Compared to the first few days, the next five months were a breeze.  To my surprise and relief, Tanisha honored her deal with us, to the point that she even stopped harassing me in class.  She even made some token efforts to be cordial to us, but after a kidnapping and several attempted murders we figured it would be best to keep her at arm’s length.  Without her interference we were able to have a fairly normal relationship at school, which continued to be met by a chorus of shrugs.  Still, not having to sneak around like we had a terrible secret made our lives easier.

Unfortunately, Meredith upheld her end of the bargain too, and after a month of lessons Tanisha learned how to shrink people.  According to Meredith, the plan was to make it last the whole semester, but Tanisha’s singular focus made her cut corners – in her own words, she would never need to grow anybody.  After that point, someone would go missing every two weeks or so, never to be seen again.  We knew what was happening, of course, but could do nothing to stop it.  Even if someone believed us it would be obvious to her who told, and our truce was already tenuous.

We managed to exploit it to our own advantage, too.  None of the standardized testing facilities checked for shrunken men, so Meredith was able to sneak me into her exams.  While perched on her shoulder, a well-placed curtain of hair could easily conceal me while I helped her through it.  In the end, me being there was more of a comfort thing for her, and I only had to nudge her toward a couple of answers.  Her scores were good enough that we qualified for one of the same colleges, and that helped us make up our minds.

Everything was set to be a good run to college until the final day.  The very last time I closed my locker a crimson wall replaced the door in my view, and I looked up it to see a pair of baby blue eyes peering down at me.  “Hey, Tanisha,” I said in complete deadpan.  She may have stopped bullying me, but that did not stop her from “comparing heights” as she called it.

“Hey down there!” she replied, brimming with enthusiasm.  “How’s it going?”

“Same as it was an hour ago when you last saw me,” I answered.  “Now that we’ve gotten pleasantries out of the way, can I help you with something?”

“Yes, you can!”  Tanisha leaned forward so her head was right over mine, keeping the same high energy.  “Look, I know we got off with you under the wrong foot, and that’s on me.”

“Is the right foot yours or your sister’s?” I shot back.  “Which one would be more likely to crush me?”

“See, that’s the sort of stuff I’m talking about!  Seeing as how we’re all going to the same college in the fall – you did know we’re going to the same place, right? – I thought it’d be a good idea for us to bury the hatchet, wipe the slate clean, and other euphemisms that mean starting fresh.”

Was she following me to college, or was this just a horrible coincidence?  “Okay, I’ll bite.  What could you possible offer me to make up for everything you’ve done to me?”

“I’m having a graduation party at my house, and you’re invited!” she proclaimed.  “Meredith too, of course.”

“And I’m supposed to believe this isn’t a trap?”

“Trap?” she repeated.  “When are you going to learn to trust me, little guy?  We’re friends now, right?  Do people trap their friends?  Besides, like a quarter of our class will be there, including the whole volleyball team.  You like tall, strong women, don’t you?  I heard through the grapevine that you’re dating one.”

I decided to humor her.  “Okay, fine, I’ll ask Meredith at least.  Where do you live?”

Tanisha giggled.  “You’ve been there, silly!”

“Yes, but I don’t know how to get there, since I was clutched in your fist the whole ride,” I replied through gritted teeth.

“Oh, right!” she said, slapping her forehead.  “Silly me!  Just go to the address on this card, then.  Hope to see you there!”  She walked off, aggressively shaking her hips as she left.  While I watched her butt sway back and forth in her shorts, I was not sure if she would try to seduce or squash me if I showed up tonight.

On the way out, I met up with Meredith.  She dropped her arms over me until they reached the small of my back, then with a sudden jerk she pulled my face into her chest.  Her fingers lifted my chin so I looked up at her, and with a quick dip she leaned down and kissed me.  I returned it, but before it became too forceful she leaned back, breaking the connection between our lips.  It was far from the same as being in her hand, but she was still clearly in control.

“Ready to graduate?” she asked, her husky voice making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“Yeah, let’s go get ready,” I answered, and she released me from her hug.  I grabbed one of her hands with mine, and we started toward the door.

“You know, Tanisha just invited us to her graduation party,” I said as we walked.  I probably shouldn’t have even mentioned it, but it was still fresh in my mind.  “We can skip it, right?”

“I kind of want to go, actually,” Meredith replied, and I looked up at her in surprise.  “Come on, it’ll be fun!  We’ve been to exactly zero parties together, and this’ll be our last chance before college.  You can have tiny fun with me tomorrow, I promise.”

“You don’t think it’s a trap?”

“Babe, I don’t trust Tanisha as far as I can throw her gangly ass.  But she’s smart, and she wouldn’t dare try anything with a hundred other people there.  Besides, if she does I’ll be able to stop her.  I promise.”

“Well, if you’re sure…”  I was still not convinced, but it had Meredith’s vote of confidence.  I could endure anything for her, and after all, maybe it would be fun.  We got in her car, and I realized this would be our first time going out in public with her not as my bully.  Maybe it was not such a bad idea after all.

When I went to retrieve my mortar board after tossing it, however, my wrist was seized by a strong hand with fingers long enough to completely close around it.  I followed the arm up until I found a pair of shining blue eyes, more familiar to me than they should have been.  Several times before she had proven I could not overcome her strength, so I just smiled up at her.

“I thought I’d find you here, little guy!” Tanisha exclaimed amid the din of the crowd.

“Yeah, funny how we’re both at our own graduation.”

“You’re coming to my party tonight, right?”  She fluttered her eyelashes, like that would do more to entice me than the iron grip she had on my arm.  “I really do want to see you there so I can start to repair the damage I did to you and give us a new start.”

“Yes, I’ll be there,” I replied.  “Meredith too.”  Her insistence that I be there was making me even more suspicious: I was not used to getting ambushed to make sure I’d show up somewhere.

“Fantastic!” she said, giving my wrist a squeeze.  “When you get there, come find me and I’ll get you hooked up like all my other friends.  It’ll be easy to find me – I’ll be the only seven-foot-tall woman!  Seeya there!”  She let go of me and walked off to talk to people she had not nearly killed, and I picked up my mortarboard.

When I met up with Meredith, she was far from the gate we had decided on.  “I saw that volleybitch moving in on you,” she explained when I asked.  “Had to get ready in case she reverted to her usual shitty self out here.  There are a lot of people around, and it’d be real easy for her to make you ‘disappear’ into the crowd.”

“Speaking of,” I began, “are you sure you want to go to her party?  She seems more invested than she should be in us being there.”

“Yes, little dude, I’m sure I want to go,” she replied.  “Just like I’m sure she’s going to try some shit, and I’m sure I’ll be able to stop her.  Based on what you told me, I’m sure she thinks I’m some sort of dumb oaf who doesn’t even know my left from right, and I’m sure she’s underestimated me because of that.  And I’m sure I want to be there with you.  Now, surely you trust me to keep you safe from the Eiffel Twat, right?”

“Yeah, I see your point,” I said.  “In that case, I’ll let my guard down and walk into her trap so you can kick her ass.”

“Don’t be too obvious about it, or she might suspect something’s up.”  She grabbed my shoulder with her hand and pulled me close, neatly slotting me beneath her armpit.  We walked in sync, as though we were in a three-legged race, all the way to her car.  Over the past few months I had moved most of my things into her room, since neither of us had much to begin with.  Anything I’d need to get ready was already there, and I trusted her to make sure I was as dashing as possible.

Meredith’s outfit was a surprise of its own.  Tonight she had dressed to impress, and seemed to have me in particular in mind.  She straightened her hair, making it long and fine, and a bit of blue eyeshadow and cherry lipstick was far more makeup than she usually bothered with.  Her sleeveless, silk white blouse with a frilly collar was calculated to show off her cleavage and toned biceps, and her short, pleated black skirt put her legs on full display.  Dark stockings made them look even more toned than usual, and a pair of black leather boots laced up to her knees gave her an extra boost.  Just for tonight, she had decided to straddle the line between conventionally hot and gothic fashion, which pushed an entire panel of my buttons.

Seeing her like that ignited feelings deep inside me, and I knew it was time to bring this up.  “Meredith, I’ve been thinking about this a while,” I began, “and I’m sure now’s the time.”  I paused to take a deep breath, bracing myself for what I was about to say.  “You know I like being small.  I prefer being small.  After tonight, I just want to be small for good.  Make me an inch tall and don’t grow me back a single millimeter.”

“Are you sure about that, for real?” Meredith asked.

“Yes, positive,” I answered.  “This is the last night I want to be ‘regular’ size.  From here on, I want to be the size I feel most comfortable.”

“But really, are you sure?” Meredith repeated.  “You’ll have to attend lectures and stuff at college.  Our schedules probably won’t line up exactly, so I’m not sure how you’ll get to them without me carrying you, and frankly I don’t trust anyone else.”

“We can say it’s a disability, since it inhibits my ability to attend class, and they’ll have to accommodate it,” I replied.  “There’s even precedent!  You remember the inch-tall guy who made the late-night talk show rounds a few months ago, right?  He had a genetic disorder they could never find the source of!  We could say I have that, and with the physical evidence there’s not much they could do about it.”

“Dude, you know that was a movie promotion, right?” Meredith asked.  “There’s no inch-tall man, just like there are no gigantic women walking around.  It was all viral shit done with green screens.  There’s no inch-tall man out there except when I make you that.”

“No, it’s real!” I insisted.  “People don’t want you to know the truth, but it’s out there.  Men can be tiny, and women can be gigantic, and maybe even vice versa.  I’ve seen people discussing it, and I want to join the tiny men of the world.”

“Tell you what,” Meredith started.  “I want you to be long-term tiny, too, so I’ll make you a deal.  If you send a letter to this supposedly tiny man and get a response back this summer, I’ll make sure you stay tiny forever.  Otherwise, we’ll have to wait until the start of a new semester so we can claim that you suddenly shrank over the break.  Do we have a deal?”

“Yeah, that works for me,” I replied.  “I’m going to win, though, because that guy is out there at an inch tall.  Talk shows don’t have the kind of budget to keep that up, and he looked perfectly scaled for his surroundings.”

“I hope you do!” Meredith shot back.  “I want you to be forever small, too!  I just want to make sure you’ll be able to live a normal life so you don’t throw away your full ride because you want to be small.”

“I guarantee you,” I began, “two weeks from now I’ll be an inch tall permanently.”

“You’re being awfully ambitious, aren’t you?  If I remember, he was a little bit smaller than an inch.  I’d make you closer to that size, for the sake of consistency at the very least.”

“You just promised to make me even smaller, so I won’t argue against that.”

We pulled into Tanisha’s driveway, and Meredith looped around a garden in the middle.  “It looks like we’ll have to put a pin in this conversation,” she said.  “We can’t have any of those volleybitches knowing about your preference or they might try and pull the same shit Tanisha did.”

I agreed with her, and she finally found somewhere to park.  We got out and she grabbed the mixed six-pack we had assembled from what we could find, then we walked toward the door.  We gave each other sly glances, subtle notices that we’d be watching each other, then I rapped on the door.  Whatever surprise was planned for us inside, I was confident we’d be able to handle it together.