“Hey, you can put me down please? It’s not like we’re moving that fast” Dylan almost got scared as he heard the voice next to his ear. Nathan was so light at this size he had almost forgotten he was still sitting on his shoulder. He carefully picked up his friend and set him on the floor. “Thank you.” He was not used to Nate being this… polite. He was sure he would miss that once things got back to normal.. 

Dylan took the chance to walk around the 12 foot giant ahead of them in the queue and check whether the casino had opened already. It hadn’t. “Damn it, we’ve been here for 20 minutes”. Nathan looked up. “That’s because we got here half an hour before opening time. You really are impatient, huh? I know growing like that must have felt great, but don’t bet too much, that’s how they get ya! I’m not making that mistake again, I’m paying up and that’s it.”

“Oh, come on, where’s the fun in that?” Nathan turned to the origin of the voice, a one foot tall, slightly androgynous gambler who carefully squeezed between Dylan’s legs. “Oh, hey, a fellow shortie! I’m so glad to see eye to eye with someone!” The stranger smiled. “Yeah, I had a bad night. I’m Martin, by the way!” 

“Nate. So, you’re paying up too?” Martin scoffed. “No way, I’m not taking the easy way out. I’m winning tonight, I just feel it. I don’t get how people can give up so quickly”. Nathan bit his lip, telling himself over and over to ignore that comment, to be a responsible adult, and to just… “Give up? Me? You clearly don’t know who I am. You know what? Fuck it, I’m gonna do it properly, and you won’t even reach my knees by the end of the night, smartass!” Dylan rolled his eyes as Nate’s new rival grinned from ear to ear. “Alright loudmouth, I’ll enjoy seeing you try”.

As the doors finally opened, Dylan somehow found himself struggling to keep up with the pace of the two overexcited players at his feet, who kept bickering all the way to the slot machines. “Wait wait wait hold up guys. These slot machines are a death trap, I didn’t see anyone over two feet tall walking away from them yesterday”. Nathan looked up and shrugged. “There’s a first for everything. What about you? Back to the lucky roulette?”

“I’m gonna try my hand at poker”. Nathan’s little eyes became extremely wide. “Wait, why would you want to do that? You suck at poker! You’ve never won a game in your life!” Dylan avoided eye contact, nervously shifting on his feet, “You said it, first time for everything. And if you get any smaller, promise me to just pay up alright? See you later”.

Dylan walked among the tables, dodging bigger legs and avoiding a couple less lucky gamblers on the floor. He knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to lose, to return to normal. He knew anyone would understand, but for some reason he felt strangely embarrassed about it. As he walked up to the poker table he felt relieved. Soon everything would be back to… wait.

“Carmen? What are you doing here?” He looked down at his friend, sitting in front of a small table with cards laid on it, an empty chair ahead of it. “Uh… hi Dylan. I just… I just wanted to try my luck. After all the fun last night, I felt like I was missing out. Come on, sit down! It’s a heads up game, one on one!” Dylan sat down rather awkwardly, but the small, reinforced chair held on. 

“Alright, let’s do one. Just one. I’ve never seen you lose”. Carmen smirked. “Then why play against me?”. Dylan shifted on his seat, nervously. As his knees hit the underside of the table, the tiny croupier fell on his butt. “Careful up there!” He got up, annoyed. “Right. You know how this shit works, right? Each gets two cards, three to five on the table, all that.” Carmen and Dylan nodded. “Well then, let’s get to it. God I hate this fucking job…” The tiny man walked over to the deck and pulled a massive card, slowly dragging it towards Carmen as she looked down in disbelief. This was going to take a while.

…

Bell. Seven. Cherry. “No, no, no! Fuck you, fuck you, fuck…”Nate’s angry punches to the slot machine got progressively weaker as his hand got smaller. He sat down on the stool and looked up at his opponent. Martin wasn’t doing much better, but at eight inches, he was quite taller than him, and was smirking as if he’d won the jackpot. “No luck tonight, huh? Don’t worry, I’ll help you reach the lever next time. But it’s my turn now! And I feel good about this one.” 

Nathan’s eyes opened wide as Martin pushed the ‘40%’ button, jumped up and grabbed on to the lever, pulling it down with his full weight. “That’s risky!” Martin didn’t listen as he stared at the symbols spinning by. With each of the three reels stopping, his grin gradually disappeared. Nate quickly got up and stood next to him. He wanted to enjoy this. Martin’s body shrunk, smaller and smaller, their eyes meeting for a moment before his rival went down to just under five inches. Nate ruffled his hair, laughing. 

“You were feeling good about this one, huh?” Martin shoved his hand away, all flustered. “Fuck this thing. Let’s just pay up and leave”. Nate shook his head. “Nah. What were you saying earlier? About taking the easy way out and giving up? We’ll do this the right way. Now, uh… Hey! Hey! Down here! Can anyone help me reach that lever?”

…

The tiny croupier was sitting on the remainder of the deck, exhausted. Five cards were facing up, and Dylan and Carmen were shooting glances at each other. “Come on you two, just show them already”. Dylan set his two cards down. The seven on his hand and the one on the table made up a measly pair. He readied himself as Carmen formed a smile of relief and slammed her two fours on the table, matching the fifth and last community card. “Well played Dylan”. He welcomed the energy that ran through his body as the crupier pressed a small button on the table. The bet had gone up to exactly 10%. He felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders as he shrunk. It was a strangely liberating feeling. He looked down at Carmen and…

Wait. He was still looking down at Carmen. He looked down at his own body, double and triple checking, but the world around him felt just right, as it had always been. He looked down at the croupier. “Uh… something went wrong. She didn’t grow”. The tiny man shrugged. “She must have placed a bet on someone else”. Dylan looked up at Carmen. She was typing something on her phone. “Carmen… what did you do?”

…

Will woke up to the sound of the phone. He groaned and turned around in his bed, wondering why someone would call him in the middle of the night. Then it all came back as if in a flash. “Oh fuck!” He jumped off the bed and grabbed the phone, pressing the green button. “Yes? You there already? Have you done it? I went to sleep, it was taking so long… tell me honey, did you place…” Before Carmen had had a chance to answer, Will finally noticed how unusually tight his pyjamas felt. “Oh… oh shit, it worked! Baby, it worked! It…”

Carmen sighed, moving the phone away from her ear as Will kept shouting on the other side. She had tried to appear confident in front of Will, but she had been really nervous, afraid she was gonna mess it up. But as soon as Dylan agreed to play against her, she knew she was going to give Will his wish. Shame it was only 10%...

“Is that… is that Will? Shit, you were playing for him!” Carmen turned the phone’s volume down, Will still blabbering on the other side. “I did. We came together, placed the bet, but he couldn’t bear to watch, so he went home”. Dylan laughed. “Well, everyone’s happy then. Good move!” Carmen smiled, but her mind was wondering as she looked straight into her friend’s eyes. Dylan was back to normal, sure, but he’d never really looked comfortable in his own skin. And the idea of Will towering over her was so strangely appealing. She wondered if she could push the whole thing just a little bit further…

Carmen hung up the phone, interrupting Will’s excited rambling. “Hey, Dylan… wanna have another go?”.