An enormous hand clapped down on my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks. Nervously I turned around and bumped my nose into a sizable rack threatening to burst from the white T-shirt straining against them. I craned my neck back slowly until I was able to see past the chest to a curtain of platinum hair framing a light face while two baby blue eyes lined by dark rims bored into me. Looking up at the security guard, my heart skipped a beat, and I wondered how someone so large had managed to sneak up on me.
“Finish your drink and come with me,” she commanded. Shit, I was getting kicked out. I was about to protest, then she continued, “You’re my partner for beer pong.” For a second I stood there dumbfounded, then she placed a hand on the bottom of my cup. “Drink,” she demanded, and kept her hand on it while I lifted it to my lips. She kept her fingers in place while I forced it down, tipping it gently to keep it coming. Finally the drink was gone and she let me pull the cup away.
“My name’s Helen,” she said, placing a hand on my back. Her fingers stretched between my shoulder blades, and with a light push she guided me toward a table in the corner. It was more than her power that compelled me forward, I realized: there was also some power of suggestion in her domineering voice. Not that I wanted to resist; from the shapely legs revealed by her white short shorts to her remarkably pretty face, I would do ghastly things for five minutes alone with her.
“Where’d your friends go?” Helen asked, finally turning her head to look down at me. She had dropped the overbearing routine and adopted a much more pleasant tone, as well.
“They ditched me along the way,” I replied, looking up to meet her gaze. The longer I did, the harder I found it to look away.
“Heh, that’ll happen at these things,” she said, showing the first hint of emotion. “The girls here can be a little aggressive. It’s lucky I snatched you up when I did, there were a couple other girls eyeing you hungrily when I walked up.”
I doubted it but felt uncomfortable contradicting her. This party felt like an elaborate prank, but maybe I was just paranoid. “When we walked in I thought you were hired muscle,” I said, dodging the issue.
“Nope, freelance!” she retorted, raising her other arm and flexing. Popped out like that, her bicep was about as big around as my calf. “We like to maintain a certain type of crowd at our parties, so we take turns watching the door until all our guests are in. You wouldn’t believe how many guys hear about a sorority party and try to slip in.”
“Does that really work?” Realizing that could easily be taken the wrong way I expounded on it. “I mean, you play a great bouncer, but there are some big guys out there.”
Helen chuckled. “Trust me, they’re not that big. Plus, macho dickheads are the most worried about getting put on their ass by a girl. Honestly you guys are so tiny I would have let you pass anyway if your friend hadn’t been putting off major vibes.” There it was again. I had never once heard a girl speak to her date affectionately by playing up how small he is.
Her massive hand moved from my back and clamped down on my shoulder again. “We’re here!” she announced, and I as finally able to tear my eyes away from her. This couldn’t be right though. The table was at eye level, and our own cups were blocking my vision. I looked up at her for guidance, and she simply smiled and handed me an orange ball. Maybe I was going crazy, but I could swear she was even bigger now.
“Uh, Helen?” I began. “Have you grown?” Underneath the table I saw two pairs of feminine legs, one shaped by a pair of dark stockings and the other bare, with the hem of a denim skirt just in view standing at the other side. My team was already at a distinct disadvantage.
“Lot more than you, little guy,” she replied, technically answering my question. “You here to play or gawk at me?”
I shrugged. Honestly, I sucked at beer pong, and looking at her sounded a lot more enjoyable. Still, I did not want her to get too frustrated, and turned back to the ridiculous table.
Without another word she squared up with the table, bumping me to the side with her hips. Fortunately we won the shootout, since I could not reasonably have gone eye to eye with either of my opponents. My luck ended there, though. The first time I got to throw the ball it landed right back on the table, bouncing along the way until it rolled off the edge. Not even close. Helen seemed unbothered, though, and picked up my slack.
My next shot fared no better, and Helen could no longer hold back the trash talk. “Want me to set you on the table next time so you can actually see, little guy?” she asked before making her throw. On the return we lost one, and she grabbed it before I could even reach up. “No, wait for one on the back. I doubt someone your size can even reach the table.”
When it was my turn to drink she admonished me too. “Make sure you use both hands so you don’t spill any.” It didn’t stop when we had to drink at the same time, either. “No, please, finish yours first,” she said. “I’m worried I might accidentally drink you.”
I turned to throw some innuendo back Helen’s way, but never managed to form the words. In the few minutes we had been playing it looked like she had grown over a foot, and was now double my height. Looking up from her shorts, I was shocked with how much she towered over me now. “Helen, are you sure you’re not growing?” I asked.
She did not even look down at me, electing instead to continue lining up her shot. “Yeah dude, haven’t grown an inch since high school,” she answered, letting the ball fly. I heard it plop into liquid before she continued. “Why?”
“It’s just that you seem bigger, by a lot.”
She looked down at me and grinned while the other pair got ready. “No, I’m just this tall. Remember when you got here and your friend stuck his nose in my crotch, and I almost threw him into a wall for it?” The longer I thought about it, she was probably right. I remembered gazing up at her, wondering just how she had gotten so big.
Clearly I was too short for what I had been doing and that was why my shots missed the mark by so much. I began to use a steeper angle to lob it onto the table, hoping it would drift into something. Helen chuckled and suggested “Try throwing it like a baseball next time, someone your size can use the extra force.” I filed that away for next time, she seemed to always have good suggestions.
My turn to drink came around again, and I reached for the cup but found it far beyond my grasp. I jumped for it but still fell short, my fingers just barely reaching the top of the table. Helen sighed and grabbed it by the rim, then lowered it to me. “I’d drop you in it for you to drink but you might drown,” she joked. Funny, but I knew I wasn’t that short.
I turned to take the cup with both hands and it felt like my brain threw a gear. Her knees were bent slightly while she offered it to me, readily apparent as they were at eye level. Shaking, I took it and began sipping away. “It’s just crazy to me how big you’ve gotten,” I said, trying to broach the issue without being redundant. “Seems like when we met I was at least up to your waist.”
Helen stifled a laugh and looked down, catching my gaze again. “I know it seems like we’ve known each other a while, but you really were that small when we met,” she replied. “Remember when your friend tried to run between my legs and I kneed him in the face?” While I gazed into her eyes that seemed more and more right. In fact when she stopped me all she had to do was step in front of me so that I ran into her leg.
The next time I had to throw I looked up at the table like it was an insurmountable throw. I tried to grip the ball but it kept slipping out of my hands when I applied any pressure. “Try shooting it like a basketball,” Helen suggested. “You’re so small it’s the only way to get any power behind it.” It went farther than I expected, but bounced back from one of our own cups.
While Helen lined up her shot I gazed up at her in awe. She posed like a Greek goddess and seemed just as powerful. “Next time you guys mind if I just hold him in a cup and let him drop it?” she asked, then swung her arm forward. “I’d like him to make at least one.” Their only response was to sink both balls. Helen took both cups for herself, explaining, “Sorry, but I’m worried you’d get crushed under one.”
I began to insist that I could still drink when I saw that the tops of her shoes were now taller than me, with the circular All-Star logo right on my level. Before I could say anything she set down one of the empty cups in front of me and leaned forward so she could see me. “Say, you’re cute,” Helen said. Now her voice sounded like someone was pitch shifting it way down, which I knew was not right. “What do you say after this game I put you in there and take you upstairs so you can live on my nightstand?”
It sounded like a great idea, then every day I could marvel in Helen looming over me. It simply did not add up though, and I knew how to get her to admit she had just recently grown into a titaness. “If I’d known all this time I could just in a cup beside you I would have been doing it all along!” I shouted up at her.
“Aw, that’s sweet!” she boomed. “It’s too bad we didn’t meet until tonight.” While I tried to think of how to work this back to my advantage she continued, sucking me in with those baby blues. “I’ll never forget how you guys tried to sneak past me, thinking I wouldn’t notice. You guys were moving so fast the one in front almost got stepped on. Imagine, a bunch of tiny guys at a sorority party without guardians. You wouldn’t last five minutes!”
Now I remembered the earthquake when she slammed her shoe down in front of us. I thought she had forgotten about me until she placed a foot on either side and stared down. Looking up at her looming over me was simultaneously terrifying and exciting like I had never felt before. I didn’t even run when she leaned over to grab me, and felt amazingly comfortable when her fingers secured me.
The large orange ball rested in front of me. I grabbed it with both hands and tried to heft it in the air, but my arms could barely get it off the ground. They gave out almost immediately and I dropped it, letting it roll a few inches away. “Don’t feel too bad,” Helen’s voice rumbled, “beer pong is a big people game. It’s brave someone so itty-bitty would even try.”
This has gone too far. “Helen, I know I’m small, but don’t you think that’s a little much?” The ground shook from her steps as she moved to stand astride me like when we had first met. Somehow she seemed even larger now, the shorts atop her towering legs like snowcaps on a mountain. She placed both hands on her side and looked down, her face seemingly above the clouds. “And how do you keep getting even bigger? It’s not fair!”
For the first time that night Helen looked exasperated. “I keep telling you, I’m not getting bigger, you’re just super tiny! In fact, you’re so tiny I thought you were a bug earlier. I was just about to squish you when Olga told me she had invited some bug-sized people to the party. You guys really should have just gotten her to carry you in.”
How could I have forgotten when I remembered it so clearly now? The floor rumbled from Helen’s steps, and we froze hoping she would not notice us. No good. She kept coming, the pounding of her shoes getting louder and the tremors getting more violent. Her heel slammed into the ground and her shoe swung down, the rubber diamonds of her Converse descending to crush the life out of me. In the face of being flattened by a colossal shoe I could only wonder how Aaron even convinced me to leave my matchbox.
“Don’t squash them!” a tremendous voice shouted, just halting the shoe. The patterned rubber sole loomed over us, threatening to be our doom if Helen so much as twitched. Once again the floor rumbled in quick double-taps and a pair of enormous brown boots came around the gigantic shoe. “There’s a tiny guy in my class, like not even an inch tall. I’ve been playing with him all semester, and he told me he’s got some other bug-sized friends. I thought we could have some fun with them, so I told him to bring them along. They should be arriving about now.”
Helen’s shoe withdrew from its menacing position over us, finally allowing me a clear view. There were in fact three giantesses standing over us; with the commotion another one had walked over, her humongous black flats hidden behind Helen’s white Converse. The three of them spread apart, each staring down at us.
The whole time I only had eyes for Helen. Gazing up her exquisite legs that seemed to stretch forever I almost wished I were a bug just so I could climb them. When they squatted around us my fascination only grew. She was like a monument chiseled from marble, and I wanted nothing more than to be close to her. I was relieved when enormous hands snatched up Aaron and Blake, leaving Helen and I alone.
She was careful picking me up, making sure to pinch just hard enough on the back of my shirt to secure me. The slow ascent while she lifted me was divine, and I drank in every detail from her toned legs to her enormous baby blues. At last she held me in front of them and smiled, fluttering her eyelashes at me. “Hey cutie,” she boomed, “got a date for tonight?”
I gaped up at Helen like I had the first time, knowing she was right. The words were so sure in my head like I had been rehearsing them while she coached me. “I’m just a bug at your feet,” I said with more confidence than I had ever said anything.
She laughed, a malevolent roar that threatened to split my ears. Looking up at her now I suddenly felt afraid. Helen was absolutely colossal, the very image of power looming over me. Under her withering gaze I wished I could shrink further just so I could escape her. Her toes wiggled inside her enormous Converse as they prepared to strike.
“Tell you what, bug,” she boomed. “I’ve had so much fun shrinking you I want to have even more fun. Start running, and when I crush you remember to beg.” With no other option, I did what she said and ran between her towering shoes toward the rest of the room.