Chapter 23 - section 23

[13 August, Sunday]

At work the thought of restocking on cheesecake returns to her again - and even now, she tosses the thought before it gets anywhere. But by the end of her shift, she's so hungry she's feels like she's about to puke. Good thing is that a few blocks from her work is a bakery cafe. It's not as if she could've just waited for home, is it?

As a corner shop with a view of city traffic, the bakery cafe is fairly busy, probably due to being more of an all-rounder cafe rather than strictly bakery goods; muffins, eggs on toast, coffees of all kinds, breakfast, lunch, dinner - even dessert of all things.

Under dim evening light, street lights just being switched on by city planners, she walks in and merges into the back of the line, gazing up at the chalkboard menu hanging over the counter. She's never really been here before, so as she glances around to get a feel for the place, a warm coziness settles on her soul. She sees couples, friends, students chatting, the elderly, parents with kids, minding their own business, lounging at funky little tables, the world's troubles left outside the windows, beyond the auras of yellow street lights. You get the feeling nothing could go wrong in here. She can easily see herself coming more often.

The line shuffles forward and she finds herself in front of a cashier. 'Hey there, what were you after today?' a fair-faced Asian girl in blue and white uniform asks.

'Hi,' says georgia, glancing one more time at the menu board. 'I'll just grab a large sized english muffin pizza?'

'Sure thing, w-'

'Actually,' she interrupts, 'as well as that, I might grab a large caramel shake as well?- Oh, and, just quickly, can I get a plate of loaded nachos too?'

'Yep, sure, is that all?'

Georgia pays, takes the table number flag 24 and finds a spot to sit in the corner where she can look out at the passing traffic. It's rare for her to do this - to watch people, and not iOS and text elements dancing across the screen of her phone.

The food arrives, and she begins eating the english muffin pizza, wondering what's gotten her into this reflective mood. Maybe it's the increase in thoughts, lately, she thinks, munching on the muffin pizza. Which have come from where, lately? From all this anxiety, all these contradictory thoughts. Overeating, trying not to overeat, her body... This all started from a stupid belly button ring, didn't it. And Ruby's revenge tactic, all those german apple cheesecakes. F@ck Ruby. She's turned into sneaky little goblin, lately, out of nowhere - wait, no. Ever since first developing a little paunch, which is, by the way, bigger than it ever has been. If Ruby isn't careful she's going to be medically overweight. Then Georgia remembers her own waistline. Threatening to grow self conscious, she touches the underside of her belly with her free hand, without looking at it, pressed it flat as if to force it away. She doesn't see, as she lets go, the way it nudges back over her waistband.

F@ck Ruby for being cunning, she thinks. That girl used to be so unassuming. Does she think she hasn't noticed her insipid little manipulations? Georgia's noticed it all: the ridiculous amount of cheesecakes, the sly-eyes she gives her when she thinks Georgia isn't watching, the intentional ditzyness, the intentional self-humiliation to distract Jane and Tamara from noticing anything. What, does she think it'll distract Georgia from herself, as well? It hasn't. And yet she still tries. F@ck Ruby for turning manipulative, f@ck Ruby and her fat little gut for - for trying to make her fat.

All these erratic thoughts fly through her mind so red hot she nearly yells them. Sneering, she licks her lips and sips on the shake to calm herself.

And the worst thing is she knows it, too. Knows the irony of it all.

Then again, you can always think one thing, while doing another. The wonder of the human brain. And it's what she's doing this very moment: eating too much, while lamenting eating too much. And you know what? Georgia continues to eat, unfazed. What has given her this attitude? The idea of counter-revenge.

What, so Ruby wants to do this to Georgia's body? What would happen if it all rebounded back on her? What if Ruby got what she gave?

The little post-work feast has filled her. But what she craves isn't to be full, so much as to reach severe bloatedness. She heads for home to have whatever's for dinner.


******

[14 August, Monday]

Georgia is completely alone in the flat by morning. Everyone has a work shift today but her. As the door latches shut for the last time, Georgia's heart stumbles. Not twenty seconds later, she's pulled out one of the three cheesecakes, and is almost putting her face in it. Two left.

As she binges, she eats herself into a positive sexual charge which propels her towards this sick, sinister thought: she could teach Ruby a lesson for her manipulation.


******

[18 August, Friday]

Just before midnight Georgia returns home from town where she'd been sipping a few end-of-the-week drinks in pubs across town with graduate friends. Turns out she's almost plastered. Ruby slides across the lounge to let Georgia sprawl across it, swoon-headed. Ruby can only laugh. Her friend is sprouting long-dead memes like they're the most hilarious one-liners she's ever given. She's so proud of herself, doubling over teary-eyed with laughter.

Ruby gets up to podder around the kitchen, polishing dishes, putting away hand towels. Watching her float in and out of the kitchen with drunk fascination, Georgia is reminded of her duty; she stumbles up, retrieves the rest of her cheesecake and resumes. She'd only eaten half today, leaving the rest to eat now, at 12:01am, plastered drunk, her liver hard and heavy as a rock. Meaning that when she shovels the cake down, full of inebriated energy, her poor liver has enough on its hands already, sorting out a torrent of alcohol carbs... Grossly engorged, she drags her feet to bed, with her heart squeezing calorie-laden blood around her body, and a big bloated stomach.


******

[19 August, Saturday]

Hazy as to exactly what she'd drank and eaten last night, Georgia wakes up to a need - a deep-gut need. Within the hour, she's gone to town on the very last german apple cheesecake. Before she knows it, the food is inside her stomach, which looks like someone took a bicycle pump to it, and nausea is swelling up in her. But in a good way.

God, when did it get like this? Since when did nausea become even vaguely sensuous?

She remains in her room, head phased out to a haze, blood redirected to her stomach. She watches crap on the internet until her stomach has deflated. She doesn't look at it directly. Can't bring herself to. She just goes by how it feels - which is better. She sucks in a little so as not to appear pregnant and leaves her room. Somehow she manages to go about her day normally.


******

[21 August, Monday]

Georgia watches Ruby out the corner of her eye, chest seething with silent anger as they both clean the kitchen. Just yesterday, as Georgia was about to head out to work, Ruby had asked about the cheesecakes without even trying keep it quiet. Luckily Jane was in the bathroom at that time, and though Tamara' ears seemed to prick with confusion, luckily she seemed not to care, and didn't ask a thing. But it had all been too close. Georgia struggles to keep her breathing slow and steady. Is it just her, or has Ruby been growing more and more testy?

However, a plan has been cooking up in Georgia's vengeance-cortex over the past few days. Here's the sketch:

The plan is to pull Ruby along to every single party Georgia goes to. At these parties, Georgia is going to do these things in this order: 1) locate food, 2) locate drink, 3) bring Ruby to the food and drink, 4) get her drunk, 5) challenge her to eat as much as she can, 6) watch what happens.


******