Anna and I sit in the backseat of an Uber headed to my apartment. Her face is stern and angry. “So what’s your great plan here?”

“I want you to know what it’s like to be tiny and powerless around me, so you see what it’s like, maybe you’ll have some empathy to me and the situation you had left me in. You do this, then I’ll trust you again, and we’ll be cool.”

Anna huffs and turns her head to stare out the window of the car. “Well, I’m not doing it. You can go fuck yourself. Three days, 1/8th of an inch tall? No thanks.”

“It’ll be a fun little vacation. You can use that little laptop. You can blog about it.”

“I was trying to let you have fun playing on my feet. I thought you liked that?”

I do. “And I will, after. But if we are to be copacetic again, I need to be able to trust you.”

The remainder of the ride back to my apartment was in silence. We exited the car and went into my place. Anna looked at me, still angry as can be.

“You know what, I don’t give a shit. Shrink me down. Whatever way you treat me, I’ll do the same to you. You cool with that?”

“Sure. I’m not going to hurt you. You ready?”

Anna stares at me. “When I unshrink, you’re going to take the other pill, right?”

I stare back. “Yes, of course.”

“Well, I don’t want to be on the ground. Break open that capsule on the kitchen counter and hand me one of the pills.”

I do as she says, and she jumps up and sits on the counter and takes the shrinking pill I’d given her. Anna looks down at me.

“If you mess with me or hurt me or whatever, I won’t forget it. I, fuck, I feel weird, I feel like I need to throw…”

And then Anna is shrunk down to 1/8th of an inch tall on the kitchen counter. I lean it to look at her. Her tiny body runs to the nearby open capsule, and she runs up the steps to hide inside. It clicks closed on its own, must be a newer model. I struggle to see through the clear tiny capsule, barely able to make out my miniscule ex-girlfriend hiding within. My cell phone bings, and I pull it from my pocket.

There’s a Facebook message from Anna. “Fuck this, fuck you. I’m a tiny speck. You fucking happy? Three Goddamned days?!”

“Now you know what you put me through. It’ll be over sooner than you know. Have fun. Work on that novel you’re always talking about.”

There was a pause in communication as Anna typed her furious response. “Haha, fantastic. I’m glad you’re loving this.”

Well, yeah, I kinda am. “Hey, Anna, I can’t just leave you on the kitchen counter. Where would you like me to put your capsule? Seriously. Do you want me to hide you somewhere?”

A minute later, I get a message back. “Sure, yeah, bring me to the dresser in the back bedroom. I’ll fucking hang out there for three days. Thanks, asshole.”

Man, she is fiesty. I grab a sheet of paper from my To-Do list pad and scoop it under Anna’s capsule. I carry her out of the kitchen to my (formerly our) bedroom and slide her down to the wooden surface of the dresser.

I get another message a couple seconds later. “Great. This is just great. Please just leave me alone.”

I message her back, “Okay. Good night.”

I have no desire to fuck with her. It’s late. I walk away and sleep on my bed, five feet from my 1/8th of inch ex-girlfriend.

I sleep soundly and wake in the morning. I don’t have work until noon, so I lazily shower and make a nice breakfast. There’s no further texts from Anna, so I assume she’s fine but though nonetheless pissed. I have no desire to put her through what her and her little sister did to me. Honestly, I was joking, I didn’t think she’d actually take the shrinking pill. She must really want my forgiveness and friendship again. That’s sweet, I suppose.

While finishing my breakfast, I hear a knock on the front door. I stand and walk to the entryway, and peering through the blinds I see Anna’s best friend Emily standing there. What the what? Emily and I are buds, kinda, but she’d never just show up like this. I open the door.

“Hey, man, what’s happening?” Emily sheepishly asks me. She’s a very beautiful woman, an inch or two taller than me, wearing a thin sundress and those light brown gladiator sandals I secretly love a lot, long unpainted toes stretching almost over the edges of her shoes.

“Emily, hey. Nothing much, just getting ready for work.”

“Oh yeah, cool, cool. I think I might have left some earrings here a while ago, I was wondering if I could come look for them.”

What? No. She hasn’t been here since Anna and I lived together. When Anna moved out and took all of her things, I did a deep clean of the apartment. There are no errant earrings anywhere, I’m pretty certain of that.

“Ah, I don’t think so. I haven’t seen them. I’ll let you know if I do.”

Emily grabs my shirt and pulls me onto the porch.

“Look, Anna sent me a message last night saying that you had shrunk her down, and if anything happens to her, it’s your fault. Knowing her and you, I don’t think you had shrunk her down against her will and were keeping her captive or whatever. It’s not that. I just know that Anna is 1/8th of an inch tall in this house, and I want to see her.”

Huh. Has Anna been live Tweeting this shit for Internet likes? If I were smaller than an ant again, I’d hate to have my buddies know that.

“Oh really, she told you that? Well, that might be true, but I don’t think she’s interested in any visitors at the moment. Sorry.”

“Bullshit. Just let me in. You don’t have to tell me where she is. Let me find her. I won’t hurt her, I just want to see her. Oh God, c’mon!”

Emily grabs my collar with one hand and wraps her other hand around me to the small of my back. Holy hell.

“Uh, yeah, um, sure, just don’t make a lot of noise or anything.”

Jesus, I’m weak.

Emily grins and lets go of me, pushing herself into the apartment. She looks all around the front room and into the kitchen, slowly moving her smiling face around the countertop.

She quietly mumbles, “Ummm, where would you hide her? This is so much fun.”

Emily exits the kitchen to the hallway and opens the bedroom door to the space where tiny Anna is actually staying. I think to grab her shoulder and say, “Nope, not in there,” but that would totally clue her in as to where she really was.

“Anna! Where you at, girl,” Emily softly mouths into the quiet, dark bedroom. Within seconds, my phones buzzes, a message from Anna.

“WTF WHY IS EMILY HERE?”

I respond with a lie. “She told me you messaged her last night asking to hang out today. You don’t want to see her?”

As Emily continues to stalk around the room, not seeing Anna in the small capsule resting against the side of a picture frame sitting on the dresser, I receive a response. “Fuck no, I don’t want to see anyone. I still don’t know why the fuck I agreed to this. Get her out of here, you fucking idiot.”

Well that was rude. Anna was just fine with her little sister and roommate playing with me when I was tiny.

I look over at Emily. “I can’t believe Anna would try to FRAME me for this. Why would she FRAME an innocent man like me. I wouldn’t FRAME her ever.”

Emily turns and looks at me with squinted eyes. She gets it. Her head turns again to the picture frame on the dresser. She runs over and lifts it up, studying it on all sides. After finding nothing, Emily glances back down and sees the capsule. She smiles and tosses the picture frame on the bed.

Her long index finger and thumb grasp the tiny pill and raise it to her face. Once at eye level, she says, “Oh my God, here you are! I can see you, tiny Anna!”

I stand in the threshold of the bedroom. Shit, I probably shouldn’t have let this happen, but, well, it’s happening.

“C’mon, come out, let me hold you, you know I’m not going to hurt you.”

Emily places the capsule on the palm of her other hand. She walks over to the bed and lays down on her belly, her face inches from my tiny ex-girlfriend. I stand motionless. What is happening is happening, I’m not about to stop it.

There’s a buzz from Emily’s purse. She pulls out her phone with her empty hand and reads what it says aloud. “”No fucking way. Please just put me back down and get out of here. I don’t want this, this isn’t fair to me.” Aw, I think she’s scared. Don’t be scared, little one! I just want to see you. Come out for one second and go back in. That’s it.”

Emily’s phone buzzes again a few seconds later. She reads the new text from Anna aloud. “”Not happening. Sorry, not sorry. Please just leave me alone, this is not funny.” Oh, Anna, that’s where you’re wrong. Maybe your little brain is too tiny to see how hilarious this is. Come out now. Or, you know, I’ll eat you.” Emily’s mouth opens wide. “I could toss your little pill right into my mouth and swallow you whole. I won’t chew down, of course, I don’t want to hurt you. But I’m sure you don’t want to spend any time moving through my insides. And then, when you have to come out of me...yikes!”

Now wait, we’re past the point of being playful with Anna. Emily’s phone vibrates once again, and she reads the message to me. “”Okay, okay, for fuck’s sake, don’t do that, I’ll come out. Please don’t mess with me. Have some pity, this isn’t a game. I’ll a fucking bug right now.” Sounds good. Let’s go, Anna. Come out now.”