“Did you?” Tara asked in a tiny voice, an unlit cigarette still dangling from her lips.

His friends had remained utterly silent during the entire longwinded recitation of his story, and for this Max was thankful. It was hard enough for him to believe that the events of the previous night had really happened, and if they had pressed him he might finally have dismissed it after all as one long, incredibly vivid acid trip.

“Did I call her, you mean?” Max nodded. “I was just getting to that. There was no answer at seven this morning. I went in for my lab hours, and Lily wasn’t there. So I called again at lunch. Still no answer. I was getting ready to go over there as soon as I was finished with my reaction, but then my phone rang, and it was her.”

“Yeah, and...?” Bill prodded.

Max shrugged. “She asked if I wanted to come over tomorrow night, ‘...to study.’ And I said I would.”

They stared at him incredulously. “That’s IT?” Tara groaned. “Is she okay? How big is she? Is she angry at you for...for....”

Melinda chimed in. “I think the term you’re looking for is ‘blue balls,’ hun.”

“Yeah, that. The girl was literally throwing herself at you, and you turned her down cold. If a guy did that to ME, and if I also happened to be seven feet tall for some reason...I’d rip him in half like a phone book.” Tara picked up a magazine from the coffee table, demonstrating what this might look like.

“My thoughts exactly,” Max said. “But she didn’t seem angry. Not even a little bit. She actually sounded...cheerful. And that’s what REALLY has me worried. If you knew her, you’d understand why.”

“Alright, let me see if I’ve got this straight.” Bill stood up, folding his hands behind his back, and began to pace the room. “This girl, Lily...your lab partner...caught you trying to make LSD. She told you that she wouldn’t turn you in, as long as you cut her in on half.” He looked to Max for confirmation.

“Right.”

“Then, in some grandiose gesture, she decides to get herself high as shit, and dare you to turn HER in. Like that thing those jack-offs at business retreats do, where you fall backward and trust your partner to catch you.”

“Yup.”

“But this stuff DOESN’T get her high. It makes her GROW instead. You sneak her out of the building, all the while fending off her sudden, insatiable appetite for your nuts. When you finally get back to her place, you decide, out of some sort of fucked-up notion of chivalry, to turn down sex with an exotic, seven-foot goddess. You then manage to tackle a girl who’s got a foot of height and a hundred pounds on you, and you run away.”

Max sighed. “Those are the major points.”

Bill stopped suddenly, and turned to face him. “Okay then, it all becomes clear.” He took a deep breath, and gestured with his arm at Max. “Bullshit.”

Tara and Melinda were nodding. “It was a nice story,” Melinda said. “But you don’t really expect us to believe any of that, do you? Now come on, why did you REALLY decide to skip your evening lecture and come all the way out here tonight?”

“You guys think I made it all up?” Max asked, giving them a long-suffering look. “I guess I’ll just have to demonstrate, then.”

He reached into his pocket, and withdrew a small glass vial and measuring syringe. Max held it up for them to see. “Now, is there anyone here who would like to be a bit taller? It could be anyone in this room. You know, someone who never stops complaining about how short they are? Maybe someone wearing a tie-dye shirt and trying to avoid eye contact with me?”

Tara looked up at last, and Max could see a pink flush spreading across her cheeks. “Okay, so what if my height DOES bother me? I never said I wanted to be an amazon. Frankly, I spend enough time with my head in the clouds without my head actually BEING in the clouds.”

“You’re forgetting that Lily grew that tall after taking a triple dose,” Max argued. “You’d only be taking one. Or even a half. Come on, this is what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? You’re SURE you wouldn’t like a couple more inches?”

“Don't listen to him, Tara,” Melinda spoke up. “What does it matter if you’re short? You’ve got a body most girls would kill for. So what if it’s in a half-pint container.”

Tara whirled. “HALF-PINT?” she squeaked in protest. “Being five foot three HARDLY makes me a half-pint.”

“Okay, three-quarters pint,” Melinda conceded. The taller girl rose to her feet, and moved to stand next to Tara. “But it's just the balance of nature, isn't it? You’ve got boob enough for two. So let me handle the height. And don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”

Tara shot Max a fiery glance. “I’ll do it.”

Melinda threw her hands up in exasperation and turned away, but not before Max saw a faintly self-satisfied smile play across her lips. The girl obviously believed this was all part of some elaborate prank at Tara's expense. Little did she know that the joke would be on her.

“Okay,” Max said, fishing a roll of blotter paper from his pocket. “So just how tall do you want to be?”

“Oh, you know, not THAT much taller,” Tara said, her eyes darting toward Melinda.

Max got the message. He measured a full dose.

“But for the record, I still don’t believe this is actually going to work,” Tara continued, putting her hands on her hips. “And I have no idea what’s actually IN that test tube. So I'm doing this, but on one condition.” She smiled wickedly. “Max, whatever you give me, you have to take the same amount.”

Max grinned, already undoing the top button of his shirt. “I thought you might say something like that. After considering it, I decided that it wouldn’t be so bad, being freakishly tall. Maybe I can get a basketball scholarship or something.”

Bill snorted. “Apparently this stuff also gives you coordination, endurance, a basic understanding of how the game of basketball is actually PLAYED....”

Max ignored him. He passed Tara her dose, and began to prepare his own.

The girl examined her square of paper. “Also, if my taking this results in yet ANOTHER bad trip, the first thing I’m going to do when I sober up is break your legs with a crow-bar,” she warned him pleasantly.

“Bottoms up,” he replied.

They both dropped, Tara choosing to swallow her paper, while Max swished it around in his mouth before spitting into an empty beer can. The stuff had a hard, metallic taste, and it felt like it was making his jaw go numb. “Oh, I almost forgot,” he added. “When Lily took this stuff, she had really intense stomach pains for about ten seconds. As soon as it was over, she started to...you know.”

Tara nodded. “Thanks for the warning,” she said, her voice dry. “How long does it take to work?”

Before he had a chance to answer, Tara squinted her eyes shut, and let out a soft grunt. She grimaced, her hands balling into fists, but otherwise endured without objection. Max was suddenly enormously proud of her.

A moment later it passed, and she opened her eyes. “Wow, that was a bitch,” Tara remarked, wiping a thin band of sweat from her forehead. “How are you doing over there?”

“Nothing yet,” Max reported. Even the initial wave of numbness had receded. Maybe his increased body weight caused the drug to take longer to kick in?

“Guys, something’s happening.” Tara was on her feet, moving to the center of the room. “I feel...it’s so....”

“Hot?” Max supplied.

She nodded vigorously. “And...there’s a tingling...like in the morning when you crawl out of bed and need to take that first stretch.”

Max could see the first subtle signs of her transformation. Tara’s pajama pants were infinitesimally tighter. The cuffs exposed a few more millimeters of ankle. Her shirt was gradually rising, revealing the faintest glimpse of her midriff.

“No way,” Tara breathed.

The changes were starting to become more obvious now. It looked as if the girl was slowing pushing herself up on her tip-toes. She was already at least an inch taller, and now the process was beginning to shift into high gear. “This is incredible! I can see you guys...see everything getting smaller.” Her face was lit by a gigantic smile, a smile that seemed to grow larger and larger as Tara crept toward the ceiling. Three inches taller. Four.

Max spared a glance for Bill and Melinda. Both wore the same expression: slack-jawed, vacant-eyed, completely enthralled by the spectacle before them. He smiled to himself. Plenty of time for I-told-you-sos later.

“What’s it like?” Melinda asked, fascinated. “How do you feel?”

“Oh my God, it’s GREAT – like one long, low-grade orgasm.” Breathless, the growing girl turned to face Max. “Anything?”

He was a moment taking her meaning – he had been so focused on Tara’s growth that he’d forgotten that he had taken the drug, too. “Still nothing,” he replied.

By now Tara’s clothing was strained to its limits. Her tie-dye shirt was stretched far out of proportion, and her breasts, dangerously large even at 5’3”, were threatening to rip the garment clear in half. Her chest seemed much more firm, her breasts perkier, but it looked to Max as if they weren’t any larger in proportion to the rest of her body. That was strange, because when Lily had taken the drug, she had gone from an A cup to a Double-D in a matter of minutes.

Now that he looked, he could notice other changes in his friend, things that the drug hadn’t done to Lily. The girl looked tougher, more formidable in subtle ways. Her arms were larger, her legs thicker and more muscular. Even her butt seemed to have tightened up significantly. She was far from looking like a body builder, Max thought, but could easily pass for a student athlete. Perhaps a swimmer, or lacrosse player.

“Oh...oh my God Max...thank you so much,” Tara whimpered, hugging her arms to her chest. “This is better...better than sex.” She smirked, and gave him a knowing wink. “Well, better than MOST sex.”

Max blushed.

Tara closed her eyes as she continued to swell bigger, her mouth forming a soundless scream of ecstasy. It took her another moment to match Melinda's height of five foot ten, and an instant beyond that to surpass it. Her body exuded a healthy glow of vitality, becoming more pronounced with every new inch she gained.

At last the changes began to slow. She pulsed larger once, twice, and then her growth sputtered to a halt. Tara stood before them a new woman, tall, proud, and drop-dead gorgeous. The girl's outfit clung to her like a second skin, her shirt stretched so tight that it was see-through in a couple places. Every part of her statuesque frame seemed fitter, more athletic. Her face had even lost a bit of its characteristic baby fat. This had been a part of her girlish charm, certainly. But Max thought the change did her good, making her look thoughtful and mature.

“Wow, I never expected all THIS.” She examined her new body, looking pleased. “Look at me, I’m a fucking GIANT!”

“You aren't THAT big,” Melinda objected. She had her arms crossed, and it looked for all the world as if she were pouting.

Quick to head off any confrontation between the girls, Max spoke up. “But you look really good Tara! And damn, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were even taller than ME. That would make you the biggest person in the room.”

“Oh?” Tara locked eyes with him, and Max felt his heart skip a beat. There was something about that look...something alarming...yet alluring. “Well let’s find out. I think I could use a measuring. Max sweetie, would you like to do the honors?”