Incredible Shrinking Haley

Time to Adapt

Once we were outside, I fired off some rapid fire texts off to people while waiting for our ride. I asked my sister how she was doing, same for Liz. I replied to Shelly apologizing for the delay, my mom and dad, but not Erin. I couldn't figure out what to say yet.
"Hey, what are you doing tonight?" Dana asked.
"Um, I'm not entirely sure. My sister and Liz are out partying. It's Monday, and I don't have class till 10 tomorrow, so I was probably just going to go home and watch Netflix or something and wait until my sister came back. What are you doing?"
"My sister and I were going to go grab some really bad junk food since she's craving it haha. Do you want to join? She's on her way. Then after you can come back to our place and we can try to figure out our Barbie costumes for Halloween. I like planning ahead as much as I can."
"Y'know, that actually sounds super fun. But I don't want to go to your place and then have your sister take me all the way back to mine, and then go back again. Want to just do it at my place?"
"Sure! That sounds good with me!" I kept looking at my phone, and I guess my facial expression gave away that something was bothering me. "What's up?" She asked?
"Hmm?" I was debating about lying to her, maybe saying I couldn't find good inspiration for our costume , but there was really no point. "Oh. Just not sure what to say to someone. We had a rocky relationship, but now she is inviting me for a night out with her friends. I don't know what to reply?"
"Why not? Like, why wouldn't you tell her the truth?"
"Well, I guess I don't know what the truth is. I want to hang out with you and Taylor, but I would also like to spend more time with her. But the idea of going out with her, tonight especially, is a no go on so many levels. First, we're figuring out costumes, second, I already said I wouldn't go out with my sister and Liz for a few reasons. Third, I'm kinda scared of being alone with her. Although, I'm not sure if I am more scared of being with alone with just her or alone with her and her friends."
"Scared, why?"
"I had an... 'interesting' experience with her now that I've shrunk. It's a long story, but I am not sure how I feel about her is all."
"Well, if you're scared and unsure how you feel about her, it doesn't seem to make sense to hang out with her?!"
"It's not like, scared for my life and she's gonna abuse me or anything! Well, not anymore....." Dana gave me a really shocked look when I said that. "I know that sounds bad, but we worked it out! I swear! It's more like, I'm scared of maybe developing feelings her cause I think she's gonna dominate me if we're all alone or sort of humiliate me in front of her sorority sister, which is...."
"Embarrassing? Scary? Terrifying? Not safe?"
"Arousing?" Dana shocked expression changed to one where she understands what I'm saying.
"Ah, the good ol' sex drive increase. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Thoughts you never had or thought you would never have had suddenly make you act completely different.  When they say increased sex drive, it's really sort of an understatement. It's crazy what it makes us do."
"Us? You're affected by it to?"
"Yup! I'm a little better at controlling it by now, but yeah. It messed me up for a little too. I'll be honest, I agreed to meet with you because I thought it was be super exciting to meet and talk and all that with someone who is literally twice my size. I got a little annoyed because of how you were so focused on me shrinking, I knew it likely wouldn't have lead to a real friendship. I was definitely hoping for a different outcome then. But it seemed it all worked out!"
"Huh, I never would have guessed that, I'll be honest. If you don't mind me asking, is that why you agreed to me and Lucas?"
"Oh, yeah, 100%. I was debating it the whole time. I heard you guys start going at it and I realized it was turning me on so I didn't want to hide in the bathroom, so I tried to leave before it got too bad."
"Have you gotten more attention since you've shrunk?"
"Of course! Would you have reached out to me otherwise?"
"Ha! Good point. Are you..., So it's not just guys you have an increased attraction to, right? Because you accepted my invitation?"
"Yeah, kinda! I'm not like sexually attracted to other girls, but it's still exciting to be so small around them. I sometimes like feeling like a little girl! It was crazy seeing my cheer team tower me more than ever. Those girls looked insane being so massive and and muscular, just the thought of being flung into the air by them and having them catch me and all now that I was noticeably smaller sounded really fun. But I didn't really care to do like anything more than just that I guess. Same for you, I was hoping to meet you and, like, I guess just maybe take some fun pictures and stuff since you were literally twice my size."
"You haven't thought about anything, like, 'hardcore'?"
  "Well, not with my teammates or another girl. But some guys now are just so dang cute when they try to be all nice and soft with you. Like, every guy is just so nice now. Before I was short but capable in their eyes. They wouldn't go out of their way to, like, open the doors and hold it for me. But now I'm like tiny and helpless, so every one thinks they're my knight in shining armor now. Everyone always offers to carry my bag and stuff, and it's like everything is on my iPad mini now, but sure! Feel free to carry by bag haha. It's fun when the frat boys trying to pick me up."
  "Fun?! Oh, no I could never let on them them lift me like that."
  "Oh, no! Hahaha I mean like trying to flirt with you. Their pick up lines are so bad its good, if that makes sense. I don't know, seeing everyone kinda give me attention is sort of fun, even though I wouldn't want to like, actually every do anything with them specifically. Honestly, I haven't really thought about sex."
  "I wonder why for me even with someone I kinda-sorta hated, them dominating me made me feel a way I have never felt."
  "Hmm, maybe because you're so tall you've never been in that position before. It's a big, new world for you. I guess you're still getting your bearings straight." I took a deep breath and realized she's probably correct. "Our ride is here! We should go. I requested an Uber specifically with accommodations for, uh, shrinkees I guess we're called."
  "Oh, we're taking an Uber? I thought your sister was picking us up?"
"Yeah she said something came up at the apartment, so she's gonna meet us at your place when she can and she'll bring the food, unless you're hungry now?"
"No, I can wait to eat! Just, not so sure about the Uber to be honest. I feel like we could be kidnapped so easily?" I was always weirded out by these ride sharing apps, I'm not sure why, but now that I really am defenseless, it's extra scary.
"Honestly, Uber is super on top of it. They have like extensive verification to make sure you actually have shrunk, and when you request a ride, it asks if you want an exclusive one where only others affected can ride. Probably so you're not harassed or attacked or any full size person. They're paying more per ride for any driver that have the seats equipped in their cars, regardless of wether there doing special rides or not. To incentivize more drivers to install them. And, I mean, it takes like 30 seconds to remove the seat, so it's not like they're losing those seats for a full sized client. I know a lot of people are of the whole 'It's only a very small minority of the population, why are we catering to them, blah blah blah' but its nice to see some major companies take initiative regardless. Anyways, I requested for an exclusive ride where only others affected can go. It says there's another group in here, and its a minivan so we might have a full party. I always love looking at whatever other affected people are wearing, it's an easy way to strike up a conversation. Especially if they have nice fitting clothes like Brandon. There are more customer tailors and seamstresses popping up, especially near a huge university like this where shrinking can make you an influencer overnight. It's happened to a few girls. So companies see that and of course they want to advertise to anyone that was affected that you can still be fashionable at a reasonable price!" Almost on cue a mini can arrived, and as we approached it, the door automatically opened and we we saw 3 miniaturized girls. They were all wearing what i would consider "full size" outfits (aka real clothes that I would wear before shrinking and not kid or doll clothes), but one in particular was a silver sequin one shoulder bodycon dress that I just absolutely fell in love with.
The girls threw down the little step ladder that the driver had installed in his car to make it easier for us to climb aboard, and they welcomed us, very loudly. The driver tried to communicate with us over the the drunken girls, but wasn't really having success. Dana told me to take a seat while she talks to the driver, so I made my way to the back row. The girls were extremely friendly, and asked if I wanted to go out with them tonight. I replied saying we couldn't, since we already had plans, but that they looked amazing and should enjoy the night. The girl in the stunning silver dress I really liked kept insisting we should go out, but Dana was able to change the subject quickly, by asking about their clothes. Hannah (the blonde in the silver dress) told us she got her outfit custom made by a seamstress who was just about 20 minutes away from campus, and she runs specials all the time to help rebuild a wardrobe. She can even modify an outfit and and out of shrink it down using the original garment so that we can keep that "original outfit's spirit" or something. From the prices Hannah was saying, it didn't seem terribly expensive. We commented on how we could only find kids clothes or My Size Barbie clothes. She told me to give her my number and she would give me hers so she can send me all her details of the seamstress when she wasn't drunk. She handed me her iPhone and I handed her mine.
"Ew, gross! Please look into getting the same phone I have. This is like an iPad!!" She said struggling to use my Pro Max. Hers was the mini model, and admittedly was the dream size for a phone now. Hanna seemed completely unfazed about having been shrunken. She seemed, "experienced" almost, with apparently having a whole wardrobe and the mini sized phone. Not knowing if the "don't ask, don't tell" was exclusive to Dana's club or not, I asked her how long she had been like this, to which she told us she was shrunken in they first wave. Savannah and Jessie, the other two girls, were affected both in the 4th wave. They hadn't known each other prior, but met up because they were some of the only people affected but that point in time. Dana used this opportunity to invite them to her club, as Hannah seemed to have great advice to tell others about. I couldn't help but ask how tall they all were before, and they were all just average height. Hannah 5'4", Savannah 5'2", and Jessie 5'7". The other two girls were still adapting, but Hannah seemed as if she had always been tiny. I asked her how it doesn't bother her, and if it ever did. "Well, yeah, at first I was freaking out right? Like I'm 3 freaking feet tall! Is this contagious, can I spread it to others, or maybe its genetic or even a freak accident since I'm a chemistry major. After some time when more information was being released I figured I can't change this. Well, at least not now. So I kinda just had to get used to it. I looked around for how to get clothes, how would I get around, and all that stuff. I was open about it on social media too, and next thing I knew my few hundred followers started turning into a few thousand and, ironically, I got big enough that companies wanted to use me to advertise. I only took those brand offers honestly because I need money to adapt my lifestyle! Along the way Savannah and Jessie messaged me a few weeks apart and we kind of just hit it off from there. I only have a little over 20,000 followers, but I am one of the biggest creators on Instagram that has been affected so I have a way to give unique content that is very interesting and relevant to a large demographic. I wouldn't consider myself Instagram famous or anything. I have a lot of outfits they sent me that if you ever want to borrow some clothes I would love to let you borrow, or honestly even have some. They keep sending me and paying me per post so what I really like I keep for myself. Oh then we're kinda doing this like appearances and clubs and bars and all so we can Jess and Savannah to their minimum amount of followers needed so they can get sponsored stuff as well. We would love for you guys to join us! It would save you guys so much money. Well, technically it would make you money hahaha."
"I'm honestly terrified of going to clubs like this! First, I don't even have proper clothes, second those people are huge! And drunk!! I gonna get trampled!"
"Oh, sweetie, they treat us like royalty! We coordinate with the clubs, they give us a table and free bottles, more than we would ever need cause I mean I get drunk on like 2 beers now because we're so small and light. So we invite random hunks and girls we think look pretty and we party with them in the booth. We take control of their socials, spam their stories and posts of us doing crazy stuff with full sized and promote the place as a "shrink friendly" place and repeat with other clubs or bars every so often, mainly when another wave happens. Of course behind the scenes we are actually asking them to sanction off a section for only affected people so they can dance, get drinks, and all without fear of being trampled. If we happen to see any actual mini people there already, they get a hell of a night on us. Helps sells the place!" Seeing and hearing how Hannah was making the most of the situation, and quite literally making it work for her was inspiring. We were pulling up to the club when I managed to squeak in my final question for now.
"What happens if they find a cure or a vaccine? Like, I mean to your clothes the seamstress miniaturized, and all?"
  "Well, I would grow back and just rebuild my wardrobe again. That isn't really a concern to me, honestly. It would be much easier to get clothes at full size than it is now, so, like I said, I have to adapt. Message me tomorrow!!" Hannah and her friends left the car and I lost them in a sea of legs. Dana and I moved from the back row to the first row and we were able to finally start making small talk (or I guess just talk for us now, ha ha) with the driver as he took us to my place.