A Step Too Far - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Teddy spent hours on the phone with his mobile provider trying to sort out what had happened. He’d been able to grab a banana and some cereal from the kitchen without running into Morganna, Vivianne, or Nimue. Then he’d gone outside into the sunshine and sat down in the grass behind some flowering lilac bushes to figure out his phone and hopefully restore some of its functionality. 

Teddy’s phone seemed to hold a signal, although sometimes the audio quality was quite poor. After hours on hold and conversations with several different agents with heavily accented english, he’d determined that Vivianne had actually cancelled his phone number altogether. 

Teddy didn’t understand how she’d managed to do it, but she had completely ended his phone plan. It might have been easier to do  because he wasn’t in a contract at the moment. Teddy wasn’t sure. His father had always just paid for his phones straight out. Teddy had never really thought much about his phone bill or how it all worked. But now that he’d been cut off, he had little way to get it back without personally setting up an entirely new account under his own credit card, especially since Vivianne had gone to the specific length to discontinue number. With the internet network still down, Teddy couldn’t even use a messaging app to text anyone.

This was more bratty behaviour or screwing around with his phone, Teddy realized. Vivianne had blown up his social media accounts with posts and then done her best to cut him off from his phone. She’d almost simply broken it out of carelessness or maliciousness after all. Teddy was also beginning to suspect that the internet had been turned off intentionally. It had never been down for this long. He was used to the router acting up, but not this much. 

He’d need to go reset the router. If it just needed to be turned off and on again, that was one thing. But if the router had been disconnected on purpose, Teddy wanted to know.

A wasp buzzed near Teddy’s head as he squinted at his cracked phone screen. He swatted at the insect, shooing it away. Teddy had grass stains on his loose-fitting jeans and felt sweat beading on his forehead. His shower in the morning was a distant memory.

Teddy crept out from his hiding spot and walked quietly up to the back patio. No one was in the pool or lounging on the deck. The only sound came from some crickets in the long grass layered over the cooing of a random dove. The property would have seemed pleasantly peaceful, if it wasn’t for the events of the past couple days.

The afternoon air was humid and still. It truly felt like summer as the sun beat down from above. Teddy sighed in relief as he stepped into the shade of the house, slipping through the glass doors after checking to make sure Nimue wasn’t lurking about in a chair somewhere. Where was everyone?

It didn’t matter. What mattered was getting the internet up and reconnecting to the outside world. Teddy needed a reminder that a sane normal world existed out there somewhere. He wanted to fix his social media accounts, contact some friends, and try to get ahold of his dad again. 

The quarter acre of lawns and shrubs around his adolescent home were bounded by deciduous woods. Normally this green wall was a comforting cocoon from school and that was actually part of the reason he’d decided to return home. He had planned to bask in the lazy summers he’d come to expect from his teenage years. Teddy knew his father was usually away and so he’d expected a few months of relaxation and freedom before he went back to the city.

Now the wall of woods felt more like a barrier between the real world and a dream-state. Teddy constantly felt like he might wake up from whatever was happening. Maybe the feeling was more of a hope being driven by the fracturing of his sense of reality.

Teddy’s mind couldn’t quite accept that the last 48 hours had really taken place, that he’d seen women grow before his very eyes almost like something out of a book or an animation. Yet it had been all too real to Teddy. 

It was even harder to come to terms with the changes to his own body. Outside in the bright sun it had been easy to forget, since being a few inches shorter didn’t really make much a difference in how he compared to a lilac bush or any other vegetation. But now, back inside the house, next to familiar standardized constructs like doorways, light switches, and tables, Teddy was reminded of his altered state.

It was cooler inside, but not by much. Teddy’s father had made certain to equip the house with central air conditioning, but it was clearly turned off. Many of the windows had been opened and the afternoon light filtered through the gauzy white sheers. Morganna had dressed most of the windows in the house with expensive drapes and sheers. It wasn’t something Teddy would normally have noticed or cared about. He hadn’t really noticed before now. While it was nice how the sheers blocked out the bright light of the afternoon, they also made the interior of the house more shadowy and surreal. It all served to deepen his sense of disconnection from the normal world. It was his familiar home, but it also wasn’t.

Teddy heard the sound of gravel crunching outside. The sound was noticeable in the still quiet of the afternoon. He moved to peer out a window facing the front gate and saw a sleek luxury SUV coming up the driveway. Teddy saw Morganna in the driver’s seat and Nimue seated beside her. Morganna was talking and gesturing with one hand as she steered the car closer to the house. She looked upset. As the car turned, Teddy realized Vivianne was in the back seat.

He’d been hiding for nothing. They’d been out all afternoon.

Teddy cursed and ran toward the main staircase. This was his window of opportunity. He bounded up the steps and raced down the hall toward his father’s office. He found the router on the shelf beside father’s desk. The row of green lights along the routers side were blinking, with one light glowing a dull red. Teddy cursed as he unplugged the router, waited a few seconds, and then plugged it back in. It wasn’t obvious if the disconnection had occurred from an intentional act or not. Teddy didn’t linger on that. What mattered was that he get his internet access back.

“Come on, come on,” Teddy muttered as he watched the lights blink. He waited for the router to boot back up, hoping desperately for the router to reconnect.

Teddy heard voices below and the sound of energized chattering. It was a big house and that made it hard to hear what they were talking about but Morganna seemed upset about something. 

Teddy heard footsteps coming up the stairs as the last lights of the routers turned green.

“…such a liar!” Teddy heard Morganna say as she got closer. “He told me he had built his wealth with careful investments over the years and now it turns out he is involved in shady crypto schemes, real estate loans, leverages, off-shore accounts?”

“I tried to warn you mom,” Nimue said. “I could tell he was bragging too much. I saw his LinkedIn. He has like no education! He used way too many buzzwords.”

They were coming closer. Teddy held his phone and saw multiple alerts begin to ping up across the screen. Several were texts on different messaging apps from his father, Reed. Others were messages on his different social media accounts from people he knew, asking who the woman was posting on all his profiles.

“Dude, do you have some new step-sister?

“Funny joke man.”

“OMG. She’s so hot. Can you get me a date?”

Then he saw the texts from his father and Teddy’s almost screamed. His father had sent nearly twenty texts. They started off benign: “Teddy, we need to talk.”

They later become more insistent. “Teddy, why aren’t you answering?! I’m sorry I have been busy.”

“Teddy this is important!!”

Then the most disturbing text of all. “Teddy, I’ve been arrested. Don’t worry, it’s not true. I am innocent. It’s going to be okay. I have a good lawyer. I’ll be in touch.”

That was all there was. The last text had been sent sometime in the early hours of the morning. Teddy instinctively backed up into the corner of the office as Morganna strode in. She was carrying several large shopping bags from clothing and shoe stores in town. Her dark red hair had been freshly styled and framed her face in an attractive manner. She looked successful and beautiful, but it was impossible to ignore that determined look of unhappiness on her face. 

There was nowhere to hide and Morganna spotted Teddy immediately. “Oh, there you are,” she said. “I thought you’d never come out of your room this morning. Vivianne told me that she saw you wandering around naked in the hallway! Do you know that your supposedly great father was arrested last night? The man you said was the head of this house?”

Teddy opened his mouth to speak, but Morganna kept talking. She dropped her shopping bags and was gesticulating with her hand, the other was poised on her voluptuous hip as she talked. “I go out to find some clothes that actually fit. Not like these random things I found from Reed’s wardrobe, and then what has to ruin my week?”

Morganna tugged at the stretched out dress shirt she was wearing, fingering it in derision. She was still wearing some of Teddy’s father’s clothes, which she’d ‘borrowed’ after growing in size the day before.

“Then he finally phones me!” Morganna exclaimed. “And while I was trying on some new shoes, all in a good mood. I told him he should have been phoning me everyday. Then he told me he’d been arrested and needed me to contact some lawyer.”

“B…but he couldn’t have d…done…” Teddy stammered. he was trying to keep up with what had happened. “I just needed to get the router working…”

“But he did!” Morganna said. “He’s been charged with like half a dozen white collar crimes. He’s facing years of jail time. Turns out, I married a liar, and a fucking loser!”

“No!” Teddy shouted. “Don’t say that about my dad!”

“Excuse me?” Morganna’s tone shifted. Teddy felt the seriousness of her voice. “Why shouldn’t I? Your father is a loser. It turns out I was more right than I ever thought when I said I was the head of this house.”

Teddy shook his head. This couldn’t be happening. His father had always managed things fine. He’d taken care of financial things with ease and provided for both of them handsomely. They’d done well off his investments, until Morganna came into the picture.

“You did this,” Teddy said. “Somehow. You’re behind it.” Teddy pointed at Morganna, his voice shaking with emotion.

Morganna blinked, actually surprised by the accusation. Then she burst into laughter. “Oh my god, you really think I’m behind this? Of course. Blame it on the woman,” she said. “You’re just like your liar of a father. Skating by on the work of others, using your privilege and the system to leach off society and contribute nothing.”

“That’s not true!” Teddy said. “My father’s a hard worker. He is a businessman, an investor. I’m going to graduate and get a good job too!”

“It is true,” Morganna said, stepping closer to Teddy. “Your father is a loser and it looks like the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, if you ask me. Look at you, you definitely shrunk just like I said you would last night. You barely come up to my chin now and I’m only wearing wedges.”

Teddy swallowed down bitter humiliation as Morganna openly insulted him and his father. The last thing he needed a reminder of was his reduced height.

“I…I’ll tell him what said about us,” Teddy said, looking up at Morganna. “We don’t need you. If you don’t like him so much, why stay here?”

“Are you threatening me?” Morganna asked, poking Teddy in the chest with her manicured nail. Morganna’s nails were newly-painted sky-blue and Teddy felt her poke him with enough force to cause a twinge of pain in his sternum. 

“You think you can just undo the marriage or something?” Morganna inquired. “What makes you think I won’t take him for everything if he dares to leave me now?”

Teddy was pushed back against a shelf laden with his father’s self-help books and finance magazines. “It doesn’t belong to you. You don’t even like us!” Teddy answered, batting Morganna’s finger away with his phone clutched in his fingers.

  Morganna’s eyes shifted and locked on the phone in his hand. “Give that to me, now,” she said. 

“What? No, it’s mine,” Teddy said, clutching his phone tighter.

“I’m pretty sure your mobile plan is half in my name now,” Morganna countered. “Give it to me.”

“No, your daughter already broke the screen and screwed up all my accounts,” Teddy said. “It’s my phone!”

Morganna sighed. “That’s enough,” she said. Then she grabbed Teddy’s wrist in one hand and yanked it upward, using her other hand to pry at his fingers. Morganna could never have physically done this to him when they’d first met. But at his reduced size, she was a clear match for him in strength.

Teddy tried to yank his wrist away, but Morganna was holding tight. “It’s mine!” He repeated, his voice growing more shrill and emotional.

“I’ve had enough out of you,” Morganna said. She pried one of his fingers off the phone, then another.

Teddy squirmed and used one hand to try and push Morganna. His fingers mashed into her breasts, splaying across the soft round mass of her big tit. He could feel her bra beneath as he tried to push her away. Her breast was firm and dense and seemed only to swell perkily against his palm. Morganna yanked at Teddy’s wrist, exhaling in effort.

Teddy grunted in surprise at her strength. She was determined as much as he was desperate. Her shoulders were above his head as she yanked on the phone and it popped out of his fingers. 

Teddy cried out in frustration as Morganna held the phone up above his reach. “There!” she said. “Mmmnnhh, I can’t believe how you’re acting. That’s it. Your phone privileges are suspended, permanently.”

“Give it back!” Teddy stood on his toes, reaching for his phone. Morganna’s breasts loomed in his face as he struggled to reach for the phone. They were rising gradually as she put a hand on his shoulder and held him down. Teddy ignored the fact that she seemed to be getting bigger. He didn’t want to face what was becoming obvious. He was fixed on his phone in her hand. 

“Fuck,” Morganna moaned. “Do you even see what your attitude is getting you?”

The sound of fabric ripping was abruptly audible as Teddy’s father’s slacks burst open along the seams along Morganna’s thighs and hips. The buttons of his father’s button-down shirt snapped open exposing Morganna’s cleavage and a black lace brassiere. Her nipples threatened to pop out of the cups of her now too-small bra.

Teddy couldn’t reach his phone. He was too small. When Morganna’s shirt burst open, the sight of her cleavage right at his eye-level was like a visual slap in the face. Teddy’s hand on her breast looked small and he pulled it back, as if it was on fire. Morganna looked down at Teddy as he tried to process he new size. 

“Oh my god, I have to be over six feet tall without heels now,” she said, her voice breathy with excitement. “I don’t even fit into your loser father’s clothes anymore. Oh well, he won’t be needing them anytime soon, will he?” She laughed scornfully.

Teddy struggled with his emotions as Morganna loomed over him. He wasn’t even up to her shoulder anymore. Their dynamic was shifting by the second as Morganna’s body finished swelling. She seemed amazonian compared to Teddy, her visible cleavage and bare thigh peering out between ruined clothes, as her curves threatened to burst out of their constraints.

“Please,” Teddy pleaded. “I spent all day trying to get my phone working.”

“Good,” Morganna said, seeming satisfied with Teddy’s more desperate tone. She tapped in his code and unlocked his phone. Vivianne had clearly shared Teddy’s phone passcode. “That means I can see all the messages Reed has been sending you.”

Teddy watched, helpless as Morganna scrolled through his phone and read his father’s texts aloud in a mocking tone. Her head bobbed side to side as she mocked his father’s desperate words, forcing Teddy to wait as she investigated. It was hard to look away. Morganna wasn’t just bigger. She had gotten visibly more alluring and curvaceous. Her hair seemed thicker and her skin was more inviting. Teddy forced himself to keep his eyes from Morganna’s cleavage and exposed waist.

Finally, she read the last text from Reed in a high pitched squeaky voice. “Teddy, I’ve been arrested. Don’t worry, it’s not true. I am innocent. It’s going to be okay. I have a good lawyer. I’ll be in touch,” Morganna parroted.

Her voice went back to normal. “Pathetic. It’s so obvious he’s lying. He asked ME to get ahold of his lawyer!”

“Aren’t you going to do it?” Teddy asked. “He’s your husband.”

Morganna scoffed. “Maybe,” she glanced down at Teddy. “It’s between your father and me. Look at all the texts he sent you last night. He never phoned me until this morning. No, this is serious now. I don’t need you two conspiring against me. You might want me to disappear, but that’s not happening. You need to accept how things are now, Teddy. Now, go to you room.”

Morganna stepped to the side, opening a path to the office door for him. She held his phone in his hand. Teddy looked at his phone and then up to her face.

“You don’t need this thing anymore,” Morganna said, answering Teddy’s unspoken question. “Go to your room. I’ll call you down for dinner later. But you need to go and think about what you’ve done and about how you can be a more constructive part of this household. You’ve acted like a little brat and I think you need to rethink things. As do I. There are going to be some changes around here, that’s for sure.”

Teddy wanted to argue, but he felt overwhelmed, stunned. Too much had gone wrong in rapid succession. His hope of using his phone to access the outside world had been smashed. His father’s arrest had broken the foundation upon which all his confidence was based. Everything was different now, if his father’s crimes were real. Morganna’s increased stature gave her bossy tone a new level of authority. Teddy felt like he was facing off against an imposing school teacher or manager, but with a strange added layer of being sent to his room. She was treating him like a misbehaving boy.

“But…”

“NOW!” Morganna pointed to the open door.

Teddy slunk out of his father’s office and headed to his room. He entered the one place in the house he could call his own, only to be confronted with a dismaying sight. The drawers of his dresser had been yanked open and his closet door was ajar. Someone had rifled through all his clothes, leaving items scattered on the floor and strewn about. 

“What the fuck?” Teddy swore. Much of his clothing was gone. Someone had taken numerous t-shirts, almost all of his jeans, and one of his nicest jackets.

On his bed was a messy pile of pastel-coloured clothes that he didn’t recognize. Teddy picked up a purple tank-top, looked at a stretchy pair of jeans, then a pink button-down shirt. All the items were for women or a teen girl.

“Oh, I’m borrowing some of your clothes.” Vivianne voice came from behind him.

Teddy whirled about and saw Vivianne standing in the doorway of his room, casually wearing his favourite jeans and his shirt with his college emblem on it. Her hips forced the jeans to ride a bit low and she had cinched the shirt down into the waistband, emphasizing her narrow waist and feminine form.

“You could have asked,” Teddy said. He was too spent from his encounter with Morganna to stand up to Vivianne. He even sounded worn down.

Vivianne shrugged. “I guess, but it’s not like you need them anymore,” she said. “They fit me better. I left you some of my old clothes. You might fit into them now.”

“I’m not wearing girl’s clothes,” Teddy retorted, disdainfully tossing a shirt in his hand back onto the pile.

Vivianne smirked. “We’ll see,” she said. “You gotta wear something, right? Or are you going to parade around in a towel again? That could be fun!” 

Vivianne giggled as Teddy stomped to his bedroom door and closed it right in her face. Thankfully, Vivianne didn’t try to stop him, because he knew she could if she really wanted. 

“Leave me alone!” Teddy shouted.

He could hear Vivianne laughing as she walked away down the hall. Teddy ran to his bed, burying his face in his pillow as he felt tears well up in his eyes. What was he going to do?

He lay face-down in bed for a while, surrounded by Vivianne’s old clothes. Teddy just wanted to shut out his problems, to escape. To make things even worse, when he finally lifted his face from his pillow, he saw that his laptop was gone. Vivianne had taken it. He had no way to communicate with the outside world. He doubted he’d be able to get it back soon and the last thing he wanted to do at present was to defy Morganna by openly striding out of his room with her just a few doors down the hallway. He needed to be smarter than them.

Outside, Teddy could hear a dove cooing. Down the hall in his father’s office, Morganna was talking to someone on her phone. Teddy rolled over and shoved a pale-violet pair of sweat-shorts aside. He kicked and punched a bunch of the clothes on his bed to the floor. What did he care anyway? He was sweaty and the stress of the afternoon had given him a stomach-ache that now mixed with growing hunger. He realized he hadn’t eaten anything since his late light breakfast several hours ago.

Teddy thought about his situation as he stared up at the ceiling. Before he knew it, he’d drifted off to sleep in the afternoon heat.