Noel walked into the living room.

“Welcome home honey.” Maudie said with a grin on her face, as if she had done something villainous.

Maudie and Noel had been childhood friends since they were six. Now, they were roommates. While it’s normal for friends to live together in the early stages of their adult lives, some people would find it strange to do so with someone of the opposite gender. They didn’t care about the way people looked at them. Although having thought about Maudie as a woman a few times, Noel never made a move on her. Maudie knew about his feelings, being very good at reading clues. She liked to toy and tease him from time to time.

Noel sat down in the couch facing the one Maudie was sitting in. In-between them there was a small coffee table, Maudie’s feet resting on it. As he put his medical results on the table, Noel couldn’t help but look at her soles. They looked soft and slightly dirty, she took good care of her weapons.

“So, how was your doctor’s appointment?” The girl asked.

He responded with a slightly depressed tone. “Fine, I guess.”

“What was it for anyway?”

Noel didn’t react and continued to stare at her foot.

Maudie’s grin got wider. “Why are you glaring at my feet like that.”

“I don’t know,” He answered. “maybe cause of the dead body that’s plastered against it.”

“Oh dear,” She says in a fake overacting voice. “I guess I have accidentally stepped on someone.”

It plagued the world, a disease that could shrink a full grown human down to one inch. Five percent of the population was susceptible to it. Noel knew about Maudie’s evil behavior towards victims of the disease, but never spoke about it before.

“Cut the crap! You’re barefoot, and you don’t walk around in the streets like that. You’re not a hippie.”

Maudie rolled her eyes. “Ok, I took her home and stomped on her a bit. Not my fault she couldn’t take it.”

“You know that is murder, right?” Noel barked.

“It would’ve been murder if she was still human. As soon as she shrank she became a bug, And you know what I like to do with bugs. Gotta say, it’s pretty fun to have a bug cry and beg before you kill it.”

Maudie wiggled her toes. She seemed proud of her kill.

The body of a blond young woman covered in blood and guts, bend and broken, Stuck to the foot of his best friend. The image would come to haunt his dreams that night.

Noel turned red. “A human is a human no matter the size, and you are sick!”

Maudie’s grin turned in to a concerned look, she realized she might have struck a nerve. “Hey, calm down. I just don’t see how a one inch tall creature can still be considered ‘human’.”

Hearing that last line, Noel’s anger turned to tears as he got up and ran to his room, leaving behind his medical results.

Maudie looked at the coffee table, she finally realized. Maybe she wasn’t that good at reading clues after all.