Chapter 1: chubby chit chat

“Dude. Pam is getting. SO. Fat.”

The voice’s origin, an office worker named Anne, snickered as she said it. "Like, oh my God, right?"

Her younger, significantly thinner coworker Erica smiled wryly. "Of course I've seen, hon," she replied, her smile doing its best to stay sincere. True, Erica had noticed Pamela’s plumping up; it was hard not to. The resident sex symbol of an office secretary had certainly let her bored, sedentary lifestyle get the better of her. When at the height of her boredom, Pamela Owens could snack like a champ and, to be fair, it's not like her eating habits particularly stood out in this particular work environment. Even Erica could be found more often than not with a donut or bag of pretzels in hand; she was just blessed with a high metabolism.

The thing is with Pam though... is that almost every calorie she consumed and ounce she gained seem to go straight to her already hefty boobs. No, scratch that, Erica thought to herself, it seemed like just as much if not more was finding its way to her round, jutting rear. Sure, Pamela may have been thickening around the middle just a little bit, but nothing could compare to that girl's frankly ridiculous T and A. Given that the girl's recent weight gain had only put her in the category of "somewhat chubby", it was hard to really criticize when the curvy girl in the office just got curvier.

Anne, on the other hand, couldn't exactly qualify as "somewhat chubby" anymore. No, it was easy to see that Anne was just out and out fat. From her thick middle surged a soft, droopy belly that rested on her thickened thighs, thighs that led up to wide, round hips. Sure, Anne may have had a pretty large chest of her own, but the double chin that rested just above her cleavage could draw just as much attention.

Erica was more than aware that Anne was being a bit hypocritical in her critique, Hell, Anne likely even was in some subconscious capacity, but both girls knew that Anne’s gradually-but-always increasing weight was one of the very, very few things that was strictly beyond the range of discussion. Poor Anne needed her outlet for her weight frustrations, and what better outlet than her fellow fattening employees? Erica often wondered how quickly Anne would turn on her if she ever managed to gain a pound.

But that didn't matter. Erica knew the routine. She was obligated to do anything to sustain her cohort's self-esteem, and that occasionally included tearing down her other colleagues. It was all good fun, she figured, as long as they never actually overheard..

"I can practically hear the floor shaking when she walks to the break room," she snorted, clearly fibbing but still earning a deprecating laugh from Anne. "Still though," she added, not too terribly eager to continue but seeing no other option now that they had gotten into their flow.

Erica momentarily paused to take a few sips from a bottle of water and then quickly clear her throat.

“Still what?” Anne asked, shit-eating grin slowly spreading across her fluffy face.

Erica crossed one leg over the other. She started again, “Have you seen Becky lately?”

Anne’s face lit up as she took a large bite of a chocolate chip muffin she had on her desk, "Mmf, I know." She spit out a fair few crumbs as she talked and chewed simultaneously, but was conscious enough to angle her mouth away from Erica as she spoke. "Like, the other day she tried to come to work in khakis. I have never seen anything jiggle as much as those thighs do."

"Umm, how about her ass?" Erica countered with a snort.

Now, criticizing the bottom-heaviness of their newest intern might have seen cruel, but Becky Simmons was an easy target. All gossip aside, Becky had been getting really wide as of late.

Becky's hips spread out farther than any doorway in the building was built for, and with the way her epic booty stuck out behind her, turning sideways only exacerbated the problem. Her monstrous derrière had been needing quite the amount of extra room as of late. Becky often found herself apologizing for one mishap or another as her titanic hips and monumental booty bumped and brushed appliances and employees alike. Those constantly swaying cheeks were veritable wrecking balls in the office environment and heavy but humble Becky was more than sorry for the ungainly burden of her ungainly butt.

Erica actually felt bad for the poor girl. See, the thing is, Becky actually liked Erica. And Erica knew she liked her. It made Erica just the slightest bit guilty about making Becky the main focus of their weight gossip. The office cubicles had thin walls, both literally and figuratively, so snippets were easy to overhear, especially if part of one's job involved constantly shuffling her hips in between aisles and offices. With how often Anne and Erica seemed to want to make Becky's impressive weight gain the subject of snarky conversation, it was only a matter of time before either Becky overheard one of Anne or Erica’s sardonic "critiques" or somebody else overheard and reported back to the expanding intern. Becky and Erica had this mutual awkward awareness of the former being fully knowledgable of the gossip going on behind her expansive back and the latter being cognizant to the fact that the former had this knowledge.

And yet Becky still liked Erica anyway. And that's what killed Erica on the inside. Sure, it was no secret to either of the girls that one was talking shit about the other, but Becky had too much of an odd sort of respect and understanding for her senior colleague to hold it against her. It was almost as if Becky silently understood that her bountiful butt being the subject of scrutiny was just a consequence of inter-colleague gossip, a natural occurrence in office politics.

Or even worse, Erica thought, that Becky's naturally deferent disposition meant that she actually took Erica’s constant barbs to heart.

"Oh, dude, someone needs to tell that girl not to wear loose dresses,” Anne chittered, “Her cheeks are like fucking wrecking balls, I swear she knocked over my stapler walking by the other day."

"Yea, she knocked over my coffee yesterday," Erica added, looking caught in the memory for a second, "but don't worry," she snapped back. " It doesn't look like any of her dresses are going to be loose for much longer."

Anne let out a snort so sudden she almost choked on her muffin. Pausing to chew then swallow, she added with glee, "I can practically hear her thighs rubbing together from the front desk."

Erica giggled. Granted, Anne was no stranger to thighs rubbing together herself, but that was right on up there with the very exclusive list of taboo conversation topics.

It was easy to see why her vain friend was so harsh on Becky. Being significantly younger and, although Erica dare not say it aloud, significantly prettier than Anne, coupled with her charming innocence and spunk, Becky was the perfect target for someone with an ego as fragile and frail as the ever-plotting, ever-plumpening Anne. Becky's once thinner face was finally starting to develop cheeks that were quite chubby and a chin that was beginning to triple, and Anne’s porky, jiggly jowls couldn't have bounced even more as she chuckled in glee just thinking about it.

"I bet you that's why her coffee runs take so freakin' long," Anne continued, oblivious to her hypocrisy. "It's probably like a workout just to swing one leg over the other."

"Oh, see, I thought she took so long because she sits on her fat ass and eats half the pastries in the store."

Anne let out another loud snort before finishing her muffin. Wiping the crumbs off of her face, she reached for another one. "Some people, she sighed, "just don't understand the meaning of self-control," she finished, taking a big bite of her next muffin.

Erica rolled her eyes.