Wait…What??

Parker was inexplicably full-sized, standing outside of a tall, expensive-looking door, with a dazzling bouquet of roses in his right hand and a box of chocolates in the other.  Before Parker could even begin to comprehend the familiarity his situation, the door flew open.

“Parker! Hey sweetie! Happy Valentine’s Day!”

It can’t be.

Embracing him in a warm, passionate hug was the only girl that Parker had ever loved.  The sprawling blonde hair, the lulling blue eyes, the plush lips, the sweet voice, the way that her head settled into his chest when they embraced…It was her.  It was Madeline, who he spent every day of their college-spanning relationship loving the hell out of.  Until this day.  February 14th of his senior year was the day that spawned Parker’s current feelings of fear, depression, and loneliness.  Parker’s shrinking did not begin at that wild house party.  It began here, in the living room of Madeline’s apartment.

“What are you waiting for!?” Madeline giggled, pulling Parker by the hand into her sleek-looking residence, playfully pushing him on the couch.  Her petite form immediately jumped onto his lap, cupping his face with her soft hands and preparing for a long kiss, affectionately looking into Parker’s confused brown eyes.

What the fuck? Was the shrinking a dream? Am I still tripping? Is this…real?

“I love you, Parker.”  Madeline pulled Parker’s cardigan-draped torso into a long, loving kiss, her alluring perfume washing over the valleys of his heart.  Unbeknownst to them, the hourglass of four years of their relationship was nearing its end.  Parker reciprocated Madeline’s love, the lines between dream and reality crashing down in favor of the resurfacing of his feelings for his former girlfriend.  As they kissed, their relationship raced through Parker’s hyperactive mind, from their quirky dates to the countless nights spent pouring out previously unspoken feelings and fears.  By the end of the kiss, they were one again.

To Parker’s dismay, Madeline broke her seemingly eternal hold on Parker, promising with a purring voice, “I’ll be right back, babe, I have a surprise for you.” 

The surprise that Parker received, however, was not what Madeline had ever intended to give him. 

*Bling!*

Without thinking, Parker’s absent gaze focused to Madeline’s forgotten phone at the end of the couch.  On the screen read an unfamiliar name: Darren.

Who is Darren?

Uncharacteristically curious, Parker picked up her phone and inspected the message.  Somehow, he knew that something were not right.  The words under the unrecognizable name confirmed his gut feeling.

Yo Maddy, you still coming up tonight?? ;)

Suddenly, a familiar sharp pain slammed Parker’s head, soon followed by a sensation that made him feel as if he had nose-dived into a volcano.  Still sitting on the couch, Parker dropped Madeline’s phone from his hand, his stomach about to burst into shreds from pain.

“Parker!! What’s wrong?!”  Madeline stormed out of her bedroom, wearing her intended “surprise” of black-and-pink lingerie.

“Ahh! Fuck! Dar…Darr…” Parker gagged, the intense throbbing of his being overshadowing his powerful feeling of déjà vu.

“Wait…you?! No! I can explain! Please baby!”  Madeline rushed towards Parker, attempting to grasp his shoulders to calm him down.  Instead, Parker abruptly stood up in his fitful combination of rage, pain, and confusion.  All three were soon to be infinitely amplified.   

His pants fell.

“Whaa?” Parker moaned, his world incomprehensible as he looked down at his still-zipped jeans – now looking like they were tailored for an NBA player – on the ground. 

Madeline cried, “Parker, you need to calm down!  Look what’s happening to you!”  

“Who…is…!?” Parker sputtered as his attention was snapped from his enlarged pants to his scantily-dressed girlfriend; he was oblivious to her appeasing selection of garments because he was now staring directly into her shivering blue eyes.   

But…But…Madeline is 5’2!

“Forget about me Parker!  You’re torturing yourself!”  Accompanying Parker’s trauma was accompanied by a change of demeanor for Madeline, who, from his perspective, now had the physique of a runway model.  She clamped her hands around Parker’s weakening arms, the cardigan now transforming into something akin to a large blue blanket.

“But…I love you!”  Parker, now diminishing past Madeline’s narrow shoulders, down to her lace-covered breasts and nearing thinly-hid womanhood, called up to who he thought was his only love, looking like a child crying to his mother instead of the once-proud boyfriend that he once was.

“Move on like I have! You’ll shrink into nothing if you keep this up!”  Madeline aggressively warned as watched her boyfriend, whose arms that she had fallen into for what felt like forever, dwindle past her waist and into the pathetic being that she now believed him to be.

“Please sweetheart!! Take me back!  I’ll show you!”  Parker, nearing tears, tightly hugged her smooth, pale leg, which was now temporarily equal to his height.  His feet, which he had by now ripped from his too-big shoes and socks, now straddled her previously tiny size 6’s.

Madeline icily responded, “You’ll always be too afraid to love anyone,” scoffing as she watched Parker disappear past her knees, pitifully begging for another chance.

His clothes now a nearby heap of irrelevancy, Parker choked as he saw the lusciously pink nail-painted foot of his girlfriend come into view, his arms no longer able to fully wrap around her extended leg; he buried his face into her shin in desperation.  The petite foot now almost as big as him, Parker knelt down and messily kissed her perfectly rounded toes, which were growing frighteningly larger by the moment.

“Gross!  Don’t slobber on them you freak!” Madeline flicked Parker away with her monstrous big toe, Parker crashing on his back.  More defeated than terrified, his face softened in sadness as he stared up at his gigantic girlfriend, hardly believing that he was now reduced to a speck at the feet of not only his lover, but his closest friend.

“I’m sorry!”  Parker cried, letting go of the tightness of his muscles and slumping amongst the insignificant dirt of the hardwood floor. 

“I feel like it would take a miracle to get you out of your own head, Parker,” Madeline softly said to the insect at her toes, all feeling leaving Parker’s body as she stole every emotion that kept him alive. 

*Ding-Dong!*

Now willfully ignorant to Parker’s existence, Madeline confidently walked towards the door, almost as if she knew who was on the other side.  The door crept open, revealing a familiar statuesque blonde, who ducked inside the doorway, paying her host no mind.

“Well, well, well.  What do we have here?  Reliving your heartbreak?  Now tell me Parker, how often do you have this dream?”

The Amazon, the same woman who had plagued his existence with her mind-bending antics, strutted over to the couch and sat down, nearly smashing it with her bulldozer-like bottom.  In this realm, her clothes actually fit her, from her mini-dress down to her impossibly long toes, which were splaying out of an intimidating pair of gladiator sandals.  Hardly receiving her desired reaction from Parker, who was slowly becoming desensitized to large things, she explained, “You see, we have a bond now.  How lucky are you?  You practically groveled over me on the bus.  The drug…The drug will keep us together.  You’ll figure it out soon enough.”

Still lost in his myriad of feelings, Parker said, “I don’t care.  Do whatever you want to those kids from the Prom.  Just fuck off, giant bitch.”

“Tisk, tisk, little man.  Just when I thought we were getting somewhere,” the Amazon snarled and and turned to Madeline, who was passively watching the scene unfold.  “Honey, why don’t you do the honors?   Send little Parker back to his real-life nightmare.”  The Amazon refocused her microscopic gaze towards Parker, and smugly said, “It’s only fitting.” 

Without a reply, Madeline obediently walked back to Parker’s residence on her apartment floor, the slaps of her feet promising the closure that he never had.  She loomed over Parker and raised her lint-laden sole over his conquered form.  She hesitated.  “By the way, thanks for the chocolate.”  Parker hardly made a sound as Madeline again sent him back into isolation; being crushed by her foot hardly compared to the pain that he felt when she no longer loved him.

****************************

“Parker, Parker!!  Wake up!”

Sweating, Parker snapped awake, jumping slightly at the sight of Ava’s exaggerated, yet concerned, face.  He spun around, checking his surroundings, finally settling when he realized that he was again sitting in the comfort of his new friend’s palm.  He wasn’t sure if her palm was sweating more than he was.

“You really need to stop doing that.  Like seriously.  I had to pull over,” Ava said, lowering here eyebrows half-seriously with a hint of playfulness. 

“Ugh, sorry about that.  It must be another side effect of the drug,” Parker said, the warmth of Ava’s breath slowly calming him down. 

“You’re freaking me out.  You know, you’ve never explained how you got like this to me.  Er…Well I guess I never asked!”  Ava nervously laughed, flashing a cute smile at Parker, who jumped at the opportunity to finally tell her about his job, the party, the Amazon, the weird hallucinations/dreams, and everything in between.  Now trusting him, Ava respected his decision to stay away from Victoria and the few people who were close to him until he regained his size.  Always up for an adventure, Ava agreed to help him on his quest to find the Amazon and regain his normal size before Patricia and the rest of his workplace started questioning his whereabouts.  The quest would start with finding Colleen and her boyfriend, who according to Parker’s visions, were currently held hostage by the Amazon. 

“You know, we’ll probably have a better chance of finding them if I can snoop around school tomorrow instead of driving around like this.  You can just come with me!  You’ll be so cute…hiding in my purse again or something!”  Ava quickly became excited (Parker was beginning to find out that she does this a lot) and placed him back in the cup holder without waiting for his response, turned on her favorite pop radio station, and resumed driving, the sun settling down after an exhausting day.

Before Parker was snatched back up by his bubbly brunette friend, he was left to his thoughts, his most recent dream giving him a new insight.

Is the Amazon…trying to help me?  But why?  Regardless, she’s my only way out of this.  Once we find the lost Prom couple, we should be able to physically encounter her this time.  Thank god for Ava – she’s a little eccentric, but she has a good heart.  Something that I think Madeline lacked.  I need to move on.  But now, I don’t have a choice to hold on to lost feelings – I’m going back to school tomorrow!