Have you ever been put in a position where you had to choose between two incredibly risky and precarious situations? Naturally you look at the possible outcomes of each scenario and you go with the lesser-of-two-evils. But what’s easy to forget is that the lesser-of-two-evils is still evil.

It was a Sunday morning, only a few days after giving Emily that foot massage. Emily was taking a shower while Joseph and I were hanging out in the Cave washing clothes. She provided a second water cup for me today, this one was for bathing and then laundry. At the end of the day she’d trash it just like she does with my bathroom cup (right after she wraps the latter in a wad of toilet paper). Anyway I was washing what few clothes I had while Joseph kept me company. Emily got out of the shower faster than last time and got dressed rather quickly. I know what you’re thinking and no, I still didn’t look. Get your mind out of the gutter, we’ve known each other since kindergarten.

Either way she did seem eager about something, this is a very bad sign. Whenever Emily appears this excited around me that means it’s time for me to hide under my bed. . . . So that’s what I did. You heard right, I literally put down the clothes I was drying off, climbed the ladder to the second floor, and hid under my bed.

One time when Emily became all excited and eager around me I learned she and her friends had signed themselves up for dance classes . . . . along with me. I can’t dance a step to save my life. I still can’t because of course I ran away as soon as they told me the ‘good’ news. The point is I had barely dodged a bullet there, I was not about to take chances this time.

Of course that’s pretty fucking hard when your house is fourteen inches tall and completely made of plastic.

“Peter.” I could hear Emily calling me from underneath my bed. When I didn’t answer she called again. “Peter.”

I looked over at Joseph who was hiding with me under the plastic bed. He probably didn’t understand why we were there but then again he was an ant, he didn’t care. “You think she’ll give up if I just stay here?” I whispered to him.

Joseph clicked once and I grimaced. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

I could feel the Cave shake as Emily walked over and crouched down to her knees. “Peter.”

I shut my eyes, as if she would somehow go away just because I wasn’t looking.

The Cave began to jolt over and over again, Emily must be poking it while she repeated my name over and over again. “Peter. Peter. Peter. Peter. Peter. Peter.”

I sighed, crawled out from under the bed, climbed down the ladder, and opened the front door. “Are you done?” I asked in a slightly vexed tone.

“Almost,” she answered. Emily gave the Cave on last good poke that would have sent me staggering if I wasn’t on the bottom floor. “Now I’m done,” she said with a giggle.

“Uh-huh. Hurry up and tell me what’s got you so giddy today so I can go back to hiding.”

Emily sat up on her knees and crossed her arms over her chest as she gazed down at me. “The only thing you’re going to do is get dressed. You’ve been stuck in this house for too long.” A smiled spread across her face, I couldn’t tell if it was just my imagination or her smile was evil.”Tara and I are taking you out to lunch, then a movie.”

I would have laughed if it wasn’t for that maybe-evil smile on her face. Instead I allowed the idea to sink in, but that only brought me close to panic. “I can’t leave the house!” I said quickly. “Do you want people to see me? I’d be on the news in one second, and then in a laboratory in two!”

Emily grew more serious as she shook her head. “No one’s going to see you. I have a purse big enough for you to hang out inside without being claustrophobic or anything. We’ve already reserved a table in the corner of the restaurant so no one’s going to see you. And we’ll be able to see the waitress coming so you can hide before she get’s to the table.” Emily leaned back down so she wasn’t gazing down at me in a sinister way. “We’ll keep you safe, we promise.”

I took a moment to calm down and consider everything she said. The idea of leaving the house and getting some restaurant food sounded great actually. And they seemed to have put a good amount of thought into it . . . “What about food?” I asked at last.

She shrugged. “You can eat a bit of what we order. It’s not like you’re need a lot compared to us.”

“What about the movies?”

“We’ll take you in the same way. Once inside you can just hang out on one of our shoulders. It’s not like anyone’s going to be able to see you.” she answered.

I shifted my feet nervously. “Emily I appreciate what you and Tara are trying to do for me but . . . I just don’t think I’m ready to leave the house yet.”

Emily’s face softened as did her voice. “I can’t understand what you’re going through Pete, but I can understand you’re scared. Do you remember what you told me when I was too scared to speak in front of the class in sixth grade?”

I nodded. “I told you to focus on the wall in the back of the room so you wouldn’t notice everyone watching you.”

She smiled. “That helped get me through it. So now I’m here to help you get through your shrinking problem.”

I tried to return the smile but it faltered. So instead I just looked down at the ground, trying to talk myself into doing this.

“You know,” Emily said in a matter-of-fact voice. “My feet will probably get pretty tired from all of that walking around. They might need a good massage when we get back.”

My head snapped up as I cast a glare at her. “Ok that’s just low, using my fetish against me. You know how I feel about it.”

Emily chuckled. “You like feet, so what? Everybody’s attracted to something. You think no one else has some dark and twisted fantasy that would probably make you cringe a bit?” She laughed. “Besides, I really do appreciate the massages.”

I lightened up a bit as she said that. “Thanks, that . . . that means a lot. Not the massage part. The part about not thinking of me as a freak.”

“Of course you’re a freak Peter,” she smirked. “But I’ve thought you were a freak for years. Your fetish has nothing to do with that.”

I sighed. “You’re not giving me any choice in the matter, are you?”

Her face broke out in that almost-evil grin. “What do you think?”

*****

I got dressed,put away my other clothes, and said goodbye to Joseph. I decided to bring along my knife made from a plastic Bat-a-rang that was sharpened like a real knife. I know I was just going out with friends but I’ve grown too comfortable having weapons to defend myself with. Now I need to have either my knife or quarterstaff with me wherever I go. I slid the knife right between my jeans and belt and stepped onto Emily’s palm. She smiled at me. “You ready?”

I nodded and she proceeded to gently lower me into her purse. Just as she said it was pretty roomy in here, I could actually stand up. Most of the things she carried around were all put into separate pockets so that I had all the more room. The inner material was silk so it was pretty comfortable and helped cussion me despite all of the jostling when she walked. All I had to do was lean against one of the sides, fold my arms behind my head, and enjoy the ride. Before I knew it the movements had stopped and I could hear Tara’s voice.

“So where is he?”

The roof of my silk room opened up letting in a sudden flood of light. I was still trying to blink the spots of color out of my vision when Emily tilted the bag just a little so that Tara could see inside. She smiled wide and giggled at the sight of me.

“Aw you look so adorable in there! Like one of those puppies that can fit inside a purse.”

“Why is it that, everytime I see you, you manage to make me feel less and less manly?” I asked.

Emily smirked. “You’re a man? I just thought you were a new brand of Barbie doll.”

Tara didn’t even try to stop the giggles. “Just think of it as revenge for all of those hugs.”

I gulped down a lump that was forming in my throat. Tara has issues with being touched without her consent, it makes her very uncomfortable. Hugs are the very worst of it though. If you try and poke her or even just put your hand gently on her shoulder the worst she’ll do is take a step away. But if you try to hug her . . . . she screams, and she will fight to break out. She’s not very strong but the screaming is what hurts though. I’ve purposely hugged her before whenever I’ve needed to get back at her for something. God help me, she’s going to put me in a dress before I’m back to normal, I can feel it.

But it’s not like I can just let them know how scared of them I was. When it comes to girls who like to tease you playfully the only way to respond is some witty banter of your own. Nothing hurtful, but definitely something to make them understand you won’t take that lying down.

I cupped my hand behind my ear. “Could you both say that again? I don’t speak giant troll language.”

Emily looked from me to Tara and quirked an eyebrow. “Oh no he didn’t.”

Then she closed the purse, leaving me in darkness once again. Almost instantly the ground shot upwards and knocked me off of my feet. I flew a good few feet into the air and came down on the silk floor. I wasn’t hurt but my cage has well and truly been rattled. The purse opened up once more and Emily grinned down at me.

“How did that feel?” she asked.

I returned her’s with a grin of my own. “I’m just going to assume you did that because you couldn’t think of a decent response.”

Rather than say anything Emily just pulled me out and set me down in one of the change slots of the car. So there I sat, Tara driving on my left and Emily sitting on my right. The expression of being between a rock and a hard place didn’t come close to describing where I was.

“You better watch what you say Pete.” Tara didn’t take her eyes off the road as she addressed me. “You’re not as big as you used to be. We could always just crush you.”

A sudden silence fell over the entire car. I looked from Tara to Emily as wide smiles began to spread over everyone’s face, including mine.

*****

It only took about ten minutes to reach our location. I wasn’t able to see from where I stood and Emily and Tara refused to tell me. Instead Emily gently placed me back inside of her purse. I couldn’t hear anything that was said through the purse but I could at least tell the difference between the voices, however muffled they were. In a few minutes all movement inside the purse stopped but it wasn’t opened for another minute. Once I was taken out and placed on the table I took a good look around. Sure enough we were sitting at a booth in a dimly lit building. Neon lights, pictures, and knick-knacks covered the walls. I recognized this place even though I hadn’t been here in years.

“You brought me to Applebee’s?”

Tara spread her hands. “Surprise!”

“You do like Applebee’s right?” Emily asked.

I nodded. “Thanks for this.”

We hung out and talked in the booth the whole time. Whenever the waitress would come back Tara would give me a warning and I’d dash behind the napkins. The girls ordered the nachos for an appetizer. The plate was big enough to be table height for me if I sat down in front of it. I’d snack on bits of beef, cheese, and chip while the girls ate enough food to feed a town of people my size. And that was only the appetizer, I made sure to make plenty of room for the main courses. Emily ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries while Tara got the 10 oz steak after we both challenged her to do it. Needless to say she failed to finish the whole thing herself. I, on the other hand, received a smaller than bite sized portion from both meals. Never the less they were full sized courses to me and I ate well, using my plastic knife to cut the food. So well I almost didn’t hide in time from the waitress when she stopped by the table. Luckily I had the idea of hiding underneath the rim of the large plate. From her angle I was completely hidden from sight. We all took a huge breath of relief when she left and laughed over the situation. Somewhere along the lines of our conversation I mentioned that I hadn’t been to Applebee’s in years.

“Why’s that?” Emily asked.

I shrugged. “No particular reason, but I can still remember the last time I did come here. It was at the end of one of the best days of my life.”

“Really?” Tara asked. “What happened?”

“It was for a surprise party for Dave Harrison. You remember him right?”

They nodded and I continued. “We were about twelve years old at the time. We all surprised him at his house and spent the day playing all kinds of games, everything from manhunt to his new video games. For dinner time we all went to Applebee’s and then went straight back to his house for more video games until we had to leave.”

“Sounds like my last birthday party,” Emily joked.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll never forget that day.” I gazed out across the table as I became lost in thought. But I was brought back to reality as my stomach began to churn. I stood up to try and walk it off but that did no good. Eventually I dropped to my knees, trying hard to hold down the lunch I just ate.

Emily and Tara sat up straighter at the sight of me. “Are you ok?” Tara asked.

It was an effort but luckily my indomitable will power and extreme dislike of vomiting helped me hold everything down. I stood up and turned back to face them.

“I uh- I think I should just go home. I really appreciate you two taking me out and everything but I think I should leave.” I explained.

Emily looked at me strangely, trying to decide if anything was wrong with me. “Ok,” she said slowly. “We’ll just pay and take you back. We’ll all just hang out and watch some Netflix.”

I shook my head. “No that’s alright. Just drop me off at my Cave and you two can go off and do what you want.”

“Well we want to hang out with you,” Tara said softly. “And if you’re not feeling well then it wouldn’t be right to just leave you by yourself.”

I tried shaking my head again but Emily cut in before I could say anything else. “Look there’s nothing you can really do to stop us, even if you were normal sized.” she said firmly. “We were going to go see a movie but if you’re not feeling well then we’ll take you home and watch a movie with you there.”

One look at their faces told me that the decision was made and final. So the bill was paid, I went back into the purse, and taken back to Emily’s house. When we went inside Emily removed me from her purse once more.

“We’re going to go look in my room and see if there’s any good dvd’s you’d want to watch. You want to come?”

I shook my head. “Actually if you could just set me down on the floor I’d like the chance to explore a little bit.”

“Ok then, we’ll be back down in a few minutes.” she assured me. “Don’t wander where we might accidentally step on you when we come back.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said as she gently placed me on the floor. As they thumped up the steps I took my knife out and began to wander around. I was only about a minute into my exploration when I suddenly heard the front door unlock and then open.