Most of the time when Mason rode in the car, he would sit in the front cup holder (as long as it was clean, of course). But for the occasions when their whole family was going somewhere, he sat in a specially designed booster seat that was kept on the right side of the back seat. That was where he was sitting now, smiling out the window and feeling glad to be getting out of the house, like a dog who’d never been to the vet.

“Mason?” his mom asked, pulling him out of his trance. “Did you hear what I said?” She could tell from his expression as he looked over with a blank stare that he hadn’t been paying attention. “I said we forgot to bring your porta-potty. Do you want us to turn around or do you think you’ll be fine?”

“I mean, we’re not gonna be gone for more than an hour or two, right?” Nicole sighed, but nodded. “So I should be fine then.”

Mikayla snickered at the thought of Mason needing to use the restroom and have one of his family members escort him to the bathroom. “Don’t worry,” she told her brother, “if you end up needing to go, I don’t mind taking you. I’ll hold you by your head over the toilet, then you won’t even need to worry about aiming!” Nicole rolled her eyes, Skye giggled, and Mason grumbled under his breath.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Skye was the one to carry Mason in her palm as the family headed inside. The front host smiled at them and pulled out a set of menus. “Hi, welcome to Mongo Mongo. Will it be three of—oh I’m sorry, the four of you?” He hadn’t noticed Mason standing in Skye’s hand right away, but was professional enough that it hadn’t tripped him up.

“Yes, just us,” Nicole answered. “And are you guys tiny-friendly?”

The man grimaced, “Unfortunately we don’t have tiny accommodations, but you’re still welcome to dine with us, and I’m sure your waiter will do their best to help you out if you need.”

“That’s OK,” Nicole replied. “I think I have a spare set in my purse, and my daughter’s been wanting to try this place out.”

“Great! Well just follow me then…” After grabbing three menus, the host led them through the restaurant to an open booth, where Nicole and Mikayla took one side while Skye sat down across from them. She set Mason down, as Nicole dug through her purse to try and find Mason’s spare dining set.

“Here it is,” she announced, pulling out a small plastic. Popping it open, Mason watched as his mom set down his table and chair, along with an even smaller container that couldn’t have even been half an inch long, yet looked like a briefcase to the tiny boy. Inside was another layer of storage; the box had several compartments to store miniature plastic plates, eating utensils, and other dining ware that Mason could use away from home. But when he went to sit down on his chair, he noticed that one of the legs seems cracked.

“The chair’s broken,” he told his mom, testing out its sturdiness with his leg. “Isn’t the set supposed to have a second one?”

Nicole sighed, “Even in the little boxes, those things are always breaking.” She went back to rifling through her purse, being more careful so she wouldn’t accidentally break it before she found it.

Mikayla reached over and picked up Mason’s chair, bringing it close to her face to look closer. “It’s still kinda intact. You can probably fix it at home.” But then while twirling it in her fingers, she accidentally snapped the backrest in half, causing Mason to roll his eyes. “Oops. Guess not,” she giggled, setting the pieces to the side for someone to throw away later.

“Here honey,” Nicole said, finally finding the spare chair, which luckily seemed to be in one piece, and set it down where the old one had been.

“Hi guys!” came the voice of a young woman as she walked up to the table. “My name’s Annabelle, I’ll be your server today.” Mason turned around, and was caught off guard when he looked up at the girl standing before him. As soon as he saw her smile, his heart skipped a beat, and he instantly felt mesmerized by how stunning she was. She looked a few years older than him, with dirty blonde hair up in a bouncy ponytail, and crisp, green eyes that sparkled as they laid eyes on him. “Oh! Who’s this cutie?” she asked, somehow smiling even wider, and she leaned over to get a better look at Mason. 

“I’m Mason,” he answered, sounding somewhat plain, but really he was just caught up feeling struck by the waitress’ beauty and charm. She’d barely spoken more than two sentences, yet the shrunken boy already felt enraptured by her; he couldn’t look away. With her face now looming closer, his eyes skimmed over her light red lips, and he couldn’t help but notice her cleavage showing through her shirt, somewhat pressed together since her hands were on her knees. Although he was smart enough not to let his eyes linger for long.

“Well you are adorable, Mason,” she grinned, softly smacking her gum as she stood back up and sized his little body up again. “Does everyone know what they want to drink today?” she asked, turning to look at the other three people seated around the table.

“Just water’s fine,” Nicole said, glancing at the filled-up pitcher that was already at their table. Mikayla chimed in her agreement, while Skye and Mason asked for Sprite.

Annabelle nodded at the family. “Sure thing, I’ll be right back,” she said, and turned to go fetch their drinks. When she returned a few moments later, she set down Skye’s cup in front of her, but then revealed a sauce cup in her other hand, with what couldn’t have been more than a few tablespoons of soda. “I won’t charge you guys for his,” she told them, and then gave Mason a quick wink, like they were sharing a secret, before turning to head back to the kitchen. Mason hurried over to the edge of the table to watch her leave, and he was just in time to catch sight of her pale blue jeans tightly hugging her butt before she disappeared around a corner. 

Skye chuckled at his obvious attraction to her, and Mason turned to look up at his sister, biting his lip with uncertainty. “You think she likes me?”

She shrugged, “Honestly, I don’t really know. She might.”

“All waiters are nice,” Mikayla said. “I’m the same way at work, that’s how we get tips. Except waiters have it worse than baristas.”

“Yeah, but it seemed like she was flirting with me,” he responded, his eyes still watching the corner where he’d last seen her go.

“I know… That’s. How. They. Get. Tips,” Mikayla repeated slower, highlighting her point.

Mason looked a bit despondent, and sighed before trudging back to his table. At least I didn’t get too attached, he thought. The ketchup cup was a good idea though. Nobody’s ever done that for me at a restaurant before. It was still way too big for the 3 inch boy to drink out of, but it made it a lot easier for him to dip his own sized cup into the sprite to get his helping.

“Oooh, are we taking shots?” Mikayla asked, grabbing his sauce cup and tossing its contents into her mouth without even needing to throw her head back. Mason chuckled a little, amazed that what seemed like a trough to him was barely a few drops to his giant sister, and Skye gave him a refill once Mikayla set it back down with a playful smile.

Several minutes later, Annabelle returned to their table with a pen and notepad in her hand. “Everyone ready to order?” Mason’s family looked around at each other and they all nodded, so Nicole, Mikayla, and Skye proceeded to tell their waitress what they wanted. When it came time for Mason to order, Annabelle bent over again and flashed him the same charming smile from before. “And what are you gonna have?”

Mason hadn’t actually looked at the menu, since he was so used to eating portions of his family members’ meals—why waste money on a meal that’s gonna go 99% unfinished, right? He was caught off guard, and tried glancing at Skye’s menu to see what was available, but Nicole made an interruption.

“Actually,” she noted, “we usually set aside a little portion of whatever we order for Mason, since he doesn’t exactly finish his plate.” 

Annabelle held her tongue, and glanced at Mason, who had looked away from Skye’s menu and clearly seemed a little disappointed. “Is that what you want?”

“Well he’s not the one paying for the meal,” Nicole stated. “But he can buy his own dinner if he wants. Otherwise most of it’s just gonna be leftovers for one of his sisters anyways.”

Annabelle thought Nicole’s reasoning seemed a little unfair (what was wrong with having leftovers?), but she understood where Mason’s mom was coming from. “I’ll tell you what,” she started to say, her sympathetic eyes seeming to swallow Mason whole. “The owner lets me have free meals all the time, so how about you order whatever you want from the menu, and I’ll bring it out for you. Anything. Even the steak if you want!”

Mason looked up at the waitress and immediately perked up, although Nicole still seemed somewhat hesitant. “That’s very kind of you to offer, but it’s not necessary. That’d be a lot of food just for him, and I wouldn’t want it to go to waste.”

But Annabelle only shrugged. “Don’t worry, it’s on the house, like I said. Not a problem at all. One of his sisters can eat the rest as leftovers, like you said.”

Mason looked both confused and amazed. She was being awfully kind to him. Not that his family wasn’t kind to him, but there was always some amount of teasing involved with them eventually, whereas this woman was going above and beyond. Even further than that, really. “Seriously?” he asked.

She nodded, and gave him a few moments to make a quick decision before he landed on a special-sounding beef dish with rice. “Coming right up!” the girl chimed, and gave him another wink as she gathered the menus to take to the front. She winked again! he thought dreamily. If she was just trying to get a good tip though, why would she be flirting with me? I’m not the one paying. Maybe he was just feeling lovestruck, but he was convinced that Mikayla was just a pessimist, and that Annabelle really was into him.

After Nicole’s kids spent some time waiting for their meals by staring at their phones, and after Nicole then scolded them for being seclusive and forced them to talk with each other, Annabelle finally emerged with the first three plates. She set two in front of Nicole and Mikayla, but she seemed to have a little bit of pride when she set Mason’s plate down in front of him. “I prepared yours extra special,” she told him, “so hopefully it’ll be a little easier for you to eat.” Mason stood up on his chair to get a better look at the massive plate, and saw that Annabelle had shredded the beef for him, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about trying to take bites out of giant pieces of meat that were larger than his whole body. “Plus I had the cook make it a little more tender than usual,” she added. “Hope that’s OK?”

“Yeah, that’s… yeah!” Mason was speechless. Nobody had ever taken the initiative at a restaurant to ready his food for him, that was something only he or his family ever did.

“Oh, that’s really sweet of you to accommodate him like that,” Nicole smiled. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Mason chimed in, still staring at the plate in wonder.

Annabelle turned to Skye. “There was a little mix-up in the kitchen halfway through cooking your meal,” she grimaced, “so yours is still a few minutes away. Sorry about that. It shouldn’t be more than 5 minutes though.”

“That’s okay,” Skye shrugged, eyeing her family members’ meals somewhat jealously, but keeping quiet.

“I’ll be right back out with it soon,” the waitress said, and left to tend to some of her other tables.

Nicole, Mikayla, and Mason started eating, while Skye bit her lip and rested her head in her hands. Mason won’t even be able to eat all the food she gave him, she thought, looking at his food the most. After a few minutes, she’d already grown a little impatient, and figured it couldn’t hurt to ask her brother for some of his food. “I’m assuming you’re not gonna eat your breadsticks? Can I have one while I wait for my food?”

“Sure, just save some of the middle for me,” he replied, not paying her much attention as he carried a helping of food from the large plate to his mini table. His teeth weren’t strong enough to bite through the hardened exterior of most breadsticks, but the insides were usually fluffy enough to taste good.

“What kind of asian restaurant has breadsticks on their menu?” she commented, picking one up. She reached over Mason’s head to dip the bread into the sauce, but noticed that he was about to sit down and got an idea in her head. Second before he took his seat, she poked her brother with the tip of the breadstick, causing him to get stuck because of the sticky sauce. Mikayla laughed at her sister’s antics, as Skye lifted the bread up and carried it towards her mouth, with Mason too scared to push himself off and fall somewhere. Nicole gave her daughter a stern look, but it was more of a warning than a reprimand, since the girls’ incessant teasing of their brother was so commonplace in the household anyways that Nicole didn’t bother getting overly upset unless one of his sisters ended up hurting him or putting him in real danger.

Skye’s mouth was open, with her tongue flicking out and dancing around Mason’s body without ever actually touching it—and a few of the other restaurant patrons had even taken notice. After slowly sagging down the breadstick’s tip, gravity finally overpowered the sauce, and Mason fell down onto Skye’s collarbone. He immediately landed with a tumble, keeling towards his sister’s sternum, as his arms stretched out and he tried holding onto something. But his hands weren’t big enough to hold onto her clavicle, so he continued slipping down the center of her chest. He clawed at her skin, both to try and grip ahold of it somehow, but also in the hopes that his fingernails might feel like a pin tip to her, which might make her rescue him. But he couldn’t press against her nerves with the same force that a pin could, so she couldn’t even feel anything—other than how much his body tickled. 

She saw her brother look down towards her awaiting cleavage, and giggled as gravity slowly continued pulling him closer. “Don’t fall innnnn,” she teased, as he became visibly more desperate.

His fear and adrenaline had clouded him from thinking clearly at first, but just as he could feel his legs begin to seep into Skye’s ominous chasm, he yelled out “Mom!” as a last ditch effort… just as Annabelle was coming back with Skye’s finally finished order. 

“Here we go!…” their waitress announced as she arrived at the table, about to put Skye’s plate down, but her smile was quickly replaced with a look of shock and confusion as she witnessed Nicole look up from her phone, furrow her eyebrows, and reach across the table to pluck her son off Skye’s chest just seconds before he would’ve disappeared between his little sister’s boobs.

“Stop that! You’re embarrassing me,” she whisked, mentally chastising herself for not scolding her daughter sooner. Skye was a little mad at herself too though; she’d wanted him to actually fall in, and if she’d just leaned forward a little more to make him slip faster, it might’ve actually happened. 

“I’m sorry about that, my daughters get carried away with him sometimes,” Nicole told Annabelle with a blush, whose fingers were on her lips, feeling awkward and unsure what to do or say. Mason’s mom lifted him over her cup and submerged his body into the icy water, dunking him in and out several times to get the sauce off him. Mason wanted to yell at his mom to get her to stop, but she was dipping him so quickly that he got water in his mouth every time he tried to say something. His body struggled to escape her fingertips too, but Nicole wasn’t even looking at him or fully paying attention, so she wasn’t even registering his meager attempts to get her to stop. “Can I get a refill with clean water?” she asked Annabelle once she finally pulled his sputtering body out for good, grabbing her napkin to quickly dab most of the water from his soaking body before setting him down so he could do the rest himself.

“Um… yeah, sure,” Annabelle said, taking Nicole’s cup to empty it out for her. Mason couldn’t even bear to look up at the woman, not only from the embarrassment of almost falling into his sister’s cleavage, but also because of how his mom had handled his body without even asking.

When Annabelle came back with Nicole’s water, she looked tentatively around the table, her hands anxiously clasped. “You guys need anything else?” Mason’s mom and sisters said no and thanked her, as if nothing had even happened, while Mason stayed silent and glanced up at her just for a second to gauge her reaction before turning away to finish drying off. Only when he heard Annabelle’s footsteps walking away did he head back to his table.

~

“I think I kinda need to pee now.” Some time had passed since everyone had gotten their meals, and Mason was already full, while the rest of his family finished up. He got up from his chair, frustrated that his bladder had been triggered by his brief splash in his mom’s cup, and looked at Nicole and Mikayla expectantly.

“Too bad you didn’t tell us sooner,” his older sister said with a half-full mouth. “You could’ve just done it in Mom’s water.” Nicole gave her daughter a side-eye, but Mikayla had only been joking. “I don’t think any of us wanna take you though, so how about you just go on this.” She flattened out one of her crumpled up, slightly used napkins, and set it down in front of him.

“Uh, privacy?” the tiny boy boldly scoffed, so Mikayla grabbed her mom’s empty paper cup that she’d used for her tea, and set it down on top of Mason. It was a bit dark for him, but he didn’t really need any light to take off his pants. 

After a minute, he knocked on the cup to let them know he was done, and his mom grabbed her cup and set the napkin on her plate since she was done with her food. “Sorry again for forgetting your little bathroom,” she yawned, just as Annabelle was returning with the check.

“Here’s this,” she said, holding the booklet out for Nicole to take, but Skye quickly snatched it out of the waitress’ hands instead.

“I think Mason said he’d get this one,” she smirked, and tipped the booklet over her brother’s head before letting it drop on him.

“What the fuck, Skye!” he yelled, and the booklet teetered for a few moments as he struggled to hold its weight, before he fell over, trapped and unable to move underneath it.

“What is with you tonight?” Nicole berated at her daughter, as Mason’s sisters both giggled at his predicament, while Annabelle looked down at him compassionately. Nicole grabbed the receipt off Mason’s back and rummaged through her purse, pulling out a credit card and handing it to Annabelle along with the booklet.

Annabelle gave Mason a sympathetic smile, as if Mikayla and Skye were her sisters and she was apologizing for their behavior, and then headed towards the front of the restaurant to ring Nicole’s card.

“Can you stop it?!” he huffed at Skye, annoyed with how “playful” she was being tonight. “Seriously…”

The waitress came back with Nicole’s card, clearly a little put off with the family’s dynamic. “Thanks for coming in tonight,” she said, giving Mason one more glance before Nicole thanked her and she took her leave.

Skye—who hadn’t even apologized to Mason yet—held her hand out for him as they got ready to leave. He looked at it for a second, then at her with an irritated glare, and turned his shoulder to her to address the other side of the table instead. “Can you guys leave me at the table for a minute?”

“Oooooh, someone’s gonna shoot their shot,” Mikayla commented, and the three of them shuffled out of the booth to go wait by the entrance.

When Annabelle came back to bus the table, she almost set her wash cloth down right on top of Mason before pulling back with a surprised look. “Oh! Is everything OK?” A tiny sliver of her imagined Mason saying that his family was abusive and he needed help, but he smiled instead, and nodded his head.

“Yeah, it was great.” Annabelle sensed more to the conversation, so she sat down and crossed her arms, leaning over and looking intently at the tiny boy with his hands nervously in his pockets. He looked up at her to speak, but with her face so close and curious, he froze up and looked away, taking a deep breath to try and calm himself. Other than his family, he almost never interacted with giant people by himself, and he’d also never asked a woman out before either—so speaking with Annabelle was like a double threat. “Do you wanna hang out… sometime?… or something?” he asked, finding the courage to look up at her again.

She was already smiling, having anticipated what Mason was going to ask, but she liked flirting with him; his reactions were so adorable. “Mason… are you asking me out on a date?”

He began overthinking whether or not he made the right move, and thought that maybe she was asking him because she didn’t date tinies, and had only been nice to him for a better tip, like Mikayla said. “No,” he said, as if the idea was crazy, but then realized that she probably wouldn’t be smiling if there wasn’t a chance she’d say yes. “Um… I’m just kidding. Yeah… I was—I was asking you out,” he stuttered, laughing awkwardly.

Annabelle took a deep breath as her smile widened, flattered by how flustered he was, and she leaned in while squinting her eyes a little. “I’m not kidding, you really are the cutest little guy,” she cooed, before sitting up straight and dampening her expression. “But unfortunately I just started seeing someone, and he’s a pretty cute guy too.”

“Oh.” Mason sighed, looking down at the table. “Is he tiny too?”

Annabelle laughed, but quickly stopped when she realized that Mason might think that her reaction was rude. “No, he’s normal sized.”

“Oh. Either way, I understand. That’s okay.”

“Buuuuut…” Her smile grew again when he lifted his head hopefully. “We’ve only been going out for a few weeks, so how about you give me your number, and if things don’t work out, then I’ll hit you up.”

“Okay, sure!” She pulled out her phone and brought up her contacts, then turned the screen around (it was an iPhone mini) so he could dial his number in. “Have you ever dated someone tiny before?” he asked, reaching all over the screen to slap each of the numbers with his hand, which she thought was cute to watch.

“Nope,” she said, shaking her head.

“Do you know anyone who’s tiny?”

“Nada. The most I’ve talked to one is whenever one will come into the restaurant like you did.” After Mason finished typing in his number, Annabelle looked over her shoulder to see if her boss was watching, and stood up from the table with a sigh. “Anyway, I gotta get back to work. Want me to take you to your family or have them come get you?”

“You can take me, I don’t mind,” he grinned, jumping onto her hand as she lowered it for him. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her, despite his attempts not to leer too much, but she didn’t notice as she walked him up to the front of the restaurant.

Nicole turned when she saw Annabelle approaching, and she reached out to take Mason from the waitress, thanking her again. “See ya,” Annabelle said with a wave, and Mason’s family said their goodbyes before heading out the door.

On the ride home, Mason stared out the window again, but this time his smile was even bigger than before, as he dreamed about what hanging out with Annabelle would be like. “So how did it go?” Skye asked him.

His smile faltered and he turned to give her an uncooperative look. “You don’t get to know,” he grumbled, crossing his arms. “However it went, I probably wouldn’t have been so nervous if you hadn’t made me look like an idiot.”

“Yeah, what you did was uncalled for Skye,” their mom chimed in, looking at her in the rear view mirror. “I know I can’t stop you guys from teasing each other at home, but Mason doesn’t get out of the house that much. You can at least keep your hands to yourself whenever we go out in public.

Skye rolled her eyes and grumbled out a sigh. “Ok, sorry,” she said somewhat half-heartedly, and crossed her own arms as she gave her brother the same cold shoulder that he gave her for the rest of the ride home.