“K-Kari!”

She turned her head to look at me. For a moment our eyes locked but her’s quickly left and went to my Mom for guidance. Though it looked like she wasn’t sure how to proceed either. “This is for your own good Robby.”

I never doubted that but her constantly repeating it was making me start to. “I get that. But can you at least tell me what’s going on before you kick me out of my own house?”

“I’m not kicking you out; I’m protecting you!” She cried back defensively.

“From what? A whole fucking world bigger than me? It doesn’t matter where I go. I’m in danger everywhere. At least let me stay in my own house while I still can.”

She opened her mouth to yell back but the second she did she immediately slumped over and sighed. “Please don’t make this any harder than it needs to be.”

“You’re the one who made this hard when you went and did this without even asking me!”

Mom didn’t reply. Slowly, she walked over to me and pulled her phone away, cutting me off. She tried to shut me up but I wasn’t done yet. Since she took her phone away I went and grabbed mine. I quickly dialed her number though she quickly silenced the call. I dialed again with the same result.

She looked over to Kari. “You can go ahead and take him Kari. Once he calms down he’ll understand.”

I looked expectantly at my friend, hoping she’d help me out, maybe reason with my Mom. She looked confused, though when she started walking over to me I knew it was over. I struggled and tried to keep shouting but to them I may as well have sat still and did nothing. Kari’s massive fingers reached over and plucked me from the table, quickly putting me safely in her ear while Mom explained a bunch of things about how to look after me. So once again, because of my size, what I wanted didn’t matter compared to the whims of the normal-sized people. I screamed at Kari to stop and listen to me but unlike Jaz she couldn’t hear me without some help. Any attempts to call her during this would be pointless too. I was just screwed. Grumpily I kicked one of the inner ridges of her ear and laid on the ground, fuming.

This was a scary incident sure. I could even understand where Mom was coming from with this. But the fact she did it without even consulting me showed zero concern for my opinion. Even if she did it purely with my well-being in mind the fact that I wasn’t even worth consulting about it pissed me off. Not helping was the fact Kari was the one she contacted. We hadn’t talked since she herself nearly killed me and I still didn’t have the slightest clue what was running through her head. If anything I’d expect her to want to steer clear of me like Mom did. But here she was, apparently going to take care of me.

I remember just lying there, frustrated and unable to do anything until Kari took me back out. I heard everything said clear as day. Mom handed Kari a bag with all my miniature things and kept listing off things to either be careful with or pay special mention to. A lot of it was really common sense stuff she didn’t need to mention but she was apparently being as thorough as possible. I listened to it all until she finished. Then her voice addressed me at long last.

“I’m sorry baby. But this is for your own good. I’ll always love you. You’re always going to be my little boy.”

The way she made it sound made it out like I would never see her again. That idea…really bummed me out. I was ready to crawl into her palm and hit her but just that one line drew all the fight out of me.

“Yeah…love you too Mom…”

Kari gave her goodbyes to my Mom and then we left, driving off to who knows where with neither of us saying a word. When the car eventually stopped she got out and started walking for a few minutes but there were still no words. It was beginning to look like I wasn’t even going to be addressed. Although, after a while I noticed a finger outside of her ear and knew it was my signal to get out. I climbed aboard and was placed on a table with Kari seated on a couch nearby. I recognized the room immediately as the living room in Kari’s house.

Of course a phone was next to me. I knew the drill by now. I strolled next to it and waited for Kari to start things off. I probably should have but I honestly didn’t even know what to say.

She looked at me, apparently doing the same thing I was. When it was clear I wasn’t going to be the one to start talking she sighed. “You probably have a lot of questions.”

“You could say that.”

“Well…You have a right to know. I don’t know why your Mom didn’t explain but here’s how it is. She contacted me and begged me to take you in until you get assigned. I don’t know what happened but she was really spooked and I…kind of ended up agreeing.”

I nodded, taking it all in stride. “I see…I’m surprised you did that. I mean…after what happened…Well, I’m just glad to see you again.”

A small smile crept onto her face, “Yeah…I’m not done though.”

“You aren’t?”

“No. You see…I’m not sure if I’d be the best choice to watch over you either so me and your mother kept talking and…more people joined the conversation.”

“Who?” I asked knowing full well who it had to be.

“Jaz and Kristen.”

“Of course.” I sighed. “So who’s going to be looking after me?”

“All of us.”

“Huh?”

“Well, when we all started talking about we all agreed looking after you for a longtime would be rough of anyone. I mean, you’re lucky something didn’t happen with your Mom sooner. So we decided we’d kind of split all of the responsibilities between each other. Sometimes I’ll be watching you. And other times it’ll be one of the others.”

“You guys put a lot of thought into this without asking me.” Not being included in all this planning still had me a little jaded.

“Sorry. We thought you knew.”

“It’s not your fault…” To be honest I didn’t even know whose fault it was. I was tired of constantly doubting people. “So how long am I going to be here with you?”

“About a week. I’m going to set up your stuff on my desk so you’ll have a place to sit and stuff and…yeah. You’ll just be spending the night for a week.”

“Yeah, it’s just one big sleepover til I get shipped off somewhere.”

Kari’s eyes immediately looked sad, “Don’t think of it like that. We’re all doing this because we’re looking out for you.”

“I get that.” I replied in an annoyed voice. “I really do. But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m just waiting until I’m forced to move out to some person’s house and do whatever they want.”

Kari had no reply. After all, I wasn’t wrong. Plus with all that had happened in the last few hours I wasn’t particularly inclined to listen to anything she’d say anyway.

“…Moving on…We need to talk.”

Her tone changed and I immediately calmed down again. “Yeah, we do don’t we?”

I saw Kari clench her fist. “I’m sorry for what I did. It was stupid and…I won’t make that mistake again. I promise you’ll be safe here.”

I couldn’t help myself. The question came out of my mouth before I even knew it. “But what about us? Are we alright?”

For a moment she didn’t reply. Kari only gave me a bitter smile and seemed to look for the right words. “I still like you, a lot…but I don’t…I don’t think we should be together anymore.”

It was exactly the answer I expected, but it still hurt more than I could describe. “I…see…Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I’ve thought a lot about it and I just can’t see things going well if we stayed together. I mean, at any moment I could hurt you and if that happened…I couldn’t take it. I almost lost you already. I’m not going to risk that again. Plus…I mean look at us. You’re smaller than my pinky. It would never work between us anyway.”

“You don’t know that.” I replied stubbornly.

“I do.” She shot back confidently. “I know myself well, and I know how it would go. I don’t want us to ruin our friendship over a relationship that won’t work. I won’t let it.”

I couldn’t reply. I mean, how could I? I wanted to stay with her but she was totally right. Things just wouldn’t work. I barely teased her before and that almost ended badly. Plus she’d have to constantly look after me. Not to mention once I left we’d probably have to split anyway. It was probably better to do it sooner rather than later. I just wished it wasn’t so. As much as I cared about her...it could've been so much more. But one look at her told me that this wasn't going to be argued. Dragging out the topic would only make it worse for both of us.

I sighed in defeat. “Can I have a minute alone?” This was all too much. I needed a moment.

“Sure. I’ll leave my phone here so I’ll hear you if you need me. I’ll go set your stuff up in my room.” She got up and left, leaving me there to work myself out.

So to recap. This morning I was nearly eaten by my Mother. Kicked out of my house. Started living with all of my friends. Got dumped by my girlfriend. And it wasn’t even seven o’clock yet.

Fucking great.