Candice locked her door, drew her curtains shut and let the tiny boots roll from her palm to her desktop. She sat down in her chair rested her elbows on the desk and her face in her hands. She sat there for a little while just staring at the boots. She was making herself crazy. Carefully she picked up the left boot and brought it up to her nose, she held it firmly under her nostril and sniffed. She got the tang of sweat masked in hot air, there was a certain dampness to it. She turned the boot over and held it right up to her eyes. There were tiny scratches and marks in the tread. She ran her finger over the bottom and felt a slight stickiness. Examining it she saw an extraordinarily small piece of gum stuck to it. These boots had been worn.

Claire had filled the sink with warm water, she circled her hand around the pool stirring in a small amount of shower gel. When she was satisfied with how it bubbled up she reached over and picked Georgia up from the sink edge. She slid her thumb under the strap of her bra.

‘Hey’ Georgia yelled, ‘I can still do that myself’

‘Sorry, I forgot’ she laughed, she set Georgia back down on the rim of the sink, ‘I’ll be back in five minutes to check on you and make sure everything is alright’ Claire left the room.

‘Thanks’ Georgia called after her. She unhooked her bra and dropped in on the edge. She carefully shimmied out of her underwear dropping them too. She gripped the edge of the bowl and slowly dipped her foot in testing the temperature. It seemed alright so she gradually lowered herself in to the pool sized bath. She quickly warmed to the temperature, and ran her hands along her body scrubbing in the suds. She submersed herself to get all the grease out of her hair.

Candice turned on her laptop. She went straight to the search engine in the tool bar. The first thing she typed in was little boots. The results loaded and she felt like an idiot. She searched again, tiny boots, human doll clothes and then shrunken boots. This last one brought up a lot of sites where people had shrunken various things. She started reading the key lines out loud.

‘New invention of the shrink ray changes science…now able to shrink all kinds of matter… shrinking demonised through no regrowth ability…used in medical surgeries no application for the public at this time’ She clicked through the links, it didn’t take her long to find a site selling shrink rays illegally under a different name. There were sites where people talked about shrinking fantasies. She saw videos that looked like real of people shrinking and being stepped on and eaten for fun. She felt sick and lurched over holding her stomach. There was no way Claire could have done this to Georgia, it’s just these boots they looked exactly like hers. She had to know, if she didn’t see Georgia come back tomorrow she was going to find out.

Claire peeked back in through the frame of the door, she could hear the quiet voice of Georgia singing.

‘To enemy, it’s pointless to anybody, that doesn’t have faith. Give me the cloth and I’ll wipe my face.’

Claire hung in the doorway just listening.

‘And while I’m alive, I’ll make tiny changes to earth. So you can burn me. Cause we’ll all be the same…’

Georgia looked up saw Claire and yelped in surprise. She turned red.

‘How long have you been there?’

‘Don’t worry it was nice, you sounded good. Who was that?’

‘Frightened Rabbit, same as the shirt I was wearing’

‘Are they Scottish?’

‘Yeah…how’d you’

‘You were doing a little accent there’

Georgia turned an even deeper red.

Claire walked over to the sink, she dipped her finger into the pool and stirred it in little circles.

‘Just went I thought you couldn’t be more adorable’ she swished some bubbles around, ‘and I find you singing out sweetly in a Scottish accent’

‘I’m ready to get out now’

‘Okay’ Claire dipped her hand under the water and cupped Georgia’s fragile body in her palm. Her fingers curled up and rested on her back. As she lifted her out, the water drained falling between the gaps in her fingers. She reached over with her other hand and brought a hand towel over. Placing Georgia in the centre she wrapped her up in the folds and gently rolled her around to get her dry. She unfurled the towel and looked down at Georgia.

‘I think we need to get you some new clothes. I’ll wash these ones now, but you’re going to need sleep wear and other outfits. You can’t wear the same outfit for the rest of your life, you’re not a cartoon character.’

‘How are we going to do that?’

‘We’ll do it online, that way you can see the stuff for yourself. I couldn’t risk taking you out in a toyshop. There’s gotta be someone online that sells good quality doll clothes. We’ll do it now, before we go to bed.’

‘You’re right, it just feels that if I started buying tiny clothes this will all feel real. I know that sounds stupid but…’

‘It doesn’t sound stupid at all. It’s okay, we don’t have to rush this’

‘I want to, like you said, I can’t just wear the same stuff for ever.’

Claire handed her the bra and underwear. She watched as Georgia hooked herself in and pulled her underwear up.

‘I can sleep like this tonight, but I do need some new clothes.’

Claire picked Georgia up from the towel and let her rest in the palm of her hand. She walked back to her bed and brought her laptop over. She turned it on and rested it on her lap with her knees slightly raised behind it. Georgia leant back against Claire’s stomach, her feet reached down just in front of the touchpad. It seemed giant to her, it was again like looking at a cinema screen. Claire’s hands blocked off both sides, her fingers tapped furiously at the keyboard. Claire had gone straight to google, and was typing in quality dolls clothing. She clicked on a Barbie site. She looked at the pictures.

‘These are going to be way too big for you, she’s triple your height’

‘Wow, thanks for making me feel even smaller’ Georgia coughed out.

‘Oh sorry I didn’t mean it like that.’ Her right thumb came down and stroked Georgia’s face. ‘There’s nothing really here for a three inch doll’ Claire drummed her fingers against the laptop, then she burst out laughing.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘I just realised how stupid we’ve been’ she continued into a giggling fit.

‘What?’

‘You shrunk right?’

‘Yes, I think we know I’ve shrunk’

‘Well you shrunk with your clothes as well. All we have to do is go to your room and shrink down your wardrobe to the same size.’

‘I get to wear my own clothes’ she cried out with glee.

‘Yep, we can do that tomorrow, and if you ever wanted we can always get you more clothes just by shrinking them down.’ Claire leant back and yawned stretching her arms, ‘Well seeing as we’ve sorted that problem out, we might as well go to bed’ she started closing the lid of the laptop, Georgia scooted her feet back to rest back down on Claire.

‘Where am I going to sleep?’ Georgia asked.

‘With me’ Claire said rather bluntly. ‘Just for tonight, I’ll look into buying you a bed tomorrow, I’ll get one in town so you can have it for tomorrow night.’ She put the laptop down by her bedside and removed her shirt. ‘Don’t worry it’s just for one night.’ She brought Georgia up over her chest, her thumb slid under the cup of her bra and stretched it out.

‘Claire’ Georgia said nervously.

Claire smiled down at her and let her slide into her cup till she was in up to her shoulders. She let it snap back shut. Georgia had her arms resting on the outside of the cup, she could feel Claire’s warm soft skin underneath her. It adjusted to her and she sunk in like it was memory foam. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was surprisingly comfortable. ‘Just think of it as your bed and blanket for tonight.’ Claire stood up and walked over to the light switch. The motion sent Georgia bouncing up and down with the ample breast beneath her. The light flicked off and Claire climbed back in to bed. She brought her blanket up just below her breasts.

‘Goodnight’ she breathed out gently.

Georgia shut her eyes and relaxed into the body of her roommate.