chapter 2

Natalie had decided on the stretchiest clothing item she could find to wear at dinner that evening. She chose a simple yet sheik black dress. It was one of those sweater like dresses that had an oversized turtleneck on the top. She couldn’t remember the last time she wore it but she knew that the last time she did she was MUCH skinnier. Natalie didn’t even bother to try it on to make sure it looked okay. At that point she knew that whatever outfit she chose there was no way she could hide the fact that she had gained weight...a lot of weight. 

Just as she was finishing cleaning up her mess, Natalie heard the doorbell ring. She walked over to her window to see who it was down below, and immediately her heart plummeted straight to her stomach. It was Derek from next door. The same Derek she used to flirt with all throughout high school, but who never asked her out for some reason. She knew she was bound to run into him at some point over break, but not this soon!

“Knock-knock” Natalie hears. She looks over her shoulder and sees the antique brass knob on her bedroom door slowly begin to turn. She knew her fat ass wasn’t going to be able to make it in time to stop whoever it was from coming in, so she did the only thing she could think, and shouted “don’t come in I’m naked!” “Relax it’s just me, sweetie” her mom says “I just wanted to let you know Derek is here to see you, come down and say hi”. 

Normally Natalie tried her hardest to only let Derek see her when she looked her best. Between always keeping up with the latest fashion trends and her extremely regimented beauty routine, she always looked on point. 

Beads of sweat started to form on the crease of her upper lip. She began to frantically search for her make up bag and hair straightener when she stopped and thought to herself, “what am I doing? If this guy was into me he would have made a move a long time ago. I should just go down there bare faced and all”.

“If he didn’t want me before, there’s no way he’s going to want me now that I’m fat”, Natalie kept telling herself. She threw on a bright pink button down sweater to match the sweats she was wearing and exited her room.

When she got downstairs she heard Derek and her parents chatting away in the kitchen and went straight in to join them. “Hey, Derek!” Natalie said cheerfully. Derek turned his head to face her and began to say hello, but before he could even get to the second syllable, he stopped speaking and suddenly had the biggest grin she had ever seen him make plastered across his face. Surprised by his reaction, Natalie playfully said to him “what, is there something on my face!?” Derek laughed and said “no, as a matter of fact you look great!” Natalie’s dad quickly chimed in and told them that he and Natalie’s mom were heading to the store for some last minute supplies and asked if they needed anything. Normally if he had done this in front of a boy Natalie was interested in she would have pretended she wanted nothing, or said something healthy, but this time she decided to not hold back. She asked her parents to get stuff she could snack on like cookies, ice cream, chips. “Really, are you sure you want to have all that junk in the house at your disposal while you’re here, Natalie?” her mom questioned. Natalie felt herself blush and said “yeah mom, a few snacks won’t hurt.” “Yeah, mom!” Derek jokingly chimed in. “Don’t worry Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, I’ll make sure Natalie gets in some exercise while she’s in town” he said as he winked at Natalie. After years of trying to win him over, was he finally the one flirting with her? 

Right on cue, Natalie’s stomach grumbled the loudest she’d ever heard it. But before she even had time to be embarrassed Derek goes “I didn’t know there was a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon”. They both giggled and decided to go into town to grab some lunch and catch up. “Was this a date?” Natalie thought. She didn’t want to start making assumptions right off the bat, but this was the first time Derek had ever given her potential more than friends vibes, and she wasn’t about to ignore ‘em. 

Derek had just gotten a brand new mustang for Christmas and he was eager to take Natalie for a spin. As they got in the car and sat down, she felt the passenger side of the vehicle sink towards the ground due to all of the excess weight on her end. Derek was so excited to show off his new whip she didn’t think he’d even noticed, but little did she know, he most definitely did. 

Natalie and Derek both loved classic rock, so it didn’t take long before they started blasting some Van Halen and jamming out to the music. Natalie could feel the bass vibrating against her tubby thighs that were pressed up against the inside of his car door. The music was so loud it felt as if the sound waves were rippling straight through her layers and layers of blubber and up her whole jiggly body. From the corner of her eye she could see Derek attempt to sneak a peak whenever she shook her hips or flailed her flabby arms. Every now and then she’d try to turn quick enough to catch him, but every time he’d look away before she could. She didn’t mind though. She was happy to see him unable to take his eyes off her. But the questioning remaining in her mind was why? At this point it hadn’t even occurred to Natalie that perhaps Derek’s sudden flirtations were a result of her weight gain. She even thought maybe he was just trying to be nice and lift her spirits because he felt bad that she had become so grotesque. 

20 minutes later and they had made it to downtown. “I don’t know where I want to eat” Natalie exclaimed. “I haven’t had so many of my favorite foods from home in so long, this is going to be tough to decide!” Once again Derek had that same big grin plastered across his face. He says to her “if you can’t decide on just one place, let’s go to as many as you want!” Natalie chuckled and told him that there was no way she could eat that much food. “Well there’s no way to know if we don’t at least try and find out!” Derek triumphantly responded. She thought it was a little odd at first that he seemed so eager to encourage her to eat, but she just brushed it off as him trying to be supportive of her rather than make her feel self conscious about her gain. 

The first place they chose was a pizzeria Natalie and her family had been going to since before she was even born. Her favorite dishes there were the chicken parm pizza and the penne alla vodka. She had yet to find a good Italian restaurant near her school, so to say that Natalie was excited for this food was an understatement. It was almost impossible to keep the drool from dribbling out of her mouth as soon as she walked in and got a whiff of their homemade garlic knots. Her eyes widened as she scanned the pizza bar before her stocked with a variety of different pizzas, strombolis and calzones. “Miss, I think your friend is trying to get your attention” the man behind the counter politely said to her. She was so hypnotized by the beauty of all this food that she didn’t even notice Derek trying to call her over so they could be seated.

The restaurant wasn’t too busy so Derek asked if they could be seated in the corner booth that easily fit 5 or 6 average sized people. Natalie scooted in first, followed by Derek. He could have easily sat far apart from Natalie with all that space, but instead he chose to sit only a few inches away. She so badly wanted to ask him why there was this sudden change of heart, as he was definitely putting the moves on her, but she refrained. Perhaps she was just making this all up in her head as a desperate attempt to convince herself that Derek was into her.