Chapter 7 - 6 - consequences

6.

One month later.

Jake frowned as he examined the label of his jeans.
“Yep, 30W 30L, my standard, so why...?” The streamer huffed as he tugged the pants down again, willfully ignoring the feeling of his thickened middle bunching up as he bent over. Jake got his legs in and pulled up the waist. So far so good as the material slipped up his ankles, calves, and knees. It was his middle thigh when the trouble arose. It wasn’t like its width stopped the jeans progress, no, the waist neared Jake’s rump without pause. It was just that, not two months ago these had been baggy enough they had barely made contact at all, certainly not enough to push the fabric out. And then, just as the jeans were to crest Jake’s fuller cheeks, did the jeans make their first stop. Inches away from the buttoning position, Jake went red as he got his fingers in the belt loops.

Jake tugged and jumped upward once then twice, the feeling of his belly bouncing with each tug only deepening his embarrassment. With a final effort he got them on, but to Jake’s chagrin, yep, there was still a mound of soft pale skin separating the ends of the waistband. Jake felt his heart beat a tick faster as he went to prod the doughy flesh.

‘This isn’t just bloat...’ Jake thought as his index finger sank in past the first knuckle. He knew with how tight the jeans were they pushed his belly out. Jake winced at needing to have that kind of thought, but it didn’t stop him from feeling like his body was alien to him. He poked and patted the added flesh around his belly, sides, even noting his pecs had started to soften and peak.

For the last month and a half Jake had averted his eyes from both the calorie counts on his food boxes and his image in the mirror. Any added girth or tightened clothing was credited to bloat, or overfullness (which to be fair, was most of the time now) but feeling himself start to jiggle in his flanks during a rare walk had been enough to give up his denial. Jake checked the scale before he had jumped in the shower that day, nearly screaming when the number was 24 higher than his last, Jake’s 188 put him well past his heaviest weight ever. The pounds had manifested in a few locations, but most noticeably the doughy gut that pooched over an inch out and wobbled every step.

“This is why when something looks too good to be true, it usually is...”

Jake took out his phone and snapped a picture, this was only going to help his case. He hopped out of the bathroom, found his trusty pair of sweats, put on what still fit, and got himself looking reasonably nice before stepping out the door.

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Jake Palmer had a meeting with the Chomp Subs NA streamer relations team, and he was going to have his mind heard. All these calories, all this gained weight was based on a predatory model, and one Jake felt was his duty to expose. That was, if he hadn’t gotten too fat to make his appointment in time. He shuffled his heavier legs on the sidewalk as fast as he could, perturbed at how quickly he got winded.

“This is just, huff, the route I always take. Why does it feel like someone’s standing on my lungs?” A drop of sweat flowed down Jake’s temple. Alarmed, he got a finger to it and flicked it away, but it was only the beginning. Within a couple blocks, Jake had started sweating more and more, his pits and crotch darkening with moisture. Not only that, but his widened thighs wobbled and slapped together with every step, he was starting to chafe.

The six blocks Jake walked, or usually ran in less than fifteen minutes had taken him nearly thirty. He had always been slow, but the added padding, not to mention bumping into way more people, had left him totally gassed. He plopped into a subway seat with a grateful sigh. It was only eight stops on a single line to get to the Chomp Subs NA office, but one stop in Jake noticed a pair of angry eyes pointed his way. They signaled him to look up, and he did, seeing a, ‘Give up your seat for the elderly,’ sign. Jake looked back and blushed upon seeing the ancient woman before him.

“Oh- I’m so sorry I’ll-,” Jake tried to jump to his feet as he always did. He put in the same amount of force from his legs, but this time he fell back halfway through, the added weight in his middle pulling him back to the seat with a meaty plop. Alarmed, Jake doubled his efforts, getting to his feet and nearly losing his balance. Looking back at the woman, he pointed to the open seat like a waiter did at a fancy reservation. The old woman looked at Jake and snarled.

“Soft boys like you are making us lose to the Russians, go on a diet!” The old woman sat down in front of Jake, who’s mouth had gone slack, and pulled the hem of his shirt down, slapping at his exposed flesh as she did so. All Jake could do was stammer and eventually go silent, desperately tugging at the fabric. Jake stumbled to the back of the subway car and waited there, more embarrassed than he had ever been in his life. There was an open seat, but he didn’t take it, preferring to stand out of spite. That too only added to his embarrassment, as his calves and feet cried out from the strain of holding up Jake’s fattened form for an extended period of time.

“How could I have possibly gotten this out of shape already,” Jake thought miserably, “I’ve only been stuffing my face for a month...” But, he knew that was a lie. He didn’t include the total lack of exercise the last month, or all the pizzas the month before, or the generally reduced activity of the past six months of trying to get this streaming career off the ground. Jake shook his head and tried to focus on the goal here.

‘This is Chomp Subs fault. This is predatory, and I’ll make sure they pay.”

Jake heard a screech as his stop was announced over the loudspeaker. It was time.
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1 Hour later.

Jake did not make Chomp Subs NA pay. He arrived fifteen minutes late to his meeting, panting and drenched in sweat. In front of a panel of lawyers, stakeholders, and resource managers, Jake explained that the nature of their offer had included predatory incentivisation, and that they were responsible for both Jake’s expanded figure, and for allowing him out of the contract without needing to pay back the money he had been awarded. He pulled out his phone and showed them the picture he had taken of himself in the bathroom.

The lawyers did not agree. They pulled out their own phones, though instead of a selfie on the screen there was the written contract Jake had signed without reading. Highlighted were potential exit clauses. Weight gain was not one of them. Jake was free of course to leave his contract at any time, he would just owe Chomp Subs NA the monetary value of the contract at the time of signing.

Jake had no response. He left, and heard the lawyers begin to laugh as the door closed behind him. On his way out of the lobby Jake caught a glimpse of himself in a full length mirror. Jake’s ass and thighs pressed up against his sweat pants, leaving no guessing room to his current state of plumpness. His t-shirt had ridden up, a racetrack of soft skin looping around him like a human equator. As if on cue, Jake’s stomach let out a deep, demanding rumble.

“Guess you're used to bigger meals now, huh?” Jake mumbled. This was a bad situation he had gotten himself into, but things could have been worse. He could have already blown all the money, not just most of it. Chomp Subs could have only given him the cash after he finished all the food, making him pay back whatever he ate if he failed. Jake rubbed the part of his new belly that rounded outward, perturbed at the forigen feeling.


“At least my weight isn’t the only number going up anymore.”
The sting of being humiliated by his employer was fresh, but there was one saving fact Jake held his hat on. He was actually starting to get noticed in the streaming world. The last month and a half of working with the Chomp Streams team had actually boosted his numbers like they said it would. His sub count was way above anything he had gotten on his own. Jake lifted up his shirt and gave his paunch an experimental slap, laughing uneasily as it bounced. It grumbled again as if annoyed.

“Well, I might be bouncing in more places when this is all over, but I think I learned my lesson this time. No more contracts. But hey, may as well lean into the image if I have to keep munching like this anyway...” On his way home Jake ordered a burger and flicked on the live screen streaming app from his phone.

“What’s going on internet? It’s ya boi, Jakey Eats!”

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