Chapter 15 - pretense

Frustrating though it was, the strongest source of restraint and willpower left among my coworkers was, for me, untouchable. I outwardly had no qualms with Elizabeth; she was always civil with me. But despite her mousy appearance, she had a big mouth and absolutely no filter to combat it.

Elizabeth was blunt, often too blunt, about her ballooning coworkers. She wouldn't insult them to their faces, but she routinely threw out subtle jabs, chiding my piggies on how many slices of pizza they had slid into their mouths, how often they snuck back to the cooler for refreshments, or how tight their uniforms were getting.

I was certain that she reported every obscene detail of her coworkers' doughy descent to her father, but the bottom line was that business was booming. He spent very little time in the actual shop anymore, considering plans to open a sister location, so he was largely occupied with laying the groundwork for its conception. Why should he worry about his wider workers if Elizabeth was the only one complaining?

There was no malice in her comments; they sounded more like motherly scolding, but still they disrupted the Eden I was working hard to create. Madeline was increasingly reluctant to let loose under Elizabeth's watchful gaze. Her aura of silent judgement kept Madeline grounded and focused on resisting her deteriorating fitness, even despite Laci's best efforts. With Elizabeth removed, Madeline would have been catching up to Laci by now. Laci knew this too, which, in turn, frustrated and upset her greatly.

Laci always struck me as a bit vacuous, just a pair of tits and a tongue to turn out juicy gossip. Although, now, I suppose her tongue was much more occupied lapping up creamy delights. And her belly, I hoped, would give her breasts a run for their money. Still, she certainly knew how to make the best of a bad situation; I had underestimated her.

Ears pricked as I snaked my way through the kitchen, I caught Elizabeth and Laci shooting the breeze. An odd pairing, I thought, but since Madeline had occupied herself with mopping the kitchen, I supposed Laci had no one else to talk to. Madeline was more intent on sticking to the far corners of the shop than actually cleaning, each swipe of the mop more redundant than the last as she had been in the same spot for over ten minutes. She was, after all, keen to avoid Elizabeth, lest her own softening figure be noticed. At least I wouldn't have to worry about her.

Readying myself to rescue Laci from Elizabeth's total lack of social grace, my whole body tensed. But as I listened in, I found that there may indeed be a silver lining to Elizabeth's nagging.

"Jeez, Laci, that's like your sixth slice today. Maybe you should slow down?"

Laci blinked, momentarily distracted from her single-minded pursuit of fullness. I read her face from afar as it transformed from indignant to embarrassed and then, finally, broke into a wide, sly grin.

"Yeah, maybe I overdid it today, but this working girl's got an appetite," she exclaimed as she wrapped her lips around the remainder of her slice.

"Gosh Laci, you answer phones and make pizzas. How tiring can that be?"

"There's so much more of me to lug around, Liz. Carrying these girls around isn't easy, you know," Laci, offering but a cursory glance to make sure the lobby was empty, heaved her breasts up to her chin, the excess tit fat pouring over the sides of her hands, and let them flop onto her doughball belly. Elizabeth recoiled at the sight, noticeably shaken

"You need to slow down, Laci. You don't want to go back to school looking like..."

Laci gazed sweetly over at Elizabeth, and very purposefully stuffed her seventh slice of the day into her mouth, inquiring in a muffled mock innocence, "Yeah? Looking like what, Liz?"

"Like, well... bigger! Can you not see how much you've gained? Jeez, Laci, I can hardly recognize you!"

"I thought I just cut loose for the summer," Laci said, pouting.

"Letting loose is an extra five pounds! Or, well, maybe ten, at most..." Elizabeth trailed off, suddenly reminded of her own slight gain, but soon caught her second wind. "But not an extra fifty! Or however much you've put on. That's beyond excess, Laci. You need to get it together,"

"Do you think I can work this off?" Laci slapped both palms onto her belly, the apron muffling the resulting thwack. Roused by the sudden movement, a pale sliver of fat poked out as her tee began to climb up the curve of her stomach.

"Well," Elizabeth cut in, "with proper diet and exercise... anything is possible, I guess."

"Really?" Laci beamed. "You think I can lose all this jiggly, nasty fat before cheer tryouts?"

"U-uh, um... isn't that only about a month from now?"

"Yup! But you've inspired me," Laci rambled, grabbing for her eighth slice and coming dangerously close to finishing a large pizza all by herself. "I can't wait to get my slim... sexy... body BACK!"

Each description of her fictitious future bod was followed by a hearty bite, her teeth digging viciously into the pizza. She was egging Elizabeth on, practically begging to be ridiculed. I recalled how she had chastised herself in whispers while I had spied on her in the bathroom. Every snide comment, every backhanded remark, every critique Elizabeth offered drove Laci wild. And now she was cashing in.

"I'm sooooo glad you showed me what a disgusting pig I've become, Liz. Think of how much fatter I could have gotten! Thank god you caught me before I hit two hundred!"

Elizabeth was at a loss for words as Laci took the final two slices from the pizza, one in each hand, and looked her dead in the eye.

"Imagine what the girls would have said if I came back to school a hundred pounds heavier. They wouldn't be caught dead talking to my ***; they'd just giggle and gossip about how bad I let myself go."

Her pizza laden hands drew ever closer to her quivering lips. I could tell she could hardly resist. The aroma bid her to dig in immediately, but she wasn't done just yet.

"Do you think I could find a date looking like this, Liz? Do you think any of those football players could handle a pig like me? Thank GOD I have you to put me in my place. I could've gotten HUGE."

Laci was practically gasping at this point; her pussy must have been completely saturated. She was ready to go in for the kill.

"I can't wait to start cheerleading again. I can almost see myself back in my uniform, can't you?"

With this, she leaned back her head and force both slices simultaneously into her gullet. Hot, wet cheese spilled from her lips, the grease turning her skin shiny and trailing down her neck and into the canyon of her bosom. Moaning, mouth filled to the brim, Laci turned to Elizabeth once more.

"You really think I can make it Liz? Turn from a greedy fatty to a fit cheerleader?" She exhaled heavily, bits of food flying outwards and onto Elizabeth.

As the weight of the question settled, Laci ran her hands over her finally satiated stomach. Totally bloated, it had caused her already taxed tee to ride up and reveal the expanse of porcelain flesh. She clutched its mass, covered only by her apron, before letting out a tremendous belch that echoed throughout the store and shattered Elizabeth's horrified trance.

"Are you serious, Laci?" Elizabeth squealed. "You're twice as wide as when you started working here! You devoured an entire large pizza and you aren't even an hour into your shift! You think you can make cheer tryouts? You spent all summer packing it on; it'll take way longer for you to ever be thin! I was trying to help, but you're right! You're a slob, Laci! You walked in here a ditz and you've eaten yourself into an even dumber pig!"

Elizabeth had also, obviously, never held Laci's intelligence in high regard, but I was beginning to appreciate her resourcefulness. Laci had goaded Elizabeth to her breaking point, and seemed to be reaching her own as well. All throughout Elizabeth's rant, beneath her apron, I could see Laci's hands slip under her stomach and between her thighs, hungry for the wetness of her womanhood.

Ironically, Elizabeth had been played by a girl she thought of only as mindless lardass, and was too oblivious to even notice Laci masturbating in front of her eyes.

Laci knew all too well that she had fallen from grace, and this angel was getting too fat to fly back to paradise. I watched her arms strain weakly as she dug her fingers further into herself, and I almost thought she already climaxed as her blushing cheeks suddenly paled.

She looked shocked, or pained, or perhaps dazzled by ecstasy; it was difficult to tell. Even as her eyes moistened with tears I wasn't entirely certain. Hands still plunged beneath the concealing fabric of her apron, she sprinted, as best she could, to her safe haven: the cooler.

Elizabeth buried her head in her hands, ashamed of having gone off on Laci so harshly, and I braced myself for the muted sobs that would surely bubble up from behind the heavy cooler door, but none came. It was then that I put it all together.

Bra-fucking-vo, Laci. Pretending to be a wounded little lamb so she could sneak off and finish herself away from prying eyes was brilliant. Yet again, I had totally underestimated her.

I draped a consoling arm around Elizabeth, who was still devastated by her own outburst.

"Let's go to the office, Elizabeth. Let Madeline watch the front. We need to talk."