Juan sat at the narrow end of a dim, Starbucks hallway where the pair tables were located. He felt a little cramped and isolated from the rest of the store, but that level of privacy was needed for something he was already labeling as the scariest conversation of his life. With an iced mocha latte on his side, he checked his phone for the 50th time, feeling his throat tighten at the sight of the time. 

5 more minutes until she arrived. 

He looked outside the dark, cool windows that masked the real intensity of the afternoon heat baking the parking lot. He didn’t mean to choose the hottest day of the year, but the violet weather wasn’t much of a factor for this decision. It needed to be done. Enough was enough. 

Juan never felt as cool or confident as he wanted in life. Every day, the world made him feel more and more like a loser who couldn’t get by without the pity of others. In fact, he probably would have given up a lot earlier if it wasn’t for his one and only friend, Andrea Costa.

The two of them met around freshman year of high school, at a point when Juan seemed his loneliest. Once she came into his life, the bullying got a little less frequent, he actually found himself at a table full of people, and his mind was no longer preoccupied with suicidal thoughts. Instead, they were more focused on way to keep this miraculous girl in his life. 

10 years later, he now noticed just how bad it all was.

Somewhere along the way, the friendship he imagined between them slowly dissolved into an ugly truth he never wanted to believe, but the flags were there. They were always there, and it wasn’t until Juan actually started caring about himself that he could finally see them.

He was stuck in a one-sided relationship with this woman. All the kindness and love and gratitude he showed over the years, she was taking advantage of. He can’t recount a time when she actually sounded appreciative of his efforts or tried to reciprocate. Instead, she was quick to criticize his actions and micro-manage his behavior to suit her specific needs out of a loyal man-child.

You look ugly when you smile, so try and do it less often. 

Those shoes make you gay. Do you really want to make Amanda walk around with some sad, gay-looking man?

She became more toxic and controlling once he started dating Amanda Chen. She was the older sister of Andrea’s just-as-toxic sister, Ashley, who despised Juan to an extreme degree. Every time he comes by to pick up Amanda, she’s always there to talk him down, explicitly listing the reasons why he was wrong for her sister, and made passive-aggressive comments when other people would walk into the room. 

But the relentless shit-talk was at its worst when the two of them were together. Juan rarely felt like an actual person when they were together, having to rely on Amanda to stand up for him on too many occasions. However, he’s been noticing how annoyed she got by the fact that her boyfriend is a worm and can’t put any effort to grow a spine and set boundaries. 

Well…today was the day. 

Juan had finally had enough with all the toxicity in the group and needed to establish some boundaries. Wanting this conversation to be very private, he didn’t tell Amanda where he was going. He just lied and told her he was going to chill at the bookstore, which was within the same plaza as this Starbucks, and a movie theater Andrea was meeting Ashley at.

The timing of it all was perfect, but that didn’t make it less scary. He spent the last few days preparing the speech in his head, and what he wanted out of their relationship. He didn’t want to break up what they had, as that would make things extremely complicated between him and Amanda. All he really hoped for is that Andrea would see reason and agree to his boundaries. 

That was a tall order for a stubborn girl like her, and she knew how to take control of the conversation, but Juan felt prepared. Whether or not it doesn’t go as he imagined, the two things he needed to make sure was that his voice was heard, and that their boundaries were clear. 

The sound of the door chime alerted him to the sight of Andrea walking down the hall. The 5’5 Colombian brunette was wearing her usual attire that consisted of a stretched out t-shirt, black yoga pants, and a worn-out pair of brown, leather flats that she’s relied on since college. 

Juan’s eyes  lingered on those flats until the table hid them from view, and her bubble butt slammed on the open chair across from him. She impatiently exhaled and reached for his mocha latte until he beat her to it. 

“What the hell, Juan?” She said. “It’s hot as balls out there, can’t you at least share?”

“Sorry, but this is mine.” He answered. If this was going to work, he needed to subtly set those boundaries right from the get-go, and her sour snarl seemed like he was on track.

“That’s not very nice of you. Are you all right? And what are we doing here? I’m trying to catch a movie with Ashley soon.”

“I know, I drove an hour just to meet y’all here…”

“Well, don’t get any ideas about inviting yourself. You know, because of…you know.” 

“I-I know.” Juan felt his heart trembling, anger rising. He needed to get this over with. “I won’t waste your time. I just wanted to talk about…us.”

The second she sensed her involvement, Andrea pulled her eyes from her phone and stared Juan dead in the eyes, her button nose crinkling with disgust. “What about us?”

“Like, I mean, these days, I don’t feel like a friend to you.” When she leaned her head a little closer, Juan felt more courageous to keep going. “Before, we used to be so tight with one another, but now it’s starting to feel like I’m the group’s lap dog who just does whatever y’all want, and frankly, I’m getting a little sick of this.” 

“Oh.” Andrea said. Juan was expecting a short period of reflection, but to his disappointment, she went back to scrolling through her phone. “I thought it was something serious.”

“W-What?” He gulped. “I am serious!”

“Did Amanda put you up to this?”

“Amanda doesn’t even know I’m here, and I don’t really need her to talk this out with you.” Juan leaned closer to try and meet Andrea’s bored gaze. “What happened between us, huh? Did I do something to you to be treated like this?” 

“What?” She laughed. “As if you could ever do something. Quit being stupid, Juan. Are we done here?”

“No, we are not!” Juan slammed his fist on the table, expecting to make the situation serious, but Andrea didn’t even so much as flinch. “We need boundaries”

“Boundaries?” Andrea said. “Where did you get that toxic idea?”

“It’s not toxic at all. These days, it feels like I’m walking eggshells around you, and I know that this isn’t how friendships are supposed to feel. I’ve given you a lot of love and support over the years, but it’s been feeling one-sided lately, and you and Ashley taking it all for granted. I’m not gonna take it anymore!”

“Oh yeah?” She jeered. “You finally had enough, and you think boundaries are the answer? Who's gonna enforce them? You? You’re gonna need some balls for that, and I know damn well you never had them until I met you. I’ve been your balls for the both of us and suddenly, you think it’s a great idea to get rid of them?”

“I don’t need you to be my balls!” Juan shouted, feeling a little embarrassed by the statement and looked over her shoulder to see if they were causing a scene. 

“Please, no one gives a shit about your problems.” Andrea said. “If you’re so worried about the opinions of others, how could you say that you could survive without me?”

“I’ll just have to take my chances.” Juan said. 

“Who’s putting all these thoughts in your head? You been watching those stupid psych videos? Feeling a little confident now that you got the answers in your pockets?”

That was correct, Juan thought, but he remained stoic. “Doesn’t matter where I got it. What’s important is that now I know that I need to protect my boundaries.”

“And what about my boundaries, Juan?”

“Your boundaries?” Juan questioned, feeling real confused about what she could be referencing. “What are you talking about? I’ve always respected your boundaries.”

Fear clutched his chest at the sight of her devilish grin forming. “Oh, Juan…you know. Don’t pretend like it isn’t obvious…” Juan stayed silent, hoping that she isn’t insinuating what he thought she was. “You really gonna make me say it? Or, better yet…”

Andrea then proceeded to fold over for a couple of seconds while her right hand reached under the table, and came back with her steaming, right flat. She placed it at the center, where the cheesy, vinegar stench could reach his nostrils with ease, and keep his attention long enough for her amusement. 

“God, so it is true!” She laughed. “You’re a dirty, little foot freak!”

Juan’s cheeks flushed red. He didn’t think that anyone knew, not even Amanda. He’s always felt ashamed of his kink, and thought that any of his toxic friends knowing his secret was a fate worse than death. Andrea knowing made this conversation a lot harder to stomach. 

“How long have you’ve known?”

“Since we were roommates in college. I remember catching you with one of my old gym shoes that I used to wear for volleyball practice. I accidently forgot my phone on the counter, and when I came back, you weren’t on the couch anymore which felt strange because you were in the middle of some movie, and I’ve never seen you pause midway so I got worried. But what a surprise I found when I snuck around to the edge of your room, seeing you stick that big nose in the opening of my nasty-ass trainers and inhaling it like oxygen. ”

Juan was tongue-tied from hearing all this, and the worse part of all is that he can’t think of which time she caught him. He remember the first time seeing those dank sneakers sitting near the door right after she came back from an hour-long gym session. She was in the shower, he was in the kitchen heating up leftovers, and in the midst of waiting, with his ears tuned on the running water, he picked up her shoe and dug his nose around to pick up the deepest scents.

It took several other incidents for his brain to retain that musky, cheesy scent to memory, and he had to admit that his intimate sessions got more reckless due to his impatience to carefully wait out the room, which was now coming back at him at the worst possible time. The scent of her cheesy feet were reaching his nostrils once more, and it hard to quiet the boner growing in his pants. 

Whatever outcome he expected from this conversation was thrown out the window, and replaced with a girl who knew what she was doing as she pushed her dirty flat closer to his latte.

“You know…I wouldn’t mind if you took a whiff.” She teased. “This brutal-ass heat worked up quite a sweat, and by the way you’ve been trying to pretend the shoe isn’t there, I bet you’re just dying to wonder how much they smell.” Juan caught her gaze, deepening that wicked smile even further. “Go on, Juan. This could be our little secret. Amanda doesn’t need to know…”

“That’s…fine, thank you.” Juan said, remembering Amanda and wondering if this would be considered cheating.

“Are you sure?” She said. “Maybe I’m not being clear on what I could offer here. Hold on.” Andrea scooted back in her seat and pressed the ball of her flat foot on the edge of the table. Juan was thankful the counter wasn’t see-through, because his boner was not pitching a tent from the exposure of her glistening, sweaty toes. No polish, bits of dirt, hair, and lint clinging against their will, and the slightest scrunch of her plump piggies that formed a dirty pool of sweat.

“This secret doesn’t have to be restricted to just the shoes. You say our relationship needs to be addressed, so why not arrange something so we can both enjoy ourselves? My life has gotten a lot more stressful, and I could use a loyal foot boy to massage them after games or paint my nails, and as a reward, you can have your weird little fun with them. No sex stuff, of course, but you can kiss, lick, and suck on them however much you want. Something Amanda would never be down for.”

“And how would you know?” Juan asked.

“Ashley figured it out for me. You’re welcome, by the way.”

Juan felt his heart drop. “W-Wait, Ashley knows??”

Andrea nodded. “Yup, I told her, and she thinks you’re even more disgusting for her sister. But I convinced her otherwise. However, after what you attempted to do today with this pathetic meeting…I’m starting to think she was right.”

Juan didn’t like the direction this was going. His confidence had completely drained in the span of 10 minutes, and it wasn’t even over yet. All he wanted to do now was to forget this ever happened.

“All right, Andrea, I’m sorry.” He said. “I didn’t realize how much you were doing for me, and that was my fault for not seeing it sooner. I promise never to do something like this again. Can we just forget this ever happened?”

Andrea smiled. “Of course, Juan. You were just an idiot who tried to think for himself. How could I punish someone like that?”

Juan gritted his teeth hard, but nodded at the insult. He could take anything she dished out, that wasn’t a problem. He knew he could do this another day, and the faster he got away from this cafe, the faster he could figure out how to go about it. 

“But you still haven’t answered my question.” Andrea took her pinkie finger and slid it through the slimy, wet space between her pinky and ring toe. Juan watched with intense focus as she lubed her finger a couple of times with her own sweat and presented the glossed digit to him. 

“The chance of a lifetime. Final offer here. If you want this to be a regular thing, taste my finger as a seal of approval.” 

She slapped her sweaty, fat foot back on the ground and pushed her pinky at Juan’s face. It reeked of sour sweat and aged cheese. She kept a gentle look through this whole ordeal, as if she was serving him some kind of kindness to his small life, and that gesture was enough to make his boner shrink.

“No, thanks,” Juan said. “I’m good.”

“Oh…” She frowned. “Wrong answer.”

“Wrong answer?”

“You seriously didn’t see it as a test?” Andrea rolled her eyes. “Boy, you are really hard to defend. I can’t believe I actually called your dumbass a ‘friend’ at one point.”

“W-What are you talking about?” Juan asked. 

“Really. You’re sitting here talking about boundaries when you didn’t even realize you crossed mine, you shoe-sniffing slut. I thought that was a one-time thing, but once I caught on, it just became disturbing to know that you were sticking that stupid face after every gym and practice session. Doing it behind my back and not even considering my feelings.”

“I…I didn’t..”

“That’s right, you didn’t. And here I was, trying to offer you some way to pay back those violations of privacy, but if you’re gonna act like a little bitch about it, then you give me no choice.”

Juan didn’t know what was happening, but still as a statue, he watched Andrea take her flat and drop it back on the floor. She then hunches over to the side and goes through her purse to look for something. His mind pounded with the many things she could possibly pull out. More dirt on him? Physical evidence of all the times she caught him smelling her shoes?

He never got the chance to see what it was, because as he was focused on her intense gaze, she pulled his attention away from her hands, which already got what she wanted. In a split second, he felt a stabbing, invisible pain fly through his stomach, and his eyes caught her sly smile once more before he was suddenly staring at the ceiling. 

The world before him scaled itself to a gigantic size, with his chair supporting the weight of a 1-inch flea who couldn’t comprehend what had happened to him. His senses could only follow the sounds of a giant Andrea scooting out of her seat and stomping the tiled floor as she walked over to his side of the table, grabbing his mocha latte, and taking a long sip. 

She then proceeded to lower her sweat-soaked pinkie towards Juan, who try as hard as he could to run from the massive digit. His fate was literally sealed as she slammed his back against the base of the chair, drenching all his clothes in her dank foot sweat and catching him like a gnat. He couldn’t move and was subjected to being lifted high in the air until she faced him against her dry, plump lips. Her long sip wasn’t enough to mask the terrible breath she exhaled over him.

“This must be heaven for you right now.” She laughed, scaring Juan by how close he was to those yellow-stained chompers that could crush him in a second. “Back to our proposition, you can either taste me, or I’ll taste you.”

“Andrea, please!” Juan cried. “I’m sorry for ever smelling your shoes. I promise that will never, never, NEVER, happen again, so please, PLEASE, turn me back to normal!”

Andrea looked at him with such a blank stare until she finally spoke. “You done? Sorry, but at your size, it’s just a lot of squeaks, but I’m guessing you’re trying to beg for your life, which is pretty expected. But, maybe if you tasted my finger…”

Without hesitation, Juan turned his head and licked some of the gross, sticky foot sweat off her finger. His tongue was met with a strong, salty taste, paired with a hint of stuffy leather. He looked back at Andrea. “There! HAPPY?!”

“I don’t know what you just said, but I can tell you really enjoyed it.” She took her other finger and poked at the tiny boner sticking out. With no gentleness, she practically pushed his dick inward, swirling it around with aggressive force.

“STOP! STOP!” 

Andrea sensed that his squeaks were urgent, so she stopped playing with him and brought him closer to eye level.

“That’s enough fun for now. I got a movie to catch, and it looks like I can sneak you in. Seriously, what would you do without me? I just hope you don’t drown.”

Drown? Juan didn’t understand what she meant until he felt his body being lowered to the smelly flat in her other hand. She took her pinky and rubbed him off at the toe end, where the smell was at its cheesiest, and a layer of heated musk was all around him. He was no longer bounded by the sweat and made a pointless attempt to run, but the further he ran towards the center, the bigger his fear became. 

Andrea stood above him, raising her pudgy, fat foot and squeezing her toes, raining giant drops of sweat all around him. He felt like a chicken with its head cut off, avoiding the dangerous rainfall, tripping over himself, and watching in horror as she slowly began to put her foot back in.