chapter 5

A month passed and Sophia had developed some very bad habits. First she began to stay over at Maggie's house several times a week, drinking sugary cocktails and devouring everything in sight until she would pass out, practically immobile from the thousands of calories worth of food and drink. She would wake up at around noon and drive back to her house, and, hungover from the night before, would gorge on one of her mother's large lunches and would spend the afternoon in the living room, watching TV and dozing off on the plush sofa. No longer feeling the side effects of overeating the way she had when she'd first moved here, she could manage quite a large portion of her mother's heavenly dinners. She also began to enjoy deserts and snacks a little more often, which she reasoned she rectified through running more hours a week. Her time spent at the gym dwindled and she found herself wasting her days away on the couch more and more. But Sophia was enjoying herself so much that she barely noticed her change in behaviour, and continued to wear her increasingly tight and revealing clothes that she'd brought with her from San Francisco.
The Saturday before the girls' reunion, Sophia and Maggie were out shopping for dresses to wear to the event. They both sipped on grande lattes from Starbucks as they debated lively over what to try on. Once in the change rooms, Sophia struggled profusely to zip up her size 2 dress, and when she finally got it on, she was far from satisfied by how it the material clung to her. The tight black dress revealed a small potbelly that was beginning to develop, and muscular thighs and upper arms that were beginning to give way to a soft thickness. Upset, Sophia tore off the dress, cursing the brand for creating a dress that was so clearly unflattering, and so clearly not a size two. She grabbed the other dress- a very loose, flowy number that she was much more satisfied with. Just as she was about to leave the change rooms, she heard Maggie grunt angrily from the stall next to her.
"I can't believe it! How could I have gone up another size?!" Loud sounds of struggle emanated from behind the closed door.
"You'd think that my healthy habits would have rubbed off on you and made you lose weight instead of gain it! I'm sorry, hunny. I'm sure the dress looks great on you," Sophia reassured her.
Maggie stormed silently to the cashier and bought the dress in the wrong size, muttering to her friend bitterly that she would lose the weight before it came time to wear it again. Sophia purchased the flowy dress, and they bought some hamburgers and coke from the food court before returning to Maggie's house.