"My little friend"
Chapter 4: Emotional Distress
And so I sat, at around midnight that night, by my computer, twirling to and fro in my office chair, just thinking about everything that had happened.
My entire routine had been completely altered by this, and it didn't have to be, I could've just left her in the grass and moved on. But something made me want to learn more, and even now, I feel like I know nothing about my fairy friend.
She seemed very mysterious in a lot of ways, and despite the fact that she liked seeing me, I felt bad, because she seemed deeply disturbed with something.
She mentioned having troubles with an ex, which was partially my fault for bitching about Kim in the first place, but how could she have an ex? Well I guess there must've been more fairies than just her... it makes sense, I guess.
There were certain topics I'd just have to stay away from, I supposed. I really liked seeing her, there was just something about her. She was so unpredictable, so much different than my friends, guys or girls.
I had gotten nothing done in class that day, and nothing done at work either, although that's not much of a change. I can usually never focus on work anyway, because, well it sucks, but y'know...
I did see John again that afternoon, and we played our usual marathon of foosball. I still couldn't stop thinking about Jen though, and what she was doing. I wondered if she lived in this underground grotto or something. I sure hoped she wasn't simply exposed to the elements of the outdoors.
It was nighttime now, and I wondered how she slept, if she had a house that was simply miniature or if she slept under trees, using leaves as blankets. Then again, she had a cell phone, and wore normal clothes that were miniature, so surely she must've had other miniature accomodations, right?
I was overthinking everything right now and --
"Hey"
I glanced up my computer screen to see John was IMing me. I decided to respond, and apologize for earlier. I didn't mean to ditch him, or any of my friends. I really wish I could've shown Jen to my other friends, they wouldn't have hurt her.
But then I got to thinking, if I had shown Jen to them, in a public place, there's no telling what other chaos could've arisen. There's probably a reason why Jen keeps hidden so much, she doesn't want to cause a commotion or anything.
"HEY, YOU STILL THERE?"
I noticed John had sent me a long trail of IM's in the time it had taken me to think about Jen and everything.
"Hey, yeah I'm here..." I typed in.
"So what was with the teabags?" John said, through IM.
"Oh, I just needed some time alone"
"You could've just said that, I wouldn't have cared"
"Yeah you would've... you would've followed me" I said back.
"I really would've" John said.
"Don't worry, we'll hang out tomorrow" I typed in, not really sure of how much truth was in that statement. After all, I had a certain tiny girl to attend to. I didn't want to overdo it though, and scare her away. She had an extraordinary amount of trust in me. I wondered why she'd be so trusting of me, since she seemed generally terrified of all others. I decided not to question it and soon went to bed, with questions swirling in my mind.
I woke up the next morning and quickly headed to Avery Point. It was about 10 AM when I got there and I actually felt good for a change. Believe it or not, I wasn't even thinking about Jen, but instead just making this day the best it could be. I was open to anything at this point.
Of course, that doesn't mean I'd try new things, because I found myself in front of the foosball table again, as Sarah pressured John and I to join her for a 3 player game of pool. Luckily, I was able to escape the game by going to class.
Too bad going to physics class wasn't my ideal escape plan. I tried furiously to take notes on everything my teacher was saying, but somehow the words that were being said died in mid-air and only about half of them were translated onto my notebook page, usually in sloppy fashion so that I'd have sentences like...
"speed car 45 down angle slope find important jen find angle in down
with many spaces in between the words.
As my teacher rambled on and I attempted to follow along, I began to wonder in my head if I was even sane or not. Maybe finding Jen was the last step to my going insane. My mundane routine was the only thing that I had in common with normal people, and that was broken by my random trips around campus with a girl the size of my fist. I didn't mind this change of pace, of course, but still, it's thrown me even more off track than I was before.
Still, I feel a slight sense of pride in myself that I'm able to jot down a few more pages of barely coherent notes. I hope to myself that when I read them later, I can fill in the blanks in my mind somehow.
On my way downstairs from my classroom, I feel my phone vibrate and notice I have a text message. It's a fairly short one that says "Hey, I'm bored." and it's from Jen.
At that moment, I wanted only to drop my books in the middle of the hallway and go running through the crowded corridors to find her, but that wouldn't be normal, so I just sped up my walking slightly.
"Hey Bobby!" I heard someone say. I turned around to see Sarah again. Man, my friends were everywhere all of a sudden. I wish I saw them this often BEFORE I made my unusual new acquaintance.
"Oh, hi" I said, trying to think of an excuse quickly to get to Jen. "I'd love to talk, Sarah, but I have to get to the Branford house"
"Oh, can I come?" Sarah asked with enthusiasm, "the branford house is really pretty"
"You wouldn't want to come" I said, "I have an advising session with Mr... Marletto..."
"Is that even a real guy?" Sarah asked.
"It could be" I shrugged, "I mean... yeah, he's my advisor, it'd be boring, you just sitting there, while I get... advice... from Marzito"
"Marletto..." Sarah groaned.
"Riiiight" I said, feeling nervous as we neared the exit of the academic center. I decided I had to break this off now if I wanted any chance to see Jen. I only had a 20 minute break between classes so I'd only get to talk to her for a short time. "Well, I'll see ya, Sarah, tell John I said hi"
I quickly walked off and felt bad, because I cut Sarah off in mid-speech, but I really wanted some time with Jen today. Wednesdays were unfortunately my busiest days of the week. I'd only be able to talk to Jen for 20 minutes, because after my class at 1, I'd have to go straight to work in Norwich, which was a frustrating half an hour drive.
I walk up the steps to the courtyard, but this time I notice a few older people looking around the area, observing the flowers and taking picture. I suddenly feel great fear for Jen who lived somewhere in the garden, but I figured she realized they were there and wouldn't let herself get stepped on. Just then, my phone vibrated once more. It was Jen.
"Hello?" I said, briefly attracting the attention of bystanders, who then kept walking by.
"Bobby" Jen said, "meet me around the corner, in the shade"
So I walked around the side of the building and looked around carefully for Jen, but I didn't see her. Finally I noticed a figure in the corner waving her arms around and jumping up and down. It was kinda adorable, actually, but yeah... it was obviously Jen.
I went into the corner and knelt down again.
"Hey Bobby" she said, in a cheerful way, "nice to see you again"
"Heh, nice to be seen" I said, realizing afterwards that was the lamest thing to say. "You look well"
"Wait..." Jen said, pausing, "why are we talking like this?"
"I...don't know" I said and emitted a nervous chuckle. I don't know why I was so nervous around her just then. I just wanted to say all the right things. I had made a good impression on Jen, but I make good impressions on lots of people. The key is to keep the impressions lasting. "So how was your morning"
"Okay, I guess" Jen said, "I'm still a little tired"
"Well, how much sleep did you get?" I asked, not sitting down on the little raised structure in the path so I wouldn't look so weird talking to what looked like the wall.
"I got some sleep, but I kept waking up in the middle of the night" Jen said.
"How is it to sleep outside?" I asked.
"I actually didn't sleep outside last night" Jen said, "I slept in the basement, last night, the branford house basement... you gave me the idea when we were talking yesterday so I thought Id try it..."
"Was it cool?" I asked.
"For a little while, I guess" she said, "but then it got kinda creepy... it's really dark there at night... and I'm kinda not tall enough to reach the light switch"
"Wait, how do you get up the stairs?" I asked, not trying to be mean. "I mean when you want to come back up..."
"That's the annoying part" Jen said, "I can't really climb steps too well, y'know unless they're really small ones, so I have to wait for someone to get into an elevator and chase them in"
"And noone sees you?" I asked.
"I'm pretty careful about not being spotted" Jen said, "plus as I've said, people are in such a hurry these days... noone pays attention to the finer details in life... the smaller things"
I wanted to say some smaltzy line there about how the smallest packages have the biggest things in them, or something stupid like that, but I decided even that level of lameness was out of my league.
"So Jen, I was wondering..." I began, but then I heard footsteps, getting louder, as if someone was running right towards us. Jen quickly scampers away as Sarah's shadow overcasts us both. I sigh with frustration.
"hey, whatcha doing?" Sarah asked, with curiousity.
"nothing..." I sigh, heading away from her, "just going to class..."
"You okay?" Sarah asked.
"yeah, I'm fine..." I sighed and walked off. I was right in the middle of talking to Jen when she ran off. She really didn't want my friends to know she existed.
So I slogged through another class fairly soon after that, armed with only my notebook and a futile effort to focus. But now I felt horrible for scaring Jen away, even if it wasn't really my fault. Hopefully she understood... oh, I could be such a dumbass sometimes.
After class, I had to drive right to work. I couldn't afford to be late again or I'd probably actually get in trouble. I'm about halfway to Norwich when I feel my phone vibrating. I frantically reach into my pocket to pick it up, and sure enough, it's her.
"Hi Jen" I said, suddenly acclerating my speech exponentially "I'm so sorry about earlier, I didn't tell Sarah to show up, I have no idea why she showed up, in fact I don't even know that her name is SARAH!"
"Bobby, Bobby, calm down" Jen said, seeming to find my tirade at least somewhat amusing, so I know she wasn't mad at me. "I understand what happened earlier wasn't your fault, or anyone's fault... it just happened, and I was just calling to ask if you wanted to kill some time with me"
"Oh, I would" I sighed, coasting along with traffic on the groton bridge. "But I'm on my way to work"
"Ah, that's right... I believe you've alluded to some horrible job you have" Jen said.
"Yeah, don't even get me started... I hate my job" I said.
"Then why are you still at it?" Jen asked.
"I... I don't know" I sighed. I never knew how to truly answer that question. Obviously the money was my biggest incentive but other jobs paid too.
"Well, I guess I can't see you today then" Jen said, trying to hide some sadness that was resonated in her voice.
"Yeah... I'm sorry" I groaned, as part of me wanted to turn around going at 70 mph, but I knew that'd be stupid. "I'll definitely be around tomorrow... in fact I'm around everyday, well except weekends, of course... but hey, I could visit you on weekends too, if you wanted"
Jen started laughing on the line, "wow, Bobby... I swear, you try too hard sometimes"
"Sorry" I said, trying to cover my embarassment with laughter.
"No, it's fine." Jen said, sounding happy all of a sudden, "that's what I like about you"
I cracked a big smile there, and almost got too distracted, nearly colliding with the car in front of me.
"Did I just hear a car beep at you?" Jen asked.
"Yeah... probably" I said, "I wasn't really paying attention"
"Apparently not" Jen chuckled "How do you do at work? Get a lot done?"
"Not really" I said, "I used to, when I first started but now I just don't care... Staples doesn't give me any reason to try harder..."
"Well that attitude's no good" Jen said.
"Hey, try working at Staples and tell me how it is" I said.
"Ha!" Jen laughed, "try being 3 inches high and see how it is"
"I guess you got me beat" I laughed, "not that being 3 inches high is a bad thing or anything"
"Chill, Bobby" Jen said, "you don't have to be so politcally correct around me... y'know, I'm aware of my size, and it doesn't bother me if you point it out"
"I know, I know" I said.
"Hey, I should probably let you get going anway" Jen said, "you got work coming up, plus you use a pre-paid phone so... see you tomorrow?"
"But of course" I said, and we soon hung up after that. I sighed to myself as I stared out my window, putting the phone down on my seat, when it struck me... not that I hadn't known already. I mean, it was quite obvious... what was going on... and the truth I was trying to hide to myself...
I was falling in love...with Jen.
Giantess World
