Chapter 3 - 3 - bit off more than you could chew

3.

10AM, two weeks into the Chomp Subs contract.

Jake Palmer was two hours into a fantasy action video game campaign. One active viewer. His screen filled with magical bolts and goblins falling to the ground in burned husks. On his desk, prominently displayed, was a Chomp Subs NA pizza box. Jake was about to kill the boss he needed for his quest when he heard an alarm from his pocket. By now, he was familiar with the routine. Jake sighed, and pressed a hand to his midsection to try and rouse up a belch. With no luck, Jake paused the game and flipped open the pizza box lid. Inside were five unfinished slices that seem to mock him with the amount of excess cheese and toppings on display. Jake grabbed one, needing to fold it for how overloaded it was, and looked to the camera with an uneasy smile.

“And as we approach hour three on the Palmer Watch, it’s time for a munch courtesy from our sponsor, Chomp Subs NA. Their branded pizza and snacks really keep me going all day, I can haaardly wait to get started on this slice.”

His corporate mandate satisfied, Jake swallowed past a lump in his throat and raised the slice to his lips. He touched his stomach again, still rounded after the first three slices from, ‘Breakfast #1’, and fought the groan that wanted to escape his lips.

Such had been life for Jake over the last two weeks. After a disastrous first day where he tried to eat the whole pizza at lunch and needed to stream past midnight to fit the rest in, Jake had settled into a routine. The first three slices would be put down for breakfast, three at lunch, and the other two by the end of the stream. The slices were as intimidating as they first seemed, wide and thick and covered in an inch of cheese and bacon bits. Jake needed to eat past comfort at both breakfast and lunch to have any hope of getting it all down, and so far at least, it had been working. He hadn’t broken his contract, and despite some indigestion the quicker he got down the food the better. It tasted fine, Kayla had been right about that, but as the pizza cooled it got more and more disgusting. Jake had tried eating one slice every hour during the course of his stream, but he could hardly stomach the cement-like cheese that was waiting for him, and he couldn’t leave his desk to go heat it up.

So instead he settled on getting as much down in one sitting as he could, which turned out to be around 3 slices. After breakfast and lunch Jake felt pregnant his belly stuck out so far, but at least he could avoid pizza for dinner. At first, the excess eating had been extremely uncomfortable. Jake previously prided himself on maintaining a small appetite, and his belly protested at the excess heavy food stretching it out every other day. Slowly though, it was like his stomach got the, ‘we need money right now!’, mandate. It seemed to make more room the longer Jake kept up the routine. Where at the start Jake could hardly think to look at food after he finished his pizza, now he could manage to fit in salad at dinner, or anything to help with digestion. With each oversized slice his stomach adapted, and now at week two he felt only mildly nauseated as he brought the fourth slice of the day to his lips.

Jake took a deep breath and pushed as much of the greasy dough into his mouth as he could take with one bite. He chewed furiously, feeling a churning below as he did.

“Mmpf- soo good,” Jake mumbled in between bites, as he was told to. In truth, Jake was still quite full. The swell of his stomach pushed out the waistband of his sweatpants, which he had taken to wearing more and more lately, and he had to stifle a moan as he forced it down his throat. An immense pressure began to build in his stomach. Frowning, Jake shoved the rest of the slice in and took three massive bites, getting it all down before a massive belch exploded from him.

“Braaaaaapha!” Erupted out, the force sending Jake back in his chair and echoing around his cramped room. The slice defeated, Jake leaned back and cradled his protesting stomach before thinking of finishing his quest. He sat there a moment before he heard a notification sound.

‘Looks like your enjoying your pizza ;)’ KayTrae30 messaged him. Jake rolled his eyes and let out a half laugh, half burp.
‘Ha ha ha. I’m soo stuffed :/ at least my rent is payed lol’
The message dots animated in the chat window a moment before Kayla responded.
‘Yeaaa :’) i still feel bad bout that. Well if it helps I think it’s real cute when a big guy eats a huge meal and can’t do anything but rub his gut awhile. ;)’

Jake went to laugh it off but scoffed.
‘Big guy? Lmao, I’m just bloated, gonna hit the gym hard when I’m done with this, feels like I’m carrying around a bowling ball in my tum haha.’

‘Kidding, kiiidinnng :)’, Kayla wrote, ‘but you may want to pull that sweater down, or other people will be thinking that too ;)’

Jake gasped and looked down. To his chagrin, a slice of flesh had emerged, his sweater ridden up just enough that it was on full display. Jake pulled the fabric back down, going crimson as he did so, and thanked his one follower. He closed the chat window and unpaused his game. Enough breaktime. As Jake played though, a lingering sense of worry needled him.

‘Quit worrying,’ Jake told himself, ‘it’s just some bloat. Keep grinding.’