Chapter 6:

It took Jackie about a half an hour to see my response. As most people know, waiting for a deep crush to get back to you can be quite nerve-racking. For me, that half an hour was full of anxiety. I checked my phone every single minute, while I picked up Amanda’s dirty panties from the ground.

When she finally did respond, a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. 

Her response was a picture of just her face and neck, eyes cut off again. She was playing coy with me. She knew how beautiful I thought her eyes were. I had to earn the right to see them again.

Her smiling red lips were the main attraction. It was a dirty smile. Her mind was in the gutter.

She and I sent each other some more salacious pictures. We hadn’t reached the level of sending nudes yet. Our messages were revealing but left the rest to the imagination.

After a couple of messages, she sent me another picture of her tits with the caption, “I wanna hear your voice.”

I responded, “Free for ft?”

“Yeah call me,” she wrote.

She picked up almost as soon as I called. She was in her room all alone in her black lingerie.

“Oh my god!” She said, “It’s my little college boy!”

I tried not to cringe at her calling me ‘little’. My sister had been doing it all day, and it was starting to take a toll on me.

I quickly moved past it and we got on with our conversation. Relatively soon into the FaceTime call, I told her that I shrank again.

“Again?”

“Yeah, unfortunately.”

“How much smaller did you get?” she asked.

“I’m 4’2” now, which means I lost 5 inches.”

“Wow. When did you shrink?”

“On the bus.”

She put a hand to her mouth. At first, I didn’t know why, but then it became clear that she was stifling laughter.

“What’s so funny?” I half-laughed along with her.

“Nothing,” she said unconvincingly.

“Well, anyway, I went to a doctor, and she said that if I shrink down to 3 and half feet that they I will have to undergo a 48-hour observation. Isn’t that nuts?”

Her ears perked up when she heard that.

“Are they really gonna make you sit in a room for 2 days?” she asked.

I shrugged.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that.”

“I’m hoping too, because if it does reach that point, I doubt my mother will let me go back to school until I’m better. Trust me Jackie, all I want to do is come back.”

“Is your sister being bad to you?”

That question threw me off. It showed she’d been listening all along. She cared about me more than I knew.

“Yeah, kinda. I’m cleaning up her god damn room as we speak.”

“Oh, that’s why you’re moving all around.”

“Yup, she has me on a tight leash.”

“Why don’t you tell your mom or your dad that she’s putting you through all this crap?”

“Because then she’ll be even worse to me. She’s made that clear. And my parents aren’t always around to protect me.”

“Ok, be honest with me,” she said, “What would happen if you didn’t finish cleaning her room?”

I knew what would happen, but did I want to tell Jackie? Then I remembered back to my mother advice to tell her how I felt.

“She would spank me again,” I said.

“Again? You mean she’s spanked you already?”

I sighed in despair, “Yes. And it fucking hurt.”

“Desmond, the only way things are going to change is if you stand up to her and do something about it.”

“I appreciate your concern, but I’m just gonna play ball for now. I won’t have to put up with it much longer because I’ll be back soon anyway.”

“You better be,” she said.

The conversation veered into our schoolwork and our experiences with professors. But before long, she hit me with an odd request.

“I have something to ask you, Desmond,” she said.

“Uh oh, I don’t like that tone of voice,” I joked.

“Just listen ok. You need to do this for me.”

“Ok, ok,” I responded, realizing she was serious.

“I need you not to jerk off until you come back to school.”

I didn’t know how to adequately respond to that.

“Can you…what?” I fumbled my words.

“No more orgasms until you see me again.”

That time, her tone was graver. But I didn’t have much time to take in what she said because Mom came upstairs and interrupted our conversation.

“Desmond! Dinner’s gonna be ready in 10 minutes! Where are you?”

“I’m in Amanda’s room.”

I turned my attention to Jackie, “I’m gonna mute you for a sec, k?”

Before she could respond I muted my end of the line. Mom came in the door and asked what I was doing in my sister’s room.

“Just doin’ a good deed, I guess. Her room was pretty dirty.”

She was skeptical. Even though she was often oblivious to how Amanda actually was, she knew I wasn’t going to clean Amanda’s room voluntarily.

“You don’t have to do that. Cleaning her room is her job.”

“I know. Just let me finish. Ok?”

“Fine, but I’m gonna talk to her about this she gets home. Can you believe her? She didn’t even tell me she was going out tonight!”

I threw up my hands and shrugged, “I don’t know. She’s always been unpredictable.”

My stomach was doing somersaults. Mom didn’t seem to realize that talking to Amanda would lead to collateral damage. My sister was going to assume that I told Mom all about what she’d been doing to me. I didn’t see any great way out of this dilemma.

If I told Mom not to talk to Amanda, she would be even more concerned and probably get even more aggressive. But if I simply allowed her to talk to Amanda, my sister would still rain down fire and fury on me. And if I told Mom everything that had happened today, Amanda would find her moment and destroy me. In a manner of speaking, I was fucked.

“Unpredictable is putting it lightly. She has no regards for anyone else but herself. I should ground her.”

That can’t fuckin’ happen, I will be torn to shreds in a matter of hours, I thought.

“Ma, she’s 16. If she goes out once in a while, it’s not a tragedy.”

“Since when do you give me parenting advice?” she snipped at me.

I was not expecting such a harsh response from her. I wanted to tell her the truth about her daughter so bad, but I knew it would only make things worse for me. That was when Jackie piped up.

“Who are you talking to?” her voice came through my phone.

“Who is that?” my mom asked.

“Jackie. The girl I talked to you about,” I unmuted her, “It’s my mom.”

“Oh, hi Desmond’s mom!”

I angled my phone’s camera in Mom’s direction, so she could see my goofy girlfriend’s frenzied waves.

“Hi, Jackie,” she said rather unenthusiastically.

Mom’s underwhelming reaction to Jackie pissed me off. It sounded like she didn’t trust her or something.

“I just want you to know,” Jackie told my mom, “When your son comes back to school, I will do everything I can to take care of him. It’s the least I can do.”

“Thank you, Jackie. I appreciate that,” Mom said.

She told me dinner would be ready soon and to finish up what I was doing. Finally, she went back downstairs.

“I get the sense that she—” Jackie started.

“Doesn’t like you? Yeah, she’s being ridiculous.”

“Desmond, she hasn’t gotten to know me yet. I can understand if she’s a bit—I don’t know—protective, I guess.”

“She’s being overly protective. Just like she’s been with every one of my other girlfriends. She’s not that way with Amanda. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. If my mom hears that my sister is going out with a dude, she’s like ‘go easy on him, sweetie!’. She assumes I can’t handle myself, which is just bullshit!”

“To be fair to your mother, you are rapidly approaching the size of a toddler,” she said.

“Jackie, this crap started way before I ever started shrinking.”

I looked at her through the phone screen, and I could tell she was biting her tongue. Her eyes were off to the left and her brows were raised.

“What?”

She sighed and coughed up the truth, “You’ve—how do I put this—you’ve always been, a pretty small guy. Your mom just wants to protect you.”

“I’m not small. I’m just…small boned.”

She burst out laughing at that, which I didn’t appreciate. When people used to make fun of my height, I was used to it. But now that I was shrinking, my size became a soft spot.

“That’s not funny!” I said indignantly.

“I’m sorry,” she said between giggles, “It’s just that—I’ve never heard someone say they were ‘small boned’. I’ve heard ‘big boned’ but never ‘small boned’.”

“It’s true!”

“You aren’t doing yourself any favors by admitting that, little guy!” she broke down laughing once more.

I was getting tired of our conversation, so I came up with a clever way to end the call.

“Oh, what’s that, Mom? Dinner’s ready? Ok! Be right down!”

Not buying it for one second, her eyes bore into me, “Did I offend you, small bones?”

“Uh, no.”

“I’m sorry, Desmond. I didn’t mean to put you down. I know this must be a sore spot, especially now.”

Annoyed, I responded, “I don’t need to be reminded of that. Listen, I gotta go, Jackie. It was really nice talking to you.”

I hung up abruptly, and as soon as I hit that red button, the dam broke. I buried my face in one of Amanda’s fuzzy pink pillows and wept hot tears into it.

My sad respite was soon interrupted my mom calling me for dinner, but my sadness persisted and churned in my stomach as I begrudgingly ate the food in front of me.

As soon as I was done, I asked to be excused, and Mom obliged.

Up in my room, I had a short call with Pauline telling her that I shrunk more. Predictably, she advised me to stay home until my disease was sorted out. I nodded along to what she was saying giving her some ‘yeah yeahs’ along the way, even though I had no intention of following her suggestions. I promised Jackie I would do everything in my power to make it back to her.

My next call was to Maggie. I had been dreading this call, but I had to tell her what was going on. I owed her that much.

The conversation eventually moved past exchanging simple pleasantries and I brought up the real reason I’d called her.

“Maggie, I need to tell you something.”

“Uh oh,” she said, “This can’t be good.”

“Promise me you’ll believe me, no matter how crazy it sounds.”

“Dude, what is going on with you? Are you a fugitive?”

“No, I’m—I’m just—”

“Listen, I can take it. Just spill the beans.”

“I’m shrinking.”

“What? Is that a cryptic way of telling me you’re depressed or something?”

“No. My body is literally getting smaller. Literally.”

Silence ensued, just like when I told my mother over the phone.

“You’re not kidding,” she finally said.

“No, I’m not. That’s why I’m home. And I don’t know when I’m coming back. Hell, I don’t even know if my mom will let me go back.”

“I’m—really sorry Desmond. Are you alright? You know, emotionally.”

“To be honest, I’m not. I thought I had a height complex before, but now it’s a hundred times worse. And it especially doesn’t help when my sister is constantly torturing me.”

“Jesus, how much smaller are you?”

I told her.

“Ok, don’t take offense to this, Desmond, but I have an idea on how to avoid your sister’s laser focus on you.”

“How?” I asked, desperate for any suggestions.

“Hire a babysitter or something. Have someone around while you and your sister are home alone together, and I guarantee she’ll be less of a total bitch.”

“Actually, you’re onto something,” I said, “And I have the perfect person in mind.”

“Who?”

“Well, I made friends with this girl on the bus ride home. Her name’s Audrey. I’ll invite her over tomorrow!”

“Desmond, you sound a little overexcited. You know you have a girlfriend, right?”

“Of course! I would never even think of doing anything with her! What kind of person do you think I am?”

“A guy in a relationship with a crush on another girl?”

“Believe me, I’m fine. Drop it,” I said.

“Speaking of Jackie, how did she take the news?”

I told her the whole story of us meeting at the café and how we got into a shouting match. Then I caught her up on the details of our make-up.

“I don’t understand how she didn’t notice that you were 5 inches shorter than normal. That’s just insane!” Maggie said.

“That’s exactly what I thought, but she apologized so I’m not going to let it bother me anymore.”

“Desmond, how are you just going to forget about that? She stared you right in the face and was oblivious to your shrinking! She’s totally self-absorbed!”

It seemed that every important person in my life was lashing out at Jackie: my mom and now Maggie? I was thoroughly outraged.

“Don’t you dare say that! She’s gonna take care of me when I get back. I’m gonna go live with her and me and her are going to face this together. I need her!”

“I’m sorry, I just—”

“You just what? Ooooh, maybe you’re jealous of that I’m in a loving relationship, and you’re not!”

“Desmond, I know you’re having a tough time, but taking out your frustration on me, someone who is pointing out problems in your relationship, will not help you.”

“And the jealousy continues! What’s the matter, Maggie, upset you didn’t make a move on me? Are you crying because I chose an amazon over you?”

“What the fuck? We’re friends, I never thought of you like that! But now it’s clear that you did!”

“What?! No! You’re trying to tear me and Jackie apart!”

“You know what? Fuck off, Desmond! When you calm the fuck down, come back and talk to me. But until then, enjoy having your cake and eating it too!”

“For the last time…I’m not interested in Audrey!”

She hung up on me. I couldn’t believe what I’d done. I quite possibly ruined a friendship. My only true college friend hated me now. All I had now was Jackie.