chapter 5: warning signs

The morning after Halloween, Evelyn stared at her mouth before she started brushing her teeth. She had a serious hangover and couldn’t understand why she’d woken up with a black tongue.

Searching her memories of the previous night was a hodgepodge of drinking games, dancing, and eating. She’d gone out dressed up as Catwoman and come back resembling more of a totally smashed goth chick. She’d worn black clothes, and black makeup… Had she ingested some of her makeup out of some desperate drunken hunger?

‘No. That would be gross.’ Evelyn thought to herself.

Then her hazy memory began to put it together. She kinda recalled stopping by Kendra’s dorm room on her way back last night. She’d eaten an Oreo ice cream sandwich before bed.

“Mystery solved.” Evelyn hummed to herself, as she started brushing her teeth.

While she finished up in the bathroom, the busty blonde tugged at the waistband of her pink pajamas. For some reason, the stretchy clothing felt very tight around her midriff. Had Evelyn been sober the night before, she might have remembered stopping at taco bell with her friends after the party and single handedly destroying a stuffed chicken quesadilla with extra guac and extra bacon. However, she hadn’t been sober.

So, Evelyn figured her tummy was bloated because she had drunk quite a lot last night, in fact, she’d drunk more than she ever had before. She was beginning to develop quite a good tolerance for alcohol. She could tank shots and cups of beer far better than Adrianna, or Hope could, although Kendra still had her beat in the drinking department…

As time moved on, and Thanksgiving break began to creep closer and closer, Evelyn noticed a lull of sorts setting in across campus. It was like Halloween had taken a toll on everyone. There were less parties going on than usual. More people were staying in. It even became a regular occurrence for Evelyn’s friend group to stay in, put a movie on, and munch on snacks after homework was taken care of.

At this point in the semester, Evelyn knew she was starting to get a little out of shape. Instead of working out four or five days a week, Evelyn was getting to the gym only one measly day per week. Instead of working out, she was porking out.

It was probably all that Halloween candy that pushed her over the edge, but Evelyn didn’t truly realize her weight had risen until she tried fitting into a pair of jean-shorts that she’d frequently sported around campus during orientation.

“Oh my god, these used to be loose on me!” Evelyn yelped in embarrassment, as Adrianna looked on in amusement.

“Can you button them?” Adrianna questioned knowing full well that with a little beer gut like that, busty Evelyn wasn’t going to be buttoning those shorts any time soon.

“Does it look like I can button them? Ugh!” Evelyn grunted, giving up her efforts and throwing herself upon her bed to decompress. As she massaged the area below her belly button where her abs used to be, she now felt a mush of soft flesh jutting out in the shape of a small dome from her center. Rationalizing, Evelyn deduced, “It was the Halloween candy, I overdid it with the Halloween candy.”

“I warned you.” Adrianna smugly added, as she looked down upon her own larger beer belly. It had shrunken by about a pound, but Adrianna’s efforts to lose her belly fat were hardly that visible to the naked eye. Her only solace was that she didn’t quite feel as guilty about her chubby gut now that Evelyn’s had gotten a little pudgy around her midsection too.

“You did… But I didn’t listen…” Evelyn moaned in disgust with herself, “I feel so gross… Do you wanna go to the gym with me?”

Giving Evelyn a quizzical look, Adrianna replied, “I went to the gym with Kendra this morning.”

“But I don’t wanna go alone…” Evelyn wined wanting Adrianna to motivate her to get off her expanding booty.

“Ask Hope.” Adrianna frankly said trying to do dismiss the pressure her busty blonde friend was putting on her to exercise.

“Hope doesn’t go to the gym. You know that.” Evelyn countered. She leaned her head upward to get a look of Adrianna’s expression, but her big boobs were blocking her view. She weakly tried to sit up, but her mushy core didn’t want to help her out right now. Laying in place with her back on her bed, Evelyn gave up and decided to just close her eyes while Adrianna responded.

“Stop pestering me about this, you’ve got plenty of time to work out. Why don’t you just relax tonight?” Adrianna proposed.

“Yeahh, you’re right.” Evelyn quickly agreed. Adrianna’s suggestion was music to her ears. She didn’t feel like she had the energy to exercise right now anyways, “What do you wanna do to relax?”

Feeling hunger in the depths of her chubby stomach, Adrianna’s gluttony got the better of her and she suggested, “I could go for a smore, how about you?”

Reaching defensively to her softer midsection, Evelyn self-consciously replied, “I don’t know about smores, I already ate a lot of junk today.”

“So? What’s one more treat gonna do? Huh? Let’s get our grub on tonight and eat healthy tomorrow, okay?” Adrianna rationalized with a loud slap to her meaty beer gut.

Unable to refuse her convincing roommate, Evelyn complied, “Okay!”

“Just don’t tell Kendra I’m breaking my diet.” Adrianna warned her, as she offered a helping hand to get Evelyn out of bed. The busty blonde was just lying there like a beached whale.

“Don’t worry,” Evelyn grunted, as Adrianna helped her up with more effort than it took earlier in the semester, “your secret’s safe with me.”

‘I don’t need to go to the gym tonight, one smore is no problem,’ Evelyn thought to herself, while she tugged off her tight jean shorts and slipped on a stretchy pair of grey sweatpants. Letting the waistband slap against her little gut once she got them on, Evelyn rationalized internally, ‘Besides, if I gained anything, it’s just a couple pounds, it’ll come right off once I get serious about going to the gym.’

However, somewhere deep in Evelyn’s mind, she knew that her recent 10 minute ‘workouts’ and 5,000 steps a day weren’t going to cancel out her terrible eating habits, but she was still confident enough in her athletic abilities to shrug off needing to make any serious adjustments to the college routine she’d come to love. After all, one more smore wasn’t going to make a big difference. Right?