“Why did you bring drinks?” I asked, breaking the silence of the long drive.
Piper, barely having heard me from my perch on the edge of her dash, cocked an eyebrow before saying, “Why don’t we talk when I’m off the road. I don’t wanna hit a bump and lose you under the seats.” 

I nodded. She was right. Luckily, I was never really scared of heights and felt more or less safe sitting with my feet just barely hanging off the edge of the plastic dashboard. Still, I was nervous. 

I hadn’t been completely honest with Piper about why she couldn’t tell my parents about what happened. I mean, I wasn’t worried about her catching on, but if I disappeared from school then that would attract a lot of attention I didn’t want. 

Not to say I didn’t feel bad about lying to Piper. I guess it was fair to say I had a crush on her, if that wasn’t obvious by now, but I felt like that was pretty fair. People like people, I didn’t need to justify that to myself. And yet I am. Ugh. 

With a sigh, I rolled over onto my stomach and stared out the front windshield. Everything was so big. It felt like the world was looking down on me with how it all moved. Cars driving by looked like comets with how massive they were. Buildings were nearly past my comprehension. I think the only reason that I wasn’t freaking out was because I knew what all this stuff was at normal size. I suddenly had a real empathy for squirrels. 

Still though. With the mix of odd emotions and my current company, I felt oddly confident. 

Suddenly, Piper took a turn and I slid a bit to the side, coming to a stop near the door. 

“Woah,” Piper muttered, putting the car in park after pulling up to her house, “Hold on, Shortcake,” She stopped herself, “Err- Sam. Sorry. Force of habit.” 

I frowned slightly, but held my tongue. There wasn’t much point in trying to talk to her before she shut off the car anyway, but to my surprise, it didn’t look like that was going to be her next step. Piper quickly threw a few things into her purse before looking around a little. 

“Um, crap,” she huffed, finally turning off the car.
“What’s wrong? Did you forget something?”
“No. Um, I was going to hide you in my bag,” she explained, holding up her leather purse for reference, “But I don’t have anything to pad it. I don’t want you getting pinned under my phone or some shit.”
I cringed, “Yeah, that doesn’t sound ideal.” 

I quickly corrected my posture and stood, lightly brushing the dust off myself. 

“Well, I mean, I have one idea,” Piper started, “But you might not like it.”
“Oh, you mean like it less than being kept in a cage and possibly dissected by government funded sadists? Because if it’s that bad, just step on me.”
“Jesus, Sam,” Piper scoffed, “You’re chipper today.”
“I feel like I can justify a little bit of pent up aggression.”
Piper rolled her eyes, “Okay, brat, here’s your options. I could put you in my purse and just try my best to keep it stable, or…” she went quiet.
“Anything safer, please,” I begged and saw an odd rush of emotions behind her eyes. 

She looked guilty and embarrassed, but there was something else to it. It looked forced. I was surprised at how easy it was to read the tiny movements in her facial features at this size. 

“Okay, sometimes when I don’t want to carry my bag around with me and I don’t have pockets, I keep my phone tucked in my waistband,” she mentioned, “If you see where I’m going with this.”
“... Piper, I know there’s rumors about me around school, but I’m not that desperate to get into your pants.” 

WHY DID I SAY THAT!? 

I was halfway to a stress induced heart attack when I heard a soft chuckle from Piper. A nice warm feeling of relief radiated through my stomach. 

“Dork,” she huffed, pressing the pad of her finger against the top of my head and ruffling my hair. 

Her eyes suddenly narrowed. 

“Did you cut your hair?”
I looked down and quickly changed the subject, saying, “I think it’d be safer if I went in your waistband.”
The corner of her mouth dropped into a half frown, but she nodded, “Right. Okay, since I don’t wanna bump anything, I’m gonna put you front and center. Figure you wouldn’t appreciate a hip check from someone two hundred times your size.” 

I nodded. 

… 

… 

Piper sighed and took a piece of gum in her mouth before looking up to my perch, “Peppermint, one some?”
“O-Oh, uh, no thanks.” 

… 

… 

“So…” she started, breaking the silence, “Guess, I’ll… um, do it now.”
“Okay.” 

… 

… 

“Do you think it’d be easier if I closed my eyes?” I asked.
“Do I think putting a living person literally in my pants would be easier if they closed their eyes? No, not much.”
“Well, don’t think of me as a person then,” I suggested, “Pretend I’m a toy or something for a little bit.”
“I-,” she bit her lip, “I dunno, Sam. That feels kinda fucked.”
“Kinda fucked would be a nice refresher to the rest of my day so far.” 

With a short period of silent eye contact, Piper nodded and gently reached out for me. I climbed into her palm and felt her warm fingers wrapped around my body with the hesitant pressure of someone holding a piece of clay. She lowered me past her chest before bringing me close to her body and pulling open the waistband of her leggings. 

She carefully pressed me against her abs and slowly let the pants settle back into place. 

“Is that too much pressure?” she asked, staring down at me.
“No,” I reassured, shaking my head, “It’s okay.” 

She slowly nodded and stepped out of her truck. It was so warm, pressed that close to her. It was like having a heated blanket, but overwhelming and more plush. Odd to say, but overwhelming in a good way. Kinda like being wrapped up in bed with no other stimulus. 

“Just tap me if you need me to pull you out,” Piper mentioned as she walked inside her house. 

She carefully peered through the door to make sure the coast was clear before stepping inside. Decided there was no immediate threat, she stopped to kick her shoes off at the door before heading to her room, but did so hastily. There was nothing that warranted avoidance about her family, but Piper was trying desperately to avoid hugs at that moment. 

“Okay,” she whispered, closing her door and locking it, “Coast is clear, Sam.” 

Piper quickly pulled her shirt up past her waist to see the absence of me. What she didn’t realize was that raising her legs and bending over to pull off her shoes caused her abs to shift and move me downward. I went from being comfortably hugged by the spandex, to being smothered by it. I could hardly move, but in my frantic struggling, I managed to drop a bit lower. Officially being free from the strip of elastic that hugged Piper’s waist so tightly, I dropped freely down a couple relative feet into the hammock of spandex that ran parallel to her panties. 

I blushed as I realized where I was. 

Luckily, my accidental captor had figured what would’ve happened and slowly pulled her pants away from her stomach, peering down them. She let out a sigh of relief as she found me and gently pulled me out. 

“Okay,” she started, “Didn’t think I needed to address this, but do I need to give you a list of body parts you should be nowhere near at this size?”
My face was hot with embarrassment and I failed to make eye contact with her as I muttered a very soft and defeated, “Sorry.” 

A gentle hum escaped Piper’s lips as she rubbed my back with her thumb. 

“Oh, no,” she cooed, “Don’t feel bad. I was kidding. I know it wasn’t your fault.”
“Can we not talk about it?” I requested suddenly, burying my face in my hands.
Piper chuckled, “Well, if you have a better topic in mind.”
“The drinks,” I started, shocking her with how quickly I settled down, “Why did you bring drinks when you showed up to load the divider? And why were you so early?” 

She smirked. 

“Ya know, for someone as smart as you, you’re a real dumbass sometimes.” 

A sudden knock at Piper’s door made her jump, but she quickly composed herself and hid me away in a drawer before calling back to the door to tell whoever was knocking that she was getting dressed. 

I laid flat on the hard wood surface of the bottom of drawer when I realized I still had my clothes on. Well- Obviously, I had realized that before, but I didn’t understand what it meant until I thought about it. Everything I was touching when I shrank must’ve gotten the same amount of energy I did. Meaning…! 

I quickly dug into my pocket and pulled out my phone. 

“Yes!” I exclaimed, unlocking it and scrolling to the flashlight app. 

As the beam of light bore through the darkness, I let out a sigh of relief. Who knew what kinda weird science crap could’ve made this implasable and unrealistic, I was just glad I wasn’t stuck describing a dark drawer for the next two-hundred words, READER. 

It was a typical junk drawer. Random coins were spread around the ground and a mess of tangled cords pushed into the back half of the space. It was odd. Like I was in some sort of weird art exhibit. 

I smirked to myself as I pulled open my texts and found Piper’s number. I hadn’t used it since freshman year when we were still closer friends, but it felt like a good time to break the silence. I snapped a few pictures of random sections of the drawer and sat cross legged in the center, compiling the various images into one collage before attaching the image to a text. 

“Okay corners. Polished floor. No windows? 8/10” 

I giggled to myself as I sent it to Piper. Much to my surprise, her phone buzzed from somewhere deeper in the drawer. I cocked an eyebrow and wormed my way through the cords, pinging it every once in a while to get my bearings, before finding the illuminated screen of Piper’s old phone. She must’ve gotten a new number with her current phone. 

I glanced down at the notification of my text and smiled. She still had my contact saved. It wasn’t a big thing, but it was nice to know. Something was off though. Why was her old phone charged? I had to use the heel of my palm, but I finally got the phone to register my touches. 

I swiped away the notifications of my texts as new ones filled the screen. Odd texts. Things that were cryptic and hinting at something I couldn’t piece together. Not that I got much time to read them over before movement caught my eye. I glanced up and froze. The phone’s light barely caught the bottom of something fuzzy. And eight turquoise orbs shined down at me. A fucking spider. 

I slowly backed up, but tripped over a wire and landed flat on my back. I saw the spider twitch and instinctively put my arms up to defend myself, but it didn’t move. Suddenly, the large phone went into sleep mode and I was cast into darkness. Not wanting to give it any more of an opportunity, I bolted, frantically crawling my way back through the cords, but I could feel the cords moving beyond what I was doing. It was following me. 

It felt like a maze trying to leave, but I eventually found my way out, stumbling head of heels onto the wooden floor. I pulled my phone up and quickly checked behind me. The little tunnel I had wiggled my way through was now filled with light brown movement of frantic legs. A scream escaped me against my will as I backpedaled, but as I did so, I felt something grab my leg. 

I tripped and landed against a slanted net before realizing it had chased me into its web. 

“Shit,” I huffed, twisting my body to try and pull an arm free or anything. 

Luckily, half the web seemed to be coated with a fine layer of dust and my left side was free to move, but I still couldn’t run. The eight legged beast emerged from the pile of wires, much less rushed now as it carefully felt its way over to me. I tugged at the web with everything I had, but I couldn’t pull myself free. 

It got closer and closer to me until I saw the tiny hairs on its legs and an idea popped into my head. With everything I could muster, I screamed. A shrill, ear shattering screech that hurt my throat. The spider nearly leapt back, waving it’s legs to detect the threat, but still backing away. I stopped for a second, but only to take a deep breath and scream again, only stopping when my throat was raw and my voice was gone. It backed off farther before retreating next to the mess of wires, assuming a much bigger creature was coming. 

And it just so happened that one was. Piper pulled open the drawer and scanned the front of the drawer before tracing her eyes along the corners. Her hazel eyes locked onto me in the spider's web, then darted to the spider. I could see her shudder before she quickly hooked the web with her finger and tore it away, freeing me. Doing this, however, seemed to alert the spider to something being in its web. 

It charged at me again. Piper, startled by the sudden movement of the arachnid, pulled her hand back and inadvertently left me completely exposed to the monster. 

“Fuck,” she hissed, realizing her mistake but was quick to act. 

I was suddenly hit with a glob of something warm and slimy, that reeked of peppermint. Completely drenched, head to toe, I watched as the spider backed off into its hiding spot, those glowing eyes still watching me from the blackness. 

“Piper,” I started, wiping a layer of spit off my face, “What the fuck was that?”
I looked up to see her blushing, “Uh, well, spiders- um, generally… stay away from things that smell like… peppermint. So… since I was chewing the gum earlier, I-”
“You spit on me?”
“I spit on you.”
I sighed, “Just… get me something to wipe this off.”