Raymond didn’t know what he was supposed to wear to these kinds of “parties.” He wasn’t really in the habit of going out too much. When school was in session he generally just sat in his dorm room, smoking weed and playing video games with his friends. Sometimes they drank beer or took some shots, but it was never “out” in the world. Raymond lived in a comfortable little cocoon where he and his friends could feel free to get high and laugh and cut up and compare pictures of hot girls on their phones. A party at Wes Larkin’s house was a nerve-wracking prospect for Raymond, who had not kept in touch with anyone from high school. He wasn’t particularly keen on seeing anyone, and he chalked this feeling down to not wanting to disturb his comfortable routine. 

In reality, though, Raymond had been hesitant to go to this party because he didn’t want to see how he “measured up,” in all ways, to his former classmates. Seeing how much Katherine had developed past him was jarring enough, but what if it wasn’t just her? What if Ella Anderson was there? And what if she had gotten taller and bigger too!? Or Hailey Winthrow?! What if she had grown into some kind of amazon as well!? Raymond was hardly even thinking about the guys who were likely to be at the party, Wes, Gavin, Steve, and the like. Somewhere inside he knew that they were going to dwarf him. After all, the crowd he had hung at with in high school had been pretty athletic and high-achieving. Everyone, including him and Katherine, had lettered in some kind of Varsity sport, had been in the National Honor Society, had taken all the AP classes, had been the leaders of this club or that club, and on and on. But once high school was done, and the external motivation was lost, Raymond had fallen fast. He doubted that anyone else had, though. As he looked through his drawers for something to wear, he started to dread seeing everyone again. 

He glanced down at his skinny arms and legs. God, what had he been doing!? How had he let himself fall this far!? Being around Katherine seemed to underline every inadequacy he had, especially since, before she had stopped by for that first visit a few days ago, he had not really noticed anything wrong with himself or his body. As far as he had been concerned, he had been doing fine. Sure, his classes hadn’t been going so well, and sure, he hadn’t been in the best shape because he just sat around all day smoking, but he hadn’t felt anything like he did now. Now, when he looked down at his limbs, they looked like pathetic little twigs, especially when he remembered what Katherine looked like. And his skin…it didn’t look too good either — it had a sickly kind of gray hue, and it advertised to the world that he had not been spending very much time outside. He thought back again to Katherine’s body, and how her skin seemed to almost glow with a healthy tan radiance. He looked back down into his shirt drawer. His t-shirts were all overlarge and faded. Jesus, what was he thinking!?! Why had he agreed to go to this stupid party anyway?

But Raymond never once thought about not going. Even though he whined and moaned internally for agreeing for Katherine to pick him up, he did not think for one second about rescinding his agreement to go. If he had possessed the capacity for deeper self-analysis, he would have been puzzled at this strange new phenomenon — normally, he just flaked on engagements he decided he didn’t want to honor. But he couldn’t flake on Katherine; it just wasn’t an option. Even though this truth evaded his consciousness, he had developed feelings for her again. But not the same kinds of feelings he had before. Whereas before he had been drawn to her as an equal, now his feelings took on an entirely different structure. He admired her; he was in awe of her. He looked up at her like someone would look up to a superior, to a person of greater rank or accomplishment. And even though he didn’t realize it, and would never have admitted it, he was aroused by Katherine’s big powerful body. He was aroused by her energy and her drive and her vivacious approach to life. And, perhaps more than anything, deep, deep down in his psyche, he was aroused by the thought that they had once been equals, and that she had since grown past him, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Raymond could not access these feelings, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t affect him. As he clawed through his drawers, desperately searching for something that wouldn’t embarrass him too much, he wandered what Katherine would be wearing, and his cock got hard. 

A couple hours later, Katherine honked her horn in the Pierce’s driveway. 

“Oh! That must be her!” said his mom. “Ok Raymond, you guys have a good time at the party, and don’t come home too late!” 

“I won’t, mom,” said Raymond, actually having no idea when he would be coming home. 

“I wish she would come inside for a minute,” whined Clara, who had drunk her protein shake just like Katherine had told her to and was on the sofa reading about weight training. 

“She can’t spend all her time with you, Clara,” said Raymond's dad, who was reading a newspaper in his easy chair. “She’s very nice to be doing what she’s doing already, you know. Be grateful for her time, young lady.” 

“Well Raymond better be grateful for her time too,” huffed Clara, folding her arms. 

“Ok, bye everyone!” said Raymond, ignoring his younger sister as he gave his parents a wave. 

“Have fun!” said his dad. 

“Bye dear!” called his mom. He cringed inwardly as he turned to leave. It felt like he was still in high school, the way they were waving goodbye. It was clear that he didn’t do this kind of thing very often. He closed the door, took a deep breath, and then walked down the steps towards Katherine’s car. He had on a pair of baggy cargo pants that were held up by a tightly-adjusted belt, and for a top he was wearing his “Nirvana” t-shirt. He knew that Katherine liked Nirvana…and, after all, he did too. He figured it was probably the shirt that was the least likely to get him negatively judged by his peers. 

He saw Katherine smiling at him from the driver’s side of her car. He swallowed nervously; she just looked so good…and so…big. The top of her forehead rose up past the extent of the car window’s height. Raymond could see that she was wearing a black spaghetti-strap top that left very little of her massive cleavage to the imagination. 

“Hey there!” she said as she got in. “Nice shirt!”

“Uh, thanks,” he said, smiling. But the smile fell from his face as he sat down in the passenger seat. His eyes seemed to be attracted like magnets to her luscious body. All squished up in the car seat like she was, she appeared even bigger. She was wearing full-length jeans that hugged her muscular legs tightly all the way down, and Raymond felt a kind of cold disbelief sprout in his brain as he saw the shiny black leather hugging her upper calves. 

“Are…are you wearing…boots?” he asked, trying and failing to sound casual. 

“Sure am!” she said happily as she turned the car out of the drive way and started on down the road. “These are some of my favorites!”

Raymond looked down at them, trying to see how tall their heel was. He was wearing his ordinary sneakers — he didn’t own anything else, really. But now he was inwardly kicking himself for not thinking to go out and buy some shoes that made him…well, taller. But he was 5’8! What did he have to worry about? Katherine would tower over everyone at the party! Well, everyone except Ella Anderson. Ella had been the tallest girl in the grade when they graduated, at 6’2. But surely she hadn’t gotten any taller, right? What had happened with Katherine’s growth spurt was an anomaly…..

“You’re a little quiet there, dude,” teased Katherine. “Aww are you nervous about seeing everyone?”

“What? No!” said Raymond unconvincingly. He realized how he sounded. “Well, maybe a little, uh…I don’t know…”

“Anxious?” offered Katherine, cocking her head and smiling.

“Well…maybe,” said Raymond, not being able to help admiring how impressive her arms looked as she held the steering wheel. “I just…uh, I haven’t seen any of these people in a while.” 

“Well, me either,” laughed Katherine. “But it’ll be nice to catch up with everyone, you know?”

“Easy for you to say,” said Raymond, hating that these words were coming out of his mouth, and hating how petty they sounded. But he said them anyway. “You’re doing awesome and you look great and…and you can talk about all the, uh, the cool stuff you’ve been doing.”

“Aww come on Raymond, don’t be like that,” said Katherine, reaching over and putting a reassuring hand on his thigh. Raymond shivered inwardly at her touch. Her hand looked absolutely huge on his shriveled thigh. It was just about three quarters as long, and almost exactly as wide. To make matters worse, she actually started petting him gently. His cock responded immediately, and he thanked the stars that he was wearing baggy pants. 

“We’re not meeting up so we can judge each other,” she said. “I think everyone just wants to hang out and see each other, you know?” 

“I guess,” said Raymond uncertainly, focusing most of his energy on not getting too hard as Katherine continued to pet his thigh with her big hand. 

“And besides,” she said, “this is all part of you just getting out and being social, remember? This is good for you, Raymond. I mean, who cares if someone makes a comment about your weight or whatever? You can just brush it off and say that you’ve just started being active again!”

“Yeah…do you really think it’s that obvious?” he said. 

“What’s that obvious?” she asked, taking her hand off his thigh as she put it back on the steering wheel. 

“How…uh…like how small I am?” 

Katherine laughed a little as she shook her pretty head, trying to play off his question. “Well, I mean…yeah, Raymond. You look pretty small. But who cares?”

“I just…I just want to know if I look…uh…ridiculous.” Once again, it felt like he was fighting a losing battle to not sound petty. But he couldn’t help himself — it was like some kind of steady, inexorable force was compelling him to persevere in his open insecurity. 

“Oh come on Raymond, seriously -- who cares?” said Katherine, trying not to sound too irritated with him. His behavior was having a complicated effect on her own internal equilibrium. If she were being totally honest with herself, he did look ridiculous. Aside from the Nirvana short, which she liked, his whole get-up made him look like a high-schooler…a young high-schooler. But, if she was thinking realistically, there wasn’t anything that Raymond could wear that would make him look any different. He was just so…puny. To say nothing of his unkempt hair and the little scraggly half-beard he was growing. And the way that he carried himself, with his hunched posture and slouching shoulders, only reinforced his juvenile appearance. His overt insecurity and petty complaining were icing in the cake. 

But there was more going on inside her…a lot more. As soon as Raymond had sat down in the passenger seat, Katherine had to make a mental effort not to gawk too hard at the undeniable difference between their bodies. She just couldn’t believe that he was older than her and that, just a year before, they had not been so different physically. But what a difference that year had made! She could have easily passed for his babysitter now. And she had been thinking, all that afternoon after the gym, about these strange new feelings that were bubbling up stronger and stronger every time she saw her former boyfriend…the feelings that centered around her thoughts of power and domination whenever she thought of their bodies compared to each other. She still couldn’t make heads or tails of why she was feeling this way, but Katherine was not going to let these thoughts stew any longer. She was going to engage them, explore them, investigate them. And what better way to do that than at a party, where she could be free to casually laugh and hang out with other people while she compared herself to Raymond? It would be easier to explore these feelings in a crowd than if she were alone with him. Besides, there would be alcohol, which would loosen her up a little. Who knows what would happen? It was exiting…and, just to put an exclamation mark on the evening, she had decided to wear her leather boots. She was looking forward to getting out of the car…

A few minutes later they had reached Wes Larkin’s house. Raymond felt the anxiety harden throughout his body as they passed car after car parked on the side of the street. Apparently a lot of people were already there. 

“Oooo, this really looks like a party, huh?” said Katherine, looking down at Raymond and winking. 

“Uhh, yeah,” said Raymond, trying to sound nonchalant. “Uh, gee, I thought this was only gonna be a, uh…a little get-together.” 

“Haha, I did too!” said Katherine. “But it looks like it’s a full-fledged high school reunion!” 

A minute later Katherine parked the car and they both got out. Raymond walked around the car, his eyes nervously looking down the street at Wes’s lit-up house, and then he turned to look at Katherine. He gaped. She was standing there, hands on her hips, grinning down at him as she pivoted on her powerful legs and cocked her hips to one side. She absolutely towered over him. The leather boots she was wearing went perfectly with her statuesque figure, and Raymond saw that he now staring straight into her boobs. 

“Whaddya think?” laughed Katherine. “I almost didn’t do it, but then I thought, oh what the heck, why not?” 

“Y-you’re…h-how…how — ” stammered Raymond.

“How tall am I?” she asked, smiling down on him as her body warmed to his reaction. Yes, she was getting wet. “Well, these are 6-inch boots, so that makes me 6’10!”

Raymond gawked like a fish as Katherine strode past him towards the house, beckoning him to join her. 

She made sure that Raymond walked alongside her as they approached the house. Katherine was getting way more turned on by their height comparison than she had been expecting. True, she had already dwarfed Raymond before, but these boots…they made her feel absolutely gigantic next to him! Whereas before it felt like she was comparing herself to a skinny high school freshman or sophomore, now it felt like…it almost felt like Raymond was a middle schooler compared to her! As they walked along, she saw that the top of his head didn’t even reach her shoulders — this fact alone made her feel a surge of electricity go through her loins, and she actually started sweating a little from how fast her heart was beating. Was this normal?! Surely this wasn’t normal…to have such a strong reaction to how tiny her ex was compared to her?! It felt wrong, almost grotesque. And yet, it was the very wrongness, the strangeness, the outlandishness of the situation, that was turning her on! She almost felt trapped in the situation, but she quickly laughed at herself. 

‘I’m the one who set this whole thing up!’ she chuckled to herself. ‘I’m not the one trapped here!’ She glanced down at Raymond’s crotch and privately chastised him for wearing such baggy pants. She wanted to see if he was turned on too. But again, she quickly laughed at herself. 

‘Look at me,’ she snickered inwardly, ‘acting like a horndog. Jesus, Katherine, you’re not even attracted to him anymore…are you?’ She actually wasn’t sure. It was certainly true that her conventional attraction for him was long gone. How could someone so weak and small, so helplessly insecure, so unhealthy and unmotivated, turn her on? Not in the old way, at least — there was no way Raymond was going to make her “feel like a woman” anymore, unless it was like a mother or an older sister. 

But there it was: her growing arousal in his presence. It was something that she could not ignore. Where did it come from? Well that wasn’t too hard to answer: it was like their gender roles had been completely switched. She was the man now and he was the woman. She was taller, bigger, and stronger than him. She was the instigator of everything in their exchanges, from the plans they made to the trajectories their conversations took. She took the lead so completely that it was almost comical. It wasn’t like she was trying to; it just seemed to happen that way. As they walked up to the party house, she realized that seeing their relationship in terms of their inverted gender roles was the best way she had come up with so far to explain her new attraction to her ex-boyfriend. But why? Why was the inversion so…hot?! So powerfully irresistible?! Katherine didn’t know yet. But she was prepared to keep an open mind as they navigated the evening together. Everything was going exactly as she had hoped so far. 

Wes Larkin answered the door. He was an attractive, tall, blond jock-type who had played football in high school. From the looks of him, he had kept working out, even if he had perhaps started to drink and party a little more. His well-built frame was plain to see from the tight kaki shorts and even tighter pink golf shirt he wore. His eyes went wide as he looked up at Katherine. At 6’3, Wes was no slouch. But he was still looking up, way up, at Katherine. 

“K-katherine!?” he stammered, his mouth wide open in an incredulous smile. “Katherine Lloyd!?! Oh my god!! You…you’re…”

“It’s nice to see you too Wes,” laughed Katherine, leaning down to hug him. 

“Holy…holy shit!” he cried after hugging her and taking a step back to admire her. “You…oh my god Katherine you look incredible!” 

“Thanks Wes,” said Katherine, blushing a little at his reaction. “You’re not looking too shabby yourself, you know.”

“Ah well,” he said, waving off her compliment (even though Raymond could tell he enjoyed it), “I still hit the gym from time to time. But not anything like you, apparently. Jesus Katherine, I…I had no idea!”

“The glories of not being on social media!” joked Katherine as she stepped into the house, gesturing Raymond to follow in her wake. “Every time I see people back home I get to enjoy the surprise on their faces, haha!” 

“Good lord,” said Wes, shaking his head. As he did his eyes fell on Raymond. “And…uh…wow…Raymond! It’s you!” said Wes, looking confused and a little awkward. He had already been rattled enough by Katherine’s burgeoning…now, as she watched Wes look between the two of them, Katherine could feel his mind cracking a little bit. She got wetter, feeling the hidden force of his reaction. It only served to highlight the size comparison between herself and Raymond. 

Wes reached up and gave Raymond a clumsy fist-bump, which Raymond returned halfheartedly. “Uhh…good to see you big guy,” continued Wes, his eyes flickering over Raymond’s waifish frame. “Uh…lookin’ good!” he added, making it all the more clear that the opposite was true. Raymond could only manage a nod and half-smile. He was already irritated with Wes’s loud reaction to seeing his ex-girlfriend.

“Wait a minute,” said Wes, holding up his hands in a “stop” motion, “Hold on. You two aren’t…uh…”

“What, Wes?” asked Katherine cheerfully, closing the door behind them. 

“Uh, you know…together anymore, are you?” 

Katherine looked down at Wes silently for a second or two, and blinked. Then she turned to Raymond, who was staring up into her eyes with an entirely deferential expression. If, in that moment, she had said they were dating, then they were dating, as far as Raymond was concerned. But she blinked again slowly, smiled down at him, and brought her huge open hand around to the back of his neck. Gently but firmly, she tightened her grip around his neck, to the point where there were only a couple inches between her thumb and middle finger. With her hand in this position, she shook Raymond’s head playfully from side to side as she laughed. 

“What, me and this little guy here? No.” Her words were spoken genially, but they had a lightness and a play to them that made Wes’s question sound utterly ludicrous. He chuckled in response, shaking his head again. 

“I mean…I mean I didn’t think you were!” he laughed. “Haha, that would be…I mean look at…well…yeah. Anyway, you guys are here and that’s all that matters, right! Welcome!” He led them through the foyer to the kitchen, which was teeming with people. Most of the lights had been turned off inside the house, and in their place were some strobe lights, a disco ball hanging from the ceiling, and glow sticks…lots of glow sticks…that people had around their necks and wrists. Booming, driving bass music pounded through the house. 

“So I assume your parents are out of town?” said Katherine over the noise. She didn’t have to try too hard to speak much louder — her voice carried. 

“How did you guess?” laughed Wes. 

Raymond was already tired of the two of them just chumming it up without him. He felt completely kicked to the curb in the exchange. He had to think of something to say, and quickly. 

“Uh, you got some hunch punch or something in that bowl over there?” he asked, pointing to the big bowl on one of the kitchen counters. They were just about to enter the kitchen, and so the rest of the party hadn’t seen them yet. 

“Bathrooms right here, just in case you need to use it,” said Wes to Katherine, indicating to the open powder room on their left, “or, you know…in case there’s anyone you wanna just pull into a room and make out with in a hurry.” He winked up at Katherine and she gave him a playful shove. Raymond was incensed. They hadn’t even heard him. 

“Hey!” he shouted, waving his arms, and both Wes and Katherine looked down at him. He suddenly felt extremely tiny, and for a moment completely forgot what he had asked before. 

“Uh…what is it, my man?” asked Wes, giving Katherine an awkward glance, as if to ask ‘what’s his deal?’ 

“Is, uh, is that hunch punch in that bowl in there?” asked Raymond lamely. 

“What?” said Wes loudly over the music, putting his hand to his ear and bending down. “I didn’t catch that.”

“Speak up, Raymond!” said Katherine, putting her hand on his back and giving him a quick little scratch. Her touch felt intimate and he started getting hard again. 

“Hunch punch? In the bowl in there?” he asked loudly into Wes’s ear. 

“Huh? Oh! Uh, yeah! Something like that. It’s pineapple juice, cranberry juice, pomegranate vodka, and everclear.” 

“Oh my god!” laughed Katherine. “Just go ahead and poison me already!” Wes made a motion to defend himself but she kept laughing. “I’m kidding Wes — I actually could definitely go for some of that right about now.” They had entered the kitchen, and the rest of the party turned to look at the newly-arrived people. Everyone who had been talking stopped as their mouths dropped open in shock. 

“Look who decided to show up!” called Wes happily to the room. Raymond could feel the entire room suck in its breath. Katherine stood up to her full height and waved, relishing this new power that was coursing through her.