My New Halfling Life 001

"So many choices...." Denise thought to herself as she craned her neck back to look at the menu of beers, wine, spirits, and more. "Why do I find this so stressful?" she continued. For Denise, it was more stressful than usual. In fact, this was her first real time "out of the house" and going about normal business since she came down with her condition. Combined with the fact that her eyes just barely hovered over the top of the counter and the menu being so much "farther" away didn't help, as it further reminded her of how much the world had changed.

She still hadn't gotten a chance to go out and get proper clothes in her size. In reality, she was putting it off as she knew it would embarrass her, due to the types of clothes that would actually fit her. Denise, at least for now, refused to wear kid-looking clothes out in public. The clothes she was wearing today were Amy's, one of her good friends, clothes from her early teens to late childhood. She was with her at the bar tonight, helping Amy get back into the swing of things. Amy was a bit on the short side, which helped with the clothing selection, but from Denise's perspective, short was still VERY tall. What she was wearing was the smallest she could find digging through Amy's old stuff that looked adult-like, or at least not completely kid-like. Much of it was worn, she didn't even know what size feet she had, let alone all her measurements, so she grabbed whatever "fit" the best.

The shoes were slip-ons that had hearts on them, although they were hard to see so she went with it. They were still too big for her tiny feet, but they worked for now. The capri pants were about the right length, but too roomy, bunching up around her shins. She had to tighten the belt nearly as much it would go to ensure they grabbed onto her little hips. Unfortunately, any shirt that remotely fit that met her "teen or older" clothes criteria was too baggy and looked horrible. She would be constantly adjusting it in public and it would be too much for her to deal with. Luckily, she found a crop top hoodie. The only issue was that it had long sleeves. She tried rolling them up, but her little arms weren't enough to keep them from falling constantly. She figured she could put up with it, better than wearing one of Amy's shirts from elementary school... The crop top, to her tiny body, was basically a large baggy shirt. It went a bit past her hips but was manageable and kept herself fully covered. The hood sagged behind her, since her shoulders didn't properly fill the shirt, exposing her upper back. But it was something... it was manageable... and she would at least go out in public wearing it. One could say it was a style... a very baggy clothing style!

Luckily, it was mid-week, in the early evening, so the bar had a relatively small amount of people, which helped with Denise's anxiety of going out in less-than-perfect clothes. She noted that the bartender was busy finishing cleaning glasses that had backed up after a large gathering had left. Based on the current draft beer selection, and her pickiness around beers, she was leaning more towards a wine, and this place had several to choose from, more than most. She figured by the time the bartender finished cleaning, she would go with whatever wine she felt most confident about.

As Denise stood there, she could hear clicking coming from behind her, getting louder. She could tell they were from someone wearing heels. The girl approached the bar to the left of her. The girl was standing awfully close, to an almost uncomfortable degree. The bar table wasn't crowded, there was plenty of room to stand and order drinks. Denise figured it was because the menu was right above them, and it was in front of the register, making it a spot the bartender would frequent, allowing patrons to get their orders in quicker. But still, did this girl not recognize personal space???

As the girl looked up at the menu, Denise looked towards her. Being so close, all she could see at first was dark blue denim with goldish-brown stitching down the side and around the pockets, indicating to her that she was hip-high to this girl. She could see all the little detail of the stitches, the imperfections, the wear on the jeans. Curious about the heels she just heard, she looked down, following the girl’s long legs, well, long from her perspective. When her eyes met the ground, she was greeted with gray thick platform heels. They had to have been 3, maybe even 4 inches tall. She couldn't help but notice how small her shoes, or rather her feet, were compared to this girl's heels.

Denise then looked up, and up, and up, towards the woman's face. She was wearing a green and white plaid flannel, a bit baggy. She also had some sort of white top on, but from Denise's perspective, it was hard to see exactly what it was. She had mid length red hair, and specifically a shade of red that Denise loved. Denise was a fan of red anything: hair, clothing, shoes. Although, she could never bring herself to dye her naturally blond hair. Funny enough, she didn't manage to find red-anything that worked when searching through Amy's clothing.

Denise was having a hard time gauging if the girl was tall or not, at least to other adults. Her new perspective threw it all off. But, judging that her hips were nearly above the bar countertop, she could roughly guesstimate that the girl was around her height, well, her old height, of 5'9". She remembered when she wore 4" heels to this very same bar, that the counter was roughly that tall to her. From her current perspective, with the heels, this girl was probably around 6' tall.

Denise had started to do much more size-observing ever since she shrank. Though it had only been several days, she was taking in all this new information from her new perspective, trying to figure out how everything compared to her new size. As she looked up at the massive woman, a sense of sadness came over her. Not long ago, she would have been around that woman's height. And now, she looked like a VERY small child next to her, or at least she imagined that's how others saw her. She knew she would never be that tall... ever again. You never came back from this. If anything, she hoped and prayed she wouldn't shrink again. It was very rare, but it could happen. The thought of being any smaller than she already is frightened her, and she immediately put that thought out of her head.

As the bartender finished cleaning most of the glasses, he looked towards where she was standing. He turned back towards the glasses, putting down the last glass he was cleaning and said, "What can I get ya?" as he started to turn back around towards Denise. Denise snapped out of staring at the girl, after hearing the bartender, and looked up towards him, smiling. She then asked for the wine she had selected, a Moscato d'Asti, a very sweet dessert wine, but it was something she started to have a craving for after looking at the menu.

"I'll have..." was all Denise barely managed to get out before the girl to the left of her started talking. "Hmmmm.... I'm gonna try the cider you have on tap." she said. The bartender smiled, looking at her. "Good choice." he said, as he spun around to grab a freshly cleaned glass.

"What the hell?" Denise thought to herself. "Are you serious girl?" as she turned back to her, looking up with... a face. The bartender had looked over towards her, but never looked AT her. He must have made eye contact with the other girl first. After all, she was closer to him, and, well, a lot easier to see than her. Plus, where he was standing, she was partially blocked by the register and the girl's large body. Now that he had moved around, she figured he had seen her at this point.

But did this girl not see her either? She was standing right NEXT to Denise; how could she not see her?!? And if she did see her, did the bitch just decide to order since the bartender asked her first, rather than saying Denise was there first? Who did this girl think she was??? Denise took a deep breath; she didn't want to get worked up over such a... small issue. The girl only came a few moments after her, and she was ordering a basic drink, and maybe she really didn't see her? Was she that unaware of her surroundings?

"She's pretty young, maybe I should just give her the benefit of the doubt." Again, she took another deep breath: "No big deal, I'll just order next", she thought to herself.