Cut her down to size

I look up at her one last time, then down to my phone to tap the button and back up to her. To my surprise, nothing happens. I check back at the phone and understand why - there's now a big button and a message 'tap as much as you like. You have two minutes.'

I position my finger over it and tap it

I've never seen a person shrink, and may never see it again, so I stare as it happens. She drops in height by about an inch to, what I'd guess to be, 5'10. Still much taller than me, but probably the height of her boyfriend. She steps backward for a moment, disoriented by her new perspective, and looks down, expecting to see that the floor had dropped. Her hands are allowed to trace her body, trying to recalibrate her mental image.

"How does it feel to be the same height as your boyfriend?"

She looks annoyed but also a bit relieved, which is not what I was expecting. "Is that all you have?! I will happily pay an inch to see you slut around in your new wardrobe."

I tap the button three more times, bringing her slowly down to my height. It's very weird to be the same height as someone you've had to stare up at for years.

"Okay no fuck this," she starts, reaching out for my phone again. Her hands extend half way toward my phone before once again betraying her and diverting back to punishing her nipples. "Ow! No - fuck you - put it back." Her face is screwed up in confusion and pain. "You awful bitch; I can't play soccer like this! I'm going to kill--"

I tap the button every few seconds until her tone changes gradually to pleading. She's 5' 2" now and her clothes are getting very loose on her. Her top has loosened and dropped from her shoulders, supported by nipple-abusing fingers. Her pants have completely fallen down, but her already baggy tshirt is functioning more like a short, very loose dress now.

"Okay. We can talk about this. I just wanted --"

I tap it one more time and watch her drop to 5' 1".

"LINA! STOP!" She is panicking now.

I bend down slightly to talk to her, which feels amazing: "Emily. you have no idea what you've done by opening that app. I had to fight for a week just to get my life back partially. This app will ruin our lives if we're not careful. This is important - we need to forgive each other."

"Forgive each other?! Look at me! You've ruined my sports career, you've humiliated me and ruined my life!"

"Look at me, Emily! Did you really think I _want _to dress like this?! When the app lets you use it again, just tell it you forgive me - it's the only way."

"God damn it!"

As I start walking toward the exit, I hear a whooshing noise behind me. I turn to see her looking terrified at her phone for a moment before shrinking a couple more inches. She can't be even 5 foot tall now.

"I--" she squeaks and grabs her throat. "I tried to--," she tries again but in a much higher tone than her normal tomboyish voice. "I tried to break my phone and I think I made it mad." Her higher, much girlier voice was now much more befitting to her adorably tiny stature.

"Emily! Won't you learn?!"

She looks between up at me and down at her phone, now terrified.

“This app, your ‘new friend,’ does not have much patience. What you’ve done is cursed us both. Did you really think what I’ve been doing recently was up to me? That I spontaneously decided to dress and act like this?” I gesture at my body. “You got what you deserved by getting involved with this app. Just make sure you press forgive when you get the chance.”

“Lina please!” She squeals up at me, her face white with fear, “you can’t leave me like this!”

“It’s not me! It’s the app. This can’t be undone, and even if it could, I’m not sure I’d even want to right now.”

She blinks, which is now an adorable act, and looks at her phone one last time before storming out of the bathroom, straight into her boyfriend.

She bounces off of him, gathers herself and looks up to recognise him. Looking up at him isn’t a familiar perspective for her. I wonder what this will do to their dynamic? Actually, will he even notice a change? I eagerly wait to discover how the app will protect itself from people noticing.

"Emily? Are you okay?" He looks down at her. "Your clothes?!"

She switches between looking up at him, and across at me. "Lina! She ... she ... the app ... OW." Emily surprises herself by pinching her nipples again, hard. She's clearly trying to explain what happened, and finding out the hard way not to.

"What are you doing?!" He is very confused, and can't help but stare at the nipples poking out of her oversized t-shirt.

She pauses for a while, presumably to figure out what moves are available to her. "Can you drive me home? I want to go home."

It's sad but I can't help but giggle at the newly adorable Emily asking nicely for once. She spins round and glares daggers at me; even cuter.

They leave together, hastily, leaving me to deal with the last lecture of the day in my tan atrocity. Much like the rest of my academic adventures today, and actually most of them for a few weeks now, I rush to get to the lecture early so I can take a discrete seat at the back. I unpack my belongings (thankful to have ridden myself of the punishment which involves obscene bending over to get things from my bag) and let people file in after me. For the first 15 minutes, I gather as much information from the lecture as possible while having to pause constantly to restore my modesty after parts of my skirt slide off my soft skin, leaving my crotch barely covered.

At this point, though, any hope of me paying attention to the lecture disappears as the door opens and Emily walks back in. At first, I'm confused by two things: that she's here at all, and that she's now wearing a much tighter version of the white top she was in before. I realise quickly that this must be her punishment for deviating from her routine, like mine. My eyes lock onto her as she walks in, tugging her new figure-hugging and much too short t-shirt dress down to keep her covered; and shuffling to an empty seat on her bare feet.

I can't focus on the professor's words while I'm this smug, but I do my best.

As the lecture comes to an end, she runs out of the room before anyone can stop her, still with both hands on the hem of her 'dress'. As much as I want to pester her, I'm glad to not have to worry about a confrontation. The drive home wouldn't have been fun either, not that I'd planned to offer.

I wait for the room to file out and start heading out myself. I hate the stairs of the lecture hall because, without any support from my clothes, I feel myself jiggling provocatively all the way down to the exit, with the flaps of my skirt floating behind me in my wash.

I take the long drive home, and eat from a drive-thru, to give Emily time by herself in the house. I walk up the stairs to our front-door and see her boyfriend outside our door.

"Hey Ki."

"Oh Lina, hey. I'm glad I ran into you - what's happening with Emily?" He looks concerned. "I don't understand. Did you fall out? Is that why she's being so ... weird?"

"Weird as in?" I'm curious - he doesn't seem to be panicking about the fact that his girlfriend has broken the laws of physics by shrinking, so I'm equally wondering what he's noticed, and scared of what the app will do if I stray from its story.

"Well, she's very mad with you, and she's wearing weird oversized clothes, and making me go out to buy her these." He lifts a bag of clothes.

"Huh. I noticed she was upset with me, but I'm lost too. I think she read too much into the sofa incident. Maybe she's going through a phase, experimenting." My voice rises with nerves at the end of the sentence as I wonder if I'm safe to talk about the app.

We go into the dorm and head to the respective bedrooms for the night, leaving the living room as neutral territory. I check my phone as a matter of routine but double-take as I notice that the app's timer is displaying just under three days. That's much less than the week between 'revenges' I had with Mia, which is not good at all.

The next morning I get about 10 minutes before my punishment re-occurs. I shudder as my clothes re-thread themselves. Today, apparently, I'm wearing a purple dress with cut-outs at the sides.

Did I mention how much I hate this app?