Chapter 12 - section 12 - finale

FINALE

[14 January, Sunday]

For some reason, probably smack bang in the middle of a spike of arousal in the last week or so, she'd decided to weigh herself, wondering what she looks like in numbers, the creaking scale spitting back at her a whopping number. Ever since then, 95 kilos (around 210 lbs) has been the number ricocheting back and forth among the maze-walls of her mind.

Last night before bed, she'd binged on a whole two kilograms of Indian takeaway, falling asleep in a pair of yoga pants she'd somehow been walking around in all day despite questions from roommate-Jane, pulled so thin by that stage of bloating you could sort of see her skin tone beneath like a second colour.

Now, by the time eight hours of indigestion-filled sleep has come and gone, she wakes into the next day. She rubs her eyes, looks at the clock, realises she's slept in and rolls herself into a sitting position, leaning forward, only to feel the over-stretched nylon band, thin as a wire, strangle her waist. With a sharp intake of breath, she digs her thumb underneath, forcing a gap open between the wirelike nylon and an unsettlingly deep layer of belly fat. A sharp snap, and a roll of flesh jumps out from captivity. Boggle-eyed, she looks down, feeling a second chin bunching up, and finds she can do nothing but mouth 'holy f@ck'. She lifts her night shirt to inspect herself, even that mere action causing faint adipose movement. Seeing how widespread her gut has become, she lays her palm atop the fleshy mass and spends time moving it back and forth. She has to put her whole forearm across her waist to reach around its entire width. Who knows how many of her collective kilograms have ended up on her stomach alone... Holding its entire mass in two outstretched palms, she lifts it, hefting its weight up and down, watching as it jiggles in her hands. When she lets it drop back into her lap, it contains just enough momentum to carry her forward an inch or two. So here she sits, groping every part of her as though this was her last day alive, shaking it all back and forth, knowing that every roll, every dimple, every inch of gelatin-like flesh is her fault.

***

Since extending their stay in Canada, Ruby and Lucio had regretfully but necessarily let their fun come to an end on this very day, flight-hopping all the way back home, touching down for the last time late in the afternoon.

Jane and Tamara being out at work, Georgia is about to come down to the indoor carpark with William at eight-thirty to wait and welcome Ruby back home when she arrives. After that, the couple would head from there to a date at a burger joint across town.

Ruby and Lucio arrive scant seconds beforehand. 'Just park in that space there,' Lucio leans forward to point to a spot beside Ruby's car. 'Thanks.'

Georgia comes out the elevator just as the taxi is coasting away to see what she remembers as a merely pudgy Ruby standing there with a suitcase handle in each hand, now a girl almost twice the size she was, a frilly beige tank top failing to meet the rim of her jeans, leaving a marshmallow-shaped gut large enough to match Georgia's, and a belly button piercing, all out on display; the very same half-heart navel ring she'd bought to match with Georgia from way back, that one day of the piercing, before any of this had even started.

Sensing but not hearing the elevator close behind her, Georgia stands there low-key shocked as Ruby comes up short as well, pretty little lips parting as she sees Georgia, beside some guy she's too stunned to realise must be this William fella, ina floral shirt unable to be tugged down past a new pair of high-waisted jeans that, even though they actually fit her, leaves a strip of flesh exposed. Peaking just out over the top of the waistband is half her squishy belly button, and none other than the second half-heart ring.

Nobody speaks, leaving a concussed silence that last just a fraction of a fragile second too long, shaped only by the sounds of city traffic outside. Their eyes go up and down each other's bodies. Then, at the exact same time, words jumping over the other's, they say, 'Oh my god how did you get so fat!'

The silence, snapped in half, falls away into the depths of an even vaster silence.

A snort escapes Ruby. Georgia smirks, unable to help herself. Then they both burst out laughing. It takes them all a second or so to realise that it's not hostility. No sarcasm. Nothing like jeering at the other's developments. Something more, something reachable only at the end of that, overcome by the fact that this is all so ridiculous that it could hardly be true, let alone believable. And yet here they are, fatter than they ever thought possible, since one taking insults from other led to the insults being directed the other way, straight into a mutual fattening that neither of them either confessed to each other they got horny at, until they met respective partners, separated for a few months which felt like years, and came back to find each other laughing.

This is the first time in a while that Ruby can remember seeing any warmth in Georgia's laughing eyes, and the first time Georgia has realised that maybe all this isn't so negative as she'd made it out to be. Peacetime is here. War is done, or at least gone elsewhere. They can grin freely again.

Both Lucio and William watch their partners with uncertain postures, squaring their shoulders, getting ready for some sort of fight to take place. But it never occurs. Only presently do they notice themselves standing across from one another, as though at some tennis field waiting for a match to begin. Then, slowly, slotting the pieces into and around the general picture, they come to realise what's really going on here. Their partners are, after all, pretty much the same size... They almost laugh to themselves. Tension draining from their bodies, they swap a silent, appreciative glance.

General chatting commences. It's all fine, general merriment. Lucio and William are introduced. Details are shared, even a few laughs. A calm ease gradually settles in, the same way the sun sets over the ocean somewhere in purple and fiery reds, taking the day's problems with it into night, far away, across the starred cosmos.

But it's time to part, for now; Georgia and William to their burger joint date, Ruby and Lucio back up to the flat. Hands are shaken, temporary farewell waves are given.

With their silver piercings swinging as the belly buttons they hang from bounce around on furiously jiggling stomachs, not even bothering to cover themselves up, the two girls part ways, taking their half-heart symbols in opposite directions, though not for the first time, nor the last, only until the next of countless times they'll be in the other's good company once again.