Actually, before I begin I should probably tell you some stuff about me so you can have a little bit of clarity. My full name is Robert Alexander Lindley, though I’d really prefer you to think of me as Rob. I’m a twenty-year old in his second year at college, studying for a film degree. I was a strapping young man, five-foot ten inches tall. Now I’m…well you’ll see. I also have a ton of hobbies totally irrelevant to the story so we won’t go over those.

Honestly, you really don’t need to know a lot about me for this. You probably have a decent idea of how I am already anyway. Who you do need to know though, are these people: Alicia, Kristen, Jaz, and Kari. They’ll be the ones I mention the most so learn the names, and to be safe I should probably say a bit about them too shouldn’t I?

Well first things first, Alicia is my Mom. For as long as I could remember it was me and her. Father’s not in the picture, not really a big deal, doesn’t bother me, neither should you. She’s a fairly young woman, she had me when she was nineteen so right now she still isn’t even forty. This actually gets awkward for me to think about because she’s this young some of my friends have uh…made it clear they find her attractive if you catch my meaning. I mean, she’s a nice-looking woman sure. If you’re into slightly older, curvy blondes with a fondness for black clothes...Actually, this is starting to feel awkward, let’s move on.

Kristen, Jaz, and Kari are all friends of mine. I’m kinda a girly guy so surprise surprise most of my friends are girls. Not all of them, just the relevant ones.

Guess I’ll start with Kristen. She’s a childhood friend of mine who I reconnected with back in middle-school. Really sweet girl, tall too, like…6”5” or something. Glasses, long brown hair, imagine one of those cute nerdy girl types and you can kinda get the idea. She's always been really reserved. Kind of a go with the flow person but every once in a while she can surprise you. 

Then there’s Jaz. Jaz was my best friend through High School and we managed to make it to college together. You ever meet a short, witty black girl? Then you’ve probably met Jaz. Great person but boy does she have a sharp tongue. That aside she’s a short, peppy, tomboyish, black girl. What more could I say? Well...I guess I could mention she's kind of...blessed in the chest area. Mayhaps she has a fondness for shorts and tight tops? Just throwing it out there

Lastly there’s Kari, my girlfriend at the time. She’s one of the bubbly, small white girl types, the kind who gets called cute more than beautiful if you catch my drift. Though that’s something I really like about her. Shoulder-length dark hair, short, loves skirts and is a pretty big nerd at heart (If you couldn’t tell by now my social circle leaned towards the geekier side of things). She looks deceptively young; like, she looks 16 but she's 23. Sometimes she rocks glasses other times contacts. Into a lot more stuff than you'd ever think too, you'll see what I mean.

Now with all that said I’ve just about covered all the major cast members. There are a few others but ah…we’ll get to that eventually. For now I bet you’re wondering which of those three I listed I ultimately end up serving. After all, all three of them sound like my “bestfriend” don’t they? I could be a nice guy and tell you but…nah. You can find that out when I get to it.

Anyway, enough beating around the bush. Story time!

It all started a year ago…Wow...Hard to believe a year ago I was normal-sized…Yeesh, time flies. The details are a bit fuzzy but I remember heading to school like it was any other day. I headed to my art history class and took a test, then returning to my general hangout area around campus while debating on going to my next class. If memory serves it was me, Jaz, and Kristen with everyone else out in classes. My memory may be a little fuzzy but I think it went something like this:

“Ugh...My class starts in fifteen minutes…” An audible groan came from my mouth as I mindlessly shifted through tabs on my computer.

“If it bothers you so much why’d you take the class?” Jaz mumbled, eyes locked onto her own laptop.

I sighed, “I needed the credits.”

“Then stop complaining. It could be a lot worse you know.”

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a 3-foot tall student hurrying his shrunken self to class. “Yeah…I know. Still…”

“You really outta appreciate what you have.” Kristen pulled her eyes from a book she was reading.

“What I have isn’t here.” I laid my head on the table.

Jaz chuckled, “That’s kinda pathetic. Anytime Kari’s not here you get all whiny.”

“That’s not true, I-“

“Probably because she keeps him in line.” Kristen smirked.

“God knows someone has to, it’s a miracle he’s not a foot tall or something.”

“Hey. I’m not that bad.”

They both kept ignoring me. “Nah, then he’d keep making excuses about how his legs wouldn’t take him to class.”

“Or he’d spend all day trying to look up Kari’s skirt.”

“You guys are evil.” I sighed, giving up almost immediately. “What did I ever do to you?”

“You started complaining.” Jaz offered a devious smile. I couldn’t see it because she turned her head to read again but I imagined Kristen had a smile too.

The abuse wasn’t new but it always found a way to embarrass me a bit as me and Jaz exchanged our little back and forth with the occasional inputs from Kristen. Time always flew when this happened. So unsurprisingly…

“Shit I’m late!”

“Better hurry, I think you’re getting smaller already Mr. Truant.”

“Not funny.” I hurriedly packed my things and took off running, aware of the small laughs from behind me. Embarrassingly, it was only when I was out of breath and thirty yards away before I remembered that this was a lecture hall class where attendance didn’t matter. Once I recalled that I was all about taking my sweet time.

“Maybe I’ll just cut it for today.” I yawned. After the test that morning I was exhausted. Usually I’m the kind of guy who tries to make it on time to everything but sleepiness has a special way of making you care a lot less about that kind of stuff. Before I knew it I ended up in a nice, secluded spot in the library and was getting cozy on a couch. A single nap never hurt anyone I figured. I could cut class this once. Before I knew it I was falling asleep.

You probably know already but it was around this point when it happened. With my eyes shut and sleep starting to come in my body started to feel strange, like it was heavier. At the time I shrugged it off as some form of exhaustion but looking back, it was definitely me shrinking. I was too tired to notice though, especially since everything on me was shrinking at the same time so nothing seemed off. In a way I guess that was for the best though. I mean, if I had my eyes open I would see everything growing around me. No telling how I would’ve reacted. I guess in that sense it wasn’t so bad. I mean, when I woke up I still freaked the fuck out.

I could probably recap it in detail but it really isn’t important. Just imagine a lot of shock and obscenities and you’re right on the mark. If it was a couple feet or something I wouldn’t have flipped out that much. But this was uh…a little bit more than a few feet.

I shrank so much…I mean, to such a pathetic size it’s hard to imagine I was ever the size of a person. When I woke up, a single cushion on that couch I rested on seemed big enough to fit an entire neighborhood…Or a few.

Remember before when I said someone as immoral as a serial killer would probably shrink to something like a speck? Well that was me. I was now a speck. It would only be later I’d get measured and find out my new height was a whopping two millimeters. But at that moment I was more focused on uh…handling it with grace.

-----

“FUCK! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! This can’t be happening! This is fucking bullshit. What did I ever fucking do that was wrong?!”

-----

Grace and even elegance I’d say (And yes, that was a direct quote from me when I found out).  That kind of reaction would go on for probably half an hour before I regained enough rationality to realize I needed someone to come get me. Thankfully my phone shrank with me so I sent out a few texts to see who was still on campus. The text didn’t mention my size situation, I still didn’t have it in me to type it out. I just said I really needed someone to come get me. This all happened at about four in the afternoon so I knew some people were heading home and others came from  and I still remember clearly what came next.

First I got a text from Kari saying she had work and left early. Almost immediately after I got one from Jaz saying she was in class. Then came Kristen’s text.

“I’m on my way.”