Chapter 3 - pumpkin and sanding sugar

Bethany anxiously ran her chubby fingers through the tight curls at the back of her scalp.

“Please watch Aero around the ducks,” she called out to Cotton. Cotton stopped what he was doing to look at Her. He nodded acknowledgement before throwing the frisbee. Bethany watched Aero, the Belgian Malinois, go crashing through several piles of red and orange leaves in pursuit of the frisbee.

“You need to relax, Red,” Christy muttered drumming her fingers on the fresh fruit concession stand counter.

Bethany felt her lips straighten out in a harsh pursed frown.
“My hair isn’t RED, it’s rose gold lowlights , strawberry blonde highlights, under tones of pink peach, and an ash blonde balayage.” Bethany tried to reduce the snippiness in her tone, “ AND Belgian Malinois have an extremely high prey drive.”

Christy rolled her eyes, “Well don’t you just know EVERYTHING.”

Bethany gritted her teeth. She turned around too angry to formulate a complete thought.

If Cotton was annoying his girlfriend, Christy, was a thousand times worse. Missy was better company any day.
Almost on cue the formerly perky blonde emerged from the dirt road at the edge of the field. Christy was well aquatinted with new, slightly unhinged, Missy. Avoiding eye contact, Christy rejoined her boyfriend and dog in the field.

“Hey Missy,” Bethany offered her a slice of Apple pie she’d had cooling. In the weeks following Cotton’s new relationship Missy had no weight loss success. Bethany silently cringed thinking about how little she’d helped matters. Missy had been forced to size up uniforms and her appetite was unrelenting. Bethany had to stop herself from purposely leaving food just out of her reach. She relished any excuse to watch her shirt ride up as she reached for another dessert.

“So they’re having a fall festival potluck and bonfire.” Missy said before biting into the cinnamon apple pie filling.
“You’ll go right? Cotton and Christy are going.” Missy muttered with full cheeks.

“Yeah sounds fun.” Bethany normally wouldn’t go. Any excuse to watch Missy further damage her waistline was just not something she’d pass up. She sensed that Missy was just dragging her along so she could spy on the couple. Being no stranger to being used she figured the night would be mutually beneficial.
Scooting away the now empty pie plate Missy turned around to face the field. They both watched Christy and Cotton play keep away with the frisbee. The hyper Malinois zigzagged from one owner to the other. Christy was annoyingly long and lanky with medium length dark hair and full bangs. Bethany felt her teeth gritting again just looking at her.
“God I hate that infernal bitch,” Missy groaned as she turned back around and slumping on the counter. Bethany felt herself burst into laughter, more than was appropriate. It was mainly because she had no idea Missy knew the correct context in which to use the word infernal.
“Yeah she’s not my favorite person either—“ Bethany’s thought was cut off. She had been watching somewhat detachedly as Aero got increasingly frustrated with Christy and Cotton. Bethany had been absentmindedly processing that chasing but never catching the frisbee must have been annoying for the dog. Bethany felt her fingers curl around the edge of the counter as Aero found something more interesting to chase, Ducks. She watched the flock scatter as the dog charged towards the pond. Aero jumped up in the air snapping his mouth, in an attempt to grab a dangling webbed foot. Bethany’s sighed in relief as the dog’s teeth were unsuccessful.

“I TOLD you!!” Bethany belted angrily from her place in the booth. Christy gave Bethany a different kind of bird. Missy couldn’t hold back laughter from the way the chubbier girl’s face had twisted angrily.

“God, I’ve never met anyone as insufferably immature as her EVER before,” growled Bethany.

The absolute disgust etched on Bethany’s cherub like face made Missy laugh harder.
——-

“Are you done yet?” Missy whined as she watched Bethany sprinkle sanding sugar on the pumpkin cookies.
“They have to cool,” Bethany couldn’t mask the smile in her voice as she spoke. She internally cringed for feeling so enamored with Bethany’s plead for food.

“We’re going to a potluck in an hour, should you really be eating more?” Christy’s voice was unnecessarily cold.

Both of the chubbier girls turned their heads to look at Christy. She was stood leaning on the edge of the concession stand tapping her fingers to her phone. Bethany felt her glare becoming dramatically threatening but she couldn’t control it. She was having fun churning out an unbelievable amount of sweets and watching them get demolished.

“You’re right,” Missy responded in a soft dejected tone. Her face shifted as if she was looking down remembering the way her tummy poked out. She looked over at Christy quickly as if comparing herself. Bethany felt the very familiar friction of her teeth gritting in annoyance. She was going to have to buy some kind of dental guard at this point.

As Missy walked away Bethany felt her eyes lingering more than what was appropriate. They locked on to the exaggerated gap between the front and back of her festive, white and pumpkin print overalls.

Her gaze was inconveniently interrupted by Christy moving into her vision.

“You two have an interesting little dynamic going on there. You feed her and she puts up with-,” Christy motioned haphazardly around Bethany’s face. “Whatever all that is,” she finished.

Bethany deadpanned her eyes narrowing coldly. The look wasn’t vicious but reminiscent of a warning shot.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be giving diet advice to the girl your boyfriend was canoodling with before you.” Her response was quiet as she tried to recover from what Christy said.

Christy laughed with contempt, repeating the word canoodling back under her breath.
“Guess it’s lucky for everyone that Cotton isn’t interested, because she’s still obsessed with him. You’re aware of that, right?”

Bethany roller her eyes at the implication.
“Yes and it wouldn’t change things if she wasn’t .”

“Yeah, Red?”
Christy’s fingers rattled over the tinfoil on the cookie baking sheet.
“You know what I think? You’re always so stuck up, unable to let lose even just a little. I think you’re wound awfully tight. All that tension is just building and building up inside. It all has got to go somewhere, eventually. I’m going to have fun watching you absolute lose control.”

Christy sunk her teeth into a pumpkin cookie smiling. The crunch of the sanding sugar was audible with each bite.

Bethany just gulped as she watched. The feeling of misery slowly sinking into her chest.

Luckily for her she didn’t have to say anything because Aero, and Cotton came bounding up the path from behind the lake.
Bethany breathed a sigh of relief.
—— ————-

The aroma of a campfire ascended from the slowly growing fire. Bethany listened to the cracklings of burning wood as she pushed a macaroni noodle around her paper plate. The low drum of faint voices hummed in her ear as small groups around the bonfire socialized. The saturated glow of pink and orange in the sunset was vanishing fast. The sky now draining from yellow and fading to black.

“Look who I found!”
Bethany jumped, causing an uneaten pizza crust to fall from her plate to the ground.
Christy smiled victoriously as Missy sat down on a stump next to Bethany. Missy’s plate was piled high with food.
“What number plate is that?” The question was directed at Missy but Christy smiled pointedly at Bethany as she spoke.

Missy, annoyed, muttered the word “three” before digging into a heap of potato salad. Bethany sighed realizing that it was Christy’s mission to make the potluck as awkward as possible for her. Christy sat down on the ground beside the two with her legs crossed. Easily distracted, Bethany’s eyes settled back on Missy.

Missy’s soft blonde eyelashes fluttered closed as she lifted another bite to her lips. Her softening cheeks meeting her delicate eyelashes with each bite. Bethany couldn’t tell if it was her imagination or if she could hear Missy’s overalls creaking.

Four brownies, a bowl of banana pudding, half a plate of Mac and cheese later Bethany felt as if her eyes were going to pop out of her head as she looked at Missy. Missy brought a chicken drum stick to her lips but stopped herself. She unhooked the shoulder straps on her overalls. She rolled down the front exposing the tight shirt underneath. She shuffled a little causing her to stifle s burp and then she bit into the fried chicken. Bethany swallowed hard again.

“Want me to go grab more food,” Christy was up on her feet.
Missy nodded enthusiastically her mouth full of fried chicken.
Christy shot Bethany a strange look before walking off. Missy was too deep in a food coma to notice the exchange, but Bethany suddenly felt uncomfortable.

IChristy reappeared juggling three plates. She placed one in Missy’s shrinking lap.

“You haven’t had dessert or a drink,” Christy smiled, placing a new plate on top of the one Bethany was holding. The brownies and cookies were store bought. Bethany knew she could do better. The boring confections were empty calories at best. She began chewing out of courtesy. S’mores were on Christy’s third plate. It was obvious she made herself.
Bethany watched with jealousy as the long strings of marshmallow and milk chocolate oozed from the confection. Christy licked remaining marshmallow from her lips as she finished. Factory made brownies and cookies just did not compare. Bethany unscrewed the cap off the soda bottle Christy had handed her along with the plate.
There was immediate surprise when the soda touched her lips.