chapter 4 - the more things change

(Thank you so much for your patience, readers! I REALLY appreciated all the nice comments and suggestions and I promise that the wait will be much shorter for upcoming parts of this story! Feedback always welcome and appreciated. :))

"Time for the weigh-in!" a cheerful Kate announced on Sunday night. Matt, parked on the couch as usual, grunted in acknowledgement and struggled to shift his weight forward. After seven days of gorging, he was so bloated that his belly looked almost like someone had blown it up with an air hose. His overburdened stomach gurgled and sloshed as he wobbled to his feet, trying to find his balance. His shirt had ridden up, revealing his hanging lower belly and the new stretch marks that had appeared on his sides.

As Matt finally waddled to the scale, cradling his overworked belly, Adrian thought he looked... proud of himself. He supposed the ridiculous amount of food Matt had put away that week was an accomplishment of some kind. At least it definitely wasn't something most people could do. Matt seemed to be taking a strange sort of pride in that. Maybe that was why he hadn't made any real effort to drop the pounds.

"363!" Adrian proclaimed gleefully. "I win!" "Shit!" Kate exclaimed, in either frustration or awe. Maybe both.

"Shit, seriously?" Matt gasped, struggling to look over his belly to see the numbers. "That can't be right." He stepped off, looking stunned. "You better not have fucked with this scale. I bet if Kate got on it'd say she weighs 200 pounds or some shit."

"No such luck," Kate chirped. "I'll get on and show you." She hopped onto it enthusiastically. "107," Matt read in a disappointed voice. "That... does sound legit."

"You've doubled your weight in two years," Kate gasped. "That's insane."

"Holy shit, I got fat," Matt exclaimed. "Gotta get this gut under control."

"Kate, you owe me ten bucks," Adrian grinned.

Matt grabbed the sides of his fat belly and gave it a jiggle. "Can't believe I porked up so much," he groaned. Adrian could believe it. "My metabolism's gone to shit lately. Gotta get my protein intake up."

"Good luck with that," Kate snorted.

"I thought only "lazy fuckers" made excuses about their metabolisms when they gained weight," Adrian chimed in.

Matt flipped him off casually and waddled back over to the couch, eyeing the pizza box sitting on the coffee table.

OCTOBER 2012

When Adrian got home from work one Tuesday night, there was Matt in the kitchen, chugging enthusiastically from a two-litre bottle of Coke.

"How's the diet going?" Adrian asked, trying not to smirk too obviously.

Matt wiped his mouth and burped, his T-shirt straining around his bloated midsection and fattened pecs.

"Fucking awesome. I figure if I fill up on soda it'll be easier to hit a calorie deficit."

"You're trying to lose weight by drinking Coke?" an incredulous Adrian asked.

"This chick I used to bang - Kaitlyn, she used to go to my gym - she said drinking soda helped her lose likea 20 pounds. She was a fuckin' smokeshow when we were fucking, but she used to be chunky. Not, like, unfuckable, but... doughy."

"I think she probably meant diet soda," Adrian said, a bit stunned by Matt's lack of self-awareness.

"Doesn't taste as good," Matt replied, taking another swig.

Adrian couldn't see any difference in Matt's size compared to his momentous weigh-in, despite all the talk about getting in shape and dropping the weight. Every other week he started making a big deal out of a new diet regimen and would go to the gym once or twice, but within a few days Adrian would come home from work and catch him stuffing his face with McDonald's takeout. He'd usually justify it as a "cheat day," but there seemed to be more of those than regular days.

"I'm 361," Matt said smugly. "Haven't gained any weight since April."

Adrian wondered when Matt had decided he got points for staying at the same level of fatness.

His "progress" probably wouldn't hold up once he'd stretched his stomach out drinking foolish amounts of soft drinks, anyway. Maybe Matt was coming up with even worse ideas than usual because he was bored. In theory, he was working part-time helping his cousin sell real estate, but he spent at least as much time complaining about it as he did actually doing any work.

Matt had lost his job at Staples in August. He hadn't been the only one laid off, but it had been pretty clear for a while they weren't itching to keep him. His uncle had retired in the spring, and Adrian figured it had been a matter of time. Matt hadn't seemed too distressed about being let go, maybe because it gave him more time to sit around and stuff his face and brag about his awesome diet regime. He claimed to be looking for another full-time job, but Kate and Adrian hadn't seen much evidence of that.

Adrian knew that even people Matt's size who were hard workers and great at their job probably dealt with a lot of hassles at work. Matt's questionable work ethic, smug attitude, and considerable size probably wasn't a winning combination. Adrian wasn't sure how successful Matt was going to be at finding a job that let him sit on his ass all day, was fine with him eating a small buffet worth of food at his desk, and didn't really give a shit how much work actually got done.

Even if he did, they probably wouldn't be happy with him wearing sweatpants and T-shirts that didn't quite cover his belly to work every day. Matt was getting so big, Adrian figured, that he couldn't see when the underside of his hanging gut was exposed.

"So my aunt and uncle asked if I knew anybody who might want a job as a baker's assistant," Kate announced, loud enough to make sure Matt overheard. "One of their guys moved back to El Salvador last Tuesday."

Lina's Italo-Korean Fusion Bakery was owned by Kate's aunt and uncle, and their food was delicious. No wonder their daughter Lauren had always had a bit of a weight problem, Adrian reflected.

"Adrian, can you think of anyone we know who might be interested?"

"I think I might," Adrian grinned.

JULY 2013

"It's been fun having Lauren around," Adrian told Kate. He'd miss her when she went back to Cleveland in a couple of days. It was nice having someone besides him and Kate around who did something besides sit on the couch and stuff their face.

"It has," Kate agreed. "She's such a nice person. Matt was never anything but rude to her, and after she saw that he's blown up like a goddamn balloon she went and put together a whole list of "fat-friendly exercises" that fat people can do to get fit or lose weight in a healthy way or whatever."

"Aw, that's thoughtful," Adrian replied. "Too bad she didn't let us know she was going to go and do that before she wasted all that effort."

They both burst out laughing as they reached the front door. There was no way Matt was going to put in enough effort for Lauren's well-meaning health advice to make any difference. Like he did every couple of months, Matt had recently announced that he was going to get some exercise and maybe start to get back into shape. These efforts never lasted long enough to make a real difference, and these days he couldn't manage more than a slowish waddle on the treadmill.

Matt had become more and more sedentary as he got fatter and fatter. His arms and chest were bigger than they'd ever been when he went to the gym every day - but these days most of their bulk was pure fat. If it weren't for how much food Matt could shovel in when he was already stuffed, Adrian would think he had no willpower.

Matt had clearly put on some more weight since he started working at the bakery. Even Lauren couldn't find anything good to say about his actual performance at the job, but he was clearly doing a pretty great job making sure Lina's supply of day-old pastries didn't go to waste. Adrian wasn't sure how much he'd put on exactly, but it was getting pretty obvious from just looking at Matt - and the increasingly strained fit of his work uniform. Matt's gut was starting to hang down over his pants, he was starting on a third chin, and he had to lean back a bit when he walked just to support the weight of his heavy belly.

Kate stepped through the doorway first. "Adrian, come look what we have here," she giggled.
A very bloated Matt was lying on his back on the kitchen floor, still in his ill-fitting work-uniform, mouth smeared with chocolate. Next to him was an empty box of Lina's pastries and a couple of two-litre bottles of Coke.

Kate gave his big, vulnerable belly a poke, releasing a titanic belch. "How was work?" she asked slyly. "Lots of leftovers to take home today?"

Matt nodded, eyes half closed. "Not much to do," he groaned. "I ate all day."

He let out another long, forceful belch as Adrian rubbed his packed gut. "Shit, that feels amazing," he moaned, eyes half closed in satisfaction.

Kate's eyes gleamed as she reached into her shopping bag for a package of chocolate chip cookies. "Thought you might be interested in an after-work treat. But you look pretty full - me and Lauren can take care of them if you don't want any."

"Gimme those," Matt demanded, reaching out to take the package from Kate's hand and rip it open.

"Mmmm," he moaned, stuffing two into his mouth as Adrian kept rubbing his belly. His stomach gurgled in protest as he continued to eat greedily.

"Keep on eating, and you'll get another treat," Kate told Matt, reaching underneath his belly.

(To be continued!)