Chatty picked up one of the normal spoons. And Bratty innocently chose Will, balancing his ankles delicately between her forefinger and thumb, before tilting him head down into the rim of her cup. An instant later he almost entirely vanished into her cup, with just his ankles caught in her grip. She twirled him a couple of times, before taking him out again and placing him neatly beside her cup. Amazing; she thought he was just a spoon, you realized in shock. And they all thought you were just a spoon as well.

Now you were the last ‘spoon’ left for Courtney. She reached over and unthinkingly picked you up around the waist. Her huge thumb placed itself right on your groin, using it as a fulcrum to angle and manoeuvrer you about, which felt sensitive and strange, like her thumb was manipulating your groin like a joystick.

She thoughtlessly dipped you face down into the sugar jar, where your head dug into the silky granules up to your neck. She scooped your head about the sugar, piling granules onto your face. Once your face was completely covered in a pinch of sugar, you felt yourself being lifted through the air and brought over her hot coffee. The hot steam tickled your scalp. Then you dropped headfirst to deposit your sugar load into the drink. Very hot liquid climbed all over, melting the sugar off your face. Hot coffee swept into your mouth and eyes. This was uncomfortable but didn’t hurt, since you were immune from extreme temperature.

Meanwhile, your head was turned around and around, to stir the drink, and making you a little dizzy. Once again Courtney’s thumb used your groin as an axis to lever you about, accidentally grinding your member, and keeping you obediently stiff at her commanding touch. You were finally lifted out of the drink, and your head was tapped on the cup’s rim to shake you off. Then you were laid face up on a coaster, adjacent Courtney’s cup, which radiated warmth. Her cup alone dwarfed you quite a bit, making you feel very small by comparison. All of the gigantic objects on the table, cups, sugar bowl, water jug, scaled over you tremendously, serving unavoidable reminders how tiny and slender you were. You were one of the smallest objects on the table.

Now lying next to Courtney’s hand, which rested on the table, you had a direct view up her gigantic face and shoulders. And painfully closer, the undersides of her breasts, straining her light top slightly. They suspended over you like chandeliers, even swinging a tiny bit as she leaned forward to pour some water. They had to be the biggest, ripest pair of fruit you’d ever seen.

Every so often she took the cup and lifted to drink, causing the bottom of the cup to eclipse her face. You were forced to watch her drink since you couldn’t look around, which wasn’t so bad since you couldn’t deny; she was captivating.

“All right, girls,” Jake said suddenly, “I guess you want to explain to Courtney this theory of yours.”

“What do you mean?” Courtney said. She straightened a little in her seat.

“The girls have some information. And I have some questions myself.”

“Kayla does,” Bratty said quickly, referring to Chatty, the hair-flipper.

The cup stopped short of Courtney's lips and she put it down and cleared her throat.

“Information?”

Jake added:

“They told me you might like to hear it, Court. It’s something, apparently.”

Without a pause, Kayla started:

“I don’t know what exactly happened. But I think it’s all related. Like, you ever hear about Dylan Madden and Santiago Cruz? They vanished the exact same way.”

“The ‘Lost Boys’,” Courtney said slowly, narrowing her eyes ”Those guys all over the news, some time back?"

“Yeah. So, what I know is, Fountain Park is a massive hot zone for these freaky sightings and events. It’s a known area of craziness for people who are into in these types of mysteries.”

“The ‘Lost Boys’ aren’t ‘Lost’ anymore,” said Jake. That Madden kid? I thought they found him. And Santiago, I don’t know if he went ‘missing’. I think he faked his own death, but it failed.”

“How would you know for sure?” Courtney said earnestly.

“Everyone thought he was long gone into the high country,” Jake offered. “And then it turned out he wasn’t.”

“How do you explain the coincidences?” Kayla jumped in. “The ten year gaps.”

Jake shrugged.

“Some kind of disorder that makes them age more slowly. Rare, but it happens. And the opposite can happen, too—”

“They were totally healthy before and even the doctors didn’t know—”

Courtney leaned forward, appraising everyone anew, even Jake, as if just realizing the conversation she was in.

“What are you saying?”

“It happened again!” Kayla and Bratty said at the same time. “Jinx!”

“What? No one knows what happened. They don’t know.”

Kayla clasped her hands together and said sagely:

“They were abducted.”

Jake looked over at Bratty, who quickly hid behind her phone again.

“When you said your friend had a ‘deep’ theory, I thought you meant thought-provoking, not… cr—”

“You think it's crazy?” Bratty glowered. “-or crap?”

“I think it's cryptic.”

“Can’t blame them for wondering,” Courtney said quietly. “Not really as if the authorities gave us anything to go on. Is something crazy really less plausible than nothing at all?”

“We’re not crazy,” Bratty said, sounding in tiny part mortified as if it only just hit her how crazy they sounded. “I mean, she’s not. Neither am I. But her especially.”

She glowered into her tea. Then she took Will and plunged his head into the drink and stirred him madly.

Kayla smiled through fluttering eyelashes at Jake.

“It is kind of crazy. I mean you don’t even know the half of it.” She flipped her hair.

“Yes?” Courtney said.

“Oh. I did some digging. You know there's a big pattern? There is. It's happened over and over. Guys go missing in the park at night, then they show up again after ten years, and either they have amnesia – they don’t remember what happened in the last ten years – or they won’t say anything at all. And then they do talk, and it’s always about the  being taken by something. Something that's not human.  And when doctors test them they say they are ten years younger than their actual age. Like they literally disappeared all that time. Right?”

“Right,” Jake said, glancing at Courtney again, but she was looking at Kayla somewhat unguardedly, looking like she was about to get her palm read. Jake looked back at  Kayla:

“Have you done any more digging on those guys? Maybe if you tried following them up, some of the mysteries clear up all by themselves. Who knows…well, technically, no one. No one knows.”

Bratty rolled her eyes.

“Great idea, Jacob, but Dylan's in prison."

Kayla sighed, adding: “And Santiago either moved country or changed his name or went underground or something.”

“One interesting group of people you’ve rounded up for sources,” said Jake. “But I wouldn’t put Will and Fuzz into that category at all. They were nice, ordinary kids. They weren't wanted felons or conspiracy theorists,. They were like us." he reassured Kayla, "Or, like we were back then.”

“Yeah right!" Bratty gave a displeasured snort. When you next looked around, Will’s head was stuffed in her mouth. She pulled him out to blurt out:

“Anyway, this is three different guys who were all unaccountable for ten years, and then magically they’re back, and they all said the same thing. They said they were taken by something. And then you have other people who claim they’ve seen UFOs in the sky and weird things happen, and it’s all in this one park. You don’t think, maybe, it’s connected to what happened to Billy and Fuzzy? Besides,” she added, “it basically happened to her, too, so if you think it’s crazy, then I guess you think she’s crazy too.”

“You saw an alien?” Courtney stared at Kayla, startled.

“The ‘Lost Boys’ weren’t the first ones,” she replied, and explained:

“Everyone in my family said my uncle, Shane, went on the down low for twelve years, and a mental breakdown made him forget ten years of his life, or something. My aunt said he was faking it though. But he told stories about being followed by something before he went missing, and not a person. Or he said,it was like some things that wore clothes - but not shoes - but he said they weren't people. And then someone talked to him - he said they talked characters in a scratched rental DVD that's been watched a hundred times. Yeah, totes creepy, super weird.." She frowned. "And can't believe people rented DVDs in his time. Anyway apparently he told the police he hadn’t been gone at all, and didn’t know what year it was. Then he said he was only away a dfew minutes but it was ten years for sure. Then doctors did a test and found he really was ten years younger than he actually was or something. Then I found out the same thing happened to Santiago and Dylan. Get that. They talked about the giant people too. None of them knew each other, so they didn’t all make this up together.”

“Your uncle disappeared in Fountain Park, too?” said Courtney.

“Yeah, he sent my mom a letter explaining a lot of stuff because it was too weird to say in person. But basically, last he remembers he was going for a walk in the park. Then he woke up in a field across town."

“Where’s your uncle now?” Courtney said.

“He’s okay,” Kayla stressed. “He seems pretty happy, even. But he never talked much about what happened. He said we wouldn’t believe him.” She chewed her lip. “But I think I do, whatever happened. ‘Cause nothing else explains what happened to him except something really weird.”

Courtney looked down, curling her hands together on the table before her. Then she said quietly:

“I never got a letter.”

“Well, maybe it’s unsafe to send it right now. Maybe they can’t talk right now because they’re under surveillance.”

Courtney didn't say anything. In the silence, Jake looked between Kayla and Courtney.

"Are we.still talking about the lost boys here, or are we...are you actually suggesting Will and Fuzz are out there somethere?"

"Yeah," Kayla replied, shrugging. "I mean, aliens."

Jake leaned back, folding his arms, giving the girls a puzzled look as if trying to determine if they weren't joking. Courtney looked wistful.

"But where's there?" said Jake.

"My uncle said once it was like, cold, so they could be in space or in alien refrigerator."

“Aliens," said Courtney.

Kayla paused and looked down. Then she said:

“It could mean…well, I don’t know, exactly.”

“Kayla just said it's aliens,” said Bratty. “Duh.”

"I'm even wishing I could believe that," Courtney said. She looked away "Sure you could draw some strange connections with..." she got a strartled look and stopped.

Jake glanced at her.

"You okay?"

She murmured under her breath:

"Just thinking about how they found Fuzz's phone. It's nothing. Tell you later, maybe."

Then she decided to distract herself with her drink.

Suddenly you were lifted and dipped into Courtney’s cup, where your head circled around her coffee a couple of times, lifting out again only once your face was covered up with a mouthful of coffee. Strangely, you could see through it, but vaguely. Courtney’s lips grew closer and closer and, right before meeting your face, parted. Her tongue smoothly ran up and down your face as she sucked the coffee out of your head. Her strong suctioning lips caused a chill to race down your spine. Once your face was cleared, it was immediately fogged up by her breath, and the warmth spread like a fever.

She put a slice of cake onto her saucer and then started using your head to carve the soft cake into pieces, sliding your head in and out of the cake like butter, which felt weird.

Each small piece was scooped up onto your face and dutifully delivered to her awaiting mouth. Your flat head slipped smoothly between her lips, and you felt your scalp buoyed by her shifting tongue, before she cleanly rotated your head until you were face down, so she could scoop her tongue in and around in your face. The slightly concave shape of your face caused it to hug the tip of her tongue while she cleaned you of cake crumbs. Being in her mouth felt like quicksand sucking around you. The pressure of her grinding tongue even caused your head to stretch a little, and it felt like your head was being flattened by every motion of her heavy tongue.

As she devoured the cake, she gave you no rest, repeatedly pushing you in and out her mouth to have your face brushed down with her tongue. An aching fever built up in your head as it was persistently fed to Courtney, over and over. Your eyes, nose and mouth were probed and grinded as if by a huge warm mop. Her biting coffee breath stung and made you feel light-headed.

Finally, you were pulled out, with a wet popping sensation inside your head. Kayla said your name and the conversation sharpened into focus again:

“—That was the other man. Did you know him as well?”

“You mean Fuzz,” Courtney said. “Jake’s friend. And my brother’s friend, too. And—” she added, “he wasn’t a ‘man’ he was just a kid when they disappeared. Poor kid.”

She idly swirled your head around inside her coffee.

“Did you know him?”

“I wish I did. It’s weird. The Ruggers all knew about Fuzz. If Will was out, it was always ‘he’s out with Fuzz’. Even Will’s girlfriend, Ashley, was running around trying to get some quiet time with him outside of boys time –”

“I babysit her kids,” Bratty mumbled to Kayla.

 “—But I never really got to know Fuzz, he was this mysterious guy my brother always hung out with.” She sighed and looked down. “And now the mystery continues.”

After a pause, she went on:

“We weren’t even super close but I'd feel like I lost a twin I never had. A brother who never was. A family member who could have been…” she cut herself off. “I don’t know what I’m even saying.”

Jake swept his hand over the table, discreetly taking Courtney’s hand and squeezing it. He took her silence as a cue to elaborate:

“Yeah, we were good buddies,” he said. “But Court’s right; Will and Fuzz went way back. I don’t know if Fuzz knew it, but the attention he got from Court’s family when he disappeared,” he added: “and all his anonymous admirers…”

As he said this, he glanced  across at Bratty. She went pink and ignored him, playing with her phone.  

Courtney slid away from the conversation and headed out of the room, turning back in the doorway:

"I'm just getting a refill. Any takers?" then she was gone, without even taking her previous cup, which you currently were stood upside down in, staring at the drops of coffee lying on the bottom. You sunk in despair, realizing she was set to spin you around in a fresh coffee.

No matter how many times she did this you never got used it; she did it at random and it always caught you by surprise. You were listening to the conversation and out of nowhere found yourself inside her warm damp mouth. The sound of their voices muddied by the oceanic rush of Courtney’s breath, like having a fan blasting your ears. Once she’d swirled her tongue around your face a couple of times, you were thankfully pulled out again and given a rest inside her cup.