chapter 7: netflix and chill

After Christmas Mikes clothes were more snug than ever, wrapping around his small gut like the wrapping of a big mac, but that didn't stop him from eating more cookies, which were still plentiful around the house.

I assumed he was just enjoying the last days of the year and would start a diet as his new year's resolution, losing that belly, and getting back to being a fit dad.
You can understand my relief when I arrived at Tom's place on the first of January and saw Mike in the living room, remote in his hand and cookie Jar by his side.

"Hey" he greeted me friendly, after seeing me walk in.

"Hey" I replied.

"Tom is upstairs in his room"

"Yeah sure, seeya" I took one last look at Mike before turning towards the stairs.

"Hey do you know any good show on Netflix I could watch?"

I turned around again. "Um Stranger Things is pretty good, if you haven't seen that."

"Hm, I've heard of that show, is it some kind of horror story?"

"Well a little bit, I suppose there is more of a mystery element to it and stuff."

Mike ate another cookie while he typed in the title in the search bar.

"I want to rewatch it myself I think, I do like it a lot, and season 3 should be out this year."

"Well if you want, we can watch it together some time, and I'll watch something else for now."

I could barely conceal my excitement as I casually said; "Yeah that'd be ok."

Not sure what to do now, I quickly said goodbye and walked towards Toms room.

"So, Netflix and chill with Mike might be a thing soon?" I thought to myself, smiling "Lit."
It started the next day, Tom was out for soccer practice or whatever we teens do outside idk I never leave the house. I went to their place, I basically lived there, now that I think about it, and Mike greeted me and reminded me of my "promise" for us to watch Stranger Things together. He had obviously made plenty of popcorn by the smell of it, and I was excited to begin, wondering if it would be awkward or fun.

We both sat down on the couch, Mike next to me, and he offered me a large bowl of popcorn, which I refused, as I didn't really like it to much. He shrugged and started the show, grabbing a handful of popcorn right after. He munched away happily while the Episode began, and by the end of it was already finished with the lot.

"Wait lemme get some more."

He stood up and returned with a second bowl of popcorn, and told me sheepishly, that it doesn't really fill you up, does it. He sat closer to me this time, I don't think he really noticed, and managed to eat the whole second bowl during the second episode. He looked at the remaining unpopped corns disappointedly, sat the bowl on the coffee table and leaned back, with a loud "oof". His legs were spreading more now, and after I pretended to make myself more comfortable as well, our knees touched. I could luckily conceal my bulge by acting like I was playing with a pillow, and then rested it on my lap. Mike was too concentrated on the show to notice any of it, and I could understand why, as we were in the middle seeing Barb getting dragged down by some unknown creature.

The doorbell rang, and Mike told me that he had ordered lunch.
I thought he must be joking when he laid down a platter of a dozen hotdogs on the coffee table. He saw my reaction and blushed a little.

"I must have underestimated the size of a hotdog"

"Yeah..."

He seemed to recover himself, as he told me; "Don't worry, I'm the man for the job" and slapped his gut, which gave a hearty thwack.

He sat back down next to me and unpaused the show. I took a hotdog for myself, as I was starving, and Mike had the same idea. He was now leaning forward, over the platter, shoving the thing into his mouth. After a few minutes he took a second one, then a third, a fourth, and so on. I was done with my first and sort of wanted a second one, but decided against it, as I wanted Mike to have as many as possible to himself. He had slowed down after the third one, but during the next few episodes he somehow managed to eat 9 of the bad boys, while I watched gleefully. He certainly was overly full now, and was about to give up, when I decided that now was my time to act.

"C'mon only two left, I thought you were the man for the job." I told him, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Hm yeah, you're right"

I saw Mike take the last two hotdogs into both hands and, huffing a bit, slowly started pushing one between his lips. How I wish I could have fed him them myself, letting him lay back, rubbing his belly, I heard that helps in some way.

After quite a bit of groaning, Mike swallowed down the last bit of sausage and bun and looked at me triumphantly.

"Now you owe me 10 bucks"

"We never bet on anything"

"Well, that was a missed opportunity on my part, I guess"

He leaned back again, hand on his gut, which looked larger than ever before. He had sweats on, but if he had worn jeans, he probably would have unbuttoned them long ago.

Time went by to quickly, and it felt like it had only been minutes when Tom came home and I was forced to leave Mikes side to hang out with him.