chapter 4

“You are a total lifesaver Laura!” Claire burst in jubilation, while she trudged into her sister’s fashionably decorated apartment the instant her sleepy sister opened the door.

“Don’t mention it.” Laura yawned, slightly taken aback by the way her sister’s wide hips bumped her own as the young lawyer passed her on the way in.

“Sorry,” Claire apologized, as she mentally cursed how often her hips and butt caused her to bump into things lately. It seemed like the women in their family were cursed to grow wide in the hips as they got fat.

Rather than respond to Claire’s quick pardon, Laura let out another big yawn, her hands braced her big belly as she did. Claire’s hefty middle sister didn’t seem quite awake enough to keep up with Claire’s energy at the moment. The newly hired editor usually didn’t start her workday until 9AM. It was clear that she’d been prematurely woken up by Claire’s spastic phone call ten minutes ago.

Laura’s sleepiness was even evident from her appearance. There was the obvious fact that the chunky introvert was still clothed in her extra-large robe, but Claire also noticed that her sister’s short hair looked slightly unkept. Claire’s sister had gone through several interesting hairstyles over the years, at the moment it appeared that her sister was sporting a curved bob hairstyle, with subtle duel blonde highlights, but far from looking gorgeous, it looked like Laura was sporting a serious case of bedhead.

However, Claire was less concerned with her sister’s hair than with the plump look of her sister’s body. For a moment before Laura had opened the door, Claire’s insecurities had gotten the better of her. She had feared that she’d actually grown fatter than her sister. In an odd way, it was comforting that Laura was still so fat. As chunky as Claire had gotten, she could still always claim to be the thinnest sister of the family. Laura was two inches shorter than her and, to Claire’s eyes, she appeared to be just as embarrassingly overweight as she was.

Hiding her relieved smirk, Claire watched in silence while Laura slowly rubbed some sleepiness from her eyes and asked, “So, what happened?”

“I spilled a donut all over myself.” Claire pointed to her chest and then pointed to her skirt. She then aggressively dropped the box of donuts she was holding in her other hand onto her sister’s coffee table and said, “you can have the rest of them, I don’t know what I was thinking buying so many.”

Smiling sweetly, Laura opened up the box, she noticed that four donuts were missing, but rather than judge her sister, she planned to eat four herself. Humming with excitement while she grabbed her first one, Laura cheered, “Yum, thanks! Glazed are my favorite!”

“Me too.” Claire admitted, as she absentmindedly tapped her foot and added in an appreciative, yet impatient, tone, “So, where are the clothes I asked for?”

Speaking with her mouth full, Laura mumbled, “I put a few outfits in the bathroom. *gulp* You can borrow whichever one you like the most. I don’t care.”

“Thank you! You’re the best!” Claire hummed, while she waddled her way into her sister’s bathroom.

Her older sister was recently employed as an editor for a leading publishing company in the region. Claire had been ecstatic when her sister had given her the news. She’d made Paul help her with the move from Arizona. That had been a few months ago, back when Claire had been roughly 20-30 pounds thinner than she was now.

Trying to avoid glancing at herself in the mirror, Claire did her best to get undressed as fast as she could. She was in a rush, but she had to be careful, lean too far one way or the other and she’d lose her balance. To be safe, Claire sat down on the toilet to take her heels off. Leaning forward to reach them was made increasingly difficult by the size of her substantial belly pooch; however, after some effort Claire freed herself from her restrictive heels and let out a sigh of relief. Her feet were aching, and she hadn’t even gotten to work yet.

‘Oh god, if I’m getting too fat to walk in heels you are going to pay Paullllll!!!’ Claire thought to herself, blaming her husband for her horrible eating habits.

Ridding herself of her skirt and blouse, Claire kicked her dirty clothes to the backside of the bathroom door. She accidently caught a glimpse of her blubbery body jiggling from the motion in the mirror. In a huff, Claire looked through the clothes her sister had pulled out for her. Her sister certainly had a different sense of professional style. All of Claire’s work clothes were rather conservative and proper, with a more subdued color pallet. The assortment of Laura’s clothes in front of her were mostly bright, colorful, and somewhat revealing.

Overcoming her internal dread, Claire picked out a yellow-colored button-down shirt that seemed more appropriate than the rest of the selection in front of her. It took Claire a moment to get her arms into the sleeves, the material wasn’t very stretchy, and it was a bit tighter than Claire had expected. Annoyed by the tight fit of her chubby arms, Claire turned her focus toward buttoning the dang thing. As she struggled to force the fabric to cover her large bust, Claire heard a knock on the bathroom door followed by her sister’s voice.

“So, when are you going to take me shopping sis?” Laura pestered. It sounded like she was munching on another donut while she talked.

Frustrated by the difficulty she was experiencing trying to button her sister’s shirt, Claire muttered, “What?”

“You’re the rich one of the family, I need your dollarssss!” Laura teased, as Claire looked at herself in the mirror and came to a grim realization, she was never going to be able to button this shirt over her belly.

“I told you after Thanksgiving would be best for me.” Claire sighed in annoyance, while she tossed off the shirt and moved on to the next one.

Hearing a lot of commotion behind the bathroom door, Laura pestered, “Come on, don’t make me wait. Spoil your big sister.”

There was no response.

“Hello?” Laura questioned.

“Give me a minute!” Claire huffed sounding exasperated.

Deciding not to stress out her younger sister further, Laura took another bite of her donut and put her ear to the door. Laura heard a lot of commotion, more than a few grunts, and some profanity. She waited in silence for about five minutes, as her sister struggled to fit into her clothes. Clothes that fit Laura perfectly. During the silence, it dawned upon Laura that her little sister had officially grown fatter than her.

The realization was a curious one. Laura didn’t know how to feel. She was always the heavy sister growing up, always the odd one out. Emma and Claire had always been the pretty ones. Yet now, here she was, the thinnest of the three, although, nobody in their right mind would consider her thin.

Before she could delve down this train of thought any longer, Laura’s attention was broken by an alarming yelp from her sister.

“Don’t you have anything a size larger than this stuff? Nothing fits! I don’t want your old clothes! Don’t you have any newer clothes?!” Claire vented clearly at her wits end.

“I’d have newer clothes if you’d take me shopping!” Laura countered in a bit of a petty tone.

“This is serious! I have a big day Laura!” Claire earnestly conveyed her distress.

“Umm, hold on, I might have something.” Laura conceded thinking fast.