chapter 4

The next morning, Evelyn woke up in bed feeling like her stomach was going to explode. She stabbed her hand towards her phone and opened it up. There was a notification alert from her ring camera. Curious, she clicked on it. She saw the tail end of Tracy's nightly smorgasbord, only Tracy didn't even clean anything up. She backed up one video to watch Tracy devouring an absolute buffet of greasy fattening food. Then she backed up to the first video. She came out of her room, and immediately noticed the laptop was flipped open. She stirred the mouse to awaken it.

“FUCK FUCK FUCK OH NO GOD DAMN IT!” Evelyn shouted in her head.

Tracy looked the page up and down. “Dissociative Identity Disorder treatments” she heard herself read aloud. She watched as Tracy read the page briefly, grinned, and sauntered towards the camera.

“Well, I guess the secret's out, huh?” She said in a playful tone to the camera. “I'm really not sure how I slipped...well...aside from the fact that you're probably wondering where all of this came from” she said, grasping the small starter belly roll protruding under her shirt.

“Listen 'Evelyn' “ she said with a snarky tone. “You know as well as I do, I'm stuck with you and you're stuck with me. I figured out what was going on a couple of months ago. I just sort of woke up as some skinny bitch. But that's just not me. Who the fuck wants to be some stick eating salads and going out to the gym?? You have some serious issues!” Tracy said with a wink and a chuckle.

“But don't worry babe, I'm steering the ship now, and I'm going to make the both of us much, much happier..” she said, turning sideways and slapping her ass for the camera.

“From what I gather, you're a snooty but meek little bitch. A word to the wise – don't fuck with me. Oh, and get this salad health food horse shit out of the fridge and buy me some real fucking food the next time you're at the store. In fact, now that you know – I don't see any reason why I should ever have to clean and cover my tracks ever again. I think it's about time you started cleaning up my messes also.” Tracy smiled and lifted her hand to her lips, blowing a kiss at the camera. “Look, here's the deal – I'm not stupid, I don't want to hurt you because that just hurts me. So sit back on your meek and mild skinny little butt while I turn it into a masterpiece of blubber and lard for the both of us.” she grinned devilishly.

“Oh, and one more thing – tell your psychiatrist that you're undoubtedly seeing that I said 'hi' “ she added before racing out the door.

Evelyn sat there in silence. She was stunned. She hadn't even begun treatment and already the plane had crashed into the mountain. What was she going to do? What was she going to tell Dr. Janikowski? She made her way out to the kitchen and observed the mess. Boxes, wrappers, spills and stains everywhere triggered her compulsion to clean. It was time for work by the time she was done, and she had to squeeze into the last outfit she had that would contain her and hurry down to the bank.

It was a long and arduous day of work, mixed with the stress she had been feeling Evelyn just wanted to sit back and relax. She came in the door, her stomach shrieking at her to stuff herself. She went to the refrigerator and opened it. Her strength had been waning for some time, but it was at this moment that she realized Tracy had thrown away anything moderately healthy from the refrigerator when she brought in groceries the night before. All she had waiting for her were some frozen pizzas, three tubs of ice cream, a dozen donuts, and a few bottles of soda. Evelyn, exhausted, starving, feeling depressed about her condition decided for the first time in her adult life to say “fuck it”. She tossed a frozen pizza in the oven, poured herself a glass of milk, and walked the box of donuts over to the couch. She flipped on a movie and picked up her first donut. This was hands down bar-none the least healthy thing she had eaten in years...or at least, that she remembered eating that is.

The sweet pastry passed her lips and hit her taste buds like a freight train. Her brain was flooded with endorphins. This was like a drug. This was like sex. For a split second, she wondered why the fuck she had been letting Tracy have all the fun. She got absorbed into her movie, and was shaken from it about 15 minutes later when the oven timer beeped. She looked down. The box of donuts was completely empty. She had mindlessly shoved donut after donut into her mouth until they were all gone, and it only took her 15 minutes.

“Jesus FUCK, did I really just do that??” she said out loud.

The oven beeped a second time, beckoning her over to remove the frozen pizza. Oddly, her stomach felt like she hadn't even eaten anything today in spite of the donuts sloshing around inside of it. Evelyn fanned the pizza to try and cool it faster. Something was flipping in her brain. She needed this pizza inside of her. She cut it greedily. Raised the first slice to her face, chomped down.

“AHH AHH HOLY FUCK” she shrieked, spitting out the piece and jolting her arm towards the cup of soda she had poured herself. “The fucking sauce is like molten lava! God damn it!” she said aloud, going back to waving air at the pizza and blowing on it. The roof of her mouth went swollen and numb, but a few minutes later she was tearing into slice after slice anyway.

She had a bit of a flashback to her childhood. The last time she remembered ever scarfing down pizza like this. Then the voice sounded in her head. “What are you doing, TUBBY? You keep eating like that you're going to wind up a disgusting parade float!” her mother's voice called.

Evelyn's trance broke. She looked down. The plate was empty. Her mouth was still in searing pain. “I know.” she said as an answer to a question nobody asked, as she shuffled towards the freezer, removing a carton of vanilla ice cream.

Grabbing a spoon from the drawer, she decadently plunged it into the frozen treat, scooping large bites of it into her mouth, swirling it against the burned roof in a vain attempt to alleviate the pain. She got about halfway through the ice cream when she looked down at herself. Her belly was protruding quite a bit – she only usually saw it like this when she woke up some mornings. She looked at the clock. It was 10 PM, and she was starting to feel tired. Quickly, she cleaned up all the wrappers and trash, deleted all ring videos of herself in the apartment eating like a pig, climbed into bed and passed out holding her belly.