Chapter 9 - fame is a fickle friend

Kira had been getting ready for the Sports Personality of the Year award, not knowing how seminal this night was going to be for her. She’d been in a nostalgic mood anyway that day, it was easy to dwell when you had a team working on your face and another on your hair. She was disarmed by beauticians and lost in reverie. She just couldn’t believe this was her life. She’d met Teddy when she was barely a day over 18, but the two years she’d had out in the real world after school finished at 16 had been shit enough for her not to have had much interest in what the world was offering. Until Teddy was offered up. They’d gotten engaged when she was 19, she couldn’t even believe it was that long ago her being 21 now. Kira had been insist not wanting to be a teen bride and Teddy was fine with waiting. His career was blowing up now as he entered his prime and he wanted Kira to have his undivided attention for a wedding. So she spent her days, not wedding planning, but going to fittings, photo shoots, interviews. She was a curiosity to the press, then an indulgence. Now adored. It was surreal.
She ran her hands down the thick band of fat resting on her thighs instinctively to comfort herself. As many of these events she went to the strange exhilaration of fear and fun always had her feathers ruffled. But as the final coats of lipgloss were slicked on she felt the cool calm of knowing she was slaying. She had her thick curls straightened into a gleaming cascade of black hair. She wore a deep magenta, the dark pink complimenting her skin perfectly. Her voluptuous breasts were sculpted in the corset top that cinched in her heavenly waist. She’d slowed down a little since she was 19 but that wasn’t to say she hadn’t grown. She pushed 260lbs these days, another 50lbs heavier than when she got engaged. Her belly had dropped its ball like shape and now she had a chubby paunch and a flabbier lower belly that actually did make it easier to dress. Instead of sticking out her stomach hung over just a little and could be wrangled into things and under things instead of blooming out over belts. She could see the imprint of the curve of her belly in the silk draping of the skirt of her dress. The fabric was gathered at one hip really selling the goddess fantasy and thick thigh jutted out, boosted on her heels. She looked jaw droppingly beautiful, and with a black fur draped over her soft shoulders and arms the look was complete. Almost complete it should be said, as for when Kira stepped out of her town car and onto the red carpet the cameras started to flash in a frenzy and her dazzling smile was the finishing touch, glinting brighter than the diamonds around her neck. Teddy was gazing adoringly at her and the cameras reached a fever pitch. She approached him and she could see he only had eyes for her, brushing a stray hair back out of her face, caressing her cheek. She wound an arm round his and they walked into the event the cameras clicking furiously catching a shot of her rounded cheeks wrestling under the silken confines of the dress screaming sex.
Those photos went completely viral the next day off the back of Teddy actually winning Sports Personality of the Year. She’d been so proud of him. I was no secret his dedication to the sport, but his charity endeavours she felt weren’t celebrated enough. He was incredibly active in dismantling discrimination in football. Teddy felt he had Jules to thank for the life he had now, the love in it. He desperately wanted to make a better future for his friend and with a public heterosexual relationship he felt he could make noise and not be burned out the game like Jules lived in fear of. He even cited Kira in his speech, knowing that he could speak up and stamp out homophobia in football all because he knew could weather anything with her at his side. Fat tears had rolled out from under her heavily lidded lashes and made up another one of the photos that blew up the internet overnight. The world fell in love with their love story suddenly splashed out over the pages of social media feeds. Kira was scrolling the next day, eyes wide as she saw the depth these stories went to. The fact they were teenage sweethearts, before fame and fortune, seemed to capture a global imagination. They had pictures of her at 18. Pictures of them at 18! How?! As Kira carried on reading she almost chuckled to herself of the thinly veiled narrative in every article. The teenage romance was one thing, but she could see there was the stubborn disbelief that someone like him would stay with her through that rapid transformation. But there it was, Kira at her biggest wrapped up like a decadent dessert, holding a man transfixed with the mere sight of her. The internet fell apart at Teddy’s innocent eyes outpouring love, his chiselled jaw catching the cameras as he ran his fingers down her softened one. Despite the internalised fatphobia in these pieces, Kira did have to admit she’d really packed it on. It was uncanny looking into her younger self and saw how her breasts stood to attention, not resting on a bloated belly. Her t-shirt hung loose, cut short to reveal a flat stomach. It was never pancake flat but it was flat. Her jeans didn’t look spray painted on. In reality Kira, lying in bed, gazed down at herself and saw the expanse of softness that flowed out from her. In a rich roll her belly split in two as she sat, her lower belly stubbornly pushing her legs out from each other. She moved her arms to hold her tumbling breasts and she felt the fat catch on itself they’d become so fluffy. Holding her boobs up the fat pushed through her fingers, letting them fall they resumed post to the side of her abundant upper belly. She’d given herself to ultimate pleasure last night letting Teddy feed her into ecstasy and even now it remained bloated and sore. So much had changed. Teddy stuck his head round the door the smell of bacon blowing in. He smiled at her and asked, ‘Hungry?”
And some things don’t change she thought.