A loud rumbling startled James awake. He’d been stuck on the chair in the kitchen all night after his giant cousin left him there the night before. He looked up, though, and saw the massive form of his aunt Mary pulling the chair out. She was standing high above him, still in her pajamas.

“Geez aunt Mary!” James shouted. “You scared the crap out of me!”

He looked up at the giant woman and groggily rubbed his eyes but she didn’t look down or even acknowledge him. But instead, she stepped directly in front of him with her backside now facing toward him.

“Aunt Mary?” he choked sheepishly.

At that moment he touched his communicator and realized that the battery had died. He never charged it when Michael took it out of the drawer and gave it to him. He looked up in a panic as the massive shadow of his colossal aunt darkened his tiny body.

“Aunt Mary!” he shouted. “No! I’m down here! Please see me!” 

He kept shouting in a vain attempt to be noticed but the giant woman couldn’t hear his imperceptible voice. It felt like it was happening in slow motion as her round cheeks, covered by her silk pajama pants, lowered on him. There was a brief moment when he remembered how he felt when her ass was hovering over him the day before. That had seemed so exciting and intoxicating, but now the reality was setting in and it terrified him.

“Ahhh-,” he screamed before being silenced.

Mary’s right cheek had landed directly on top of her poor tiny nephew, and she didn’t even realize it. She couldn’t feel him either. It was like he didn’t exist at that moment in time. In fact, she even wiggled to get more comfortable. She was in no hurry to get up again either as she took out her phone and started checking her notifications.

For James, this was by far the scariest thing he’d ever experienced in his life. It was even worse than when, for a split second, he thought that his cousin was going to squash and crush him under her foot. The weight was unbearable and he couldn’t move at all. And the overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia started to paralyze him. Worst of all, his aunt didn’t even know he was under her.

“Hey,” Peyton said, walking into the kitchen, still wearing the same skimpy outfit from last night. “Are you making breakfast or should I get Cheerios?”

Mary shrugged. “I’m not really in a cooking mood today. But I need to get something for the boys when they wake up.”

Peyton’s eyes glanced at her mom’s chair. “Hey, was James on that chair? She asked casually, but with a slight hint of concern.

Mary’s face, dropped. “What?” she asked, her eyes widening. She stood up immediately and saw her tiny nephew gasping for air. “Oh my gosh!” She covered her mouth with her hand. “James, are you okay?!” James just kept coughing and choking as he kept taking in as many lungfuls of air.

“Hahaha,” Peyton laughed. “Poor little fella!”

“Peyton, be nice!” Mary scolded her daughter.

“I am nice!” Peyton giggled as she watched her tiny cousin writhing on the chair. “Look, I bet he’s fine, aren’t ya little cuz?” she said, picking him up gently and setting him on the table. “There ya go! That’s a safer spot for you.”

“James, what in the world were you doing there?” Mary huffed. “Don’t you remember yesterday? I told you how easy it would be step on you guys or especially SIT on you! And now look, I just did that! You’re lucky to be alive!”

James looked at Peyton, she just simply cocked an eyebrow at him, anxiously awaiting his answer. He remembered her threat to actually crush him under her foot if he told her mom about her late night binge eating. James started to say something but they couldn’t hear him.

“Oh my gosh, did you lose your little communicator again, twerp?” Peyton smirked with a chuckle, enjoying James’ predicament a little more than he liked. He pulled the communicator out and pointed to it and drew his finger across his neck.

“Oh, it died,” Mary said.

“Don’t those things last for days?” Peyton asked.

“Well, normally, yeah,” Mary said, “but I think he got one from your brother that might not have been charged.”

“Doesn’t the app on your phone let you know the location of all active communicators that are charged and turned on?” Peyton asked. “Can we find the other one he lost last night?”

James’ heart sank, remembering where and how he originally lost his communicator.

“Oh! I think it does!” Mary said, opening her phone and switching to the Tiny Communications app. “Oh there are two on here, I see your brother’s over in the living room, he must have stayed the night there. And it looks like the other one is over by the front door, maybe?” Mary said, furrowing her brow and twisting her lips as she tried to figure out the device's location. She slowly started walking toward the front door and looked around on the floor.

“Huh, that’s strange,” Mary said, stopping at the door.

“What’s that, mom?” Peyton asked.

“It looks like the communicator is in my shoe…,” she said, kneeling down to examine her high-heel.

“Your… shoe?” Peyton asked with a disgusted look on her face. She looked down and eyed her tiny cousin, who appeared to be nervous as hell. “You okay there, little dude?” Peyton asked with a wicked smirk.

“Yeah, my shoe,” Mary said, grabbing her high-heel and holding it up to her eyes.

James nodded, but in reality, he was anything but okay. His communicator being on his aunt’s shoe would raise so many questions. Questions he didn’t feel like answering. And worse yet, what if his mom found out?

“Yeah?” Mary said, standing back up and bringing her high-heel to Peyton. “Do you see it? It’s moving with me now.”

Peyton’s eyes scanned the insole of her mom’s shoe and then noticed something about the size of a grain of sand. She grabbed her mom’s shoe and set it down on the table next to her tiny cousin. “James, why don’t you take a look. Is that it, there,” she asked her tiny cousin, “right in one of the toe prints?” James walked up to the edge of the toe section and saw it laying there, plain as day to him. He looked up at the two giant women staring back down at him. He nodded his head. “Well, get it,” Peyton said with a chuckle. James climbed onto his aunt’s giant footwear and grabbed the stupid communicator. He could feel the weight of the giant women’s gaze on him. He couldn’t even bear to look at them.

“Well, put it in,” Mary said hurriedly. “I want to know why your communicator was in my shoe, how on earth did that even happen?” James did so and started climbing off his aunt’s shoe. He was trying to think of a response but Peyton spoke before he had the chance.

“Why do you think, mom?” Peyton snorted. “James was obviously playing in your shoe!” Peyton kept giggling.

“Oh come on,” Mary rolled her eyes, “who would ever play in a shoe? And mine of all people!”

“Uh, a guy who likes feet obviously,” Peyton said, gesturing toward her tiny cousin.

“Are you saying James likes feet?” Mary asked, looking at James and then back at Peyton.

“Think about it,” she laughed smugly, “he was basically begging to kiss my feet last night, which I let him, of course. And then I heard he even gave you a foot massage, so I let him give me one too, which he happily did. And now the communicator he was wearing was found in your shoe? Come on mom, you don’t need to be Pirout to put that one together.”

“James!” Mary said, in shock. “Is that true?!” James just stared blankly at the ground, which was actually the kitchen table, twiddling his thumbs. He didn’t know what to say exactly…

“Well, quit stalling, little cuz!” Peyton laughed through her nose with a satisfied smile on her face.

“James?” Mary said in a soft tone, raising her eyebrows gently and offering a reassuring smile.

“Y-yes,” James muttered. “Yes…,” he said again, almost in a defeated tone.

“Yes?” Mary repeated, clarifying.

“Yes, I think you’re beautiful, aunt Mary,” he said sheepishly. “And when I walked past your shoes yesterday, I couldn’t help myself, they just looked absolutely incredible.” James was already saying way more than he wanted to. He wished he could take it back and deny it but he’d already opened his stupid mouth.

“Ha! Oh my god, I knew it!” Peyton laughed and clinched her fist victoriously.

“You were right,” Mary shook her head and looked at her daughter, “I should have known.” Mary pursed her lips tightly as she kept thinking and looked back at her tiny nephew. “I guess that makes sense now why you offered to help me put lotion on my feet last night.”

“And that’s why he offered to kiss my feet twice last night!” Peyton looked at her tiny cousin and laughed. “You’re so path-etic!” she said in a singsong voice to him.

“Peyton, be nice!” Mary snickered.

“I am being nice, mom,” Peyton rolled her eyes, “I’m just being truthful.”

“He can’t help that he likes our feet, can you dear?” Mary asked, smiling consolingly at him.

James’ heart was racing and he was feeling lightheaded. He was just feeling relieved because he conveniently left out the part where he jizzed all over her insole. He would take that to his grave. He looked back up at his giant aunt, “Y-You’re not mad at me?” he asked shakily. 

“Of course not,” Mary said as her lips stretched into a giant smile. “In fact, I was feeling pretty guilty after having you and Michael between my toes last night. But, oh-ohh-ohhhh my gosh,” she exhaled excitedly, “I loved it so much! I couldn’t stop thinking about it; like, how soon could I get you between my toes again, would that be too much to ask of you, what if you didn’t want to? But now I know…,” she paused and eyed the tiny boy excitedly, “now I know that won’t be a problem.”

James was simultaneously excited and scared at the same time. “What do you mean?” he asked, looking up at the eager eyes of his giant aunt.

“Yeah, mom, geez,” Peyton scoffed, “like, are you expecting James to just want to live between your toes now or something?”

“Ha!” Mary chuckled, not taking her eyes off of her tiny nephew, “that’s not a half bad idea!” She was only joking, but it still made James panic slightly.

“Eww, that’s so freaking gross,” Peyton sighed and put her hands on her hips, as if judging her mother.

“Have you ever tried it?” Mary asked, looking at Peyton with a scrunched up face.

“You mean, have I ever had a tiny person between my toes?” Peyton scoffed, stuck out her tongue. “Ew, no way, that’s freaking gross.”

“Okay, then that explains it,” Mary said, turning back to James.

“Explains what?” Peyton asked, taking offense to her mom’s remark.

“You should try it some time,” Mary shrugged her shoulders at her daughter.

“Okay, so like, can I borrow James for a little bit then?” she asked. Peyton found her mom’s taunt irritating and so she wanted to mess with her a bit. James didn’t know that Peyton was teasing her and his heart dropped. He felt that she wouldn’t be as gentle or as fun as Mary. And he still had the horrible memory of the sole of her giant foot coming down on him fresh in his mind.

“No way, go ask your brother,” Mary quipped dismissively.

“Uh, yeah right,” Peyton chuckled, “as if that dweeb would ever agree to that! But no worries, I’ve got Josh. I’ll ask him.”

“Josh?” Mary asked, taken back.

“Oh yeah, I didn’t tell you, he caught the virus,” Peyton said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Mary nodded nonchalantly, “I really liked him.”

“It’s okay, thank you,” Peyton said casually.

It was extremely eerie to James how these two giant women talked about someone catching the shrinking virus. Someone’s entire life just changed in the blink of an eye. And it   was someone they were even close to. And all he gets is an ‘I’m sorry to hear that’? It made James’ anxiety rise again.

“But I think James still wants to enjoy his weekend with his cousin and play games, right?” she said to her mom. Then she looked down at her cousin, “Or would you rather get stuck between my mom’s nasty sweaty toes?” Peyton asked.

“Uh-I, of course, whatever-” he tripped over his words.

“Of course, and he’s going to get to play more games, absolutely!” Mary nodded her head profusely. “But I think I might have a few more foot rubs before this weekend is over. Is that okay with you James?” she asked sweetly. The tiny boy nodded furiously up at the giant woman. He wanted nothing more than to be out of her gaze right now. 

“Let’s get you back on the table in the living room with Michael, okay buddy?” Peyton said, holding her open palm down to him. James had never been so relieved to see the sight of a massive hand reaching for him. He climbed on his cousin’s giant hand and laid down on her warm skin.

“I’ll see you later, little guy,” Mary said enthusiastically. “Gotta eat my breakfast first.”

Peyton walked out of the kitchen and waited till she was out of earshot of her mom. “Well, sounds like you’re screwed now. Something tells me that you’re going to be spending a lot of time at my mom’s feet this weekend.” James just nodded sheepishly. “You know you can just tell her ‘no’ right?” Peyton said, in a rare act of not teasing her tiny cousin.

“Yeah I know,” James answered.

Peyton sighed and shook her head. “You’re not going to, are you…,”

“I don’t want to disappoint her!” James said, trying to defend himself.

“It’s okay, it’s your life, little dude, I don’t care what you do with it,” Peyton said, dropping James off at the table where Michael was just waking up.

“What are you guys doing?” Michael asked, groggily.

“Just talking,” Peyton said, “I’m actually going to go to the mall with some friends soon. Do you guys need anything?”

“Can’t think of anything,” they mumbled in uncoordinated unison.

“Okay, can I leave Josh with you guys?” she asked, wincing, hoping that would be okay.

“You’re boyfriend?” Michael asked.

“Yeah he shrunk,” Peyton frowned and rolled her eyes. “He’s upstairs now, but I was hoping he could just hang out with you guys until I get back.”

“Um, yeah, sure, absolutely,” Michael said. “I’m so sorry Peyton,” he said consolingly.

Oh, it's fine,” Peyton shrugged. “But thanks so much, I shouldn’t be back too late.”

“Okay, no worries,” Michael said.

Peyton just smiled and got up and walked away.

“Where have you been?” Michael asked James.

“Dude, I have so much to tell you,” James said, as if he’d seen a ghost.