At this point, it wasn't about the money or the fact that he was more qualified.

It was that it was just humiliating to take orders from a kid who was home from college for the summer.

Eric had been vaguely aware of Brianna when she had been a part-timer while she was in high school but since he mostly worked days, they had rarely interacted. She hadn't even been on his radar when Ken announced that they were looking for a new shift lead, probably because she had been taking her last final or doing shots in her dorm room. As far as he could tell, he was the only one who applied until he walked into the break room one morning and Brianna was there with a clipboard handing out assignments on her first day back.

The moment Ken had shown up to the store that day, Eric made a point of going up to him and asking what had happened.

Ken simply smiled down at him from over his big barrel chest and said something about how Brianna had always been a go-getter and she had a bright future ahead of her, even if it wasn't with their family (because Ken never called it a company). He had even explained that it was only for the summer, since the title bump would probably help her when she applied to more serious internships next year, and there was no reason that Eric couldn't take her place when she went back to school in the fall.

Then his already grinning lips twisted into a haughty smirk and he added, “Though she'll probably leave you pretty big shoes to fill.”

Ken's meaty hand then came down and patted him on the head while gently pushing him out of the larger man's path.

Eric had stood there, silently fuming while he ran his fingers through his now tousled hair, and bit his lip to keep from screaming in impotent rage.

Everything in his life always came down to the same thing: he was shrinking.

He hadn't had an attack in years but that didn't matter, he was short enough that he couldn't even pretend to be asymptomatic like he had for most of college. When he was in high school, he started shrinking as soon as his growth spurt hit. He entered sophomore year a hair below six feet and graduated high school over half a foot shorter.

When he had been applying to colleges, his guidance counselor had done their best to steer him away from schools that would find some reason to pass over him because he was shrinking. His GPA didn't matter, his extracurriculars didn't matter, his after-school job didn't matter. Even though they couldn't legally come out and say it, all schools really cared about was whether or not you were Immune. So suddenly his safety schools had become his best hopes and even they ended up passing over him.

Still, he had somehow managed to scrape by and get into a school, even if it was one with a reputation for being more for partying than anything else. After high school, where the Immune kids had constantly teased him about the fact that he might end up a smear on the bottom of their feet, it was the fresh start he needed.

And for three and a half years, seven whole semesters, Eric had been able to pretend he was just a short asymptomatic guy. No one questioned it, and he didn't keep any old photos on his social media, so there was no way that anyone could ever find out. Until he had shrunk again at the start of his last semester and dipped down below five feet.

He had expected to be teased and called shoe stain and all the other horrible things kids had done to him in high school. Instead though, he was met with pity because most of his friends were the people just like him; asymptomatic high achievers who couldn't get in anywhere else. The students that were just there to party and regularly chanted things like 'Ds Get Degrees' did chuckle when he passed but he wasn't small enough to be sucked down the tube of a beer bong so he was beneath their notice. The pity and indifference, Eric realized, had actually felt worse.

Or at least he had thought so until he ventured out into the real world.

No one cared about his resume when they saw him come in for the interview. Again, no one outright asked him but somehow they always wanted to go in a different direction or a better qualified candidate had suddenly applied. He eventually had no choice but to return to retail and hope he could at least work his way up.

It had been four years and while he knew he wasn't going to jump into an assistant manager position, Eric had been confident that being a shift lead was within the realm of possibility. Their store had high enough turnover that four years in, he was one of the longest employed floor workers and he had proven time and again that he could do his job despite his disability. He had never even been written up, despite enduring years of demeaning bullshit from customers and fellow employees alike that he had watched other shrinking workers lose it over.

But Brianna was Immune.

So even though she had only worked part-time for two years when she was a high school student, she was inherently more qualified than he was.

The worst part was that despite having the same schedule for years, Ken had a sudden need to 'shuffle things around' and Eric found himself working the exact same shifts as Brianna. He knew better than to ask Ken what was up, since he could easily imagine his six foot four boss simply leaning back in his chair, patting his immense stomach and saying something about how Eric should take the opportunity to 'learn' from Brianna. It wouldn't matter what Ken actually said though, Eric knew that his boss was just rubbing his face in the fact that he had given the promotion to a nineteen year old college girl.

Eric tried hard not to think about it all but it was late, the store was closed, and he wanted nothing more than to finish the cart full of go-backs he was pushing through the store and go home. Tomorrow was his day off and it'd be nice to simply not have to think about this place for a little over twenty four hours.

The squeak of sneakers against linoleum made him flinch.

“Oh, there you are,” Brianna said with the faintest hint of annoyance before she started walking down the aisle. Her shadow fell over him first and then he could feel her looming over him, a classic Ken maneuver that either he had told her to do or she had emulated entirely on her own. She wasn't a particularly tall woman but at his size, five foot six was a dominating height.

He slowly turned to face her, frowning as he found himself staring at her collarbone before he had to crane his neck back to meet her cool blue eyes. Brianna was a fairly plain girl with dirty blonde hair and a square jaw that helped to emphasize her stocky muscular build. She had played field hockey in high school and he wasn't surprised to learn that she had taken up rugby in college.

“I'm knocking off early, squirt,” she didn't even smirk or look him in the eye when she used the nickname, she simply set her clipboard in the cart and continued, “So I'm going to need you to handle the count before Ken locks up for the night.”

“What?” Eric shook his head in frustration, “I'm about to get off.”

“No,” she rolled her eyes and sighed like she was explaining herself to a stubborn child, “You were about to get off but now you're going to have to stay a little later and finish the count because I'm leaving early.”

“Counting the money is the manager's job,” Eric couldn't keep the exasperation from his voice, “You shouldn't be doing it in the first place!”

“I do the count because I take initiative and Ken recognizes that,” Brianna put her hands on her hips and leaned forward, staring down her nose at him, “Honestly, I'd expect someone in your position would want to impress me by going above and beyond.”

Eric couldn't help but stumble and cower back as she moved fully into his personal space. Indignation and frustration swirled inside of him as he realized that Ken was taking as much advantage of Brianna as he did anyone else, the big bastard was probably just sitting in his office watching dumb youtube videos while she did his job.

And now she was going to make him do it.

In his anger, Eric latched onto the last thing she said and spat out, “My position?”

“Yeah,” she started to tap her foot against the floor, “Ken told me that you were hoping to take my place after I go back to school, so you'd think you'd want me to think you were a hard worker so I'd put in a good word for you.”

He huffed but he bit his lip to keep himself from saying anything more.

Her tapping foot drew his gaze to the floor though, where he watched her dirty Air Force 1 smack down right beside his own sneaker over and over again. It was hard not to recognize just how much bigger her feet were than his and it made him unconsciously shuffle back until he bumped up against the shelves behind him.

Eric slowly lifted his gaze back up to her and as her blue eyes narrowed, he found himself asking, “W-was that it?”

“Well,” she leaned back and folded her arms in front of her chest, “If we're being honest, I would also think you'd want me to think of you as a little go-getter no matter what.”

He felt her foot settle on top of his, the toe of her Nike pressing down through his cheap sneakers. As the pressure built, Eric let out a faint whine of pain.

“I'd hate for you to get a reputation as some kind of slacker, Eric,” Brianna couldn't keep the laughter from her voice as she continued, “Those kinds of people end up getting thrown out with the rest of the trash.”

Her breasts pushed against his shoulders as she pressed up against him, the sheer weight of her frame enough to pin him against the shelving unit. His whole body shook and he couldn't help the whimper that escaped his lips as the scent of her washed over him; the tropical fruity blend of her soap, the floral scent of the lotion she used, and the faintest whiff of a powdery deodorant. Everything about Brianna in that moment was utterly overwhelming.

“You don't want to end up in the trash, right, Eric?” She chuckled as her fingers came down and rustled his hair, “Cause in this store we crush our trash in the compactor.”

She pushed down on his head and he yelped as he fell down to his knees.

“You don't want to be crushed, right?”

Eric blinked the tears from his eyes as he shook his head.

“My shoelace came undone,” Brianna pushed him down even lower.

He knew what she wanted him to do and the tears came freely down his cheeks as he watched his shaking hands go down and pick up the fraying laces of her sneakers. He tied the knot as quickly as his trembling fingers would allow and she laughed when he pulled it as tight as he could.

“See, I knew you had some drive,” she said with a laugh, “I'll keep that in mind in case your situation changes.”

The way she said 'situation' made his heart race even though she was already walking away.

He rubbed the tears from his face and he let the fear inside him turn to anger as he shouted, “Where are you even going?”

She laughed and looked over her shoulder at him, “I'm meeting some friends down at the Creek.”

Brianna walked off, shaking her head and muttering something to herself about 'stupid shrinkees', while Eric sat there and tried to process everything that had happened.

The fact that he was expected to do the manager's job because Brianna, who shouldn't have been doing it either, wanted to go party with other college kids washed over him quickly. That was a situation that was simply par for the course.

It was everything else that she had done that made him feel like a pit was opening up in his stomach. She hadn't been talking about becoming shift lead after she went back to school, she had clearly been talking about what would happen if he shrank down while working. The fact that he had been switched to only work shifts when she did made his heart race because he suddenly realized that she was always keeping a close eye on him when he worked. For weeks, he had assumed it was simply part of Ken's plan to humiliate him, that he had told her he was a troublemaker or something and she was simply doing what she thought was her job.

Now though, he knew what was really going on.

She was hoping he would shrink at work and if he did, she'd take him.

And clearly Ken had given some kind of approval for the plan.

The worst part was that he knew there was no way to prove it.

Just like there would be no way to prove that Brianna had essentially just assaulted him and forced him to tie her shoe. Countless times over the years, employees and customers his size or smaller had been told that the cameras 'glitched out' whenever an incident like this occurred. The Immune were free to do as they wanted in the store up to and including calling 'dibs' on people who might shrink down while at work.

The worst part of it was that Eric needed the job.

He had rent and bills to pay.

So he forced himself to get back up and get back to restocking the cart of go-backs he had in front of him because once he finished that, he'd have to count the money before he would be allowed to go home for the night.