Chapter 5 - growing out

It had been a month since Cynthia moved into her new apartment. She finally felt completely free. She was making decent income, her rent was cheap, and she didn't have to pay for any meals. What she didn't realize is that her not paying for any meals meant that she had no idea how much she was eating. It turns out that Margaret missed having kids to feed. The problem was that she had 4 kids and she still cooked like it. At this point, Cynthia was eating 6 or 7 meals worth of food every day and the most fattening kind, too. She had treated herself and bought an entire new set of over sized clothing when she moved in celebration. Sweatshirts and sweatpants were all she wore because it was all she needed to wear. This all changed on a Monday morning, the day after a massive stuffing of leftover chicken.
She was getting ready for work and she was putting her sweats on when she noticed that her pants would not go any higher. Looking between her breasts parted by her growing belly, she realized that her drawstring was pulled completely into the sweatpants. At first she thought that the string had fallen out in the wash but then noticed the ends just barely peeking out. Her whole world turned around at that moment. There were no clothes that would fit her and no way for her to get new ones quickly. Pacing her room with her pants half on and her belly exposed, she accepted that she would need to call her work to give an excuse. She dialed the number. Waiting for a response, she thought to herself, "I should never have been in the situation."
"Hello, only the best chicken in town! How may I help you?" Ms. Walker said cheerfully.
"Hey," Cynthia responded, faking a tired tone. "I don't think I can come into work today. I'm feeling pretty out of it."
There was a second too long of silence.
"It happened, didn't it."
"What do you mean?"
"Your clothes don't fit anymore, do they? My husband and I were trying to see how long you would last."
Cynthia was surprised so say the least.
"Why didn't you say anything?" She asked.
"Well we didn't want to ruin your fun."
"Well, thanks for looking out for me but I would have liked to know." She was dying of embarrassment.
"We can drop by with some clothes so you can come in. We've got a nice big meal ready for you to make you feel better."
Cynthia smiled softly at her phone as she pressed decline and sat at her desk chair. She looked down at herself for the first time in many months. Her belly was bulging over her waistband to rest on her legs which were now hanging over the sides of the wooden chair. She felt her sides pouring out of her formerly oversized sweatpants, jittering with every poke and staying completely still when she twisted. She felt as though she should be ashamed but, oddly, she didn't. The feeling so her surprise actually pleased her. It was as if she was being hugged by a warm cushion that stayed with her wherever she went. She felt around her newfound body and found herself loving every bit of it.
She was knocked out of her trance with a knock at the door.
Quickly throwing on an old tee and finding that it could not cover her belly, she ran to the door with her body jiggling along the way, and opened it. Mrs. Walker greeted her with a radiant smile and a small pile of neatly folded clothes.
"I'll wait here while you go get changed."
Getting changed was not as easy as it had been before. The first step was to walk off the old clothes and that proved to be difficult. The next was to change into the new clothes which seemed to have been picked to fit her growing body a little tightly but still cover her completely. The jeans buttoned just barely under her belly, pushing it up and creating 2 distinct folds while the shirt did nothing to hide them. She came back down looking like she had put the clothes on then inflated until just before the jeans exploded. Mrs. Walker put on an overly dramatic display of surprise and said, "I knew you had grown but not that much!" Patting Cynthia's belly, she continued, "you must be starving."
Cynthia had completely forgotten about the mention of a feast while it was brought up again but it was obvious that the Walkers hadn't. When she walked in, there was a table for 4 completely covered in the most fattening foods on the menu. She couldn't decide whether to marvel at the amount of food or stare in disbelief at Mr. Walker to was the creator behind the meal.
"I can't eat all of this" Cynthia told them, still staring wide-eyed at the food.
"My husband tends to overdo things" Mrs. Walker said with a smirk at her spouse. "Just dig in. Whatever you don't finish will be your lunch."
"I should really start watching my wei..." she protested as her voice waned off, already walking in a zombie-like state towards the food.
The Walkers watched as she sat and began to mindlessly stuff herself. Slowly, the food disappeared and her stomach filled. The first customers began flowing in when she was starting on her last few plates. They watched as she emptied plate after plate into her waiting mouth, never seeming to get enough. She reached forward with her empty hand, discarding a chicken bone with the other, and grabbed nothing. Descending into reality, she was beginning to feel the discomfort of her meal packed into her stomach. Finding it hard to breathe, she took a deep breath and released. Her stomach pressed hard on the button that saved her in the morning and ripped it from the rest of the denim, allowing her mass of fat to flood forward and appear from under her form-fitting shirt. Now she looked around and every customer was looking under her table at her belly in complete silence other than the sound of the metal button rolling on the tile. Mortified, Cynthia ran to the kitchen, her body swaying with her steps as she went, and ate a little more to calm her nerves.