Noah had just lay down on his bed when the doorbell rang. Wondering who the hell that could be, he was astonished to see Ashley standing there. She looked terrible, her hair was mussed, her eyes red from crying, and it looked like she'd been in a fight, as the sleeve of her blouse was torn and she was missing a shoe.
As angry as he was with her, he still felt bad about earlier, and his brain switched her status from 'Vile Bitch' to 'Needs Help'. He ushered her in, and guided her to sit on his couch. Without a word, he put a blanket around her, and got her a cup of hot tea. "Here." He sat down, facing her.
She bit her lip, looking ashamed, sad, and more than a little frightened. She took a drink of the tea, then gestured to her throat. She opened her mouth, but only a soft croak came out.
"Something wrong with your throat? You can't talk? Hold on." He got up and found a pen and a notepad. "Here."
She set the teacup down on the coffee table and wrote something, then showed it to him. 'I'M SORRY'.
He sighed. "I'm sorry too. Pushing you was crossing a line. No matter how badly you've treated me, I should never have done it."
'I DESERVED IT'. She wrote.
"I...don't know about that. Let's just forget about it, ok? What happened to you? Man, I wish I could do something to help your voice." Suddenly, he was struck by a strange urge, and he reached out and smoothed her hair down. It felt so soft to the touch...
She straightened up stiffly, but didn't move away from his touch. In fact, she seemed to lean towards him. "I..I can talk again! Oh Noah, I was scared I'd never be able to talk again! I'm so sorry for being such a bitch to you!"
"Hey, I just said forget about that. When did you lose your voice?"
She frowned. Again her marveled at how tiny she really was. "Well...after you yelled at me, I ran into Debbie Russel again..."
Debbie Russel was, in her own way, just as much of a bully as Ashley. Except she better fit the role, being a tall, muscular girl who was always picking fights with people. It was well known she and Ashley hated each other, but they rarely had any direct confrontations. "Debbie? Don't you to have, like, some kind of armistice or something?"
She gave him a tired smile. "Always with the big words. I wish I was as smart as you, Noah. And yeah, we kind of did, nothing official, we just agreed to stay out of each other's way. But then...do you really want to hear this? I'm a petty person, living a petty life, Noah. And that's all this is, petty drama." She seemed to shrink in on herself, holding the blanket tighter around her petite frame.
"Ashley, look. I really do want to know, and I want to help you but...if this is some kind of scam to get back at me, you better leave." His instincts screamed at him to bury the hatchet and treat her like a human being, but he'd been burned, far, far, too many times before.
She flinched as if she'd been struck. "I...I deserve that, don't I? You don't have any reason to trust me. Or care. I'm sorry, I'll go." She stood up.
He got up as well, and put his hands on her shoulders. "No...don't go. You've hurt me before, but I said we can put that behind us, so, please, stay." He frowned. "Uh, Ashley...how tall are you, anways?"
She looked up at him with a rueful smile. "5' 1". I uh, usually wear shoes that make me taller. You were right, I really am just a little girl trying to act grown up. Noah..you're the kindest, gentlest person I know. When you yelled at me before...it made me start thinking about how horrible I've been. If I could make someone like you lose his temper, I must be the most evil girl in the world."
"I don't know about that. Yeah, you've been pretty bad, but nobody is the villain of their own story. I'm sure there's a reason for it. Even if it's not justified, it's something that can be understood."
To his shock, she suddenly wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, the blanket falling off her shoulders to land on the floor at her feet. She pressed her face against his chest, and started bawling, which made her resemble a little girl even more. He didn't move at first, then he put an arm around her shoulders, and started stroking her hair. He slowly guided her to sit down again, and he sat next to her (not that she had much choice- she was clinging to him like a life preserver).
Finally, she stopped crying, and she lay against him. "Thank you, Noah. It feels nice to be held like this." She turned to smile up at him. It felt like his higher brain functions were shutting down. 'She's so cute', he thought.
They just stayed like that, quietly, for several minutes before she started to talk. "So I got into a fight with Brianna Monday. She'd started dating Steve, and I got jealous. I'm petty that way. So I started a rumor about her, and Steve broke up with her over the weekend. She was furious, and she started calling me out for all my bullshit. We'd been friends forever...at least, I thought we were friends. But now I realize I don't know what friendship is- I fucked her over just like everyone else who got in my way. Anyways, she told everyone about all the horrible and nasty things I've done, so overnight, I turned into a social pariah."
"I know...something about what that's like." Noah regretted saying that the instant he said it, but what was done was done. She flinched again, but he held her tighter. "Sorry."
"No...you're right to say it. It's just hard coming to terms with it all. I feel like somebody else did all those horrible things, not me. But I can't deny that I am responsible. Well, once everyone started shunning me, that's when Debbie came for her pound of flesh. I can be pretty scrappy when I need to be, but, well, I'm not a fighter like she is. She's just too big, too strong. She jumped me in the locker room and, uh..." She looked away.
"What? What did she do?"
"She..took off my clothes and she...she touched me." Ashley still didn't meet his gaze.
"She raped you?!" Noah felt his jaw drop.
"Uh..I mean...kinda. It was...more like assault. I mean, she didn't..but she threatened to." Slowly, she looked to him.
"I'm sorry, so that's why you were in that hallway- you were trying to avoid Debbie."
Ashley nodded. "Since she took my clothes, I had to wear the spare clothes I keep in my locker, and my gym shoes. That's why I looked shorter to you, I'm guessing. You're used to...my disguise, I guess you could call it."
"It's a good one. The way you walk, talk, I knew you were shorter than average, but...you always seemed larger than life." Noah admitted.
"That's me, the great actress. But it's all a lie. The tyrant high school princess...that's not me." She sighed heavily.
"But...but why? I don't get it." Noah frowned.
"Don't you? Noah, if you had to describe me, what would you say?" She glared at him.
"That you're the cutest girl I know." He blurted that out without thinking.
Her eyes softened, and he couldn't describe the look she gave him, but it made his stomach do flip flops for some reason. "That's not...you were supposed to say 'the prettiest girl in school' or 'the most popular'. And there's a reason for that. Nice people. Good people. They get walked over. Bullied. The girl I was in the 5th grade...she wouldn't be where I am now."
"I don't know. I mean, I'm one of those nice people you're talking about. But the person bullying me was you." Noah pointed out.
"It wasn't just me...but...yeah. I chose to become like the bullies, and look where it got me. Sure, I was popular, but now I'm a nobody anyways, nobody likes me, and I'm going to be the one bullied. I think this is where I wish I would die, but even I'm not that dramatic." She shrugged.
"Ok, I get that, but...damn it, why me!?" This was the sticking point, the thing that he wanted to get past, but just couldn't.
"I..I...I don't know!" She started crying again. "I don't know! I don't know why I was so horrible to you! I wish I could take it back! Because you don't trust me, you can't trust me...and you'll never love me!" She broke down, sobbing.
"What...?" Noah couldn't believe his ears. "Why would you want...? No come on, even if people hate you now, you're beautiful, you could get anyone to love you."
"No. You said it yourself. After high school, I'll be a nobody. And none of those...other guys..are you. Would be as kind and gentle as you. They'd use me, and throw me away when I wasn't young or pretty anymore." She sounded so miserable.
'Why is this happening? Why is she saying these things? Man, it's like my dream...' And then he remembered something he said in anger.
I wish you'd just shut up! And she was struck mute.
And then...
I wish you were person I thought you were- somebody who could love me.
No. It couldn't be. That was impossible. Nothing had changed, nothing could grant his wishes...
And he noticed the ring on his finger. Ok, he needed to test this. "You're exhausted, Ashley. I wish you'd get some sleep while I make us some dinner."
She blinked, then yawned. "That...sounds good." And she smiled and lay down on the couch. She was so tiny, it was more like a bed to her. He tucked her in and made sure her head rested on a pillow. She looked so peaceful and innocent when sleeping.
"Ok, so that worked. Uh, I wish my brother would call to tell me he's going to stay at his girlfriend's house tonight."
Almost instantly, he got a text on his phone. Checking it, sure enough 'Hey little bro, staying with Lisa tonight. Go ahead and order a pizza, it's on me.'
"Holy shit. No this could still be a coincidence..." He paused. He needed to think of something that would be impossible without magic...but not something that would cause problems, like making the sun rise, or causing the dead to rise from their graves.
He looked at the sleeping Ashley. He was struck again by how cute she was. Being a small girl really worked for her. He wondered what it would be like if she were even shorter...no, he couldn't. That would be wrong!
'But then again, I made her fall in love with me, didn't I? What a hypocrite I am'.
"I wish Ashley would stand up, but remain sleeping." She threw off the blanket, stood up, and faced him, her eyes closed. She was snoring softly, and that made him smile.
"I wish Ashley would shrink slowly until I say stop." At first nothing seemed to happen, but then he saw she was smaller. Her blouse became looser, her socks sagged, and her skirt was loose around her hips. She started looking like a kid wearing her older sister's clothes as one shoulder began poking through the neck of her shirt. Her skirt slid down her hips, revealing her cotton panties, which were also loose around her waist. Then the skirt dropped to the floor, and the hem of her blouse (which was starting to look more like a dress) came down to cover her thighs.
Her panties slid off what little he could see of her girlish legs to pool at her feet around her shoes. She looked like she could almost step right out of her shoes. The top of her head almost to the level of his waist. She looked adorably cute, and his dick was uncomfortably hard.
"Ok, stop!" She was close to about 4' tall, he guessed. "I wish that no one but me would realize Ashley has shrunk."
"Oh, I wish I had a pizza with half of the pizza my favorite toppings, and the other half Ashley's. I wish we had whatever appetizers are Ashley's favorites, and our favorite drinks, all on the coffee table." Food magically appeared.
"I wish Ashley would sit down, and wake up."
She sat down, and when she opened her eyes...