With his first confession going as well as a fart in a funeral Tanner didn’t have the nerve to say anything to Gail while she brought him back his house in Blake's room. At the very least it was nice to have some time to himself, he was both mentally and physically drained from his turbulent day. Now was a good time to get some shuteye, if he could get himself to fall asleep that is.

Tanner lied on his back staring up into the ceiling hoping he’d grow drowsy, yet he remained as alert as a soldier on duty. He tried shutting his eyes trying to force himself into slumber and still couldn’t manage a single moment of unconsciousness.

Ugh... He groaned. The problem was evident, he was too tense, too antsy, all the prominent events over the last couple of days played in an endless loop in his mind. Being the freshest in his mind he kept thinking about Gail's confession the most as he imagined several different variations of how he could of worded his sentiments better and the ways she'd react. In his most idealistic renditions they'd reach a mutual understanding and everything would be peachy. In the worst what if instead of having a non-reaction like she did, what if she was livid and wanted to enact vengeance? Hell, there's no telling if she's already feeling that way and was just masking it, you know what the say about the quiet ones after all.

Tanner continued tossing and turning until he managed his most comfortable position. Now for the hardest part, expelling the excess of thoughts that were bogging his mind, it took several minutes doing away with the thoughts of Gail's confession, Blake's chastisement, and even a few stray thoughts of his precarious entrapment with Blair to finally seeing nothing but pitch blackness.

“...Tanner, Tanner are you awake?” Impressively Blake's voice was not in usual form, on average she was one octave below a complete shout but this was much more subdued.
She actually knows how to whisper?

Truthfully Tanner was quite irritated that he was interrupted from nearly obtaining some much needed rest, as he stepped out though there was no way from him to remain that way once her remorseful face that looked like she just saw a puppy die. Just watching almost confused him into thinking he did something that he needed apologize for.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you before.”

Gail was right on the money on that one.

Tanner thought it'd be easier to stay mad at her but he couldn't, Blake never meant any harm on purpose. “It’s water under the bridge.”

Blake's eyes perked up a little at being so easily forgiven, however she still felt guilty for her inconsideration. “I shouldn't have tried to push you so hard though, you were right about not everyone responding to the same type of motivation as me.”

There was truth to what Tanner said at the time, however it nagged him that Blake may have had a point too. “You weren’t totally wrong though, maybe I could’ve pushed harder.”

“So why didn't you?”

Because it's easier to quit while uncertain of failure rather than try and have it inevitably confirmed. “But what if I still couldn't do it?”

“At least you knew you still tried your best, that’s all you can ask of anyone.” Blake ruffled the sides of her hair in frustration wondering why she didn't state that so eloquently before. “I just wanted to help take your mind off… you know.”

“I guess that’s popular topic right now in my life.” Tanner guessed, seeing how Gail knew it wasn't a stretch that Blake knew too.

“Do you think you’re ready to hash things out with her?”

… No idea. Tanner sighed, knowing that it was unavoidable that he'd be under the same roof as Ingrid where they'll undoubtedly cross paths again. Where they go from that night was beyond him. “Can't say that I'm looking forward to it. Then there's Ivory, if she was a helicopter mom before she'll be a military aircraft now. Can't forget having to deal with Marcelle's crap.” He ranted, a portion of his sentiments piquing Blake’s interest.

“Why do you let Marcelle push you around?”

“What?”

“You always let Marcelle bully you.”

Blake's interactions with Marcelle had been very limited which was why it caught Tanner way off guard that she made such an astute inference. It served as a reminder that while she was air-headed and absent-minded at times, she was not an idiot. “When you’re my size being picked on is pretty easy.”

Blake shook her head in detest. “I used to think that way too.”

“Oh? You used to pick on people back in the day?”

Blake chuckled at Tanner's assumption that she was the one doing the bullying. “Other way around.”

Tanner had to rerun that sentence in his brain a couple of times for him to grasp it. “Don’t give me that look.” Blake commented on his skepticism that she was actually bullied.

“Sorry it sounds like some kind of ironic joke that someone like you were bullied.” Tanner replied. It was damn near inconceivable in his mind that the same girl who throughout elementary and middle school was the tallest student in the classroom was bullied. It wasn’t until high school that there were finally boys who matched and exceeded her height though they were somewhat few and far between. Not only just tall, but sporty too? Bullying a girl like that was not a smart move at all.

“Oh you mean someone who was almost always able look over the top of people's heads for most her school life?” Blake laughed a little knowing it sounded far-fetched , she turned and rested her back on her dresser getting comfortable for what was about to be story time.“You know I wasn't always secure about my height. I mean, I used to think it was cool being taller than all the kids and it made me feel more grownup than them, but a lot of them were scared of me like I was going to beat them up or something.”

For someone who had the opposite problem, Tanner was all ears as he was listening to the duality of there experiences.

“Then it got worse in Middle School when my height really started skyrocketing and I wasn't used to my growing body. You stick out like a sore thumb, people were hooking up, and no one wanted to date me, heck I would've settled for a nerd-” Seeing Tanner's raised brow Blake cleared her throat getting back on track.

“Anyways, I always had it to hear it in the hallways, how I was too tall, too clumsy, the works. Then there was this one girl…” Blake trailed off as she looked up into the air trying to remember her name. “Taylor Higgins who I swear made it her sworn mission to single me out every day.”

“Was she even taller than you?” Though he was all ears on her personal account of bullying a key principle was still eluding him.

“Nope. She was pretty scrawny, shorter than 5 feet for sure and all of 90 pounds soaking wet .” She estimated. “Every time I was in her line of sight she’d take some kind of crack at me.”

“Watch out everyone the 50 foot woman may step on you.”

“You’re too tall to be a girl, are you sure you don’t have a dick?”

“At least you can always be at a circus freak show.”

Blake recited some of the quips thrown her way that she remembered. “I thought I was insecure before, but after having run ins with her I started hunching over and leaning forward all day until my back hurt to try and look shorter. I even tried looking up online if height reduction surgery was a thing.” Blake chuckled again realizing how stupid it was in hindsight.

“I tried to avoid her as much as I could, but we had three classes together and the same lunch period so I was guaranteed to see her sooner or later. I was like you and didn’t do anything about it so I ended up taking her crap when I had to, and you know what?”

“What?”

“It got worse. She started throwing stuff at me, shoved me, tripped me at the cafeteria and made me spill my things. It didn’t matter what our height difference was, since she knew I was scared of her she treated me like I was smaller one.”

“I swear that first semester of 7th grade felt like the longest in my life, there were days I faked being sick so I could stay home. Sometimes I came home from school and cried in my room wondering why she was always messing with me. I almost wanted to change schools until a friend of mine spelled it out for me, the one simple reason why Taylor kept bullying me.”

“...Why?” Tanner asked.

“Because I let her.” Blake said.

“It took me a minute to understand what that meant, but when I did I learned I had to start walking with my head high. It wasn't an overnight thing, but it was still one of the best pieces of advice anyone's ever told me.”

“What’s the matter giant? Not crouching today?”

“Of course right when I was getting my confidence Taylor was there waiting to try and knock me back down. I usually didn't say a word when she tried to berate me because I was scared. This time I was quiet because I was confused as I stared down at her wondering why I let someone like her push me around so much. ”

“Leave me alone.”

“I said that to her in plain, clear English. I swear she was going to explode, I thought I saw steam coming out her ears. I was about to walk away and then she grabbed me by the wrist to stop me. I almost couldn't believe what was happening when she balled her hand into a fist and tried to punch me.”

Oh god. Tanner thought there wasn’t any way that this was going to end well for that girl.

“I was pretty much on auto-pilot and punched her square in the face.”

Blake’s serious demeanor ended with her laughing. “Holy shit, I didn’t even think I decked her that hard, but her eye started swelling up to the size of a golf ball. It was really gross looking. Something like that happened to me before where a soccer ball hit me on the- “

“Blake focus! What happened next?!” Tanner blurted as Blake started to ramble onto irrelevant topics again.

“Oh yeah. That's the jist of it. The school staff made a fuss about it, but students spoke up and mentioned how she started it and how she was bullying me for months. So I only ended up with a couple of days in detention, Taylor backed off after that.”

“So the moral of the story is I need to punch Marcelle in the face.” Tanner quipped, purposely acting like he missed the point of her story.

“Haha. Lets not get hung up on the violence and more on the principle.”

On the more critical note, Tanner had to admit he drastically misjudged her. “Sorry Blake.”

Blake blunk a few times. “For what?”

“I guess I sometimes thought there was no way you of all people could ever relate to me. I sorta just assumed with your height and all you had it easy.”

“It's alright, I guess with the way I come across you'd never know it.” Blake responded.

“Yeah, don't worry though us tall and small people need to stick together. Without people like you around I'd never be able to reach stuff on high cabinet shelves.” Tanner wisecracked.

“Sorry, I've already given you free advice today. If you want any high shelf grabbing I'm going to need people like you to go into the sofa to find the stuff I lose.” She returned fire.

“Oh hush, that doesn't count since Ingrid gave you the advice first.”

Blake paused at his correct presumption despite never stating who gave her advice by name. “I think it’d serve you well too.”

“Thanks Blake.” He said spreading his arms out as wide as he could and hugged her at the shoulder.

By the grace of God Blake was able to resist the urge to scoop him up and bear hug him to her body at his incredibly adorable display which she knew would annoy him to no end (because she's done it before), so she settled for rubbing his back with her finger. “Anytime Tanner, goodnight.”

Tanner lied back in his bed, back at square one and unable to fall asleep. Blake’s tale harbored in his mind, it was an uplifting story that still opened up a pit of doubt in psyche.

Tanner’s Reminiscence V: Marcelle

Standing up for myself, can I really do that? Marcelle didn’t even begin to compare to the average bully. Her words, her inflections, her actions, all were so tailored whenever she interacted with me. It was about a month after I started living with Ivory at 10 years old when I met her, she immediately rubbed me the wrong way. I saw the way she acted around her parents and Ivory, it all looked manufactured. It was when I was alone with her that shades of her true colors emerged.

“Hi, I’m Tanner.” I tried to be polite and introduce myself, Marcelle didn’t say a word though, she kept eyeing me up and down like she was standing in front of an exotic specimen.

“How tall are you?” She bluntly asked.

That question always came up sooner or later, but she was 13 at the time an age you’d expect she'd have some more delicacy before bringing up the matter, being asked so directly threw me off guard from the jump.

“Um...3’5 I think.”

“At 10 years old?” Marcelle responded, suppressing a laugh. “Are you sure you may not be a midget?” She definitely meant that to berate me, but that comment led me to think she didn’t know I was shrinking yet. However, correlating to Blake’s story our interactions got worse every time Marcelle visited. Typically I only saw her a handful of times throughout a year but between her spurts of growing and the progression of my shrinking the height difference between became all the more staggering. We met again the following year on Ivory’s birthday.

I saw her emerald eyes light up in fascination as the pieces unraveled before her. She grew a couple of inches but that wasn’t enough to compensate for what was nearly 2 feet of difference. Being the keen girl that she is, she put two and two together. Wouldn't you know that’s also when I started seeing a lot more of her throughout the year and her comments getting more dark.

I initially tried to ignore her or barricade myself in my room, but Marcelle would always manage to find opportune moments where we're away from everyone. To prevent me from trying to sneak away she grew extra fond of hoisting me up at the waist and sitting on a bed or chair while she sat me on her lap to force me to be near her.

“You look even smaller than the last time I saw you, how tall are you now.”

Talking about it made me more and more uncomfortable. “…2’6.” I nervously admitted.

“What would happen if you kept shrinking and shrinking. Do you think you'll just go...poof! Right out of existence or maybe to microscopic levels.” Both were very real fears I had and Marcelle sounded morbidly interested to know if it would happen. “I'm only playing.” I hated it when she said that and I hated myself more for believing her when she said that. I knew she wasn't playing, but I made myself believe her.

I saw her later again that same year and I was 4 inches smaller and it was much of the same. Marcelle getting me isolated and subduing me in her lap again. “Are you even going to hit puberty, I bet the boys are already getting taller, getting facial hair, and their cocks get bigger too.”

Marcelle smirked, noticing me getting shy at her mention of the male genitals. “Are you falling behind in that area too?” She giggled pointing down at my crotch.

My face quickly went beat red as I tried to squirm from her grasp. Marcelle easily controlled me, shifting me to my back, and pinning my hands above my head. “Let me take a peak.”

I could only close my eyes and wait for her to get done pulling down my pants to get a sufficient view of my boyhood. “Aw, tiny Tanner has a tiny weewee too.”

It was torturous for me to try and fight the tears. “Don't cry little guy, you know I didn't mean it.” She smiled as she patted my groin. Yes she did mean it.

“What's wrong with Tanner?” Ivory asked a few moments after, it was one of the rare instances where she almost got caught red-handed. Marcelle kept her composure though.

“He was just upset because I was going to have to leave again and he wouldn't see his favorite step-cousin, right Tanner?”

“..Yeah.” I agreed.

“It's okay Tanner, you'll see me again real soon.” She enthusiastically held me up in her arms and gave me an exaggerated kiss dead center on my face.

It was definitely my mistake for not trying to nip her behavior in the bud sooner, however I made a bigger mistake in thinking I could actually reason with her. The next time I saw her I was 2 feet tall exactly. I gathered my resolve and I asked to speak with her 1 on 1. Considering I usually went out of my way to avoid herMarcelle was amused to see me initiate a conversation with her for once.

“Um… I don’t like, how you’re always making fun of my height…”

“Mhm?” Marcelle acknowledged in the most condescending way possible. Everything about my body language screamed scared and helpless. It took all my willpower just to ask to speak with her. A 5'4 female to common folks was not much to worry about from a physical standpoint, but when seen from my 2 foot vantage she was an imposing titan that I couldn't stop shaking in front of. My eyes scaled up her towering body until I saw her grinning face and I quickly looked away losing what little nerve I had. Deep down I knew she was just humoring me and not taking our talk seriously at all. And why would she? I was stumbling over my words, looking away at the ground, and sounding like I was pleading for her to stop rather than telling her to stop.

“So can you please… leave me alone?”

It was exactly what Blake said about acting small. Two feet tall I was but I was acting small enough to be dancing in the palm of Marcelle's hand. She was loving every bit of it and trying her damndest to maintain a semi-serious face.

“And what kind of dire consequences will I have to face if I don't?” She stepped forward as she asked this, straightening her posture and resting her hands on her hips to appear even bigger in front of me.

“I..think.. I'm going to tell Ivory..” I wanted to slap the 11 year old me for sounding so pathetic and playing right into Marcelle's hand.

“Awww, you're going to tell Ivory I'm being mean to you?” She patronized, leaning down with a hand on her knee and the other pinching my cheek lightly. “Am I frightening you Tanner?”

“N-n-”

“Boo!” She abruptly shouted in my face before I completed what was going to be a blatant lie. Like a total wimp I fell for her bluff and stumbled backwards onto my ass making her finally break out into tears laughing for a minute before donning a serious expression. I was too petrified to get back onto my feet and looked up at Marcelle.

“I wouldn't say anything if I were you.” She begun holding out her index finger and thumb. “It looks to me that you're going to keep getting smaller... and smaller... and smaller.” Each time she said that she kept decreasing the space between her digits in reflection of her point.

“Who knows what kind of accidents may happen. You maybe at the wrong place at the wrong time.” Marcelle hovered her foot over my body. “I might not see you and then....” She lowered it just enough to make me flinch. “Crunch!”

“That's just one of MANY accidents that could happen.” She emphasized. “Anyway, see you later little Tanner.” She winked before letting me go.

There lied the biggest difference in Blake and I's situations. Blake was strong enough to fight back, she just didn't know it. Marcelle was more than capable to commit any act she wanted on me, it was just a question if I was willing to find out if she would...