Alex woke up in my bed. She silently and softly, well as softly as she can manage, left the bed and quickly afterwards the apartment. I feigned still being asleep; confronting her at the moment was my worst fear. Confirming she was gone, I rose up and tried to wrap my head around last night’s events. Alex was hammered…we engaged in some pseudosexual wrestling/cuddling match, she unintentionally (I hope) stepped on my face, and dragged me into bed, where she promptly fell asleep. A weird night for sure, but I found myself thankful it didn’t get any more serious.

I then had a horrifying realization, I wasn’t wearing any underwear.  Oh no, oh no, am I not remembering everything that happened? N-no, couldn’t be, right? They came off in the night somehow, well that’s still pretty bad.

Frantically searching, I found my pants and underwear amongst the disheveled sheets. When I tried to put them on, they didn’t fit. They were too small. No, that doesn’t make sense. But it was true. The boxers just fell right off as if they were several sizes too large for me. I ran over to the bathroom to confirm what couldn’t possibly be true in the mirror. I looked the same but, why was I so low to the sink? I noticed now that my shirt was too big too, the short sleeves being past my elbow and the bottom nearly to my knees.

“This is impossible,” I said out loud, as if stating this would make reality revert to its correct state, “you don’t just get smaller.”

After calming down, I put on my tightest pair of pants with a completely fastened belt, and a shirt I’ve had since middle school (although it still looked a bit comically large on me). What am I supposed to do from here? The obvious thing is to go to the hospital, but can I drive at this height? And god, what if someone sees me, well it’s obvious someone has to see me, especially if this is permanent. What will I do if I can’t drive, “911, yes I need an ambulance. I’ve shrunk about a foot since last night”, they’ll think it’s a joke for sure. Completely overwhelmed by the 180 turn my life had taken from when I had lived alone just a few weeks ago, I plopped down on the bed hoping to wake up from this dream that I knew all too well was real.

Of course my bed, last refuge I had control over in this place, now smelled exactly like Alex. Unconsciously, I snuggled against the pillow she had used and enjoyed the oddly comforting aroma. Despite everything, I wished she was here right now. I wished anyone was here. Intoxicated by the fragrant pillow and finding my thoughts wandering back to last night, I found myself getting aroused. What the hell is wrong with me? Spying a cast off green and white striped sock on the nightstand, I grabbed it and inhaled deeply into the worn, grayed sole. Still damp, but cold, must be what she wore last night, why am I doing this, her toes made imprints here, I hate this smell so why is it so nice. My inner dialogue drowned out by the sharp smell of Alex left behind on the sock and my own warped lust for it.

The apartment door opened, the bedroom door was already open. I snapped out of my sexual trance and tried to hide my item of worship but Alex’s long strides brought her to the doorway in no time, coinciding exactly with me dropping the sock behind the headstand. D-did she see me?

“Um, Joe, about last night” she mumbled, looking down, “I-I’m sorry. I don’t remember exactly what I did but…”

“It’s okay! Nothing happened! Nothing dirty at all!” My heart was racing at the prospect of being found intentionally smelling my roommate’s sock. “You, you tried to wrestle me, but don’t worry I’m not hurt! A-and you fell asleep in my bed and I did too, but that’s it. Really.”

“Really?” She seemed relieved. She unzipped a hoodie she was wearing down a few inches, it was still early morning and she must have been out on a walk, or more likely a jog knowing her exercise-obsessed self. “I understand if you, you know, want me to move out. I’ll start looking today and I won’t bother you anymore.”

“What? Alex, no. You don’t need to do that.”

“I do! I’m such a stupid girl, I knew I’d screw this up. I’m just a burden to other people, I’ve given you nothing but trouble since the first day,” she stated dejectedly, then balled up her considerable fists and avoided my gaze while starting to cry. “I’m just a big clumsy idiot. I shouldn’t have made somebody live with me. Nobody would want to be around me, my teammates are my only friends and they only like me because I can play basketball,” her crying got more feverish as she bawled and laid out her insecurities rapid-fire. “And that’s the only thing I can do cuz I’m obviously a crappy roommate! I can’t do the laundry or clean or cook or anything! I’m just a big, ugly, smelly eyesore, I, I….”

I got out of bed and wrapped Alex’s abdomen in a hug, her chest resting on my head and blocking falling tears.

“Please calm down Alex. You’re not any of those things. You’re not a problem to me, you’re certainly not ugly,” (not a lie), “you don’t smell bad, I-I even think you smell kinda nice,” I nervously chucked simultaneously stretching the truth and being completely honest. “Please, stay. Last night was just a mistake on both our parts.”

My comforting words seemed to have a great effect on Alex. Her crying slowed down to a sniffling calm, I noted her slowed breathing from the diminished movement of the breasts perched above my head. As I disengaged from the hug I felt her large hand push me back but quickly release, maybe she really was learning.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” Alex said with the earnest tone of someone who’s apparently never been calmed down with a bunch of empty reassurances before. But now that this emotional drama was over, I was reminded of the real problem at hand. Yes, I was now about eye level with Alex’s navel, barely grazing her boobs with the top of my head. I could headbutt her rock-hard abs but I feel I would certainly be on the losing end. She had to notice, right? Anyone would.

“Um, Alex , this is weird but, do you remember how tall I was compared to you….when we first met?”

“Uhh, I don’t really know. I guess about like now? Heh, I’m used to being taller than pretty much everyone so I don’t take note of the little details like that. If I gotta look down, I gotta look down!” She shrugged, apparently so used to being a living monolith she no longer pictured a difference between a 5’6” adult and whatever child size I was now. ”Why, do you think you’re growing?”

Oh lord. “Uh, no. Nevermind.” I didn’t know how to approach this topic, with anyone, let alone my surprisingly emotionally delicate giantess of a roommate.

“Hey, do you wanna measure? I have to keep track of my stats for the league, and I’ve still been growing a little bit in the past few years,” this comment left my head spinning, “I’ve got all the stuff and we can officially note how tall you are? That way you won’t have to task me since I’m not gonna remember!”

“Uh, sure.” Maybe Alex would come in handy somehow after all. If I could get real concrete information it would be helpful, and maybe even she’s not dense enough to think everything’s normal. Although that seemed a little optimistic.

Alex came back with measuring tape, a scale, and one of those shoe size things you find on the floor in the shoe department of stores. Why in the world does she own one of those?! I asked myself, but it didn’t matter.

Kicking her clothes around to clear a decent space on the floor (S-So you do know they’re there?), Alex started to do her measurements first. “6’5…and a half! Yay!” She announced in exuberance, wondering what karmic force I pissed off to make me stop growing in freshman year of highschool.

This was followed by a long list of insanely high numbers for hand length, armspan, and weight. My head was spinning trying to grasp the sheer size of this young girl while I dwindled away.

“OK, time for you!” Alex declared, snapping me into action as I warily straightened my back against the wall, subconsciously trying to eek every millimeter out of my posture. “4’6”, err, 4’5”? I can’t tell, somewhere around that,” Alex puzzled, “That’s pretty much normal right?” I was too shocked by the numbers to wonder how strangely naïve Alex must be. I really had shrunk over a foot.

There was nothing around to keep the topic of size off of my mind as Alex placed her foot into the sizer. “16 mens, that’s 18 womens, guess it hasn’t really changed. Swear the dang things have been feeling tight though….Ok, your turn Joe!”

I didn’t really want to subject myself to more humiliation, but I guess I would need to get new shoes. I placed my foot onto the apparatus, it was warm and slick still from Alex’s foot, the print of course surrounding mine entirely. “Uh, f-four…I-I guess…there’s no line lower than 6 but it looks like that’s where it’d be.” I tried to hide my fear. My feet were at least 12 sizes lower than Alex, now easily lower than half her length.

“Cute!” Alex giggled, adding insult to injury. “Sometimes I wish I could fit into cute girly-girl shoes or whatever, but I mostly like sneakers, can usually find those in my size. You should just wear ‘em for me!” She laughed too hard at her own joke. “Just kidding, kidding!”

I found myself pressured onto the scale. 81 pounds, no need to say it as we could both read the layout. “Hm, I can bench more than that,” stated Alex matter of factly, unaware of the embarrassment such a statement can bring on a man. My heartbeat accelerated as I imagined Alex gripping and lifting me with a single hand.

“So, did you find out whatever you were wondering?”

“Uh, yeah,” technically I did, “Everything’s fine!” I lied, not wanting to get into it now.  I’ll walk to the hospital tomorrow, I don’t care who sees on the street.  For some reason I absolutely didn’t want Alex knowing.

We spent the rest of the night watching tv, Alex in good spirits and talking about hopes for the future and the good chance the team had at going to the finals this year. But I couldn’t concentrate on anything, my mind repeating each inexplicably low measurement that was now my body.  I only snapped out when Alex would splay out on the couch and rest her feet in my lap. I felt a strange mix of annoyance, horror, and excitement as her long toes wiggled, releasing long-trapped scent that wafted directly up to my nose. Those things were nearly the length of my whole torso. I don’t know if she was just extremely casual now or trying to play some kind of boyish prank, but I just ignored it. It’s not so bad, but I didn’t like it, I tried to justify. They’re just a body part like any other.

“A-Alex?” I spoke up, causing her to turn from the screen and reposition her feet, still on my lap but now pushing down on my private area. “I, I’m going to bed! Good night!” I blurted out, trying to escape before she noticed my growing erection up against her heel.

“Oh, night. Seeya tomorrow.”

Safely back in my room, I laid back down on my bed and sighed. I again chose the Alex-scented pillow. Somehow, indulging myself in this weird pleasure was the only thing that kept my mind off my horrifying shrinking.  I resisted the urge to grab the sock or any other extra source of smell, just the pillow and sheets were enough to keep me happy until dozing off.