chapter x

“I hold you in my arms so many times when you were a little bean!” she told Phil without ceasing to smile. They were sitting at the table: she looked at him tenderly while he demolished all the food she put in front of his nose.
Gertrude closed the shop temporarily just to have a quick interview with Philbert, the only son of one of his high school’s best friend: Jeremy Beese.
“Are you still friends with Dad?” he found himself asking her.
“Oh, no. As the years went by we lost touch. I catch him on the street every now and then, we stop and talk for a while” she replied in a bittersweet tone. Then, she added, "When you're a pastry chef and he's an elementary school teacher, there's not much to talk about."
Phil laughed as Gertrude passed him another cinnamon roll.
“You got a great appetite.”
“You bet!”
“That’s good, you should beef up a bit.”
Phil knew she was right. He was still too thin, both for being a pig in the feederism community and a human in the normal world.
“So, why a job?”
Phil restrained himself from telling the truth, obviously. He muttered something about wanting to save some money in the eventuality of having to move to some out-of-state college.
Gertrude said that it was a very smart approach and that she would be happy to hire him part-time.
He wanted to ask her why she needed someone else in the bakery. She was definitely rocking it. Then, he looked outside of the windows and could see a very long queue forming by the minute. Peppermints was more popular than Phil thought.
The lady stood up from the table and went behind the counter, got him a couple more treats and wrapped them up in tinfoil.
“Here you go. It’s on the house. You start tomorrow.”
Philbert felt lucky. He left the table and took the food, not hiding how thankful he was.
Finding a part time job in a bakery in thirty seconds? Working for a lady who finds you too thin and gives you free stuff because she knows your dad? Yes please.

֎

Philbert was having thirds with both his parents looking at him weirdly. Before Carl, he had never been a big eater. Even when he was a kid, he was super picky. And seeing him now, demolishing the third portion of pasta without even breathing… it was out of character and his dads noticed.
Phil didn’t really mind, he explained to them about the job and it was enough to keep them from saying something that was not in topic. They were excited for him.
At the Beeses, money has always been quite tight. Philbert making some dollars before college was a nice way to help them out, they thought. Of course, the fact that most of the pay would go into junk food and travels to New Orleans wasn’t the first thing Phil wanted to tell them.
He enjoyed the confused yet proud gaze of his parents before thanking them for the meal and run upstairs.
It felt so good to be full again. He placed his hand on his belly and closed his eyes, at the peak of a food coma. But then, a buzz.
He took his phone out from his pocket.

“Which colleges did you apply to?”
Carlson123

They weren’t many, but Philbert couldn’t remember them all. He was so excited to receive a text from Carl that his mind went blank. After a while, he took a big breath and started texting back.

“I already got into Bloomington early in.
Now I’m waiting for results at Purdue, Chapel Hill, Irvine, UPenn.”
PhilB

“Nothing in Louisiana, I see.”
Carlson123

“I don’t think I’m getting into any other colleges. Sending an application to UPenn was such a stretch lol my grades are not that good”
PhilB

“Probably you are not meant to be studying.”
Carlson123

Philbert didn’t like that. At all. He didn’t feel horny or hungry after that message, just disappointed and a bit hurt.
Yes, Carl hypnotized him and made his future super uncertain. His waistline would expand tremendously in the next couple of months, it would probably change his lifestyle forever. But, telling him he was no college material? Based on what?
Phil took the courage to leave the conversation and open his IT’s book as he had a test the next day.
Carl’s last words were echoing in Philbert’s brain, he started wondering how many students got fucked up by his little dominant-feeding game.
It was all just a stupid match to him, Phil told himself while reading the same sentence of the book for the fourth time. Why would he be so stupid to try and make some sense into Carl’s degrading opinion?
Philbert was just trying to get his shit together. And as he went ahead with the IT’s chapter, he promised himself he would get a chance to leave Indiana for good. He knew it in his bones.