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HTTYD - Day 21
🕑 Added 2021-02-23 02:00:49 +0000 UTCI’m posting two chapters in a row of HTTYD because I want it to be 3 weeks ahead instead of just two, so you guys get more bang for your buck :) And then over the next week I’ll (hopefully) post two in a row of HTTYB so that’s one's 3 chapters ahead of everyone else too! AND then hopefully another update or two to Roommate before the end of the month
I’m also like a month away from finishing v1 of this story, and then I’ll be starting right back up on v2 where Marcus will only be 10 inches tall! So I’m sure a lot of readers will be excited for that, but hopefully the finale of v1 will be pretty fun too :)
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Wednesday, November 4
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Marcus was up bright and early the next day since he had to go to bed at the same time as his daughter now, 9:30. But since his body required a lot less sleep than hers, he’d woken up around 4am. It hadn’t even been light out, but he woke up and felt fully rested already. But Jessie wasn’t supposed to be up for almost two and a half more hours, so he’d tried to fall back asleep at least. It had gotten another half hour, and then another 20 minutes, but eventually he realized his body just couldn’t physically fall into a deep sleep for several more hours, so he mind as well just wake up early, even if there wasn’t anything to do. It resembled his schedule from when he was working for the news station, except at least then he’d had a reason to get up. But now he didn’t. So it felt a bit more odd for him.
He did his best to slowly crawl out from under Jessie’s covers, noticing that she was facing away from him as he body slowly heaved with the rhythm of her peaceful slumber. Since the bed was against the wall, and she liked to get in after him, he had to try and climb over her snoozing body and try not to to bump into her too hard, which proved to be more difficult than he was expecting because of how fluffy her sheets were and how relatively short his legs were. He ended up misjudging how close to the edge of the bed she slept, and accidentally slipped on the edge of her mattress and tumbled over her, onto her bedroom floor. He looked back at her though, and she didn’t seem to wake up, so he breathed a sigh of relief.
Since he had so much free time before Jessie was up, he figured he mind as well make breakfast for the two of them. But even after he had cooked up some scrambled eggs, bell peppers, ground beef, and cheese all into a tasty morning meal, there was still time leftover. He tried watching the news, but the first channel he turned on the TV had been where he’d used to work, which instantly put him off from wanting to watch it or any other of the channels. He was reminded of his first couple days after getting laid off, and how he had still woken up extra early after years of needing to be at work by 5am.
But eventually 6:30 rolled around, and since Jessie was normally up by then he headed back into her bedroom to see if she was awake. She was laying in bed on her phone, eyes squinting from the brightness of the screen. “Should I assume you’re up?” he asked, and she rolled back over and collapsed on her mattress.
“I totally forgot, there’s a Professional Development Day today. So there’s no school til tomorrow,” she grumbled. She was glad to have a day off of course, but upset that she’d forgotten. If she remembered yesterday, she could’ve stayed up late, or turned off her alarm for today. Marcus was a bit frustrated too, since he’d finished all of Jessie’s homework for her with the expectation that she didn’t have the time to do it herself. And, like her, gone to bed way earlier than he needed to.
“Well, since nobody told me that and I had to get up, then you do too,” he said, walking over and pulling back her sheets and opening the blinds to let the first glimpses of the sunrise in. “You’ve had plenty of time to sleep, and it’ll be good for you to maintain your schedule. Come on,” he said, patting her legs a few times in encouragement. She groaned out of annoyance, but did as she was told anyway, swinging her legs over the side of the bed so she could start the day.
* * * * * *
Jessie and Paris had decided to hang out together, and since Paris’ parents still had to go to work like any other day, that left Marcus in charge of driving his daughter to her best friend’s house to hang out for awhile. And when he got there, Paris had been so hospitable, offering him drinks and food and all, that he didn’t leave to head home quite yet. He hadn’t intended to stay, but Paris assumed that he was planning on it since her own parents usually wanted her to have ‘an adult present’ whenever she was hung out at other peoples’ homes. So she told him that they had HBO Max in their TV room upstairs, and since Marcus and Jessie only got Netflix, he was intrigued to say the least. I mind as well try and find a movie to watch that isn’t already on Netflix, he figured. If I headed home right now, I’d probably just watch a movie anyways. At least here I get some new choices. He didn’t usually ‘chaperone’ Jessie, since she had a phone and he trusted her enough to hang out alone with her friends. But he and Jessie were so close with Paris’ family anyways that he knew they wouldn’t mind if he stayed. So while Paris and Jessie hung out downstairs, Marcus stayed in the upper lounge area watching a Superman movie from that had come out when he was a kid and hadn’t seen in awhile. At some point through the movie, he heard the front door open, and it sounded like a couple more of their friends had come over, but Marcus didn’t feel any need to check in on the girls, so he stayed upstairs.
Eventually the movie finished, so Marcus got up from the couch and started wandering around upstairs. If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t exactly want to head downstairs and hang out around 3 or 4 teenagers who would all be twice his size. The feeling reminded him of when he was a kid, and he didn’t usually leave his room whenever his sister, who had been in high school, would have her friends over and were always a lot bigger than him. Except now instead of his older sister’s friends, it was his teenage daughter’s. And the size difference was far more noticeable.
As he strolled along the hallway, he saw Paris’ and her little brother’s doors were both ajar. Since he went to a different school, he didn’t have a day off like Paris and Jessie did, so he wasn’t home. Marcus peeked through the opening into Paris’ room, feeling impressed with how much neater it was than his daughter’s. Jessie’s was already pretty clean to begin with, but Paris’ was so well-kept it almost seemed like a model home, as if it was surprising that someone lived there. Turning around and taking a peek into her brother’s room too, which wasn’t nearly as tidy, he spotted something familiar on the ground. “Huh,” he laughed to himself, “I haven’t seen one of these in ages.” He pushes his way into the room and knelt on the floor, picking up a Nerf gun. He loved playing and shooting with them when he was a kid, but ever since growing up a few decades ago, he couldn’t remember the last time he saw one. The gun was supposed to be just a simple pistol, but in Marcus’ two and a half foot arms, it felt like some kind of over powered mega blaster from the future. He held it like a shotgun, and it felt like it weighed at least 10 pounds, but he twisted around the room with an eye closed as if he was a kid again. It was a newer model than he was used to, so he couldn’t tell right away how to check to see if it was loaded, but it looked like it was cocked. Pretending like he was in a sci-fi movie, he straightened his back and acted casual, waltzing around the room, before suddenly pivoting 180 degrees and quickly pulling the trigger while mouthing “boom!” Sure enough, it had been loaded, and a long, orange dart flew from the chamber and out the boy’s room. “Oops,” he muttered with a chuckle, watching it cross the hallway and fly into Paris’ room as well. He considered just leaving it; it was only one bullet, and Paris would find it eventually and give it back to her brother. But he remembered how often he lost his own Nerf bullets as a kid. They were like pencils, he’d stock up every once in awhile but one by one they’d slowly disappear somehow. So he sighed and set the gun back down on the ground as he headed out of the bedroom to make his way into the other to try and find it.
He hadn’t really been paying attention when he fired the gun since he wasn’t sure if it was loaded, but he was pretty sure he saw it arc across the two rooms and land on Paris’ bed. He couldn’t see anything orange stand out against the girl’s violet bed covers, but then he wondered if it might’ve landed around the bed’s perimeter. Like Jessie, her bed was up against the wall, so he had to climb on top and crawl across to look down into the crack formed between the bed and the wall. Sure enough, there was the dart, lying on the floor against the room’s wall beneath her bed. Shit, I don’t know if my arms will be able to reach. He got down on his stomach and scooted up as close to the wall as he could, extending his hand as far down into the crack as he could. No luck. He couldn’t even feel the dart, let alone grab it. Sitting back up and scratching his head, he sighed as he realized he’d have to crawl under her bed to get to it.
Clambering back off the bed, he straightened the sheets back out that he’d accidentally ruffled, and got onto his hands and knees to peer under the bed. The area beneath her mattress only seemed to be about 6 inches high, but luckily Marcus was pretty sure he’d be able to fit (because the only other option without getting anyone else would be moving the bed, which he definitely wasn’t strong enough to do). He got onto his stomach now, and then army crawled beneath the giant, wooden frame, towards the lone orange toy piece on the other side. For once, being small is actually coming in handy, he smugly realized as he snatched up the bullet. Then he tried backing out, but crawling backwards with a “ceiling” right above his head turned out to be too much work, so he started turning around with his under-bed movements right as he heard some voices grow louder outside the room. Just as his head was able to turn far enough around to see the door, he watched as it flung open, and two pairs of legs came walking through before closing the door again.
Of the two people talking, he recognized one as Paris, but the other was some other girl’s voice who he didn’t recognize. He couldn’t tell what she looked like, other than that her skin was lighter than Paris’ and she wore black stockings. He went through the slew of Jessie’s friends who he knew. Gabby, Ava, Caroline, Rosa… I don’t think it’s any of them. Who else of her friends did I meet recently though. Harlow I think was her name? The voice isn’t that high pitched. It’s not our neighbor’s girl. Or Veronica… thankfully. Jessie had a dozen other friends who he’d probably never met before though, or couldn’t remember what they sounded like. The point was that Jessie hadn’t come through that door though, just Paris and some anonymous girl. And despite his normal intentions, he was now hiding under the young girl’s bed.
He knew he had to speak up right away, to establish his presence, since every additional moment that passed would come off as creepy if he was discovered. And he was holding the Nerf dart in his hand, so he had an “excuse” of sorts. But just as he breathed in and opened his mouth to speak, he heard Paris speak up. “Stop, that tickles,” she giggled, and then was barely able to make out the sound of a soft smooching sound. Marcus froze, his eyes alert and staring at the legs in the center of the room. Whoever the mystery girl was, her feet were pointed right at Paris’ a few inches away, and he could tell she was leaning forward somewhat. Are they… kissing? He hadn’t even known Paris was gay, or at least bisexual. But suddenly, the creepiness level that would be placed on him if he made himself known now had just multiplied tenfold.
Paris backed up and sat on the edge of her bed, while it looked like the other pair of legs sat sideways on her lap, her feet rubbing against Paris’ calves as they continued to kiss above the secretly trapped man. For the longest minute of his life, nobody in the room talked, and all that he could hear was the sound of the two young girls quietly making out, while he hoped that it wouldn’t lead to anything more. With every heart-pounding second that passed, he felt dirtier and dirtier for not having spoken up sooner when they came in. But they practically jumped right into it—what else could he have done?
Suddenly the sounds slowly, and he heard their bodies rustle above him. “Not now,” Paris whispered, slowly shifting out from under her lover’s lap so that they were both standing again.
“Come on, your parents aren’t home,” the other voice gleefully reminded. “And they always wanna make sure my mom’s home whenever you come over, when else are we gonna get a chance to be alone together?”
“Yeah, but Jessie’s dad is here.”
The other pair of legs took a step back in surprise, “What? Like in the house?”
“He dropped Jessie off and then I told him he could watch something in the lounge. He’s pretty chill, I just forgot to tell you and Brandon. But I haven’t even come out to the rest of my family yet so I definitely don’t want him to know before them if he happened to walk in on us or something. It’s just… too big of a risk.” She was the one to take a step back now. “I’m sorry.” Nobody said anything, although Marcus’ heart was racing so fast he was nearly worried that one of the two girls would hear it. The more this went on, the more secretive information he seemed to find out, just piling on to his guilt.
“That’s OK, I understand. I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable,” the other girl replied, and she stepped forward to give Paris another quick peck on the lips. “Let’s head back down.” Their feet turned towards the door, and with a sigh of relief he watched as they headed back into the hall, before bounding down the stairs to join the others.
* * * * * *
Marcus made sure to wait a bit before heading downstairs again. He didn’t want to head down immediately after the two girls, since he thought that that might seem a bit suspicious. But accidentally being stuck under Paris’ bed while she was with her secret girlfriend had given him enough adrenaline for a day. Plus it was nearing 5 o’clock, so he just wanted to head home now and start on dinner before Paris’ parents got home from work. He wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to look them in the eye, knowing such an important detail about their daughter that they weren’t even aware of yet.
As he descended down the stairs, he heard Sicko Mode by Travis Scott playing from a speaker in the living room, as Jessie and a boy he’d never met before were dancing in the center of the room. And Jessie was really getting into it. Paris and the anonymous other girl were snuggling on the couch together, laughing and watching them. Now that he could see the mystery girl, who had black hair, freckles, and a pair of round glasses that resembled Harry Potter’s, he faintly recognized, although was unable to remember her name. Not that it really mattered though. His light footsteps didn’t make a noise coming down the stairs, but Paris saw him out of the corner of her eye and immediately scooted away from her girlfriend, a surprised expression on her face. “Oh uh, hey Mr. Tilden,” she called out, and the other kids turned their heads too.
“Heyyy, Dahhh-deeee!” Jessie sang to the beat of the song, an overly enthusiastic smile on her face.
“Watch anything good? Do you want some food? We made some food,” Paris added, seeming anxious and standing up to show Marcus the snacks they made on the kitchen counter. If I hadn’t known they were ‘together,’ I would’ve never suspected she was gay just because she’s cuddling with her friend, Marcus thought, noticing the girl’s nerves. I guess that’s pretty normal for people her age though, feeling like they got caught for the smallest details. “Oh and, this is, uh, this is Brandon, and this is Amy,” she said, pointing to the two newcomers he hadn’t met yet. She made sure to introduce her girlfriend second, thinking it would make the two of them seem less suspicious. The boy grinned at Marcus and waved politely, seeming not to even take heed of the man’s obvious height difference, while Amy sat up and eyed him with surprise.
“Do you have shrinking disorder?” she asked, one of the other common names for his disability. Technically DSD was supposed to stand for Diminutive Size Disorder, but not everyone was aware of what the acronym stood for and thought the “S” stood for “shrinking.” And even fewer (usually young people who didn’t know any better, or non-native English speakers) just called it “shrinking disorder” as a result. Marcus didn’t mind as much people getting the name wrong, but Jessie had often rushed to his defense in the months since his diagnosis.
“It’s not shrinking disorder, it’s D. S. D,” Jessie said, singing the letters along to the song again. “Or hypo-co-po-ploh-bloh-blah-blah-blah-blah,” she giggled, completely butchering the medical pronunciation. She had always been a giddy child, but definitely seemed off today. Maybe she drank too much sugar.
“Um,” he chuckled at his daughter, “it’s fine, and yes I do. Nice to meet you. Jess seems to be in a pretty good mood,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, we’ve been drinking some soda,” the boy explained, “but she’s had, like, 3 cans or something.” From the way he presented himself, Marcus assumed the boy might be gay. It’d make sense why Paris would invite him over if he was, she probably already came out to Jess since they’re best friends. And if he’s gay too it’d make sense for her to invite him over so she can be comfortable being with her girlfriend.
“FOUR!” Jessie exclaimed, biting her lip and suddenly switching up her body movements as the beat changed, and her head started nodding along as she danced her way over to Marcus. “Daddy look, Brandon taught me how to twerk while you were upstairs,” she said, turning around. He noticed now that she was wearing the same shorts that he’d bought for her yesterday—and they definitely didn’t look like what he’d expected. They were super high waisted, so while they might’ve looked as long as regular jean shorts when she first showed them to him, they only came down to right below her butt, leaving the entirety of her thighs exposed with just a hint of the cusp of her butt.
“Hold on Jess,” Brandon laughed awkwardly, “that was like, a joke, you shouldn’t show your dad, please.”
“Why not?” she huffed, seemingly out of breath from dancing too much, and then hunched over with her hands on her knees and began bucking her hips right in front of her dad’s face. The clear, pale skin around her thighs started wobbling, and Marcus looked away out of surprise and aversion as his daughter’s round posterior started quaking within her overly tight pair of jean shorts. Jessie wasn’t even looking to see if her dad was paying attention, as she did her best to shake her ass with the bass of the song just like her friend had taught her.
“Jess, noooo,” Brandon whispered with wide eyes as his hand covered his mouth, while Amy looked equally as horrified with the show Jessie was putting on for her dad.
“Jessie!” Marcus yelled, holding his hands up to block the spectacle while keeping his head turned and eyes closed.
“Oh my god, Jess!” Paris shouted, rushed over and pushing the girl away from her dad. “Don’t do that for your dad, Jess, he’s like, eye level with your butt, oh my god.” Jessie stumbled to the side, but kept twerking with a grin on her face, feeling proud of her accomplishment with having learned how to best perform the dance move.
Marcus almost didn’t know what to say. “Clearly way too much sugar,” he muttered, as Brandon’s eyes darted back and forth between the girl and her dad, trying not to laugh now as he nodded slowly in agreement. Marcus looked around the living room to see what they were drinking, and spotted some tall white cans laying around. Clearly not any Coke or Pepsi. He walked over and picked one up to examine the nutrition contents on the back and see how much sugar was in them, but saw a label on the front that stopped him dead in his tracks. “Hard seltzer?!” he shouted, holding them up for the others to see. “These are what you’ve been drinking, ‘Truly?’”
“Wait, what…” Brandon muttered, stifling a gasp and peering down at the can. “I didn’t even notice, holy shit.”
“Why is that bad?” Paris asked, turning around to confront them. “I asked if you guys wanted seltzers.”
“Hard seltzer, Paris. That means there’s alcohol in them,” Brandon said.
“Well I don’t feel anything,” Amy said, seeming just as surprised as the others. Apparently none of them could even tell the drinks didn’t taste like normal soda or soda water. Which might’ve been a good thing, except his daughter had had four. That’d be why her inhibitions are so low. I can’t believe this happened again.
“That’s because there’s only 5%, that’s not very much,” Marcus answered, still stern. “But your guys’ tolerance is pretty low, and four cans in a few hours starts to add up.” He glared at Jessie, who stopped twerking and stood up, giggling and biting her lip.
“Wait, does that mean I’m drunk?”
“Yes, you idiot!” Brandon yelled, a bit harsher than was maybe deserved.
“Oh my god, ohhhh my god, my parents are gonna kill me,” Paris squealed, clutching her head as she imagined how strictly her mom and dad might punish her.
“Hold on a second, calm down,” Marcus said, trying to ease everyone’s nerves. “How many did you all have?”
“Just one,” Paris blurted out.
“One,” from Brandon.
“Two?” according to Amy.
Marcus sighed, then scratched his forehead as he considered his options. He had always had a great relationship with Paris’ parents and trusted them, and they trusted him. He didn’t want to break that now. But he also knew they would sometimes overreact to situations. It was clear to Marcus that Paris had given her friends alcohol on accident. So letting her be punished—which he knew she would be, and probably pretty severely—didn’t seem all that fair. She was one of the best, most well-behaved friends that Jessie had, and he didn’t want her to suffer for a mistake that was only caused by her understandable ignorance.
“Look, I think it’ll be best if I just take everyone home, OK? Your parents probably won’t notice just from one drink. And hopefully not from two,” he said, nodding towards Amy. She was skinny enough and small enough, relative to the others, that he assumed she might seem a bit tipsy at least. “It was clearly an accident, I know you didn’t know any better, alright?” He put his hand on Paris to reassure her that he was on her side. “So just… I’ll drop you guys off wherever you live, and you can head to your room and settle down or something, OK? There’s nothing to worry about, one drink won’t kill you guys and nobody will probably notice anyways if someone does happen to talk to you, alright?” He turned to Paris and ushered her towards the stairs. “You seem the most on edge, so just go ahead and take a nap or something, everything will be fine, I won’t tell your parents, OK?”
“OK… thanks…” Paris whispered, turning away from them to head upstairs.
“Jessie,” Marcus continued, more sternly now out of agitation. “Go and grab and cans you already threw away and take them to the car. Same with you guys,” he said to Brandon and Amy. “I’ll get Paris’ drink.” Everyone nodded along with the plan and went to fetch their drinks, so they could bring them to Marcus’ car for him to hide the evidence. Jessie still seemed the most unfazed by any of this, but did as she was told.
“Bye you guys,” Paris called out from the stairwell. “S…sorry, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she added, and the others waved up to her as she left for her room, while everyone else, empty cans in their arms, made their way out to the car.
