chapter 4

Several weeks passed and the search for an apartment became clearly useless quite quickly, and Sophia resolved to stay with her family until she could find somewhere to live. She would usually make herself a smoothie for breakfast, and go for a run, before coming back to prepare herself a light lunch of salad or soup. At night she would attend her mother's calorie-laden dinners to be polite, though her svelte body was still used to her usual restricting diet, and she would always fall asleep at night bloated and feeling so stuffed to the brim she almost felt sick. She joined the town's local gym, but only managed to work out there three or so times a week, with rapidly decreasing intensity, where as before she'd gone almost every day.
She also began frequenting Maggie's house. Maggie was a stay-at-home mom, and both she and Sophia suffered from the suffocating boredom of having nothing to do with themselves in their tiny town. They drank often to entertain themselves, and soon Maggie introduced her to sugary cocktails to go with their boozy food binges. Sophia never felt sick when she ate while she was drunk.
One day, the two girls were in Maggie's kitchen making chocolate chip cookies and sipping on Pina Coladas when Maggie brought up a high school reunion that she had heard was happening.
"It's in a month and a half, but I'm really excited for it! Stella and her husband are going to fly in and go to the reunion, then stay with me for a few weeks afterwards," she gushed, popping a handful of cookie dough in her mouth.
"Me too, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again. Maybe Michael Stassen will even be there..." Sophia winked and giggled through a mouthful of cookie dough. Michael had been the hottest guy at their high school, and though Maggie had dated him on and off in their senior year, Sophia had always secretly had a huge crush on him. Suddenly Maggie got very quiet.
"Are you okay?"
"What will everyone say about me? Look at me! I'm huge! They won't even recognise me from the sexy girl I used to be." Half-halfheartedly sipping on her Pina Colada, she lifted her straining T-shirt to reveal a massive, doughy belly, laced with stretch marks, that hung over the top of her sweat pants, and squeezed a handful of the fat in frustration.
Sophia was at a loss of words. She had no clue how to comfort her friend, so she gave her a tight hug, then reached for the cookie dough, only to find none left.
"Did you eat the rest?" She slurred.
"No, I only had a little bit of it."
"B-but it was a double batch! You must've had more than that!"
Maggie shook her head. Sophia finished off her drink and put her hands on her stomach, which was protruding and hard to the touch. It rumbled loudly. She still wanted more food.