chapter 3

A month later, Josh knew he was putting weight on. He did not know what was in those shakes, but they had to be lethal!
They were. Fanta had stepped up the calorie content, the fat content and the volume. They now included weight gain powder and appetite stimulants and decreased the time allowed between them.
Josh felt like he was simply a feeding machine with a large glass or bottle of shake in his hand all the time.
All his clothes were now too tight, non-stretchy clothes were impossible to fasten around his growing pot belly. He could pull stretchy trousers and tee shirts over the top, but his tee shirts would not stay there. They would ride up over his swollen belly and his trousers would ease down. So he sat drinking his lethal cocktail with his belly permanently on show.
He was allowed to eat other foods if he wanted to, but they were in addition to his shakes and the food left out for him was so rich that he couldn't even imagine trying to eat them as well.

Occasionally Fanta visited. He teased him about his growing paunch, but praised him for being such a good boy. He encouraged him to try some delicious pizza, or how about some cake? He didn't force him however. Josh was not punished because he did not try. Fanta knew that a time would come when he would never pass up the opportunity for food.

Josh kept on drinking, Fanta kept moving the goalposts, making it more and more difficult to keep up, always increasing the richness and volume of the shakes.
Josh started to fall behind in his shakes more often. He was punished with his ankle band. The pain was excruciating!
In the next two hours he had to drink what was left from the previous two hours and drink another two and a half litres.
He was consuming ten litres of the super enriched drinks per day. His clothes were becoming so tight that he struggled to get his trousers on over his growing bum and it was pointless even trying to get them over his belly. Similarly, his tee shirts were getting tight around his chest and shoulders and they would bunch up above his growing belly.
Josh knew he was now way above his modelling weight. Indeed, he was heavier than he had even been. He was filling out all over, developing a less chiselled jawline, thicker arms and legs. The skin over his belly was always stretched tight. Some days it was so full and sore that he felt he had to nurse it through the day. He would stroke it, caress it, encourage it to keep going.

Josh looked forward to his day of chocolate shakes the most. He enjoyed then more than the other flavours. Banana was his least favourite.
It was on one such chocolate shake day that he came downstairs with his belly hanging out as usual, expecting to find a chocolate shake out waiting for him.
Instead, he found nothing!
Immediately he was worried. Had he been forgotten about? What would happen if he could not meet his quota because no shake had been provided for him?
His stomach expected to be fed! It grumbled in protest at being left empty. He'd gone all night without food. He was hungry! He cried out, hoping someone would hear him, but he knew the walls were too thick for his voice to travel anywhere. He heard it echo uselessly around the high walls of the room.
He sat down trying to ignore his predicament. His tummy did not like being empty. He turned the telly on to try and distract himself from his protesting stomach, but he could only find food and cooking programmes on all the channels, which just made him feel worse!
He cried out again. He got up and walked around the room, holding his belly in both hands, talking to it, trying to console it.
Then he noticed a sign by the door. 'Ring for service' it said. Josh was sure that had not been there before. He rang it with desperation.
Tiny arrived with his chocolate shake in a jug. Josh grabbed the jug from him and chugged it down, without bothering with a glass. Shake poured out of the wide brim as he tipped it up, running down the sides of his face onto his clean tee shirt.
He stopped, gasped for breath and then chugged again. There! Two litres gone in a matter of minutes! Josh wiped his mouth with his sleeve! That felt better! He patted and soothed his newly swollen belly. Indeed, this was now it's default state. Josh could not imagine how he had managed to do without all those years ago when he was a model. He could remember feeling so hungry on a photo shoot that he nearly fainted, but he'd accepted that as part of the job. That was then, though and this was now!
He'd drank his shake so quick, he had nothing else to do for the next few hours. He was not interested in the telly. Funny how all the food programmes had gone now.
He just sat dozing for half an hour, but then, he was so bored that he rang for service again.
Tiny returned with a large pepperoni pizza. Josh grabbed it off him and had started eating his first slice before he sat down.
He could not remember the last time he'd eaten proper food that he needed to chew. Warm solid food! Oh there was nothing like it!
He ate slice after slice after slice until it was all gone.
Then his shake appeared as normal, on time.
Josh ignored how full he already felt and got in with the job of drinking his shakes.