Their voices came to Chuxi loudly, yet muffled.

“Sushi? You didn’t get me any, did you? Because you know I that stuff.”

“No, no, that’s his name!” said Haley apprehensively. He could hear her just overhead now, presumably scanning the table for where he might be. “Could you please get your feet off of the table?”

“Sure, Haley,” murmured Julie, clearly perplexed. Little did she know, a tiny man struggled to breath beneath her sodden socks, inhaling the stench of her feet.

“Oh my God,” Haley exclaimed as realization hit her. In an instant, the weight of the sock vanished and light poured down on him. Lying on his back, he regarded two attractive female faces, one horrified, the other confused.

“What is that?” asked Julie. “Some kind of doll?”

“No, Julie,” said Haley, both exasperated and relieved. “This is Sushi, the person I wanted you to meet.”

“Uh…”

Chuxi stood up and waved to her. “Hi, my name is Chuxi. I… uh… mysteriously shrank in the library today, and Haley has offered to take care of me.”

Julie’s eyes darted to and fro between him and Haley. “What the Hell? Is this some kind of prank?”

“It’s not a prank,” Haley protested. “He’s a real person – just smaller.”

“So what was he doing under my gross workout socks?”

Haley grimaced and immediately dropped the socks she had been holding up to that moment as if they were snakes. “I don’t know – you must’ve dumped them on him while you weren’t paying attention.” She gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Sushi, I shouldn’t have left you in the room by yourself like that.”

“It’s okay,” Chuxi waved it off, even as Julie’s powerful scent continued to crowd into his head. “If I was her, I wouldn’t have noticed me either.”

By now, Julie openly gaped at him, her blue eyes wide with surprise. She clearly had a hard time processing this, and Chuxi couldn’t blame her. How often did people shrink to four inches tall?

“Can I hold him?” she asked finally.

“He’s not a baby,” laughed Haley, seeming to relax. “Ask him yourself.”

Julie gave him a broad smile. “Whaddaya say?”

“Sure,” Chuxi nodded. Without warning, Julie’s hand shot forward and her fingers surrounded him in a firm embrace. He sank into her skin like quicksand, and it pressed his arms to his sides, leaving only his head free. The experience was frightening, to say the least, but he fought hard to keep from showing his discomfort.

“Wow, he’s so light!” laughed Julie as she brought him up to her eyes. In his periphery, he could see Haley’s smile falter – she looked worried.

Attempting to put his friend at ease, Chuxi laughed as well and cracked a joke. “I’d been meaning to lose some weight.”

This elicited a peal of giggling from Julie, whose hot breath washed over him like an ocean wave. “You’ll have to tell me your dieting secrets,” she said, lowering him back onto the table. He breathed a sigh of relief when she released him, and he had to actively force himself not to rub his shoulders. Her fingers had been tight, but overall it wasn’t too bad. He could imagine how easy it would be for her to crush him in her fist. In fact, from her perspective, her grip was probably quite dainty. Still, the experience made him appreciate the way Haley picked him up that much more. He sent her a grin, and she beamed back.

“Well, I’m gonna go hop in the shower,” Haley announced. “Why don’t you two get to know each other?”

The door to the bathroom clicked shut, leaving Julie and Chuxi in an awkward silence.

“Sorry about my socks,” said Julie finally, a sheepish expression on her face. “That must’ve been pretty disgusting.”

“You’ve clearly never been in a men’s locker room,” Chuxi countered.

Julie laughed behind her hand, her blue eyes sparkling. “You trying to say I wasn’t working hard enough?” she fired back. “I just ran five miles in this blistering Nashville heat – I’m surprised those socks didn’t knock you out.”

“Well I can’t say they smelled like roses…”

“Damn straight,” said Julie with a devilish smirk. “Imagine if you had tasted some of it. That would’ve been bad.”

Chuxi tried to hide the slight edge of nervousness to his laugh. This was weird. Why was she still talking about this? “So how long have you been rooming with Haley?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Oh, we just started rooming together this year, but we’ve been friends forever. We lived on the same floor freshman year,” she explained. The conversation was more mundane from that point on, which Chuxi was glad for. Maybe he was overreacting, but he had definitely felt uncomfortable just then; it was easy to feel that way when a cloud of her foot stink still hung over him, not to mention that he wouldn’t win a fight against her pinkie finger.

When Haley walked in a little later, Chuxi couldn’t help but feel a surge of relief. He hadn’t realized how attached to her he had become, but given his predicament, perhaps it shouldn’t surprise him. “You two getting along?” she asked cheerily.

“Haley, I love this little guy,” replied Julie enthusiastically. “Can we keep him?”

“We’ll have him until he gets back to normal.” She sent her friend a teasing look. “Maybe if we’re extra nice to him, he’ll want to see us afterwards.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, right Sushi?” said Julie. “Anyway, I need to wash up and head out. Nice to meet you.” She waved at him and walked out of the room.

“She’s a nice girl, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, definitely,” he agreed.

Just then, Julie came back in and scooped up her socks where Haley had dropped them. “Almost forgot these,” she said before giving Chuxi a conspiratorial look, “Just between you and me, Haley is a total neat freak. If I had left these out here, I never would’ve heard the end of it!” Haley made a noise in protest, but Julie just laughed it off. To Chuxi’s surprise, Julie brought the socks to her nose and took a whiff. “Oh wow, these do stink!” Giggling, she winked at him and marched out the door. “See you later, Sushi!”

This time, she was gone for good – but her fragrance lingered.

“You don’t smell too great either,” noticed Haley.

“You don’t like my new cologne?” he cracked, eliciting a long laugh from his friend. He liked that. Eventually, she calmed down and fixed him with her soft brown eyes.

“Let’s get you a bath.”