chapter 4: an appetizing apology

"Mmhmm" her little sister softly cooed. "I brought a whole suitcase of big sis's favorite snack all the way from home," she continued. "Sort of my way of making up for that shitty Christmas present," she added with an apologetic look before stepping over to give Ashley a big hug. Finally. "You were always so upset about your weight when you came home, I thought it's what you wanted. I didn't even think about what it meant until after I sent it."

"Oh," Ashley blushed. "It's fine. I mean, I'm the one complaining about my weight all the time so I know you were only meaning well," she said. Her mouth was slowly creasing into a smile but her eyes stayed glued to that second Tang bar the entire time. Sure, Ashley wasn't necessarily famished or anything, but she hadn't had any comfort food in like forever. And with all the standing and waiting and.. reunioning it wasn't long before-

Ghrrrrllllllll

"Ugh,&qu ot; Ashley huffed, breaking the hug to look down at the noisy culprit- her stomach. At least, she assumed it was. Generally a safe assumption to make.

"No no, that would be me. Stephanie said, patting her toned, flat stomach as it let off another impressive rumble, loud enough to be heard over the general bustle and hum of airport activity. This only elicited another giggle as she turned back wistfully in the direction of the air plane she had flown in on. "The meal on the plane was like an hour and a half ago and they only let me have like 3 of them. Which is bullshit, I know they have more back there," she growled more to herself than to the two enormous co-workers, sourly recalling earlier events of the day. To be fair, the older man in the seat next to her had been kind enough to give her his in-flight meal on top of the other ones when he had seen the hurt look in her eye and heard the audible complaints from her stomach. But that was forever ago, she thought to herself, and it still wasn't enough!

"But, like, seriously," she snapped out of her reverie, "I really want food cuz I haven't eaten anything since the plane," she said, quickly scarfing down the second of the candy bars even more quickly than the first. Ashley could only moan inwardly as her heart sank.

"Like I said," Melanie restated, flowing seamlessly back into their A and B only conversation now that the family moment had passed, "how are you not passed out?"

"Oh my God, 'How are you still hungry? How come you're not a million pounds? Where does it all go?'," Stephanie snickered, going through the usual questions before Melanie could have a chance to fire them off. "Everyone in my family's just blessed, dude. TLC even wanted to do like, one of those sitcoms about us. My mom's skinny, our little brother is skinny, I think Allie here is the only one in the family who got the appetite half but not the metabolism half." She leaned over onto her sister's soft saddlebags and gave a hearty laugh before giving Ashley a big pinch on her puffy cheek. "I guess I don't have to feel bad about sending you that diet book after all- you clearly didn't use it for anything!"

"Haha, nice one," Mel added with another belly-shaking guffaw. All this movement was causing her shirt to ride up, exposing the massive, wobbly ball of fat to anyone making their way from Arrivals.

"Yea, super funny." Ashley contributed with another weak attempt at a smile.

Well, the obvious truth was that it was anything but funny to Ashley, but she kept that to herself. Poor sweet Ashley hated to come off as the jealous type, especially because Stephanie was such a sweetheart too and would be absolutely devastated if she ever felt for a second that strong, wise big sis would ever not be there for her goofy little sister. But, well, it just wasn't fair.

Being the only one not blessed with The Flash's metabolism meant that the former cheerleader had had to spend her entire childhood denying herself and her unnaturally amplified appetite. But not Stephanie. Stephanie just ate. And ate. And ATE.

The girl must have swallowed a vortex when she was a baby, Ashley surmised. Sure, it made little sense, but so did a size 4 who could, on any ordinary day, put away enough food in one buffet sitting to leave even Melanie in a food coma. And she had proven so time and time again in their de facto "eating competitions", the foundation that Melanie and Stephanie's peculiar friendship/rivalry was built on.

And that only made Ashley all the more jealous! But Mel could hardly be blamed for being swept up by Steph's natural charisma and tried to do her best to assert that Ashley was 'first bestie' when she could remember to. Hence playful nicknames like "Lesser Ashley".

Still, nothing could change that Steph had the charm, Steph had the looks, Steph had the metabolism.. And, subsequently, Ashley inwardly fumed, the body to go with it! Ashley had tried (almost) her whole life to stay thin and what did she have to show for it? She was just over 500 pounds! And, more importantly, Ashley was 500 pounds and hungry. All this inward fuming and fussing was NOT helping her aforementioned "blessed" appetite. Her gut, of course, made its grievances loudly known to the other two similarly "endowed" girls. Stephanie's stomach responded by reinforcing its earlier message and Melanie's vastly larger belly offered an equally vocal statement as well. Stephanie, completely clueless to her obese idol's inner monologue, now stood up on her own and gave Ashley's now-partially exposed tummy a healthy pat.

"I know I don't need to ask big sister if she's hungry too," Stephanie said, her immensely fattened sibling's double-tiered belly now rumbling to match hers in volume and intensity. "We are related, after all," she smiled, giving Ashley another hug and giving her soft, bare lower belly roll a firm jiggle.

Ashley smiled back.

'Maybe this won't be too awful,' she thought, her mind momentarily at ease as it drifted on to thoughts of an alleged suitcase stuffed to the brim with Tang bars.