“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?”