chapter 3 - the mall

Chapter 3 - the mall

They’d decide to eat before buying new clothes.
Anna told them it was best in that order, because “if you fitted clothing while being stuffed, you’d be sure the clothes would fit for at least a few months”.
Zoe didn’t fully understand what she meant, but she was hungry so she didn’t mind.
They chose a booth at the back of the restaurant and started for their first round of food. Zoe couldn’t believe how many differents dishes there were to choose from.
She saw Anna filling her plate with a huge amount of pasta carbonara. She decided to follow Anna’s judgement on food and filled her plate with an slightly smaller amount of pasta.
Erinn had chosen a burger and fries. It didn’t take long before Anna had finished the mountain of pasta and left for another plate.
She came back with 2 slices of pizza, a large coke and some fries.
At first Zoe decided not to take seconds because she was already feeling quite full. But after Erinn had given her a few of her fries she’d decided to go get some for herself.
Even though she’d only wanted to grab some fries, she ended up getting a burger as well.
Erinn also left to get seconds.
She’d taken a bowl of noodles with chicken. Zoe hadn’t even eaten half of her plate when she decided to grab something to drink.
She hoped it would help settle her stomach. When she touched her stomach while walking towards the beverages, she felt how hard it felt from al the food.
It was such a strange feeling.
While being distracted by her foodbaby, she bumped into someone.
“Sorry! Sorry, I wasn’t looking were I walked! Did you -“, but when she saw who she’d bumped into she was too surprised to finish her question.
She was staring straight into Ethan’s grey eyes. He was one of Matthew’s friends and had been the guy she’d talked with at the party last week.
“Hey, Zoe! I’m happy to have ‘bumped into you’”, Ethan said a smile.
It was a dumb joke but Zoe couldn’t help but smile.
Ethan stood a bit taller than her and must have been around 6’1. He had a runners body just like her. She could easily spot he was muscular, but not like a bodybuilder or someone that trained at the gym with weights.
She’d never been attracted to the bodybuildertype who looked like they could play a superhero. She’d always thought those guys were trying too hard to impress girls.
Ethan had dark blond hair, that was quite messy. She was daydreaming when he used his right hand to brush his hair out of his face and tuck it behind his ear.
“Can I help you with something?”, he asked.
Only then did Zoe realize he was wearing the same poloshirt as the rest of the staff.
“Uhm, no I was just going to get some water.”
She tried to stop staring at him.
“I didn’t know you worked here?” it felt more like a question than a statement.
Ethan started grabbing some water for her. When he gave it to her he said:
“Well, euhm, normally I don’t. It’s quite a complicated story. I wouldn’t want to keep you from your friends.”
Zoe’s hands toughed his when she accepted the cup of water. She was starting to grow hot inside.
“Oh, thank you”, she said.
She looked down, not daring to meet his eyes when she asked:
“Maybe you can tell me about it over drinks?”
OMG she could not believe she’d just asked him out! She must’ve looked terrible with her foodbaby poking at her shirt and her redface.
“I’d actually like that, Zoe.”
She heard a smile in his voice so she dared to look up at him again. It was a nervous smile, but a smile nonetheless.
“Maybe you can give me your number? I’m afraid they’ll pay me less if the managers sees me talking to a pretty costumer.”
Zoe immediately felt blood rushing to her cheeks. Had Ethan just called her pretty? She noticed he was growing more red with every second she didn’t respond.
“Sure, give me your phone”, Zoe answered, ignoring his comment.
Ethan helt Zoe’s watercup while she added herself to his list of contacts.
“Enjoy the rest of your meal and give my greetings to your friends”, Ethan said while putting his phone away.
“Haha, I will!”, Zoe said with a pet at het stomach.
She was surprised with herself, why did she do that? But she saw Ethan smile, so it wasn’t a disaster.
Ethan leaned closer to her and wispered:
“If tou have anymore room in there, I recommend the vanilla milkshake with some brownies”, he winked at her and then left her to continue his job.

Even though she felt some pressure in her stomach, her mouth started to water at the thought of a milkshake and brownies.
When she was younger, she’d loved the combination and almost had it every day. Nowdays, it had been a long times since she had a milkshake or brownies, let alone the two caloriefilled treats at the same time.
But she quickly finished her water and decided it was the best dessert to finish her evening of overindulging.
Little did Zoe know that Ethan had done some online research about her and had found a picture of teenage Zoe, with her chubby fingers around a glass of milkshake and her chubby cheeks full with brownie.
The picture had been taken at her aunts house to celebrate Zoe’s 15th birthday. Back then she’d only been 5’7 and weight around 160 lbs. She’d been at her heaviest.
However she’d been smiling in that picture and Ethan had developed a major crush on the girl in the photo.

When Zoe returned to their booth, she noticed some changes to the scene. Now there were 3 plates in front of Anna and Erinn had 2 empty plates in front of her.
What surprised Zoe most of all was that even her own plate was empty now, eventhough she’d only eaten half of it when she left.
She wondered which of her friends had finished her plate.
Even though all the plates were empty, there was still a lot of food at the table.
Zoe noticed at least 6 choclate chip cookies, a bowl of icecream, a slice of cheesecake and a slice of applepie.
“Haha, there you are, Zoe! Did you have to walk 10 miles with a bucket on your head to get some water?”, Erinn joked.
She put a spoon of icecream in her mouth.
“I’m sorry I finished your plate, but the food was getting cold and I didn’t want to let it go to waste”, Erinn managed to say in between spoons full of icecream.
“We did bring you some desert, but I see you’ve already chosen something”, Anna said with a smile.
“Jup, a milkshake and some brownies. Ethan recommended them to me”, Zoe responded while sitting back down at the table.
She felt how her belly puched against her jeans.
She considered unbottoning them, but she felt as is that was a line she didn’t want to cross tonight.
“Oeh, Ethan... Tell us some more!”, teased Erinn.
“Yeah, I bumped in to him, apparently he works here.. or something”, she added thinking about how he said it was complicated.
“Actually I ended up asking him out. He has my number, where going to grab some drinks this week”, Zoe tried to hide how hard she was blushing by sipping from her milkshake. She hoped the tall glass could hide her red cheeks.
“Oh, how nice! I’m so happy for you!”, Anna exclaimed.
It was difficult to understand her because her mouth was filled with cheescake.
The girls gossiped some more while eating desert.

By the time they left, Anna’s pink leggings looked even more skin thight than before and her belly looked extremely globular. Even though Anna had obviously eaten the most, Erinn had packed away a significant amount of food as well.
Erinn was happy she’d been wearing a long shirt and a black hoodie. She’d unbuttoned her jeans after her second plate and after desert her belly was sticking out in front of her and had pushed the zipper of her pants down. She’d tried pulling it up again under the table, but without much succes. Thanks to her long shirt no one could notice the space between the two sides of her zipper and when she put her hands in the front pocket of her hoodie, her foodbaby was less noticeable.
Not that she feared of getting any comments from her friends. Anna wasn’t a hypocrite and she seemed too relaxed to pay attention to anyones belly, including her own.
Even though Zoe had eaten less than the other girls, Erinn knew it had been a long time since Zoe had stuffed her face like today.
Erinn had been surprised when Zoe came back with the brownies and the milkshake.
She had thought Zoe had been too full to eat any more, but while being distracted with the gossip, she’d even munched away two choclate chip cookies.
Zoe’s foodbaby was quite noticeable, Erinn saw how Zoe’s shirt had creeped up and exposed a little stroke of Zoe’s stuffed belly.
The three girls never made it into the stores to buy new clothes.
They were all to tired and wanted nothing more than to lay on their backs on bed, with their belly’s pointing skywards.