Chapter 7 - ravenous

The next time Josh awoke, he was ravenously hungry! He took a long drink of his delicious shake, but realised he needed to go to the toilet.
Reluctantly he stood up to make his way to the bathroom. He did not notice that all the nuts had gone.
On his way back from the bathroom, he decided to take a look at the clothes that Ruby had brought over. Oh she was good really, she'd brought a broad selection for him. He selected a pair of stretchy track suit bottoms and a tee shirt. He doubted he needed to be formal today. He bloody hoped not, because he felt like shit! If Ruby brought him what he had asked her to bring twenty million times today, he could have faced anything! Instead, he couldn't contemplate doing anything even vaguely exciting. He certainly could not have done the photo shoot today. The thought of having to speak to people he did not know filled him with dread! Pretending to be cheerful when your heart was breaking inside was one of the hardest things. People just did not understand!
He walked back into the living room in his comfortable loungewear with a heavy heart, on the verge of tears. He picked up his shake. It had been nearly empty before, but now it was full again, but he didn't notice. He was starting to get hungry again. He could do with a sweet treat after such an emotional morning. He wondered what he could have. What would he find in the fridge? It was probably empty. Julie and Ruby might have left him alone to starve all day with nothing to eat but a few measly nuts and a shake bottle. Maybe they'd gone away somewhere... he started to panic a bit, then he heard one of their voices coming from the kitchen area. He was safe! He had not been abandoned after all.
Julie asked if he was hungry. He nodded, sheepishly. She asked him to sit down at the table. She served him a large tray of lasagne straight out of the oven.
There was a tablespoon for him to eat it with. Julie reminded him to shovel it in quickly and not think about being polite.
He picked up the spoon and took a piece from the edge, then lifted the spoon up to his mouth. It was a larger implement than he was used to, but he really didn't care right now. The lasagne tasted good, but it slid down his throat without much chewing. He had his next spoonful ready before he had swallowed. For the next hour, he only stopped eating to breathe and to have a drink of his shake.
If anyone had told him two days ago that one person could eat a whole tray of lasagne in one sitting, he would not have believed it possible. Yet here he was, with an empty tray in front of his and a bulging belly to prove it!
He'd forgotten about his huge breakfast as well, yet he still had room for a long drink of his shake! Mmmmm it must be the most delicious thing he had ever tasted! Oh, yes, please! He'd love to have some more!
He walked back into the living room. He felt so full! His belly skin was so tight and stretched, yet he was so muscular that it barely showed. He held onto his stretched abdomen as he walked. He could feel the contents shift from side to side as he walked. He wad to be so careful because one small shift too much and he could end up bringing the whole lot back up! He didn't want to do that! That was getting into bulaemic territory and he was no bulaemic.
He sat down carefully. He did not notice that alongside the nuts on the table was a plate of chocolate biscuits.
He got himself settled just in time to see a Catherine Cookson film coming on the tv.
Within half an hour, he had nodded off. When he woke up, the film was still running. Josh was able to pick the storyline back up from earlier and by the time the movie finished, he was in floods of tears!
What on Earth was wrong with him today? Why was he so emotional? Why was he eating so much? Why was he so lethargic? He knew exactly why.
He needed COCAINE!
Why would Ruby not go and get him some? He didn't understand. He picked up his shake. It was not as if...mmmmmm that was tasty! Oh yes! He liked that, he thought! He drank some more and reached for the chocolate biscuits while he waited for the next programme to come on. It was something to do with retraining badly behaved dogs. Josh became absolutely fascinated. By the end he thought he knew more about training dogs than the trainers in the programme... and all the biscuits were gone.

Ruby came in and asked him if he wanted a snack because dinner was going to be later on.
Josh did not realise how hungry he was. He couldn't wait hours for dinner! He wanted something now! How could it be that his belly was still so tender after a large breakfast and lunch, yet he still wanted more?
Ruby had to help him up as he made his way to the bathroom. While he was away, she topped up his shake and laid the coffee table out with an assortment of sandwiches and cakes for his afternoon tea, served on a pretty cake stand.
When he came back, she noticed his trousers were definitely tighter than usual.
How much more could they push him without him realising?
He'd hardly sat down before he started eating again, the tiny dainty sandwiches would be pushed into his mouth whole. The cakes took longer to consume, but he ate every single one.
Normally, Josh would have shied away from the carb laden sandwiches, the cream laden scones and the sugar rich cakes. Today, it was like he was a different person, eating for England!

He had another nap before dinner, which was an Indian takaway served at the dining room table. They all sat down together, with the dishes spread out in the middle of the table, but Josh was not allowed to help himself.
For his starter, Julie gave him crispy, yet greasy onion bhajis with lots of cucumber and mint sauce. One portion should be one large bhaji, Josh was given four and he ate every before either of the girls had finished a single one.
Next, Julie loaded his plate up with chips (more calorific and fattening than plain pilau rice) then added a serving spoon of every dish on the table, she could not load it up too much or it would not all fit and the sauces would be running off the plate. He had a selection of dishes from a cool korma to a fiery vindaloo, with bhuna, madras, jalfrezi and tikka masala in between.
He ate like it was the first thing he'd had to eat all day, devouring everything that Julie had put in front of him, including the extra sauces that Julie added to his plate as he emptied it.
He sat back, patting his super stretched belly, sipping on his shake. Did someone mention ice cream? Oh yes! There was always room for a bit of ice cream!
He needed to be helped to bed after getting through four bowls of the frozen dessert. He was so full, he could not bend in the middle at all. Ruby had to help him undress.

"Tomorrow," Julie told her later, "he'll not be as crotchety. He will not be as hungry and he will crave less. He will still be tired and he will not be bothered about working out. We need to keep the pressure up, make sure he keeps eating, make sure his shake doesn't run out and he doesn't do too much.
He will never snort another line of cocaine again. We will continue to ignore him when he mentions it, but we will start to reward him for eating and not exercising. In a few months he will not be recognisable as the male supermodel he once was!"