chapter 5

She felt the skirt pressing against the heavy mass of food in her stomach and quickly pushed the waistband down below her stomach, revealing the pale skin for a moment before she dropped her blouse to cover her swollen midsection. She sat there for a second and smiled as she watched the bitch from earlier leave out the doors in regular clothes, her shift having apparently ended. Seeing the judgemental cashier again caused Jenna to become extra aware of her appearance. She sat there, lounging in a booth in mcdonalds wearing a nice blouse and form fitting pencil skirt that was now pulled down below her waist. Her hair was slightly out of place, her wallowing earlier having been enough to ruin even her always-perfect hair. She was now wearing vans instead of her heels from earlier, adding a lot of character to her unique appearance.

Jenna's thoughts turned away from herself as she eyed the apple pie that stood as the lone survivor amongst it's friends, trying to sense at what point her tummy had emptied enough to stuff the sweet treat past her lips in order to renew the satisfying fullness that she had been missing. After about 5 minutes that point was reached and Jenna quickly devoured the pie, leaving the box amongst the other discarded wrappers. After a few minutes Jenna stood from the booth, struggling as she stood, trying to baby her swollen midsection. She slowly approached the counter, her tummy taut and swollen as she felt her plump ass jiggle just a bit, the flesh having a bit more room since the waistband of her skirt now sat below her swollen tummy.

At the counter Jenna produced her receipt in order to receive the cone that she had ordered, she had almost forgotten about the ice cream, but had thankfully seen it on the receipt that was amongst the wrappers on her trays. She didn't want to accidentally waste anything and have her card cancelled before she had emptied it, so she was relieved as she received the ice cream cone, completing her order.

Jenna was tired and desperate to get home so she walked as quickly as she could despite her engorged belly. She shivered as she licked at the cold ice cream, the treat no longer having the allure it had had when she was indoors and had an empty stomach. Now, out in the cold with a stuffed tummy she cursed her past self for ordering it.

'God, I'm so full!' Jenna thought as she neared her apartment, thankful to see her building when it came in to view. She finished chewing on the last of the cone just as she crossed the parking lot that led to her door, she swallowed triumphantly, having officially completed the binge she had bought for herself.

Jenna's stomach dropped as she saw a white envelope sticking in her door. What had she done wrong? Was she going to be cut off? Was that her last solid meal until she got another paycheck? She panicked as she desperately tore open the envelope, eager to read what was written on it.

"Excellent job today, you really managed to put away quite a bit of food! I reward such behavior, and as such have placed an extra 50 dollars on your card. Enjoy."

'Oh thank god!' Jenna thought as she finished reading the note, a sense of relief washing over her, not only because of the lack of harsh words, but also because of the discovery of some extra money on her card.

Jenna slowly walked inside of her apartment, her stomach still painfully full. She walked tiredly down the hall and collapsed on her bed, ready to forget the day's events. Thoughts of work, food, the mysterious stranger, the card in her purse, and her desperate situation raced through her mind as she fell asleep, and continued, morphing into exaggerated nightmares as she slipped from consciousness. She saw in her mind's eye herself sitting in an empty room, suddenly a figure in a shapeless cloak comes in with a cart full of McDonald's bags. She squirms and screams but is helpless as the figure begins stuffing food down her face. Jenna tosses and turns in her bed as sweat runs down her face, her mind's eye seeing herself being forced full of food.

The next morning Jenna was suddenly awoken by the sound of her phone ringing. Her belly forms a small roll that hangs slightly over her waistband as she sits up in bed, wiping the sweat off her forehead, trying to turn her thoughts away from her nightmare and toward the nature of the call that had awoken her. Maybe an interview?! Her mind jumped at the idea, quickly getting all of her mental capacity together as she searched for her phone. She found the phone and quickly answered it, seeing a number she didn't recognize just before she swiped to answer the call.

"Hello?" Jenna asked nervously.

"Hi! I'm Sammy and I want to talk to you about your retirement plan!" Jenna immediately recognized the voice as a recording and disappointedly hung up, collapsing back into the comfort of her bed defeated.
The next couple days passed by in a similar fashion, Jenna desperately searched for a job while buying all of her food from McDonald's. She finished each day with a triumphant binge at McDonald's, annoyed at her predicament of not having a car, leaving her to either eat at the store under the scrutiny of the employees-- according to her shame-driven paranoia, or to walk her food home, letting it all get cold and gross before she got to enjoy any of it. Her love for the taste of fresh, hot, salty, food left her choosing the former option every time, forcing her to deal with the she-witch whenever she was scheduled.

The 50 dollar deposit had brought her account back up to $120, meaning that she could once again afford to binge every day. After 3 or 4 days of not keeping track she checked her account again, only to find a balance of $95.37, way higher than would have been there if it hadn't been reloaded without her knowing, however she had no way of looking up the transaction history of the card to know for sure.

'God, Jenna the first week is up!' She thought to herself as she sat on her bed staring at the almost 100 dollar balance on the card, only about two binges worth of food shy of the original number, despite her having consumed at least 10 or 11 really large meals as well as snacks in between while she was out searching for jobs. She had shown so much promise and determination, the $140 dollar goal had been tossed out of the window as she passed that mark by day 5. Now, It was Friday, marking a complete week since she had come home from school to find the first ominous envelope. In the past week she had handed out at least 120 resumes by her estimate, however she had yet to receive anything more than an automated response thanking her for applying when she had applied online to a select few businesses.

'What if he's sabotaging my job hunt...' Jenna thought to herself, suddenly becoming extra paranoid as her eyes darted around her room, nearly certain that she was being watched. 'He knew I was drinking diet soda, and he knew I threw the gift card in my own trash... so unless he's magical he must have cameras here somewhere....' Jenna's thoughts continued as her eyes scanned her room that was lit only by the natural light that was filtering through her curtains. She saw all of her old high school memorabilia that she had brought with her to display and remind her of home. She had a couple of medals hanging from her dresser mirror, each one a representation of some track accomplishment she had achieved in Junior high when she could still compete, before she really began adding a little extra weight to her short frame. Despite the extra weight she had played soccer through high school, one of the activities that probably helped her maintain a relatively normal figure. Additionally, the sport had caused her thighs to seemingly balloon as well as her butt and hips as she constantly used the muscles. Now, however, the smooth firmness had been replaced with a rounded softness, despite her lesser weight, her body composition having shifted away from musculature and toward fat. Her years in the sport were reflected by a picture of her on the desk in her soccer uniform, her face beat red as she held a trophy in front of her full frame, declaring some victory her team had just accomplished. Her eyes continued from the picture around the room, searching for any visible irregularities. She searched in vain, it seemed, finding nothing but a slightly cluttered room that reflected the life of a stressed out college student with little time on her hands and no supervision.

'No that's crazy... i think...' Jenna concluded halfheartedly as she tried to convince herself that she'd see some success in the coming days. She had gotten paid the previous monday, and the 463 dollars had gone almost solely to her rent for her student apartment, the other remaining dollars being spent on her internet bill so that she could continue searching for jobs online, and at least have some entertainment when her netflix shut off along with her other subscriptions.

'He probably could seen the trash from outside, or something, There's no way there are cameras in here, I've lived here for almost a year!' Jenna thought, opting for the comfortable unlikelihood over the likely scary fact of being under surveillance in her own bedroom despite having her curtains drawn and door shut.