The messy cave of Laura's handbag was oppressively stuffy today, the warm light of the sun only squeezing in through the fine slit of the ceiling. Each step Laura took swung the satchel back and forth, the litter inside scrambling to nestle into new nooks. George lay on top of her phone, the metallic case somewhat cool, even in the thick, dusty air. George felt like he should be nervous for his inevitable showing off to Sarah, but he really didn't know how to feel, almost like he didn't have a right to an opinion. The repetitive sounds of Laura's rubber flip-flops crunching on the warm sand stopped, coming to a stand still when she was adjacent to a deck chair. She let the strap of her handbag slide off her shoulder and land on the yellow ground, George landing with a violent crash, one that he quickly recovered from.

"How are you doing, honey?" said the cordial voice of Laura high above, a tone she reserved for her friends, not her possessions.

"I'm doing great, sweety!" replied Sarah, her voice higher and breathier than her friend's, in some ways matching their personality.

A great object moved and blocked out the light that streamed through the slit in the ceiling, casting George in darkness. Laura likely leaning over to give her close friend a hug. With an elastic crash Laura took her seat in her own chair, kicking her feet up and relaxing in the inviting sun, chatting with her friend after an eventful week. George eaves dropped in on their conversations, nothing but small talk. This disheartened him a bit, he knew that he was going to be shown off to Sarah, the progress he had made during the week, and the fact that he came further down on the list than what ever new shoes Sarah had bought put into perspective how he was seen. Inevitably the conversation switched to the passenger locked deep amid the rubble of Laura's handbag.

"So, Laura... any progress with George?" asked Sarah innocently. She was nervous, she didn't know what to expect at all.

"Who?"

"George... the tiny?"

"Oh, yeah... just forgot his name." she giggled. The eavesdropper listening in on this remark. Every time George was reminded that she didn't even know his name crushed him a little bit further into the ground. "Let me get him." she said as she slid her fingers into the crevice of her handbag, wiggling them around until she felt the fragile little thing, pulling him out. 

The light of the bright sun blinded the slightly sleepy slave, lying down in Laura's palm. She angled her hand until George slid off, falling for less than a second into Sarah's own plush hand. Her great blue orbs looked down on him, inspecting him. She took a few seconds to process what she was looking at. This wasn't the George she knew: he was so thin and wiry; when she had owned him she kept him well fed, clearly not what Laura did. His skin was also covered in a horrible canvas of red, blue and black, each mark a sign of punishment inflicted. Despite his trimming down, she could also spot tiny muscles through his skin. He wasn't too built, but toned and fit, in spite of his meagre diet. Sarah was filled with a tiny pang of sympathy for the pitiful thing, she could only imagine the punishment he had gone through. 

"Wow, Laura... you really did a number on him." she said, not wanting to betray the slight shock she felt at seeing his twisted form.

"I know, great isn't it?" she replied smugly, nestling deeper into her chair. "Go ahead, tell him to do anything."

Sarah was at a loss for what to do... she most certainly didn't want him to do anything too strenuous, but she did want to see how he behaved. "George... roll over." she commanded.

George heard these words loud and clear, the way she actually said his name brought a small smile to his face. He lay down, and rolled over, the order too simple to disobey.

"No, give him a real order."

"Okay... ummm... slave, rub my foot." she ordered in an unsure tone, moving him far down to her waiting peds and dropped him down. She lay back as she felt the tickle on her foot, the feeling on her right heel quite comfortable. This was nice, she admitted, George had clearly come along way in a single week.

Sarah's soles were slightly squishier than Laura's, the girl softer in many regards than her counterpart. He worked hard on her heel, wanting to make a good first impression. Laura had stressed this last night, if he did a bad job it reflected poorly on her, and neither of them wanted that.

"Great isn't he?" said Laura, the pride in her work practically beaming from her mouth.

"Yeah, he's really well trained..." she tried to enjoy the massage, but was still curious as to what exactly had happened during the previous week. "Say... Laura, how did you train him so well?"

"You didn't see my posts on Facebook?"

"No?"

"Go and check 'em, a bit like a highlight reel."

Sarah complied and went onto her friend's Facebook page, seeing the uploaded photos. George between her feet, George unconscious at the gym, George attached to her ear, George hanging from her toes. Each one had a story behind them, one that Sarah didn't know if she wanted to find out the exact details of. Finally, she arrived at one last photo, a selfie her friend had taken, with George slouched over on a glass table in frame. The caption read: This guy just admitted he loved me💕 What a cutey 😘.

"Laura, what do you mean he admitted his love for you?"

"What it says, he said that he loved me. Like some kind of crush."

Sarah was startled a little bit by this, was she telling the truth? "George." she addressed, the tiny slave stopping his rubbing and stepping out into the view of his blonde owner. "Is this true?" 

George nodded his head in shame, indeed he had fallen head over heels for Laura, a fact that he was reminded of each day. 

"Wow..." said Sarah, the news unexpected to say the least. "How... how do you feel about that Laura?"

"I think its cute." she giggled as she blew a kiss to George "obviously I broke him in too hard, but he should be fine for you. Its funny really, I mean, loving a tiny? What a joke!" she gestured to George, forcing him to take the abuse. He was totally conflicted about what was happening, on one hand Sarah seemed to care about him a whole lot more than Laura ever would, but Laura was the one he loved... "Although, I do admit that I had fun with him..." she said as she brushed her arm slightly "he's definitely a fun guy to play with with."

Sarah was a little lost, George's admittance that he loved Laura not making any sense to her. How could he love someone so cruel to him? George asked the same question to himself. 

"I'm gonna go for a swim, you coming?" asked the bikini clad brunette as she rose on to the warm sand.

"No, I think I'll stay here and see how well George is trained." she lied, she wanted to talk to him, to see what he really felt.

Laura shrugged as she marched to the deep blue water, her plump rear bouncing with each step. When Laura was out of ear shot Sarah leaned over and hoisted George from his position of rubbing her feet. She held the diminutive man in her hand as she brought him up to her face.

"George... how could you possibly love Laura? I can still see the bruises on your body."

He cleared his throat, raspy after days of unuse. "I... I... don't know..." was all that he could cough out.

"But you do love her? Like, love love?"

"Y-yeah, I do." he said, almost choking on his developing tears.

"D-do you want to... stay with her instead of me?"

George took sometime to think. He really didn't know. He knew a life with Laura would be one of unceasing torment at the hands of a cruel goddess, but he had a sort of voyeuristic desire to simply be with her. Anyway, a life with Sarah could be soul crushingly boring. "I don't know." was all that he could say, and he meant it. "I... I'm really sorry I was so disobedient to you... you were so understanding. I should have just done what you said, and this would have never of happened." George couldn't contain himself and curled up and sobbed. 

Sarah looked down at the shuddering, shivering, sobbing pile of a tiny man in her hand. George was her's, and whatever Laura had done had broken him. She ran a giant finger along his back in an attempt to soothe him. The sight of him slapped Sarah in the face. When she bought George she though she wanted an obedient servant, the flashy advertising and friends' endorsements intoxicating her. She had completely neglected the dark side of this, the side the resulted in tiny, injured, broken men curled up in her palm and sobbing. She didn't know what to do, she just wanted this to be over. She wished she could have never bought him, she wished she had never given him to Laura, she wished she could just never see him again, but that ship had sailed. What she did was her burden, and she would have to try and find a solution. "George, I feel bad about what I did to you... I don't know how to feel anymore, about having a tiny slave, having you. I can definitely live without you... I know that might not be what you want to hear, but it's true." she stopped stroking him, nudging him with her finger's pad to be sitting upright, the tears draining from his eyes. "If you want to go with Laura, you can. I can understand if you want to leave me."

George stopped his blubbering to listen. He really didn't know what he wanted, he really just couldn't see where his life was going. Ever since he shrunk he knew that he wouldn't ever be normal again, and that he would be resigned to being a pet, but there was something more. At this moment he really felt pathetic, more pathetic than he had felt before. Sure, he had been stepped on, crushed, squished, teased and humiliated... but the hardest decision of his life was whose toes he would be licking. It was something so familiar, yet so new: a decision. All agency had been stripped from his life, and it is likely that this was the last choice that he would ever have to make. "I really don't know, Sarah." he said between croaks of his voice, he simply couldn't choose, he didn't know how. "But what ever happens... thank you... for knowing my name."

Sarah felt a sense of forlorn... maybe it was wrong to do what they did to tinies. They still had human minds, human feelings. She knew not everyone felt the same way, but she couldn't help to see the raw emotion that George was displaying. She could see Laura approaching from the ocean, finishing her swim. She placed the tiny thing on her thigh, just now drying his tears. "Look like your massaging me..." she ordered "and calm down, I'll figure something out." 

George did as she commanded, kneading the soft flesh of her thigh between his shaking hands. His tears were dry now, but the knot in his stomach was still there. 

"Good swim?" Sarah asked in the most casual tone she could muster.  

"Yeah, nothing like it to cool off." replied her friends as her glistening body collapsed into her deck chair. 

"Hey, Laura, I really do appreciate you training George..." she said, a slight quiver in her voice.

"No problem" she said

"But... I really don't think I need him that much."

"Oh?" said Laura, and also thought George, not that he would dare speak out of turn.

"So... as thanks for training him, how would you feel about... sharing him?"

Both Laura and George were slightly shocked at this. George decided that he didn't need to think right now, if he did he would get a headache, he just continued to rub the sensitive skin.

"So... like... I have him one week and you have him the next?" questioned the perplexed brunette.

"Yeah, exactly! I think it would be a waste for me to keep him to myself... and I can tell you had so much fun breaking him in. I mean, that yoga picture is hysterical!" Sarah tried desperately to get her friend to come around, knowing that if she failed, George would be crushed... but if she succeeded he may also be crushed... literally. 

"Hmmm... well he was a lot of fun to break in. You would really be willing to share?"

"Of course! We'll meet up here in a week and we'll swap him over. Deal?"

"Deal! This is why you're my friend, Sarah." said Laura

"And this is why you're mine!" both girls laughed with each other.

Sarah shut the door to her dorm, pulling George out of her own handbag, a lot tidier than Laura's. She held him in her hand, his body still weak, fragile, injured. He looked around from his high up vantage point, the new dorm, where he would live for at least half his life. It was neat, tidy, with some warm decorations. He looked up at the blue hair and blonde eyes of his owner... the closest person he would have to a friend. She seemed like she wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words.

"George... welcome home... I guess." she tried to sound upbeat, but she really wasn't in the mood. "I don't know what to say, but I wont be mean. I promise. I'll let you do whatever you want. I know that Laura will be... rough with you. So this will be your time to relax, to heal." each word she said washed George in warm, minty breath, comforting in a way. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I really didn't, but I'm sure that in time we can grow use to it. I won't make you work if you don't want to." she tried to smile at the creature in her palm, but she could tell that no matter what she said he wouldn't be fixed instantly. She walked down the hallway and into her room, depositing him on her bedside table, under the shade of a dormant lamp. "I'll try and make you a comfy place to sleep, it'll be nice! I promise." and she went to work, searching for fabric around her room.

George needed to think very hard about what his life would be. Spending half with Laura and half with Sarah sounded... tolerable. Like he could do it. But he really didn't know, he didn't know anything anymore, he didn't need to. He was a toy, a pet, a slave, an insect, a distraction, a possession, a nothing, he was disposable, tiny, pathetic and unloved. All these things he thought about himself, and at least some of them were true. Maybe what he was doing was wrong, that being a leech off Sarah was wrong, and that torturing himself by being around the person he loved was wrong. Only time will tell, he reasoned, that getting worked up would be no use. He lay back, watching the giant busily work on creating a tiny room for him, a place that maybe he could call his own. This was a comforting thought, that at least someplace was for him.