It was several days before Max saw Lily again. The girl had warned him that she would be absent from lab for awhile – long enough, at least, for her story about hormonal therapy to seem a plausible reason for her growth. Without someone constantly badgering him for attention, or making snide remarks at his expense, Max found that he could be surprisingly productive.

Yet the days seemed to drag by slowly. There had been a time when he had jumped out of bed, excited for another day of work in the lab, running experiments with an air of childlike wonder. Now this sense of anticipation extended only to finding out if this was the day that Lily would return.

On the fourth day, Max had just received his marching orders from Dr. Franklyn when he looked up to see Lily shuffling toward him. The girl stowed her gear in the locker next to where he was working, and gave him a thin, nervous smile. “Do you need any help today?” she asked, practically whispering.

“I suppose,” he replied, unenthusiastically. Max handed her a scrap of paper. “These are the reagents we need. Could you gather them?”

She nodded. As she turned and walked away from him, Max found himself watching her go. Now that Lily was back, he finally became aware of just how much he’d really missed her. The moment he saw her, his first impulse had been to run to her, hug her, to find what she'd been doing in her long absence. But the girl had wounded him, even more deeply than he'd realized, and now it was just too hard to make the first move at reconciliation.

Max noticed another thing as Lily sauntered her way across the room: how the eyes of every male in the class turned to follow her. The girl was dressed in skinny black jeans and a low-cut purple tank top, both garments form-fitting and perhaps a half-size too small. After her last growth spurt Lily now an even five foot six, nearly a foot taller than her original height. Yet despite her new stature, she hadn't lost a bit of her diminutive charm. The girl still managed to look impish, almost fragile. And with the pair of new assets that she proudly displayed on her chest, Lily had officially graduated from 'cute' to the unquestionable rank of ‘Bombshell.'

Throughout the day, conversation between Max and his lab partner was sparse. ‘Could you pass me that beaker?’ or ‘How many milliliters of sulfuric acid do we need, again?’ Once, a clumsy student at the next table overheated a test tube full of a volatile chemical, resulting in a sudden surge of bright blue flame. The luckless grad student scrambled around the room, trying to remember where they kept the fire extinguisher, while Max and Lily laughed heartily at his expense. In the midst of this she caught his eye, and then, just for a moment, they were laughing together.

At five o’clock, Max left the building, his head hanging low. Lily hurried after him, and caught up in the parking lot. “Hey, I need to talk to you. Do you have a minute?”

“I have someplace to be,” he answered, looking at his watch. “But I can be late, if it's important. What do you need?”

Lily brushed a stray lock of hair from her eyes, and crossed her arms apprehensively. “I just wanted to tell you that I talked to Dr. Franklyn. He wants me to start working in the lab at night, ‘to help the project stay on schedule.’ I'll more or less have my hands full, what with doing his bidding, but hopefully I’ll be able to get a couple attempts in at reproducing our serum.’”

Oh. She wanted to talk business. Well, that was safe, at least. “That’s great,” he replied, smiling weakly. “Just make sure you're careful.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, rubbing her chin. “The thing is, I’d probably be able to make more progress if I had somebody to help me once in a while. Do you think you might want to come in with me?”

“Sure,” he answered. “But I’ve been pretty busy lately. I’ll let you know if I have a free night.”

“I...okay. Did you, um...did have a chance to run any tests on the drug while I was gone?”

“Er...well, I did some...experimenting,” he replied evasively, thinking of Tara and Melinda. “I don’t know that I got any useful data, though. Listen Lily, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you in lab tomorrow.” Max turned, and began to walk away.

“Oh, one more thing,” she called after him. “Did I tell you that I’m wearing a size ten shoe these days?”

Max didn’t look back. Lily was a master of the art of non-sequitur, but he wouldn’t let her trap him that easily.

He heard running steps, and then she was walking beside him. “Yeah, size ten. It's actually pretty large for a woman, even one of my height. The thing is, I’ve always had kind of big feet.” She paused, and took a deep breath. “Big enough, at least, that when I put one of them in my mouth, it can cause some serious damage.”

Now Max stopped. He turned to look at her. Lily was smiling up at him, her expression sheepish. “I fucked up, okay? I hurt your feelings and I’m...I’m sorry.”

“Lily....” He was speechless. A direct apology was the last thing he would ever have expected, out of either of them. He knew first hand how hard it must have been for her.

“Listen, let me make it up to you.” She took a tentative step forward. “I want to go out with you. On a date. Tonight. My treat.”

“But...didn’t you say you were supposed to work in the lab at night?”

The girl gave him her old, familiar smirk. “Old Doc won’t miss me just this once. Come on, what do you say?”

He sighed. Try as he might, he couldn’t keep the stupid grin off of his face. “Okay, you win. Pick you up at eight?”

Lily took his hand, her green eyes sparkling. “Eight is perfect. You karaoke, right?”

Max scowled. “Never.”

She laughed, and touched his cheek fondly. “Sorry Max, you do now. It’s only fair – I did all the apologizing. That means I get to call the shots for our first date.”

Vintage Lily.

“Would it make any difference if I said I was sorry for storming out of your place like the biggest douche in the world?”

“No dice. But I appreciate the sentiment.” She flashed her dimples at him. “I’ll tell you what: I might reconsider our plans if you were willing to go out with...a different version of Lily tonight. One that's a little, you know, TALLER?” Her eyes darted toward his pocket, where she knew he kept the serum. “Say, about NINE INCHES taller?”

He glared at her. “This whole stupid fight was about you using me. It hasn’t even been a minute, and already you’re....”

“Kidding! I’m kidding!” she said, grabbing him by both shoulders and looking him in the eye. “I’m not trying to use you. I like it when I’m big. YOU like it when I’m big. I only thought...if you wanted...but you’re right, this is better.” She stood on her tip-toes, and kissed him on the chin. “I’ll see you at eight, then.”

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The bar was called The Wooden Nickel, and by eight thirty it was already jumping. Lily lead him through the crowded entryway to a small table with a good view of the stage. She grabbed a thick, laminated catalog from an adjacent table and began to leaf through it, her lips pursed in thought. An attractive waitress with hot pink hair came and took their order – beer for Max, a Sex on the Beach for Lily.

“So what’s the deal with this place?” he asked, glancing around skeptically. The bar had an air of willful neglect about it, as if the owner believed that cleaning the stains off the walls would make the place look too corporate.

“It’s not that complicated.” She pointed at the catalog. “Just pick a song. Write down the name on one of these little slips of paper, and give it to the fat guy with the laptop sitting on stage. When they call your name, go up and sing.”

“That isn’t actually the question I asked,” he replied.

“I know it wasn’t.” Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. I like this bar. The drinks are cheap, and it doesn’t usually get too rowdy. People just come to sing, and have other people see them do it.”

“See, that’s the part I don’t get. Why would anyone want to get up in front of a bunch of total strangers and make a complete ass of themselves?”

Lily shrugged again. “Because it’s fun, I guess?” She pushed the catalog across the table toward him. “Here, just pick a song. Any song really, as long as you know it, but maybe try to pick something that you can have fun with. Or else, a song that you feel is significant, that says something you can’t.” She gave him a long stare, then looked away, smiling mysteriously. “Anyway, if you’re worried about being embarrassed, the liquor helps.”

“I see.” He stood up from the table. “Excuse me a moment.”

Max walked around the bar, and finally tracked down their waitress. “Miss, have you put our drinks in yet?”

She shook her head. “Sorry, I was just about to.”

“No, it’s okay. I wanted to change my order. Forget the beer. I think I’m going to need something stronger.” He looked over his shoulder at Lily. “Shots. Whiskey. Until I tell you to stop.”

After gulping down her first drink, Lily scribbled the name of a song on a piece of paper and handed it to the man with the laptop. A few minutes later he called her name, and she made her way on stage. The song began, one that Max recognized as a current Top 40 hit.

The girl could really sing! Her voice came out dark and honeysuckle-sweet, lilting from the song’s deepest lows to the highest notes in her register. Her eyes squeezed shut, Lily sang with a passion felt even in the furthest corners of the room. She even added a couple flourishes to the song that the radio version lacked, making it her own.

When the song ended, the crowd roared in appreciation – the biggest reaction for any performer so far. She walked off the stage, and sat down next to Max. “Or something like that,” she said, grinning. “Have you decided what you’re going to sing?”

Max nodded, and pounded back his third shot. He hastily wrote down the song name, and a few minutes later he was on stage, his heart thumping crazily in his chest.

All those eyes...there must be at least thirty people in here! Jesus, how did she talk me into this. I can’t sing. Why am I UP here?

But then he remembered Lily. How he was standing in the exact spot where she had been only moments before. He remembered the way she looked when she was singing...how it had kindled a fire in his stomach. And most of all, he remembered how it had burned him in a different way when they had fought.

The song began, with it’s long, distinctive synthesizer opening. Keith Moon came in on drums. And then Max was belting out the lyrics to “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” the words practically boiling from his mouth. He wasn’t sure if he sounded good, or terrible. But by the last verse, one thing was clear: he was having fun.

Afterward, he made his way back to the table, a smattering of polite applause following him. Lily handed him the shot that the waitress had delivered while he’d been on stage. “Interesting choice,” she said, giving him a look.

Max drank. “It’s just a song.”

She nodded, taking a long pull from her drink. “I know.” Lily glanced down at the catalog, her eyes going wide. “OOOH! Want to sing ‘Love Shack’ with me?”

He signaled their waitress for another round. “Let’s do it.”

By his third song, Max had lost count of the shots. Lily was matching him stride for stride, sucking down her fruity little drinks like they were going out of style. From the way that she was laughing uproariously at nearly everything he said, he could tell they were hitting her pretty hard. And he was vaguely aware that he didn’t usually use the phrase 'Let me tell you how it is' quite so often.

It was just after eleven. Lily sat next to him, awaiting her turn to sing. Somehow his arm had wrapped itself around her waist, and the girl was reclined against him, her head resting comfortably on his shoulder.

The moment the announcer called her name, the crowd went wild. Lily stood, and gracefully made her way to the stage.

The song began. It was slow, one that Max had never heard before, with an acoustic guitar intro. A bar employee flicked on a blue spotlight, making her look otherworldly, almost angelic. Lily’s eyes fluttered, and suddenly she looked at Max, fixing him with a gentle stare. He immediately took notice – on each of her other songs, Lily had spent her entire time on stage with her eyes clenched shut.

He couldn't follow all the lyrics, but the song was obviously one of unrequited love. The chorus was the only part he was certain he understood. On the first repetition, he laughed out loud. The second found him much more restrained, thoughtful. And by the song's climax, he was mouthing the words along with her.

The morning will come

In the press of every kiss

With your head upon my chest

Where I will annoy you

With every waking breath

Until you decide to Wake Up

Lily walked off stage to a thunderstorm of cheers. Max looked at her, not knowing what to say. She brushed the hair from her eyes, a timid smile on her beautiful face. “It’s just a song,” she told him softly.

Max nodded. “I know.” He beckoned their waitress over. “Can we get a check?”