"Oh my god! I am so happy that you got accepted to the Biochemistry program in the S... University in St. Louis!" Sara said to her friend Matt who called her to give her the good news. "Umm, I guess you will be happy to hear the news I am about to give you too," Sara continued. Matt asked enthusiastically, "Wait, you heard from your programs too?" Sara replied him "Well, not just any university. You know how much I wanted to get in the Evolutionary Biology program of the S... University in St. Louis?" Matt's heart was about to stop from the happiness and excitement. He decided to tease her instead by saying "Sara, don't tell me that you also got into my university. Then I will feel like I just got into a university that anyone could get in," with a playful tone in his voice. Sara laughed, as she was very well used to the level of sarcasm between the two, and replied "Shut up! I will be honoring your university." "But seriously though, I am so proud of you Sara! And also so happy that I will be spending 5 more years with one of my best friends." Matt replied. 

Sara was a Biology major in the A... College, which was a small liberal arts college in a small East Coast town named C.... She was an introverted and nerdy person, who spent a great deal of time on her studies. She was very smart and hard-working, but still a very down-to-earth and friendly person. She was constantly a top student in her classes, but her personality made her one of the most favorite person of her classmates. Other than classes, she enjoyed hiking in the nature and doing outdoor activities a lot. She was rather plain looking and did not put too much effort in her appearance, but she had a warm and beautiful smile on her face that made her attractive to the others. She had long and black curly hair, blue eyes, pale skin and a round and friendly face with freckles. Her hipster glasses with dark blue frame were her default accessory. She was 5'9" and rather curly.

Matt was a Chemistry major in the same college as Sara. He was quite different from Sara in terms of personality. He was not usually the top of his class and he had a habit of constantly getting work done in the last minute. Compared to the well-organized life of Sara, his was a little hectic. But he was also a friendly and caring person like Sara, which enabled them to get along so well in the past 4 years. Matt was more of an artistic type who spent hours and hours on his drawings and ship models that required patience and diligence. "I can't really understand how well you can focus on these ship models and spend hours on them while you can't focus on your classes at all!" Sara constantly teased him. "It is a serious art, Sara, come on!" Matt always replied. Although not being a very organized person, he was still very passionate about his research in Organic Chemistry, where his artistic talents and creativity surely helped him a lot in designing syntheses. "See, Sara, it is not so different from building ship models. You just build nano-sized models, but you still need the same kind of patience and hard-work." He had short blonde hair, green eyes and tan skin. His face looked a bit rectangular. He was 5'10" with an average build.

Sara and Matt first met during the freshman orientation activities of their college, thanks to living in the neighboring rooms. In the past 4 years, Sara, Sara's freshman roommate Alexis, Matt and Matt's roommate Rob hung out together and had become best friends. Alexis was a Physics major and a rather serious person. Yet, she was a very good friend and had a brilliant sense of humor with people that she felt comfortable around. Standing at a 6'1", she was the tallest in their group, and she had a very thin figure with long, stick-like legs. She had long blonde hair coming to her shoulders, ice-blue eyes and a diamond-shaped face that gave her a very stern look. Rob was a History major, and he was a great conversationalist. He was a huge history nerd, constantly amazing others with his knowledge, yet making others laugh all the time with his jokes. He was had a short and frail stature, standing at 5'6". He had short brown hair, green eyes and a friendly face. Being pretty much the only person who could make Alexis laugh, the two started dating around the middle of sophomore year and they were also planning to live together after graduation. 

Since Sara and Matt were the other pair of the group and constantly hung out together as a couple, Rob and all their other friends usually assumed they were dating or at least into each other. Sara and Matt laughed every time they heard those comments and Alexis rolled her eyes, usually saying something along the lines of "Come on... Leave them alone! They are just besties okay?" In reality, Sara was an asexual and most likely an aromantic. When she was suspicious of Matt being attracted to her around 3 months into their freshman year, she decided to talk to Matt about these feelings. He indeed admitted feelings of attraction to Sara, but he respected her decisions. This event indeed made them much closer as friends. In the following four years, Matt dated a couple other women in their college while being best friends with Sara. 

In the following 4 months, the four characters enjoyed the remaining time in their senior year, hung out together, took off items from their C... Town bucket list, and finished off their studies with high honors (except Matt of course). Before the night of the commencement, the four decided to sit on the shore to chill out amid the craziness of commencement week. That was when Alexis turned to Matt and Sara, and said "Rob and I are moving to St. Louis next year." Matt and Sara let out a scream and jumped in their place out of excitement while Rob did a face palm and said "Oh wow... Only you could ruin such good news with such an amazing dryness, honey!" Alexis turned to Rob and kissed her forehead in response "I know, and I know that's why you love me!" Rob shrugged and said "True!" Shortly after, Sara got up and gave a huge hug to Alexis and Rob, saying "I am so happy that we will be together next year too!" Rob nodded and added "Yeah, I was expecting us to get very emotional and drop a good amount of tears at the end of tonight, but hey! We are getting emotional in the opposite direction!" 

Following the commencement, the four packed up with the help of their families and moved their belongings to St. Louis. During the summer, Sara and Matt found a two bedroom apartment in the nice neighborhood across the road from the university. Alexis and Rob found a more modern looking apartment near the Central West End district, which was where their jobs were. While Sara and Matt had decided to continue in academia, Alexis and Rob wanted to discover other options. Rob was working at the special collections section of a library, while Alexis was working as a data analyst in a start-up company. The four explored the city and enjoyed the summer events.

August meant the beginning of studies for Sara and Matt though, so they started to spend more time as a pair when the semester began. Living together was a quite interesting experience for both, since they never lived together in spite of being best friends. They always shared a nice meal at the end of the day and spent time relaxing and chatting in their living room. "I am so happy that we bought this couch! I have no idea what we would do without it!" Matt said, turning to Sara that was sitting next to her while leaning back comfortably on the couch. "Yeah, maybe you would have become less of a couch potato, my dear!" replied Sara, patting him on head. "Stop it! You know how much I hate when you do that!" said Matt with a playful tone, which was followed by Sara wrapping her arms around hm and leaning her head on his shoulder. This was not a first time: The pair developed a habit of cuddling on the couch during the past couple of weeks. This was completely platonic though-well... at least for Sara. On the other hand, Matt could not help himself but become more and more attracted to Sara as they became physically closer. 

            Around September, Matt and Sara started to work in their first lab rotations, which meant more stressful times for both of them. Even though they loved the work that they were doing, it still required a lot of mental power and hard work in addition to the effort they were already putting into their grad-level classes. Matt was working in a lab in the Medical School that was aiming towards shrinking tumors with a novel drug therapy. Sara was working in a lab that was studying evolution models by using a particular bacteria species. Around this time, Sara started to take a better notice of the lack of organization that Matt had. She didn't bother herself with his room of course, but the mess he was creating in the living room was enough by itself. One day he decided to talk to Matt about it, which turned into a heated argument. "Oh, do you have any idea how much time I have to spend in my lab! It is so demanding" Matt said with a rather loud voice. Sara folded arms on her chest and gave a mocking smile to Matt, "Oh, of course I forgot that you are the only one who is attending grad school right? How stupid of me!" Matt realized that he went too far and said "Oh, I, yeah, you are right." They stood up staring at each other for a couple of seconds and gave each other a huge hug while sobbing. "Oh my god, what is this place doing to us!"  Sara said. Matt said, "Yeah, I guess we didn't realize how stressful grad school could be." After the hug, Sara held Matt's hands in her hands and said "Look, Matt! We are best friends, and I wanted to let you know that no matter what happens, we will be the closest supporters and allies of each other’s okay?" Matt, whose heart was beating faster because of his hands being in his lovely Sara, replied "Yes, Sara! I promise to always look after you and support you no matter what happens" while trying to hide his beyond-platonic feelings. Sara said "I promise you too! We will be friends forever" and gave him another hug. Having a slight sinking feeling of disappointment in his chest due to the reminding of the bitter facts after hearing the last sentence Sara said, Matt forced himself to smile and said "Yeah, friends forever"

Needless to say, an unfortunate accident would soon test their promises. 

“Knock knock!”--Alexis was reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the fifteenth time when she heard the knock on the door. Rob wasn’t back from work yet, and there was still half an hour until he would be back from the library. He usually left work 2 hours after Alexis did. She waited for him to eat dinner together. She wondered who would be visiting her while walking to the door, “Coming!” she said.

Her stern face acquired a warm and genuine smile that is rarely seen on her face once she opened the door. “Sara! Oh my god, I haven’t seen you for ages!” she said with an excited tone. Sara hugged her happily while leaning her head on Alexis’ chest and said “I missed you so much, Lexie!” Alexis gestured her to come in and said “How have you been? What have you been up to?” Sara walked into the room and lied down on the couch, saying “You know Lexie… I was so busy. Maybe you did the best by not going to grad school” she laughed. Sara has been feeling insecure about her academic capabilities and passion for the past couple of weeks. Although Matt was being a great support for her, she still felt mentally and emotionally drained until the moment she hugged her friend Alexis. Magically, all of her fears and anxieties were repelled in the warmth and comfort of Alexis’ presence. Even the couch smelled like Alexis, and that was making her feeling the most comfortable she ever felt since the semester began.

Alexis sat down on the couch next to her, and lifted Sara’s head to rest on her lap while starting to pet her head and running her long and elegant fingers down her hair. “No Sara! I think you made the best decision for yourself, and I believe you are the smartest and most capable person on earth for being an evolutionary biologist.” Hearing Alexis’ words filled Sara’s heart with warm and fuzzy feelings. She felt like she could do anything on the world. “Aww! And you are the sweetest person on earth, Lexie!” she said. Alexis smiled in response—being around Sara has always been an interesting experience for her, too. All the way through high school, she was bullied because of her height, stick-like legs and her interest in Physics. All this bullying took its toll on her, by turning her into an uptight and stern person when she began college. However, the random assignment of her college to put her in the same room as Sara would change her life forever. She always saw Sara like an ever-shining bright sun—her personality, her warmth, her friendliness. The light from Sara shone upon Alexis’ heart too, bringing out the gentle and caring side in her that she never has known of.

They caught up for a while, chatting from this and that. Eventually, the topic came to the argument Matt and Sara had the previous day. “Look, I know he has a ton of work to do in his lab, but that doesn’t justify him leaving the living room in a mess” said Sara with a concerned voice. Alexis sighed and said “Yeah, I hear you! You know, Rob is kind of messy too, but at least he is somewhat intimidated by angry Alexis” she laughed. Sara also laughed and said, “Yes, I would never want to be enemies with angry Alexis! I wish I could intimidate Matt at sometimes too” while rolling her eyes. Alexis raised her eyebrows and said “But that would not be you! I can never imagine you getting angry and bitchy at anyone”. Sara scowled at Alexis while her head was still resting on the latter’s lap. “Hmmm! I can be a tough girl like you, if I want” she said. Alexis giggled and held Sara’s face gently in her large and soft hand, “Okay tough girl! I know you can.” Sara also giggled too, and sighed again. “But seriously Lexie… I have no idea what to do. I don’t want to break his heart, but the issue is getting more severe every day even he promised to be more organized the other day.” Alexis looked at Sara with a serious and caring face, and said “I see your conflict, Sara. Maybe you can talk to him again. Or I can stop by as well, to talk to him. You know I have a certain intimidating power over Matt, too.” Sara said, “Yeah, maybe that could be a good solution. Let’s wait until Monday.” Alexis paused petting Sara’s head and said “I know what would raise your mood, Sara! I don’t even know how I forgot about this!” she said with a brightened face. Sara paused for a second with a puzzled face, trying to figure out what Alexis meant. Then her face brightened too, once she realized what Alexis was talking about. “Oh my god! Of course! How did we forget about this? I don’t know how I even survived these past couple of months without your special therapy!” Alexis smiled and said, “Well, you obviously couldn’t, and that’s why you are here today!”

Alexis gently dropped Sara’s head on the couch and stood up. She walked to the other end of the couch and sat down next to Sara’s feet. A hidden talent of Alexis, as the two friends found out during the second month of college after Sara’s feet were sore from walking an extremely long hike, was to give outstanding foot rubs. Each time after a foot rub by Alexis, Sara felt extremely relaxed and in pure bliss. Even though Rob and a couple of other close friends of Alexis asked countless times for foot rubs, she persistently denied to give foot rubs anyone other than Sara. Alexis took Sara’s sandaled feet in her hands and removed the sandals. Dropping the sandals to the ground, she realized that the insoles were damp from Sara’s sweat. Touching Sara’s warm bare soles, she felt much more of the sweat. Even though Sara felt self-conscious about the sweatiness of her feet all the time, Alexis didn’t mind that at all.

Alexis took a look at the pair of feet in her hands. The size 8 slightly chubby feet with the short toes painted in cyan almost reflected Sara’s personality. They were soft, bright, colorful, warm and happy, just like their owner. The soles had a lively and bright orange-ish hue. They looked the same as how they looked during college, only a bit worn out from the constant stress of the past couple of months. Alexis turned to her own feet and took a look at them. In contrast to Sara’s feet, hers were size 12 and slim with long and elegant toes. They were extensions of her lanky body and the uptight and cool-headed personality. They were usually cold and dry. Her feet were pale and her soles had a very light pink color. While Sara’s feet smelled like a high-quality cheese, which was a smell that Alexis found somewhat pleasant much to her embarrassment, Alexis’ feet had no scent to them.

Alexis ran down her long index finger down Sara’s sole. Sara giggled in response “Oh Lexie… Will you massage them instead of tickling?” Alexis knew that Sara had very sensitive and ticklish on her feet—which was a striking contrast between their feet by the way, and their personalities of course. Alexis said “Okay, okay! Here we go” and started to work her fingers into Sara’s soles. Sara let out a moan in response and said “I missed you soooo much, my dear Lexie!” While massaging the miniscule toes of Sara, Alexis said “So you missed me or my foot rubs, honey?” “Both, my dear!” Sara replied. Following 5 minutes of Alexis silently working her fingers into Sara’s feet to release all the tension accumulated, the pair startled out of their peaceful trance by a clicking sound on the door. It was Rob who came back from work.

“I’m back, Lexie!” he walked in and saw the scene of Sara laying on their couch with her feet in Alexis’ hands. He said a cheerful “Welcome” to Sara, and playfully added “So I see you ladies are doing your ritual again? I am glad you are here, Sara! Lexie has been longing to touch your feet for such a long while”. His words were cut by a pillow landing on his face, thrown by a giggling Alexis: “Shut up!” Rob turned to Sara while walking towards the couch to stand near them: “No, I am serious Sara! I caught her a couple of times talking in her sleep. I guess she was saying stuff like ‘Saraaaaaa! Gimme yer feeeeet!’” Sara was laughing while saying: “Yup! I know, Rob! That’s why I stopped by here today.” Rob said “Oh, also not only that, but…” His words were cut this time by Alexis wrapping her arms around him and pulling him to sit on her lap, taking advantage of the 8 inches of height difference she had over her boyfriend and his frail stature. Tightly holding her boyfriend with her arms, she placed a kiss on his head and pressed her cheek to his: “Okay, little Robbie! Now speak!” Rob replied: “Ummm… Okay, I said nothing!” Alexis said: “Good! Sara? You have anything to add?” Sara got up from the couch and sat on the ground on her knees in front of Alexis and Rob, “Hmmm… I believe that I can make a valuable addition to this discussion…with my fingers!!!” Sara started laughing while tickling Rob’s belly who was constrained in his girlfriend’s lap. Rob was laughing out loudly while kicking his feet on the ground “Please! Please! Hahaha! Stop S-S-Sara!! Lexie… Please!” The trio were laughing happily.

After being done with tickling Rob, they enjoyed the rest of the night while having some drinks and sharing a lovely conversation enriched by Rob’s jokes, Sara’s loud exclamations and Alexis’ laughter that she rarely shared with others. They really missed spending time altogether, and each were feeling much better at the end of the night. “Rob, Lexie! Thanks so much for a lovely night! I needed this so much in my life!” Sara said while at the door. “You know, come back soon! But bring Matt with you this time, okay?” Rob said. Sara hugged the two and walked to the metro station to take the next train home. She hadn’t felt this good for so long. She arrived at home and opened the apartment’s door with her key.

“Sara’s back!” she said cheerfully. She missed Matt too, and was planning to give him a huge hug. All nights were out in the apartment although it was still 10 PM. “Hmm did Matt go to sleep this early, or did he go out with his friends from lab?” Sara asked herself. She saw Matt’s phone on the table, so thought that he must be home. She quietly opened the door of his friend’s room to check whether everything was alright with him. The bed was empty, too. She grew even more suspicious and turned on the lights. The sight she saw was quite shocking: Matt’s clothes that he wore to lab today were lying flat on his bed. Sara’s heart started to beat faster and her palms got sweaty, because of the fear. She cautiously approached the bed, to see an even more shocking sight that made her scream her lungs out: An almost 6 inch form of Matt was lying on the bed comfortably wrapped in his own shirt, which looked like a gigantic blanket to him now. Matt jumped out of his sleep in response to his friend’s scream and saw a titanic Sara looking down at her with an extremely pale face and tears welled up in the eyes. “M-M-Matt? Wh-what-t-t h-h-happened t-t-to you?”

Looking up to the titanic Sara standing next to his bed, Matt started to shudder. His hands and feet turned ice cold. He shouted “S-S-Sara! What’s happened to you!?” He looked around to see that his bed looked like a football field. Did his bed grow up too? And why did his room grow up? Soon, the terrible feeling of reality sunk in his head—it was not Sara or his bed or his room that grew up… It was him that was shrunk. He also noticed that he was naked. Being tiny and naked under the inspection of the gigantic blue eyes of Sara made him feel the most vulnerable and weakest he ever felt in his entire life. He was cold—no, he was freezing. He curled into a fetal position and start to cry in fear.

Watching this scene in front of her eyes made Sara even more anxious. She was never used to seeing Matt so lost and weak. He was the calm and strong friend who had a habit of riding on stressful situations throughout his life. What happened to him, now? These thoughts caused even more tears to form in her eyes. She closed her eyes and took three deep breaths.

“Okay, Sara! You must be strong now! He needs you! You need to be strong for him! No matter what has happened to him, you are the one who can help him!” Constantly reminding herself these thoughts, Sara took a couple more deep breaths. “Inhale… Exhale… Inhale… Exhale…” Sara opened her eyes and wiped her tears. She forced herself to smile and asked with a gentle voice:

“M-Matt? Wanna t-tell me what happened?” Matt didn’t respond. He was shuddering and rocking back and forth in the fetal position he was in. She cautiously and slowly approached Matt with her index finger, trying to gently touch him and comfort him. When she was right about to touch Matt’s back, she was startled by her friend’s quick yelling:

“Get your hand away from me! What did you do to me!? Why did you shrink me down?” Sara was absolutely confused and mostly heartbroken by the accusations of her friend. Every word of what he just said hurt Sara like daggers stabbing her, but she reassured herself that her friend was being irrational because of the trauma and shock he was going through. She knew she had to excuse Matt. She continued with a gentle voice:

“Look, Matt. I have nothing to do with what just happened to you, okay? You know I would never hurt you, right?” Matt looked up at Sara smiling him gently. After a moment of pause, he nodded. Sara continued:

“Indeed. I would never ever hurt my best friend. No matter what on earth has happened to you, you are always safe with Sara, okay?” Sara was talking slowly with a soothing voice, as if she was talking to a baby. She knew Matt needed physical comfort the most. She decided to go for a second try and tried to touch Matt’s back with her fingertip again, waiting until she made sure that her fingertip was warm again. She asked:

“May I?” Matt nodded again, with a blank face. Sara replied: “Thank you” and touched Matt’s naked back with her fingertip. Matt’s body was ice cold. She started to rub her fingertip gently on Matt’s back. Sara asked:

“Now, would you like to tell me what happened?” Although initially scared by the idea of his titanic roommate touching his body, Sara’s gentle back massage was comforting him. The warmth flowing from her fingertip into his cold body was making him feel safe and secure. He just remembered what he had said earlier to Sara in his initial shock. “Dammit” he thought to himself. Looking up to Sara, he could say after a great amount of effort:

“S-S-Sara?” Sara raised her eyebrows while continuing to rub Matt’s back. She said with her gentle voice:

“Yes, my dear?” Sara was also trying her best to remain as calm as possible. The shuddering of her fingers would be the last thing she would ever want at this moment. Matt opened his mouth again and said:

“I-I am sorry for what I j-just said. I am so embarrassed… I am s-scared.” With these words, he burst into crying again. Trying her best to keep tears from welling in her eyes again and forcing a smile on her face, Sara got her face closer to Matt and whispered:

“Shhh… It is okay. I know you didn’t want to hurt me. I am here for you. Everything will be alright my sweet dear.” She continued rubbing his back gently. Then she slowly closed her palm on her tiny friend’s body like a blanket, in an effort to keep him warmer. She asked:

“Is this better?” Matt had mixed feelings. He was so disoriented and lost. He was covered entirely by the palm of his best friend. She could smash him flat effortlessly under her palm if she wanted. He quickly reminded himself that Sara would never do that. He completely trusted her. He bitterly smiled, remembering the quotes of a scientist from a TED video he had watched about an experiment on mice:

“When you are this small, you feel like all the world is trying to get you. You are in constant fear.” He thought how well it applied to his case. He was even scared by his best friend, the sweetheart Sara, who would never hurt even a bug. She had always been as close to him as a sister. He wanted to cry. He wanted to vomit, but he couldn’t. All of the muscles in his body were sore. But he was at least warmer now, thanks to the warm and soft palm of Sara covering him like a blanket. Sara asked him:

“Are you feeling better now, Matt?” Matt nodded. Sara continued:

“Would you like to tell Sara what happened?” Matt tried hard to remember. He was in lab. He came back. He went to sleep. He was normal sized when he was sleeping. After a while, he quietly said:

“I…I have no idea… I went to the lab in the morning as usual. We were about to run the very first animal testing of our novel drug on the rats. I was assigned with the task of injecting the drug into the rats. And then…” Matt paused, while his eyes opened wide. Sara looked at him with a puzzled face, and asked:

“And?” Matt continued faster with a louder voice:

“The drug! The drug caused this! I accidentally stabbed myself with the syringe! My fingertip was bleeding, and some of the drug must have mixed into my blood!” Sara asked with a concerned voice:

“But how can that happen? Weren’t you wearing gloves? Didn’t you ask for first aid? Don’t you have health and safety regulations in your lab?” Matt lowered his head like a child got caught by his parents after causing a mess. He answered:

“I-I wasn’t wearing gloves…” Sara scowled in response and said:

“Of course you weren’t. How many times did I tell you to actually pay attention to those safety rules in labs? They aren’t there for no reason! But how about after the accident? Didn’t you seek for help?” Matt shook his head and quietly said:

“No, not really. I-I thought that my PI would get angry with me because of not paying attention to the safety rules. I thought I could quickly finish the task. I just removed the syringe tip with blood on it, put on a clean one and went to the bathroom to wash my hands.” Sara couldn’t believe what she was just hearing. Her chin dropped down and she had to cover her mouth with one hand. She said by slightly raising her voice:

“I can’t believe you, Matt! How could you be so reckless with your life? Yes, your PI didn’t get angry with you, but now you are shrunk to 6 inches tall!” Matt got defensive after hearing Sara’s words and he yelled:

“I know alright! I know I did something wrong! I know I am shrunk to 6 inches! Thanks for reminding me Sara!” Although getting frustrated with what his friend had just said, Sara reminded herself again that she had to excuse him in this moment of stress no matter what he said. Sara sighed and said:

“Well, fine. Then what happened?” Matt continued:

“Coming back from the bathroom, I started to feel sleepy. I just put on an antibiotic cream on my wound and closed it with a band-aid. I thought that it would be best to get some rest. I asked my lab-mate Vicky to continue the task, and told my PI that I didn’t feel well. He let me to come home and get some rest today.” Sara looked at Matt with eyes wide open and couldn’t stop herself from raising her voice again:

“You even had some symptoms following the accident! How could you be so careless with your life?” Matt replied:

“I don’t know… I thought I would be fine after taking a nap. I walked back home at about 1 PM. Just went straight to bed to take a nap without even changing. I quickly fell asleep. What time is it now?” After her friend finished his words, Sara replied:

“10:30 PM” Matt was absolutely shocked. “Wow! My nap turned into a 9 and a half hour one?” Sara shrugged and said:

“Yeah, it looks like it. And I guess the shrinking process happened when you were sleep.”

Making himself more comfortable under the warm, soft and slightly sweaty palm of Sara, Matt sighed. He was feeling much less scared and stressed than he initially did. He looked up to Sara and asked:

“Sara?” Sara smiled at him and said:

“Yes, my dear?” Matt continued:

“Will I be alright, Sara?” Sara forced herself to smile and replied:

“Of course, Matt! We will get you back to normal as soon as possible, and I will always be with you, okay? This is my promise.”

Matt wanted to believe the words of his gigantic friend. He turned to Sara and said:

“Thanks for warming me with your palm, Sara. I think I am okay now.” Sara moved her hand away from Matt and said:

“Okay, dear.” She looked out of the window to the cloudy night sky, and sighed with her head in her hands. The future looked as cloudy as the sky outside.

“Okay Matt, it feels totally weird to see you naked, so I will first make some clothing for you, okay?” Sara said to the 6 inch Matt sitting on the table. It was around 11:30 PM now. Matt did not want to sit on his bed anymore, so Sara carefully carried him to the table in the living room. He had his arms wrapped around his legs, pulling them closer to his torso. Although he somewhat got accustomed to the new situation, looking at the billboard sized face of Sara and seeing her hands almost the same size as himself was an intimidating experience. His initial shuddering was gone, which enabled him to perceive his surroundings in greater detail. He could sniff Sara’s smell in the air, which gave him a warm sense of comfort. Interestingly enough, he could somewhat sense that Sara was anxious and scared too. Sara looked so confident and calm in this situation, but he somehow knew that Sara was almost as scared as him, deep inside.  He looked up to Sara’s face—her blue eyes, her hipster glasses, the black curly strands of hair running down her face. Everything looked as beautiful as he used to see, but much more magnified. Her glossy lips opened and a booming sound started to come out of it: “You stay here Matt, okay? I will bring some stuff to make you a new piece of clothing!” She smiled at her tiny roommate and walked to her room.

When she was gone, Matt started to look around their living room. He felt like he walked into a dimension of giants and giantesses. However, he knew that he was the abnormal one here. He was tiny. Others were normal sized people. The couch where they used to cuddle looked like a large terrace now. The coffee table looked like a football field. Their TV looked like one of those gigantic outdoor screens he saw on the buildings of New York City where ads were played. Everything looked so unreal, yet so real. He started to shudder again. He knew the room was at normal temperature, even a bit too warm thanks to Sara cranking up the heat. Yet, he was feeling cold inside. His stress grew with every passing second. “Come on Sara… Where are you? I need you.” Right before he was about to call out to Sara, he saw his guardian angel coming out of her room with a large piece of white cloth, a pair of scissors and other sewing equipment in her hands.

While Sara sat down and put the material on the table in front of Matt, the tiny guy felt his heart beat going back to normal levels again. His shuddering stopped, and he was feeling safe. He guessed these feelings had something to do with the presence or absence of Sara, but he couldn’t really put a finger on it.

“Okay Matt, will you stand up please?” Sara said gently. Matt quickly stood up while covering his privates. Noticing this behavior, Sara said “Thank you!” with a smile on her face.

“Hmmm let’s see what size would fit you.” Sara said, while wrapping the large piece of cloth around Matt in several different ways. “Fair warning, it won’t be as fashionable as the shirts you are used to wearing, okay?” she said with a playful tone. Matt just smiled in response. He felt Sara was getting more and more comfortable with the situation, which gave him a growing sense of safety.

After the work of about 30 minutes, Sara was able to craft a simple dress out of the cloth that looked like those of the ancient people. “Hmm I think you look great in this! You should consider wearing a dress like this to the Halloween party once we get you back to normal!” Sara said with an excited tone, to cheer him up. Matt let out a forced smile in response. Deep down, both friends knew that it was uncertain whether Matt would ever be back to normal.

“Are you hungry, Matt?” Sara asked while raising her eyebrows. Before he could respond, she continued:

“I am starving right now! I didn’t wanna make Lexie upset, but her veggie soup tasted terrible. And I bet your little tummy would appreciate some food, too.” Sara said, while gently poking Matt's tummy with her fingertip. The warmth emanating from Sara’s finger made Matt feel safe to the point of genuinely smiling the first time ever since he had shrunk. This made Sara give him one of her signature warm and big smiles too. He said

“Yeah, now I realize how hungry I am. I’d really appreciate some food, Sara!” Sara got up quickly and said: “Right away! You stay here while I quickly fix some breakfast.” As soon as Matt saw Sara getting up and heard her words, his eyes grew in fear. He stood up quickly as well. He frantically said:

“Please, Sara! Don’t leave me alone here. I would like to stay next to you while you are preparing the food.” Sara paused and shrugged, followed by a smile. She said:

“Okay, I would not protest against my best friend who wants to spend more time with me!” She extended her open palm to him. Matt carefully climbed on Sara’s palm, and sat down on the warm and soft surface. Although this was the second time traveling on Sara’s palm, it was the first time he was paying attention to his surroundings due to feeling more secure now. He could feel a thin sheath of dampness on the surface he was sitting on. “This must be Sara’s sweat” he thought to himself during their travel to the kitchen. He was feeling the safest and most secure he ever felt, since the beginning of this whole thing. He quickly brought one of his hands which was resting on Sara’s palm and took a sniff of the sweat. As soon as he did this, he could tell the source of his warm and fuzzy feelings. “Is it just her sweat, that’s doing all kinds of wonders on me?” he asked himself. Deep into thoughts, he couldn’t even notice that they made it to the kitchen.

“Well, do you want me to set you on the counter?” Sara asked. Matt thought for a while, and in response he said:

“I don’t know… Our kitchen counter is not so big, and I guess it will get crowded with the food and other materials you use for fixing the meal. Besides, my movement would be restricted too, as I can’t jump down anywhere from the counter. Why don’t you just set me on the floor?” Sara looked a little bit surprised at first, but she followed:

“Hmm what you said makes sense actually. But I will have to be suuuuper careful not to hurt you down there. And you better be careful too!” while giggling and poking his tummy again. In response, Matt said:

“Yeah, I see your point. But I swear I will be suuuper careful” while impersonating the cheerful way in which Sara usually spoke. Sara giggled even more and slowly lowered her palm on the ground, setting Matt on the ground between her feet in her thong sandals she were wearing earlier to Alexis and Rob’s place, thanks to the warm autumn weather. She loved to expose her feet to fresh air whenever she could get the chance. “Oh, also….” She added while taking off her sandals one by one in a slow and gentle motion in order to not scare Matt, and putting them on the ground “… I think it will be much safer if I am barefoot. In case any accident happens, you know, I have to notice you immediately. So I will be barefoot. I guess they are really smelly right now from being in sandals all day, but I have to do this for your safety, okay? So stay away from my feet if you don’t want to get poisoned by the toxic fumes” she finished with a laughter.

Matt’s point of view was extremely disorienting and intimidating. He was standing in front of a real pair of feet that belonged to a real human—his best friend indeed. And, the feet were slightly larger than he was. Looking up, he felt like he was standing at the feet of a gigantic statue, but he knew that the “statue” was a live human being. He felt a little bit dizzy and nauseous while trying to process all this new perspective. Wafts of foot odor hit his nose when the titanic woman took off her sandals. It was no news for Matt that Sara had an issue of foot odor, but he could never imagine how intense the smell could get. He was about to protest when she suggested the idea, but some force held him back—Sara had good reasons after all. Why resist her? Surrounded by the 100x magnified version of the familiar cheesy smell, his nose got more and more accustomed to it. He was really surprised, as the foot odor of Sara usually had a nauseating effect on him in the past. Contrary to his expectations, his feelings of nausea and dizziness faded away.

“Okay! I am getting to work now. You enjoy yourself down there and be safe!” His thoughts were disrupted again by these words coming out of the mouth that was hundreds of feet above him. He saw Sara walking carefully towards the fridge. Being so small, he could hear the sound of her soles peeling off of the kitchen tiles where she stood on for the past couple of minutes and her sweat acted as an adhesive between the tiles and her soles. He could see the traces of her feet on the tiles made of her sweat. Well, it was not visual perception really—his vision was a little bit weird where he was having difficulties with perceiving some features surrounding him. But he could precisely detect the boundaries of these traces somehow. Unconsciously, he found himself getting drawn to those traces and sitting on his knees on one of them. He compared his body to the trace to see even more clearly that her feet had a good 2 or 3 inches of height above him. His head was only as big as her big toe now. He lowered his hand on the tiles and wiped some of her sweat on his hand. It felt warm and sticky. He brought his hand to his nose and took a big whiff of the liquid. He was hundreds of feet away from Sara from his perspective, yet this was the moment where he felt the safest and most secure. These feelings were followed by happiness. He couldn’t help but lick some of her sweat out of his hands. He felt much happier. It was not only happiness… It felt more like… He looked down to his crotch to notice his throbbing erection. He quickly looked up to Sara to check whether he was caught. Luckily, she was busy taking food out of the fridge while whistling one of her favorite tunes. Soon after Matt started to watch her, she turned back, glanced down at him with a smile and turned to the counter to start working on the omelet. “Good timing!” Matt thought to himself, not even wanting to imagine his friend’s reactions to what he had just done. Even though he was not sniffing his hand, Matt smelled the odor much stronger. He turned his head to his right to see the gigantic feet of his best friend just about 10 feet away from himself.

"You probably wanna get away from there for your safety and comfort, my dear Matt!" Sara said as she glanced down at her tiny friend who was positioned very close to her feet. Then she turned to the counter again and started to dice tomatoes for the omelet.

He nodded to Sara, but he totally forgot Sara's words once she got back to work. He just stood at his place and watched the feet for a long while that felt like hours to him. He watched how she idly lifted her heel up, which was accompanied by the sound of her sole peeling off from the tile; he watched how effortlessly the car sized foot flew a couple of feet upwards to scratch her other ankle; he watched how the foot came back down on the ground, resting on the toes, and her bright orange soles were crunched to reveal glorious wrinkles on her sole. Then he imagined, he imagined what it would be like to be trapped helplessly like a bug under her magnificent feet; to have his head engulfed by the toes painted in cyan; to feel those soft red-orange heels with her hands… He could hear his friend whistling. She had no clue about all those thoughts running through the mind of his tiny friend. She was just peacefully making the omelet. Matt walked closer to Sara’s feet while keeping a safe distance. As the smell and his thoughts were getting more powerful, his throbbing erection was getting harder and harder. He found himself stimulating his member with one hand while licking the remnants of Sara’s sweat on his other hand and watching the idle movements of Sara’s feet. When he was right at the edge of an orgasm, he managed to snap out of this overwhelming experience thanks to Sara accidentally dropping a fork on the counter.

“I should better walk away from her feet” he told to himself, and forced himself to walk away. This action itself took a great deal of his self-control, but he could barely succeed. A few minutes later, Sara turned back and lower her head to face her friend. She said:

“Good! I see you set yourself at a safe distance from my big ol’ smelly feet. I hope you had a fun time exploring the kitchen at your new size while I was making dinner for us!” she giggled. “I am done with the omelet. Let’s put you up on the dining table!” Following that, she leaned towards the ground and extended her open palm to Matt.

“Actually, would you be fine with me wrapping my hand around you?” she asked while raising her eyebrows. “It will be much easier for me to carry you that way.” Matt shrugged and said “Sure!” Sara reached down for her tiny friend and wrapped her fingers gently around him. It was a rather scary experience for Matt, but he completely trusted his friend. Sara gently set Matt on the dining table, and then set up the table for their late night meal.

Sara cut a small piece from the omelet and put it in front of Matt, saying “Okay, here is your meal!” To Matt this looked like a huge meal, but he was really hungry as he hadn’t eaten anything since the lunch he had in the lab. He happily took a huge bite from his piece of omelet. Sara asked:

“How is it? Did you like it?”

“Wow, this is delicious Sara!” Matt replied.

“Aww, thanks!” Sara said with a wide smile on her face. “So I guess we won’t have to fight for the last slice of pizza anymore, eh?” she said while giggling. Matt giggled in response, too.

“Yeah, I don’t see much chance for me against your fingers!” Then he looked into Sara’s blue eyes and said “I am so grateful.” Sara raised her eyebrows and asked:

“Why? Because you are shrunk?” she giggled. Matt smiled and while looking into Sara’s eyes, he said:

“No, silly! Out of all people that I could have been shrunk around, I got shrunk around the most gentle and caring person on earth.” Sara blushed in response and replied:

“And I am grateful for being the best friends with such an amazing person like you! With a person who is best friends with me for who I am…” Sara started to pet Matt’s head gently with her fingertip and continued: “With a person who has always respected my choices and decisions, and done his best to keep this friendship strong” Remembering his actions from when he was on the ground, Matt had a sinking feeling of regret in his chest. How could he even think of deriving pleasure out of Sara’s body without her knowledge? That was an action he had never considered in his life, and had always actively fought against in his college community.

“Is there something wrong, my dear?” Matt snapped out of his thoughts with those words of Sara. He quickly shook his head and smiled up to Sara: “No, not at all! Other than my size” he added with a forced laughter and continued: “You are an amazing person, too, Sara! And that’s why I wanted to be best friends with you.”

From there on, they talked for like half an hour about usual things they had always talked about. Sara told Matt what happened at Alexis’ place. Matt laughed to all the jokes and the prank Sara and Alexis pulled on Rob. Sara told all the details of the night with her usual excited tone of speech. Everything almost felt normal again. Almost as if Matt was sitting at the table at his normal height… Almost as if they both just came back from the campus, prepared some dinner and had been eating it… Just this taste of normality made them feel much better than they were.

“And I said to Lexie, ‘You can’t really’—Matt?” Sara paused in the middle of her sentence looking down at Matt. The tiny head of her friend fell down and he was fast asleep. Sara couldn’t help herself but quietly giggle to the cuteness of this sight. “Oh okay, I shouldn’t be giggling at this” she told to herself. She slowly and gently picked up Matt in her hand and carried him to his bed. When she was about to open her hand and set him on the bed, Matt murmured in his sleep and held on tightly to her hand.

“Awww! Does he want to stay with me even in his sleep?” she asked herself. The tiny hands holding onto her index finger and his little head comfortably rubbing itself on the pad of her thumb was just too cute for her. She couldn’t let herself disrupt her friend and decided to take him to her bed. Not wanting to disturb her friend, she just laid on the bed without changing, and quickly fell asleep while Matt was doing the same on soft and warm palm.