How to Train Your Roommate - Day 2 (Patreon)

obviously as u can tell this chapter's a shorty so another one coming sunday hopefully ahhh but yeah if u didn't read message I posted on the poll, there'll be 3 days of setup chapters and then on day 4 the "fun" will begin :P

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Tuesday, February 16

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For the first time in Emma’s life since she was 12 years old, she woke up on Tuesday morning less than 5 feet tall. Four feet and ten inches in total, according to the height markers she’d set up along her doorway. Two full inches since yesterday morning. A difference in height that took most people years to gain had been lost on the poor woman in a single night. And for the rest of her life, she would never gain them back.

But her height wasn’t the main thing on her mind right now. She’d just gotten a text from her boss asking for her to come in so they could talk. She was a hostess at a restaurant, and her normal shift had been Tuesdays through Saturdays. But after Emma’s boss overheard her telling a coworker that she’d noticed her first loss of height that morning, he told he was taking her off the schedule for the next week until he talked with his own supervisor. But now that he was calling her in, she feared it wasn’t for good news. Looking back on the past few days, she wondered if signing on to the lease so soon had been a good idea. But she’d toured the apartment the morning before her shift on Saturday, and had told Katherine that it looked great and she was interested. And Emma didn’t like changing her mind on agreements and commitments she felt she made in life; she always felt like it let people down, which she never wanted to.

But besides that, she’d been worried that she’d have to sign a lease as soon as possible, or else landlords wouldn’t let her move in without having some sort of stable income. That’s part of what had prompted her to move ahead so quickly. If her shrinking down to only a few inches in height was really going to be a reality, then it was a foregone conclusion that she’d eventually lose her job anyways. But legally, she wasn’t able to apply for disability benefits until she was 4’10 or smaller. And since the disability payments scaled with her height, it’d be foolish for her to apply today, since she only met the bare minimum and would barely receive anything from the government. All she had to do was wait a few weeks, until she reached a few inches, and she could apply and likely be eligible to receive a stipend of several thousand dollars a month. So the problem was, if she was unable to work and earn any extra income, she’d be without money for the next month or two. No way to buy new clothes at every new height she reached, no way to pay for transportation once she couldn’t use her car anymore. But most expensive of all, no way to pay rent for the apartment she’d just moved into.

As she got in her car to head over to the restaurant, she was amazed by how different her car felt just from a few inches’ difference. She was barely able to see over the dashboard of her car. Which also reminded her that she’d need to sell it as soon as possible, since she probably wouldn’t even be able to drive it by the end of the week.

Emma pulled into the parking lot of her work and swiftly headed inside. She didn’t want to lull around and dwell on the matter any more than she needed to. Best to just rip the band-aid off quick. “Oh, hey Em, I didn’t know you’re working today,” her coworker said, a surprised expression on his face as the noticeably short woman walked through the door. She wasn’t short enough to gather stares yet from the customers, but her coworkers were able to notice the difference, and a few of them stole glances at her with pitiful looks on their faces.

“I don’t,” she replied flatly, giving him an expression that communicated everything he needed to know as he realized there was likely only one reason their boss would call a shrinking employee in on their day off. Without stopping to catch up, she walked straight to the back of the restaurant, past all of her old coworkers and friends who made her feel like a child with how much bigger they already were compared to her. The door to her manager’s office was slightly ajar, and she knocked before pushing it further open and letting herself in.

Alan, her boss, looked up at the knock, and his face immediately changed as he saw how short she already was. “I was hoping it might have taken longer for you to… shrink,” he said. “You know, I’m really sor—”

“So are you letting me go?” she asked quietly, interrupting him. “Just tell me, please.”

Alan sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Yeah. I’m sorry to have to do this to you, but it’s coming from corporate. My hands are tied, Emma.”

She ignored his attempts at letting her down easy. She didn’t mind Alan, but he had been her boss, not her friend. “Did you tell them how I have a rent to pay? I can’t just move in with my family like most people do, my parents are dead and my grandparents just got put in a home. Did you tell them that? I just need a few days’ worth of work.”

Alan nodded, “Yeah, I told them everything. They… didn’t care. It came from their legal team, I dunno, something about it being a lawsuit risk once you were past a certain point. That’s why I was hoping it wouldn’t be so fast.” The stood in silence for several more seconds, as Emma tried not to break out into crying. She really had no idea what she’d do now. She’d spent most of her money paying the landlord for the deposit and first month’s rent. A tear dripped from her eyes, and Alan looked compassionately on at her. “Oh, Emma, if you need somewhere to stay, I’m sure that one of—”

“I don’t need a place to stay, I already have one and I have a legal obligation to pay them for it,” she bit back, silencing the man. “I… I have to go,” she muttered, sniffing and wiping the tear from her eye as she stormed out of the office and marched all the way through the restaurant and back to her car, where she immediately broke out into a burst of tears.