A Step Too Far - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Teddy woke up with the sun in his face. Bright morning light was flooding into his bedroom. The curtains had been left open all night and now his room was brilliantly illuminated. He felt sore, as if he’d spent the previous day working out.

Memories of the previous day began to bubble up in his consciousness as he lay in his bed. He was on top of his blankets, sprawled out in an awkward position, and still in the clothes he’d had on the day before, half undressed. His pants were undone and his underwear pulled down. Teddy reached down and tucked his flaccid member back into his briefs. He felt his shirt clinging to his chest, stuck there.

Teddy sat up slightly and pulled off his loose shirt, tossing it onto the floor. He felt the crusty remains of his semen on his chest and abs. His brain began to clear up as he sat on the edge of his bed in the bright sunlight.

That was when he remembered shrinking. He remembered what Morganna and her friends had told him the night before. It felt like some weird nightmare, like something too strange to be real. But Teddy knew it wasn’t just some dream. He could feel it in his bones. He was afraid to confirm his gut feeling, wanting to live in ignorance. But all his clothes felt loose on him: his underwear, his pants, even his socks seemed a size too big.

Teddy stood up from his bed and his pants slipped down. Instead of pulling them up, he just stepped out of them and looked around.

Everything seemed bigger.

It wasn’t a tremendous change of perspective, but it was enough of a difference that only a delusional moron would try to say nothing was wrong. Everything in Teddy’s room seemed a big bigger. The ceiling seemed higher. His desk seemed to have been built a bit bigger than he remembered. The light switch seemed to have moved a bit higher on the wall. Teddy wasn’t very old and only a few years ago this was how the world looked to him. It felt a lot like going backward. This point-of-view in such a familiar space triggered memories of being in high school and of his life before college, before graduation.

Teddy fought down the horror that welled up inside him. “No…no….no…” he whispered. This couldn’t be happening.

The fevered state of horny desperation he’d felt the night before seemed like something from another lifetime. It was like waking up with a hangover and not understanding the drunken pleasure one had indulged in the night before. How could he have been so stupid? He’d played right into Morganna’s hands, right into the gloating predictions of her friends and her daughters.

There was no denying it. He was smaller now. He’d shrunk.

But how much had he shrunk? Was it permanent? It couldn’t be. This had to be some sort of temporary effect. Some weird effect of pheromones or hormones or something. People didn’t shrink. Surely he’d grow back. They said boys continued growing right until age 23 or 24, right? He’d heard that on a podcast somewhere, he was sure of it.

Then again, 41-year-old women didn’t get bigger right before your eyes either, and Teddy forever had the memory of that happening burned into his brain.

He stood in his loose-fitting briefs and began to search through the drawers of his desk. He hoped he had some sort of measuring tape. But all Teddy could find was an old 30 centimetre or 12 inch measuring stick from his high school days. His name was still printed on the back of the ruler in permanent marker, along with his old homeroom number. It would have to do. Teddy had little desire to leave his room on a search through the house for measuring tape. Not like this.

Teddy took the ruler to the wall with a pencil and began to make small, barely visible marks on the wallpaper to indicate 12 inches. With each mark, he slid the ruler up, until he got to five feet.

Teddy was staring right at the mark. It was almost perfectly eye level.

His hands began to tremble as he slid the ruler up the wall and made a mark for six feet, well above his head.

At least he was taller than five feet. On the other hand, he was very clearly no longer 5’10” tall.

Teddy put his back to the wall and did his best to hold the ruler flat on top of his head. Turning around while trying to keep his hand in place, Teddy made a small mark on the wall. Then he used the ruler to measure where the mark was between the five-foot and six-foot marks he’d made earlier.

The pencil dash was just under what his best guess told him was 5’4”. Teddy repeated the measuring action a second time. The second time he came up with the same measurement, more or less. Teddy wasn’t sure which estimation was more accurate. It didn’t really matter. What was important was the fact that he must have lost half a foot of height in one night. He had gone from being a pretty average sized guy, maybe even a bit tall by some standards, to being a short man.

Teddy didn’t know any 5’4” guys on his dorm floor. Not one. He couldn’t go back to college like this. People would notice. People would ask questions, not to mention the fact that it would change how he interacted with his friends and the different girls he liked.

Teddy closed his eyes as his thoughts raced out of control.

This couldn’t be happening!

Teddy threw the ruler onto his bed and held back tears of frustration. It was all the fault of that bitch and her fucking friends, he told himself. His father should have been home to deal with all of them. They were crazy. It had been incredibly stupid to let them move in like this. How could his father have been so naive and dumb? Reed Tadman was the one who usually pulled the wool over the eyes of easy marks and suckers, not the other way around.

Teddy tried to calm down. It wouldn’t help to get all emotional. He had to think of a way to undo what had happened and how to get rid of Morganna and her daughters. If he couldn’t do that, Teddy needed to get out of here as soon as he could.

But where could he go? They were miles from town. Teddy didn’t even own a car.

Could he call a friend? Maybe he could steal Morganna’s car.

All these thoughts flashed through Teddy’s head in a few seconds, when he was suddenly distracted by the sound of footsteps outside his bedroom door. The sound coming down the hall was of high heels on hardwood. It was a distinctive sound much different than his father’s familiar socked or slippered steps. Teddy looked at his door, suddenly keenly aware that he was standing in the middle of his room wearing just a pair of loose-fitting blue briefs. He grabbed his soiled shirt from the floor and held it over his pelvis.

The steps had come to a stop just outside his door.

It was silent and Teddy stood very still, careful not to make a sound. He willed the door not to open. Couldn’t they leave him in peace?

Several moments passed and then the steps began to move off. He wasn’t sure who exactly had been standing outside his door, but they were walking away. That was good.

Teddy moved carefully, trying to be quiet, and picked up his cracked phone. It had a full charge now and the screen was usable, despite the damage Vivianne had done to it. Teddy unplugged the charging cable and opened the locked screen.

There were alerts all over his screen, in several social media apps, as well as for incoming texts. Teddy glanced at the top of the phone and noticed he was getting two bars of reception - a rare thing at the house. Maybe it was the weather.

Many of Teddy’s apps had been moved around or even deleted. Several of his contacts were gone too and the call-history showed numerous phone calls to numbers he’d never heard of, as well as a number of his friends. His father had called him several times in the middle of the night, which was odd. Teddy felt violated at how much Vivanne had messed around with his phone. It would take a while to get his phone back to how he preferred it, not to mention all the people he was going to have to reach out to in order to explain whatever Vivianne had said to them.

Teddy was further enraged to see that Vivianne had been posting under his name on a variety of social media accounts, posting pictures of herself in her bathing suit with captions like “My new stepsister is so cute!” or “Hey, I’m Teddy’s new stepsister. We’re going to have the best summer ever!”

Teddy immediately moved to delete these posts, but when his accounts asked for his passwords, he discovered that Vivianne had changed the passwords to most of his social media accounts. Teddy gritted his teeth. Even his email password had been changed! He was still able to view these accounts due to being logged in on his phone, but he couldn’t change the passwords back without knowing what Vivianne had set it to. If he logged out or lost his phone, he’d lose access to nearly all of his accounts. Worse, she had deleted every authenticator program that he used for two-factor authentication.

Teddy’s hand shook as he stood in his room, gripping his phone. He had done so much to get it back, but now the time he’d spent pleading and bargaining, doing dishes and cleaning, all seemed like a hollow effort. His phone was practically useless now. It had been damaged physically and invaded digitally. Even the background image had been replaced with a photo of Vivianne and a bunch of her friends, posing at some beach.

At least he could still use it to phone his father or another sane person, and get the hell out of here. Teddy dialled the number for his father and held the phone to his ear.

A message played: “We’re sorry, but this call cannot be completed. Please check your billing details and try again later.”

Teddy checked to make sure that Vivianne had not removed his sim card. It was still there, where it should be. He dialled again, then he dialled his friend Elliot’s number. Each time he dialled, he heard, “We’re sorry, but this call cannot be completed. Please check your billing details and try again later.”

Teddy pulled up his cell phone service provider app, but when he tried to log in, his password didn’t work. What had Vivianne done to his account? Had she cancelled it?

Teddy knew the only way around his problem would be to phone his provider and wait through multiple automated service menus before talking to a customer service person in some call centre. It would take hours to get his phone service back.

Teddy dropped his phone on his bed and balled up his fists. He punched his pillow in rage, but was careful not to make too much noise. Teddy vented his frustrations into his pillow, punching it with his newly-diminished fists. Then, he paused.

No, there was still something he could do.

Teddy opened his laptop, but his heart sank. The wireless signal was still out. He couldn’t even use software to call someone. He was going to have to do this the hard way. Teddy picked his phone back up, and for a brief moment noted how different it felt in his hand. His phone felt slightly larger. Navigating the screen was more awkward and clumsy now that his hands were smaller.

His stomach growled.

Teddy sighed. He’d do it later. He needed breakfast and a shower. He needed to feel normal and put-together. Glancing at his phone, he saw that it was nearly eleven o'clock. He’d slept in. Despite sleeping so long, he still felt sore. It must have had something to do with the shrinking process. His muscles and skin felt tender.

It was all too much. Teddy had the urge to just hide in his bed, despite the glaring sun now bathing his room. But no, he needed to buck up, to get himself together, and to find a way to escape the situation that he’d walked into in his own home.

Teddy rummaged through his dresser, pulling out the oldest clothes he could find - anything that had shrunk in the wash or that was a bit too tight. He eventually managed to dress himself in some older black jeans, held in place with a tightly cinched belt. Teddy rolled the cuffs up so the ankles wouldn’t cause him to trip. He matched this with an older sky-blue button-down shirt that he tucked into the waist. The shirt had always been too tight, but now felt positively baggy. Teddy knew he probably looked like a total dweeb, but he didn’t care. He found a towel, some black socks, and his shaving kit, then prepared to make a dash to the bathroom. Teddy felt bolder now with clothes on, and wanted to get ready for a new day. If he could just get away from the house, he hoped to be able to undo whatever messed up thing they’d done to his height.

Teddy looked out of his doorway and saw that the path was clear. He made a dash for the bathroom door, speed-walking down the hall while trying to make as little sound as possible.

Amazingly, the bathroom was free. So much had gone wrong for Teddy that this one small thing seemed like a victory. He rushed in and quickly shut the door, locking it. 

 The air in the bathroom was muggy and it was clear that someone had showered recently. Steam lingered on the mirror and a moist pink towel hung from the shower curtain-rod. When Teddy closed the door, he was confronted with a large white lace bra hanging on the back hook. Teddy swallowed and gazed at the bra for a moment. It wasn’t just his smaller stature, the brassiere was sizeable. Teddy touched the delicate lace floral pattern lining one of the bra’s cups. The garment led his thoughts to breasts and fertile womanhood. Yet it also made Teddy feel inadequate and small, a symbol of feminine virility that was larger in relation to his body than anything he’d ever seen in popular media or his dorms at college.

Teddy swallowed and set his shaving materials and socks on the counter. He began to disrobe, looking at himself through the steamy mirror. He still looked like the same person, just a bit smaller. The bathroom sink and counter were a bit higher than he was used to. He looked like he’d been subtly scaled down. He peered closer. He did need to shave, but it wasn’t a pressing need. The stubble on his face was barely enough to be called five o’clock shadow. His dark brown hair looked like a soft mop on his head, messed up from hours in bed. He recalled how Morganna had said he didn’t act like a nineteen year old. Did he still look like one? Sure, he had to shave, but he was barely 5’4” now.

Teddy got the shower running before stepping into the hot water. It felt good. He let the water run over his body, washing away the grime, sweat, cum, and any other residue he’d acquired over the last couple days. He needed this. It was his first real shower since leaving the dorms for home.

The only soap available was a pastel-coloured bar of some sort of hydrating soap for women. It was perfumed with a floral rose and lilac scent. Teddy sighed. He hadn’t thought to bring any soap home with him. His father usually left a bottle of body wash or a bar of Dial or Irish Spring in the bathroom. But all Teddy could find was the light purple bar. It was big in his hands as he picked it up to scrub his body with. Teddy worked up a lather with the soap, and noticed how he had to stand in a different spot than usual for the water to hit his body right. He also noticed how he had to adjust his hand on the soap to hold it right. These were minor annoyances, but they were also a constant reminder of how his body had changed overnight.

Teddy pulled the wet towel from the shower curtain-rod and left it in a pile on the floor. He used his own fresh towel to dry himself when he got out of the shower, before putting both towels into the laundry bin. That was a new item. Teddy had always just tossed his stuff into a basket in his room and house-cleaners would take care of it at the end of the month. His father preferred to pay people to do things like that. When Teddy opened the lid of the bin, he found himself staring down into a pile of panties, leggings, bras, and other garments. The laundry bin itself was an admittedly useful convenience. Yet this sight was a further reminder of the fact that Teddy now lived in a house full of women, that things had changed. As he dropped the towels in, Teddy spotted the silver glint of the thong Morganna had worn the day before.

Teddy thought that he really shouldn’t know what kind of thong Morganna was wearing. He shouldn’t even care. Yet deep inside, he found himself drawn the sight of these garments, knowing where they’d been, and the shapely curves they’d covered, supported, enhanced, and accented.

Teddy let the lid fall shut, avoiding the small horny voice in his head suggesting he reach in and touch the satin, lace, and cotton intimates. No. He had more important things to focus on. Teddy shaved quickly and dressed himself.

When he opened the bathroom door, Teddy was confronted by Vivianne, who was standing right outside the doorway with her arms crossed. She wore high-waisted, teal-coloured, butt-lifting leggings and a black tight cropped long-sleeve top partially exposing her soft yet sensually defined abs. Vivianne was sweaty from some sort of physical activity. Her hair was up in a messy bun and her hands were on her hips. She appeared to have been waiting outside the bathroom impatiently for Teddy to finish. When Teddy first opened the door, Vivianne looked ready to say something. But the moment she spotted him, her eyes widened.

Teddy was the exact same height as Vivianne.

Vivianne’s eyes were now right at the same level as Teddy’s. She didn’t blink as she made eye-contact with him. She began to smile.

“I was going to ask you why you were taking so long in there, but now I understand,” Vivianne said. “You really did shrink overnight. My mom and Andrea were right!”

“No!” Teddy blurted out. He knew it was true, but he couldn’t help but want to deny this reality from existing. “I mean, I know something happened, but…”

“But what?” Vivianne tilted her head and maintained eye contact with Teddy. “You’re the same height as me now and I’m only 5’4”. You must have shrunk what, like half a foot? More?”

“I don’t know,” Teddy lied. “Maybe you’re exaggerating.”

Vivianne gave a little laugh. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I love this. You look so different now. Shrinking you down just a bit makes you seem way less like some douchey college guy. You look kind of cute in a way. It’s better.”

Teddy was taken by surprise. Did Vivianne just call him cute? Was it a compliment or mockery? “It’s not better,” he countered. “It’s unnatural and unfair. I’m not supposed to be this size.”

“According to who?” Vivianne asked.

“According to my DNA!” Teddy exclaimed. “People don’t just shrink!”

“How do you know?” Vivianne countered. “What are you, a scientist or something? Maybe you were unnatural before, and then mom and Andrea just helped you get better? Like sort of pruning back an out of control plant so it can fit better into a garden.”

“I’m not a plant,” Teddy growled. “I’m a man.”

Vivianne stared directly into his eyes and let out small laugh. “I guess,” she said.

The laugh would have been cute in any other setting or circumstance, but somehow it felt different now that Teddy was eye-to-eye with Vivianne. She seemed less like a pushy pretty girl and more like a threatening confident peer. Memories of brazen girls from junior high flickered in Teddy’s mind as he struggled to wrap his thoughts around the fact that he was now 5’4”. This shouldn’t have been surprising, since that was probably the last time he’d been that height.

“I don’t know a lot of men my height,” Vivianne continued. “I think I might even weigh more than you. You don’t seem that built.” Her eyes wandered down to Teddy’s chest.

He was wearing his bath towel wrapped around his waist. His hands were full carrying his clothes and shaving kit. Teddy had meant to simply slip back across the hall into his room before getting dressed for the day. Feeling Vivianne’s eyes sizing up his exposed body was unnerving. Worse, she was blocking the doorway and an easy route to his door.

Teddy felt his own gaze drawn to Vivianne’s exposed tummy, tantalizingly revealed due to the black croptop she wore. Her stomach was smooth and soft, yet defined. A sexy gentle furrow ran down the middle of her abdomen, indicating her toned muscles beneath. Her hips and buttocks were more prominent than Teddy’s by far. Whatever she’d been doing to work up a sweat through the morning had only made her muscles swell with pumping blood.

Teddy felt his penis starting to wake up under his towel. He pulled his eyes back up. “I’m normal,” Teddy countered. “I’m not jacked, sure. But I’m not some weakling.”

Vivianne was smiling. “Jacked…” she laughed. “Uh, obviously. The other girls in my kickboxing classes at the gym are jacked. You’re just…well, fluffy. And that’s good!”

Vivianne poked her finger into Teddy’s soft tummy. “Oooh!” She said, before snickering. “Not jacked at all. I bet I really do outweigh you. Normally, that would upset me. But it’s not like I’m comparing myself to some footballer. Now we’re on the same level.”

Vivianne’s finger slid down Teddy’s abdomen and hooked into the top of the towel wrapped around his waist. “So, did you shrink all over?” She smirked.

Teddy grabbed Vivianne’s wrist. “Vivianne, don’t.”

“Don’t what?” She tugged teasingly on the towel.

“Don’t play games,” Teddy said. “You can have the bathroom. I’m done with it.”

Teddy tried to walk past Vivianne, but her finger pulled a little more at his towel and he didn’t dare keep walking. “Oh come on,” Vivianne said. “Are you that much of a prude? I thought you live in the dorms at your college. I can only imagine what you’ve seen and done already.”

It was true. Teddy did live in dorms and he had seen some things. He’d heard couples having sex in the showers at least once. He’d seen other guys in various states of undress. But it wasn’t like some carnal myth. He told himself he was experiencing a normal college dorm life, not some movie-version or fantasy. But Vivianne’s words made him doubt his own experiences.

“Uh, well yeah,” Teddy nodded.

“So, show me college boy,” Vivianne said. “Show me that confidence.”

Vivianne leaned in, her face an inch from Teddy’s. “Or maybe you’re too small for that now. Hiding behind your towel like a schoolboy.”

Teddy pushed Vivianne away, barely moving her despite his effort. “I am not!” He said. But as he pushed her away, Vivianne kept her finger hooked inside his bathtowel. The towel tugged and slid off Teddy’s waist as Vivianne was pushed backward a step. As the thick cotton dropped off Teddy’s waist, he saw her look down.

Teddy felt an inner horror as Vivianne’s expression shifted to wide-mouthed delight. “Oh my god, it’s so cute!” She exclaimed. “So dinky! Little Teddy winky dink!”

Teddy pulled the loose towel over his crotch and felt blush filling his cheeks. Vivianne reached down and yanked at his towel, pulling it out of his hands with a snap, causing him to drop his shaving kit to the floor.

Teddy was totally naked. Vivianne began to laugh. “Look at you, so shocked,” she said. “You’ve never been like this in your dorms, have you? You probably hid your shrinky-dink behind a towel there too.”

“It’s not little!” Teddy blurted out. “Your mom and her stupid friends made me this way!”

“Oh sure!” Vivianne exclaimed. “Blame it on my fucking mom, of course! Mommy’s the reason my dick is small! Mommy’s mean friends! Maybe you’re just small and that’s the way things are supposed to be.”

“N…no,” Teddy stepped backward. Vivianne seemed more imposing. He needed to get away from her.

Vivianne scoffed and lifted her chin a bit, looking down slightly at Teddy. “God, just when I thought you were kind of cute, you started in again with that kind of self-pity talk and all your disrespect for my mom.”

Teddy swallowed. He’d let his tongue slip. Vivianne was still holding his bath towel in her hands and looking at him, but her expression was shifting to one of realization. “Ohh….is this what it feels like?” She said in a soft voice, as if talking to herself.

Teddy stepped backward and picked up his shaving kit, doing his best to keep his crotch covered with his hand. But Vivianne wasn’t even watching him now. She was looking down at her own body, flexing her fingers and shifting her hips.

“Fuck, I think I’m growing, Teddy,” she sighed. “You and your little shrinky selfish attitude must have triggered it.”

Teddy didn’t say anything. He stood clutching his shaving kit, wanting to run, but mesmerized by the sight of Vivianne in the doorway to the bathroom, her eyes half-closed as she seemed lost in a haze of pleasure. Her croptop inched higher up her waist, exposing part of the creamy undersides of her round breasts, barely contained in a sports bra. From Teddy’s angle, he could clearly see the gap between the top of the doorframe and Vivianne’s head was getting smaller. There was still plenty of space, but the gap was closing as she rose taller.

“Mmm…yes,” Vivianne moaned. Her grey eyes opened slightly and locked with Teddy’s. “Look at me.”

Teddy was looking. He couldn’t help it. Vivianne’s hips strained at her tight teal leggings, her thighs seemed ready to explode out of the stretchy material. Her already curvaceous body, honed through deadlifts, squats, swimming, and kickboxing, was getting amplified, scaled up.

Vivianne was now definitely taller than Teddy by several inches and bigger in every way. Teddy backed up and moved toward his room, tearing his gaze from Vivianne’s beautiful body as it threatened to explode from her tight athletic wear.

“Running away little Teddy?” Vivianne called after him. “Come on, it’s not so bad!”

Teddy shut his door and put his hands on his head, trying to push the image of Vivianne’s perfect tummy and widening hips out of his mind. He heard her still talking in the hall.

“Well,” Vivianne sighed. “We’ll talk more later. Time to shower. These leggings are way too small now. I have to get them off.”

He heard the bathroom door shut.

Teddy felt his penis stiffen at the idea of Vivianne peeling off her tight teal leggings. The idea of them rolling off her magnificent ass, like in some lewd porn movie he’d watched in his dorm room, burst across his brain. He shook his head. He wouldn’t masturbate to that, to Vivianne.

Teddy sat on his bed, trying to order his thoughts. He could hear the sound of the shower running in the distance and closed his eyes. He focused on an immediate problem. What on earth was he going to wear as a 5’4” man now? Loose pants and baggy shirts could only get him so far.

He needed a new wardrobe, even though buying one also felt like admitting the reality of his new size. But what was the alternative? He had little choice but to roll up the cuffs of his pants and use a belt, to find a shirt with a smaller neck hole so it wouldn’t look totally pathetic on him. This limited his choice of garments to just a few things. It would have to do for another day or two until he could get some different clothes that fit his smaller physique. He would save his old clothes so that if this temporary setback was undone, he could get back to normal as fast possible.

Just when he’d felt he was getting himself together, his sense of normality had been knocked off kilter by Vivianne. Had she seriously just grown? These things didn’t happen outside of weird science fiction or fantasy movies. A part of him had been unsure about the previous day’s events, whether they’d been some sort of dream or stretched memory. But Vivianne had smashed all that rationalizing in a few minutes.

Teddy didn’t want to think about whether this was a permanent situation. The question was too upsetting to face. He dressed himself in baggy loose-fitting clothes and thought about how to move forward.