“BRO. WHAT. THE. FUCK.” says Dave sounding shocked and a little annoyed as well too in his tone, seemingly sounding as if him being shrunk was like accidently knocking over a glass of juice off of the table, and not some sort of life changing event. Dave’s a guy that I met literally a few minutes ago when he walked by, a mere stranger commenting on our conversation about how great the Southern California weather is this time of year compared to our respective states of Michigan and my Georgia. Him saying something about how Northern California is so much better compared to Southern California, seemingly joking around a bit. Tony invites him over to hangout with us for a bit, Tony is a pretty extroverted guy compared to me.

I look at my surroundings, us three standing in a sand hill, this whole area of the beach looks as huge as the other people in the background far in front of us look like giants and giantesses running around and laughing and taking pictures and all types of just general life going on. Although it seems like no one has noticed us shrinking, although we are a bit far from everyone else plus the fact that everyone seems so caught up in their phones or with their conversation or whatever else they’re doing to notice that we’ve shrunk. I worry a little bit about the seagulls swooping down and getting us, but luckily none haven’t yet at the moment. All of us are about a inch tall, if I had to guess. I feel a bit shorter than how I was nearly 19 years ago, during that whole saga. I notice the looks on the faces of Dave and Tony. Dave seems pretty annoyed judging by his facial expression, Tony seems to be somewhat shocked, but more as if he accidentally burned his hand under hot water, trying to test if it was hot or still lukewarm. These reactions I see on their faces make me wonder if this is something that isn’t all that shocking to them. 

“So uh, wow. This is uh, new” Tony says, scratching his beard a little. He kicks the sand around a little, playing with it.

“You’re tellin’ me” I say, I feel an awkward vibe between the three of us as soon as I finish what I say. As if someone really wants to say something but doesn’t really know how to say it. I get that vibe really heavy right now.

It’s really silent between the three of us for about a few minutes, us standing and looking at each other dumbfounded a little bit. Nothing but the sounds of the squawks of the seagulls in the air flying around and that mixed in with the sounds of the waves crashing in the nearby shore, and the sounds of people talking and laughing in the background, I hear some dude and his seemingly college aged group of  friends seemingly start up a speaker, playing “Celebration” by Post Malone, a rap song from these past few years that happened to catch my attention whenever it was big. Although the sound quality of this portable speaker is pretty shitty and bass boosted to all hell and skips a lot. 

“Does anyone have anything to say about the situation we’re currently in” Dave says, and I notice it turns a little bit into a Mexican standoff. 

“Fine, I’ll admit it. Since I guess this isn’t all that weird of a situation for me.  I’ve been shrunk before, if anything I was born this way. How I became a normal sized person is a story for another” Tony says, sounding pretty tense in his delivery of what he’s saying. 

“Yeah, similar situation happened to me back in my junior year of high school. About twelvish years ago” Says Dave, looking relieved as soon as he says it, taking a huge relaxing sigh after doing so. 

Tony and Dave both look at me, seemingly waiting for what I’m going to say next. I smile, and I begin to say something, but I stop myself. Even though they’ve been through the same things I have, even though in Tony’s case I wasn’t born that small or whatever. I don’t really know what their motives could be, or if this could be some type of F.B.I. trap to get me tested on or whatever. I know that last part sounds kinda paranoid, but I’ve only known these guys for roughly a couple of hours for Tony’s case, and Dave for only about a few minutes. So they could keep each other’s secrets, and then they could grow big and I’ll be small and they’d send me to the government or whatever, I know that’s a big what if but I’m honestly a little skeptical now. 

“We’re waiting” Tony says, playfully tapping his foot on the sand as if he was waiting for real. I was deep in thought and when he says this he snaps me out of it.

“Okay. (I hesitate for a little). Yes. I’ve been shrunk before. This was literally 19 years ago for about, two weeks. I was visiting Europe the summer after graduating high school, I wasn’t ever shrunk on American Soil or anything like that” I say.

“ “Shrunk on American Soil” We’re not cops dude (he chuckles a little ).I don’t know why you were so nervous to admit it. We’d all been through it. Us three and Jack Cooper. Although I’m sure everyone else who took those weird pills back in 2007, felt like they did. All those weird side effects and stuff, but nothing like us” Tony, chuckling a little before saying what he says. 

“I thought me and Jack Cooper was the only people on earth who’d been shrunk. That’s why I was so hesitant to admit I had with you guys since I thought no-one else on earth had ever done it, and with us meeting in Big Bear and everything it kinda felt like a setup with how all of this came to be. Even though it was like, 19 years ago this summer I still think about it from time to time. Even if I don’t think the government knows what went down way back then” I say, starting to relax a little bit. But still keeping my guard up in case I’m proven right. 

“Yeah, weirdest episode of X-Files this would be huh? So, I know I shrunk in the womb at some point before my birth due to some genetic thing, I think. I’ve never gotten really the full explanation how, my parents whenever it was mentioned just said stuff about God or whatever. So I really don’t know. What about you guys” Tony says.

“I honestly don’t remember, it’s been so long. It was around new years and it happened at random I feel. I think I woke up, and boom. There I am, shrunk in a chick’s room” Dave says, pushing his hair a little.

“Sounds like a dream situation for a 17 year old” says Tony.

“I guess so” Dave says.

“I think I ate some grass or something like that when I first landed in England as a stupid attempt to make a friend laugh, that’s what caused mine”  I say.

‘Bet you regretted that one” Dave says.

“Eh, as weird and crazy and hectic those two weeks in Europe were. I’m kinda nostalgic about it to be honest with you, since the time has really gone by and that feeling of being a bit more carefree and all I think about a bit more and it feeling like adventure. The summer of 2004. I remember when I got back from Europe my girlfriend and another friend at the time noticed that I was a bit quieter and more, stoic I guess you could say. I remember I started exercising a bit more to get my mind off the events of everything that happened in Europe, this was not too long before I left for college, sometime in August. I got a gym membership and everything, dropped a dumbbell on my foot not watching what I was doing, broke it. That made me realize that all the side effects of shrinking was gone, lack of injuring yourself and everything” I say, and then us three look behind us, noticing the college kids seemingly running and laughing towards us, and we start to run as well too, to avoid being stepped on.

Dave, Tony and I start running, and probably the fastest I probably ever have during my adult years. I notice Dave seems to be in the best shape out of all of us, although he has an age advantage with him being thirty and in really good shape it seems. Tony is behind me but he seemingly is keeping up pretty well too.

“HOLY SHIT WADE” I hear a booming female voice behind us and their laughter booming as well too, I don’t look back still.

We run a bit farther, and then we look back. The group of people, guys toned with their tan  and their swimming shorts. And the girls with their bikinis and their hairs flying around in the wind or tied into a ponytail. The portable speaker they’ve got with them is playing “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X as they bring it with them. The last huge song before the Pandemic hit that I can remember.

“Look, there’s a volleyball net right over there” Says a guy, beach blond hair and blue eyes and seemingly with abs and everything. You can tell he's probably about 23 or 24. He’s got a volleyball in his hand as well, although it looks pretty ragged and barely in shape to use. And he drops it on the ground and it rolls a little bit towards us, the dusty sand from the collision blowing back on us, knocking me back a little on the ground, but I get back up pretty quickly.

Dave, Tony, and I look at where we’re standing, and realize that the net that they’re talking about is still pretty close, and we run a little bit farther. I realize that we probably look like bugs at the size we are compared to them. So the thought of them realizing us and seeing us doesn’t really register as a possibility in my mind. 

We get far enough from the group, them seemingly setting up their lawn chairs and beach towels, and them laughing and talking and joking. Two Girls, Two Guys. I notice that one of their beach towels has the USC Trojans logo on it, probably the respective college of the group. 

“Alright, so who wants to start us off” One girl says, she’s in a gray bikini and a little bit sun tanned and has her jet black hair in a bun. She’s got a little bit of a husky voice. She’s got a decent figure, nice tits, and bit of an ass. A slight tummy, but seemingly more or the average size than anything else. I try not to let my thoughts wander too long, since I’m a married man and besides, this chick is 10+ years younger than me for sure. She’s probably 19 or 20 if I had to guess. 

“I might, after I go grab the White Claws from the back of the car” Says another guy, an Asian dude. He’s more of an average body type, not as ripped as the other guy I noticed. He sounds pretty Americanized, as if he’s grown up here and might be 2nd or third generation of whatever nationality he might be descended from.

“They’re probably lukewarm from being in the car from the drive from Irvine to up here, I think all the ice is gone” Says the blond guy.

“Alcohol is Alcohol, homie” He says, Blonde guy tosses him the keys to unlock the trunk as he begins to trot off to the car and more towards the crowd of people to get to the parking lot  . I think he was the guy who was holding the speaker earlier. 

The blond guy and husky voice girl and another girl who hasn’t really spoke yet laugh at what he says. 

“I bet it wouldn’t be that lukewarm if we didn’t have to go all the way to OC to pick up Kyla '' says the girl who hasn’t spoken yet. She’s a redheaded chick with a few freckles scattered around her legs and a little bit on her chest and torso, looks about 21 or 22 I’d say. She’s wearing shades and seems a little bit on the taller side for a chick, I’d guess 5’10 or 5’11. Because she looks even taller than Kyla, I wouldn’t be surprised if she played Volleyball for her school. She really towers over us for sure. I notice she has a silver navel piercing, the light from the sun’s reflection from her piercing coming not too far near us.

“Whatever, Michelle. At least I made it into UCI pretty easily, you had to get tutoring and everything your freshman year to keep going to USC. You barely made the requirements to even have a chance of getting accepted” Kyla says, with a bit of a mean looking smile. I notice she has retainers in, noticing the plastic gleam of her teeth.

“Let’s not start this right now girls, please” Says the blonde guy, annoyed. I notice he moves his Dogtag a little. You can hear the jangling sound of it as he moves it through the metal necklace.

“We’re just joking around Wade. Besides, it’s not like you and Jerry don’t do the same type of ribbing back in L.A.” Says Michelle, moving her hair out of her face from the wind that started blowing a little.

“Well I’ve known Jerry since like, 4th grade I mean we’re the only ones Socal Born and raised, besides Jeff out there getting the White Claws. Only reason Jerry didn’t come is because he wasn’t feeling too good, getting something about his sinuses he said.Plus he’s single and everything and he didn’t wanna feel like he was third wheeling us. Me and Jerry have history together, been friends for well over a decade. You girls have only known each other for a few months.  Let the relationship grow a bit and understand each other and stuff like that to be joking” Wade says, seeming putting a bit more bass in his voice when saying this. I notice Tony chuckles a little when he does this, us two watching these college kids’s interactions. I notice Dave seems to be looking at his phone, and checking all of his features to see if it still works. 

“You’re always acting like you’re so much more mature than us even though you’re only 24”says Kyla, her and Michelle laugh at this.

“Hey, you change a lot from 19 to 24. Final Semester of College and I feel like a whole different person than I did when I started. You can laugh, but it’s facts” He says, and I notice Jeff getting closer in the distance with the box of White Claws.

“Whatever, Old Man”  Kyla says with a playful smile.

“Back with the White Claws!” Says Jeff, sounding pretty pumped up, about ten steps away from the group.

“Hell yeah, let’s start up a game of Volleyball!” Kyla says, skipping around a little bit.

“I don’t why you’re so excited, it’s not you can legally drink yet anyways. You don’t even turn 19 until like what, June? Jeff just turned 21 last December anyways. You’re the only one who can’t legally drink yet” Says Wade, as he walks over to pick the volleyball up, which landed not too far from us.

Wade sprints over a little bit to grab the ball, and a little bit of sweat from his face gets onto us when reaching down to grab the ball, and it grosses us out, and you can smell the mix of sunscreen and aftershave mixed in it as well. I think he notices us down here for a second, but he must have dismissed us as bugs or something, judging by the fact that he doesn't really react or do much besides look at us.

The group seemingly gets ready to play pinball, although Jeff and Kyla seemingly just chill on one of the blankets, seemingly talking a bit. Jeff jokingly singing along to the song playing on the speaker, seemingly annoying Tony I notice, saying it’s the same type of shit that his kids listen to.

“I took the WOOOOOCKK. To Poland” Jeff says, and Kyla finds it a little funny. Although Wade and Michelle seem pretty intense into the game of volleyball,  both of them taking good shots and really putting their all into the game. 

“Let’s switch sides” says Wade, you can tell he’s been playing pretty hard with all the sweat on him and how it looks like he’s been sweating a little bit hard as well, his face looks pretty red.

Wade’s on our side, and they pause the game to switch sides, Wade going more towards the other side closer towards the rest of the lake beach area and where pretty much most people are and Michelle goes to our side where the beach starts to get more towards the end, we get a pretty good view of her back, ass and her thighs and legs, you can see the sweat especially gleaming on her lower back, and it’s freckled glory and all.

“She’s a redheaded beauty, I’ll say that much” says Dave, says, seemingly looking up from his phone for the first time during this whole Volleyball match.

“Really? On your Honeymoon” I jokingly say,

“Hey, you can still be married and still appreciate female beauty” he says, without missing a beat.

I notice that her and Wade play even harder now that the sides have switched, Michelle’s stomps and landings really making the ground beneath us shake a little, you can tell she’s really the athletic type, her and Wade. 

Wade does a pretty hard serve and sends Michelle running and diving onto us, and it all happens before all of us can even really react, although I notice that Dave puts his phone right back into his pocket before she started running, which is pretty much perfect timing on his part.

It’s a mix of sand, air and skin during this moment of time that I can feel and tell in the mix, all I see is pretty much just all corrupted by sand. I notice that none of us scream during this commotion, since I’m assuming that we all learned in our time being shrunk, reactions like that can get you caught in a situation like this. 

“Damn Girl, you landed pretty hard” I hear Wade's voice from distance, it’s dark, and sandy. I know we’re not in any crevices or anything like that. But I can feel the weight of Michelle’s body on us.

“I mean you fucking Missle-ed the ball, Wade. Goddamn, don’t do it that hard next time” She says, her voice sounding Muffled but also close.

“Yeah my bad babe” Wade says, his voice goes from muffled to pretty clear as Michelle gets up, and I notice that us three ended up right on her upper stomach,  among the sand as well. Us kinda sticking to it a bit with the mix of the sand and I guess the static cling of it all. Her navel piercing not too far below us and you can kinda hear the flutter of her heartbeat a little bit above us as well. Seemingly beating pretty fast I can tell due to all this activity that’s been going on. 

“Wanna White Claw to cool down with?” Says Kyla, as she breaks open the variety pack box, grabbing a raspberry one to drink, she opens it with a crisp sounding break of the tab, before starting to chug it. You can hear her burp a little bit as she continues to chug, seemingly the carbonation setting off her stomach a little as it lands in there.

I notice Wade opens his mouth to begin to say something, and then closes it and just starts walking a little bit into the distance.

“Yeah, I could use a hard seltzer. As we all know they TOTALLY replenish your electrolytes after a hard play” She says, joking around a little. She walks a bit more towards Kyla and Jeff, Jeff seemingly more focused on his phone. You can hear the noises of whatever he’s watching, sounds like a public freakout judging by the dialog. Seemingly having it connected still to the Speaker Via Bluetooth judging by the logo visible on the speaker.  Some road rage incident that’s a yelling match between some middle aged midwestern guy and some teenage kid.  A little bit of sand falls as she walks, although I think the sweat is what’s keeping us on her stomach.

Michelle walks over and Kyla asks her what flavor she wants, Michelle says Black Cherry. And Kyla reaches over into the box to grab her one, Michelle bending down a little bit when Kyla hands her one while still sitting on the Towel, making us slide a little but not off of her stomach,  right onto the middle of it, not too far from her navel.

Michelle leans back up, and I see her left hand reach out to break the tab of the Hard Seltzer, and crack it open.

“Hey, I think there’s something on your stomach” Jeff says, looking up from his phone. The sound of the tab of the can opening seemingly snapping him out of his trance of watching the video on his phone.

I notice that Michelle looks down, and notices us, and brushes us off somewhat softly, and it happens so quickly and we land in her can of White Claw. Splashing down a little on impact.

“I really hope she isn’t going to do what I think she’s about to do” Dave says.

“Let’s hope that she pours it out and gets another one, if she did see us” Tony says, splashing around a little, trying to get himself stable in the can. It overwhelmingly smells like metal, Black Cherry flavoring , and alcohol in here.  I notice their voices seemingly reflect off of the inside of the can, and it’s pretty dark in here besides the lighting from the opening shining in.

“I think those were bugs on your stomach that went in there” I can hear Jeff say on the outside, half muffled and half clear from the opening. 

“Eh, oh well. Extra protein I guess” She says. I notice Dave makes a disgusted sound that could be audible enough for Michelle to hear but me and Tony quickly put our hands over his mouth to muffle him. And he quickly does stop himself, I’ll give him credit for. 

“You’re so gross, Michelle” says Wade, a little in the background. 

She lifts up the can, and begins to sip it as we go closer and closer towards her open mouth.

She stops for a second, and then says, turning her head a little I notice, she also still has sand and stuff on her neck and everything I can tell.

“Wouldn’t wanna waste a whole can of White Claw” she says, as she turns her head back and begins to drink again. 

As we start to get closer toward her mouth and as we slowly get toward it, I realize that a trip to her stomach is imminent. I start to accept my fate, and I’m sure the others have similar thoughts in mind. I’m sure we’ll survive though, hopefully if things go how they did in the past. 

We shall see.