It was almost Thanksgiving break, and both Rick and Annie regretted planning to go their separate ways over the holiday. They had both been wrapped in a dance of infatuation since the second week of school, staying together at least half the nights of the week. It didn't hurt that she was hot for him all the time, something she blamed on the drug-trial side-effects. However, it was the primary effect Rick was keeping tabs on. At the moment she was standing against a measuring tape he had set up in his apartment to check her growth. It turns out she had gained an astonishing six inches during the summer drug trial to reach the 5'11" she was when they first met. He held his pencil straight against her head and read the markings on the tape. "Looks like you're just over six foot one. That's a good sign, the growth is slowing." From the wrinkle in her nose he could see that was a bad choice of words. Being five or six inches taller than him in even the most modest of heels had been making her self conscious, even the current 3" barefoot difference was very noticeable. "I mean medically speaking of course. The taller the sexier in my book."
"I'm following the diet religiously. No sugar sodas, no salty foods. I don't even eat french fries anymore. Damn what I wouldn't do for a french fry," her voice trailed off as she looked away. "I just don't want you to to wake up one day and get tired of having a girlfriend looking down on you." He turned affectionately turner her face in his direction and looked into her eyes shaking his head. He was looking for a sign of whether she was going to get emotional or not. He could sympathize, the whole experience was alot for for anyone to go through. "No? Taller is sexier huh?" She seemed calm as he nodded and delivered a brief kiss. "I hope you really mean that." She extended her feet, pushing herself a couple inches higher on the tape. "This is me at Christmas." She intentionally held her head up high, giving him a peek at the underside of her chin. She stretched again up onto her tip toes, "and this is next spring. Can I have a kiss sweetie?" Her head was tilted up out of his reach to try and make a point. "Ohh wait, I think I'll go out in heels tonight." She gently pressed down on his shoulders, when he didn't budge she gave up her act. Her mood seemed to sink along with her as she dropped off her toes.
"Annie. You know you're sexy. You see the way people look at you, they envy it, and you like it. Before this all started I bet you would have signed up to get this tall. Don't pretend you wouldn't." He had gone over all these same points before. He knew she wasn't really bothered about her height. He just wanted to say something positive.
"I'm not talking about me and you know it. Of course I love it. I'm talking about you. You think I'm teasing but this is seriously happening. Are you going to love it this spring when we go out and I have even the daintiest of heels on? Are you going to find it sexy? Or are you just going to want a normal chic and disappear? If so, I really want to know now, it'll hurt less." Honestly Rick wasn't sure, and his hesitation showed it. She looked away, "maybe my sister is right, maybe I should be dating some dumb-as-rocks basketball player." His thoughts were filled with confusion, but he knew one thing was certain, he knew how he felt about her. He just wanted to be with her.
"No Annie. I'm not going anywhere." The moment he said it he knew he meant it. Things seemed clearer. "I'm here tonight because I want you. I think you're sexy because I want you. If taller is what you will be tomorrow, then that's what I want, because I want you." The emotions on her face kept their intensity as they they shifted from concern to relief. They leaned against each other in embrace. As his words set in, he realized how true they were. He liked the way people noticed her. Ever since had been dating, other girls had started to seem so short. He really liked it about her. He spread his legs to lose height against her as he looked up into her eyes. "So I'm ready for Christmas, and spring..." He wanted to overdue it for effect, but realized she had been higher on her tip toes. Was she really going to be that much taller just this coming spring? He found himself getting a little excited about the idea. "..and heels." He lowered himself further. She looked incredibly sexy looking down at him.
"You better be." She placed her arms across his shoulders and pressed his face sideways against her. As he reached his hands around her lower back, he slid them under her shirt. The feeling of her skin, being held against her chest, and watching the neckline of her shirt rise and fall all completed the arousal his mind had already started. He wanted her. He turned himself to face her, to try to share his arousal.
"In fact, I find it sexy right now." She looked about to say something until she realized he was sliding his hands up under her skirt. In the past few months he'd learned a few tricks to staring up her overactive libido, and he appreciated them all. She let out an inaudible sigh as his finger brushed across her panties. He placed one soft dry kiss just above her neckline. "Especially the heels." He tilted his head and pressed his lips against her shirt, exhaling hot breath against her breast. He could see her nipple already starting to respond, but just dragged his lips across her shirt as his fingers traced under the edge of her panties. She let out a gentle gasp as he slipped against her wetness. She had slightly spread her legs for him, and her whole body was stiffly propped against the wall. He started stroking her with a slow pace as he paid attention to her responses. Once he had her in the moment, he returned to nuzzling the top of her breasts through her shirt. It only took her a moment to respond, lifting her shirt until it was bunched up above her breasts. His legs were still straddled, and he only had to lower himself a little to kiss and suckle at her breast as he gently increased the pace of his fingers. Her hands pulled her bra out of the way enough to allow what he knew she wanted. She nipples were very sensitive, and she let out a whimper as her hands in his hair all but forced his lips onto one. He tried his best to balance his attention between the tasks, his lips and tongue only faltering slightly as he felt her body firm up. However, as he felt her pushing his head downward every so gently, he wondered if she wanted another kind of release. He licked against her breast one last time before shuffling his stance and kneeling between her legs. She looked incredibly sexy, aroused almost to the point of climax legs spread, propped against the wall. He lifted her skirt and held her panties out of the way as he set his tongue against her, hands returning to his head. He followed her motions, lapping against her sensitive skin as he felt it stiffen. He dragged his tongue hard against her, and a moment later she pressed him harder into her as she let out the audible portion of her climax and then calmed.
"If I have to get taller to get more of that, bring on the salty foods and sugar soda!" They both laughed as she was already gesturing him upwards and turning him to the wall. She peeled her shirt all the way off before kissing him hard. A moment later his pants were open, and he felt her fingers slide against the bare skin of his erection. At first she kept her tongue in his mouth as she teased him, but only moments later she slipped down to her knees. She licked against him a few times before taking him in her mouth and sliding her tongue and lips against him. She went slow at first, but before long she was fast, faster than she needed to in her freshman impatience. She'd lose it in time. He grabbed at her hair trying to hold himself off his climax just a few moments longer before letting lose into her mouth in silent satisfaction. She held him there a few seconds before walking off to the bathroom to clean herself up. He had no plans of letting her slip away anytime soon.
---
As a junior in pre-med, Rick spent some nights helping out in the school's first-aid clinic. Annie seems to think it's exciting and cant wait until she gets that far in her program, but she doesn't realize how little he gets to do. There are nurses for anything more than a simple scrape, so he mostly interviews patients and occasionally hands out birth control or a bandage. That is, aside from sitting around reading to pass the boredom of no visitors. He could now empathasize with any emergency room doctor who ever wanted something bad to happen just to give them something to do. He was alone, sitting at a desk, with empty seats in front of him, staring out the side window.
The sound of the clinic door opening startled him into interest that at least something was happening. It was still light out, perhaps about 6pm, and a tall blond girl was hopping through the door. Did he say tall? Really tall, and definetly attractive. After he processed her outfit, a spandex sports jersey, he realized why. She was obviously on the women's vollyball team. A strange possible future passed through his mind as he imagined scoping out a vollyball or basketball game to find a girl he was attracted to. Annie was going to ruin him. He could see the problem before she even reached the counter, as she was limping and some blood had run down her left leg. "Hi, I uh.. I kinda scraped my knee up pretty bad." She was panting a bit, she must have just been playing.
He handed her a towel which she immediately used to wipe up and cover the blood. "It doesn't look too bad. We'll get you fixed up quick. Is anything broken?" She shook her head, still wiping up blood. "You'll just need to fill out these forms." He set a clipboard down on the desk facing her. It was some kind of strange punishment of the system that someone bleeding had to sit in a chair and fill out paperwork before they could get a band-aid. Still, she dutifully filled it out before handing it back to him. "Alright, come with me." He stood, leading her towards one of the first-aid rooms. Becka Allerton, age 21, 5'11", junior, he read from the forms before they reached the plain looking patient room. "Hello Becka, I'm Rick Keefer, a third year pre-med student. Have a seat there." It was mandatory to disclose that we were not doctors or nurses, but it was on the patient to ask for someone else. She hopped up onto the patient table. "It looks like that just needs to be cleaned out and bandaged up. Do you have any pain in the knee?" He held her sneaker and mechanically moved it back and forth a little.
"No no, my leg is fine, I just jumped for the ball, caught my knee on a stake, and the coach though I should get is cleaned out properly so it didn't get infected." He nodded, and opened up a supply cabinet. Grabbing some antiseptic, a roll of sterile gause, and some other supplies, he was happy for something to do. The wound held all his focus as he cleaned and made sure to brush out any little flecks of dirt he could see.
After tipping some antiseptic onto a rag he warned her, "this is going to sting a little." She expectedly winced on contact, but only a little. After it was fully clean, he applied an antibiotic, a bandage pad, and a bunch of bandage tape to keep in place. He used the stretchy tape, so it'd stay on as she walked around. Just a few minutes after he started, he was finished and anticipated going back to having nothing to do. "Just a minute, I'm going to go get you some more antibiotic to apply." He had only been out of the room for a few minutes when he heard her call for him in a somewhat distressed voice. A moment later he was back in the room. "Is something wrong?"
"I just. I just feel nauseous all of a sudden. Whoa." She laid down on her side on the patient table. He hadn't given her anything. This was clearly out of his league.
"Did anything else happen? Did you hit your head?" She murmured a negative response while she lay still on her side. "I'll be right back. I'm going to get the nurse." He sprinted over to the break room and interrupted her tv-watching. She was a big black woman and shot him a bit of a stern glance before remembering she was paid to be here. "I have a patient you need to look at. She came in with just a scrape on her knee, and I fixed it up, but she's now lying over nautious." On the short walk back to the exam room the nurse asked questions and I repeated what I already knew, absolutly nothing. When we reached the exam room, Becka was sitting up again.
"What seems to be the trouble?" The nurse loosed my bandage and took a look at the wound before putting it back in place. "This looks fine. Rick tells me you had some nausea?" Becka nodded her yes but tried to pass it off, yes yes, but it's passed. I feel fine now. It was just then that I noticed Becka busting out of her spandex halter just a little. "Well, it's not related to this little scrape on your knee. Are you sexually active?" Becka shot an uncomfortable glance at be before nodding and answering the nurse. "Well, be sure to use protection, and I advise you get a pregnancy test this month to be sure. If it happens again, be sure to come back down or visit the ER." With that she hurried out of the room as quickly as she had entered, probably eager not to miss too much of her sitcom.
"You sure you feel better?" She nodded back to Rick. "Alright. Be sure to change the bandages every day or so, and try not to get it wet until it's scabbed over." He put some supplies in a small plastic bag and handed it to her. She looked like she was feeling better when she hopped off the patient table. Actually, Rick thought she looked downright hot, with her athletic shape bursting out of her halter. She must have noticed as she pulled at it, and succeeded in pulling it down only to bust out of the top a little more. He forced himself to focus on her eyes as she made for the door, and asked Rick if there was anything else. "No no." Only something was off. He looked down at his clipboard. 5'11". There was no way the girl standing in front of him was about his height, she easily had a couple inches on him.
He followed her as she walked out towards the exit door. Had he remembered wrong? He replayed his memory of her arriving, and felt certain she was about his height. Was he just overreacting? As he looked at her, he had a strange sensation in his whole body that something just wasn't right. She was easily Annie's height, which would make her 6'1" or taller! His mind started firing the connections together, and as soon as she was out the door, he rushed back to the exam room to read the label on the antiseptic. Alcohol, Ammonium, Boric Acid, Mercurochrome, and Iodine. There it was. As soon as he saw it he felt certain of something that didn't even seem possible. The antiseptic had just acted as a trigger for a synthetic human growth hormone surge. He had to contact the drug trial, and he had to do it right away.
---
Suzanne had felt horrible all day. It was all the worse that her grandparents had come to visit for the weekend. They hadn't driven far, but she would have preferred to just hide in her bed by herself. Instead she felt obligated to walk them around campus all day, ultimately making her feel worse. Now she was sniffling and caughing. She worried about being able to study tomorrow. "Suzie, you're such a dear for taking us around today." Her grandmother was walking around her apartment, straightening things up that didn't need to be straightened. Her grandfather was slumped back on a living room chair, falling asleep.
"It's really fine grandma. I needed to get out anyhow, but now I could really use the rest. Are you sure it's okay if you head home early?" Really it better be, because she was about ten minutes from being face down in her bed.
"Don't you be silly. We just want you to get well. Isn't that right?" She nudged her husband, and he looked around startled out of his sleep but hadn't heard a word she said. "Ohh, you better not be sleeping on me on the drive home." Her grandma had driven since his eyesight worsened years ago, and she frequently remarked feeling like his chauffeur. She walked towards the kitchen and poured a glass of water, then started diggin in her purse. "You know, I have just the thing for that cold of yours. You just drink this up, and tomorrow you'll feel right as rain I assure you." She squeezed some drops of something into the glass that turned it faint ugly brownish orange, before walking it over to Suzanne.
She sniffed it and it smelled horrible. "Really grandma?" Her question was answered with a determined stare and a nod. Her grandmother did tend to be right about things, she wasn't one to dispense crackpot remedies. Suzanne took a sip, which at first tasted like water. The aftertaste though was horrible, like rusted metal. Her grandmother was still giving her a determined stare, and she decided she didn't want to belabor the whole experience, so she took another gulp.
"Come on you old fart, lets leave the girl to get some rest." They all walked to the door to say their goodbyes. Suzanne let out a sigh of relief once they had left. Only moments later she was lying in bed and feeling even worse. She found herself wishing for sleep.
---
It did not take Becka long to realize something was more off than the fit of her halter top. After trying two different pairs of pants that just felt too small, she was starting to feel like something strange was happening. Did she really get accidentally knocked up? She didn't need this. At first she put on a skirt and passed it off, but when she met her friends out at a bar, she felt even more strange. Something was different. They seemed obviously shorter, or she was obviously taller. Nobody gets taller from being pregnant. They tried to talk to her, but she was so distracted she didn't hear them. She excused herself as not feeling well and practically ran home.
She pulled out a tape measure, and laid it out on the floor. She measured herself over and over, adjusting the way she put her hand on her head, making sure the measure was straight. Each time the result was about the same, she was over six feet tall! How was this possible? Ideas flooded through her head. Surely she wasn't this tall yesterday. Had anything strange happened? The scrape? Had she been infected? What kind of infection makes people taller? Her whole thought process seemed silly, but yet the evidence was there. She found herself getting excited about it. She envied some of the taller players on the vollyball team. This would give her a huge advantage! If it happened once, why couldn't it happen again? If only she knew what caused it. She thought through the events in her mind. She remembered the surprising nausea, laying over on the table. It must have been something at the clinic. She ran out the door.
---
"Maybe you're just studying too hard, maybe you just didn't get enough sleep." Annie was trying to rationalize away his story as a daydream, or some kind of trick of the mind. He had to admit her explanation was better than being crazy. Rick had contacted the drug trial, and after them thinking him crazy for even suggesting such a set of events, they dismissed him with one short response. There was no Becka Allerton in the study. Therefore, it couldn't have happened, and he must have imagined it. He felt like he was crashing down from a bad trip. Overtired, possibly ruining a great reference from the drug trial, and now he had woken up his girlfriend and got her thinking he was crazy too. He felt the need to just ge home and sleep and calm down. He kissed her, agreed she must be right, and turned back out the door. He hardly remembered walking home.
---
The sun had set, and Becka felt fortunate the clinic was 24 hours. She peeled the bandage off and tossed it in a nearby trashcan, then picked up some stray dirt and grass and winced at the pain as she rubbed it over her previously clean wound. The routine was familiar as she walked through the clinic doors. Fill out some paperwork, head to an exam room. This time a different geeky male med-student oogled her even more as he cleaned her wound. "Can I see that bottle?" He handed her the antiseptic container as he finished dressing her wound. She pulled out her phone and sent herself a text message with the ingredients she couldn't easily remember before setting it down.
This time she was walking towards the door as the nausea come on again. She was so excited. She strained not to show her discomfort. Sitting on a bench outside it slowly passes. After this second event the signs were so obvious she could easily notice them. She felt her feet squeezed against the straps of her shoes. She felt her shoulders stressing the shape of her shirt, and she felt her chest pushing out the top of her bra. Each of these changes was small and subtle, but together the change was obvious. She was giddy with excitement as she walked home with an impetuous pace. Everything seemed so surreal around her. Was this even possible? Was it a dream? When she reached home she was able to confirm what she had suspected, she was now six foot two! Even more so, she was sure one of the ingredients from the antiseptic was the cause. A wave of exhaustion set in, and as she laid down and started to drift off to sleep still fully clothed. For the first time she worried what people would think. Six-two was more than tall enough, but even that would be hard to explain.
---
She could see the daylight streaming through the windows. Suzanne's grandmother had been right, even in the dreariness of just waking up, she could tell she felt much better. She wandered out into the kitchen still half asleep, poured herself some orange juice, and sat down. Still not awake, she stared blankly out the window as she drank it. Her roomate Lynn walked into the room with an alertness that made it seem like she had been awake for hours. Sometimes she almost hated Lynn for her energy. Everything seemed easier for her, classwork, boys, you name it. A casual onlooker might have thought it related to Lynn being something more rare than a white elephant, a busty asian. Her enviable posession of slim asian features and american diet encouraged boobs made it hard for her to stay friends with most women. Suzanne, on the other hand, was her american twin, dark curly hair, a trim figure, and even more stacked. Therefore, Lynn's first words of the day to her were not at all uncharacteristic or uncommon among them. "Hey sweetie, you're falling out of that top, put those things away."
Suzanne's grogginess just starting to fade, she looked down and could see that she was, in fact, popping out of her nightshirt more than usual. She tried to adjust her shirt, but pulling it up just exposed her tummy and made her chilly. Perhaps she had shrunk it in the wash? She stood up to put her glass away and Lynn grabbed her by the shoulders. "Stop. What is happening here?"
Suzanne stopped, looked down at her top, she was kind of still busting out of it. "I just think I shrunk it, I'll put on something else." Lynn grabbed her hand and dragged her into her bedroom. One thing was for sure, Lynn was way too awake. For a moment she considered drugging her coffee to slow her down. Lynn spun her around to face a mirror, and a moment later Suzanne was really starting to wake up. The two of them were like twins, so much so that people sometimes called them twin sisters -- a bit of irony for an american girl and a Chinese girl who were obviously not related. They were both cute, dark hair, dark eyes, same height. Only right now they were definitely not twins. Suzanne was both several inches taller, and substantially more well endowed. "Ohh my god."
"Every day I've know you we've been exactly the same height, five-foot-five. People don't sprout up overnight. What did you do?" There was a kind of accusation in her voice like Suzanne had did it on purpose, like somehow she decided to break their bond of sameness.
At the moment, she was really just in shock. She started rattling off thoughts in her mind. "I dunno, I dunno! I just. I just walked my grandma and gramps around campus. I was feeling really sick. I had a coffee, and some lunch at that bad sandwich place on 3rd. Which made me feel even worse by the way. Then came back home, and grannie gave me this horrible tasting glass of brown water, and I went to sleep and here I am." Lynn hurried out of the room. By the time she made it back out of her room, Lynn was already drinking the rest of the glass. "What are you doing? You think that brown stuff is going to make you taller? She gave it to me to cure my cold."
"I don't know, but something did it, and I want it." Lynn stormed into her room with some determination.