Borrowed Courage

Chapter Eleven

The rest of the day passed in a blur for Kaleb. True to their word, Marcus and Thomas had bombarded him with questions about he and Brooke's history lesson encounter the second the three of them had a class together, that ranged from 'How'd it go?' to 'Did you ask her out?'. He'd managed to shake them off in the afternoon, but by then the events of the week had well and truly caught up with him. Between his battered ribs and the ringing headaches he always got after using upsize for an extended period, Kaleb was exhausted.

Thank god it's Friday. He thought with a small smile, which quickly turned into a grimace when he remembered he still had work later that night.

Surprisingly, he didn't run into Brooke again after first period, and was alone when he returned to the apartment complex that afternoon. Kaleb pushed open the frosted glass doors into the air-conditioned foyer, letting out a long sigh. That's better... After seven sweltering hours of wearing jeans and a sweater in ninety degree heat, he was beyond ready to be rid of the long sleeves. Just as he was pulling off his sweater though, the distinct sound of laughter rung out down the hall. Curious, Kaleb made his way towards the source of the noise.

It was coming from Evie's office. The door was left slightly ajar, so he leant forward to peek inside. Sure enough, the landlady was sitting at her overly cluttered reception desk, and Kaleb couldn't help but smirk at the sight of his uncle Rodney standing on the wooden surface beside her at his borrower size. They didn't notice him snooping, too fixated on what was playing on Evie's computer screen.

"Wait, wait, play it back again." Rodney was wheezing with laughter, hugging his sides as though he was about to keel over.

"I'm getting to it, dear." Evie chuckled along with him while she worked the mouse.

"Keep going, keep going... Okay, stop it there! I can't believe how hard she hit herself; even the camera's shitty audio picked it up!"

Unable to contain himself any longer, Kaleb poked his head fully through the door. "What the heck are you two going on about?"

Immediately, the two of them stiffened, caught in the act, and with practiced movements Evie went to conceal Rodney's smaller frame from view with her hand. Realising it was Kaleb though, both human and borrower relaxed.

Rodney was the first to recover. "Kaleb! You're just in time!" He enthused, stepping back into view on his wooden leg stump. He beckoned Kaleb over, completely unfazed by their current difference in size. "Check this out. It's fuckin' priceless."

"Okay...?" Kaleb said hesitantly, moving behind the monitor next to Evie. Admittedly, he really was curious about what was so funny, but knowing these two, he had to be prepared for anything.

It was a recording of the feed from one of Evie's new security cameras, which showed a birds-eye view of the hallway on the first floor of the building. The footage was blurry at best, but it didn't take long for Kaleb to identify the person in the video. "Brooke?"

"Yep." Rodney confirmed, craning his neck to glance up at his human-sized nephew. "The experimenter's daughter who just moved into room number seven."

"Someone must've done a number on her." Evie said pointedly, shooting Kaleb a suspicious look that made him swallow nervously. "Watch what happens next."

The pair fell silent as the rest of the footage played out. Brooke took a few steps towards the main entrance, then appeared to collapse in the middle of the hall, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. It became pretty clear that she was having some kind of mental breakdown. So that's why her eyes were red before. Kaleb realised with a twinge of guilt. Maybe I went too far teasing her about it...