gripped it tightly, making sure she knew it was there, and continued, “All we’re doing is making it so we no longer have to hide something we never should’ve hid in the first place.  We’ve used our egos and reputations as cover for too long, and it’s time we came clean.”

 

“I can still bully you after this, right?” she asked.  “You know, sit on your chest, slam you into lockers, little stuff like that.”

 

“Of course you can,” I answered.  “The only thing that might change is how other people think of it, and who cares about them?  We have something that’s unique and works for us, and if they can’t deal with it that’s their problem.”

 

Meredith took a deep breath.  “I just want to say that I appreciate how patient you’ve been for this whole thing, and I hope it doesn’t take the magic out of our relationship.”

 

“Every moment with you is magic,” I told her, then led her toward the school.  She followed with the smallest amount of encouragement, and her stride quickly brought her beside me.  We went through the doors standing abreast, and maintained our spacing while walking through the hallway.  Other students get out of our way but did not acknowledge us any further.  This would probably not be enough to meet Tanisha’s demands, and certainly was not Meredith’s idea of going public.  She had her own idea for gathering attention, and while it lacked subtlety it was sure to work.

 

When we finished eating breakfast at our isolated table, Meredith grabbed my tray along with hers.  She stood on her seat then stomped on the table, drawing herself up so she almost touched the ceiling.  No one was looking yet, so she banged the trays together as loudly as she could.  “Attention, everyone!” she announced, drawing the attention of several irritated students.  “I just wanted you to know that I’m finally tired of hiding it!”  A few people had already gone back to their food, unable to even feign interest.

 

“I’ve been dating this guy for months.”  She reached down and hooked her hands under my armpits, then lifted me off the ground.  Her strong grip pulled me up until we were at roughly the same level, though my feet dangled a good bit off the floor.  We stayed like that for a moment, then she pulled me close and leaned forward to kiss me.  Our lips locked together, with our tongues flitting in between each other’s mouths.  Even if it wasn’t enough for Tanisha it was enough for us, and she let me go after a minute.

 

Free from her grasp, I leaned forward and hugged her shins.  A few people applauded, but most, as I expected, were totally indifferent.  We had announced it to the world though, and that was the important part.  No one could ever suggest we were ashamed of what we had again.

Compared to the first few days, the next five months were a breeze.  To my surprise and relief, Tanisha honored her deal with us, to the point that she even stopped harassing me in class.  She even made some token efforts to be cordial to us, but after a kidnapping and several attempted murders we figured it would be best to keep her at arm’s length.  Without her interference we were able to have a fairly normal relationship at school, which continued to be met by a chorus of shrugs.  Still, not having to sneak around like we had a terrible secret made our lives easier.

 

Unfortunately, Meredith upheld her end of the bargain too, and after a month of lessons Tanisha learned how to shrink people.  According to Meredith, the plan was to make it last the whole semester, but Tanisha’s singular focus made her cut corners – in her own words, she would never need to grow anybody.  After that point, someone would go missing every two weeks or so, never to be seen again.  We knew what was happening, of course, but could do nothing to stop it.  Even if someone believed us it would be obvious to her who told, and our truce was already tenuous.

 

We managed to exploit it to our own advantage, too.  None of the standardized testing facilities checked for shrunken men, so Meredith was able to sneak me into her exams.  While perched on her shoulder, a well-placed curtain of hair could easily conceal me while I helped her through it.  In the end, me being there was more of a comfort thing for her, and I only had to nudge her toward a couple of answers.  Her scores were good enough that we qualified for one of the same colleges, and that helped us make up our minds.

 

Everything was set to be a good run to college until the final day.  The very last time I closed my locker a crimson wall replaced the door in my view, and I looked up it to see a pair of baby blue eyes peering down at me.  “Hey, Tanisha,” I said in complete deadpan.  She may have stopped bullying me, but that did not stop her from “comparing heights” as she called it.

 

“Hey down there!” she replied, brimming with enthusiasm.  “How’s it going?”

 

“Same as it was an hour ago when you last saw me,” I answered.  “Now that we’ve gotten pleasantries out of the way, can I help you with something?”

 

“Yes, you can!”  Tanisha leaned forward so her head was right over mine, keeping the same high energy.  “Look, I know we got off with you under the wrong foot, and that’s on me.”

 

“Is the right foot yours or your sister’s?” I shot back.  “Which one would be more likely to crush me?”

 

“See, that’s the sort of stuff I’m talking about!  Seeing as how we’re all going to the same college in the fall – you did know we’re going to the same place, right? – I thought it’d be a good idea for us to bury the hatchet, wipe the slate clean, and other euphemisms that mean starting fresh.”

 

Was she following me to college, or was this just a horrible coincidence?  “Okay, I’ll bite.  What could you possible offer me to make up for everything you’ve done to me?”

 

“I’m having a graduation party at my house, and you’re invited!” she proclaimed.  “Meredith too, of course.”

 

“And I’m supposed to believe this isn’t a trap?”

 

“Trap?” she repeated.  “When are you going to learn to trust me, little guy?  We’re friends now, right?  Do people trap their friends?  Besides, like a quarter of our class will be there, including the whole volleyball team.  You like tall, strong women, don’t you?  I heard through the grapevine that you’re dating one.”

 

I decided to humor her.  “Okay, fine, I’ll ask Meredith at least.  Where do you live?”

 

Tanisha giggled.  “You’ve been there, silly!”

 

“Yes, but I don’t know how to get there, since I was clutched in your fist the whole ride,” I replied through gritted teeth.

 

“Oh, right!” she said, slapping her forehead.  “Silly me!  Just go to the address on this card, then.  Hope to see you there!”  She walked off, aggressively shaking her hips as she left.  While I watched her butt sway back and forth in her shorts, I was not sure if she would try to seduce or squash me if I showed up tonight.

 

On the way out, I met up with Meredith.  She dropped her arms over me until they reached the small of my back, then with a sudden jerk she pulled my face into her chest.  Her fingers lifted my chin so I looked up at her, and with a quick dip she leaned down and kissed me.  I returned it, but before it became too forceful she leaned back, breaking the connection between our lips.  It was far from the same as being in her hand, but she was still clearly in control.

 

“Ready to graduate?” she asked, her husky voice making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

 

“Yeah, let’s go get ready,” I answered, and she released me from her hug.  I grabbed one of her hands with mine, and we started toward the door.

 

“You know, Tanisha just invited us to her graduation party,” I said as we walked.  I probably shouldn’t have even mentioned it, but it was still fresh in my mind.  “We can skip it, right?”

 

“I kind of want to go, actually,” Meredith replied, and I looked up at her in surprise.  “Come on, it’ll be fun!  We’ve been to exactly zero parties together, and this’ll be our last chance before college.  You can have tiny fun with me tomorrow, I promise.”

 

“You don’t think it’s a trap?”

 

“Babe, I don’t trust Tanisha as far as I can throw her gangly ass.  But she’s smart, and she wouldn’t dare try anything with a hundred other people there.  Besides, if she does I’ll be able to stop her.  I promise.”

 

“Well, if you’re sure…”  I was still not convinced, but it had Meredith’s vote of confidence.  I could endure anything for her, and after all, maybe it would be fun.  We got in her car, and I realized this would be our first time going out in public with her not as my bully.  Maybe it was not such a bad idea after all.

---

Graduation was a bog-standard affair.  We walked across the stage, got the empty cases for our diplomas, and walked back off, some with more fanfare than others.  I did not see it as a big deal but treated it more as a social event.  Chatting with the people around me while we waited for our names to be called helped pass the time and close a few loose ends with people I would probably never see again.

 

When I went to retrieve my mortar board after tossing it, however, my wrist was seized by a strong hand with fingers long enough to completely close around it.  I followed the arm up until I found a pair of shining blue eyes, more familiar to me than they should have been.  Several times before she had proven I could not overcome her strength, so I just smiled up at her.

 

“I thought I’d find you here, little guy!” Tanisha exclaimed amid the din of the crowd.

 

“Yeah, funny how we’re both at our own graduation.”

 

“You’re coming to my party tonight, right?”  She fluttered her eyelashes, like that would do more to entice me than the iron grip she had on my arm.  “I really do want to see you there so I can start to repair the damage I did to you and give us a new start.”

 

“Yes, I’ll be there,” I replied.  “Meredith too.”  Her insistence that I be there was making me even more suspicious: I was not used to getting ambushed to make sure I’d show up somewhere.

 

“Fantastic!” she said, giving my wrist a squeeze.  “When you get there, come find me and I’ll get you hooked up like all my other friends.  It’ll be easy to find me – I’ll be the only seven-foot-tall woman!  Seeya there!”  She let go of me and walked off to talk to people she had not nearly killed, and I picked up my mortarboard.

 

When I met up with Meredith, she was far from the gate we had decided on.  “I saw that volleybitch moving in on you,” she explained when I asked.  “Had to get ready in case she reverted to her usual shitty self out here.  There are a lot of people around, and it’d be real easy for her to make you ‘disappear’ into the crowd.”

 

“Speaking of,” I began, “are you sure you want to go to her party?  She seems more invested than she should be in us being there.”

 

“Yes, little dude, I’m sure I want to go,” she replied.  “Just like I’m sure she’s going to try some shit, and I’m sure I’ll be able to stop her.  Based on what you told me, I’m sure she thinks I’m some sort of dumb oaf who doesn’t even know my left from right, and I’m sure she’s underestimated me because of that.  And I’m sure I want to be there with you.  Now, surely you trust me to keep you safe from the Eiffel Twat, right?”

 

“Yeah, I see your point,” I said.  “In that case, I’ll let my guard down and walk into her trap so you can kick her ass.”

 

“Don’t be too obvious about it, or she might suspect something’s up.”  She grabbed my shoulder with her hand and pulled me close, neatly slotting me beneath her armpit.  We walked in sync, as though we were in a three-legged race, all the way to her car.  Over the past few months I had moved most of my things into her room, since neither of us had much to begin with.  Anything I’d need to get ready was already there, and I trusted her to make sure I was as dashing as possible.

---

After we got changed, we set out for Tanisha’s party.  I still could not believe I agreed to go to this, or that Meredith thought it was a good idea.  There was a lot that could go wrong, and not a lot that could go right.  The best-case scenario was that nothing happened and I just got to spend the night out with her, but we both knew pigs would fly before that.  Tanisha was planning something, and while she may have underestimated Meredith, she had a few tricks up her sleeve.

 

Meredith’s outfit was a surprise of its own.  Tonight she had dressed to impress, and seemed to have me in particular in mind.  She straightened her hair, making it long and fine, and a bit of blue eyeshadow and cherry lipstick was far more makeup than she usually bothered with.  Her sleeveless, silk white blouse with a frilly collar was calculated to show off her cleavage and toned biceps, and her short, pleated black skirt put her legs on full display.  Dark stockings made them look even more toned than usual, and a pair of black leather boots laced up to her knees gave her an extra boost.  Just for tonight, she had decided to straddle the line between conventionally hot and gothic fashion, which pushed an entire panel of my buttons.

 

Seeing her like that ignited feelings deep inside me, and I knew it was time to bring this up.  “Meredith, I’ve been thinking about this a while,” I began, “and I’m sure now’s the time.”  I paused to take a deep breath, bracing myself for what I was about to say.  “You know I like being small.  I prefer being small.  After tonight, I just want to be small for good.  Make me an inch tall and don’t grow me back a single millimeter.”

 

“Are you sure about that, for real?” Meredith asked.

 

“Yes, positive,” I answered.  “This is the last night I want to be ‘regular’ size.  From here on, I want to be the size I feel most comfortable.”

 

“But really, are you sure?” Meredith repeated.  “You’ll have to attend lectures and stuff at college.  Our schedules probably won’t line up exactly, so I’m not sure how you’ll get to them without me carrying you, and frankly I don’t trust anyone else.”

 

“We can say it’s a disability, since it inhibits my ability to attend class, and they’ll have to accommodate it,” I replied.  “There’s even precedent!  You remember the inch-tall guy who made the late-night talk show rounds a few months ago, right?  He had a genetic disorder they could never find the source of!  We could say I have that, and with the physical evidence there’s not much they could do about it.”

 

“Dude, you know that was a movie promotion, right?” Meredith asked.  “There’s no inch-tall man, just like there are no gigantic women walking around.  It was all viral shit done with green screens.  There’s no inch-tall man out there except when I make you that.”

 

“No, it’s real!” I insisted.  “People don’t want you to know the truth, but it’s out there.  Men can be tiny, and women can be gigantic, and maybe even vice versa.  I’ve seen people discussing it, and I want to join the tiny men of the world.”

 

“Tell you what,” Meredith started.  “I want you to be long-term tiny, too, so I’ll make you a deal.  If you send a letter to this supposedly tiny man and get a response back this summer, I’ll make sure you stay tiny forever.  Otherwise, we’ll have to wait until the start of a new semester so we can claim that you suddenly shrank over the break.  Do we have a deal?”

 

“Yeah, that works for me,” I replied.  “I’m going to win, though, because that guy is out there at an inch tall.  Talk shows don’t have the kind of budget to keep that up, and he looked perfectly scaled for his surroundings.”

 

“I hope you do!” Meredith shot back.  “I want you to be forever small, too!  I just want to make sure you’ll be able to live a normal life so you don’t throw away your full ride because you want to be small.”

 

“I guarantee you,” I began, “two weeks from now I’ll be an inch tall permanently.”

 

“You’re being awfully ambitious, aren’t you?  If I remember, he was a little bit smaller than an inch.  I’d make you closer to that size, for the sake of consistency at the very least.”

 

“You just promised to make me even smaller, so I won’t argue against that.”

 

We pulled into Tanisha’s driveway, and Meredith looped around a garden in the middle.  “It looks like we’ll have to put a pin in this conversation,” she said.  “We can’t have any of those volleybitches knowing about your preference or they might try and pull the same shit Tanisha did.”

 

I agreed with her, and she finally found somewhere to park.  We got out and she grabbed the mixed six-pack we had assembled from what we could find, then we walked toward the door.  We gave each other sly glances, subtle notices that we’d be watching each other, then I rapped on the door.  Whatever surprise was planned for us inside, I was confident we’d be able to handle it together.

We entered and found the party already in full swing.  Each of the spacious rooms I could see from the door was pact, even though there were not as many people as Tanisha had boasted.  Dozens of conversations mixed with loud music that permeated the house, and I momentarily dissociated.  I tried to step back out, but Meredith took my hand and held my tight.  “Come on, you can do this,” she reassured me.  “It just takes a few minutes to get used to, really.  Let’s go get a couple of drinks, okay?  It’ll help take the edge off.”

 

I scanned the line of heads and shoulders around me while Meredith spoke, looking for a curtain of blond above all the others.  “Tanisha said she’d hook us up when we got here, whatever that means,” I said.  “We should probably find her first.”

 

“Why, that doesn’t sound suspicious at all,” Meredith remarked, and began looking around as well.  With her higher vantage point, she would have an easier time spotting someone in the crowd.

 

After searching for a few seconds, Meredith looked down at me and shook her head.  “Can’t see her,” she reported, “and she should be easy to spot.  She’s not waiting for you at the door like a creep, at least.”  She winked and added, “Let’s go see what your sidepiece wants, try to keep up.”

 

Meredith strode into the crowd, and I stumbled forward when her hand jerked on mine.  She weaved between people, pushing some to the side to make way for me.  Two things stuck out to me as I walked among Tanisha’s guests: women were represented far more than they should be considering our class, and every single person was taller than me.  While I was the shortest guy who had graduated, I was by no means the shortest person.  It was a little conceited, but I suspected Tanisha had selected her guests specifically to mess with me.

 

We entered the kitchen, which kept the house’s theme of every surface being unbearably white.  I easily spotted Tanisha on the other side of the center island, talking to a group of girls in a semicircle around her.  Meredith guided me to her, acting as a plow for people who were blocking her path.  When we got to her, she stood where Tanisha would easily be able to see her, though host pretended not to notice.  It was not until she stood to the side, practically offering me to Tanisha, that our presence was acknowledged and she pushed through the crowd to get to us.

 

Tanisha had chosen her outfit to stand out, with black ankle boots and flesh-toned stockings.  Her black dress looked more like lingerie, with spaghetti straps, a deeply plunging neckline, and a lace hem that did not even fully cover her garters.  Winged black eyeliner made her eyes shine brighter than usual, and a black hairband contrasted with her hair.  She had a red cup in her hands, the only thing here that blended in with her black fingernails.

 

She wrapped me in a tight hug, shoving my face against her tummy.  “I’m so glad you could make it!” she exclaimed.  “I didn’t think I’d be able to see you tonight!”  Then she turned and gave a curt, “Hey Meredith.”

 

“Yes, I get it,” I said when she released me.  Tanisha was still close enough I had to look straight up to see her face, which she thought was the best way to interact with me.  “I’m short and you like making puns.  You said you’d hook me up when I got here?”

 

 “Of course,” she replied, stepping toward the center island and setting her cup on it.  “You’re about to get a bottle of Tanisha’s special punch, reserved only for my close friends.”  She grabbed a bottle labeled vodka from the cabinet below, though it was filled with a red liquid.  While she poured it into an empty cup, she explained, “It’s good, I promise.”

 

“Do you think you could hook Meredith up, too?” I asked. 

 

“Yeah, sure.”  Tanisha sounded less enthusiastic about it, but poured the drink nonetheless.  When she was done, she turned and offered them to us, and waited for us to take them to say, “Drink up!  A little token of apology from me.”

 

I moved to take a drink, but Meredith put her hand over my cup.  “Say, Tanisha,” she began, “if we’re going for a reset here, I think a toast is in order!  And we all know you need a fresh drink for a proper toast.  So why don’t you pour one for yourself and join us?”

 

“Do I sense some distrust?” Tanisha asked, chuckling.  “Honestly, that’s fair, just give me one moment.”  She turned around and poured a new drink for herself, then presented it to Meredith.  “See?  It’s the same amount you got, from the same bottle and everything.”

 

“Well then, cheers!” Meredith declared, holding her cup out.  “To a new beginning!”  Tanisha held her cup low so I could reach it, and we all touched our drinks.  Meredith kept her hand on my arms to keep me from drinking while Tanisha immediately threw hers back.  Four seconds later she was done, and she held the cup upside down to demonstrate that it was empty.

 

This was apparently enough to satisfy Meredith, and she let go of my arm as a sign we could both drink.  I took a sip while Tanisha grabbed her old drink and let it roll around on my tongue a bit.  It was surprisingly sweet, without even a hint of alcohol to the taste.  After I swallowed, I went back for another, much longer drink.

 

Tanisha put a hand on my shoulder, clamping her fingers all the way to my bicep.  She looked to Meredith and asked, “Mind if I steal the little guy for a minute?  I’d like to talk to him in private.”

 

“Sure, go ahead,” Meredith replied.  Before letting go of me, she added cryptically, “Remember, I’m okay with this!”

 

Tanisha gave her a puzzled look, then pulled me away.  The crowd seemed to part for her, and when we reached a corner she firmly guided me into it, then positioned herself to block me.  She stood close enough that I had to hold my drink under my chin, and I could tell she got a rush from looking down so far at me.

 

“Before we get down to it,” she started, “why don’t you tell me what she meant by that?”

 

I pondered a moment, trying to think of the best way to mess with her.  “If you want in on a three-way with us, we’re down,” I answered.  “But she wants to be clear that it’s not an open relationship.  Any time you’re involved, she has to be too.”

 

Tanisha gasped, and I thought I had finally disgusted her into leaving me alone.  Then she squatted until we were eye-level with each other, making sure I got a good view of her cleavage.  “How did you know?” she asked in a whisper.

 

I thought about it for a second, trying to come up with a plausible explanation for my lie.  “It wasn’t too difficult to guess.  You’ve been laying it on a little thick recently, and we knew a party and a drink wouldn’t be enough to make up for kidnapping me and almost getting me killed.  Not to mention that Meredith gave you a very, let’s say useful skill, that you’ve employed to your advantage several times.”

 

“Shh!” she hissed, placing a finger over her lips.  “The less said about that, the better.  Okay, so you’re right, I want a three-way.”  She stood back up so she could loom over me again.  “Both of you meet me in Eve’s room in five minutes, I want to ruin that nerd’s bed.  Stop by my bathroom first, though.  I’ve got a stash of condoms in the top right drawer under the sink inside an empty box of tampons.  Get three; it’ll be a long night.”  She grinned slyly and stepped away, running a finger down the length of my arm.

 

Immediately I went back to Meredith, who was penned against the sink by a pair of volleyball players.  I had never spoken to either of them, and from her expression I doubted Meredith had either.  Seeing me was a great excuse for her to leave the conversation, and she came ot meet me halfway.  “What’s up, buttercup?” she asked with a smile.

 

“Tanisha thinks that we think that she thinks that we want a threesome,” I explained.  “She even wants to do it in her sister’s bed.  If she’s offering me what she thinks is every man’s dream…”

 

“…then there are conditions attached,” Meredith finished.  “Think she’ll try to divide and conquer us?”

 

“She already is.  She told me to get condoms out of her bathroom, which would give her enough time to ambush me.”

 

Meredith took my hands and leaned in to my ear, and I saw the two girls she had been talking to lean like they were trying to subtly listen.  “I want to feel your fucking cock inside me in five minutes,” she whispered loudly in hopes they would hear.  “She can have your tongue, but I want you to fuck me.”  She stood up, giving me what she thought was a seductive grin.  It looked more like she had just smelled rotten eggs, but I appreciated the effort.

 

She stormed out of the kitchen like a woman with a mission, pulling me after her.  People cleared out of her path for their own good, not wanting to get violently shoved aside.  Her strong grip dragged me up the stairs while I struggled to keep up with her running three steps at a time.  At the top she paused and hoisted me before herself, then grabbed me by the shoulders.

 

Without a word she leaned down and kissed me, pressing her tongue into my mouth.  I responded by embracing her firmly and pushing back with my lips, sliding my tongue along hers.  Before we got too involved in making out, she clapped her hands on my shoulders and pulled away.  “Now, which one is her sister’s room?”  I pointed toward it, and she nodded.  “Got it.  I’ll wait in there for one minute, then I’ll come looking for you, okay?”  I nodded back, and we parted ways.

 

The door closing must have been audible downstairs, and I made my way to Tanisha’s bathroom.  I took my time looking, giving her plenty of time to set up whatever she had planned, before going exactly where she had told me.  Sure enough, there was a batch of sealed condoms, and I tore off three.  Folding them into my palm, I headed for Eve’s room, ready to see Tanisha blocking my path at any point.

 

When I turned into the hallway, I thought I was home free, but a hand clamped down on my shoulder.  “Going somewhere, twerp?” Tanisha said, then spun me around.  She stood close enough that her chest eclipsed her face, but I knew she was smiling.  With her free hand she snatched the condoms out of my hand, then held them up to her face.  “I think you’ll like living in one of these.  Did you really think I was going to bang you?”

 

I needed to keep her in place long enough that Meredith could save me.  “You mean you don’t?” I asked, doing my best to sound surprised.  “Do you not want to bury the hatchet, either?”

 

“Cut the shit, pipsqueak.”  Tanisha squeezed my arm hard enough for me to cry out in pain.  “Our truce only lasted until the end of the semester, and we all graduated tonight.  Our deal is over, and I’m free to shrink you however small I want.”

 

“I thought you found me weird and disgusting,” I challenged, “and that my relationship with Meredith was unnatural?”

 

Tanisha let loose a loud belly laugh.  “I don’t want to date you!” she proclaimed.  “I want to own you!  I want to smush you underfoot to remind myself how powerful I am.  I want to laugh at how pathetic you are compared to me.  You’ll be nothing, and there’s nothing that goth girlfriend of yours can do to stop me.”  She glared down at me with an intensity I had never felt before, and I started to worry Meredith would not get here in time.

 

Tanisha started to grow, and I reached her waist very quickly.  I knew that she was shrinking me, and with her grudge against me there was no telling where it would stop.  In no time at all I was past the hem of her skirt, then down to her knees, gazing up at her towering over me.  She continued shrinking me, and I descended along her shins and past her ankles.  When she finally stopped, the soles of her shoes came up to my waist.  An after-effect I had never felt before kicked in, and I felt an intense feeling of dread.

 

She looked down at my triumphantly and put her hands on her hips to look more imposing.  “You didn’t have to shrink me!” I shouted up at her.  “You could have picked anyone else to be your trophy and let me alone, I doubt we’ll even see each other at college!”

 

“But I didn’t shrink you!” she protested.  “It’s not my fault you’re this puny naturally!  Now come on, I’m having a party downstairs and some of my friends would just love to meet you.”  She leaned over to pick me up, and I fought the urge to break and run.

 

A black and white streak slammed into Tanisha, and the ground quaked when they slammed into the ground.  I heard a struggle, complete with grunts and gagging, while ankle boots and knee-high boots kicked at the floor in an attempt to get an advantage.  Tanisha tried to flip Meredith as she had last time, but stopped after a loud slap.

 

The ankle boots began to recede, sliding over the carpet, while one of the women whimpered.  “Remember what I said about establishing control?” Meredith asked, as Tanisha’s feet receded past hers.  “Pinning works.”  Tanisha continued to get smaller, screaming into Meredith’s hand over her mouth the whole time.

 

Meredith stopped before Tanisha reached anywhere near my size and got off her.  She stood, then grabbed her hand and pulled her up.  Tanisha heavily slouched, not wanting to stand up to her new height against Meredith.  A quick shake to her shoulders along with a reminder that she could get even smaller brought her around, and she snapped to attention.  Though they were both still colossal to me, Meredith was clearly a head taller than her now.

 

“I’m five-foot-nothing!” Tanisha wailed, barely holding back tears.  “This is an outrage!”

 

“Maybe don’t try to kidnap my boyfriend, then?”  Meredith countered, sounding as smug as she could.  “He’s chosen me multiple times.  Why don’t you go get your own little man if you want one so much?  Though… I suppose it’ll be hard for you to find a man shorter than you now, won’t it?”

 

“No, grow me back!” Tanisha screamed again.  “You know he’s stuck at that size, right?  I had time to practice with the people I shrank after I passed on your ‘growing’ bullshit.  I found a way to make their sizes permanent unless the person who does it breaks the limiter.  No one can make him bigger except for me, and I won’t do it unless you make me seven feet tall again!”

 

Meredith laughed and shoved Tanisha back.  “He literally told me on the ride over here that he wants to be small all the time,” she said.  “You’ve got no leverage this time, volleybitch.  Hope you’re good at playing center, because you’re going to college on a volleyball scholarship at five feet tall.”

 

“Fine then.  If you don’t grow me back I’ll smash him!” Tanisha cried.  “I may be small, but he’s a lot smaller than me!”

 

Meredith laughed.  “You’d have to get through me first!” she replied.  “Go ahead, try it.  I can always make you smaller.”  She reached forward with one arm, grabbing Tanisha in a headlock, then leaning down toward me.  Her thumb and forefinger gently settled around my sides, then she plucked me off the carpet.  Slowly she lifted me from the ground while Tanisha struggled against her headlock, trying to manage both of us.  My comfort was more important to her than Tanisha’s however, and I got a nice, slow elevator ride while she strained against someone much stronger than her.

 

When she finally had me at chest level, Meredith gave me a long, serious look.  “Guess you got what you wanted after all, huh?” she said.  “Don’t even have to write a letter.  That’s fine, though.  I’ll take care of you for as long as you’ll let me.”

 

“Ugh, you made me puny, do I have to stay here for your mushy bullshit?” Tanisha protested. 

 

Meredith snapped her head to the other person she was holding.  “And you!  Don’t you have a party to get back to hosting?”  She grinned while Tanisha cringed.  “Normally I’d give you a swirlie or two, but since it’s your house I’ll be lenient.”  She pulled Tanisha down the stairs, and despite all her struggling she could not break free of Meredith’s grip.

 

At the bottom, Meredith pushed Tanisha toward the nearest group of people.  “Have fun!” she said.  “I’m sure your friends will like you just as much now!”  Then she turned and started walking toward the door.

 

“Hey, Meredith?” I piped up, and she stopped.  “I want to stay a while.  This is the first party I’ve ever been to where people didn’t start playing Dungeons and Dragons halfway through.”

 

Meredith gave me a tender look and smiled.  “If you want to, then we will,” she said, and headed back toward the party.  Unsurprisingly Tanisha ignored her for the rest of the night, but Meredith had a good time making the “figurine” disappear as I ran up her sleeve.  More importantly, we had access to Tanisha’s special drink, but more than anything we had each other.