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Thursday, October 22 (cont.)

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After the game, Marcus volunteered to give carpools to some of Jessie’s teammates whose parents hadn’t been able to pick them up. More accurately, though, Jessie had volunteered her dad for him, and he’d been too nice to tell any of them no. So he, his daughter, two of her teammates, and one of her teammates brother all piled into his modest sized sedan, along with half a dozen gym bags and backpacks. There hadn’t even been enough room in the trunk to fit all their stuff, so all the backpacks had to pile up onto one of the back seats. In order to fit everyone comfortably, Jessie sat in the driver’s seat, so that one of the kids could sit passenger while the other two sat next to the bags in the back.

They had all been in awe of Marcus’ little contraption that he used to get into his car, although he didn’t know whether to feel cool and proud or a little bit patronized as he walked up the ramp while they looked down at him in wonder. It hadn’t been necessary for him to show off since Jessie would be riding behind him and could’ve just picked him up, but she wanted to show off the gadgetry to her friends. Once he’d sat down in the driver’s seat, they all piled in as well, including Jessie in the regular seat that Marcus’ had been built upon. He glanced upwards nervously as he saw his daughter’s giant thigh pass just inches over his head, and the resulting micro-quake as she sat down all around him. “Ooh, look, I fit perfectly into the seat!” she cheered, feeling snug in her position with her dad sitting between her legs. “He hasn’t actually had to drive with me sitting behind him yet,” she explained to the others, tussling her dad’s hair with a smile.

“It would’ve been nice if my seat was raised a bit more though,” Marcus commented, feeling moderately claustrophobic with her pale pair of muscley legs on either side of him. Her crotch was right behind him too, and while he obviously didn’t care to look, he felt like he could sense its presence anyways.

“Well you’re the one who OK’ed this version,” his daughter reminded him. “There were others you could’ve picked from.” After a pause, she realized she didn’t want to guilt trip him though, so she added, “But I’ll try my best to keep still and hopefully you won’t notice.”

“Aww, you guys are so cute together,” her teammate in the passenger seat said, taking a snap of the father-daughter duo as Marcus started up the car.

“Oooh, send that to me,” Jessie remarked as she buckled in her seat belt, and her dad soon pulled out of the parking spot while she punched in everyone’s address to the GPS.

*       *       *

“Oh my God,” Jessie exclaimed as they walked through the front door, glad to finally be home. “Ugh, I just wanna collapse,” she sighed, slinging her things to the side of the door and trudging to the family room, where she set her dad down on the coffee table before falling face first onto the couch. Then she rolled off the couch and onto the floor, rolling once more around until she was sprawled out on her stomach, having groaned the whole way. “I don’t know why I feel so tired,” she said, her head resting sideways on the ground as she watched her dad climb down from the table and walk over to her.

“That’s because you played real hard tonight. Maybe I just haven’t been to a game in a while, but you seemed way more fired up than you usually are.”

“Well, that’s cuz I was glad you actually came, I wasn’t sure if you would. Feels good to have people watching and supporting you.”

“And because of what your coach talked to us about too, I’d imagine.” He hopped onto her back and began stomping on it like he had after her last game, a kind of mini massage for the giant teenager.

“Yeah. That was pretty wild.” She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, enjoying the feeling of his little footsteps soothing her muscles.

“Feel good?” he asked with a smile.

She nodded, “Mhm, it’s nice… although my feet are kinda more sore, I think. Actually, I wonder if I need new shoes.” Marcus looked behind him, where a pair of black-socked feet lay at the end of her aching legs. “It would be nice if you could rub them too.” Before he shrunk, her dad used to regularly give her both kinds of massages after her games, although he wasn’t as fond of foot rubs, since her feet always smelled a bit funky after games and practice. “Although that’s OK if you can’t, it’s like you can really walk on them like you do with my back, so I wouldn’t expect you to be able to.” She had said the comment to try and be nice, not wanting to pressure her dad into something he wasn’t easily capable of. But it had sort of the opposite effect, and his stubborn heart suddenly wanted to at least try to massage them now, just to prove to her (and more importantly, himself) that he hadn’t lost his touch at his new size.

She felt him hop off her back, and she tried to look back at him, confused. “Daddy, I literally just said it’s fine. That wasn’t like, me trying to use reverse psychology or anything.”

“I know it wasn’t,” he replied, walking alongside her legs, and paused at her knee. He checked to make sure she wasn’t looking, and then dove his hands towards her legpit in an attempt to tickle her. 

“AHH!” she laughed, his delicate fingers easily tantalizing her nerves, and her lower leg reflexively threw itself backwards, clamping down on itself as a defense mechanism, the same way people clamp their arms when their armpits are tickled too. Marcus had been leaning over her leg though, so he was immediately slammed into the back of her lower thigh, squeezed between the two halves of her legs—except she didn’t release him right away, even once his tickling had stopped. His faced was smushed against her skin, her sweat having only just recently finished evaporating, and the salty smell of her sticky skin wasn’t too pleasant to behold. 

She rolled onto her back, deliberately keeping her leg clamped around her little dad in the process, and giving him one more quick, playful squeeze before letting him go. “Was your little prank worth it?” she asked, leaning back on her elbows.

“Yes it was,” he told her defiantly, straightening himself out. “The more you overreact, the better I’m reminded of just how great a tickler I am at this size.” She rolled her eyes and he laughed, continuing down the length of her legs til he arrived at her feet. Even just walking up to them had surprised Marcus with how strong the smell was. She had worked out to such a hard degree that he could literally feel the heat radiating off of them as he walked between them, with only the chills he felt in his spine cooling him down. He turned to stand in front of one of them, and his heart skipped a beat at seeing how large they were. They’d seemed plenty large a few days ago when she’d stepped on him during her bike ride up the hill, but this was somehow more daunting. Because here, with both him and her feet standing upright and facing one another, he was finally able to see the truth, that her foot alone was taller than his entire body. He was barely nine inches tall, and her foot was a little more than nine and a half (and of course, it’d continue to grow a little bit more over the next few years). He didn’t know why that specific size comparison was such a bother to him; perhaps because normal people got compared to other human beings, but as a shrunken person, his closest comparison was just a foot. And a 13 year old's foot at that.

But regardless of their size, Jessie’s feet smelled like shit. Socks that had become damp with sweat, and then dried, and then soaked with sweat, and then dried again; stale and stuffy, moist and musty. He hated it. Maybe I could try giving her a foot rub sometime after she’s taken a shower, he thought. Cuz there’s no fucking way I’m even gonna touch them as they are now. 

Jessie saw him studying them, seemingly lost in thought, and suddenly darted her foot forward, causing him to jump back with such a fright that he stumbled and fell over backwards. She broke out into a fit of laughter, albeit still feeling a little bad, as he sighed and got back to his feet. “I can take my socks off if they smell too bad,” she teased, “would that make it easier?”

Marcus chuckled and shook his head, “No, it definitely would not.” He walked his way along the side of her body back to her midsection. “I guess you were right, I ain’t rubbing those things, at least not until they’re nice and clean again. But I’ll still finish your back massage if you want.”

She nodded and flipped over to her back, closing her eyes and smiling as she waited for him to climb aboard. “Deal!”

*       *       *

“We might need to do some cleaning up around the house,” Marcus announced as he entered Jessie’s room, gazing around at her clothes strewn all over the floor. “Although from the looks of it, your room needs cleaning before anything else.” His foot nudged a pair of shorts on the ground, and he glanced away, trying not to think about his daughter’s hips being wider than his entire height.

She blushed at his comment and started picking up some of her clothes off the floor, tossing them into the nearby hamper, occasionally coming across candy wrappers or old school paperwork that belonged in the trash. Her dad came upon one long and white item that he didn’t immediately recognize, until  he bent stepped back and realized it was one of Jessie’s bras. He had no idea what her cup size was, but it didn’t matter since any option would’ve been noticeably large compared to him. Her breasts were obviously still growing because of her age, and yet from her dad’s perspective, her bra looked to be at least a foot deep. It wasn’t long ago that Jessie had been a young girl—she still was a young girl—so Marcus felt momentarily paralyzed with the indication of how quickly she was growing.

She noticed what he was looking at, and picked it up to look at for a moment before tossing it in the trash. “That reminds me, I need you to take me to the store to buy some new bras. 

“What’s wrong with that one, looks fine to me,” he commented, glancing back at it.

The girl looked down at him with a half funny, half confused expression, like the answer was obvious to her and she was surprised her dad couldn’t realize it. “It was too tight, a few of them are actually too tight. My boobs are getting bigger, that’s why I need new ones.” 

Marcus blushed, and his eyes instinctively glanced at her chest to assess the accuracy of what she’d said (as if his opinion might matter more than hers, somehow). “Oh. Yeah, right,” he said, glancing back down to the floor.

Jessie giggled at her dad’s reaction. “I know you probably don’t wanna talk about stuff like that, but I gotta grow up eventually. And since I don’t have a mom or some other woman to help me with that kinda stuff, then… you know, I gotta say something,” she awkwardly chuckled.

“No no, it’s fine,” Marcus said, not wanting to admit that his role as a parent would be easier if he weren’t going at it alone. “It’s just your body, it’s a part of maturing, like you said. I’d rather have you bring stuff like that up with me—even if I don’t know exactly how to help you—than to have you do everything alone and just guess. Besides, you have other people besides me that you can reach out to, or that I can ask for you: your grandma, your Aunt Lily, maybe even Samantha.” They were Marcus’ mom, sister, and niece, respectively. That was actually how he and Jessie had handled her first training bra. Marcus had been talking to his sister at Christmas several years ago, and she’d mentioned that Jessie was probably about at that stage in her life. And luckily for Marcus, his sister was kind enough to take Jessie to the store and help give her some advice on growing up and her development, the kind of advice Marcus couldn’t even begin to pretend to fully know about.

“Oh yeaaaahh,” Jessie said, remembering the same holiday that Marcus had recalled. “I mean I don’t think I really need their help or anything, like I said, it’s just… I just need a bigger size, that’s all.” The two of them mulled over the situation for a few moments, before Jessie spoke up again. “Soooo… but yeah, so when would be a good day to go then? To the store I mean.” The last time Jessie had needed a new bra, she had gotten some when she was out shopping with some friends, so it had been awhile since her dad had taken her.

“Well… I guess, we can go right now if you want.” He glanced at his watch; it was a little after 8:30. Some places might still be open.

“Fine with me,” she smiled, and picked him up so they could leave right away. But instead of taking him to the garage, she slipped her slides on and headed out the front door, making her way straight for her bicycle.

“Uh, why aren’t we taking my car?” he asked her, as she picked the bike off the ground and began walking it down the driveway. “The whole reason I got it fixed was so you wouldn’t have to take me everywhere.”

“Well yeah, and you can still drive it wherever you want, I mean it’s your car. But biking’s fun. It’s not like I started using one when you shrank.” As she hopped on the seat, the hand holding her dad grabbed the handlebar, securely keeping him firmly between her hand and the handle. “Don’t worry though, you won’t have to ride under my foot again,” she laughed, and pushed off onto the street to begin the ride to the store.

“Well being held on the handles isn’t much more comfortable,” he complained, trying to readjust himself. But her hand had to grip him tightly so he wouldn’t fall off, and didn’t give him much wiggle room. “It just isn’t as humiliating. And doesn’t smell as bad.” She laughed at his remark, feeling bad about having to step on her dad so many times during Monday morning’s trip up the hill. “Besides, I thought you hated having to bike to school. Isn’t that what you told me the other day?”

Her face contorted as she thought about the point he’d made. She had said that to him, and it had been true. But it wasn’t the same. “I don’t know if this explains it well, but like… I know there’s a lotta people who are into cars, right? Like I know being a car girl or a car guy is a hobby. But I’m assuming they don’t have fun driving to work everyday. Cuz it’s just like the same route over and over, and you’re only doing it cuz you have to, and you gotta get there in time or you’ll be late, et cetera et cetera.” She nodded at her explanation, “So yeah, I think that’s what the difference is.”

They traveled along some more, until Marcus spoke up again, his face looking strained. “Jess, this really is uncomfortable for me, I’m sorry. Why don’t we just turn back and you let me drive you. Aren’t you sore from your game tonight? I’m surprised you even have enough energy to go biking at all.”

“I guess your massage made me feel better,” she grinned. “What if I carried you with one hand though, and then rode with the other? Then you wouldn’t have the metal against your back.”

Marcus didn’t want to imagine what would happen if Jessie suddenly had to swerve out of the way though; what if she accidentally flung me trying to grab onto the handle again? Just in general, there wasn’t any surefire way for him to travel on her bike that would be both comfortable and safe. It didn’t really have any advantage over the car. “I don’t think I’d feel very safe doing it like that,” he answered, and frowned over the fact that he even had to argue at all. He was her father, he shouldn’t have to be the one making compromises. “C’mon Jess, you can go biking some other time, but taking me along just isn’t practical.”

She pursed her lips together and pulled off the sidewalk to stop on a strip of grass, and then lifted him away from the handle. “Daddy, the store closes at 9 o’clock, and it’s like 8:47. So if we turn around now and then have to turn back around again in the car, then we probably won’t even get there before they close.”

Her father sighed, “So we can just go tomorrow then, it’s not the end of the world.”

She was silent for a moment, her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t angry at him; she was sympathetic to how it must feel to be carried the way he was, but she was still annoyed (part of which was at herself for having jumped the gun). But she’d already committed to going tonight, and hated the thought of having to turn around to head home when they were literally just a few minutes away. Luckily though, a third option popped into her mind. “What if I sat on your lap?” she asked, almost laughing at the way she’d phrased it.

Marcus’ initial reaction was imagining his daughter sitting over his entire body, but she was smart enough to have made the same connection to how he took her suggestion at first, and shook her head laughing. “I don’t mean like sitting on you, obviously. That’d be weird. But like…” She scratched her neck and bit her lip, and figured the best idea would be to just show him, so she stood up from her seat and reached around her back to set her dad down on the seat, his head against the back of the cushioned material. Before letting her dad come up with a protest, Jessie sat back down, and Marcus could only watch as the 13 year old’s butt zoomed towards his face, until it felt short with conscious precision that left his lower half covered beneath Jessie’s ass while keeping his top half uncovered.

“See Daddy? Just as safe as my hand holding onto you, if not more so,” she told him, and pedaled back onto the sidewalk to continue towards the store before waiting for her dad’s permission. “Plus it’s probably more comfortable since the seat is all foam and stuff, and my… well… yeah.” He couldn’t see her face, but she blushed, since she’d almost just told her dad that her butt was the other reason why this new spot might be comfortable for him.

“Jess, I didn’t agree to this,” he protested, beating his fists against the teenager’s hips that were keeping him trapped beneath her. “I don’t even know if this is better!” From his position, it was clear that Jessie still hadn’t showered. I thought girls were better than boys about hygiene, he thought begrudgingly, trying to ignore the slightly sweaty smell from her gym shorts.

“Well my shorts don’t have any pockets and I don’t have the materials to tape you to the pedal, so it’s either riding back there or on the handlebars again,” she told him, as if heading back home wasn’t even an option anymore. After a pause, she added, “Or I guess if I can’t tape you to the pedal, I could put you in my slides…” She laughed at the idea of her dad being smushed by her feet again, but this time in an even more claustrophobic environment than the hill ride. “I’m just kidding,” she giggled, then adding, “I’m pretty sure we’re more than halfway there at this point, so we’d just be wasting time if we headed back now.” He wanted to keep arguing, but he decided he probably couldn’t talk her out of it at this point, and resigned to just lying beneath the girl’s butt until they got to the store.

Almost ten minutes later, during which Marcus’ feelings of helplessness and embarrassment for being trapped behind his daughter never ceased to remain strong, they finally arrived at Victoria’s Secret, and Jessie pulled up to a nearby bike rack before dismounting and picking her dad up from the seat. “I’ll be honest, that wasn’t as uncomfortable as I was expecting,” she commented as she locked her bike to the pole.

“Well how comfortable do you think it was for me?” he challenged, still obviously annoyed at her for having made the decision for him.

After the lock snapped shut, the young teenager hopped back to her feet and twisted her lips, teasing her dad by pretending to give his question a lot of thought, and then her eyes snapped back to his and she answered him with a grin. “Very.” He rolled his eyes and grumbled with how little she seemed to care about the whole thing, while she only laughed at his reaction, and carried him inside so they could pick out some new bras for her.