@Olo I intentionally did not make Camila likeable, but I did attempt to have her not be completely unreasonable if you really think about it. I’m sure many people would be really weirded out be a small person.
Though at this point I don’t think Evie (or Aiden for that matter) would feel comfortable with Camila picking her up. 
En effet, ils sont fous ces romains 
(also the new renders look great!)
@Olo ahhh I know, I love the idea of being so seamlessly comfortable with each other 🥰
@foreverlurk Meanwhile why would anyone suspect the reason is a tiny person?? (because some of us are thinking about that stuff all the time? oh…)
@Olo Yeah he was definitely mindful about the teasing and wouldn’t do it unless he was sure he was okay with it. (Unlike a certain other male giant in this story lolol)
@Olo Just FYI in case you don’t have it, they made a new account on DA~
https://www.deviantart.com/mestupidartist/art/Date-a-day-at-the-beach-1095889126
@Olo Oooo I’m curious what you mean by your kind of villain. It’s been interesting to see the reactions to Camila - even far before this particular chapter of her being more blatantly a bully there have been a lot of intense comments about her. (Meanwhile I’m hoping people hate her in a way that’s fun because she’ll be around for a bit longer yet…)
Chapter 69
Aiden
I’m staring out at a sprawling valley, and the untouched wilderness stretches out for miles and miles ahead. The hills and low mountains are completely covered with trees. You can actually visibly see the transition from summer to autumn in the jagged line that separates bright green leaves from the yellow and orange ones, the colors mixing with a chaotic beauty.
“Woowww,” sighs a voice from near my shoulder.
“Right?” I whisper back.
Evie isn’t in my shirt pocket as usual - I didn’t want to risk her having to deal with any dampness if I got too sweaty on this hike. Instead, one of the many ways we prepared for this trip was by attaching a pocket to the strap of my backpack. It definitely looks handmade in comparison to her regular spot right against my chest, but it’s also custom built to her specific size. So far she’s seemed quite comfortable in there, and it doesn’t make much difference to me since she’s around the same level on my body as usual.
“I’m assuming there’s an impressive view on the other side of that bush?” Moira asks from just behind me.
I turn to glance down at her, frowning as I look between her and the foliage in question. “Oh shoot, you can’t see over that?”
She tries standing on her tiptoes before shaking her head. “It’s fine, I’m sure we’ve almost reached the oooohmygodwhatareyoudoing–!”
Diego has suddenly stepped behind Moira to hook his hands under her arms and vault her into the air, so that I have to now look way up instead. He places her on his shoulders nonchalantly, as if she was a child. Her arms flail in fear before she latches tightly onto his head.
“Diego, are you nuts?! We’re on an incline!” she whimpers, squeezing her eyes shut.
“And you weigh, like, two pounds,” he chuckles. “I’ve gotcha. Just relax and soak in aaalll those fall vibes!”
Moira finally catches her breath and relaxes enough to open her eyes. She hesitantly joins us in admiring the scenery, nothing but the sound of the breeze filling the air as we stand in silence for a few more moments. It’s a welcome break after a couple of hours of nonstop walking. Not that I’m complaining, as this hike has been such a pleasure. Fresh air, colorful scenery, both quiet moments and lively ones. The weather is absolutely perfect - sunny enough that the lingering morning dew was sparkling when we left, but with a pleasant cool breeze that has kept us at the ideal temperature in the shade.
I peer up ahead at our path, trying to get a sense of how much further we need to go. “I think I can see the trail marker,” I say, “We’re almost there, I’m sure the view’s even better up in that clearing. And then we can have lunch?”
“Sounds good to me!” Diego declares as he turns and starts walking up the trail again, with Moira still sitting on his shoulders.
She immediately protests with an uncharacteristic firmness. “No, no. You are not going to keep hiking up this mountain with me here. Put me down.”
“Aight, aight. Take it easy, chiquita,” Diego relents, hoisting her back over his head and down to the ground.
“I don’t know how you do it, Evie,” Moira sighs, though now that she’s on terra firma again she’s able to smile as she gives Diego a playful glare. “Getting manhandled all the time.”
“You get used to it,” Evie laughs.
“‘Scuse me for worrying about those lil’ legs of yours after the past few hours,” our tallest friend chuckles good-naturedly.
I chime in, “He’s sort of got a point. Are you holding up okay, Mo?”
“Yup. Don’t worry, I can handle it.”
Several minutes later we make it to the sign that marks the end of the seven mile hike. The trees are far more sparse in our immediate vicinity, instead replaced with a few large rocks for us to sit on and around. In turn we collapse into seated positions to rest. Moira takes a little longer to get some pictures of the scenery for her work Instagram before she joins us.
“Alright, I’ll admit it… I’m really grateful for the break,” she says with a heavy exhale. She hangs her head and mumbles, “Stupid short legs.”
I’m in the process of transferring Evie from my pocket to my hand, but once she’s settled I grab a water bottle from my backpack and extend it to my second shortest friend.
“My bad," I tell her, "I didn’t even take into consideration the fact that the two of us are quite a bit taller than you when I suggested this hike.”
She reassures me that she’s alright, that she had happily agreed to joining and that she’s having a great time. But then as she’s speaking, I can’t help but notice out of the corner of my eye that Evie’s looking particularly deep in thought as she looks up at the rest of us one by one. I nudge her with my thumb curiously.
“What’s up?” I ask.
She snaps out of it, shaking her head apologetically before explaining, “Sometimes it’s hard to get a sense of certain things from down here… But, um, I can’t believe I’ve never asked this before… How tall are you, Aiden?”
Yeah, wow, I also can’t believe we’ve gone this long without mentioning it. But since Diego happens to be present when she asked, I just can’t help suddenly smirking and looking sidelong at him in reaction to the question. He responds with a massive eye roll.
Evie notices our exchanged looks and is preemptively laughing as she says, “What? Is it a weird thing to ask…?”
“No, it’s nothing,” I croon, still grinning smugly. “Just a bet I won a long time ago that I like to still rub in his face.”
Diego groans. “Just answer her question, bro.”
I take a moment to explain first, meeting Evie’s eyes again. “So believe it or not, I was actually taller than Diego when we were kids. But then he hit puberty early and shot up like a weed, and he broke the six foot mark when he was, like, twelve. At that point he bet that I’d never reach that height. But I was more of a slow and steady type. I was moving around the country after that with my family, but I would text him updates as I slowly inched up. I was in high school when I finally hit the mark. Just barely, and I never went past it, but still. I made it to six feet tall out of pure spite.”
“Yeah, whatever. You still never caught up,” Diego grumbles with a teasing smile, and from the way his arm tenses I can tell he would have shoved me if I wasn’t holding my tiny girlfriend aloft. Thankfully he abstains.
Evie giggles and turns to him. “So how tall are you, Diego?
“Six foot nine,” he says with a hint of pride but mostly the automatic drone of someone who’s had to answer that question many times to curious strangers.
“Holy crap. I guess you really are a giant,” she marvels, and then she turns the other way. “What about you, Moira?”
“Four foot eight,” she sighs.
Evie nods pensively. “Huh. Yeah, we’re uh… kind of all over the map, aren’t we?”
I frown as I try to remember that day back in February that I usually want to forget, back when I was looking over her paperwork before guiding her into Dr. Little’s lab. I quickly give up and decide to just ask, “How tall were you, Eve? Before, I mean.”
“Five foot four,” she says automatically, before twitching as if she’d received an electric shock.
Diego muses absently, “Huh, you’d be about Camila’s height. That’s hard to imagine…”
But I’m still focused on Evie and how her demeanor has changed. She looks visibly shaken. I lift her up slightly higher to catch her attention. “You alright?” I ask softly.
She glances up at the three of us, hesitating before deciding that she can confide in not just me but all of us. “It’s weird. I’d never really processed the fact that I can’t give that same answer anymore if someone were to ask me my height… I still mentally measure my surroundings on my own scale - like, I think of your hand as measured in feet, not in inches. As if the entire world has grown bigger. It just makes me feel weirdly self conscious when I remember it’s the opposite…”
There’s a tightness in my chest as I watch her grappling with her own reality. I can’t possibly imagine what it might be like for her, even after all this time. The fact that her height makes her feel “self conscious” pains me in particular, considering how much this amazing woman means to me.
I sigh and give her a half smile as I lift her up higher still and say, “I know it’s hard, but… Just know that there’s nothing wrong with you, okay?”
Moira scoots in from one side of me so she can touch her arm with one finger. “Agreed. You’re our friend no matter the height difference.”
Evie hugs the offered finger gratefully, and Diego leans in from the other side. “Yeah! Besides, three inches suits you. You wouldn’t be our lil’ shrimp otherwise.” He gently pokes the top of her head to muss up her hair.
This is probably the closest thing we can do to a group hug, and that’s not lost on the tiny girl in my palm. She briefly gets misty eyed, hugging Moira tighter, and chokes out, “Thanks, guys.”
Evie still seems a little off after that. Externally she’s acting like nothing’s the matter, jumping into conversation without issue over lunch, and frequently expressing delight over fall leaves and deer sightings on the trek back to the cabin. But I’ve seen her hide her feelings enough to sense that something might be up. She’s been acting a little weird all day, actually. I figure it might be because she’s overwhelmed by so much excitement and by constantly being around groups of people. But it’s hard to find a private moment with her to really make sure.
We’re pretty wiped by the time we get back to home base and it’s nearing late afternoon. The plan is to just relax in the covered patio for a while with some cider. I’ll need to start working on the campfire soon since I’m on dinner duty, but I still have some time to rest first, so I plan to hang out with everyone too. That is, until we get intercepted.
“Welcome back,” says Camila as she comes down the stairs to join us in the living room. “Hey, Aiden, can I get your help with something?”
I’m in the middle of unloading, Evie in hand as I drop my backpack to the floor. With a stifled exhale I ask, “Right now?”
“Yes please. I wanted to air out my room but the window’s stuck.”
“I can help,” Diego offers, having just put away his own bag.
“I don’t think your hand will fit,” Camila mumbles, gaze falling to the floor.
Evie pipes up just then, calling out to me. “Go ahead, I’ll go to the patio with the others. Can I get a ride, Kong?”
I reflexively lift her up for the upcoming transfer, keeping my eyes on her slight frame. Diego grins and reaches his arm out, touching his fingertips to the back of my hand. “Careful what you wish for," he tells her, "You want a drop tower or loop de loops?”
Looking particularly small as she stretches one leg out towards my massive friend’s palm, she pauses before her foot makes contact. “Uhhh. Moira, can I get a ride?”
“I’m kiddiiiiiing, c’mere Shrimp,” Diego laughs, and with a matching giggle my girlfriend slides off of my hand and is whisked away.
I follow Camila up the stairs, glancing around at the contents of her room. It’s a little messy in here, making me watch where I step as I pick my way across. The space is cluttered with blankets, pillows, clothing and shoes, and the tables are covered in makeup and skincare products. There’s a sweet fragrance in the air, a perfume of some kind, and it’s a bit stifling. No wonder she wants to open a window.
I investigate the latch and notice how rusty it is, and it takes me a while to wrench away at it, since I’m being careful not to brute force the thing and break it. Camila sits on the bed and hugs her legs into herself as she waits unhurriedly. After a minute of me struggling with the window she makes conversation.
“Remember that trip to Wisconsin?” she muses, “At Honeydew Ranch?”
She’s been doing this kind of thing more frequently since we’ve been on this trip, reminiscing on our family trips from when we were kids. It bothers me when she brings it up while everyone else is around, essentially gatekeeping our conversation from half the group with old inside jokes. But otherwise I haven’t really minded it, since childhood memories are one of the few things she and I have in common.
“Mm-hmm,” I hum as I think back, “That was my junior year of high school. I guess you were still in middle school?”
“Yeah. My window kept getting stuck during that trip too. Maybe I’m cursed or something.”
“I remember that, actually,” I chuckle. Finally the latch comes loose, but now I have to try to slide the faulty window up to open it.
Camila continues her trip down memory lane. “Yeah I figured you would, because I kept asking you to help me then too. Remember that day we stayed at the cabin while everyone else went out? And we just watched those weird Spanish reality shows all afternoon? Good times.”
I smile wryly as my muscles strain. Yeah, I’m sure she had fun then. Meanwhile the only reason I had stayed at the cabin with her that day was because I had a broken tibia and couldn’t go horseback riding with everyone else the way I would have liked. Guess she forgot about that part. I opt not to remind her, instead laughing awkwardly and agreeing, “Good times.”
Finally feeling a breeze leaking into the room, I grunt from the last burst of effort and let go of the window. I was only able to open it by an inch, and now it feels like it might be stuck like this. But the difference in air quality is immediate, so hopefully this is fine. I turn back around and falter for a second as I realize how intensely Camila is staring at me. She smiles wider and I shift uncomfortably.
“You all set here?” I ask, motioning towards the window. “I need to go make sure I know where the firewood is for tonight.”
Her eyes drift lower along my body for a second before she sits up and swings her legs back off the bed. “Yeah I’m good, thanks for the help. I’ll come with.”
I feel a little better once we’re in an open area downstairs. I locate the firewood in a designated log holder near the fire pit, and it’s easy from there to rejoin the rest of the group. Everyone is gathered around the patio table and in the process of laughing at something. And there’s my girl, standing on top of the table, currently the center of attention as she energetically tells a story. I smile warmly as I sit on the bench and my eyes briefly meet Evie’s as she speaks. Camila slides in next to me.
