Chris, 4:07 PM

Heather's maw towers above you monstrously, leaving you without words. She shrugs it off and continues happily munching away, none the wiser. Even being in this position herself for a few days, you figure it's hard to see how intimidating every action can be when you're making them. Eventually, you snap out of the stupor, booming footfalls shaking your attention free.

You swivel your head to the side, watching from what seems like miles away as the chubby barista from earlier cleans a nearby tabletop, brushing off the table with powerful strokes before spraying it down and wiping away the crumbs in a flurry of blue and purple chemicals. Like everything else you’ve run into at this size, even a mundane task like cleaning can be incredibly intimidating.

She’s wearing what you can only assume is the standard for employees at this location. A cheesy green getup with a flimsy apron. The company's logo is plastered front and center, of course. It's precisely what you’d expect from a coffee shop. She repeats the same motions over and over, looking zoned out. She's probably counting down the minutes to the end of the shift. You can't really blame her either; jobs like this can be soul-sucking. However, you notice a wire hanging from one ear, traveling her body's length back down into her pocket. Listening to music at work? You wish your boss had let you do that when you were lifeguarding last summer.

Hearing a loud crunch, you turn back to Heather, looking above as she tears off a chunk of her cookie, placing it down in front of you. She sets the cookie's wrapper down, almost like a makeshift plate. Except, this plate dwarfs you. Though that isn't really a surprise. Most things make you look puny in comparison.

You're appreciative, although you find it rather comical how unaware Heather is of the etiquette, making a mess of crumbs for this random girl to clean up. You try to break a piece off, but fail to accomplish even that small task. Heather laughs, and you sink your head in shame.

“Oh my god, that’s adorable!” She says softly, covering her cookie-filled mouth with a hand as she giggles. Adorable? You sigh. That’s the last thing you wanted a cute girl calling you. Still, it's better than some of the alternatives, at the very least. You can think of a few that roll right off the tongue, bug, mite, ant. All the familiar names you hear on some of the not-so-safe sections of the internet that appear with varying frequency in your computer's search bar. But she hadn't resorted to any of them.

It brings you back to a train of thought you had earlier. Heather really wasn't all that terrible. Alexis had built her up as an evil force, the unchallenged queen of mean. Maybe the two had gotten off on the wrong foot? You figure it's pretty challenging to live with anyone, let alone a girl as fussy as Heather. Once everything is back to normal, a chat about the state of things could be nice. Perhaps these two can reach some common ground if you give them a slight push.

You notice the barista switch to mopping, grabbing it from a bucket she'd previously prepared. Powerful splotching noises sound more like claps of thunder echoing across the floor. The tendrils look like beasts, ready to drag you underneath their weight. You're thankful to be up here and out of harm's way.

Heather looks as you try to nibble on a piece of cookie, smiling in a downright infectious way. You smile back, a warm fuzzy feeling growing deep inside. The coffee shop seemed like a stupid risk, but it was worth the moment.

ThoomThoomThoom

You whirl around to see a wall of green rushing towards you. Turbulence threatens to blow you over as the employee lets her body fall on the booth seat opposite Heather. You can feel the pent-up exhaustion in the resulting vibrations. She sinks into the cushioning the seating provides, leaving a faint indent that looks deep enough to traverse.

"Wow, I'm half dead right now. My arms are killing me!" You hear her boom, stretching her arms high into the air with a loud groan. Everything stops for this exhausted barista, all of your attention momentarily ripped away by this absolutely colossal woman.

She eyes the smooth surface you’re standing on, looking right past you with intentions that aren't entirely clear. "Oh, you got crumbs all over. Here, let me help." You see the barista lean forward, the cute bun of her hair bouncing as her whole body moves. A hand reaches out, dooming you. A wall of skin comes rushing forwards with little warning, a sea of crumbs caught beneath its weight. You scream out, startled as it rapidly approaches. You think fast, quickly grabbing onto her finger, getting a loose grip on a light-colored hair.

Your legs flail above the rapidly shifting ground, doing everything possible to keep your already failing grasp somewhat steady. Debris piles up in a cluster, only to be hurled off the edge. You dangle above the vast expanse, having avoided what may have been a painful fall. Not even able to finish breathing your initial sigh of relief, the hand rockets downward towards the brunette's lap, smacking harshly into the material of her black office pants. The fabric is relatively thick, but her thighs are pressed remarkably tightly against it, giving it the illusion of being thinner than it is.

"There you go! Much better!" She remarks cheerily.

"H-how?" You remark shakily, patting your body down for any signs of injuries. No way that just happened. But it did, and now you'll have to deal with the consequences. Her hand shifts dangerously nearby, on what can only be her leg. 

Despite the material blocking direct skin-to-skin contact, the entire floor is warm. You bet she worked up a sweat cleaning the cafe just now. There aren't any unpleasant smells, though. In fact, all you can really smell are coffee grinds. It's practically baked into this girl’s pants. Still, that hand has you worried. At any second, she could move and absolutely pulverize you. Hell, she could do it with her legs alone if she really wanted to. And to make matters worse, you can’t seem to find a good way out of this situation.

The hand that brought you here sits to your right, blocking any hope of a safe descent. And on your left side… your eyes careen off the flank of her thigh, a dark claustrophobic pit stretching outward. That route is also a clear no-go. You shudder to think what might happen if you fell. Would you even last a couple of minutes before being swept under these pillars of muscle and skin? Probably not.

So, it seems you’re left with an equally terrible option. Waiting. You try to stay balanced on the sloping surface, keeping a watchful eye on it as she taps her fingers back and forth along her leg, drumming them to an invisible rhythm.

You nearly scream as you lose sight of Chris, swallowing the rest of your cookie with an audible gulp; your eyes expand farther than you thought they could. Caroline picks up on it immediately, raising an eyebrow in response. 

"I don't look that awful, do I?" She asks jokingly. "Or do I smell?" She cracks a smile at that one.

You find yourself scrambling for an excuse, trying to rack your brain for a logical way to get out of this. Was Chris even okay? It's impossible to know without a close inspection of the table. You stare at the significantly cleaner tabletop in a panic before looking up at her and spouting the first thing that pops into your head, "Oh, you scared me!" You force out a laugh, which she seems to buy for the time being.

"My bad! Sorry, I just needed to sit for a minute. Also wanted to see how you were. Haven't had a chance to actually sit down and chat in a couple weeks. You know, girl to girl!" She says with an upbeat candor.

"Of course you pick today of all days, Caroline!" You think to yourself, anger and anxiety building up as you fail to find Chris anywhere on the table. You're about ready to cry, but you hold back the waterworks. Not only would she find that weird, but if she got up too suddenly, who knows what that would mean for Chris. For all you know, he's on the seat with her. Or worse, somewhere on her body.

"So, what's new? Tell me! I got almost an hour to close up shop, and I have almost everything done already!" She’s clearly happy about that fact. You, however, are much less thrilled. But, you put on your big girl pants and tough it out. You needed to play this cool.

"That's great! Bet it'll feel so good to get home!" You say, taking a shaky sip from your coffee. Nerves are really getting the best of you right now. If something happened to him… 

You try not to go there. Probably best not to think that far ahead.

Caroline cocks her head in confusion. “You sure you’re alright?” She asks, somewhat concerned. “You don’t have a fever, do you?” She jokes, starting to lean forward in a mock gesture of checking your temperature. Seeing her learn forward shifts you into a different gear entirely.

“No!” You shout before pulling back, “I mean, I’m totally fine!” You try to laugh it off, but the sudden outburst causes her to sit back, even more perplexed than before.

“Alright, if you say so.” She shrugs, leaning back into the cushion of the booth.

You listen to her and Heather chat for a few minutes. She seems like someone you’d get along with if the situation weren’t so bleak. However, no offense to this beautiful lady, but new friends are low on your list of priorities.

Suddenly everything is thrown into chaos as the two voices continue to boom above you. There’s a commotion that sends you tumbling off the side. Nonononono, you panic. But there’s nothing you can do. Powerless against more significant forces, a slight shift in the girl's posture sends you tumbling off the side and into the deep dark spot between her two thighs. You let out a scream neither seen nor heard by either of the girls, flopping onto the seat cushion below.

It hurts like a belly flop into the pool. Not too bad, but it stings for sure. You groan, your whole body stinging from the impact. Hastily pushing yourself up to stand on your own two legs, you stop dead, getting a glimpse of the two magnificent pillars, shocked into silence. Seams cross and curve around the shape of the barista’s body, meeting at one focal point. “Whoa…” An exclamation of surprise is all you can muster in response. It’s almost as if you fell into another world.

The seat shifts as the barista does, each casual movement creating loud creaks of the material beneath her. You watch the same terrain mold to the will of her thighs, entire landscapes shifting underneath this overworked coffee shop worker. You aren’t religious, but this would be an excellent time to pray if you were. 

She starts to fidget, her legs bouncing up and down as she taps a restless foot. Each tap against the ground rocks you with vibrations, her thighs wiggling in tandem. All the while, you’re completely useless. Trapped between a stranger's thighs, there’s really no option besides waiting and hoping. All it would take to end your life is a twitch in the wrong direction, those mighty titans on either side of you just waiting to steamroll over your fragile body.

You sit down, relegating yourself to absolute uselessness. There isn’t anything you can do right now that would make a difference. No sooner do you come to that conclusion than the thighs that make up your backdrop decide to leave. You can see the muscular wall hidden behind fabric flex and mold to the barista’s will as she lifts up and shimmies out of the booth. You breathe a sigh of relief, thankful she hadn’t decided to scoot instead.

             “I should probably get back to it. Still need to clean the grinders in the back.” Caroline says, punctuating her sentence with a lazy yawn. It's a challenge, but you do your best to hide the relief. Those few minutes of casual banter felt like an eternity, Chris at the forefront of your mind the entire time.

              “Glad we could catch up!” You say, faking a smile.

              “Same! I’ll see you around.” She says, getting up and throwing a half-wave over her shoulder as she heads to the back. She pushes open a door, and as soon as she’s through, you jump up, scouring the table one last time.

               “Nothing. Shit!” You curse, biting a lip nervously. Where else could he be? The floor! You panic, checking the shoes you’d borrowed in a tizzy. But they’re entirely clean to your relief, save for some dirt. Taking glances over at the employee's only door, you confirm Caroline is indeed out of sight before standing up and inspecting the spot she’d only just been sitting. There’s a light indent, and inside it, one bug-sized boy.