Tiny - Tomatt

A Small Problem

"What in the name of all that is holy did you DO, Matt?!" Tom asked incredulously.

Matt stared, craning his neck up with eyes as wide as dinner plates. He stood, muscles tensed and ready to sprint away. His fastest sprint away from Tom wouldn't be fast enough, however.

Considering he was three inches tall.

"Uh... Hey Tom...!" Matt laughed nervously. "What's up?" He leaned to the side with his arm out, expecting to be supported by the glass of milk that towered over him, but missed and fell. He scrambled back to his feet.

"Matt. What did you do?" Tom asked again, a suspicious look on his face. Matt opened his mouth to tell him the truth, but he was interrupted. "No, you know what, c'mere Matt." Tom rolled his lack of eyes and reached down to grab Matt with one hand.

Matt jumped out of the way and Tom almost knocked over the glass of milk with his hand. Matt sprinted to the side of the table and jumped off. It was only after he jumped that he realized his mistake.

Tom's arm shot out and caught Matt before he even fell halfway to the ground.

Matt's heart was racing. He took quick, uneven, shuddering breaths at the fact that his life could've ended right then.

"Matt, you're lucky I have a functional brain," said Tom disapprovingly. "Now tell me. How did you get so..." He reached for Matt with his free hand, picking him up by pinching his hoodie. Matt dangled limply. "...Tiny?"

"Put me down!" whined Matt. Tom placed him back on the table. Matt fell onto his back, then stood up, brushing his pants off. "Okay. So you know how I have that shrink ray?"

Tom squinted. "No. No, I did not know."

"Yeah, well I do. So I was trying to shrink the big, fancy mirror at the antique store to take it home in my pocket without paying. But it zapped me through the mirror! And that's how I got tiny." He frowned with genuine sadness. "I liked that mirror. Someone's probably snatched it by now."

Tom shook his head. "How did you even get back here?"

"I hitched a ride on someone's shoe out of the store. Then I took a ride on a truck, and then rode a dog the last of the way. Then I crawled under the door and got in."

"That sounds like quite the adventure," said Tom. "Where's the shrink ray? It should have a reverse setting. I know you're probably too small to operate it yourself."

"Ah! Oh, it's..." Matt started with a bright smile, pointer finger in the air. His smile faded slowly. "I think... I think I forgot it at the store."

Tom closed his eyes and sighed. "Of course you did, Matt."

Matt looked down sadly.

"Welp. C'mon big boy, the first thing to do is to go there and see if someone hasn't taken it yet." He reached down and put his hand out as a platform. "Climb on."

Matt looked at the comparatively huge hand, up at Tom's serious face, and back at the hand. He uncertainly placed a foot on the skin between Tom's thumb and pointer finger, then stepped all the way on. He fell onto his stomach on Tom's palm. He sat up as Tom lifted his hand. He felt the wind rush past him and through his hair as he was lifted seemingly hundreds of feet in the air.

Tom took Matt and placed him onto his shoulder. Out of the corner of his field of vision, he saw Matt looking up at him with wide eyes. "Let's go." He lifted a hoodie string and draped it it over the shoulder Matt sat on. "Hold on tight."

Matt wrapped his arms around the hoodie string. Tom walked out of Matt's apartment, locking it behind him with the key Matt had given him and Edd a copy of. With each heavy step Tom took, Matt bounced up and down. He tried desperately not to fall by clutching the hoodie string and the shoulder together.