Chapter 2 - skin & bones

As Jason's family all rose to shuffle into the other room, Brianna gave Jason a concerned look.
 
“Skin and bones?” she whispered. “Is that an insult?” Brianna asked.
 
“Well...I told you, my mom's an Italian mother, everyone is starving to her at all times.” Jason replied.
 
Entering the combo kitchen and dining room, there was a huge spread of delicious looking Italian food prepared and laid out on the table. Everyone was settling into their seats, and Julia patted the open chair between herself and April shouting “Hey Bri! You're over here!”
 
Brianna had hoped she could sit next to Jason for safety, but did as she was told and took her seat sandwiched between the two obese women. She looked over the table and glanced at what was sitting on the stove since they had run out of room to place things in front of themselves. There was a gigantic bowl of spaghetti noodles, meatballs in marinara, and the cheesiest penne she had ever seen to her left. To her right was a full Sicilian style pizza in an 11x17 pan, a huge tray of Lasagna, and an enormous basket of garlic bread. On the stove was a large pot of warm risotto, some peas and prosciutto, and a caponata stew. Everyone was already piling food onto their plates and clinking silverware together remarking in turn “Thanks ma, this is really great!”.
 
Adrianna was sitting opposite of Brianna, observing her bewilderment with everything happening around her and pounced on her opportunity.
 
“Hey Bri, hand me your plate, we'll get you something to eat on it”.
 
Brianna picked up her plate and handed it to Adrianna, watching as it was passed around from one end of the table to the other and loaded up with essentially one of everything. Brianna had always been slim as a young girl. After college, she had a bit of a scare as the stress of starting her career and having a hard time budgeting time meant that she was eating out more and exercising less. In her first year at the office, she gained from 120 pounds up to a high of 168. It had scared her so much that she had gone on a very strict and difficult diet, returning down to roughly 135 give or take a few when she met Jason. At 5'8 she didn't feel fat, didn't feel skinny – she was right in the sweet spot that she considered ideal. Some curves to her, but no belly or jelly rolls like she had been developing. This was something she never revealed to Jason when they met. She exercised regularly, ate right, and tried to watch her weight. She didn't want him knowing that at one point she had been on the verge of spiraling out of control towards fat girl territory before a pretty hard course correction. When she had gained some weight, she noticed it was going everywhere. She had large breasts for a thin girl, and they had expanded a couple of cup sizes (and not really gotten much smaller when she lost the weight, which she was thankful for). Her thighs had started chafing together and had been just chubby enough that she had no thigh gap. Her butt matched her thighs, and when she was at her peak weight, she was just starting to develop a double chin – one which she was relieved had disappeared when she back dipped below 150.
 
As the plate was passed around the table Brianna got more and more worried. They were piling it on as if she were for one of the heifers. The fact was not lost on her that while all of the men were fit and in shape, all of the women were uniformly obese and seemed to hold an irreverent attitude towards their size. Spaghetti and two giant meatballs, a slice of lasagna, a giant square slice of pizza on top of that, two pieces of garlic bread, some risotto and penne scooped on the side. It was a mountain of carbohydrates. Jason eyed the plate being passed around as well, giving Adrianna a long glance which was returned by a quick wink and devious smile.
 
“Holy shit” Brianna thought to herself as the plate settled back down in front of her. It smelled so good. Though she was taken aback by the amount of food, she quickly began tearing into it as everyone else did. She hadn't eaten much today and the combination of having spent about 30 minutes now smelling this food, and the beautiful sight of it had overwhelmed her caution. “When in Rome...” she thought to herself again, as she joined the heifers in gobbling down everything on her plate.
 
It was as delicious as it looked. Everything she was tasting was as good as the best Italian dishes she'd ever sampled at restaurants. It had so much flavor and perfect texture, it was simply amazing. She started to understand just how the four other women at the table must have gotten so big. Before too long however, she started to slow down dramatically. Julia, April, and Adrianna had already cleared their mountains of food and gone back for seconds as they eyed Brianna struggling, only about halfway through consuming her dinner.
 
“Bri – is the food not to your liking?” Adrianna said with a faux concern.
 
“Yeah Bri – do you like it at all?” Julia added, looking over at the half eaten food on her plate.
 
Brianna's face turned red with embarrassment. “Oh no, it’s not that at all, it's all SO delicious, but I'm getting full” she said, patting her flat midsection.
 
“Oh nonsense!” said Lydia, slapping another scoop of penne onto her plate. “You're so thin, you could use a good meal! C'mon keep eating, you don't need to be modest on our account!”
 
Brianna was faced with either feeling she was being disrespectful by refusing or feeling sick to her stomach as she forced more food inside of her. Since this was the first time she ever met any of these people, she felt that it would be a bad idea to make a negative first impression.
 
“Okay!” she smiled, forcing a cheerfulness and picking her fork back up.
 
Jason stared at his fiancee from the other end of the table with surprise. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He had expected Brianna would be a bit hesitant or resistant to the obvious coercion of his sisters and mother, but she continued chowing down.
 
Towards the end it was extremely difficult. Brianna felt like a balloon about to pop. She had never stuffed herself quite this full before in her entire life. The food was still so delicious, but it was a struggle to put it in her mouth, chew, and swallow. She had a noticeable food baby poking against her dress, and it hurt to move. All of the food had been devoured – mostly by the other women at the table, who were now leaning back in their chairs relaxing, hands on their bellies, watching Brianna work her way towards an empty plate.
 
Eventually Brianna finished her last bite of pizza. Everything had been devoured. She took a belabored breath – it felt like her chest no longer had the space for her lungs to fully expand with her stomach so bloated. She sighed heavily, dropping her fork. “There – done!” she said with an almost irritated tone. “Thanks ma, that was absolutely delicious, I don't think I've ever been so full – I feel like I'm about to pop!” she added, slouching back in her chair to match Julia and April beside her.
 
“I'm glad you liked it dear – but I really hope you left some room for dessert!” Lydia said cheerfully.
 
“FINALLY. April exclaimed” rocking herself back and then forward to reach her feet, picking up her plate.
 
Brianna suddenly became aware that this entire time she had been holding up the dessert service with her relatively slow eating speed. Again, she was flushed with embarrassment.
“What did you make?” Jason asked curiously.
 
“Your favorite of course – a nice hearty cheese cake...and also cannoli...” Lydia replied.
 
April waddled over to the refrigerator and grabbed a few items with her stubby fat fingers, waddling them back towards the table and plopping herself heavily back in her chair.
 
“mmm this looks amazing!” Julia remarked as the foil top was taken off the springform cheesecake pan.
 
“Brianna, would you do us the honor of trying the first slice?” Adrianna asked, slicing roughly a quarter chunk off of the thick dense dessert.
 
“Oh, I don't think I-uh...that is I'm...I can't...” Brianna began to stutter
 
“Of course she will!” Lydia exclaimed happily, as Adrianna plopped the slice on a small plate and passed it to her.
 
Brianna again closed her eyes, took as deep of a breath as she could, and began very slowly powering her way through the cheesecake. It was the most dense and rich dessert she had ever eaten. It felt like the slice she had alone would be enough to add 20 pounds to any normal human being. Cheesecake was one of her major weaknesses, and even filled to the bursting point as she was, she couldn't deny how satisfying it was to eat her way through the entire monstrous slice.
 
The other girls took pity on her and didn't force a cannoli onto her plate. By the time she was taking her finishing bite, almost everyone else had left the table and Brianna was looking extremely drowsy. Jason helped her up and into the living room where the whole family sat and talked for a while. Mostly questions for Jason about his job, the promotion, moving back, differences in L.A. vs. NY. Then some questions for Brianna that forced her to perk up from her delirious sleepy state. Questions about growing up in Oklahoma, her career, how she and Jason met, when the wedding would be, how she was liking New York so far, and slightly more jarring personal and prying questions – such as whether her hair was naturally blonde or if she dyed it, since all the women there had dark brown hair.
 
After a couple of hours of chatting Jason stood up and said “alright everyone, it's getting late, we'd better head back to our apartment and continue unpacking. As they were ushered towards the door Lydia shouted across the room to Jason.
 
“Jason – we're going to get together every week like this now you're back – RIGHT?”
 
“Yeah ma – we'll be over for Sunday dinners...” he answered on his way out.
 
Walking slowly to the car Jason asked “so what did you think?”
 
Brianna was still feeling very sleepy and having a hard time walking too quickly with her stomach so bloated.
 
“I think your sisters and mom stuffed me like a turkey just for fun...” she muttered.
 
“C'mon, they're just Italian girls, like I said they just want everyone to eat...” he protested.
 
“They didn't tell anyone ELSE at the table that they had to eat more food – just me...” she said shot back bluntly.
 
Jason smirked. “Well, that's true – but you're new, they just wanted to make sure you were getting a taste of all the great food and everything...” he said.
 
“I guess so, but holy shit I've never eaten so much food in my entire life” Brianna said, chuckling at the absurdity of it. “and did I hear you volunteer us to do that EVERY Sunday??” she added.
 
“...well, I mean we don't have to if you don't want to...” Jason replied cautiously.
 
Brianna didn't respond. She wasn't really sure what she wanted. It wasn't fun getting stuffed so full, but then again the food itself was so delicious her mouth was already watering just thinking about getting to eat it again next week. The young couple hopped in Jason's car and drove back towards their apartment. Brianna staggered into their half unpacked new place, flopped down on the bed they had set up earlier and passed out in a food coma.