“Now
let’s see. How tall are you again Max?” The amazonian girl
grinned at him, twirling one lock of strawberry hair behind her right
ear. He knew that she thought this was cute, but Max had always
found it a somewhat irritating mannerism. Funny how a sudden growth
spurt could change your perspective.
“I’m
almost exactly six feet even,” he reported.
Tara
folded her hands beneath her chin, her smile growing wider. “Goodie!
You’ll make a perfect measuring stick then! Come here, stand next
to me.” She crossed the room to where Max was sitting on the
couch, and took him by the hand. The girl looked down at him slyly
for a moment, and then with a gentle tug she pulled him to his feet.
Before he could move Tara stopped him with a touch on the elbow, and
then she was standing with her beautiful face only inches from his.
“Um...Tara?”
She was so close that he could smell her peach-flavored lip gloss,
could feel the heat of her breath of his cheeks. “When people are
comparing heights, don’t they traditionally stand...back-to-back?”
She
giggled. “But then I wouldn’t be able to SEE if I was taller,
silly. Let’s see...hmm....” She leaned forward, critically
examining their relative statures. As she did, one of her large,
firm breasts brushed innocently against his arm. Given the fact that
Tara was a practically a Jedi master of flirting, he didn’t believe
for a second that this was an accident. In any case, he wasn’t
complaining.
“Just
as I thought! I've got you beat by at least two inches!” Tara
cried, smirking at him triumphantly. “So...important question,
hun. How do you feel about girls that are taller than you? You don’t
find me intimidating, do you Max-ie? Oh, I’m sorry,” she said,
reading the scowl on him face. “I forgot, you don’t like that
nick-name, do you? That’s okay, we’ll find you a new one. How
about...Max-imum? The Max-er. God, that’s terrible.”
“Though
appropriate,” Bill observed. “Apparently you’ve been doing a
lot of max-imizing these last few days.”
“You’re
an awful human being,” Max told him.
“How
about a more traditional nick-name then?” Tara took another
half-step forward, running one long finger along the rim of his
collar. “Max sweetie? Max baby? My darling Max....” The
six-foot-two enchantress leaned in closer still, her tongue tracing
the edges of her lips seductively.
Melinda
coughed. “Woah, seriously, PDA alert! Did you forget there are
OTHER PEOPLE in the room?”
Tara
shot her an evil glare. “Of course I didn’t FORGET. I’m just
not going to let it stop me.”
“She’s
got a point though,” Bill said. “I think we have more important
things to do than watch Tara try to get into Max’s pants.”
“Actually,
that was the first thing on my mind. No, not like that,” he told
Tara, responding to the girl’s cheshire cat grin. “You see, when
Lily took the drug she suddenly found me irresistible. And right
now, you're acting almost exactly the way she did. Granted she was a
lot more forceful about it, but her dose was something like three
times as large as yours. So...why? Besides the obvious affects –
the muscle, the size, the sexy – is this stuff some sort of...I
don’t know...love potion?”
“You’re
asking me if it suddenly made me want to jump your bones, apropos of
nothing?” she asked, crossing her arms defensively.
Max
nodded.
Tara
laughed nervously. “No, it didn’t.” The girl stretched,
rubbing the back of her neck self-consciously. “I can’t believe
I’m about to tell you this. Umm...I’ve had a crush on you for
like, a couple years now. Ever since our night together, remember?
Summer of ’08?”
Of
course Max remembered THAT. “I just assumed that was a one-time
deal. I mean, everyone else was out of town. The moon was full. We
were both so drunk....”
“...and
you know my policy on monogamy. Free love, and all that garbage. So
why would you think it anything other than random sex?”
Bill
was rubbing his hands together manically. “Oooh, drama!”
Melinda, meanwhile, was staring at the ceiling, apparently lost in
thought.
“What
I’m trying to say, in an incredibly round-about fashion, is that
this drug ISN’T making me do anything I wouldn’t WANT to do. It
DOES make me feel more...relaxed? Confident. Not so easily
embarrassed.”
Max
raised one eyebrow skeptically. “That’s all?”
Tara
rolled her eyes, putting her hands behind her head. “What, you
want me to come right out and SAY it? Fine. I’m horny as hell.
Are you happy?”
He
patted her cheek affectionately. “Quite.”
The
taller girl responded by giving him a solid punch in the shoulder.
It took all of his will not to cry out in pain – this new Tara
really packed a wallop.
Melinda
spoke up suddenly. “So, let’s start from the top with what we
know about this drug.” She held up one finger. “First: this
stuff is potent. A single dose is enough to give a person about nine
to ten inches in height. And these doses are TINY.”
Max
held up the glass vial containing the drug. “Very tiny. I’m
carrying about a hundred thousand in this little test tube. Nine or
ten inches might not be quite accurate – its affects are probably
inversely proportional to body mass, and so you’d have to start
taking larger and larger doses to get that same increase. Still,
imagine what would happen if one person accidentally drank ALL of
this.”
“So
you better be pretty damn careful with it,” Bill said. “Don't
leave it lying around.”
“Amen
to THAT.”
Melinda
continued. “Second: Max, the drug didn’t seem to work on you at
all. Do you have any idea why that might be?”
Max
scratched his chin. “Given that my dose came from the same source
as Tara's...and we KNOW that worked...the only thing I can think of
is gender. As improbable as it seems, maybe this stuff only works on
females. One trial isn’t enough to make that kind of assumption,
though. We need more data.”
They
all turned to look at Bill. He grinned nervously. “Sorry –
inner ear thing. Doctor says I’m not allowed to travel to high
altitudes.”
“But
we don’t even think it’ll work,” Melinda argued.
“And
if it does, you’d end up looking like ME,” Tara added, folding
her arms below her massive chest and blowing him a kiss.
“Tempting.
I’ll pass for now, thanks.”
Melinda
sighed. “We'll come back to that, I suppose. Anyway, we also know
that, in addition to the height, this stuff is a mild mood enhancer,
as well as an aphrodisiac.” She shot Tara a sidelong glance. “And
a pretty powerful one at that.”
“You
have NO idea,” Tara said, grinning blissfully.
“And
another thing,” Max said. “The secondary affects seem to be
variable.” He briefly explained to them how when Lily had taken
the drug, it had caused her breasts to grow. Tara, on the other
hand, had experienced an increase in muscle mass instead.
“Maybe
it could tell that I didn’t need any help filling out a bra,”
Tara said, cupping herself.
“...but
since you were a total weakling, it decided to give you a hand in
THAT department,” Melinda finished, smirking.
Tara
stood up to her full height. “Watch what you say, girl.”
“Whatever,
you don't scare me. I’m still stronger than you are. And I didn’t
need, ah...supplements.” She pointed at the taller girl, and
winked. “The way YOU did.”
Tara
laughed scornfully. “You’re kidding, right? I mean, you’re
pretty tough, by MORTAL standards. But things have changed, Mel.
You’re going to have settle for being second-best.”
“Is
that true?” Melinda asked, her voice thick with sarcasm. She
walked over to stand before Tara, and smiled up at her wickedly.
“Perhaps you’d like to put it to a test?”
Max
moved to intervene, but stopped when he felt a hand grip his
shoulder. Bill was there, grinning lecherously. He put one finger
to his lips, and motioned with his eyes toward the two girls. Max
thought for a moment, and then he returned the grin, nodding – it
might be fun to sit back and see where this little tiff was going.
“A
test? Sure, why not. What have you got in mind?”
Melinda
turned, and made her way to the kitchen table. She sat down,
beckoning Tara to do the same. With one arm she swept the table
clean, piles of junk mail and empty beer bottles cascading onto the
floor. “I thought we’d try something nice and simple. How about
a little old-fashioned arm wrestling?”
“Sounds
good to me.” She sat down across from Melinda, resting her elbow
on the table and extending her hand to the other girl. “How do you
feel about making it a bit more interesting? Say, with a friendly
wager?”
“I
was just thinking the same thing,” Melinda answered, grinning.
“How about, if I win, you have to start coming to the gym with me.
I could use a good spotter.”
Tara’s
eyes widened in horror. “But don’t you go at like, FIVE in the
MORNING?”
“It’s
not too late to back out, hun,” Melinda reminded her.
Tara
considered it, and then she smiled. “Okay, you’ve got a deal.
And...WHEN I win....” She paused, giving Max a significant look.
“Melinda has to take a dose of the serum.”
“WOAH,
are you serious?” Melinda gasped. “That stuff made you grow,
what, ten inches taller? I’m WAY bigger than you were to start out
with. I’d be, what, like six foot eight.”
“Less
than that,” Max argued. “You’re heavier than Tara. Or I mean,
you're heavier now than she was, before she grew. You could just
tell people you had a growth spurt.”
Melinda
looked at him incredulously. “A GROWTH SPURT? Come on, nobody
would buy that. I can’t believe you’re actually going to let
Tara make a bet with YOUR drug.”
Max
didn’t respond. She had a point, but the honest answer was that he
wasn’t entirely certain WHY he was allowing this to happen. Deep
down, he supposed it was because he honestly wouldn’t mind seeing
Melinda as a six and a half foot amazon. And there was just
something about watching a girl grow...seeing her rip out of her
clothes, becoming bigger, more powerful.
His
friends were taking the drugs, but maybe he was the one who was
addicted.
Tara
was grinning at Melinda. “If you’ve finally figured out that you
can’t win, feel free to slink away in shame,” she told her.
All
pretense of humor had dropped from Melinda now. She held her arm
behind her head for a moment, stretching, and dropped it onto the
table with an audible ‘thud.’ “Bring it.”
Tara
grasped the offered hand. “On the count of three, then.”
Bill
was elbowing Max in the ribs. “This is gonna be good!”
The
girls stared into each other’s eyes. “One....” Melinda began.
“THREE!”
exclaimed Tara. Her muscles flexed, and Melinda’s arm shot
backward a fraction of an inch. The shorter girl quickly recovered,
and managed to push Tara back to a neutral position. “Good catch,”
Tara said through clenched teeth. “But you’re
only...nrgh...delaying....”
Melinda
remained silent. Sweat was breaking out on the foreheads of both
girls. A dark red flush crept down Tara’s neck; her arm trembled.
Melinda,
on the other hand, looked to be relaxed, in complete control of
herself. After another moment she had Tara on the defensive, forcing
the giant girl to fight just to maintain her position. Now gravity
was on Melinda’s side, and Tara’s size was a liability.
The
longer they held this way, the more energy Tara was forced to expend.
She was breathing hard, a frantic look in her eyes. Grimacing, she
threw the last of her strength against Melinda, and briefly succeeded
in taking the advantage. But soon her stamina was gone. Sensing her
moment was at hand, Melinda pushed back, and Tara’s hand slapped
hard against the table.
Melinda
stood up from the table, and condescendingly patted Tara on the head.
“We’ll leave for the gym at four thirty tomorrow morning,” she
said, only the faintest bit out of breath. “You buy the protein
drinks. Bring a towel, and make sure you wear loose clothing.”
“Where
am I supposed to find loose clothing?” Tara complained, rubbing her
bicep muscle. “I’m like, eight sizes too big for anything I
own.”
“I
still have some shirts from before I lost my freshman fifteen,”
Bill said, heading toward his room. “We’ll see if anything
fits.”
Max
and his friends talked long into the night. They discussed what
Max’s next move should be, and how they were ever going to explain
Tara’s new stature. After hours of shameless flirting and
wheedling by the girls, they finally convinced Bill to test the
serum. Just as expected, it seemed to have no affect on men.
When
Max finally got into his car to drive home it was well past one in
the morning. His mind ached from trying to absorb all the new things
he had learned – not least of which the news that Tara had been
harboring a crush for him. He had always been attracted to the
flighty little girl (not so little anymore, he reminded himself,) and
his head was full of the possibilities that this situation could
yield.
Yet
he kept coming back to one moment in the evening. It was something
Tara had said. She had told him that the drug made her more willing
to act on the desires that she already had – not given her any new
ones. It made him wonder exactly what Lily had been thinking when
she tried to force herself on him. Maybe his lab partner secretly
had feelings for him? An intriguing prospect, but it seemed unlikely
after all the verbal abuse she had treated him to over the years. In
any case, they had a study date scheduled for tomorrow night. Max
decided he would talk to her about it.
Then
again, talking might very well be the last thing on the seven foot
girl’s mind.