You walked around the corner street, Emily’s house was just a few more houses down. You guys weren’t close, but she had messaged you a few days ago to tell you she found something you might find interesting.
As you made your way to her house you saw Emily sitting on the front porch, a cigarette in one hand and glass of lemonade in the other.
“You know those things will kill you,” you said, making your way to the porch.
“Well look who it is,” Emily said, lazily exhaling a cloud of smoke into the air. “Someone becomes the local college baseball star and forgets the little people.”
“What does that mean?” you asked curiously. You had pitched a no hitter as a freshman to close the season. It had even made the paper.
“Um, you didn’t even reply to my message,” Emily said, passing you her glass of lemonade. “You look like you could use this.”
You guzzled down the glass of lemonade as Emily practiced smoke rings, clearly discouraged by her inability to blow them.
“Sorry, I meant to. And I didn’t forget anyone! We barely talked after 8th grade year, Ms. Popularity, and I never see you at school. I didn’t even know you started smoking.”
Emily smirked.
“Fair,” she said, stubbing out her cigarette in a small ashtray on a wicker table that matched the chair she was lounging in.
“So what was it?”
“What was what?”
“The thing you thought I’d find interesting…”
“Oh!” Emily exclaimed, her eyes widening. “Follow me!”
Emily hopped up and went into the house, and you followed her inside. The last time you had been to Emily’s house was for her birthday party in sixth grade, but it still looked as you remembered. You followed her down a hall and into her room. The walls were bright purple, and her childhood dollhouse still sat in the corner. The room smelled strongly of lavender, and faintly of cigarettes.
“Okay, you remember that time you did a book report on Gulliver’s Travels? And you confessed, awkwardly, to the whole class you wished you could visit that island with the giants? Bobby’s world or something?”
That awkward moment floated back into your head and you felt light headed.
“Brobdingnag… yeah, no one let me forget that for years…”
“Well, I think I can help you live that reality!” Emily explained, pulling a small gun from behind her back. It looked like a prop from a fifties sci-fi movie,
“Uhhhh… what’s that?”
“It’s a shrink ray!”
“Yeah… that’s not real. People can’t shrink, Emily, Killer joke. You recording me or something? Just bring me over here to embarrass me?”
Emily’s face sunk and she looked defeated. She tossed the gun down onto the bed, and plopped down beside of it. She took out a fresh cigarette and lit it, and exhaled a cloud of smoke with a sigh of disappointment.
“I wouldn’t do that to you,” she said looking at the ground. You sat beside of her, and let out a little cough from smelling the cigarette smoke.
“I’m sorry. Thank you for thinking of me. You’re right, I do find it interesting. I just don’t think it would work.”
You picked the gun up and studied it. It looked in incredibly fake, like a bad high school theater prop. In an effort to cheer Emily up you pointed it at yourself.
“Look, I’m getting smaller!” You laughed, pulling the trigger.
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