The Sunshine Project Pt. 08

"Baby shark? Really, Jess? You take this daycare worker thing a little far." Allie snickers at me. She's not taking this seriously enough. Maybe she hasn't connected that we have probably broken some law and will go to prison.

"Give me that. My oven mitt?"

"It's that or tongs." Her deadpan expression irritates me, but I take the oven mitt and slide it on my hand. This time picking Cora up is safer. She squirms and yelps, but I manage to get her into the hamper and put the lid on.

"You bitch, put me down! Let me go!" She kicks and pounds my hand with her tiny fists, and when she's in the basket her railing doesn't stop. "I'm going to call the police. You're going to prison just like your dad!"

"Here, get dressed," Allie says, dropping all of Cora's clothing into the basket on top of her along with the keys. For the moment Cora's voice is muffled again, and I put the lid back on it.

"Get her out of here." I can't look at the hamper or even think about Cora one more second. This is so fucked up, I don't know where to start. She didn't even blink at the effects of the gun, not even a batted eyelash. Do Glenda and Dean know what they do too?

Allie carries the basket down the hall to the laundry room, and I hear the door click shut just as someone knocks at my front door. "Shit..." My body is in flight mode. I want to run up to my room and cry, but Shep is going nuts now and with whoever it is at my door, I feel panicked. If Cora was right, it's Glenda. She's come for the guns too, and I can't let her have them. How else will we get Cora back to normal when she's calm?

"Allie..." I whine, and she returns as if by magic.

"Got it, okay? Don't get up."

Allie bolts right past me to the front door and opens it. I sink into the couch and hug my stomach and rock. Everything is out of control. This never should have happened. We had a chance to resize Shep and give the guns back, and we didn't take it. Cora should be happily driving across town to the pawn shop or whatever, and I should be having a heart to heart with my best friend about our relationship changing.

"What do you want, Glenda?" Allie stands like a sentry at the front door, barring my ex-step-aunt from getting in.

"I need to see Jess. I want the guns back, and she needs to hand them over before we call the lawyer." I can't see Glenda, but I can smell her noxious perfume flooding in through my door.

"No. Leave." Allie moves to shut the door, but Glenda's hand reaches in and pushes back.

"I'm not leaving without the guns. They are Cora's, and she wants them." Glenda doesn't care about Cora at all. She probably wants the guns to sell and keep the money, though part of me is ready to hand them over and never think about it again.

"No. They're Jess's. I have proof on my dash cam that you gave them to her." Allie puts a hand right in the center of Glenda's chest and holds her back, forcing her out the door. "If you don't leave, we're calling the police."

I curl into a ball, lying on my side while Allie chases Glenda away. Things couldn't get any worse than this. Now it's not just an innocent mistake. Allie purposely shot Cora and shrank her, and I can hear the hint of her tiny screams over Shep's incessant barking. If Glenda hears that and recognizes Cora's voice, I'm in deep shit. Luckily, Allie is able to chase Glenda off. Still, I lie there staring off into space.

The empty wine bottle from last night lays on the carpet next to the coffee table. It reminds me of what last night should have been. Allie and I should be celebrating that she's normal size again. Instead we're going to plot how to cover up shrinking Cora. What's more is, everything is so messed up that I don't even know what Allie is to me anymore. I focus on the wine bottle and try to make it all make sense in my mind.

Then I notice something on the bottle, moisture dried there and smeared. I squint, trying to focus in as I hear the door shut and then the lock click. There is a hazy film around the bottle, about six inches up its girth, and bits of dog hair stuck in it, probably from my carpet.

"Allie?" I reach for the bottle and pick it up, careful to hold it by the neck as I examine it.

"Oh God, Jess..." Allie snatches the bottle out of my hand, and I notice her cheeks are bright red. "I meant to take care of that."

"What did you do?" I sit up and straighten my t-shirt, covering my panties. She told me she was sick, but this looks very much like she played without me.

"It's not what you think."

"You said you were sick." I'm hurt. I asked her to do that with me, but she did it alone?

"I'm sorry, you went upstairs and I heard you playing, and then I realized I was horny." She looks down sheepishly, and I feel like a bad person for being so loud last night.

"But a wine bottle?" I ask, snickering.

Her toe draws a circle on the carpet, and she shrugs. "Ever since you fingered me when I was shrunken I've been craving something giant again and well..."

Oh fuck, that was so hot too. The way her tiny pussy wrapped around the tip of my finger made me so horny, I almost went along with her suggestion to use her as my fucking dildo. Still, the idea that she played without me after telling me she was sick kind of hurts.

"I would have helped you."

"I know. I'm sorry. There are going to be times we play without each other." She sets the bottle down and then sits next to me. "Maybe we should talk."

"Being shrunken and fingered was really that good?" I ask, knowing she wants to talk about the more serious topic of our change in relationship. I'm just not ready to hear her flat-out reject the idea that we could be good together in the guise of protecting our friendship. If I get her on the topic of sex, she'll go along with it.

"Uh, fuck yes. I want to shrink you too and see if you like it." She chuckles, and from down the hall I hear Cora banging on the door demanding to be let out. It breaks the tension of our conversation.

"No. I don't intend to shrink anyone or anything again." I stand and pinch the wine bottle between two fingers. "I'm going to throw this out."

"Maybe you can shrink me again," she jokes, but I wonder if she's actually joking as I carry the bottle to the bin and toss it.

Now... what to do about Cora.