Chapter 4 - #004 /a quarter for her thoughts/

I gravitated back towards the arcade that evening, I liked it there and it wasn’t like I had anywhere else to go at the time. I hadn’t succeeded in getting any money, so it wasn’t like I could actually play anything, but If I could soak up the atmosphere that was probably its own reward. Though that atmosphere was totally muted as I walked in the door. Dousing me with a revelation like ice water that they were almost certainly closed given the time of night. Though, there was one person still in attendance. Jennifer was playing at one of the machines. A rack of beer cans and some snacks laid out across the controls as she attempted to rapid fire her way out of the latest shoot em up. Well, the second latest shoot em up, the arcade was a little bit behind it’s time. It was impressive she could play like that especially with her flabby gut in the way. Even though it was terrible machine etiquette. I supposed it was her machine, and her snacks, so she could gobble while she ate if she wanted to. By walking in I distracted her and as she glanced me there was the distinct sound of an infantry man dying followed by the stock sound effect to let you know to put in another coin.

“Are you just going to sleep out on our doorstep again?” she asked me, taking out one of the beers and cracking it open with the refined efficency of a college girl. “Eh if it’s a real problem for you, I can just head down to the beach instead” I informed her with a shrug. “Ha I bet you could” she muttered talking bitterly into her beer. “But you’ll still be out in the rain, right?” she asked after a speculative moment. “It’s just water, people go to the beach to get wet anyways” I added breezily. “Firstly, people go to the beach to show off, secondly you’re going to catch a cold or something" she fired back finishing off the last of her beer. Tossing it into a nearby trashcan in a gut bouncing display. “You can sleep here again tonight if you like” she said fiddling a little bit. She was just as soft as she looked but she didn't want anyone to know it. I found it mighty cute to say the least. “That’s super-duper nice of you, but there’s no way I’m going to bed yet it’s like psh..6pm” I told her with a chuckle. “It’s 10pm” she said pointing at a clock that had been directly in front of my face. We both laughed. It was a slightly new sound to hear from her.

“Well, if you’re bored, you could play something I guess” she said revealing a row of quarters she had lined up next to her beer cans. “Seriously!” I asked, more than happy to take her charity if it was on the table. “Just shut up and shoot” she said putting the quarter down onto the booth next to hers. She didn't have to tell me twice or honestly even the first time. I wasn’t good at anything that required thinking. But I had fast hands and I really wasn’t one to panic under pressure. So, I just got at the booth and went. To say it felt good to play again would be an understatement. The satisfying tactile click of pushing down a button, the thrill of making progress. Like most things it was less fun without an audience. But I was having such a good time I thanked Jennifer by actually shutting up for a while. We just kind of played together in the quiet din of the after hours.

Eventually though I noticed a pattern. As focused as I was on my own game, the death sound really cut through the concentration. It was a jarring sound effect so every time it happened for her I couldn’t help but peak over. Each time I did she was drinking a new beer, or eating a new snack. Crunching away on some potato chips, or gobbling down some cheap candy bar. At first, I figured it was just the natural eating pattern of a girl who weighed as much as she did. It stood to reason a girl lugging around all that blubber probably got it by eating junk food like that. Of course, reason would be wrong in that instance. But nobody could blame it for failing to account for a reality altering arcade machine. However even though she appeared gluttonous. She didn’t immediately grab something new to eat she’d just keep playing. Wouldn’t even stop to wipe any of the crumbs or the chocolate off her face she was totally focused. “Uh..I thought you were super desperate to play or whatever?” she asked self-consciously and I realized I had been staring at her for a couple of minutes.

“Uh yeah actually” I hastily agreed and did in fact go back to playing. I was deeply curious and fascinated by her. Everything about her figure, from the sheer soft size of it, to how she thought she had gotten that big was something I found pretty intriguing. It wasn’t anywhere near as intriguing as blowing up aliens though, and I figured I could probably ogle her for free at some point. Even if I did find the occasional noise of her belly bumping against the machine distracting enough to nearly win my attention over. It was clear though that my staring had changed the mood a little. A silence had formed between us, but I had a feeling she was the only one who could break it. “...I’m on a diet” she spoke up after a long sigh, before leaning back. She had died again and as her rhythm dictated, she was chugging down a fresh can of beer. “Is it one of those new fad diets?” I questioned her skeptically. Most of the diets I was aware of didn't include bad beer and gas station junk food. Particularly at the quantity she was having it. There was enough food and beer there to act as a lunch for three people.

“No, I’m not an idiot” she objected with quiet scorn as she returned to playing. Pausing before continuing to stifle a belch with her soft wrist. I couldn’t help but notice how her body wobbled when she did it. The slight contraction and then expansion of her gut, and how it jiggled just from that small motion. I really had never seen anything like it. “But just because I’m not an idiot doesn’t mean I’m uh, a paragon of willpower” she admitted. I noticed she was tearing into a new candy bar while playing and that the pattern had broken. “But I have to do something, so I figured if I just made it so I ate every time I lost it’d help regulate it somehow” she explained glugging down a bubbly mouthful of her beer. She was trying to simultaneously eat a candy bar, which she was holding in her mouth, drink a beer which she had in one hand. And play the game. With her gut in the way making crossing over with her arm trickier. To nobodies' shock, least of all hers, she died. “But I think I’m done for today” she admitted through her mouth full of chocolate. She began to waddle away from the machine but only made it a little way before she had to lean against a wall and slide down to be seated on the floor.

It was only then that it really struck me how round she had gorged herself. Her gut looked even more massive than usual, perfectly round, and somehow shiny in the dim luminescent arcade lighting. If her jeans had any buttons to be undone, she would’ve had to do so. But she was already so big so it hardly mattered. I wondered how many times she must’ve lost before I had arrived. How much junk food was piled up in that inadequate little trashcan. She looked like a blimp, so completely full. I couldn’t help but wonder what she would’ve been like before I had used the arcade machine. For a person the original hers size, I’m sure being so bloated and rotund you had to sit down instead of walking would’ve been unimaginable. Let alone to be so blubbery to be begin with. I also couldn’t help but wonder if the very portly woman who had consumed so much food as if it were nothing. Could ever imagine a world when she wouldn’t even have been chubby. “Gosh I’m such a pig” there was no real pain or sadness in those word. Just dull acceptance and a decent chunk of annoyance.

“You should do whatever you want, who cares what anyone else says” I mused and took a seat next to her, our backs against the same walls. It was a general observation really, not particularly about her size or her appetite. “Just eat whatever I want, huh?” she shot back her voice tinged with the sensitivity of being so utterly full. “Did you eat anything besides breakfast today?” she asked me curiously. We both had those drinks at the tiki bar. But the more I thought on it, I realized I probably hadn’t. “Nah” I informed her honestly.” Then- *urp*” she paused to belch. “That’s the difference, cause you didn't even notice” she pointed out. “If you ate everything you wanted to eat, you’d have breakfast and maybe a garden salad” she pointed out. “If I ate everything I wanted to eat...” she trailed off a little. “I’d just eat and eat” she admitted. “I’d probably just get bigger and bigger, till they had to roll me out of the door in the morning” it was a silly image but her words were rather serious. “That’s what it’s like to be a fat girl” she said drumming with her fingers on the side of her overfilled, waist smothering gut.

“In a city where everybody is a platinum blonde with a waist more carved than their surfboard, that means you’re “the” fat girl, there’s no way I’m dealing with that forever” she added bitterly before heaving herself to her feet. I watched her waddle out the door and I couldn’t help but sigh. There wasn’t really any guilt in me about using the arcade booth. I didn't see her size as a problem at all. Just the way she was dealing with. And the people she was thinking about because of it. After all, there, was really only one person she could be referring to with that last comment. I probably could’ve told her Cynthia had her own figure problems. But that would’ve rightfully pissed her off. Besides I didn't really need to talk out their problems. I was pretty sure I had a solution that would kill both their birds with one stone. Or one button push as the case happened to be.