Chapter 33 - lie in

Red awoke in the twilight and he was freezing. It took a moment to recognise where he was, but the light from the television, which had been muted showed the familiar scene of Carla's living room. He crossed his arms for warmth, someone had draped a thin blanket over him, but it did not do much good. He contemplated getting up and figuring out the heater, but saw the mess on the floor and worried that he would be too noisy stepping on things. By his chair was dozens of wrappers from earlier, by Carla's side were at least eight empty beer cans and a few crisp packets and by Sofi's seat a small mountain of rubbish had been piled up. He figured they were up for quite a long time. He checked his phone, it was half past four, very late and now he felt tired but not enough to sleep again so expected to be bored.

After an hour, He was reading his phone. He had visited the usual sites and completed the Saturday crossword, he was totally bored and now his stomach was making terrible noises, at some point He would need to beeline for the bathroom, occasional snores from the bedroom indicated the others were sleeping heavily so noise might not be too much of a problem, but the cold was unbearable, the thought of leaving his blanket to find his clothes and turn on the heater was unpleasant, but had to be done. He hauled himself up, feeling his skin prickle all over, walked to the radiator, switched it on and stood by it to get the hot blast directly, before retreating to the sofa. He looked for his t shirt, but it had somehow disappeared, Carla probably took it to sleep in.

By six AM Red had finally braved the dash to the toilet. He worried that he made too much noise in there, especially with the paper thin walls, however reassuring snores were a pleasant indicator that nobody was disturbed. On his way out, he caught site of his belly in the bathroom mirror. The harsh light had illuminated the top of his stomach but hid the bottom in shadow. He poked the most rounded part near his navel and his finger sunk in, standing up his flab was nearly an inch thick, where it was only recently flat and slightly toned. Most of the roundness was likely a food baby from weeks of over eating, but defiantly a lot was fat. He pinched it into a roll and bent over to watch it fall over the elastic waistband of boxers, it was defiantly real, but part of him knew at this stage could reverse it all in only two or three months if he wanted to and trained hard. However, he did not want to, he liked seeing the changes, but more than that he liked the challenge and the attention Carla gave him. He gave it a final squeeze and smiled at his reflection.

By half past seven, Red realised that his stomach was making different noises, which indicated he was probably hungry. This was normal lately after stuffing with lots of empty calories and so He helped himself to the remaining Swiss roll. He was sure that there should have been two, but assumed Sofi probably ate it some time. After finishing it, he tried to read some more, but felt his eyelids getting heavy and finally drifted off to sleep again.

Red woke again to the smell of bacon cooking. There was a strong golden glow coming through the curtains, so was patently daytime.

Carla walked through the door, Red could not decide if she looked hot or terrible, she was dressed in baggy panties and pink tank top, her hair was wild, frizzy and sticking out at all angles and she was slumping forwards, with puffy, drowsy eyes, she must be hung-over. "Morning sleepyhead." She grumbled and flopped down next to him. "Sofi's doing breakfast." She then lay on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Sofi emerged through the door shortly after, She was wearing dull white and pink pyjamas which may have fit at some point, but now her belly hung down too far and stuck out the bottom of the pyjamas top. "Do you two just sleep? Breakfast is ready."

"Thanks." Said Red, getting up.

Carla mumbled and needed help getting up.

Breakfast was substantial, lots of bacon, eggs, hash browns, beans and fried mushrooms with toast to go around. Red still felt satiated from the cake earlier, but still managed to politely help himself to a decent meal.

Over breakfast, Sofi tried to plan the day, but Red and Carla were too tired to listen. Sofi eventually relented to giving a wake up call at mid day and letting them go back to bed.

"Meeting starts at two, so shower quickly." Was the last thing she said.

Carla spooned Red in bed, which made him feel cosy and they once again fell asleep.

At half past one they left the house. Carla had done a great job hiding the hangover with make up and hair conditioner. She wore a black flowery dress that she had worn a few times before. Sofi wore a tight blue, Aztec patterned dress with leather jacket and strong crimson make up, Red thought she looked nice too. He was left wearing a Super Mario t shirt and black sweat pants from Carla's wardrobe thanks to ruining his own clothes the previous night.

"You know you aren't going out like that, you're scruffy." Sofi said.

"Didn't plan ahead, sorry." Red replied.

"He needs to level up his clothes." Carla interjected, pointing at the t shirt design.

"Mario doesn't level up."

"He beats levels, same thing."

Red shrugged this off and they walked towards town.

Red came out of the clothes store wearing a black shirt, black jeans and black jacket.

"Christ, it's Johnny Cash." Sofi rolled her eyes.

"I thought it looked cool. Understated yet debonair."

"At least its smart. Move, we're late now."