Business and Pleasure

by pseudoclever

Chapter 1.

“Once again, the National Weather Service was issued a Blizzard Warning for the entire listening area. Citizens are advised to stay indoors, and to avoid travel whenever possible. In other words, curl up somewhere safe, cats and kittens, ‘cause we’re looking at ten to twelve by morning!”

Max had been counting. It was the fourth time that the radio announcer had repeated the announcement that hour. Verbatim. Including his lame little joke at the end. As he pulled into the driveway of his ex-roommate’s house, he thanked his lucky stars that he wouldn’t have to listen to a fifth. Grabbing his backpack from the passenger seat, he climbed out of the car.

The frozen grass crunched underfoot as he made his way to the front door. The snow had yet to arrive, but the wind had a smell to it, one humans could recognize instinctively. It was crisp, and wet despite the cold. All of nature could feel the storm coming, could sense change in the air.

Before he had a chance to knock the door was yanked open, and something soft and furry hit him just below the chin. “Max-ie! You made it!” the girl squealed, hugging him tight.

“Nice to see you too, Tara,” he replied, patting her on the head fondly. “But remember, I asked you not to call me Max-ie? It makes me sound like a tampon.”

Tara grinned, and stuck her tongue out at him. “I thought that was a complement. I mean, that’s the aspiration of every guy right? To be stuck in....”

“Oh my God, you aren’t wearing shoes!” Max said, cutting her off. “It’s like, four degrees out here! Aren’t you freezing?”

She shook her head. “Don’t you know we hippies have very resilient feet? It comes with all the sandal-wearing.”

“And the skirt, and tank top? I suppose those parts are tough from all the time you spend rolling naked in fields of daisies.”

“Okay okay fine,” Tara exclaimed, her teeth starting to chatter. “I’m fucking cold. Let’s go inside already!” With that she grabbed him by the hand, and pulled him through the door. “Guys! Max is here!”

“Ah, the prodigal son returns!” his friend Bill cried, bounding off the couch. He gave Max his traditional shoulder punch of greeting. “Long time no see man. How’s life treating you?”

“Over-worked, under-sleeped. That’s graduate school for you. Melinda...wow you look AWESOME!”

The girl gave him a hug, and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “You’re sweet to say so, hun.”

“I mean it - you’re practically glowing. You almost look...you aren’t still getting taller, are you?”

Melinda grinned, bouncing up on her tip toes. “As if I’d need it? Five foot ten is quite enough, thank you. Besides, anyone would look big, standing next to Rumpelstiltskin here.” She pointed her thumb at Tara.

The smaller girl’s eyes widened in mock horror. “I’m not going to take that from you, you bully - even if you ARE a head taller than me. Get down on your knees so I can kick your ass.”

“Oh hush,” Melinda laughed. “You know I’m jealous of your figure. Let me have my fun.” She turned back to regard Max. “Thank you for the complement. In all seriousness, I just think the new job agrees with me. I get plenty of exercise, if nothing else.”

Max looked confused. “New job?”

“Later, later!” Bill interrupted. “Come in, sit down. Let’s catch up!”

They moved to the living room, and Max sank into his favorite arm chair. Tara offered him a beer and sat down at his feet, lighting a cigarette. “So Max,” she began. “We don’t see you for months. Then all of a sudden you say you want to come over – on a Thursday night, no less. What’s the story?”

“Okay. First, I want to say I’m sorry I’ve been ignoring you guys....”

“Don’t worry about it,” Melinda cut him off. The others nodded agreement.

“Thanks. Well, here’s the deal: I’ve been going twenty-four-seven for months now, but I think I’ve found a way to take a couple days off. First off, this storm. We’re supposed to get a foot of snow overnight. I think we can pretty much assume that classes are going to be cancelled tomorrow, right?”

“Seems reasonable,” Bill said.

“Okay. Second, I’ve been excused from weekend lab hours, because I’ve been given a little homework assignment. See, we’ve been testing various isomer configurations, attempting to see which has the lowest action potential, the greatest physiological response per micro-gram, and I’ve been asked to design some retrosynthetic routes to...oh, sorry,” he said, noticing their confused expressions. “You talk like that long enough, it gets difficult to turn off. I’m, ah, tweaking the shape of a drug, trying to make it have fewer side effects, and be more effective with a smaller dose.”

“Wait – drug? What exactly HAVE you been doing?” Bill asked.

“It’s my student research project.” Max opened his backpack, and withdrew a worn red folder. He passed it to Tara. “We’re working in collaboration with the US Army to develop a treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. They have a substance that, combined with therapy, can help soldiers get over their psychological issues. We’re getting a big research grant to help them perfect it.”

“I’ve seen this somewhere before.” Melinda had the folder now, and she was holding up a drawing of the drug molecule. “Where?”

“You’ve all seen it before - it was on a History Channel special that we watched together in this very room. In fact, Tara has even tasted something similar.”

The girl’s head jerked toward him in surprise. 

“This drug is just three small steps away from being LSD - the good stuff too.”

There was a moment of shocked silence. “You mean,” Bill said at last. “That the government wants our wounded vets to start dropping acid?”

“I mean, it’s not acid. Well, it’s...almost. Sort of. Basically...yes.”

The room exploded in laughter. “They should put THAT on recruitment posters,” Bill said, clutching his sides.

“So...so does that mean...you could turn this stuff into LSD if you wanted?” Tara asked, wiping her eyes.

“Why? Are you thinking maybe the third time’s the charm?”

Tara made a face. “Thank you, no. Two bad trips are enough. I was just wondering.”

Max’s eyes went distant. “Treat the drug with Chromium Oxide to convert the hydroxyl group to a ketone. Centrifuge, remove the precipitate. Treat with one equivalent of hydrogen gas and a Palladium catalyst. Dissolve the remnants in Tetrahydrofuran. Heat to 70 celsius for a few minutes to boil off the by-product. That’s all you’d have to do.”

Bill whistled in appreciation. “Wow, you gonna do it?”

“Hell no. Do I look like a drug dealer to you? I mean...I could PROBABLY get away with it. I only figured out the process because I was curious. Besides, I only do drugs that I can buy at a pharmacy, or that I could grow in my backyard.”

Bill nodded approvingly. “Good policy. How’s that Budweiser tree you planted coming along?” He tossed Max another beer.

He caught it, and cracked it open. “Oh yeah, Melinda! You said something about a new job. What are you doing these days?”

Melinda smiled, and pulled what looked like a small leather wallet from the pocket of her hoodie. She snapped it open, and Max immediately fell to his knees and put his hands behind his head. “Oh stop that!” Melinda giggled, throwing her badge at him.

“Sorry, force of habit!” He retrieved the case, and held it up to the light to examine it. “Detroit Police Department. No shit. How’d they let a recovering stoner like you slip in?”

“Probably because, if smoking pot kept you from getting a government job, we wouldn’t have a government. That, and I scored First Class in every admission test. The academy director said he’d never seen anyone do so many push-ups.” Melinda rolled up her sleeve, showing an impressive amount of muscle, and shot Tara a grin. “My assets may not be as jiggly as yours, but I have to say they’re probably more useful.”

“Oh? Do yours get you free drinks, then?”

Melinda chuckled, and turned back to Max. “Anyway, I like to think that my years of smoking pot have helped me be a better officer. There’s that residual instinct, the ability to detect the faintest puff of weed smoke from a mile away. But besides that, it’s helped me philosophically. There are some people I nail who deserve to go to prison. Others may not be hurting anyone - except themselves. A trip in a squad car is the last thing they need.”

A long moment of silence followed, while they all considered Melinda’s words, and their own encounters with the law.

Bill was the first to break the silence. “Oh hey Max, before I forget again, I have some mail for you.”

“You’re still getting stuff for me? Anything important?”

“You tell me,” Bill said, dropping a stack of letters into his lap.

Max began sorting. “Junk, garbage, bra catalog....”

“I’ll take that,” Tara and Bill said in unison.

“Here’s something...TransCon Credit - that’s the bank that issued my student loan. Probably just a yearly statement.” Max opened the letter, and scanned the opening paragraph. Immediately his mouth went dry.

“Max, you okay sweetie?” Tara sounded concerned. “You’re shaking.”

Max began to read. “Congratulations on achieving your Bachelor’s Degree in the field of, et cetera et cetera. Please be aware that, under the terms of Provision Blah, Section Blegh, your interest grace period comes to an end upon your graduation date, which our records indicate will be May 1st, 2010. Your first payment will be due June 1st of same year. Please be aware that late payment carries a fee of....” Max crumpled the paper, and threw it across the room. “Bill, do you have any MORE mail for me? From these same guys?”

“Umm....” Looking embarrassed, he went to the coffee table and sank to his knees. He lifted a side of the table, and pulled a small stack of envelopes from beneath one leg.

Max snatched the letters from Bill’s hand. Each bore a large, red stamp, with words like ‘Immediate Action Required,’ ‘Delinquent Account,’ ‘Final Notice.’ He selected the one with the most recent postmark, and ripped it open. “Are you fucking KIDDING?” he screamed.

“How bad?” Tara asked quietly.

“Principle...two-hundred fifty...thousand...dollars. How the hell did I spend that much on tuition?”

“Well, you DID go to one of the most expensive schools in the country,” Bill said.

“Yeah, but....”

“And didn’t you use that loan to pay for your rent, and your groceries, and your car?” he added.

“True....”

“And remember that scheme you had to claim Grey Goose as an educational expense?” Tara said.

“Shut up!” He looked at the paper in front of him again. “Late fees, compound interested...over three hundred thousand dollars. The payment just to tread WATER is twice my monthly income. What am I going to DO?”

Bill held up his hands. “Right this second? I recommend you chill out. We’ll go to a loan councilor first thing tomorrow, and find out what your options are.”

Max took a deep breath. “Sure, you’re right. It’s just...best case scenario, I’m going to be neck-deep in debt for the rest of my life.”

“You guys!” Tara yelled suddenly, jumping to her feet. “Come look! It’s snowing!”

They were all thankful for something to lighten the mood, and crowded around the window. “Wow, it’s really coming down out there,” Bill observed.

“It’s pretty,” Tara said, her voice child-like. A pristine blanket of white had fallen, with not a single footprint or tire track to disturb the perfect landscape. The world, Max remember, could really be beautiful sometimes. It made him feel a little better.

“The other day, I pulled a speeder over coming off of I-94.” Melinda was speaking. Her voice surprised him, and Max realized that she had been silent for quite some time now. “The guy was acting suspicious, and his license was expired, so I decided to search him. Turns out his trunk was packed to the brim with marijuana. Fifty pounds of it.”

Max turned to look at her. Melinda had her back to him, her eyes firmly fixed on her shoes. “We estimated the value to be somewhere around $200,000. The thing is, I also found a small glass vial in his pocket, with a tiny bit of liquid inside. It turned out to be LSD - pretty low-quality stuff, we found out later.”

Bill and Tara had lost interested in the snow. Melinda’s voice was barely above a whisper now. “There were upwards of fifty-thousand hits in it. From less than one ounce of liquid. They determined that the street value...would have been over four-hundred thousand dollars.”

The only sound in the room now was the soft susurrous of snow falling outside. “If we were talking about heroin, or coke...I would feel different. Those drugs are addictive, drive street violence, destroy lives. But acid? It’s sort of morally ambiguous. Harmless, by comparison. And...I have contacts...I know ways people keep from getting caught....”

“Mel, if you’re suggesting that....” Max began.

She turned, looking him in the eye. “I’m not suggesting anything. I’m just talking.” Melinda walked to the fridge, and grabbed as many cans of beer as she could carry. She set them down on the coffee table, and flashed him a million-dollar smile. “I thought this was supposed to be a party.” She opened one of the cans, and raised it above her head. “To bad decisions!” she toasted.

They all drank.

Chapter 2.

Max had always prided himself on being cool under pressure. ‘The eye of the hurricane,’ he liked to say. No matter how turbulent the air was around him, it was always seventy-two and sunny where he was. Even so, it surprised him how relaxed he felt as he walked up the back staircase of the Chemistry Building. 

“That’ll be the key,” Melinda had said. The two of them were sitting on the back porch, sipping hot coco. Bill and Tara were having a snowball fight in the yard, and from the amount of white clinging to Bill’s whiskers it looked for all the world as if the diminutive girl was winning. “Ninety percent of the time, if a crook isn’t caught in the act, we nail them because a witness remembers someone acting suspicious.”

Max nodded at the guard as he walked past the security desk, making sure to glance at one of the many cameras that dotted the ceiling. “That’s another mistake people make.” Melinda's voice again. “Guilty people avoid looking at the police. Innocent people look, but keep their distance.”

Dr. Franklyn motioned Max over as soon as he entered the lab. “Mr. Harwell, do you have the proposed isomerization routes I asked you to draw up?” A typical, no-nonsense greeting from the good doctor. Max handed him his report. 

The doctor shuffled his papers, quickly scanning the document. He stabbed a finger at one reaction route. “This one. Where the keto group is S-oriented from the main ring. How long do you think it would take you to run that?”

Max scratched his cheek, staring up at the ceiling. “It’s an unfavored product. It would take awhile to....” Dr. Franklyn glanced at his watch, and Max decided to get to the point. “Most of the day.”

“That’s fine. Make sure to have it ready by tomorrow morning.” He handed Max his report back. Without another word the doctor stalked off toward a group of students chatting in the corner.

“Teacher’s pet,” accused a thickly sarcastic feminine voice from behind him. Max sighed, and turned to find his lab partner smirking up at him. “Next thing you know he’s going to be asking you to synth him some apple polish, or make you train the rats to sit up straight and speak only when spoken to.”

“Morning Lily,” Max said. He was surprised to find himself suppressing a laugh - he didn’t usually think her jokes were funny. But in any case, it was generally a bad idea to give Lily Phillips any encouragement. The girl could be a bundle of unaccounted-for variables, and that was the last thing his plan needed. 

“What’s Doc got you working on today?” she asked, standing on her tip toes to look over the top of the papers Max was holding. She had left the top button of her polo shirt undone, and he couldn’t help but notice she was inadvertently giving him a good look down the front of her shirt. Although, knowing Lily, maybe not so inadvertently. 

Despite his reservations about her, Max was forced to admit that the girl could be charming sometimes. Lily had a decent figure in spite of being underdeveloped, and she had a cute little button nose that suited her face perfectly. Her skin was a rich caramel color, accented by a crop of straight, jet black hair, and her eyes were extremely large and arresting. Privately, he thought she looked like a grown-up, extra sexy version of Dora the Explorer.

But by far her most noticeable feature was that of her stature - or more accurately, the lack thereof. The girl would’ve made even Tara seem a giant by comparison. Max guessed that she had to be well under five feet tall, perhaps just a smidge over four-six. But this was just another thing Lily could use to her advantage. Her height made her appear cute, even imp-like, and it somehow seemed to multiply her sex appeal.

He might even have said the girl was attractive, if only she would stop needling him for thirty seconds.

“Yeah, that assignment actually looks pretty boring,” Lily said, pushing the stack of papers back against his chest. “I’m going to see if Doc has anything more exciting for me to do. But remember, if you need anything, please don’t hesitate....”

They finished together. “...To ask someone else first.”

“Thanks awfully,” Max growled at her as she strode away. She waved her hand dismissively, not looking back. He sighed again - there was something about that girl. The way she seemed to be able to beckon him closer, while simultaneously giving him the proverbial finger. And why did she always know just what to say to get under his skin? He took a deep breath, and within three heartbeats had regained his composure. 

Max settled down at his favorite table, and began to work. The day passed uneventfully, and before he knew it his reaction sequence was complete. He looked up at the clock - 4:55pm. This was the moment of decision - should he go through with his plan?

Without hesitation, Max decanted the product of his day’s labors into a test tube. He placed it alongside a number of other, identical tubes, careful to memorize the position of his. Now he was painfully aware of the camera watching from just over his shoulder, but he didn’t try to hide his actions. Again, Melinda’s voice came to him: “In all likelihood no one ever watches those tapes, unless they have a good reason. Your job is to make sure they don’t get one.”

Max picked up a small, numbered vial onto which he had written the name of his isomer. He carefully filled it with a small amount of waste product, and sealed it shut. Turning quickly, he let his foot snag on the underside of the table. Max faked a stumble, the vial slipping from his hand and shattering on the floor.

The sound of breaking glass immediately summoned Dr. Franklyn. “What was in that container?” he asked, his voice edged with concern.

Already a pair of graduate students were cleaning up the spill. Max watched them for a moment, and contrived a sigh. “My final product.”

“I needed that by tomorrow morning, Harwell.”

“I know sir, but...I have a date tonight,” Max pleaded. “Isn’t there some way...?”

Dr. Franklyn shook his head sadly. “No, no. We can’t afford to fall behind schedule on a project with so much riding on it. A collaborative effort with the government, as I’m sure you remember. Deadlines. Grant money. You’ll...I’m afraid you’ll have to stay tonight and run the reaction again.” The doctor looked at him with what Max thought might be genuine sympathy, and for a split second he felt terrible about lying to the man. 

It passed.

Max sighed again. “I understand. Would it be alright if I came back later tonight? I’d like to take a shower, get some dinner....”

“...call the young lady and tell her the bad news?” The doctor smiled at him. “That should be fine. I’ll make sure security knows you’ll be coming. But Harwell - be certain you’re done by morning.”

Max went to clean up his station. As he washed his used test tubes, he carefully palmed the one with his finished product, and slipped it into his pocket. The doctor would have it by morning, alright. For tonight though, he had other plans.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By nine pm, Max was ready to rock. Clearing security been no problem, and as far as he could tell he was the only person left in this part of the building. He swiped his ID card on the door to the reagent room, smiling to himself. This was almost too easy.

The storage area was about the size of a large closet, its walls lined with hundreds of identical ceramic jars. The labels were small and difficult to read even up close - it would be impossible for a camera to see them from across the room. 

Max grabbed what he needed, and went to his favorite table. Carefully, he measured a small amount of the drug into a test tube. If he had calculated right, this would be enough to yield more than a hundred thousand doses of high-potency LSD. At five bucks a pop, this stuff was going to be his key to a new life, free from the crushing weight of his debts.

The chromium oxide came first. The solution bubbled, giving off a soft fizzing sound as the oxygen escaped. He centrifuged his test tube, and strained away a thick, silvery blob - the used chromium. Next came the hydrogen in palladium. He sealed the vial and inserted a small plastic tube connected to a canister of gas. Now there was only one step left - dissolving the by-product, and then boiling it away. Max glanced up at the clock, and was surprised to find that he’d only been in the lab for twenty minutes. 

Suddenly the doorknob turned, the noise explosively loud in the silence of the lab. Max whirled, and saw his worse-case scenario – Lily Phillips was walking through the door. 

Calm. Calm down, he thought.

“Hey Max-ie. What - aren’t you glad to see me? You look a little spooked.”

“I’ve asked you not to call me by that name, remember? And I’m fine.” Now, do it now! He lifted the bottle of tetrahydrofuran, and poured a tiny amount into the vial. “You just startled me, that’s all.”

“A big lump like you, afraid of a little thing like me? What HAS happened to American masculinity?” Lily sauntered over to him, and with some difficulty the tiny girl reached up to set her bag on the table. For a moment he wondered what it must be like for her, being so short. Everyday tasks must have all sorts of unforeseen complications. There would be second glances on the street...random strangers gawking as she walked past....

Max snapped himself out of his reverie. He stirred the solution. “Why are you here?” he asked coldly.

Lily actually looked embarrassed by the question. “Well...umm, if you must know...I felt bad about what happened to you earlier. That was really unfair, the way the Doc made you miss...miss your date. I thought maybe you’d get out a little quicker if I helped.” 

Now it was Max’s turn to be embarrassed. “That’s...actually really nice of you,” he said, lighting a bunsen burner. Just a few more minutes - that was all he needed! “But as it turns out I’m almost done.”

Lily looked confused. “But the security guard told me you just got here. I thought this reaction was going to take all night.”

Damn it, why did she have to be so perceptive! “Oh, I...found a more efficient reaction pathway. I’m on the last step right now actually...just need to do a low-temperature boil. As soon as this finishes dissolving I’ll heat it, and we can go.” 

She smiled, and Max had the thought that, after all the times she had smirked at him over the years, this might be the first time he had actually seen both sides of her mouth go up at the same time. “Oh? And where should...WE...go?”

That one threw him. “Ah...well, let’s talk about that. In a minute. But first, could you give me a hand? Put these reagents away?”

Still smiling, she reached up to grab the three containers. She glanced down idly at the labels, and suddenly she stopped.

“Chromium Oxide. Palladium. Tetrahydrofuran.” Lily stared at him, and Max saw that the smirk was back in full force. “Max, why don’t you tell me about this reaction route you discovered.”

Max could swear that his heart was literally sinking into his stomach. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

“Did you think you were the only one who thought of this?” she asked, perverse glee in her voice. “But I never would have guessed YOU would be the one dumb enough to try it. Just think - Max Harwell, the golden boy, caught by his lab partner making LSD!”

Chapter 3.

“Well Max? Don’t you have anything to say in your defense?” Lily asked, still smirking up at him wickedly.

He glared at her. “Fine, good, you got me. There’s the evidence in your hands. But think about this: I can have my arms around your windpipe before you take three steps. And there's no way a midget like you could fight me off. So maybe you should just give me those reagent bottles.”

The tiny girl threw her head back, laughing uproariously. “Nice try, Max-ie, but I know you too well. You aren’t capable of murder - to say nothing of the cameras. So why don’t I tell YOU what’s going to happen, hmm?” 

He stared at her for a long moment, and finally gave the tiniest nod he could manage.

“How much of that stuff are you making?”

Max closed his eyes. “Fifteen grams.”

“That would be...ahhh...about a hundred thousand doses, correct?”

“Yes,” he spat.

“Well then, here’s the plan: I’ll go ahead and put these reagents away. You finish your little reaction. Then I walk out of here with seven and a half of those grams, and we forget this ever happened.” 

Max wondered briefly if he had somehow slipped himself a couple hits of the stuff he was baking. This had to be a trick. “What? Why would YOU want any of this?”

“Let’s just say I could use the money. And besides, the way you tricked Doc...that was a work of art. It’d be a shame if I had to be the one to spoil it for you.”

“How do I know you aren’t going to leave here and go straight to the cops with that stuff?”

“I could do that anyway. Even if you cleaned up the lab, anyone who takes a close enough look at the security tapes is going to know SOMETHING is up. No, Max-ie. What I’m proposing is that you...TRUST...me.”

Max let out a short bark of a laugh. “And why the hell should I do that?”

For the second time ever, Lily gave him a genuine smile – this one even wider than the first. “Because I’m going to implicate myself with you. Either we both get away with this, or neither of us do.”

He shook his head, and sighed deeply. “I guess I don’t have much choice.”

“Do you trust me?”

“No.” The word came out flat.

Lily giggled, and blew him a kiss. With a flourish she turned, and went to the reagent room. 

By the time she returned, Max had finished boiling off the remnant. “As soon as it cools we decant, and then we can get out of here.”

She nodded. Neither of them spoke. The only sounds in the room were the ticking of the clock, and the gentle rush of air from the heating duct. At some point Max became aware that the nasty little munchkin was staring at him, her huge green eyes twinkling mischievously. 

“What?”

Her face took on a predatory look. “Two things. First...it occurs to me that, at some point, we need to make sure you did this reaction right. Before we try to sell it at least. Bad things happen to people who push drugs that don’t work.

“And second...I can’t let you walk out of here until you say that you trust me. It’s the foundation of this entire plan. If either one of us rats the other out....” She shook her head.

“I’m sorry. It’s a little difficult for me to have faith in the woman who’s blackmailing me.”

Lily nodded. “I thought you might say that. Well, maybe I have a solution to both problems.” 

Suddenly, the girl pulled a low-dose measuring syringe from her pocket, and stuck it into the serum.

“Hey, HEY! What are you doing?” he shouted. 

“Shut up. And stand close to me, block the camera.” She grabbed his shirt, and pulled him tight against her. “This is just a little romantic rendezvous, Mr. Security Guard,” she whispered. Max could feel her hot breath against his chest, her lithe little body pressing into him. All the blood was rushing to his head.

Lily tipped her head back, and depressed the syringe. A minuscule amount of liquid dripped out on to her tongue. 

“How much?” he snarled. 

She looked down at the device in her hand. “Just five hundred nano-liters.”

“Are you kidding?” he hissed. “Do you know potent this stuff is? That’s at least three hits you just took!”

“Today’s dosing standards for acid are pretty tame - I’ll be alright. Oh by the way...you’ve got some pretty strong legs here. Do you work out much?” Max realized the elfin girl was still clinging to him, and quickly stepped away. “Ce’st la vie,” she said, fixing her hair.

“Explain,” he demanded.

“It isn’t that complicated. I’ve just put a dagger in your hand. If you want, you can stab it into my back, and get off scott free.” Max looked confused. “In about thirty minutes, I’m going to be high out of my mind. If you really don’t trust me, you can call the police. I’ll have nothing on you at that point.

“But!” she added, looking him dead in the eye. “Remember this: I trust YOU. I trust that this stuff you made isn’t going to kill me. I trust that you won’t screw me over on my half of the product, or get me thrown in jail. And...maybe I even trust you to take care of me while I’m on my little trip. But that part is up to you.”

“You need to stop calling me Max-ie,” he said.

“Done.” 

They stared at each other for a long moment. Max felt the beginnings of a smile playing across his lips. In spite of himself, he felt like he could almost tolerate this girl. Almost.

He moved to pick up the solution, when suddenly Lily grunted, and doubled over in pain. “What? What is it? Are you okay?”

She spoke to him from between clenched teeth. “It...nrrgh...isn’t supposed to...it takes longer than this...I....” A few seconds later the girl shook her head, as if trying to forget a bad dream. “I don’t know what just happened. But I feel better now. Actually...hmm...I feel kind of strange.”

“Strange? Strange how?”

She shook her head. “It’s hard to describe. Hot. And...the room looks different. YOU look different. Almost as though everything were getting....” Lily trailed off, her eyes going wide.

Max started to ask her what she had been about to say, when a sudden shifting of fabric caught his eye. Lily wore the same loose-fitting white polo shirt that she had earlier in the day. For some reason, it didn’t seem quite as loose as he remembered. In fact, as he watched he could swear it was getting tighter, as if an invisible hand were pulling it taut against her chest. Even stranger, it looked as if her sleeves were rolling up her arms all by themselves. Every place he looked he saw more of Lily than expected: her shirt was starting to ride up her midsection; her collar was stretching wider; her breasts were straining against the snug little shirt. 

Wait, breasts? Max knew for a fact that Lily was almost completely flat chested. Yet there was no denying the two firm little mounds that she had suddenly sprouted, each the size and shape of a small orange. Or...perhaps not so small? 

“Max, what’s happening to me?” she asked, her voice tinged with fear. He looked into her face - and found it much higher than he remembered. With a shock he realized what had happened - Lily was taller! The girl had gained at least a hand’s width in height in only a few seconds! Max guessed that she was still shorter than his friend Tara, but probably not by much. 

She stared at him, her eyes pleading for help. As he looked into those eyes he felt a mild sense of vertigo, like stepping off a carnival ride to find the world around you still spinning. Every part of her he could see was marching steadily upward, and Max had to keep readjusting his perspective to follow. She grew faster, and faster still, her transformation hurtling towards some unseen critical point with break-neck speed. 

She was the same height as Tara now - no, taller! And it wasn’t just height Lily was gaining - her whole body was bigger. Her shoulders were wider, her arms longer, her legs...wow. Her jeans looked as if they had been painted to her body, and the cuffs had risen halfway up the length of her calves. The seams along her thighs bulged, but the garment held fast, squeezing against her legs painfully.

The neckline of her polo was spreading wider, popping buttons from her shirt, revealing more and more of the copper-colored flesh of her bustline. Her breasts were definitely growing even faster than the rest of her body – she was now at least a small C-cup by now. Max could see the supple curve of her cleavage emerging from beneath her ever-tightening shirt, a pair of wondrous orbs making a slow-motion escape from their cotton prison. With each passing second another millimeter was creeping into view. If he just waited....

“Max...help me...please, you’ve got to help me!” Lily squeaked. “I’m...scared!”

This admission was what finally snapped him back to reality - it was the last thing he would ever have expected the snarky girl to say. He looked around the room, thinking fast. Lily now stood at least five six, nearly a foot taller than her previous height, and there was no telling how much longer her growth would continue. 

Max grabbed the vial of solution, hastily shoved a cork in its opening, and dropped it into his pocket. “We’ve got to get you out of here!” He took Lily’s hand – large, clammy, but not entirely unpleasant to hold – and pulled her toward the door. “Follow me. I’ve got a plan!”

He led his still-expanding lab partner into the hallway. His senses were all keyed up to the maximum: he could hear each increasingly heavy foot-fall behind him; could feel her hand swelling in his grasp. He tried to pull her, make her run faster, but it was becoming difficult for her to keep up. Her clothes, especially her jeans, were far too tight now, limiting her pace to that of an urgent walk. 

“Where are we going?” she hissed into his ear. He tried not to pay attention to the height from which that voice came.

“We’re almost there,” he whispered, not looking back. “How are you feeling? Does it hurt?”

It took her a moment to respond. “Actually...no, not really. Now that I think about it...if it weren’t for these...ergh...these tiny-ass pants, it might even feel...good.” There was another long pause, and what Max thought might have been a sigh of contentment. “Yes. Good...wow...very good.”

Max stopped, pushing open the door to the Lady’s Restroom. “Inside. I’ll be right behind you.” Without checking to see if she had obeyed, he went to the janitor’s closet. He was prepared to force the door if necessary, but fortune was in his favor and he found it unlocked. There was a small pile of bright yellow signs, each labelled “Out of Order,” and he grabbed one, along with a roll of duct tape. After securing the sign to the restroom door, he went inside.

He took two steps, and walked straight into a solid wall of girl-flesh. “Hey, watch where you’re going...Shorty!” 

Max paused, thrown off by this last word. He and Lily were almost the exact same height now – six feet even – and he told her this. “So it isn’t really fair for you to call me short, is it?”

“I supposed it isn’t,” she admitted, stretching her arms above her head. “Not yet, anyway....” The tips of her fingers came a fraction of an inch from touching the ceiling. As he watched, Lily’s hand slowly closed the gap, making contact with her middle finger, then her index. “But wait around for a few minutes and we’ll see.”

Max took a deep breath, forcing down his body’s reaction to her display. Lily seemed to have lost all fear of the changes she was experiencing. The sudden emergence of her flirty nature, combined with her rapidly-increasing height, made her strangely appealing to him. The way she was dressed - or rather, not dressed - wasn’t helping his situation either. The last of the buttons had left her shirt, and the garment stopped well above her belly-button. The frilly white material still barely concealed the business end of her breasts, but otherwise left nothing to the imagination.

It took a few seconds before Max trusted himself to speak. “Okay. This is what we’re going to do: you wait here, while I bring my car around. We’re going to sneak you out of this place. And then we’ll go....”

Lily spoke up. “My house is only a few blocks from here, and I live alone.”

He nodded. “That’ll work. Anything else you can think of?”

“Yes,” she said immediately. “I need you to get me out of these pants.”

Max looked at her dubiously.

“Yeah yeah, I know it’s the first time a beautiful woman has ever said that to you....”

“The first time a GROWING woman has said it to me, maybe....”

“...but this is serious. They’re cutting off my circulation. Please?”

He sighed, and dropped to his knees in front of her. At first he tried simply grabbing the cuffs, which were now just below the level of her knees, and pulling. This accomplished nothing except causing Lily to grunt in pain. He thought for a moment, and instead plunged his hands into the two wide rips that had formed at the crook of her hips, right around the area of her inner thighs. Choosing to interpret the soft coo that she emitted as one of surprise, Max tugged with all his might. The jeans tore open, and after another moment’s work he was able to pull them free from her body.

He looked up at her from his knees - and regretted it. Lily was staring down at him, her eyes slightly glazed, wearing an expression of foggy bliss. From this angle she looked impossibly huge. Her shirt had jutted out to follow the curve of her breasts, and the lift this created gave him a completely unobstructed view underneath her polo. He could see everything. Even worse, the lacy g-string that she wore was right at eye-level, and so tight that it did nothing but frame and accent what lay beneath.

“Max?” she purred, her voice thick. “Do you think I’m pretty?”

He stood up quickly, doing his best to hide the bulge in his pants. “What kind of a question is that?” he demanded.

She smiled enigmatically. “So you don’t? Is it the height thing?”

The height thing. Max suddenly became conscious that Lily had been growing this entire time. The top of his head was now even with her nose, putting her in the neighborhood of 6’3” or 6’4”. He felt sure that, if she tried to reach for the ceiling again, she would easily be able to touch it with the flat of her palm. And with each passing second he found himself looking higher and higher to meet her eyes.

The clock was ticking.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he told her, moving toward the door.

“Max,” she said again, and he turned. “You’ll hurry?” 

Was that actual worry in her voice? He must be imagining it. “I promise.”

“Good,” she said, nodding. “Because you’re not getting out of answering my question that easily.”

He fled.

Chapter 4. 

At the security station, the guard seemed to be thoroughly engrossed by his Facebook page. Max went by unobserved. He left the building, walking with forced casualness, and went out to his car. After parking the vehicle just outside the loading dock, he popped the trunk. Inside he found his winter survival kit, and pulled out a large emergency blanket. He quickly covered himself with it, making sure that he could see through the holes in the fabric.

Max yanked open the door to the Chemistry Building, and charged past the first camera. The guard was in the little kitchen adjacent to his station, and it smelled like he was microwaving some popcorn. This is what minimum wage buys you, he thought, hurrying by.

He arrived at the bathroom, and removed his “Out of Order” sign. “Lily, where are you? We’ve got to GO.”

He had been prepared for her to be a bit larger, but when the girl stepped around the corner, Max couldn’t believe his eyes. It looked as if his absence had somehow caused her growth to accelerate. Forget touching the ceiling - if Lily stood on her tip-toes, she could probably head-butt it. She was almost a foot taller than him now. Every inch of her polished chestnut skin was completely exposed to him, and her clothing lay in tatters on the floor.

He felt his heart skip a beat as the seven-foot goddess began to walk toward him. The walk was slow, swaying, calculated to speak to the deepest part of the male psyche. She looked as though her body had been sculpted from a single, gigantic block of marble. But the thing that worried him the most was the unmistakable come-hither stare that Lily was focusing on him.

“Now. I believe I asked you a question.” She ran her fingers through her hair, and frowned at him. “Do you think I’m attractive?”

Max cleared this throat nervously. “I’ll answer any question you want. Later. Right now we’re getting out of here.”

She took another step toward him. “I don’t think you’re the one calling the shots here. But if you don’t want to answer THAT question, I’ve got another one for you.” Another step. Now she was only a few inches from him, forcing him to crane his neck up to meet her gaze. “Believe it or not, I think the thing I want more than anything else in this world at this moment is to kiss you.” Lily reached down to caress his cheek, lightly tracing her long fingers across his lips. “The question...if I did that...would you like it?”

She was so close he could smell her, almost taste her. It was an odor that spoke to him in the loudest possible terms - the distinctive smell of female arousal. Lily’s size seemed to amplify the scent; it was all around him, overpowering him. How easy it would be to give in....

“I’m not hearing a ‘no,’” she growled. “Maybe you’re holding out for more than just a kiss? But a kiss is a good enough place to start.” Her lips parted softly, and she bent toward him.

“Lily, stop!” To his surprise she actually did, more from shock, he reasoned, than any real need to obey him. “We’ve got a small window of time to get out of here, and that window is closing. Now...cut the crap and cover yourself with this.” He threw her the blanket, and moved to open the door.

A large, powerful arm slammed it shut again. Lily was glaring down at him, frighteningly huge, death in her eyes. “And if I decided to just take what I want?” she asked, grabbing him by the shirt. “Do you really think you could stop me?”

He said the first thing that came to mind, and knew immediately that it had been the only possible right answer. “I trust you.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed, and she seemed to think for a long time. At last she released him, though she continued to give him the evil eye. “This isn’t over.”

“If you say so. And by the way, I think you’ve finished growing. You’re pretty much the same height as you were when I came in here.”

Lily sighed. “More’s the pity. Or, in this case, less.”

Max laughed in spite of himself. “Look Stretch, just put on the blanket and follow me.”

They crept down the hallway toward the guard station. “What is this thing for, anyway?” she asked, tugging at the thick woolen blanket. “It smells funny, and it isn’t even long enough to cover my legs.”

“It’s not the blanket’s fault you decided to grow, Lily. If you were your old size it would be MORE than big enough.”

“If I was my old size I wouldn’t be wearing it.”

“True.” He motioned her to stop. “That’s what it’s for,” he said, pointing at one of the cameras. “Anyone watching those tapes will know that SOMEONE walked by, someone big, but they won’t know who.”

“Um, won’t they know that someone big walked by...being led by YOU?”

Max froze. He had been under the blanket on the way in, but hadn’t even considered what he would do on the return trip. What a stupid mistake!

From behind him, Lily started to snicker. He whirled to confront her, but the words died in his throat. She had lifted the blanket so she could see him, in the process revealing her gigantic, naked body. Her breasts were right at eye level, each curved with a perfect teardrop shape and swollen to the size of his head. “What’s so damn funny?” he finally managed, trying to ignore the sudden rush of blood to his nether regions.

“There’s an obvious solution to our problem, little man,” she said, tussling his hair.

Max clenched his hands into fists, struggling to maintain control. It was vitally important that his amazon lab partner not discover that he was actually enjoying this treatment. “And that is?”

“Remember, you trust me,” she told him. Suddenly the girl grabbed him by the shoulders. She spun him one-hundred eighty degrees and pulled him into a tight embrace, his head resting between her breasts. Lily dropped the blanket again, and he immediately felt his knees weaken as her smell wafted over him. Her skin was hot against his neck, and he could clearly feel her rapid pulse through the velvety softness of her bosom.

They walked in tandem past the camera. The guard station was still deserted, and soon they were at the loading dock. Lily threw off the blanket, and the two of them dashed through the snow. She dove into the backseat of his car, and Max steered out of the parking lot.

“Now,” she breathed, the edges of her lips against his ear. “Where were we?”

“Tell me how to get to your place,” he demanded. “And stay down back there, dammit – do you want someone to see you?”

“Oh, are you EVER going to get it,” she promised, but did as he said.

Lily’s house turned out to be a rather nice old-style brick home in one of the better neighborhoods in town. Max pulled into her driveway, and killed the ignition. “Keys?” he asked.

“Still with my pants, in the bathroom trash. But there’s a spare under the orange rock in the front garden,” she added, struggling to get out of the car. Max gave her a hand, and then unlocked the front door. As soon as he had it open he felt a large hand on his back, and she was shoving him inside.

Lily looked down at him, a manic hunger in her eyes. “No more talk. You’re mine, Shrimp. Willingly would be best, but not would be fun too.”

The giant girl was advancing on him, reaching down for him, lifting his chin skyward with one long finger. Her lips were descending, rosy red, ready to devour him.

Could this really be Lily? The same snotty, diminutive little wench that had followed him around like a bad rash ever since freshman year? She had never shown the slightest bit of interest in him sexually, but now it seemed she could think of nothing else. Despite his qualms about her personality, this might even have been welcome. Hell, who was he kidding - it was a dream come true. But there was no denying that somehow this all felt...wrong.

“Why?” he whispered.

Lily paused, her face less than he inch from his. “Why what?” she snarled.

Max had not intended to speak the word aloud, but he saw his opening and made for it. “Five years we’ve known each other. I always thought you hated me. So...why are you doing this now?”

Lily straightened up to her full, gargantuan height. “I never hated you,” she said, and Max heard unmistakable sincerity in her voice.

“Then why do you make fun of me constantly? Try to get under my skin, say those nasty things?”

“That’s...I was just....,” she stuttered, taking a long moment to regain her composure. “I don’t understand why you’re fighting this so hard. Do you seriously find me that repellant?”

Max took a deep breath. “I...no. I don’t. You’re easily the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my life. And the height is...kind of a turn-on, to be honest. It’s just that I question the reasons why you’re acting this way. You take a drug that’s SUPPOSED to be a powerful hallucinogen, and suddenly you’re crazy about me. Is it the drug talking, or is it you? I just...I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“YOU...don’t want to take advantage...of ME?” The giant girl shook her head, and when she looked at him again it was with teeth bared. “Forget it. The gazelle doesn’t get to ask the lion why it’s about to get eaten.” Lily grabbed him by the seat of the pants, and lifted him into the air.

“Lily, wait! I don’t think....”

“Shut up,” she whispered, and then her lips were on him.

For all its frightening buildup, the kiss was surprisingly gentle, almost loving. Her touch was delicate despite her size, her enormous lips silky and warm. Her hands massaged his back, stroked his hair. A huge tongue slipped into his mouth, slowly, tentatively, almost as if its owner was afraid of what the consequences might be.

This was easily the strangest, and possibly the best kiss of Max Harwell’s life, and he knew that he had to find a way to end it. He twisted in her embrace, freeing his arms, and lifted both of them above the enormous girl’s head. Her center of gravity suddenly changed, Lily stumbled backward. Swinging his feet wildly, Max found the wall with his toes, and pushed with all his might.

That was enough. Lily sprawled onto the floor, landing with Max on top, knocking the wind from her. He scrambled to his feet, grabbed his car keys, and flung the front door open. He turned back to see how much of a head start he would have for the mad dash to his car, only to see Lily still lying on the floor gasping for breath, looking up at him with a mix of rage and sorrow. He immediately felt a pang of remorse.

“I’ll call you,” he promised, and softly shut the door behind him.

The taste of her lips was still in his mouth as he drove home, and even after he had a chance to wash it away he was a long time forgetting it.

Chapter 5. 

“Did you?” Tara asked in a tiny voice, an unlit cigarette still dangling from her lips. 

His friends had remained utterly silent during the entire longwinded recitation of his story, and for this Max was thankful. It was hard enough for him to believe that the events of the previous night had really happened, and if they had pressed him he might finally have dismissed it after all as one long, incredibly vivid acid trip.

“Did I call her, you mean?” Max nodded. “I was just getting to that. There was no answer at seven this morning. I went in for my lab hours, and Lily wasn’t there. So I called again at lunch. Still no answer. I was getting ready to go over there as soon as I was finished with my reaction, but then my phone rang, and it was her.”

“Yeah, and...?” Bill prodded.

Max shrugged. “She asked if I wanted to come over tomorrow night, ‘...to study.’ And I said I would.”

They stared at him incredulously. “That’s IT?” Tara groaned. “Is she okay? How big is she? Is she angry at you for...for....”

Melinda chimed in. “I think the term you’re looking for is ‘blue balls,’ hun.”

“Yeah, that. The girl was literally throwing herself at you, and you turned her down cold. If a guy did that to ME, and if I also happened to be seven feet tall for some reason...I’d rip him in half like a phone book.” Tara picked up a magazine from the coffee table, demonstrating what this might look like.

“My thoughts exactly,” Max said. “But she didn’t seem angry. Not even a little bit. She actually sounded...cheerful. And that’s what REALLY has me worried. If you knew her, you’d understand why.”

“Alright, let me see if I’ve got this straight.” Bill stood up, folding his hands behind his back, and began to pace the room. “This girl, Lily...your lab partner...caught you trying to make LSD. She told you that she wouldn’t turn you in, as long as you cut her in on half.” He looked to Max for confirmation.

“Right.”

“Then, in some grandiose gesture, she decides to get herself high as shit, and dare you to turn HER in. Like that thing those jack-offs at business retreats do, where you fall backward and trust your partner to catch you.”

“Yup.”

“But this stuff DOESN’T get her high. It makes her GROW instead. You sneak her out of the building, all the while fending off her sudden, insatiable appetite for your nuts. When you finally get back to her place, you decide, out of some sort of fucked-up notion of chivalry, to turn down sex with an exotic, seven-foot goddess. You then manage to tackle a girl who’s got a foot of height and a hundred pounds on you, and you run away.”

Max sighed. “Those are the major points.”

Bill stopped suddenly, and turned to face him. “Okay then, it all becomes clear.” He took a deep breath, and gestured with his arm at Max. “Bullshit.”

Tara and Melinda were nodding. “It was a nice story,” Melinda said. “But you don’t really expect us to believe any of that, do you? Now come on, why did you REALLY decide to skip your evening lecture and come all the way out here tonight?”

“You guys think I made it all up?” Max asked, giving them a long-suffering look. “I guess I’ll just have to demonstrate, then.” 

He reached into his pocket, and withdrew a small glass vial and measuring syringe. Max held it up for them to see. “Now, is there anyone here who would like to be a bit taller? It could be anyone in this room. You know, someone who never stops complaining about how short they are? Maybe someone wearing a tie-dye shirt and trying to avoid eye contact with me?”

Tara looked up at last, and Max could see a pink flush spreading across her cheeks. “Okay, so what if my height DOES bother me? I never said I wanted to be an amazon. Frankly, I spend enough time with my head in the clouds without my head actually BEING in the clouds.”

“You’re forgetting that Lily grew that tall after taking a triple dose,” Max argued. “You’d only be taking one. Or even a half. Come on, this is what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? You’re SURE you wouldn’t like a couple more inches?”

“Don't listen to him, Tara,” Melinda spoke up. “What does it matter if you’re short? You’ve got a body most girls would kill for. So what if it’s in a half-pint container.”

Tara whirled. “HALF-PINT?” she squeaked in protest. “Being five foot three HARDLY makes me a half-pint.”

“Okay, three-quarters pint,” Melinda conceded. The taller girl rose to her feet, and moved to stand next to Tara. “But it's just the balance of nature, isn't it? You’ve got boob enough for two. So let me handle the height. And don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”

Tara shot Max a fiery glance. “I’ll do it.” 

Melinda threw her hands up in exasperation and turned away, but not before Max saw a faintly self-satisfied smile play across her lips. The girl obviously believed this was all part of some elaborate prank at Tara's expense. Little did she know that the joke would be on her.

“Okay,” Max said, fishing a roll of blotter paper from his pocket. “So just how tall do you want to be?”

“Oh, you know, not THAT much taller,” Tara said, her eyes darting toward Melinda. 

Max got the message. He measured a full dose.

“But for the record, I still don’t believe this is actually going to work,” Tara continued, putting her hands on her hips. “And I have no idea what’s actually IN that test tube. So I'm doing this, but on one condition.” She smiled wickedly. “Max, whatever you give me, you have to take the same amount.”

Max grinned, already undoing the top button of his shirt. “I thought you might say something like that. After considering it, I decided that it wouldn’t be so bad, being freakishly tall. Maybe I can get a basketball scholarship or something.”

Bill snorted. “Apparently this stuff also gives you coordination, endurance, a basic understanding of how the game of basketball is actually PLAYED....”

Max ignored him. He passed Tara her dose, and began to prepare his own. 

The girl examined her square of paper. “Also, if my taking this results in yet ANOTHER bad trip, the first thing I’m going to do when I sober up is break your legs with a crow-bar,” she warned him pleasantly.

“Bottoms up,” he replied. 

They both dropped, Tara choosing to swallow her paper, while Max swished it around in his mouth before spitting into an empty beer can. The stuff had a hard, metallic taste, and it felt like it was making his jaw go numb. “Oh, I almost forgot,” he added. “When Lily took this stuff, she had really intense stomach pains for about ten seconds. As soon as it was over, she started to...you know.”

Tara nodded. “Thanks for the warning,” she said, her voice dry. “How long does it take to work?” 

Before he had a chance to answer, Tara squinted her eyes shut, and let out a soft grunt. She grimaced, her hands balling into fists, but otherwise endured without objection. Max was suddenly enormously proud of her.

A moment later it passed, and she opened her eyes. “Wow, that was a bitch,” Tara remarked, wiping a thin band of sweat from her forehead. “How are you doing over there?”

“Nothing yet,” Max reported. Even the initial wave of numbness had receded. Maybe his increased body weight caused the drug to take longer to kick in?

“Guys, something’s happening.” Tara was on her feet, moving to the center of the room. “I feel...it’s so....”

“Hot?” Max supplied.

She nodded vigorously. “And...there’s a tingling...like in the morning when you crawl out of bed and need to take that first stretch.” 

Max could see the first subtle signs of her transformation. Tara’s pajama pants were infinitesimally tighter. The cuffs exposed a few more millimeters of ankle. Her shirt was gradually rising, revealing the faintest glimpse of her midriff.

“No way,” Tara breathed.

The changes were starting to become more obvious now. It looked as if the girl was slowing pushing herself up on her tip-toes. She was already at least an inch taller, and now the process was beginning to shift into high gear. “This is incredible! I can see you guys...see everything getting smaller.” Her face was lit by a gigantic smile, a smile that seemed to grow larger and larger as Tara crept toward the ceiling. Three inches taller. Four.

Max spared a glance for Bill and Melinda. Both wore the same expression: slack-jawed, vacant-eyed, completely enthralled by the spectacle before them. He smiled to himself. Plenty of time for I-told-you-sos later.

“What’s it like?” Melinda asked, fascinated. “How do you feel?”

“Oh my God, it’s GREAT – like one long, low-grade orgasm.” Breathless, the growing girl turned to face Max. “Anything?”

He was a moment taking her meaning – he had been so focused on Tara’s growth that he’d forgotten that he had taken the drug, too. “Still nothing,” he replied. 

By now Tara’s clothing was strained to its limits. Her tie-dye shirt was stretched far out of proportion, and her breasts, dangerously large even at 5’3”, were threatening to rip the garment clear in half. Her chest seemed much more firm, her breasts perkier, but it looked to Max as if they weren’t any larger in proportion to the rest of her body. That was strange, because when Lily had taken the drug, she had gone from an A cup to a Double-D in a matter of minutes.

Now that he looked, he could notice other changes in his friend, things that the drug hadn’t done to Lily. The girl looked tougher, more formidable in subtle ways. Her arms were larger, her legs thicker and more muscular. Even her butt seemed to have tightened up significantly. She was far from looking like a body builder, Max thought, but could easily pass for a student athlete. Perhaps a swimmer, or lacrosse player.

“Oh...oh my God Max...thank you so much,” Tara whimpered, hugging her arms to her chest. “This is better...better than sex.” She smirked, and gave him a knowing wink. “Well, better than MOST sex.”

Max blushed.

Tara closed her eyes as she continued to swell bigger, her mouth forming a soundless scream of ecstasy. It took her another moment to match Melinda's height of five foot ten, and an instant beyond that to surpass it. Her body exuded a healthy glow of vitality, becoming more pronounced with every new inch she gained. 

At last the changes began to slow. She pulsed larger once, twice, and then her growth sputtered to a halt. Tara stood before them a new woman, tall, proud, and drop-dead gorgeous. The girl's outfit clung to her like a second skin, her shirt stretched so tight that it was see-through in a couple places. Every part of her statuesque frame seemed fitter, more athletic. Her face had even lost a bit of its characteristic baby fat. This had been a part of her girlish charm, certainly. But Max thought the change did her good, making her look thoughtful and mature. 

“Wow, I never expected all THIS.” She examined her new body, looking pleased. “Look at me, I’m a fucking GIANT!”

“You aren't THAT big,” Melinda objected. She had her arms crossed, and it looked for all the world as if she were pouting.

Quick to head off any confrontation between the girls, Max spoke up. “But you look really good Tara! And damn, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were even taller than ME. That would make you the biggest person in the room.”

“Oh?” Tara locked eyes with him, and Max felt his heart skip a beat. There was something about that look...something alarming...yet alluring. “Well let’s find out. I think I could use a measuring. Max sweetie, would you like to do the honors?”

Chapter 6. 

“Now let’s see. How tall are you again Max?” The amazonian girl grinned at him, twirling one lock of strawberry hair behind her right ear. He knew that she thought this was cute, but Max had always found it a somewhat irritating mannerism. Funny how a sudden growth spurt could change your perspective.

“I’m almost exactly six feet even,” he reported.

Tara folded her hands beneath her chin, her smile growing wider. “Goodie! You’ll make a perfect measuring stick then! Come here, stand next to me.” She crossed the room to where Max was sitting on the couch, and took him by the hand. The girl looked down at him slyly for a moment, and then with a gentle tug she pulled him to his feet. Before he could move Tara stopped him with a touch on the elbow, and then she was standing with her beautiful face only inches from his. 

“Um...Tara?” She was so close that he could smell her peach-flavored lip gloss, could feel the heat of her breath of his cheeks. “When people are comparing heights, don’t they traditionally stand...back-to-back?”

She giggled. “But then I wouldn’t be able to SEE if I was taller, silly. Let’s see...hmm....” She leaned forward, critically examining their relative statures. As she did, one of her large, firm breasts brushed innocently against his arm. Given the fact that Tara was a practically a Jedi master of flirting, he didn’t believe for a second that this was an accident. In any case, he wasn’t complaining.

“Just as I thought! I've got you beat by at least two inches!” Tara cried, smirking at him triumphantly. “So...important question, hun. How do you feel about girls that are taller than you? You don’t find me intimidating, do you Max-ie? Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, reading the scowl on him face. “I forgot, you don’t like that nick-name, do you? That’s okay, we’ll find you a new one. How about...Max-imum? The Max-er. God, that’s terrible.”

“Though appropriate,” Bill observed. “Apparently you’ve been doing a lot of max-imizing these last few days.”

“You’re an awful human being,” Max told him.

“How about a more traditional nick-name then?” Tara took another half-step forward, running one long finger along the rim of his collar. “Max sweetie? Max baby? My darling Max....” The six-foot-two enchantress leaned in closer still, her tongue tracing the edges of her lips seductively.

Melinda coughed. “Woah, seriously, PDA alert! Did you forget there are OTHER PEOPLE in the room?”

Tara shot her an evil glare. “Of course I didn’t FORGET. I’m just not going to let it stop me.”

“She’s got a point though,” Bill said. “I think we have more important things to do than watch Tara try to get into Max’s pants.”

“Actually, that was the first thing on my mind. No, not like that,” he told Tara, responding to the girl’s cheshire cat grin. “You see, when Lily took the drug she suddenly found me irresistible. And right now, you're acting almost exactly the way she did. Granted she was a lot more forceful about it, but her dose was something like three times as large as yours. So...why? Besides the obvious affects – the muscle, the size, the sexy – is this stuff some sort of...I don’t know...love potion?”

“You’re asking me if it suddenly made me want to jump your bones, apropos of nothing?” she asked, crossing her arms defensively.

Max nodded.

Tara laughed nervously. “No, it didn’t.” The girl stretched, rubbing the back of her neck self-consciously. “I can’t believe I’m about to tell you this. Umm...I’ve had a crush on you for like, a couple years now. Ever since our night together, remember? Summer of ’08?”

Of course Max remembered THAT. “I just assumed that was a one-time deal. I mean, everyone else was out of town. The moon was full. We were both so drunk....”

“...and you know my policy on monogamy. Free love, and all that garbage. So why would you think it anything other than random sex?” 

Bill was rubbing his hands together manically. “Oooh, drama!” Melinda, meanwhile, was staring at the ceiling, apparently lost in thought.

“What I’m trying to say, in an incredibly round-about fashion, is that this drug ISN’T making me do anything I wouldn’t WANT to do. It DOES make me feel more...relaxed? Confident. Not so easily embarrassed.”

Max raised one eyebrow skeptically. “That’s all?”

Tara rolled her eyes, putting her hands behind her head. “What, you want me to come right out and SAY it? Fine. I’m horny as hell. Are you happy?”

He patted her cheek affectionately. “Quite.” 

The taller girl responded by giving him a solid punch in the shoulder. It took all of his will not to cry out in pain – this new Tara really packed a wallop.

Melinda spoke up suddenly. “So, let’s start from the top with what we know about this drug.” She held up one finger. “First: this stuff is potent. A single dose is enough to give a person about nine to ten inches in height. And these doses are TINY.”

Max held up the glass vial containing the drug. “Very tiny. I’m carrying about a hundred thousand in this little test tube. Nine or ten inches might not be quite accurate – its effects are probably inversely proportional to body mass, and so you’d have to start taking larger and larger doses to get that same increase. Still, imagine what would happen if one person accidentally drank ALL of this.”

“So you better be pretty damn careful with it,” Bill said. “Don't leave it lying around.”

“Amen the THAT.”

Melinda continued. “Second: Max, the drug didn’t seem to work on you at all. Do you have any idea why that might be?”

Max scratched his chin. “Given that my dose came from the same source as Tara's...and we KNOW that worked...the only thing I can think of is gender. As improbable as it seems, maybe this stuff only works on females. One trial isn’t enough to make that kind of assumption, though. We need more data.”

They all turned to look at Bill. He grinned nervously. “Sorry – inner ear thing. Doctor says I’m not allowed to travel to high altitudes.”

“But we don’t even think it’ll work,” Melinda argued.

“And if it does, you’d end up looking like ME,” Tara added, folding her arms below her massive chest and blowing him a kiss.

“Tempting. I’ll pass for now, thanks.”

Melinda sighed. “We'll come back to that, I suppose. Anyway, we also know that, in addition to the height, this stuff is a mild mood enhancer, as well as an aphrodisiac.” She shot Tara a sidelong glance. “And a pretty powerful one at that.”

“You have NO idea,” Tara said, grinning blissfully.

“And another thing,” Max said. “The secondary affects seem to be variable.” He briefly explained to them how when Lily had taken the drug, it had caused her breasts to grow. Tara, on the other hand, had experienced an increase in muscle mass instead.

“Maybe it could tell that I didn’t need any help filling out a bra,” Tara said, cupping herself.

“...but since you were a total weakling, it decided to give you a hand in THAT department,” Melinda finished, smirking.

Tara stood up to her full height. “Watch what you say, girl.”

“Whatever, you don't scare me. I’m still stronger than you are. And I didn’t need, ah...supplements.” She pointed at the taller girl, and winked. “The way YOU did.”

Tara laughed scornfully. “You’re kidding, right? I mean, you’re pretty tough, by MORTAL standards. But things have changed, Mel. You’re going to have settle for being second-best.”

“Is that true?” Melinda asked, her voice thick with sarcasm. She walked over to stand before Tara, and smiled up at her wickedly. “Perhaps you’d like to put it to a test?”

Max moved to intervene, but stopped when he felt a hand grip his shoulder. Bill was there, grinning lecherously. He put one finger to his lips, and motioned with his eyes toward the two girls. Max thought for a moment, and then he returned the grin, nodding – it might be fun to sit back and see where this little tiff was going.

“A test? Sure, why not. What have you got in mind?”

Melinda turned, and made her way to the kitchen table. She sat down, beckoning Tara to do the same. With one arm she swept the table clean, piles of junk mail and empty beer bottles cascading onto the floor. “I thought we’d try something nice and simple. How about a little old-fashioned arm wrestling?”

“Sounds good to me.” She sat down across from Melinda, resting her elbow on the table and extending her hand to the other girl. “How do you feel about making it a bit more interesting? Say, with a friendly wager?”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Melinda answered, grinning. “How about, if I win, you have to start coming to the gym with me. I could use a good spotter.”

Tara’s eyes widened in horror. “But don’t you go at like, FIVE in the MORNING?”

“It’s not too late to back out, hun,” Melinda reminded her.

Tara considered it, and then she smiled. “Okay, you’ve got a deal. And...WHEN I win....” She paused, giving Max a significant look. “Melinda has to take a dose of the serum.”

“WOAH, are you serious?” Melinda gasped. “That stuff made you grow, what, ten inches taller? I’m WAY bigger than you were to start out with. I’d be, what, like six foot eight.”

“Less than that,” Max argued. “You’re heavier than Tara. Or I mean, you're heavier now than she was, before she grew. You could just tell people you had a growth spurt.”

Melinda looked at him incredulously. “A GROWTH SPURT? Come on, nobody would buy that. I can’t believe you’re actually going to let Tara make a bet with YOUR drug.”

Max didn’t respond. She had a point, but the honest answer was that he wasn’t entirely certain WHY he was allowing this to happen. Deep down, he supposed it was because he honestly wouldn’t mind seeing Melinda as a six and a half foot amazon. And there was just something about watching a girl grow...seeing her rip out of her clothes, becoming bigger, more powerful. 

His friends were taking the drugs, but maybe he was the one who was addicted.

Tara was grinning at Melinda. “If you’ve finally figured out that you can’t win, feel free to slink away in shame,” she told her.

All pretense of humor had dropped from Melinda now. She held her arm behind her head for a moment, stretching, and dropped it onto the table with an audible ‘thud.’ “Bring it.”

Tara grasped the offered hand. “On the count of three, then.”

Bill was elbowing Max in the ribs. “This is gonna be good!”

The girls stared into each other’s eyes. “One....” Melinda began.

“THREE!” exclaimed Tara. Her muscles flexed, and Melinda’s arm shot backward a fraction of an inch. The shorter girl quickly recovered, and managed to push Tara back to a neutral position. “Good catch,” Tara said through clenched teeth. “But you’re only...nrgh...delaying....”

Melinda remained silent. Sweat was breaking out on the foreheads of both girls. A dark red flush crept down Tara’s neck; her arm trembled. 

Melinda, on the other hand, looked to be relaxed, in complete control of herself. After another moment she had Tara on the defensive, forcing the giant girl to fight just to maintain her position. Now gravity was on Melinda’s side, and Tara’s size was a liability. 

The longer they held this way, the more energy Tara was forced to expend. She was breathing hard, a frantic look in her eyes. Grimacing, she threw the last of her strength against Melinda, and briefly succeeded in taking the advantage. But soon her stamina was gone. Sensing her moment was at hand, Melinda pushed back, and Tara’s hand slapped hard against the table.

Melinda stood up from the table, and condescendingly patted Tara on the head. “We’ll leave for the gym at four thirty tomorrow morning,” she said, only the faintest bit out of breath. “You buy the protein drinks. Bring a towel, and make sure you wear loose clothing.”

“Where am I supposed to find loose clothing?” Tara complained, rubbing her bicep muscle. “I’m like, eight sizes too big for anything I own.”

“I still have some shirts from before I lost my freshman fifteen,” Bill said, heading toward his room. “We’ll see if anything fits.”

Max and his friends talked long into the night. They discussed what Max’s next move should be, and how they were ever going to explain Tara’s new stature. After hours of shameless flirting and wheedling by the girls, they finally convinced Bill to test the serum. Just as expected, it seemed to have no effect on men. 

When Max finally got into his car to drive home it was well past one in the morning. His mind ached from trying to absorb all the new things he had learned – not least of which the news that Tara had been harboring a crush for him. He had always been attracted to the flighty little girl (not so little anymore, he reminded himself,) and his head was full of the possibilities that this situation could yield.

Yet he kept coming back to one moment in the evening. It was something Tara had said. She had told him that the drug made her more willing to act on the desires that she already had – not given her any new ones. It made him wonder exactly what Lily had been thinking when she tried to force herself on him. Maybe his lab partner secretly had feelings for him? An intriguing prospect, but it seemed unlikely after all the verbal abuse she had treated him to over the years. In any case, they had a study date scheduled for tomorrow night. Max decided he would talk to her about it. 

Then again, talking might very well be the last thing on the seven foot girl’s mind.

Chapter 7. 

For the second day in a row Lily was absent from lab hours. Max couldn’t help but wonder what she was doing, sitting at home by herself, naked and gigantic. She must be so bored, so lonely. Or perhaps she was keeping herself busy plotting her revenge.

At the end of the day he found a short text message on his phone. “7pm. Bring food, non-greasy.” Max smiled to himself. The girl could be pushy, but at least she knew what she wanted.

At seven on the dot he was ringing her doorbell, dinner in hand. For the first time that day he felt a little jolt of apprehension. The last time he had stood on this porch, Lily had been standing over his shoulder, seven feet tall, ready to devour him as soon as he had the door open. He had managed to escape her clutches, somehow. And now, in total contradiction of all good sense, he was here again to give her a second chance to do her worst.

One part horror, two parts fascination. It was an emotion he was coming to know well.

The door cracked open. Max had his neck craned to meet the gaze of a giantess, and so it gave him pause when he found himself staring well over Lily’s head. 

She was short again!

“Max,” she said, nodding her greeting. The girl reached up and snatched one of the styrofoam containers from his hand. “God, I’m starving! What’d you bring?”

“Indian,” he answered, stepping over the threshold without being invited. “There’s a nice little place just around the corner.”

“Indian, eh?” she said, smirking up at him. “You aren’t trying to curry my favor, are you?”

It took him a moment. “Oh. Indian food. Curry. I get it.” He shook his head, but found to his dismay that he was smiling at her awful pun.

Lily opened the container, and began shoveling food into her face as fast as she could. “I hope you didn’t get this just because you think I'm Hindu,” she said around a mouthful of rice.

“I wouldn’t presume to guess your race. You’re tan. Ish. That’s good enough for me.”

She laughed. “You white boys are all alike. But in case you’re curious, I’m only half Indian.”

Max shrugged. “I would’ve said Mexican.”

“Maybe that too. And you’re right, this IS good.” Lily belched softly, and looked at the stack of food that Max still held in his arms. “Wow, you brought a lot of this, didn't you? Why so much?”

So she was going to force HIM to address the eight-hundred pound gorilla in the room. Or rather, the lack of gorilla. “I don’t know. I kind of expected that I’d have a growing girl to feed.”

Lily grinned at him cryptically. “No present tense. 'Grown.' Maybe future tense, 'will be growing.' But definitely not growing right now.”

He stared at her in confusion. “Um...what?”

She giggled, the sound soft and musical, like the ringing of many tiny bells. “Are you really that dense? You can’t tell?”

He was about to demand that she tell him what she was talking about, but then he noticed. How had he managed to miss something so obvious? Perhaps because he had been expecting to meet a giant girl, the presence of a perfectly reasonable-sized one had been overlooked. 

Lily was short again, without question, but not NEARLY as short as she had been. He was used to his lab partner being tiny, almost elfin in stature. The girl was still pretty small. However, there had been a time when even little Tara would’ve been nearly a head taller than Lily. Now, they were almost the same size.

She was watching him, an expression of barely suppressed glee on her adorable face. “Five foot two,” Lily said, slowly, as if savoring each word. “Up a full six inches from my old height. And that’s not all.” She leaned back, and pointed her chest up at him. Max’s eyes widened in surprise. “I’m actually a B-cup now! Can you believe it?”

“I...you...when did you...?”

“Hold on there Killer,” she said, taking his hand to calm him down. If anything, this action had the opposite effect. “When did I shrink down? Well, I went to sleep after you ran out on me the other night – don’t think you’re off the hook for that, by the way.” 

Max gulped. 

“When I woke up the next morning, I was like this. I’ve been measuring myself every few hours since then, and I’m still the same height. So, besides just temporarily giving you massive height and giant boobs, it seems this stuff also has the ability to make you a little bit taller and bustier, forever.”

Max finally found his voice. “It isn’t always breasts.”

“Huh?”

“I gave my friend Tara a bit of the drug last night.” Briefly, he explained the events of the previous evening, how the drug had made his friend stronger instead of causing her breasts to grow, and how it had failed to have any effect on the two men who tried it. After a moment’s hesitation, he decided to also tell her about how amorous Tara had become, and about her confession of a secret crush. “So it seems as if the drug can make you feel good, but not control your thoughts or anything.”

“I could’ve told you that,” Lily answered, brushing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. 

“Oh?”

“Yeah. You remember how I tried to...hmm...rape is too strong a word.”

He nodded. “I remember.”

“Well, even before I took that stuff, when I thought about you, I felt....” 

Lily trailed off, and looked down. Max suddenly realized that she had been holding his hand for what seemed like ages. He let go, and the girl pulled away as if contact with him had burned her.

“Anyway, your...ah, friend was it? Tara?” she said, examining her hand carefully, checking to see what damage such long-term contact with Max had done. “I would bet that she woke up this morning about two inches taller and marginally more fit than she was yesterday. After being over six feet tall, I also bet she was fairly disappointed.” Lily sighed. “I sure was.”

“You should go out with me sometime.” The words were out of his mouth before he was even consciously aware of having spoken.

“I...uh...should what?” Now it was Lily’s turn to be tongue-tied. Her expression was frozen in shock, her large, round eyes glittering up at him wetly.

“Go out with me. Like, on a date.” His heart felt like a miniature jackhammer in his chest, but he kept his voice even. “Wow you're dense. Hasn’t anyone ever tried to pick you up before?”

Lily took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Wow. Where did THIS come from?”

“My mouth. When I open it, sometimes words come out. Other times they don’t. See?” He worked his jaw up and down mechanically.

She laughed, perhaps harder than she had intended. “You are an interesting one, I suppose.”

“Is that a yes?”

Lily closed her eyes, scratching her forehead. “Call it a maybe.”

“Maybe is better than no,” he conceded, trying to hide his disappointment. 

She patted his cheek affectionately, smirking up at him. “I’m glad you think so. Anyway, there's a saying about the dangers of mixing business and pleasure. And you and I have quite a bit of business that needs doing.”

“Do we?” he asked.

“Of course. We just discovered a new drug....”

“WE discovered?”

“...that can do things that no one has ever seen before. This stuff is going to make us both billionaires. I mean, just THINK of all the different applications our drug could have.”

“I really only see one application – it makes girls bigger and sexier.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Fine. But are you going to tell me that isn’t worth something?”

“Of course not.”

She nodded. “Alright then. Our course is clear. All you have to do is get back into the lab and run the exact same reaction, in the exact same way. As soon as you’re able to reproduce it, we can patent the stuff and start marketing it. With any luck, we’ll be rich before the month is out.”

“Wait a second. As soon as I’M able to reproduce it? You’re making me fly solo on this?”

“Relax, hun. I’ll help you out as soon as I can. But I’m not going back to the lab, not for another week at least. I told Dr. Franklyn that I was having emergency hormone therapy, and that I was going to be out sick for a while. It’s at least a half-assed excuse for my sudden growth, and what choice will he have but to believe it?” She grinned up at him. “After all, it’s not like there’s some crazy drug that makes people grow...is there?”

He laughed. “Not yet anyway.” Max looked at his watch. It was only just past eight o’clock – still plenty early if they wanted to do something together. “Is that everything we needed to discuss?”

Lily paused, chewing on her lower lip thoughtfully. “I think...oh wait, not quite. Do, ah...do you have the drug on you?”

Something told him to lie, to tell her that he had forgotten it at his apartment. Instead he nodded, pulling the glass vial out of his pocket for her to see. “Yeah. I try to keep it with me whenever I can. Why do you ask?”

She put her hands behind her back, and smiled up at him innocently. “Oh, it’s nothing important. Just a minor thing really, we can take care of it at any time. But...well...we’re going to need to test whether the drug will work on the same person multiple times – there’s a possibility that I...that a patient could become...resistant to future treatment. So, for that reason, I think...that you should give me another dose.” She nodded. “For science.”

Max looked at her skeptically. “‘A possibility that a patient could become resistant?’ Really? Do you think I’m THAT stupid?”

Her smile grew wider. “No, just THAT gullible.” Lily took a step closer to him and rested both hands on his shoulders, looking up at him sensuously. “It’s just that...I’ve practically been a midget my entire life. And then I was big and...I liked it. Now I’m short again.”

“Not nearly as short as you used to be,” he argued. “You’re six inches taller than you used to be. Isn’t that enough?” 

He could already tell that he was playing devil’s advocate here. 

“I appreciate the improvement, I really do. But...five foot two is still REALLY small. Three doses gave me six inches of permanent height, a larger bra size, and a couple hours of fun. All I want here is one more dose...two more lousy inches.”

“And what about the couple of hours? You’ll be, what, just shy of six feet tall?”

“The fun, yes. You can come along for that part if you want. You might like it.” She looked at him slyly, her eyes shining. “I think you already DO like it.”

Max didn’t say anything. He thought furiously for another reason to object.

“Did I tell you I went shopping yesterday?” she said, changing the subject unexpectedly. “I had to buy a couple of things to wear. Nothing fit me anymore – not a single thing in my closet. I think I did pretty good. This shirt I’m wearing...it’s new.” Lily tugged at the garment, a skin-tight blue tank top that left her arms completely bare. The neck line was cut low, showcasing her new-found cleavage. “Do you like it?”

He nodded enthusiastically. 

“I thought you might,” she said, pursing her lips cutely. “I bought another one just like it. Only, that one? It’s a size bigger.” Lily ran her fingers through her hair, and shrugged. “It’d be a shame if I never got to wear it.”

Max sighed. “Just one dose?”

“One dose,” she agreed, grinning uncontrollably.

He sighed again, and sat down at her kitchen table. He hung his jacket on the back of a chair, and began to measure out the drug. Lily stood over his shoulder watching him, hopping back and forth from one foot to the other in anticipation. He squeezed out the liquid onto a piece of blotter paper, and handed it to her. “What do you say?”

“Thank you, sweet heart,” she sang. Before he had a chance to think about her choice of words, Lily had thrown back her head and tossed the paper into her mouth.

Chapter 8.

Max wondered if he had ever seen anyone look half as happy as Lily did just now. She was running her hands together maniacally, bouncing on her toes in excitement. “Ah, I feel it. It's coming, get ready. Are you watching me?” 

Lily’s elation suddenly died on her face as the wave of stomach pain struck her full-on. She doubled over, folding her arms over her abdomen. “Uggh, I forgot about this part,” she grunted.

“Regrets?”

Lily opened one eye to peer up at him. “Never.” A moment later she was upright again, the glow back on her face. “Okay, NOW get ready. Mmm...there’s the warmth. And...yes, here it comes!”

For the first few seconds, Max might’ve thought Lily was simply stretching her shoulders, or standing with better posture. If he wanted, he could trick himself into believing that her shirt was rising because the girl was taking an impossibly deep breath, that she had mistakenly purchased slacks that were a size too small. But Max was far from innocent in these matters, and even if he had been, these delusions wouldn’t have lasted.

“It’s really too bad the drug doesn’t work on men,” Lily whispered, between little gasps and mews of pleasure. “Because I wish you could find out how good this feels.” 

Her pants were starting to become uncomfortably tight. Max could hear the high-pitched creak of overstressed polyester as her slacks fought against her expanding waist. Her shirt was stretching out of shape, the thin support bands that wrapped around her shoulders and over her bustline struggling to maintain their integrity. Max could tell that, sooner or later, this strap was going to break. And when it did....

Noticing where Max's eyes were focused, Lily waved a hand over the expanding valley of her cleavage, and pointed at her face. “Hey! Earth to Max! I’m up here,” she said, giggling.

Lily’s head was continuing its steady rise toward the ceiling. She locked eyes with him as she grew, forcing his gaze to follow. Her growth had already put her a bit on the tall side for a woman, perhaps five foot six. And Max reminded himself that, given the size of the dose she had taken, she was nowhere near finished. 

“You know, you never DID answer my question,” she drawled, tracing a finger down the center of her expanding chest – a large C-cup already, he noted.

“Huh?” Max replied, watching her transformation with rapt attention. “Which question was that?”

Her lips parted in a smile. “You know which question.” Lily put her hands on her hips, and at that moment her growth surged forward. 

“Do you....” 

Her body swelled. 

“...think....” 

Another spurt, this one bigger than any before it. 

“...I’m attractive?”

Max grinned. “The short answer? Yes.”

“That’s the short answer?” One of her shoulder straps finally tore through, and suddenly Lily’s shirt had become a one-sleeve, her entire upper torso above the breastbone exposed. If she noticed, Lily gave no outward sign – her eyes never wavered from his. He guessed she was at least five foot nine, and still her growth still showed no signs of stopping. “Give me the long version.”

He thought for a moment, wetting his lips. “I’ve always thought you were cute. Before, when you were...you know, short...you had a certain way of moving. Confident, self-assured. I might have asked you out a long time ago, if you had managed to shut your mouth for two seconds.”

She laughed heartily, her huge eyes twinkling, her body expanding with each chuckle. “Point taken. And what about now? Am I still cute?”

He nodded. “But in a different way – and it’s not an adequate word anymore. You’re...beautiful.”

Her growth was starting to ebb away now. Her clothing was ripped in several places, and everything she wore looked almost impossibly tight. Max had the thought that, if they ever DID manage to market their drug to a mass audience, such an outfit might become a new fashion trend. The girl before him was tall – extremely tall for a woman – but still perhaps a fraction of an inch shorter than him. To his surprise he found this slightly disappointing.

Lily was staring at him, an approving smile on her lovely face. “Well, we have three hours at least before the drug wears off.” She sat down on the couch, and patted the cushion beside her. “Would you like to watch a movie?”

“Okay, sure.” He took the offered seat, painfully conscious of how close the girl was to him. Steeling his will, he decided that he was going to be a gentleman this evening – even if it killed him.

“I’ve got some DVD’s in the folder on the table,” Lily said, pointing. “See if there’s anything in there you like.”

Max began to flip through her collection. There were quite a few decent flicks, and he realized that his selection might make all the difference in how the night progressed. Fight Club? Too gory. Dirty Dancing? No – Lily was too smart to fall for the old ‘Get the girl in the mood with the romantic movie’ trick. 

He was just starting to narrow down his choices, when he felt Lily’s weight shift on the couch, and suddenly her thigh was pressing hard against him. Max looked up. The girl’s face was mere inches from his, and she was giving him an unmistakable little smile.

“Hey...Max...I’ve been thinking. I’m not really in the mood for a movie tonight.” She leaned closer, a few stray locks of hair tumbling into her eyes.

Keep it cool, man.

“Oh?” Max said, trying to sound disinterested. “What ARE you in the mood for?”

Her lips pursed impishly. Lily spread two fingers, and placed them softly against his forehead. “Close you eyes,” she purred. Her fingers drew down his face, over his eyes, and he let them shut under her gentle touch. 

He felt Lily pull away from him, and stand up off the couch. Max had just enough time to wonder what she had in mind, before he felt legs pressing into the couch on either side of him, and a warm body crawling into his lap. Hands touched him – icy-cold, but not unpleasant – and then something hot and wet was pressing against his cheek. The sensation sent needles of pleasure dancing up and down his spine. Her lips came down again and again, on his temple, his ear, the nape of his neck. And finally, after the briefest hesitation, she kissed him full on the mouth.

Max opened his eyes to find Lily staring back at him fondly. Her eyes were the lush green of a forest in high summer. With a gentle nudge she eased him onto his back, and she lay on top of him, her weight pleasantly firm against him. She stroked his hair softly, smiling, and let Max run his hands over her body, down her strong back, over the curve of her hips, onto the generous mound of her butt. 

Lily’s eyes twinkled mischievously. Suddenly he felt a painful bite on his lip, and then the girl was grabbing his arms, trying to pin him against the couch. On her knees now, she pressed against him with all her might, kissing him savagely. 

Instinctively, Max fought back. At five foot eleven, Lily was much stronger than he might've expected, but nowhere near a match for him. In short order he had pushed her off of him, and flipped the girl onto her back. Their positions reversed, Max grinned down at her. “How do YOU like it?” he asked breathlessly, nibbling her neck.

“You...you brute!” she cried, her voice distorted by cries of pleasure. “You wouldn’t...wouldn’t be able to do this to me...if I was...bigger!”

The word was like a magic spell. Both man and woman froze, staring into each other’s eyes. After what seemed an interminable silence Lily spoke, her voice tiny. “Please?”

A war of conscience raged inside Max’s head, with neither side able to break the stalemate. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.

Sensing weakness, Lily smiled seductively. Her fingernails touched the back of his neck, tracing a line to his jaw, up his cheek, to his lips. “It would just be another two inches. Five...foot...six. That’s a perfectly reasonable height, isn’t it? Just a LITTLE bit taller than average. Don't I deserve it?” 

She delicately drew his face into the warm pillows of her bosom. “These would be bigger, too. Aren’t they nice? Supple...soft yet firm...and for tonight, they could be...I could be...HUGE for you.” She twisted her shoulder, pressing her tits against his chin. “And I promise to be gentle. Of course I'll be gentle. Come on Max...don’t you want to see what kind of fun we can have? Don't you want to see what it's like to make love to a girl that's much...MUCH...bigger than you?”

Max rolled off her, and climbed to his feet. “You should work for Amway,” he told her, scowling. “I bet you could sell sand to al-Qaeda.”

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not nice to point?” she asked, glancing slyly at his crotch. 

He shook his head in dismay, and walked toward the kitchen. With an excited little yip, Lily jumped up to follow. She watched as he carefully measured another dose, massaging his shoulders and giving him short, sensual kisses as he worked. He tried not to be distracted by her touch, tried not to think about the soon-to-be-growing hottie waiting for him to finish. Despite his efforts, when he moved to squeeze a single dose from the syringe he felt his thumb slip, and a bit more of the serum than he’d intended leaked out onto the blotter paper.

Shit. Well, what was the worst that could happen?

Max handed her the paper, and she swallowed it instantly. Taking him by the hand, she led him back to the couch and motioned for him to sit. The pain hit a moment later, but this time she suffered it in silence, closing her eyes and breathing evenly through her nose. When it passed she smiled down at him. They both knew what was coming.

Slowly, Lily began to undress. With some difficulty she rolled her pants down her long, elegant legs. Her panties came next, the cotton already stretched and torn. She turned away, giving him a wonderful glimpse of her backside as she removed them, and when she faced him again it was with hands placed coyly over her womanhood. “It’s always a good idea to keep a man waiting,” she told him, her voice thick and sweet like melted chocolate.

“But not too long,” he insisted. Already the bulge in his pants was starting to become painful.

“Speaking of long....” Lily pointed at the hemline of her shirt, smiling demurely. As Max watched, he could see it slowly creeping up her tummy. The sides of the garment hugged her expanding hips tighter, and tighter still. Lily was panting softly, her cheeks turning a deep red hue. Her growth was coming much faster this time. She was already taller than him by at least two inches. Three. Her breasts strained violently against the stretchy fabric of shirt, until at last the garment could stand no more. The seams groaned, split, and a moment later the tattered remains of her outfit tumbled to the floor.

Lily sighed in satisfaction and lifted her arms high above her head, stretching her muscles even as she stretched taller. Max could see every inch of her enormous body in all its glory: her beautiful, shapely legs; the ample swell of her bosom with its tiny, rose-colored nipples; the downy fur and pink, glistening folds of her pussy.

Lily smirked down at him as her body continued to expand. From his sitting position the girl seemed even taller than reality, as if she towered all the way to the ceiling. And with every inch she gained, this illusion became all the more convincing. 

She stepped toward him, and placing one finger on his chin, indicated that he should stand. As soon as he did she grasped him, hugging him tight against her hot flesh, and began to kiss him frantically. All the while he could feel her sliding upward against him, could feel her long fingers against his skin. His eyes were shoulder height to the amazonian beauty, and with each passing second he watched her grow even larger.

Without warning she spun him around, and unceremoniously pulled his shirt over his head. She removed his pants, pulling them down to his ankles. Next came his boxer shorts. He turned back to face her, naked as the day he was born, and looked up just in time to see the seven foot girl descending to engulf him. Lily kissed him hard, her giant tongue easily parting his lips and forcing its way into his mouth. 

He reached out blindly, his hand coming to rest within her nether regions. Lily’s cry of pleasure came out strident and loud. She was hot inside, and gooey like maple syrup. She let him stroke her for a moment, her juices splashing, flowing thickly down her trunk-like legs.

Max felt himself being lifted into the air, cradled against the enormous girl’s chest. Still holding him, Lily sat down on the couch, and placed him on her lap. Her body was huge, nearly seven and a half feet tall by now. Her distinctive perfume surrounded him, the only smell in his universe. The girl began to massage his legs, his stomach, his inner thigh. When her giant hands finally wrapped around the head of his penis, it felt like a tiny explosion detonating within his loins. She stroked him up and down, slowly at first, but then faster, and faster.

“Come on Max, don’t hold back.” As she spoke her breath tickled his ear, liquifying his insides. “I’m so big...so wet for you. Come on. Cum for me. I want you to...I’m telling you to....” 

She squeezed him hard, and Max came. The orgasm was easily one of the most intense of his life. He saw stars. 

He lay in her arms for a long time, letting her pet him affectionately. “Aren’t you just SO glad you gave me that second dose?” she whispered.

Max laughed weakly. “Moderately glad, yes.”

“Only moderately, eh?” She pinched him on the thigh, using her fingernails to make sure he really felt it. He yelped, and involuntarily jumped out of her lap. “Yeah, so as long as you’re up...bring me some more of that Indian food. The shish kafta. I think I’m going to need a little more energy. You’re taking care of ME next, so maybe you could use a snack too.”

Still rubbing his injury, Max retrieved one of the cartons of food from the kitchen and handed it to Lily. “Geez, we haven’t even been dating for an hour, and already you’ve got me whipped. I guess I can excuse the attitude for now, what with you being a friggin' giant and everything. But I hope this isn’t how our relationship is going to be after you shrink down.”

Lily chuckled. “I might think about giving it a rest, if we do ever DO end up dating.” She cracked open the styrofoam container, and started eating. 

“Hold on a second,” Max said, touching her on the shoulder. “What do you mean IF we end up dating?”

She swallowed, and looked up at him. “Just that. I told you I would think about it. I’m still thinking.”

Max suddenly felt as it he’d spent the evening swallowing fistfuls of hot gravel. “So wait. If we aren’t dating, what ARE we doing?”

“Having fun.” She stared at him quizzically. “Did you really misunderstand what this was? I mean...choosing a boyfriend is like buying a car. It’s a big decision. You need to shop around, and sleep on it. But you were so nice...you brought me dinner, and....” She looked at the vial of serum still resting on the kitchen table. “...dessert. I figured, hell, the least I could do was take you for a test drive. 

“Speaking of which....” She stood, and drew his eyes up, and up, to meet hers. “There’s a scenic route I’d like to take you on...to see how you handle. The on ramp is in the bedroom.” Lily reached down, and took him by the hand.

Max pulled away. “Sorry, I’m out of gas.” He started looking for his pants.

Lily watched him, an incredulous smile on her face. “Oh, this is ADORABLE. You’re really going to storm out of here? With a gigantic, beautiful girl waiting to fulfill your every desire?” She threw her arms up in disgust. “And I thought I WAS supposed to be the girly one.”

“I don’t like being used,” he said simply, pulling on his shirt.

Lily put her hands on her hips. “Oh come on, don’t be like that. I mean, sure I was persuasive. Maybe I twisted your arm here and there. But everything you did tonight was of your own free will.”

Max was pulling on his jacket. “Keep the left-overs. I’ll see you in lab.” He grabbed the drug, and stuffed it into his pocket.

“Hey, Max!” the giant girl yelled after him. “Don’t leave angry. Let’s talk about this!” 

But he was already out the door.

Chapter 9.

Max decided to skip his second evening lecture in a row. And I used to be such a good student, he thought, pulling into the driveway at Bill’s house. After a long day at the lab, he needed to just kick back, relax, and be in the company of friends. 

The door wasn’t locked, and he let himself in. Loud music came blaring from the living room. Tara and Melinda were playing Rock Band – a pretty hard song by the look of it. He decided to let them finish. Melinda, on lead guitar, was staring intently at the deluge of notes cascading down the screen. Tara clutched the microphone tightly, singing into it with all the passion she could muster.

The song ended, and Max clapped for them. “Encore! Encore!”

The girls laughed. Tara took a bow, and crossed the room to hug him. “Wow, twice in one week. You must’ve missed us.”

“You might say that,” he answered. “Where’s Bill tonight? I didn’t see his car in the driveway.”

“Oh, he finally got up the courage to ask out that secretary that’s always making eyes at him,” Tara replied, feigning a swoon. “He told us not to wait up.” Just as expected, Tara was indeed two inches taller than her natural height. The girl now stood a very respectable five foot five. It also seemed as if the drug had given her a small, permanent boost to her muscle tone. “Looking good there, kid,” he said, giving her forearm a little squeeze. “The gym is already doing you some good.”

Tara made a face. “Gym...don’t even mention that word around me. I’m so sore that I can barely move.” She turned gingerly, and retrieved her microphone. “I sure could’ve used all that strength I had the other night. But when I woke up, I looked like this. It’s not bad, I GUESS,” she conceded, looking herself up and down. “But damn, I miss being six feet plus...that was something else. What about that girl, the one who took the stuff first? What’s her name...Lily?”

Lily. At the mention of the name Max’s face fell. “You mean was she taller than normal?” he asked. “Yeah, she was. Hey, do you guys mind if I play too? I’ll take the drums.” Max picked up the pair of sticks off the shelf, and started to pull the kit into place.

He stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Melinda. “Max, is everything okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Don’t worry about it.”

Melinda looked at him skeptically. “You’re sure? We’re here if you want to talk.” Tara was beside her now, nodding agreement.

“Well....” 

Before he knew it, the whole sordid affair was spilling out of him. Max held nothing back – Lily's new height, the plan to find a way to reproduce the drug, how he had asked the girl on a date, their romantic interlude, and its bitter ending. It took him the better part of an hour, and when he had finished he was surprised to find that he felt a little better.

“Wow, what a bitch,” Tara said. If Max had been expecting the girl to be upset by the news that he was interested in someone else, he was disappointed. She fished a pack of cigarettes from her shirt pocket, lit one.

“Yeah Max. I know opposites attract and all,” Melinda said, plucking the cigarette out of Tara’s mouth and snuffing it in the ashtray. “But from what you’ve told us about this Lily girl, she seems totally wrong for you. Why would you want anything to do with her?” 

He rubbed his eyes, scowling. “God, I don’t know. She’s...I guess she’s like a mosquito bite. Irritating, and when she’s around you just wish she was gone. Still, there’s just something about her. I really...umm....”

“...want to scratch her?” Tara supplied, concealing a smirk.

“Whatever, the analogy breaks down. But you see what I’m getting at.”

“I do.” Melinda sat down next to him, and took his hand. “Matters of the heart are always complicated. If I had any advice, it would be not to worry so much. It’s usually the heart that makes the decision, anyway. The head just gets in the way. 

“And if you light that, I’m going to make you eat it,” she added, without changing expression or looking over her shoulder. Tara had another cigarette pursed between her lips, lighter halfway to the tip.

“How do you DO that!?” she cried, jamming the smoke back into the pack and throwing it across the room.

“Intuition. Look Tara, I know it’s hard. But if you keep sucking down those cancer sticks, you’re never going to make any progress at the gym. How do you expect to keep up with me on the track if you can’t even breathe?”

“I know, I know. I’m just so jittery.” Tara held out her hand, demonstrating. “Today has been a nightmare. My whole body aches. And....” She paused, glancing at Max. “And...everyone at the gym looks so fucking good. You should see the bodies on these girls! I’m like, the weakest person in there by far, and it’s embarrassing.”

A crazy idea was beginning to form in Max’s head. “But it’ll be easier once you get a little stronger. Right?”

Tara rolled her eyes. “Of COURSE it will. It’s just that...it’s going to take months before I’ll be able to compete. I don’t know if my will power is going to last that long.”

Max looked at his friend slyly. “If that’s the situation, then maybe I have something to get you over the hump. You know, help you put on a little muscle, literally overnight? Let you reach those health food cereals they put on the top shelf at the grocery story?”

Tara was on her feet, grinning from ear to ear. Max was sure that, if she’d had a tail, it would’ve been wagging furiously. “REALLY? CAN I?”

“No,” Melinda said flatly.

“Oh come on!” Tara cried. “That’s SO unfair!”

“It’s cheating. You’re cheating nature.”

“Well wait a minute. That protein stuff you made me drink, that’s supposed to ‘boost your metabolism and help you get more from your workout.’ THAT’S not cheating nature?”

“I...that’s different,” Melinda said, her eyebrows furrowing in thought. 

“Hey, matter of fact, you have a whole cabinet full of stuff you take to help you stay in shape. Creatine, multivitamins...how is that any different? Except maybe that my stuff could actually WORK.”

Melinda sighed, covering her face with her hands. “Just one dose?” she asked, sounding utterly defeated.

Tara nodded. “One dose.”

Now where had Max heard THIS conversation before? 

He started to prepare the serum for Tara, while she scampered off to her bedroom to change. Melinda sat down next to him. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to indulge her like this?” she asked quietly.

A minuscule drop of liquid fell from the syringe onto the blotter paper. “I don’t see why not. If she wants to be taller and stronger, that’s her prerogative. And like she said, this will help her stay motivated with her workout routine.”

Melinda shook her head. “It just doesn’t seem fair. I mean...I had to work, and sweat, and bleed for every ounce of muscle I’ve got. And you...you’re just handing it to her on a silver platter.”

“You know...YOU could take it, too,” he said. He held up the vial for her to see. “Yeah, why not? A couple more inches might make you a little more intimidating when you go on patrol. People you pull over will be less likely to hassle you. Plus the mystery bonus! You could get muscle like Tara, or maybe bigger tits, or...or anything!”

Melinda eyed the test tube, her lower lip beginning to quiver. “I....”

“Ta-da!” Tara cried, re-entering the room. She wore a loose-fitting fuzzy blue robe, the garment open in the front and tied with a matching sash. “Ready to get the party started?” She paused, looking back and forth from Max to Melinda. “I didn’t interrupt anything, did I?”

“Nothing worth mentioning.” Melinda stood quickly, and picked up the dose that Max had prepared. “So come on already, are you going to take this stuff or aren’t you?”

“Um, duh!” Tara snatched the blotter paper from Melinda’s hand, and stuffed it into her mouth. A slight grimace as the pain washed over her, and then the changes began.

“God, this is the best feeling in the world,” she groaned as her head inched toward the ceiling. Melinda stepped back to give the growing girl some room, but Tara caught her by the shoulder. “No Mel, stay right here next to me. I want to watch everything shrink around me – especially you.” 

Tara had started the day five full inches shorter than Melinda. Only a few seconds into her transformation, she had nearly closed that gap. Her arms snaked further and further out of her sleeves; the sash of her nightgown pulled taut. She moaned in ecstasy, catching Melinda in a rough embrace, her height surging. Now the girls were the same height...then the top of Melinda’s head only came up to Tara's forehead...to her eyes...the tip of her nose.

By now Tara’s muscles were starting to show some serious definition. Her arms were plumping, her legs becoming thick and powerful. The last bit of paunch on her stomach had evaporated, replaced by the lines and contours of a perfect six-pack. The girl crowed her approval, squeezing Melinda even tighter as she continued to grow.

After what seemed an eternity, the process came to a stop, and Tara released her friend. Melinda backed away quickly, rubbing her shoulders where the taller girl had been gripping. 

“Wow Max, went a little overboard on the dosage, didn't you?” Tara asked, giving him an approving wink. “Not that I mind of course.”


To his knowledge he hadn't, though he saw what she meant. Tara was at least a hand taller than her friend – about six and a half feet, Max guessed, and more than a foot taller than she had been previously. He had expected a gain of nine, or perhaps ten inches at maximum. The bath robe she wore now looked incredibly tight and risque on her expanded frame: the skirt stopped just a few inches below her crotch, and its v-neck opening had spread wide enough to reveal a huge portion of her stomach and most of her chest.

Tara grinned down at them. “Hey Mel, I’ve got an idea. How about another round of arm wrestling.” The girl began to stretch, her outfit utterly failing to protect her modesty. “Double or nothing this time?”

“Double or nothing?” Melinda repeated, uncomprehending.

“Mmmhmm,” Tara answered, an evil smile pasted on her lips. “If you win, you get to make me do something even WORSE than go to that wretched gym of yours. But if I win....”

“I’d have to take TWO doses of the serum?” Melinda finished, her eyes going wide.

Tara nodded. “Oh, but it’s okay if you want to chicken out. I mean, if big scary Melinda doesn’t think she has a chance against poor, weak little Tara....” The amazon girl laughed cruelly. 

“Agreed.” Melinda looked nervous, but there was a thin smile of anticipation on her face, as if she was looking forward to the challenge. She pointed up at her friend. “If I win, you have to quit smoking. For good. Besides that...we’re doing ten miles on the track tomorrow. And if you can’t finish, you have to give me a foot rub.”

Tara’s face twisted in horror. “Before, or after you shower?”

Melinda grinned back. “What do you think?”

The taller girl cracked her knuckles. “Alright then, you’re on.” She sat down at the kitchen table. Melinda joined her.

“This time, we’re going to let Max count it down. No cheating.” Melinda glared up at her friend.

Tara laughed. “Please – I don't NEED to cheat anymore. I’m going to stomp you into the ground, little girl.” 

Max placed one hand over the girls’ clasped palms. “Everybody ready?” he asked. “Okay. One. Two. THREE!”

Both girls grunted in exertion as they threw themselves into combat. Tara quickly gained a small advantage, but Melinda was able to push her back to neutral. Their arms shook. Sweat dripped from their faces, smacking against the table in a staccato of audible, wet slaps. Seconds ticked by, then a full minute. Veins were popping along Tara’s neck, and Melinda was gasping for air. Still, neither side could break the stalemate.

Finally, Max saw Tara’s arm beginning to slip toward the table. Panicked, the oversized girl fought back with everything she had, and still couldn’t manage to slow her inevitable defeat. 

Just then, Melinda caught Max’s eye. She stared at him for a moment and then, as plain as day, she winked at him. At that moment Tara started to climb back into the contest. Melinda’s arm was pushed further, further...and then, with a heavy thud, her arm crashed onto the table.

“I WON!” cried Tara, jumping up from her chair and doing a triumphant turkey trot. “I can’t believe it, I beat you!”

“Good match,” Melinda said breathlessly, extending her hand. 

Tara grasped it firmly, and the two opponents shook. “You did great. Maybe one of these days I’ll be some competition for you at NORMAL size.”

“Not any time soon,” Melinda said, laughing. “Especially because MY normal size is about to get much, much bigger. Isn’t that right, Max?”

He nodded, already preparing the serum. “Let’s see, one dose is about one-hundred fifty nano-liters...so...three-hundred is...GOT IT!” Max handed the paper to Melinda, looking at her skeptically. “You’re sure about this? I mean, you can still back out if you want. You always said five foot ten was tall enough for you.”

“It was a decision of the heart,” she said, and gave him a significant smile. “It knows what it wants, and I listen.”

Max nodded. “I understand.”

“I think you do,” she said. Melinda took a deep breath, and dropped the wad of blotter paper into her mouth.

Chapter 10.

Melinda was rubbing her hands together nervously, waiting for the drug to take effect. Her two friends watched, the six and a half foot Tara sitting next to Max on the couch, the both of them wearing identical grins of anticipation. 

“You know, it occurs to me that I’m about to destroy this shirt,” Melinda said, plucking at the collar of her hoodie.

“Well yeah. Ripping out of your clothes is all part of the fun, my dear,” Tara said, winking.

“But I like this shirt,” Melinda pouted.

Max laughed. “In about thirty seconds you’ll have outgrown it. And even tomorrow, you’ll be too big to ever wear it again. So it really doesn't matter WHAT happens to it. But if it bothers you, why don’t you just take it off?”

“Well, to be honest...I’m not wearing an under-shirt...or a bra.” Melinda was blushing now – a first in the history of the universe as far as Max knew.

“Look honey: one way or another, we gonna see those titties,” Tara said, teasing. “You can go the easy way, or the hard way.”

Melinda scowled as the pre-growth pain wracked her body.

“Almost out of time. What’s it going to be?” asked Amazon Tara, cracking her knuckles.

“It might hold,” Melinda said, hugging her arms to her chest protectively.

“Nope!” Tara and Max shouted in unison. They looked at each other, and collapsed in giggles.

Melinda’s shirt was beginning to look a bit stressed. The cuffs of her sleeves were gradually riding up her arms, her pants climbing up her long beanstalk legs. Max was reminded of a time-lapse video he had once been shown in elementary school, of a tiny seedling poking out of its shell and rapidly growing before his eyes. As he watched, Melinda was sprouting. Her body rushed skyward, as if something deep inside her was thirsty for every inch of height it could possibly gain.

“I’ve never been on this side of it before,” Tara whispered, the oversized girl leaning far down to reach his ear. She gave his hand a little squeeze. “Of seeing someone grow, I mean. Is this...umm...is it supposed to turn you on this much?”

“It DOES get the blood flowing, doesn’t it?” he whispered back. He looked up, and spoke louder. “How’s that hoodie doing, Mel?”

Melinda didn't answer, perhaps couldn’t. Her eyes were clenched shut, and the only sound she seemed capable of making was a tiny, high-pitched whine of pleasure. The girl easily matched Tara in height by now, and her growth was just beginning to hit its stride. Max wondered if the low ceilings of the apartment were going to present a problem – it would be a shame if his giant friend got a nasty bump on the head. 

The elastic on Melinda’s sweat pants had long since snapped in two, and the garment was tearing in half down the inseam, revealing her powerful, shapely legs. Her hoodie was stretched, bulging awkwardly as the girl beneath it expanded in every direction – yet the stubborn thing refused to give up. “Come ON already,” Tara yelled, the couch creaking under her weight as she threw herself back in frustration. “Tear!”

Max grabbed Tara by the arm, getting her attention. “Something’s happening, something different,” he told her, pointing. “Look!”

Subtle changes were taking place in the musculature of Melinda’s face. The angle of her jaw was becoming softer, more feminine. Small marks and minor imperfections in her skin were smoothing, her nose becoming smaller, cuter. And her figure, her curves...there was a certain extra-wide flare to her hips, an hourglass narrowing at the waist. Melinda had always been an attractive woman, but now...she was absolutely gorgeous! With each passing second, as her body continued to stretch taller, she was becoming more beautiful. She was at least as lovely as any woman Max had ever seen on the cover of a magazine. And before long, she was so radiant that it almost caused him physical pain to look at her.

Melinda’s head just barely made contact with the ceiling. She bent her knees, swelling upward another few inches, and abruptly her growth came to an end. 

“Damn, that was a rush.” She grinned, surveying the room around her. “You guys look so tiny! Or, well...Max, YOU look tiny. Tara just looks like she’s supposed to.”

“You’re a freaking giant, Mel,” Tara said, staring up at her friend in awe. “And wow, you look...REALLY hot!”

“Thank you sweetie,” Melinda said, framing her flawless face with her hands.

Tara sighed. “But your stupid hoodie! I can’t believe it survived all of that.”

Melinda put her hands on her hips, a truly intimidating posture for a woman of her height. “Do you guys really want to see my boobs THAT bad?” she asked in a long-suffering voice.

Tara and Max both nodded vigorously.

The giant girl rolled her eyes. “Fine!” She grabbed her shirt at the neckline with both hands, and pulled with all her might. The garment instantly ripped to shreds around her. Melinda stood before them, completely naked except for the formality of an overstressed pair of white cotton panties. The alabaster skin of her unclad body seemed to shine with a kind of inner light, the tiny pink nubs of her tits standing out against this backdrop like a perfect pair of roses growing in the middle of an endless field of cotton. Her breasts themselves were small, no larger than A-cups disregarding her height, but they were perky and beautifully formed. Max had never known it was possible for a woman to be so...so perfect.

“Seriously Mel, you look AMAZING,” he told her, the words dry in his throat.

“Thank you, Max,” Melinda drawled, her voice surprisingly loud and deep. She smiled down at him seductively. “If I didn’t know better I’d think you were trying to butter me up.”

“Butter, Crisco...anything you want, babe,” he said, catching a trickle of drool at the edge of his lips before it could drip down his cheek.

Melinda laughed, and winked at him playfully.

“How do you feel?” Tara asked, climbing to her feet to stand before Goddess Melinda.

“Good...very good. I think a way to describe it would be ‘at peace.’ It's just the way you described it to me, Tara – like being on a mild mood-enhancing drug. It's wonderful.”

“No, I meant...how do you FEEL?” Smirking, Tara reached up, letting her fingertips gently stroke the larger girl’s shoulders, her neck. Her hands worked lower...lower....

The seven foot plus girl slapped Tara's hands away. “Look here Shorty: I may be in a great mood, and as horny as I’ve ever been in my life. But unlike you, I have self-control. You’re not going to be able to seduce me. At least...not THAT easily.”

Tara pouted.

Melinda laughed kindly, then all at once grimaced in pain, squeezing her eyes shut. She rubbed at her temples, shaking her head back and forth slowly. “Um...guys....I don't feel so hot. Maybe it's the sudden change in elevation. Do you mind if I go lay down for a few minutes?”

Max gave his gargantuan friend a concerned look. “Of course not Mel. I hope everything is okay.”

“I’m sure it is,” she replied, smiling down benevolently at the two of them. Walking carefully, the enormous girl made her way to her bedroom, stooping and turning sideways to fit through her door, and was gone. 

Now alone together, Tara once more came and sat down next to Max on the couch. “Hell of a night,” the six and a half foot girl remarked, looking down at him.

“Yeah,” he agreed lamely. 

The two of them stared at each other. They grinned the same, nervous grin. And then, like a pair of magnets suddenly reaching their critical point, they were drawn together.

The kiss was soft, tentative at first. She was warm and wet like a gentle summer rain, her taste the saccharine sweet of her lip gloss. The bigger girl wrapped one powerful arm around his shoulders, and Max let himself be subsumed into her embrace. He wondered briefly when the last time was that he had been with a girl that was shorter than him, and if he ever would be again. He certainly hoped not.

A large, wet tongue was frantically tracing the edges of his lips, a long-fingered hand crept under his shirt. It would be so easy to give in, to allow himself to accept Tara, to use each other this way by mutual consent. He wanted her. She wanted him. But, once again, Max found himself tortured by the curse of his conscience. 

He pulled away from her, and Tara, recognizing his intentions immediately, released him. “This isn’t right,” he told her sadly.

“It’s okay,” she told him, her eyes shining. “I just want to be with you. Is that so awful?”

Max covered his face with his hands, rubbing savagely at his forehead. “Tara, you’ve been with so many guys, and I was only one of them. That doesn't bother me, but...I know for damn sure I wasn't the best. And you...look at you! You could have any man you want! You could even when you were five foot three. So...why me? Is it just because I’m HERE?”

Tara shook her head. “It isn’t that. My reasons...I can't explain them. There are no words. Except...yes, I’ve been around the block a few times. But as far as not being the best...you...you know...you were my favorite.”

Max sighed. “Tara...I like you. I REALLY like you. But....”

She placed the tip of her finger on his lips, silencing him. “I know. Your heart wants someone else. Just...let me have you, tonight. Lay down with me. One last time.”

Max looked up, losing himself in the deep blue ocean of her eyes. It took him nearly a minute. At long last, he leaned forward, climbing onto his knees. He kissed her long, his eyes never leaving hers for a moment. When at last he pulled away, he smiled at the uncertainty on her face, and allowed it to be dispelled with one, tiny nod. 

“One last time,” he whispered.

Silently, they undressed. Tara kissed him again, gently, as if afraid that the wrong move would shatter and break their fragile union. Both of them moved slowly, savoring this moment, this eye-blink in eternity when it was right for them to be together. Tara’s giant face filled his vision, her lips danced almost joyfully against his. He responded to her touch, trying with each instant to reflect back upon her the passion that she was building within him.

A slight shifting of the couch, and they tumbled together onto the floor. They collapsed into each other like a house on fire, arms and legs tangling hopelessly. She was heavy, but never once did she let her weight press painfully against him, even as they rolled and grappled across the carpet. Tara felt so large, her body hard and sculpted but unmistakably feminine. 

The two friends clung to each other desperately, the heady smell of sex beginning to fill the room. At first, Max had wondered if it would be difficult to please a woman of such great size. But soon he found that, when he strained to caress some intimate corner of her body, finding it just out of reach, she would shift until his fingers could grasp what they sought. Each place of her he touched brought new moans, new gasps of pleasure. And his lover was just as good, if not better. Tara seemed to know instinctively where to send her hands to please him, the precise millimeter to press her lips for maximum effect. 

Tara’s face was drenched in sweat and saliva, and Max’s lower body was becoming slick with the syrupy juices of her desire. Gradually, he eased himself down her massive body, guiding himself toward her womanhood. Her eyes urged him, pleaded with him to hurry. One final kiss, and then....

From the other side of the room, someone cleared their throat. Startled, Tara and Max looked up – and up – to find the gorgeous visage of Melinda grinning down at them. “Well, don’t you two look comfortable,” she drawled, smirking. “I’m sorry to ruin the moment, but I thought you might like to know that I’ve been reconsidering my philosophy on life.”

The naked couple stared up at her in slack-jawed silence.

“You guys know me better than anyone,” she continued. “And so, you must know that I usually don’t believe in sticking my neck out, or acting the fool. But as a wise man once said, sometimes life is about having the courage to do something incredibly, painfully stupid.”

With that, the angelic giantess sauntered across the room, and knelt before the two lovers. Before either of them could object, she bent forward, and gave Max a very serious kiss on the mouth.

“Hey! What do you think you’re DOING?” Tara cried, but a moment later her objections died in her throat as one long-fingered hand began to stroke her inner thigh.

The three friends looked at each other for a long time. Would they...could they actually go through with this? 

At last Melinda spoke. “Max, you said a dose of your serum is about one-hundred fifty nano-liters, correct?”

He cleared this throat once, twice. “Yes, but...”

The beauty silenced him with a smile. “I thought so.” From the palm of her enormous hand, she withdrew two crumpled pieces of blotter paper. She took one, and placed it under her tongue. “One for me....” The other she offered to Tara, who accepted it reverently. “And one for you. What do you say, guys? Want to make a really, REALLY bad decision?”

In answer, Tara swallowed her paper, and squeezed Max's hand reassuringly.

Max grinned, and stared up at his gigantic friends. “Is Bill ever going to be mad that he missed THIS.”

In the first few seconds, just as the girls were beginning to show the first obvious signs of change, Max wondered if this whole escapade would prove to be awkward and embarrassing, something his friends would forever regret. In many ways, it was the same anxiety he might feel if he were sitting on a roller coaster, listening to the steady click-click of the belts pulling him up the first hill. And, just like a roller coaster, once it accelerated, there was no time for worry.

It was Melinda who reached him first. The girl was on her knees, the second round of serum already rendering her too tall to stand comfortably. Her breath fell hot on his face, and once more her lips found his. This second kiss was longer, and far more intimate. As it continued he could plainly feel the ever-increasing enormity of the woman before him. Her lips rose, beckoning him higher, and higher still.

A strong pair of hands gripped his shoulders. Tara was behind him, softly massaging him, pressing into him with her tight stomach and generous bosom. She touched his neck, the lobes of his ears, an electric tingling building wherever she passed. And then with a gentle push she eased him forward into Melinda’s waiting embrace. The three of them stood together now, clutching each other as one unbroken mass of human sensuality. 

The two girls surrounded him, growing larger with each passing instant. Damp skin glided over him. Bigger and bigger hands caressed him. Their bodies – one ivory-pale, the other a rich olive – filled his vision, blotting out all but the briefest glimpses of the world around him. It would’ve been impossible to know which of them he was kissing at any moment, except for their distinctive flavors - Tara’s the peach of her lip gloss, Melinda’s tangy and faintly cinnamon.

He felt himself being lifted from behind, his head cushioned between a pair of perky, softball-sized breasts. Melinda held him aloft, and Tara - beautiful, gigantic Tara – began to patiently kiss her way down his body. She started with his forehead, his cheeks, his collar, working her way steadily lower. All the while he could sense the girls continuing to expand, could feel himself rising further and further off the ground.

At long last Tara’s journey brought her to the solid shaft of his manhood. She stroked him cautiously with the side of her finger, and then with a slow, calculated pace, she began to suck him off. Her head bobbed up and down as the enormous girl swallowed his length, gradually taking him deeper, until she had enveloped him all the way to the base. All the while Melinda was kissing him, nibbling on his neck, whispering sweet nothings into his ear.

Just when he thought he could stand it no longer, Tara stood up. A significant look passed between the two seven and a half foot ladies, and then Max felt himself being passed from the arms of one titanic girl to the other. Now it was Melinda’s turn. She turned her back on him, spending a moment to position herself. Slowly, carefully, his gargantuan friend lowered her hips, until he felt the head of his cock slip easily into the velvet folds of her womanhood. She began to rock against him, the windows rattling with her moans, juices like hot syrup splashing onto his stomach, his lap, his legs. Melinda's pheromone scent completely overwhelmed him, driving out everything but pinpoint awareness of the giantess grinding against his loins, and the irresistible directive to please her.

The universe rolled, and Max found himself on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Now it was Tara, impossibly large and powerful, kneeling above his chest. Her eyes gleamed with joy as she impaled herself upon him. 

Reality narrowed to a dark tunnel of perception and sensation. Tara’s head lolling in ecstasy. The beautiful aria of her pleasure. Melinda’s wet lips against his face. The constant animal thrusting of his hips. The volcano pressure building inside. The sudden spike of his orgasm. And the inky blackness that followed.

A moment, or an hour later, color returned to the world. With some difficulty Max rolled onto his knees, and was rewarded with a sight beyond belief. Tara and Melinda lay together in a heap. Both girls were impossibly huge. Max estimated that Melinda was barely less than eight feet tall, and Tara, in defiance of logic, was much larger even than that – nearly nine feet high, and covered in a thick, sexy sheen of muscle. It looked as if the formerly diminutive girl was enjoying her new-found position of dominance. Tara had her best friend pinned to the floor with her long, powerful legs, leaving her hands free to explore every minute detail of Melinda’s body while the helpless girl writhed beneath her. The bigger girl bent slowly, sensuously, and the two girls locked mouths in a deep soul kiss. Soft, kitten-like mews and squeaks of pleasure came each of them, as Tara continued to have her way with her tiny giantess. 

Discontinuity nudged at the fringes of Max's awareness. If Melinda had spoken true, and measured the same dose for each of them, then how could Tara possibly be so much larger – especially when Melinda had started with an advantage of at least seven inches in height? He considered this for less than the length of one heartbeat. There had been a time, perhaps only a week earlier, when he might have stood, barely watching the spectacle before him, all else forgotten in the attempt to solve this new mystery. To his surprise, he found that he didn't care. Max smiled to himself, and crawled over to join his gargantuan friends. Once more the girls accepted him, welcoming him into the fold with open arms.

Much later the three lay together on the couch, talking without really saying anything, in the way friends will. Both girls had returned to their relatively normal sizes. Tara now measured six-foot-two, with a body to shame any but the most sculpted of female athletes. Melinda was so attractive that it made his knees rubbery just to glance at her, her beauty further emphasized by her impressive six feet, four inch stature. It had been the first time that any of them had been conscious to see the drug’s effects wear off. Watching the girls shrink had been intriguing, even strangely erotic, but Max decided that he definitely preferred to see the process happen in the other direction.

They talked for hours, but none of them mentioned what had just happened between them. For the many years that their friendship endured, it would only be on a rare occasion that any of them said anything about it – and then only in hushed and cryptic tones. 

When Max finally said good-bye, it was with a heavy heart. He was leaving behind him two beautiful women, women who had been with him through thick and thin, women he knew would go to any lengths for him. But that night, even in the deepest throes of passion, he had been thinking of someone else.

Chapter 11. 

It was several days before Max saw Lily again. The girl had warned him that she would be absent from lab for awhile – long enough, at least, for her story about hormonal therapy to seem a plausible reason for her growth. Without someone constantly badgering him for attention, or making snide remarks at his expense, Max found that he could be surprisingly productive.

Yet the days seemed to drag by slowly. There had been a time when he had jumped out of bed, excited for another day of work in the lab, running experiments with an air of childlike wonder. Now this sense of anticipation extended only to finding out if this was the day that Lily would return.

On the fourth day, Max had just received his marching orders from Dr. Franklyn when he looked up to see Lily shuffling toward him. The girl stowed her gear in the locker next to where he was working, and gave him a thin, nervous smile. “Do you need any help today?” she asked, practically whispering.

“I suppose,” he replied, unenthusiastically. Max handed her a scrap of paper. “These are the reagents we need. Could you gather them?”

She nodded. As she turned and walked away from him, Max found himself watching her go. Now that Lily was back, he finally became aware of just how much he’d really missed her. The moment he saw her, his first impulse had been to run to her, hug her, to find what she'd been doing in her long absence. But the girl had wounded him, even more deeply than he'd realized, and now it was just too hard to make the first move at reconciliation.

Max noticed another thing as Lily sauntered her way across the room: how the eyes of every male in the class turned to follow her. The girl was dressed in skinny black jeans and a low-cut purple tank top, both garments form-fitting and perhaps a half-size too small. After her last growth spurt Lily now an even five foot six, nearly a foot taller than her original height. Yet despite her new stature, she hadn't lost a bit of her diminutive charm. The girl still managed to look impish, almost fragile. And with the pair of new assets that she proudly displayed on her chest, Lily had officially graduated from 'cute' to the unquestionable rank of ‘Bombshell.'

Throughout the day, conversation between Max and his lab partner was sparse. ‘Could you pass me that beaker?’ or ‘How many milliliters of sulfuric acid do we need, again?’ Once, a clumsy student at the next table overheated a test tube full of a volatile chemical, resulting in a sudden surge of bright blue flame. The luckless grad student scrambled around the room, trying to remember where they kept the fire extinguisher, while Max and Lily laughed heartily at his expense. In the midst of this she caught his eye, and then, just for a moment, they were laughing together.

At five o’clock, Max left the building, his head hanging low. Lily hurried after him, and caught up in the parking lot. “Hey, I need to talk to you. Do you have a minute?”

“I have someplace to be,” he answered, looking at his watch. “But I can be late, if it's important. What do you need?”

Lily brushed a stray lock of hair from her eyes, and crossed her arms apprehensively. “I just wanted to tell you that I talked to Dr. Franklyn. He wants me to start working in the lab at night, ‘to help the project stay on schedule.’ I'll more or less have my hands full, what with doing his bidding, but hopefully I’ll be able to get a couple attempts in at reproducing our serum.’”

Oh. She wanted to talk business. Well, that was safe, at least. “That’s great,” he replied, smiling weakly. “Just make sure you're careful.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, rubbing her chin. “The thing is, I’d probably be able to make more progress if I had somebody to help me once in a while. Do you think you might want to come in with me?”

“Sure,” he answered. “But I’ve been pretty busy lately. I’ll let you know if I have a free night.”

“I...okay. Did you, um...did have a chance to run any tests on the drug while I was gone?”

“Er...well, I did some...experimenting,” he replied evasively, thinking of Tara and Melinda. “I don’t know that I got any useful data, though. Listen Lily, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you in lab tomorrow.” Max turned, and began to walk away.

“Oh, one more thing,” she called after him. “Did I tell you that I’m wearing a size ten shoe these days?”

Max didn’t look back. Lily was a master of the art of non-sequitur, but he wouldn’t let her trap him that easily.

He heard running steps, and then she was walking beside him. “Yeah, size ten. It's actually pretty large for a woman, even one of my height. The thing is, I’ve always had kind of big feet.” She paused, and took a deep breath. “Big enough, at least, that when I put one of them in my mouth, it can cause some serious damage.”

Now Max stopped. He turned to look at her. Lily was smiling up at him, her expression sheepish. “I fucked up, okay? I hurt your feelings and I’m...I’m sorry.”

“Lily....” He was speechless. A direct apology was the last thing he would ever have expected, out of either of them. He knew first hand how hard it must have been for her.

“Listen, let me make it up to you.” She took a tentative step forward. “I want to go out with you. On a date. Tonight. My treat.”

“But...didn’t you say you were supposed to work in the lab at night?”

The girl gave him her old, familiar smirk. “Old Doc won’t miss me just this once. Come on, what do you say?”

He sighed. Try as he might, he couldn’t keep the stupid grin off of his face. “Okay, you win. Pick you up at eight?”

Lily took his hand, her green eyes sparkling. “Eight is perfect. You karaoke, right?”

Max scowled. “Never.”

She laughed, and touched his cheek fondly. “Sorry Max, you do now. It’s only fair – I did all the apologizing. That means I get to call the shots for our first date.”

Vintage Lily.

“Would it make any difference if I said I was sorry for storming out of your place like the biggest douche in the world?”

“No dice. But I appreciate the sentiment.” She flashed her dimples at him. “I’ll tell you what: I might reconsider our plans if you were willing to go out with...a different version of Lily tonight. One that's a little, you know, TALLER?” Her eyes darted toward his pocket, where she knew he kept the serum. “Say, about NINE INCHES taller?”

He glared at her. “This whole stupid fight was about you using me. It hasn’t even been a minute, and already you’re....”

“Kidding! I’m kidding!” she said, grabbing him by both shoulders and looking him in the eye. “I’m not trying to use you. I like it when I’m big. YOU like it when I’m big. I only thought...if you wanted...but you’re right, this is better.” She stood on her tip-toes, and kissed him on the chin. “I’ll see you at eight, then.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bar was called The Wooden Nickel, and by eight thirty it was already jumping. Lily lead him through the crowded entryway to a small table with a good view of the stage. She grabbed a thick, laminated catalog from an adjacent table and began to leaf through it, her lips pursed in thought. An attractive waitress with hot pink hair came and took their order – beer for Max, a Sex on the Beach for Lily.

“So what’s the deal with this place?” he asked, glancing around skeptically. The bar had an air of willful neglect about it, as if the owner believed that cleaning the stains off the walls would make the place look too corporate.

“It’s not that complicated.” She pointed at the catalog. “Just pick a song. Write down the name on one of these little slips of paper, and give it to the fat guy with the laptop sitting on stage. When they call your name, go up and sing.”

“That isn’t actually the question I asked,” he replied.

“I know it wasn’t.” Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. I like this bar. The drinks are cheap, and it doesn’t usually get too rowdy. People just come to sing, and have other people see them do it.”

“See, that’s the part I don’t get. Why would anyone want to get up in front of a bunch of total strangers and make a complete ass of themselves?”

Lily shrugged again. “Because it’s fun, I guess?” She pushed the catalog across the table toward him. “Here, just pick a song. Any song really, as long as you know it, but maybe try to pick something that you can have fun with. Or else, a song that you feel is significant, that says something you can’t.” She gave him a long stare, then looked away, smiling mysteriously. “Anyway, if you’re worried about being embarrassed, the liquor helps.”

“I see.” He stood up from the table. “Excuse me a moment.”

Max walked around the bar, and finally tracked down their waitress. “Miss, have you put our drinks in yet?”

She shook her head. “Sorry, I was just about to.”

“No, it’s okay. I wanted to change my order. Forget the beer. I think I’m going to need something stronger.” He looked over his shoulder at Lily. “Shots. Whiskey. Until I tell you to stop.”

After gulping down her first drink, Lily scribbled the name of a song on a piece of paper and handed it to the man with the laptop. A few minutes later he called her name, and she made her way on stage. The song began, one that Max recognized as a current Top 40 hit.

The girl could really sing! Her voice came out dark and honeysuckle-sweet, lilting from the song’s deepest lows to the highest notes in her register. Her eyes squeezed shut, Lily sang with a passion felt even in the furthest corners of the room. She even added a couple flourishes to the song that the radio version lacked, making it her own.

When the song ended, the crowd roared in appreciation – the biggest reaction for any performer so far. She walked off the stage, and sat down next to Max. “Or something like that,” she said, grinning. “Have you decided what you’re going to sing?”

Max nodded, and pounded back his third shot. He hastily wrote down the song name, and a few minutes later he was on stage, his heart thumping crazily in his chest.

All those eyes...there must be at least thirty people in here! Jesus, how did she talk me into this. I can’t sing. Why am I UP here?

But then he remembered Lily. How he was standing in the exact spot where she had been only moments before. He remembered the way she looked when she was singing...how it had kindled a fire in his stomach. And most of all, he remembered how it had burned him in a different way when they had fought.

The song began, with it’s long, distinctive synthesizer opening. Keith Moon came in on drums. And then Max was belting out the lyrics to “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” the words practically boiling from his mouth. He wasn’t sure if he sounded good, or terrible. But by the last verse, one thing was clear: he was having fun.

Afterward, he made his way back to the table, a smattering of polite applause following him. Lily handed him the shot that the waitress had delivered while he’d been on stage. “Interesting choice,” she said, giving him a look.

Max drank. “It’s just a song.”

She nodded, taking a long pull from her drink. “I know.” Lily glanced down at the catalog, her eyes going wide. “OOOH! Want to sing ‘Love Shack’ with me?”

He signaled their waitress for another round. “Let’s do it.”

By his third song, Max had lost count of the shots. Lily was matching him stride for stride, sucking down her fruity little drinks like they were going out of style. From the way that she was laughing uproariously at nearly everything he said, he could tell they were hitting her pretty hard. And he was vaguely aware that he didn’t usually use the phrase 'Let me tell you how it is' quite so often.

It was just after eleven. Lily sat next to him, awaiting her turn to sing. Somehow his arm had wrapped itself around her waist, and the girl was reclined against him, her head resting comfortably on his shoulder.

The moment the announcer called her name, the crowd went wild. Lily stood, and gracefully made her way to the stage.

The song began. It was slow, one that Max had never heard before, with an acoustic guitar intro. A bar employee flicked on a blue spotlight, making her look otherworldly, almost angelic. Lily’s eyes fluttered, and suddenly she looked at Max, fixing him with a gentle stare. He immediately took notice – on each of her other songs, Lily had spent her entire time on stage with her eyes clenched shut.

He couldn't follow all the lyrics, but the song was obviously one of unrequited love. The chorus was the only part he was certain he understood. On the first repetition, he laughed out loud. The second found him much more restrained, thoughtful. And by the song's climax, he was mouthing the words along with her.

The morning will come
In the press of every kiss
With your head upon my chest
Where I will annoy you
With every waking breath
Until you decide to Wake Up

Lily walked off stage to a thunderstorm of cheers. Max looked at her, not knowing what to say. She brushed the hair from her eyes, a timid smile on her beautiful face. “It’s just a song,” she told him softly.

Max nodded. “I know.” He beckoned their waitress over. “Can we get a check?”

Chapter 12. 

It took Max three failed attempts at finding the lock with his car key before he decided that he was too drunk to drive. “Do you...ahh...do you mind if we walk?”

Lily grinned. Her face was deeply flushed, but whether this was from the exertion of singing, the booze, or some other, private reason, Max wasn’t sure. “I was just about to suggest that. It’s only a couple of miles to my place, and it’s a warm night anyhow.”

“It IS warm isn't it? It might even be forty.” 

The couple walked together past melting snow drifts, Lily snaking her arm around his without a word. The evening had the smell of false spring about it, the odor of thaw and moist earth that people desperate for the end of winter find so alluring.

“Well,” Lily began. “After all your complaining...be honest. You had a good time tonight, didn’t you?”

Max chuffed. “It wasn’t awful, I GUESS.”

“Oh come ON,” she cried, pinching him on the forearm. “You were going for it! I mean, you totally gave it everything you had! Granted, you probably should have kept some of it for yourself, but...”

He raised his eyebrows. “What’s THAT suppose to mean?”

“You can’t sing,” she told him, slurring her speech so the word came out ‘sching.’ “Don’t worry about it. You’ve got other good qualities.”

“Such as?” he asked, glaring.

“Oh, I'm sorry. I said you've got good qualities – I didn't mean to imply that I knew what any of them actually WERE.” She stuck her tongue out at him, grinning from ear to ear.

He pulled his arm out of her grasp, the motion causing him to briefly lose his balance. “Wow. You know what Lily? You aren’t nice.”

“Don’t start with that again. You're way more attractive when you aren’t acting like a little bitch.” She reached for him again.

Begrudgingly he took her hand, though he continued to give her the evil eye. “I don’t get it. Why always with the vitriol? You’ve been busting my balls, like seriously, since the day we met. Now we’re on a date, and you’re still doing it. So, seriously. Why?”

Lily stopped. She stared up into his eyes wistfully. Then, without pretext, she punched him in the chest.

“Hey! What the hell?” 

Another blow came in. Max dodged. 

“When you were in pre-school, was there ever a girl that would come up and start beating on you for no good reason?” As she spoke, Lily continued to rain punches down upon him.

“What’s your problem?” he yelled, blocking yet another attack. “Yeah. Sara Cummings. The whore used to kick sand in my face on the playground every day.” 

Suddenly Lily took a step forward and shoved him, hard. Max tumbled backward, landing in a wet pile of snow. She stood over him, her arms crossed in satisfaction. “I’ve got news for you, kid. Little Sara had a crush on you.” 

Lily reached down, and offered him her arm. He took it, and she hoisted him to his feet. They walked on in silence. The night was cloudless, and a half moon was just clearing the horizon, casting a pale blue light over them. Lily shone brilliantly, her coppery skin glowing with an electric radiance. 

“Since the day we met?” he asked, after what felt like an eternity.

She nodded slowly.

“Did it ever occur to you that, if you wanted me to like you back, being NICE would've been more effective than riding my ass every day?”

Lily spun, fixing him with a fiery glare. “Of COURSE it occurred to me! I’m...I just....” She sighed, hanging her head. “I don’t know how to be any other way.”

Max shook his head. “I don’t understand you.”

She smiled at him sadly. “Do you really want me to spell this out for you? Fine. How long ago was it that I was walking around as some little dwarf – just four and a half feet tall. A week? Ten days? Do you have any idea what it's like to live your entire LIFE that way?” 

“What are you trying to tell me? That you act like a bitch to compensate? Do you have some sort of....”

“If you were about to say ‘Napoleon complex….’” Lily interrupted, pounding her fist into her hand.

“I wasn’t.”

“Good. My arms are too tired to keep punching you anyway.” Lily took a deep breath, putting her hands behind her head. “To compensate…that isn’t quite right. Maybe more like…to not get ignored completely.”

“But what about now?” he asked, putting his arm around her. “You aren’t short anymore. You’re a perfectly normal height for a woman, and so attractive that nobody could ignore you, even if they tried.”

Lily shrugged. “Age-old habits die hard, I guess. Or maybe I'll mellow out a bit once I decide I'm tall enough.”

Max coughed. “So you weren’t kidding. You really DO want to keep growing.”

“Of course I do! More than anything! So much that...well okay, how about this: have you ever wondered why I let YOU hold on to what is, after all, OUR drug? I mean, we had an agreement to split it. Why do you think I haven’t demanded my cut?”

Max thought about it for a moment, and shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“Because I don’t trust myself.” Her face broke out in a wolfish grin. “I wouldn’t last ten minutes alone with it before I’d be dosing myself up again. It feels incredible to be this tall, especially after all those years looking like one of the Keebler elves. Never mind the pleasure I get from the actual PROCESS of growing. Or what tends to happen…afterward.” She gave him a wink.

“So, you let me control how much you get. I’m your gatekeeper?”

“I usually think of you more like the control rods for my nuclear reactor. You keep me from melting down.” She stepped in front of him, stopping with her face only inches from his. “And it’s a good thing too. Because even right now, all I can think about is going critical.”

Max snickered. “Okay then, answer me this: how much is enough? Would you want to be five foot ten? Six feet? I’m not talking about just for a night – I mean forever.”

Lily sniffed disdainfully. “Those numbers? They aren’t even close. Keep going.”

“Six foot six?”

She shook her head.

“Seven? Eight feet tall. Seriously? Okay, ten.”

Lily was making a twirling motion with her finger. Keep going.

“That’s bull-shit!” he exclaimed, laughing, hearing the nervousness in his voice. “You would hate your life if you were that tall!”

“Maybe I would at that. But right now, it sounds like the most wonderful thing I can imagine. Except maybe being eleven feet tall.”

They were in front of Lily’s house now. She lead him up the steps of her front porch and stood gazing at him, her eyes polished mirrors of moonglow. “Look Max. I don’t know if I’m ever going to stop being this way. Acting like a total bitch, I mean. Even if the reasons for it no longer exist. But just remember...each cutting little remark, every time I put you down in front of your friends, or tell you you're terrible in bed...it’s just my way of saying that I care about you.”

Without another word, Lily turned away. She pulled her keys from her pocket, and began to unlock the door.

“Wow, I don’t even get a good-night kiss?” he asked, shaking his head in dismay.

“No, you don’t.” Lily looked over her shoulder, smirking at him. “You get to come in.” She held the door open.

Inside, Lily tossed her jacket on the floor and headed for the bedroom. “Make yourself at home. I’m going to put on my pajamas really quick. Oh, and would you mind bringing me a glass of water? Second cupboard on the left.”

Max found her a cup, but then he held it in his hand, just staring at it. Lily had given him so much to think about tonight. But at this moment, the only thing on his mind was her insistence that, above anything else, the thing she most desired was to be taller.

He pulled the syringe from his pocket. Without bothering to measure, he squeezed a huge dose into her cup – larger than he had seen anyone take before. 

There was an instant when he wondered if this was a good idea, if he wasn't about to make a terrible mistake. It was a serious question, with important moral and philosophical implications, and he would have to reflect upon them when he had the time. Right now, there was a very thirsty lady waiting for him in the next room.

Chapter 13.

Max was filling Lily's glass at the faucet when he heard the bedroom door creak open. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” she called from around the corner.

“Not a problem,” he answered, swirling the cup to mix in the serum. It wouldn't do at all if she could taste it – that would spoil the surprise.

“Oh, and not to be a pain, but could you be sure and put some ice in there for me, too?”

“Already did.” He turned, and walked out of the kitchen. What he saw waiting for him in the doorway caused his body to jerk so violently that it was all he could do not to drop the glass.

“Good,” Lily said, her voice saccharine-sweet. “Because to tell you the truth, I'm feeling a trifle...HOT.”

To call the outfit 'sexy' would be the equivalent of referring to the surface of the sun as 'vaguely warm.' Lily wore a skin-tight turquoise nightie, the garment cut sheer and revealing. It was sleeveless, with a low neckline open to showcase the girl's ample cleavage. There was a matching nylon skirt, which Max doubted came more than three inches below the level of Lily's crotch. Around her tight midriff the fabric was lacy, and almost artfully see-through. There was something mysteriously appealing about the ability to glimpse some, but not all of what lay beneath, and this only piqued his interest to see more of her.

“Hot,” Max repeated, wetting his lips. “Hot indeed. Burning, even.”

Lily smiled seductively. “My drink?” she asked, nodding toward the glass he held. He passed it to her, trying to concentrate on not spilling any. Her eyes never leaving his, the girl lifted the cup to her mouth, and drank every last drop. Her throat gave a tiny quiver with each gulp, and the raunchy sound she made as she swallowed was incredibly suggestive. But even more erotic to Max was the knowledge of what the contents of that drink would soon be doing to his cute little co-ed.

When she finished, Lily lowered the glass. “No, I'm afraid that just wasn't enough to cool me down.” She put the back of her hand to her forehead in mock distress. “What ever shall I...oh yes, of course!” The girl tipped her cup until one of the ice cubes fell out into her hand. “Yes, this will do nicely.”

Lily touched the ice to the nap of her neck, immediately gasping and closing her eyes in pleasure. “Oh...this is JUST what I needed.” The girl began to slide it over her face, her lips, her bare shoulders. A thin trail of dewy moisture followed wherever she went. Her hand went lower now, following the supple curve of her bustline, tiny goosebumps breaking out along the edges of her breasts. 

“I..Max I....” Suddenly, Lily's eyes went distant, and she dropped what was left of the ice. She began to tremble, her hands balled into fists. “I think....” 

“What? What is it?”

“I think I'm going to be sick!” All pretense of sensuality gone from her manner, Lily pushed past him and sprinted for the bathroom. Max followed. 

Lily was hunched over the toilet, her skin a pallid grey. He knelt down on the floor next to her, rubbing her back. “Man, those sugar-filled girly drinks will get you every time,” he mused.

“It's not that,” she assured him from between clenched teeth. “I've thrown up after drinking too much before. That makes my stomach feel sour, more gurgle-y. This is...spasmodic. As if my muscles are trying to squeeze my guts out of my mouth like a tube of toothpaste. It's almost like...I mean it's stronger, but....” Lily lifted her head, and gave him a wide-eyed stare. “No!”

Max was grinning from ear to ear. “Yes.”

Lily hauled herself to her feet. He was pleased to see the color rapidly returning to her face. “You didn't! Wait, what am I saying? Of COURSE you did. It was a lot, wasn't it? How much? Like three doses? Four?” She was excited now, the words coming faster and faster.

“You'll have to wait and see,” he told her, trying not to sound too pleased with himself.

“Ooh...I don't think I'll be waiting long. Yes...oh God yes...here it comes!” Lily closed her eyes as the growth pleasure began to course through her body. The first obvious sign came from the nylon straps that supported her lingerie. They were gradually beginning to thin and distend under the pressures of Lily's expanding body. Max could hear a faint, almost mournful creak of protest as the material fought to keep its shape.

“Mmm...really Max,” Lily said between little gasps of satisfaction. “You can tell me. How...ahhh! How much growth serum did you put in my drink?” She had gained perhaps an inch of height now, and if he stood very still he could watch as her head crept slowly upward against the backdrop of ceramic tile.

“I don't know,” Max answered truthfully, his voice distant. The slow build of momentum which always accompanied a new dose of the drug was almost over. Soon Lily's growth would be an unstoppable force, hurtling out of control like a runaway train. Within seconds he found himself eye-level with the top of her head, and then the line of her bangs. With a mutual thrill of excitement, the two found themselves gazing longingly at each other from an even plane. Then a heartbeat later Max was staring up to meet her eyes. And up.

By now Lily's nightie was becoming something of an issue. Large rips had appeared in the tissue-paper fabric around her abdomen, and the frilly material was literally disintegrating around her. The nylon straps, however, were an entirely different matter. Even as her body strained against them they continued to stretch and constrict, cutting into her skin painfully. Grunting in frustration, Lily took the material in hand. She pulled with all her might, her muscles flexing, her growth seeming to accelerate with the effort. The girl tore free from her prison of fabric, the thick nylon snapping with a sharp, elastic twang. Exultant, she swept the last tattered remains of the garment from her body, and stood before him, panting softly, her face flushed with exertion. And then, she attacked.

Lily reached for him, her arms growing longer even as they wrapped around his shoulders. The kiss that followed was the stuff of legends. Her lips were moist and delicious, her own natural flavor augmented by the faint taste of cranberry juice and peach schnapps. Max felt as if he were floating, and as he sank deeper into her embrace he reflected upon all the wonderful things about kissing a girl while she was in the midst of a growth spurt. The light upward friction of her body against yours. The sensation of her tongue swelling larger inside your mouth. The necessity to crane your neck higher, rise onto your tip toes, just to extend this tiny moment of heaven. 

Soon, Lily's growth put her lips above even Max's most enthusiastic efforts to reach her. Obligingly, she sank to her knees, reversing their rolls so that Max once again seemed the taller. Even in this position, they both knew that before long, she would outgrow him again.

It was agonizing when Lily broke their kiss, as though his body were being deprived of some vital resource necessary for life itself. The girl was looking around the room, a mask of concern resting lightly over her passionate expression. “Really sweetie, how much growth serum did you give me?” she asked again.

“Really, I don't know. If I had to guess, I'd say at least five doses. Probably more.” As he spoke, his hands, as if of their own volition, were beginning to stroke the tips of her enormous breasts, each one now larger than his entire head. Lily was continuing to grow at a fantastic rate, her bosom leading the way. Even if she had been her normal height, she would probably need at least an E-cup by now. 

The gigantic girl briefly gave in to temptation, leaning in to give him a quick, wet kiss, punctuated by a playful bite to his lip. “If you gave me that much, we're going to need a change of venue before long,” she told him. “If I get much bigger, I'm going to be stuck in here.”

Max looked around. The downstairs bathroom was perhaps the size of a large closet, featuring only a toilet, sink, and a stall shower. Lily's body was expanding, gas-like, to fill every available space, her transformation going faster now than ever before. 

He glanced back at her, and with a start realized that she was already as tall as him on her knees. “Okay. Move out, then?” 

Lily nodded. She climbed to her feet and, hunching over double, managed to follow him through the door. Once outside the girl stood up quickly, and banged her head – hard – into the living room ceiling. The blow seemed more annoying to her than painful. Lily sank to her knees, turning to look at the small indentation that she'd left in the plaster. “There goes my renter's deposit,” she said mournfully. 

“But what am I saying? There are more important matters to attend to right now.” The girl turned a predatory gaze upon him, licking her lips menacingly. The expression was so frightening that Max took an involuntary step backward, and as he did his foot caught on the ottoman. He stumbled, and felt himself falling backward onto the floor. Lily gave a feline roar of triumph, and he looked up just in time to see the gargantuan girl pouncing down upon him. 

She had his pants off in a matter of seconds. His shirt was more troublesome for her, its many tiny buttons difficult for her large hands. After a few moments of trying she grabbed its collar with both hands, and with a deep guttural moan she ripped it right off his body. As the growing girl loomed over him, Max suddenly knew what it must feel like to be a baby zebra on the African plain, lying defenseless, waiting for the first crunching bite that would bring an end to your short life. But when Lily's muzzle finally did reach him, it was her lips, and not her teeth that pressed into his flesh. 

She was merciless, finding his every sensitive area with terrifying precision and marking it with a soft, gossamer kiss. Her fingernails scratched his belly, over his hips, along the tender flesh of his inner thigh. For the first several seconds it was sheer torture, his body twisting and writhing under the crushing weight of sensation. But before long he adjusted, in the same way that one's eyes will adjust to the morning's first blinding glimpse of sunlight. And then, he wondered if living a life without having experienced this level of pleasure could truly be called living.

With each kiss Lily was bigger. Her hands were longer, wider, each one able to wrap fully halfway around the thickest part of his leg. The enormous girl positioned herself over him, letting the giant ovals of her breasts fall lightly onto his face. They were heavy and firm, and smelled enchantingly of Lily's own natural perfume. As she pressed them harder against his cheeks he could clearly feel her body swelling against him, the sliding of her expanding flesh just another note in the symphony of rapture. 

Just when he thought he might smother in the most delightful way possible, he felt her breasts glide off his face, bouncing along his chin, over his neck. Lily paused for a moment to kiss him full on the mouth, but then she was moving lower still. He felt the hard nubs of her tits tracing a line over his sternum, past his stomach. And then Lily was enveloping his manhood in the cavernous depths of her cleavage.

It took him a long time to realize that the voice howling in pleasure was his own. Through his fever dream of ecstasy he saw how perfectly the girl had played him, stimulating him in just the right way, letting his passion build to its peak, all without ever touching his dick. And when she finally had, it had almost finished him in an instant. Max fought his way back from the cliff's edge, stifling his almost overwhelming urge to orgasm, and again became aware of his surroundings.

Lily was staring up at him, her chin resting lightly on the center of his chest. The girl's face was huge, easily the size of a dinner plate, and Max could clearly see her continuing to grow larger with each passing second. “Welcome back, babe,” she told him, her voice dripping liquid sex. “I thought for a moment you were down for the count.”

“Not...going to be...that easy,” Max answered, fighting to speak through a miasma of pleasure.

“Oh, I get it. You're a big, tough man, huh?” She grinned at him wickedly. “You won't lose. To a tiny. Little. Girl?” As she spoke each word, Lily's body ballooned outward in punctuated bursts. The enormous smile on her face grew right along with her. She began to thrust her shoulders forward and back, side to side, caressing his length within the velvety confines of her cleavage. The rhythmic slap-slapping of her titanic breasts against his penis was driving him wild, and the powerful, confident look on Lily's face as she studied his reactions made it all the sweeter. 

All at once she lifted herself off him. Lily sat up, stretching her arms above her head, the sudden movement causing her basketball-sized tits to jiggle prettily. “You know Max, it occurs to me that I never DID get to show you that 'scenic route.' The one in the bedroom. As I recall, you ran out on me last time, before I had the chance.” The nine foot girl frowned at him cutely, her lower lip folding over into a pout. “You aren't going to run this time, are you?”

Max shook his head. “Never again.”

She flashed him a triumphant smile, surging larger as if in response to his promise. “Good. Because you know, I'm faster than you. If you tried, I'd catch you. Now come. Let me...show you the sights.” 

Lily rolled onto her hands and knees, and began to crawl away from him toward the bedroom. And true to her word, the view was absolutely majestic. She was beautiful, from the sinewy working of her muscles, to the sinusoidal curve of her hips, to the welcoming swell of her awe-inspiring ass. The creamy white abundance of her colossal breasts drew his eye, swaying gently as she moved and still gradually puffing larger. But most inviting of all was the soft, pink curl of flesh that he could occasionally glimpse between her legs. It was capped by a layer of downy black hair, and glistened with tiny wet droplets in the dim light of the living room.

The girl was halfway through the bedroom door when he made his move. Skipping over her tree-trunk legs, risking life and limb, Max ran forward, and without stopping to think he plunged his entire hand into the sopping depths of her pussy. Lily shuddered, sinking to her elbows, and moaned at the top of her lungs. He stroked quickly, haphazardly, her juices streaming out to coat his entire arm. And still she was growing! Her slit was roughly level with his midsection and rising steadily. Her hips were now so wide that they grazed the edges of the doorframe. 

Each time he pressed inside her he was rewarded with new shouts of pleasure, new spasms and jerks from her enormous body, a fresh stream of womanly juices. The girl moved with him, responding to his every thrust by pushing herself back against his hand. If he pulled away from her by even a fraction of an inch, Lily was forced to follow or be denied the sensation to which she was addicted. Max felt an incredible sense of power, knowing that he was suddenly in complete and utter control of his titanic girlfriend.

As if reading his thoughts, Lily suddenly disabused him of this notion. The girl crawled the rest of the way through the door, and turned toward him. Moving faster than he would have thought possible, she grabbed him roughly around the waist and lifted him easily into the air. Hugging him to her chest, Lily waddled on her knees over to the bed and flopped down on her back. The mattress gave a sharp squeal as it accepted her weight. 

Lily looked down at him, her face flushed, her eyes wild. “It seems like you just volunteered for a pretty big job,” she told him, gasping for breath. “You damn well better finish it, Squirt.” With that she shoved him on the shoulders, sliding him down her body until his face lay just inches from the hot pink mass of her pussy.

Without hesitation Max began to eat her out, licking her gigantic slit from end to end. It was the first time he had ever tasted Lily's essence, and he found it immediately to his liking. Above the usual flavor of feminine nectar, her juices had a distinctive, sweet tang about them, almost like an orange that had just begun to ferment. He felt his body being assaulted by her pungent aroma, by the wash of her pheromones. It seemed that the more of her he swallowed, the less he was able to organize his thoughts. The girl was thrashing and rolling about on the bed as if possessed, her thighs clamped firmly against his ears, eclipsing everything else in his world.

He became aware of a hard nub of flesh pressing against his nose. Her clit lay quivering before him, cherry red and swollen to the size of a marble. Grinning, Max wrapped his lips around it and let his tongue swirl as fast as it could. At the same instant he sank his arm deep within the rushing river of her pussy, and pressed the tips of his fingers hard against her g-spot.

Lily came. There was an explosion of fluids, a hummingbird pulse of vaginal muscles against his forearm, and an ear-splitting shriek of purest ecstasy. Her orgasm went on, and on. As it finally died, Max could sense the final embers of Lily's transformation going dark, felt the last inch, centimeter, millimeter of her growth ebbing away in the rush of her release.

Her hands reached down for him, and then his giantess girlfriend was lifting him up by the armpits. Lily's face looked exhausted, and she was drenched in sweat. Max guessed that the girl was probably less than ten feet tall, but not by much. There was a smile on her lovely lips – a greedy, not-quite satisfied smile. She slid him along her body until he felt the head of his cock pressing against the silky entrance of her womanhood.

Their eyes met, and in that instant he felt the pull of her affections upon him, a tidal force that he knew he could never hope to resist..

“In here, Max,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. “This is where you belong.” 

With the tiniest flick of her wrist she forced him inside her. There was gentle friction, a slithering wetness enveloping his loins, a soft pop of suction. The two moaned as one, harmonizing together in a song as old as mankind. Max spread his arms wide, grabbing frantically at her for purchase, his head buffeting against the solid mounds of her bosom. A warm syrup coated his hips, his stomach, thin rivulets joining to run down his thighs. 

Max felt lost inside her. The girl was impossibly huge, and logically he knew that he should be too small to have any hope of pleasing her this way. And yet Lily's face was contorted in pleasure. Her cries were growing louder. She clutched him desperately, bucking her hips, her body resonating with his.

Lily's muscles stiffened, her eyes clenched shut. There was a sudden tightening, a rapid tightening against his manhood. And then they were coming, together. Everything was lost but the animal need to thrust himself inside her. Sense and sentience melted into a featureless blob of indistinct shapes and colors. But his anchor, his guiding star in this sea of ecstasy, was the simple knowledge that the blob was Lily, and that if they were lost, they were lost together.

Much later, he awoke up to find himself lying on her chest, curled up like a cat, his face pillowed against her breasts. She was stroking his hair fondly, and humming a soft, soothing lullaby. Max turned painfully, and looked up into the face of his gargantuan lover.

“So tell me the truth,” he began, his voice husky. “The worst sex of your life. Am I right?”

She smiled. Gently, she drew him to her lips. This, Max decided later, was the best kiss of the evening. And, by extension, the best of his life. When at last it ended, Lily hugged him close. “The worst ever,” she agreed.

“I thought so,” he said, rolling over and nuzzling against her neck. They lay that way for a long time.

“You know,” Max said finally. “Even after this stuff wears off, you're going to be big. I mean, really big. How are we going to explain that at the lab? And where are you going to find clothes that fit you? And....”

“Shhhh,” she said, placing her thumb over his lips. “Those sound like questions about tomorrow. Right now, in this moment, there is only one question about tomorrow that needs to be answered.”

“What might that be?” he asked.

Lily gave him her patented smirk, the one he would've known even on the dark side of the moon. “In the morning, are you going to make my eggs over-easy, or scrambled?”

Chapter 14. 

The spinning centrifuge emitted a soft, hypnotic whirring sound, something almost akin to white noise. Max sat watching it, his chin resting in his hands, trying to stay awake. After three days of burning the candle at both ends, he felt like he was ready to collapse. Early mornings in the lab, followed by a 'break' for evening lectures, and late nights spent with Lily running their private reactions. And even after they were finished here, they had yet to go straight to bed afterward. 

On the contrary, Max's pre-dawn hours had been fairly action-packed of late.

The door creaked open. His girlfriend entered, brushing away the same stray lock of hair that was forever falling into her eyes. When she was away, Max found that he forgot, on some deep level, just how huge she had become. And so it always surprised him to see her, an incredibly beautiful woman – his woman – who just happened to have the size and disposition of an offensive linesman.

According to their most recent measurements, Lily now stood six feet six inches tall, dwarfing nearly every other student in the school. As if this wasn't enough, the girl also sported a fantastic bustline, one that had required trips to five different speciality shops to locate a bra large enough to contain. The combination of height and figure made Lily something truly unique, and completely impossible to ignore. 

“Hey Pip-squeak,” the girl called, strutting across the room to join him. “Haven't you finished with your reaction yet?” True to her predictions, Lily's increase in size hadn't softened her disposition by one iota. But with time, Max was learning to give as good as he got. 

“Oh, you mean THIS reaction? That one that was actually YOUR assignment for tonight? Well Gigantor, it seems that as soon as the centrifuge spins down, there's just one more step remaining. Then we can get out of here. And, I might add, that we would've been done MUCH sooner if you hadn't spent the whole evening in the bathroom.”

The amazonian girl bent over, clutching her stomach theatrically. “What can I say? I've got a touch of indigestion. I'm SURE you don't want to hear the details.”

Max looked up at her, smirking. “You can't fool me. You were in there preening – staring at yourself in the mirror. God knows you do it often enough at home.”

“So what if I was?” Lily asked, folding her arms behind her head and striking a bone-meltingly sexy pose, a pose marred only fractionally by the way she was sticking her tongue out at him childishly. “If you had a body like mine, you'd be checking yourself out, too. But if you REALLY want me to stop....” She took a menacing step forward, letting her shadow fall heavy upon him. “You're welcome to try and make me.”

He looked up at his enormous girlfriend, and shrugged. “Sounds like SOMEBODY is trying say they're already too big for their britches, and that they really shouldn't get any bigger. I'll just pour the growth serum down the sink then, shall I?”

Lily immediately jumped back, looking down at him in terror. “You wouldn't!”

Max grinned at her wolfishly. “But you aren't entirely sure, are you?”

“Okay, okay! Geez, I was just kidding. Here, I'll even finish up for you.” She opened the centrifuge, and removed a pair of test tubes. With practiced precision, Lily poured each of them into a larger vial. The girl held the mixture up to her eye, watching as the two substances reacted, releasing tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide. Once it had finished, she placed a stopper in the opening, and stored the container in the refrigerator.

“There!” she said, brushing off her hands. “Happy? No hard feelings?”

Max nodded, winking up at her. “I'm still your pusher-man.”

She grinned back at him. “Glad to hear it.” She crossed the room, stopping directly in front of him. Bending down, Lily placed her lips gently against his, giving him a short, sweet kiss. “You know Max, I really hate to have to compliment you, but...you've changed recently. For the better. You seem more...I don't know, relaxed. Certain of yourself. You're actually making it a CHALLENGE to get under your skin these days.”

He shrugged, and wrapped his arm as far around her shoulders as he could, which as it turned out was slightly further than halfway. “Thanks babe. But honestly, if I am different, it's your influence that's done it. I've been taking life way too seriously for way too long. Learning to take your bullshit in stride is good therapy. And...well...let's not underestimate the importance of having the world's most beautiful woman at your beck and call.”

Lily grimaced at that “I am NOT at your beck and call!” She paused, pursing her lips in thought. “Well, MAYBE I am. Fuck.”

Max laughed hysterically, until Lily finally reached down and punched him firmly on the shoulder. He winced.

“What I was TRYING to say, before I was so rudely interrupted, is that your new attitude looks good on you. You can see it in the way you carry yourself, the way you talk. It makes you...more attractive. And I'm not the only one who's noticed.”

He looked at her quizzically. “Who?”

She took him by the hand, looking down at him cryptically. “You'll see. Come on. It's beer o'clock. I'm buying.”

He followed her from the room, pausing only briefly to make sure the small vial was still concealed in his pocket. Their nightly attempt at reproducing the growth serum had been completed hours ago, and Max had slipped it into his jacket with the tried and true sleight of hand that had worked so many times before. The rest of the night had been spent running their boring, approved reaction for Dr. Franklyn.

The two walked arm in arm down the hallway, Lily leading slightly. It was well past one in the morning, and that meant a shift change at the security station, and a familiar face waiting for them at the desk. They rounded the last corner, and the girl sitting behind the desk looked up from her worn paperback novel. “Hey Max. Lily. Another late night?”

“Hi Elissa,” Max answered, waving with his free hand. “Yeah, these days late nights are the only kind of nights we have.”

“You and me both,” Elissa said, laughter in her voice. She flashed him a wide, radiant smile, which Max returned without thinking. 

The girl had been a classmate of his almost as long as Lily. There had never been much of a friendship, between any of the three, but they had all been at least vaguely aware of each other. There had been a time, however, when Max had been much more than simply aware of Elissa. In his freshman year of college, he had harbored a secret crush for the girl. 

If Max had a 'type' back then, Elissa was exactly it. She was a quiet, mousy girl, with long flowing blonde hair. A cute pair of owlish, wide-rimmed glasses framed her face, adding to the perception of intelligence that so dominated one's first impression of her. Elissa was petite, standing barely over five feet tall, and was almost worryingly thin. Yet despite her emaciated appearance her figure still managed to be curvy, with wide, deep hips and a generous swell of bosom. In the early days, as he'd watched the girl from across the lecture hall, her body had reminded him of French architecture – how archways and buttresses could seem to stand beyond any reasonable interpretation of the laws of physics, and as a result magnify their beauty a hundredfold. 

Max had never found the courage to approach her, and gradually the crush had receded, until it was all but forgotten. So it had been a shock to find her, late one night, dressed in full uniform, grinning up at him from behind the security desk. Whatever feelings he once had for her were now the unquestioned and exclusive property of Lily Phillips, his girlfriend, as big as she was beautiful. Yet he often found himself taking a painfully long time signing the security log on the way out, making excuses to stay awhile, to chat with Elissa.

“So, what have you guys been working on tonight?” she asked, taking the clipboard from Max's hand and stowing it behind the desk.

“Nothing important,” replied Lily evasively, her voice coming out a trifle curt.

“Yeah, just some bullshit for the study we're working on,” he added.

Elissa grinned, and gave Lily a significant look. “Okay. If you guys don't want to share the details about the growth serum you're making, that's fine with me.”

At these words, Max and Lily's heads snapped up in unison. They looked at each other, mouths agape, completely at a loss for words.

“Um, is everything okay?” Elissa asked, and cleared her throat nervously. “That was...ah...that was a joke.”

Max's eyes widened. “Oh. OH! No, I understand. It's just been a long week....”

“...and you've no doubt noticed that I actually HAVE been growing lately....” Lily continued.

“...but there's no such thing as a growth serum.” Max finished, nodding enthusiastically.

“Oh...kay,” Elissa said, looking mildly uncomfortable. “So umm...pardon me if this is a sensitive subject, but...how exactly DID you get so big, Lily? I mean, I remember you being WAY shorter than me, and now....” She craned her neck up to peer at Lily, the girl towering over her by a full eighteen inches, and shrugged.

“Growth spurt,” Max answered.

“Hormonal therapy,” Lily said at the same time.

Elissa seemed to consider this for a moment. “So, she had hormonal therapy...and the growth spurt was a side effect?” she asked, cocking her head in confusion.

“Exactly,” Max and Lily said together.

“Oh. Makes sense. And hey, maybe I should look into this procedure.” She looked Lily up and down, an almost lecherous grin spreading across her face. “I wouldn't mind gaining a few inches. Or....” Her eyes went to Lily's chest, a whopping 42-F according to their most recent measurements. “...gaining a few inches. If you catch my meaning.”

Max laughed, and glanced slyly at Elissa's bust. “Not that you need it.”

She laughed warmly, and when she did Max saw something behind her eyes, an expression almost that of a master fisherman who has just felt the first snag of a trophy bass biting down on the line.

Abort! Abort!

He contrived a yawn, stretching theatrically. “Well listen, I'd love to stay and talk, but I think we both need to be heading to bed. Umm, see you tomorrow?”

Elissa nodded. “Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel. And hey,” she reached out, catching Max's hand before he could pull it off the desk. “If you....” She paused, glancing sidelong at Lily. “That is, if you guys...if you ever want to hang out...give me a call. Okay?”

Max smiled apprehensively. “Ah...okay. We'll do that. Take it easy, Elissa.” 

He turned and strode off down the hallway, Lily following close behind. As soon as they were outside the building, she reached out and slapped him – hard – on the back of the head. “'Not that you need it,'” the giant girl repeated, her voice an evil growl. “What the hell is the matter with you? Did you forget I was standing RIGHT there?”

“Hey, take it easy!” he protested, his arms coming up defensively. “Sorry! It was instinct!”

“I'm sure it was,” she snarled. “Apparently you're 'instinctively' looking to ditch the deluxe model, and pick up something more...compact? You know, like, a girl you can actually HANDLE?”

Max sighed. “Okay, question. Do you actually BELIEVE that? Is this a real fight? Or are you just trying to nail me on some trumped up charges so I'll offer you another dose of serum to smooth things over?”

Lily glared down at him, but then she turned away, concealing a smile. “You're getting too good at this. Fine, you're off the hook. But do you see what I mean? That Elissa chick was all over you! She couldn't have been any more obvious if she'd been wearing a t-shirt that said 'FUCK ME NOW.'”

He nodded. “Point taken. Now come on, let's go back to your place.” Max patted the concealed vial in his pocket. “I think it's high time we ran a little experiment.”

Lily's eyes brightened. “It's a date.”

Chapter 15.

There was a package waiting on Lily's front porch, with Max's name scrawled on it in neat handwriting. He grabbed it as she unlocked the front door, and took it to the kitchen table.

“Expecting something?” Lily asked, throwing her tarp-sized coat on the floor and fetching herself a beer from the kitchen. 

“Yes actually. It's something I asked Melinda to send me. It should make our nights a little less...stressful.”

“Melinda,” Lily said, scratching her chin. “She's the cop, right? The one that the drug makes more attractive?”

Max popped the side of the box open with his thumbs, and reached inside. “That's the one.”

“Is she taller than me?” Lily asked sharply.

“Shorter,” he said, not looking up. “Six foot four, the last time I checked. So you've got two whole inches on her.”

“Too close for comfort,” she muttered. The girl plopped down into the chair across from him. She twisted the cap from her bottle, and took a long pull. “So what'd she send you?”

“This.” Max withdrew a small Ziplock bag, with a number of tiny, faintly pinkish slips of paper inside. “New technology, courtesy of Melinda's friends at Border Patrol. It's a kind of litmus paper used to indicate the presence of various isomers of LSD. It'll turn blue when exposed to the drug, or red in most other liquids. This way we'll be able to tell what it is we just made, without you having to be our Guinea Pig.”

Lily nodded. “Good. Dropping acid is fun once in awhile, but I wasn't looking forward to three straight nights of tripping balls until five in the morning.”

“You think YOU'VE had it rough? Try babysitting a six-foot-six, three hundred pound lady who is convinced, utterly convinced, that the apartment is full of invisible ghost-bats that are trying to lay eggs in her navel.”

She winked at him. “Ah, but if the ghost-bats are invisible, it's difficult for you to prove that they weren't really there, isn't it?”

“Bats don't lay eggs,” he explained, patiently.

She held up one finger, giving him a scholarly smirk. “Ahh, but what about GHOST bats?”

Max realized she wasn't going to give him the last word, and wisely let the point lie. He fished one piece of litmus paper from the plastic bag, and set it on the table. From his left jacket pocket he withdrew their most recent attempt at reproducing the growth serum, along with a fresh syringe. “Cross your fingers,” he said, and let several large drops fall onto the paper.

There was a breathless moment of silence. And then, slowly, the piece of litmus paper turned a deep, navy blue. “Looks like we're getting pretty good at synthesizing acid,” Max said, leaning back in his chair and letting out a long, exasperated sigh. “What do you want to do with it?”

Lily shrugged. “Same thing we did with the rest, I suppose.” She picked up the vial of LSD, walked over to the sink, and dumped it down the drain. “I just feel like there's something we're missing here. Chromium Oxide. Palladium. Tetrahydrofuran. I just KNOW one of those does something special, but I can't remember WHAT. It was minor...maybe something Doctor Franklyn said in passing....”

Max rolled his eyes. “Whatever Hermione. Why don't we cut through four-hundred pages of bullshit and just ask Professor Dumbledore?”

She laughed. “Don't get snarky. We'll try again tomorrow night. We're bound to figure it out eventually.”

He nodded. “I know. It's just...the clock is ticking for me. I'm three hundred thousand dollars in the hole, and it's only a matter of time before I start getting threatening phone calls, and burly men knocking on my door.”

“Don't you worry about that, kiddo. You've got Big Bad Lily here to protect you.” His girlfriend stood to her full, impressive height, and flexed her muscles. Max couldn't help but think that, compared to Tara and Melinda, her arms looked a little underwhelming. Still, taking her size into account, she was probably at least as strong as he was, and regardless, her offer of support cheered him up a little.

And gazing up at her massive, womanly frame gave him another idea.

“Well, now that I don't have to spend the evening watching you roil around on the carpet, how do you feel about a more, ah, pleasant form of entertainment?”

She raised one eyebrow curiously. “Oh? What have you got in mind?”

Max reached into his OTHER jacket pocket, and had barely managed to remove the vial of serum before Lily was at his side, doing what he affectionately referred to as her 'happy dance.' “How much? Howmuchhowmuchhowmuch?”

“Just one,” he told her, beginning to take his measurements.

She folded her arms across her chest petulantly, hanging her head, looking for all the world like a spoiled little girl who has just been told that she will have to settle for two ponies, instead of three.

“Lily, you know I shouldn't even be giving you THIS much. People are starting to get suspicious. That thing with Elissa...that was too close. You want to get bigger, and I'm perfectly okay with it. More than okay. But it's too late in the game for us to be stupid about it.” He gave his enormous girlfriend a placating smile, and offered her a wad of blotter paper. “One dose. Okay?”

She shrugged, and plucked the drug from his hand, pinching it between two thick fingers. “Okay. For now. But I just want you to know that, once we get this stuff figured out, I'm not going to be content to take it slow anymore. I want to...I'm going to be HUGE. Bigger than any woman on the planet has ever been.” Lily paused to glance at him, seeming to gauge his reaction to her words. “Do you...have a problem with that?”

Max shook his head. “Not even a little bit.” He stood up, lifting himself on his tip-toes, and kissed her soundly. She responded with a happy little sigh of contentment, and wrapped her broad arms around him. A moment later he stepped back. Max watched with baited breath as she tilted her head back, and dropped the dose of serum into her mouth.

Lily's eyes fluttered briefly, then she fixed him with a calm, self-assured stare. “So. I'll let you decide: clothes on, or clothes off?”

Max studied her outfit, feeling the pulse of anticipation beginning to pound in his throat. The girl wore a simple white button-up work shirt, the top two buttons open to reveal her stupendous cleavage, as well as the faint black outline of her new bra. Her jeans were sinched up tight with a belt, simultaneously much too large and far too short. Lily's true measurements were something like thirty-two wide, forty-two tall, but after a full day of searching they had been unable to find anything close to this size – especially not with a cut to accommodate her feminine curves. They had made do with a pair from a men's big and tall shop.

He licked his lips thoughtfully. “Lose the shoes, the pants and the bra. Keep the shirt and undies.”

Lily beamed at him. “I LOVE a man who knows what he wants.” She began to undress, slowly, sensuously, her eyes never leaving his. Her jeans slid down her beautifully sculpted legs, pooling like ribbon candy at her feet. “I think I'm going to need some help getting out of this bra,” she told him, pointing, and then her face contorted in a moment of pain. “I think you'd better hurry.”

Max took two running steps to stand before his girlfriend, all six and a half feet of her, full of the knowledge that before long even this immense height would seem tiny by comparison. He wrapped his arms around her body the best he could, reaching up under her shirt. Max located the clasp of her bra as if by instinct, but then he froze. The inviting peaks of Lily's bosom were beginning to visibly swell, her soft pillows rippling outward as the first wave of growth washed over her. Her breasts were slowly becoming larger, heavier, two enormous, ever-ripening plums, begging to be plucked and devoured. And he was aware that those plums, several inches beneath the level of his chin at first, were rising. Her sweet-smelling bust climbed higher, and higher, until soon he felt the soft flesh brush lightly against his throat.

Watching his reaction, Lily giggled, and planted her wet lips on his forehead. “Come on little guy, you've still got a job to do.” She rotated her shoulder blades, causing her expanding bosom to heave violently. “Or would you rather I do it for you, and just rip the damn thing to shreds?”

Quick as a flash, he undid Lily's bra, and with some effort managed to tug it out from beneath her tightening cotton shirt. “Mmm, much better,” she sighed, her hands almost absently stroking the exposed tops of her breasts, working up and down the long line of her cleavage. “You know, you removed my bra pretty fast, once you got down to business. Almost as if you've had some...practice?” She raised her eyebrows expectantly.

“I bought myself a training bra when I was fourteen,” Max replied, his voice distant. “I used to practice unhooking it. Until I could do it with my eyes closed.” All of his attention was now focused on the workings of Lily's fingertips. She pinched. She rolled. She kneaded. But best of all were the moments when she would open her hands, and he could watch her firm flesh spring back to its natural position, bouncing with a healthy, youthful suppleness.

Lily smiled at him, the smile of the wise headmistress who has just caught her prized pupil doing something very, very naughty. “So much effort, just to prepare for the day when you got to undress a real, live woman?” she asked, gaining another inch as she spoke.

Max nodded, still not removing his eyes from the glacial expansion of her bustline.

“I see.” Lily took a half step forward, and with light pressure on the back of his head she lowered his face into the hot flesh of her bosom. “So tell me, Mr. Harwell. Now that you have a real...live...woman....” With each word her breasts swelled larger, and with them, Max knew, the rest of her body. “What exactly do you plan to do with her?”

He looked up into her eyes, the two shining green emeralds nearly a foot above his head, and still stretching further and further with each passing second. Without thought, he took hold of her shoulders, and hoisted himself into her arms. She accepted his weight easily. Two large hands came down beneath his ass, supporting him, and he wrapped his legs around her waist for purchase. 

There was a brief twinge of deja vu, and Max was a moment identifying its source. He and Lily had once stood, on this exact spot, in this exact position. On the first night. 

They kissed. It was far from the first time that he had experienced a growing tongue slipping inside his mouth, felt his body being lifted as though riding in the world's slowest elevator. And yet, in his long and storied history, Max felt this moment was the best of all. With Tara and Melinda, the unspoken purpose had been nothing more or less than experimentation. With Lily, it had gone from terror, to the joys of first discovery. But in this moment, in this joining, he found in her a wonderful affirmation. An eternal, ringing answer to a question that he never would have thought to ask. 

Breaking the kiss at last, Lily held him against her, regarding him solemnly. Her lips trembled, and he saw unshed tears glistening in her eyes. “Max, I....” she began, but then her voice faltered. Lily stared at him helplessly, a look of something that was almost shame coming over her beautiful, gigantic face.

“It's okay,” he told her simply. “I know. And I do, too. Love you, I mean.”

The words were like a magic spell. Lily's face broke out in the largest, most rapturous grin that Max could ever hope to see. She kissed him again and again, her fingers groping, touching him everywhere, as though trying to make sure once and for all that he was really there in her arms, that he wouldn't vanish at the stroke of midnight. 

The overswell of emotion was like dry tinder to the flames of her growth. The girl expanded rapidly, practically exploded in size, growing a full six inches in the space of as many heartbeats. The buttons burst from her shirt like the popping of many tiny firecrackers, her arms and shoulders ripping through the flimsy fabric. The waistband on her panties snapped, and the garment drifted unnoticed to the floor, like some giant leaf of cotton. And through it all she still kissed him, with lips that increasingly encompassed his face, until at long last her transformation slowed, sputtered, and was complete.

Lily set him down, and Max looked up at his titaness with wide-eyed wonder. The girl was eight feet tall if she was an inch, and more beautiful than he could have imagined possible. From the size of the dose she had taken, Max had expected her to end up no taller than seven feet, perhaps seven foot two at the absolute most. Somehow, some way, she had grown nearly a foot taller than that. The top of his head was just beneath the massive, basketball-sized swells of her breasts, and it was only with some difficulty that he could look past those gigantic tear-drop globes to see her staring down at him.

Lily turned, a marble statue come to life, and ran her fingers through her silky black hair. “This is your lucky night,” she began, her voice deep, resonant. “Tonight, you can think of me as your genie. I won't call you 'Master,' but all the same, your wish is my command.” She bent, her sinewy body art in motion, until her face was only inches from his. “Tell me, my lovely little man...what is thy desire?”

His smile split his face from ear to ear. “It depends,” he answered. “Can you be gentle?”

Lily raised herself back to her full height, utterly dwarfing him. “No promises,” she said, pursing her lips impishly.

Max considered this for a moment, then took her enormous hand in his, and without another word led her into the living room. The ceiling dropped low here, and she was forced to stoop in order to follow. Making a place for himself on the floor, Max lay down on his back. He stared up at his gargantuan lover, the girl seemingly miles above him. 

“Do you remember that first night in the lab? The reason why you decided to take the growth serum in the first place? Before we knew what it actually was?”

“Yes,” she said, her voice heavy with emotion. As she looked down at him far below, a lock of dark hair tumbled over her face. She didn't bother to brush it away. “I wanted you to trust me. Because, even before I had any reason, I already trusted you. And you bring it up now, because....” Here she paused, studying his prone form, the unspoken invitation that the position offered. “Because even if I won't be gentle, despite how easily I could hurt you...you trust me too?”

He nodded, beckoning her closer. “Got it in one.”

Lily knelt before him, one thick, trunk-like thigh crashing against the floor on either side of his chest. She caressed his cheek tenderly with one colossal hand. “Are you ready?” she asked him, her words dripping sensuality. 

Without waiting for a reply, his giantess girlfriend began to slide down the length of his body. Her hips drifted lowered, until at last he felt the sweltering touch of Lily's womanhood against his swollen cock. At first the girl confined her movements to tiny, almost involuntary thrusts, letting her lips caress him, like the first strokes of a paint brush before the masterpiece has truly begun. He could feel her nectar dripping onto him, a bath of hot molasses, until he felt that the anticipation would drive him mad.

The eight foot girl watched his reaction with an expression of suppressed glee, fully and wickedly aware of the torment she was inflicting upon him. “All you have to do is ask,” she whispered, pressing herself firmly against him once, just once, before resuming her agonizing cock-tease.

“Please, oh God Lily please....” he whimpered.

“Please what?” she demanded, cupping her breasts seductively and grinning down at him from above.

“Make love to me.”

The words were scarcely out of his mouth before her hips were rising into the air, the dark folds of her pussy descending to engulf the tip of his aching manhood. For a split second Max understood how difficult it had been for her to build the anticipation this way, how she had wanted him inside her at least as badly as he had wanted to be there. But then the ability to think was blissfully torn away by the tsunami of pleasure that Lily poured upon him.

She thrust against him, trying to move slowly at first, but then unable to keep herself from accelerating. Soon her gargantuan body was literally slamming against him. There was pain, but not much of it, and even this was merely a faint counterpoint in the duet of ecstasy which they played together. Lily's voice transitioned from moan, to scream, to an ear-shattering shriek of gratification. The succulent orbs of her breasts bounced and swayed with her every movement, her enormous body twitched and shuddered each time he slide inside her.

Lily's voice rose in pitch. There was a rapid contraction of her inner muscles. And then he felt her cum. A torrent of her sweet juices spilled out to coat his stomach, his thighs, trickling down to his balls. Max raised his hips the best he could, ignoring the danger her massive, out-of-control body posed, and pressed himself hard against her g-spot. Another orgasm shot through her like a bolt of lightning. Howling at the top of her voice she fell forward, her fists crashing down on either side of his head, missing him by the slimmest of margins. Undaunted, he spread his arms wide, grabbing her titanic waist for purchase, and within seconds he felt yet another wave of fluids drenching his body.

“Holy shit! Holy shit! Max don't stop, please don't stop! So...oh my GOD!” She was grinding against him, the last vestiges of her self-restraint gone. Max felt himself being dragged back and forth against the rough carpet, the irresistible force of her ecstasy throwing him around as if he was nothing more than a rag doll. By now he had lost count of the number of times she had came, suspected in fact that she might be in the midst of one long, overpowering orgasm. And try as he might to prevent it, he felt his own end rapidly approaching.

Max came, screaming her name as he spurted inside her again and again. When he reflected back on it later, he would decide that the orgasm had been slightly thin, maybe even a bit disappointing. Yet this in no way diminished how wonderful, how utterly life-altering the experience had been. Hours later, when he lay in bed, snuggling against the love of his life, Max would decide that, as much as we strive to reach the ending of a thing, the climax can never be as important as the journey.

With some difficulty, Lily lifted herself away from his spent body, his manhood slipping out of her and landing against his stomach with a dull thud. They were both dripping with sweat, among other things, and both wore the same expression of exaltation hidden behind a thin veil of exhaustion. Bending, the girl hoisted him into her lap, and she cradled him as they savored the afterglow, together.

“Are you sure you're okay with this?” he asked, peering up at her, his voice hoarse.

The eight foot girl frowned, her expression slightly perplexed. “What do you mean? What wouldn't I be okay about?”

Max cleared his throat. “You told me once that you believe business and pleasure shouldn't be mixed. But we've been trying for the serum and....” He gestured at their naked bodies. “This. Honestly, I've been waiting for the other shoe to fall. I thought you might want to hold back on one or the other, and if we had to make a choice....”

“Ah, but there's a distinction. We aren't in business, not yet anyway. And besides...this? This is more than pleasure.” She kissed him, and Max got the feeling that it was going to be quite a long one. But then suddenly, she paused. “One more thing. Because I get the feeling that neither of us is going to do any talking, not for a long time. And...I just want you to know that...well, you didn't guess wrong. But I still need to say it.” 

She smiled at him, and there was something different on her face, as though there had been an invisible wall, a defensive perimeter that had at last given up and crumbled into the sea. “I love you, Max Harwell.”

“I love you too, Lily Phillips,” he said. And she was right – the kiss that followed left them both unable to speak for a long, long time.

The other heard none of these words. Lily's house was old but well-insulated, and so only the loudest sounds of ecstasy had escaped to her ears that night. The open venetian blinds, however, did very little to prevent the girl from seeing the events that had transpired. Smiling to herself, she silently backed away, and slipped away into the shadows. The gears were already turning within Elissa's head, and as many unfortunate people had already learned, they were powerful gears indeed.


----------------------------------------------------------End Book 1----------------------------------------------------