Daniel Stewart was in Hell.

Of course, if he were to dispense with the melodrama, he would say that he was just in his best friend’s gratefully watered-down approximation of the place.

And yet that moist descriptor was one he meant quite literally, as Olivia’s wet and wrinkled sole threatened to both drown and smother him underneath its all-powerful girth. Whatever sweat that had been previously absorbed by the fields of carpet had either been an inconsequential amount or, as he was starting to suspect, simply been replaced in the heat of this slow, purposeful grinding. Each small, quick breath he was allowed had an equal chance of filling his mouth with pungent flesh or foul liquid. And the former usually brought the latter with it anyway.

It was being completely subsumed underneath Olivia’s behemoth of a ped that he hated above all else. Worse, he figured he was still only about halfway through with the process. Like some sort of perverted automated carwash, her foot would see him through from one end to the other, from toe to heel, washing him thoroughly of his sin – not with soap and water, but with pain and humiliation.

And sweat. Obviously. All at a very deliberate pace. He estimated that his face had only just passed fully from the pounding ball of her foot and underneath her arch, and his legs had yet to even reach her heel.  He doubted they would any time soon. He had plenty of discomfort to go through still, and plenty of aches. And he would endure them, just as he always had. Because it wasn’t the pain that cultivated his hatred for this sweltering grinder.

It was the fact that he was so utterly isolated. So tucked away under this ridiculous blanket of doughy flesh that nothing else could reach him. He couldn’t see Olivia. He couldn’t see her serene yet scolding face. He couldn’t see that pure, innocent purpose behind her brilliant eyes. And he couldn’t hear it in her warm voice, delivered to him via verbal lesson constructed purely for his benefit.

More than anything, it was that in this state of deprivation, he may as well be under anyone’s foot. Someone like Ms. Roland’s, who had delighted so often in the pain she had caused him in times past. Who did so very little to hide it, yet never got caught. Never got called on it. Who truthfully did not care about him or his well-being, physical or spiritual, in the least.

A particularly sharp twist of Olivia’s foot broke him out of his pitiful reverie. It elicited a yelp from the youth that earned him another disgusting mouthful of the lint-speckled underbelly which continued on without pause in its grim work. Again, no different as if it had been with the likes of Ms. Roland, and Daniel turned his thoughts to reminding himself that it wasn’t.

That the individual currently out of sight wasn’t anything like his wretched teacher. That this individual cared, and that even though he might also be out of her sight, every action she took was suffused with it to the utmost. No true harm would ever be allowed to reach him while he paid penance to his transgression against truth.  And he told these things to himself through every period of building, unceasing pressure, every sharp, sudden press or twisting grind. Over and over and over again, barely conscious as his body moved along through the ringer, until Olivia delivered one last dig that mashed his tiny face in and almost submerged his head in the waterlogged carpet upon which it rested. Like a little bug beneath her heel.

“There we go,” Olivia declared with finality. Her punishing ped lifted up and away from his battered form. One last wince was paid, of course, as that ceiling of pinkish skin passed over him in all its threatening glory. Daniel half expected one last little step to fall upon him for good measure, particularly as a droplet of sweat suddenly splashed – almost tauntingly – onto his face.

But no, the foot simply, and thankfully, kept going, until it was out of sight. Replacing it once more was the full, powerful form of his friend, with hands still resting confidently on her hips. Her expression was just about as serene as he had pictured it, her green eyes gentle even in the searching gaze currently pointed down toward him.

“Well, lil’ Danny-Boy, I guess the only thing left is to see if we’re gonna do better now,” she stated. She gave her head another quick whip to reposition her bangs yet again.

“So. Are we?” she asked, voice as soft as silk. Certainly soft enough for Daniel to pick up on the undertone to that little question: one of sincere pleading for his compliance. For a positive, yet truthful answer. So that this lesson would not be one that had to be repeated again.

“I’ll…I’ll try to,” he answered quietly, utterly drained from his ordeal. “I will.”

“Oh, I know you’ll try, shorty,” Olivia shot downward with a little tilt of her head. “That’s why I went ahead and stopped with just the one foot done. I’m asking if you’ll keep it up better than you usually do, ‘cause I really don’t want this to be a regular part of our summer together.”

“I…I want to do better,” he murmured, and that was the truth. It wasn’t like he looked for the first excuse to belt out a lie, or for a moment where he felt he could get away with it. Something usually came up, and he’d find honesty slipping down his priority list in the face of whatever that something was.

“Well, I guess we’ll just hope that it happens this time,” Olivia remarked casually. The sudden, tender little curl of her lips was an easy tell of how much she truly meant it. “So, you ready to stop hugging carpet?”

“Y-Yeah,” Daniel confirmed. The unpleasant aroma he had continued to soak in even after the removal of its source provided plenty of incentive. Providing much less incentive, unfortunately, was the shifting of his friend’s lips from tender smile to playful smirk.

“You wanna go upsy-daisy?” Olivia asked with overly good humor.

A shudder overtook Daniel’s little body as the pillowy undersides of her ever-playful toes hovered once more into his vision. They wiggled with distinct fervor at the enticing prospect of welcoming his form into their unified embrace once again.

“N-n-no,” he stammered out amidst a flurry of headshaking.

He hated upsy-daisy, even more than their little inverse game of drop-and-catch. Primarily because, unlike the simple plummet that marked the basis of that horrific activity, being tossed up into the air by his friend’s toes actually did terrify him. Through the combination of g-forces asserting themselves upon him in what was usually a rapid ascent and release, the stomach-displacing peak that it led to, and finally the sudden plummet into an aggressive snatch from Olivia’s hand, it was furthest from his desires.

“Really?” Olivia questioned. She was clearly disappointed in the rejection as the vigorous shaking of Daniel’s head transformed into a nod. “Well, whatever. You know I’m just gonna replace it with another lesson later, right?”

“Yes,” Daniel replied curtly. She could do whatever later. He didn’t care. As long as it’s not fucking upsy-daisy.

“Suit yourself,” Olivia remarked with a shrug of her far-off shoulders as her now depressed little toes departed from view. A welcome sight in itself, but one enhanced by what moved in to replace it, something that was typically the most welcome sight of all in the wake of these reckonings: Olivia’s hand.

It approached quickly with fingers splayed wide to receive him. As usual, at least when it came to things that didn’t involve working him along the length of her foot, his friend was not particularly patient in her motions. Only taking a second for the college freshman, her waist bent rather flexibly to scoop her fingers through the dampened carpet and underneath his body. The motion sent him tumbling along their lengths, eventually coming to a face-up rest in Olivia’s upturned palm.

Of course, by the time he had settled in, he was already well on his way along a collision course straight into the lightly tanned skin of Olivia’s cheek. Not that he wasn’t expecting it, of course. So his sudden impact with the soft skin wasn’t truly “sudden”, and he welcomed this affectionate little hug with closed eyes and a sigh of pure relief. Even if this tender embrace still managed to induce some manner of soreness from his battered body.

“Please do better, Danny. I do care about ya a whole stinkin’ bunch,” Olivia said with a comfortable warmth that seemed to act as a verbal aspirin in soothing him. Less soothing, though, were the rather pronounced inhalations coming from her nearby nostrils. “Even if you do kinda stink really bad right now.”

“Well, hey, don’t look at me,” Daniel murmured in a tone no less playful that his friend’s had been as he pressed his forehead a little bit deeper into her cheek. “That’s on you.”

“No, that’s me on you,” Olivia countered with a deeply amused little chuckle that shook Daniel’s world even as he cringed at the awful, awful joke.

“You’re not proud of that, are you?” he inquired, fully serious.

“A little bit,” she responded, earning another little cringe. “Besides, it’s the truth. Ain’t it, little guy?”

“Y-yeah,” Daniel replied after a moment’s consideration between what would be the larger risk – telling his much bigger friend the rather unflattering truth that she did not, in fact, smell like fresh roses after a workout, or blatantly lying about it and facing further consequences.

The consideration was, of course, only for a moment. Olivia knew full well what she was asking, after all, and if anything this was just a quick little test on his most recent lesson. One he had apparently passed, if the sudden added firmness of their embrace was any indication.

“Well, true as that may be…” Olivia started. The remnants of her chuckling were still fresh in her voice as she finally pulled Daniel away to look at him as he reclined in her palm. “…you do stink, shorty. And from the looks of it, you’re gonna be this small for a pretty good while, even with good behavior. Which means you and I are gonna be hanging out for that good little while. Which means I’m gonna have to deal with you stinking to high heaven that whole time.”

“And I gotta tell ya, Danny,” she continued, the most playful smile in the world forming on her lips as her free hand swept through her bangs again, “I’m not really sure I want to deal with that.”

Oh, no.

Lips curling in the exact opposite direction of his best friend’s, Daniel wondered if it wasn’t, perhaps, too late to go with upsy-daisy after all.

“So maybe we should just mosey on back to my house and fix this little problem, hm?”