A classic college story (new chapter released monthly)

Chapter 3 - Fall part 3 - Thanksgiving

"Molly!" Carly threw the front door open to greet me and Charlie. "You look like a big teddy bear!" She said, hugging me tight.
"Thanks kiddo." My mother wasn't as excited to see me.
"Oh my god, Carly. You look like a blimp! What happened?"
"Nice to see you too mom," I rolled my eyes and pushed past her.
"Hi!" I could hear Charlie greeting her happily behind me. "I'm Charlie, Molly's roommate."
"Nice to meet you, sweetie. You can stay with Molly in her room, she has a trundle bed. Go ahead and follow her up the stairs and then come down and have some cookies!" My mother was happy to feed other people, but not me. Charlie bounced up the stairs behind me. When we got in the room she said, "Your mom's nice! She said we should come down for some cookies after we get settled in."
"Umm...no." I turned to her. "She said YOU should come down for some cookies. She is not happy that I gained so much weight." Just then we heard my mother's voice come up the stairs.
"Molly! Come here, I want to talk to you." I sighed, and slinked off to find her in her room. She was standing in front of the same scale she would make me stand on every weekend during high school to make sure I was "staying on track". "Step on the scale, Molly." Reluctantly, I stepped onto it. The red numbers ticked up to 163 and then back down to 162.7
"THIRTY SEVEN POUNDS? You've gained 37lbs in THREE months! Molly! How could you?" My mother looked furious and horrified all at once.
"You know what, mother? It's my body and I'm happy with it. I like to eat and you can't stop me anymore." I stormed out of her room, grabbed Charlie from mine and brought her downstairs. There was a plate of cookies on the counter, and I picked up the entire thing and took it into the living room. "Grab some milk from the fridge, let's watch a movie!" Charlie looked confused, but obliged.
"Are you okay?" She asked me,
"Yeah, I'm just hungry. Pour me some milk?" She obliged again and poured herself a glass as well. I turned on the tv and we found a goofy Hallmark Thanksgiving movie about a woman and a man who fell in love at the grocery store buying a turkey.
"Mmmm, this is making me hungry!" Charlie reached for another cookie. I looked at the plate. There were only three left, but there must have been at least two dozen on the plate.
"Me too...but we've already almost finished the cookies."
"Holy shit," Charlie said, "That was so fast, and I don't feel full at all! What else do you have?" I smiled at her. I could already tell we were going to have a great Thanksgiving weekend.
"Nothing really, but do you want to go get some Chinese food? I know a great spot that's always open."
"Ummmm, yes!" Charlie squealed and bounced up. I grabbed my car keys and we headed straight out the door and to the Golden Dragon Buffet, where for $15, you could eat for two hours as much chow mien, orange chicken, beef lo mien, fried rice, soup, and so many other delicious foods. It was an incredible deal, but I never got to go growing up. Only one time did I eat there, and I got in so much trouble when my mother found out. This time, I was going to really have fun.
Charlie and I walked into the buffet and were immediately hit with the smell of chinese food, fried, greasy, and so delicious. We paid and nearly tripped over each other running to the buffet tables. We took turns piling each entree onto our plate until there wasn't room left. Then, we found the soda machine and filled up large cups of cola. Balancing everything, we squeezed into a booth in a back corner of the room, where we could pig out in peace.
I started with the chow mien. Each bite coated my mouth with another layer of grease, and it was so salty that it almost burned my tongue, but it was so good and I was suddenly so hungry. Charlie was clearly hungry too because she was halfway through her plate piled with fried rice and orange chicken before I was even done with my chow mien. In no time, she had finished her plate. She belched loudly and then covered her mouth, blushing.
"Oh my god! That was so gross!" We both laughed and I stuffed the last few pieces of broccoli beef in my mouth before setting my plate to the side and picking up my now empty tray, following Charlie back to the buffet line.
This time, we each tried to get new things. I scooped three large spoonfuls of fried rice onto my plate and topped it with sweet and sour pork. I also took several spring rolls, won tons, and cream cheese crab rangoons, something I'd never tried before in my life, but always was curious about. I filled up another large cup of cola, remembering mine at the table was almost empty, and carefully carried everything back to our table. Charlie followed close behind.
We barely spoke as we plowed through plate after plate of fattening, greasy, incredibly filling Chinese food. Something about Chinese food though: If you drink some soda and wait a few minutes, you'll likely feel hungry again soon. Something about the MSG, mother always said. "You're not REALLY hungry, Molly. It's just the chemicals. Be grateful you ate something so fattening at all!" Just thinking about my mother's scolding made me feel ravenous, greedy for more and more food. I felt lost in a trance, running on pure spite against my controlling mother.
Suddenly, I snapped out of it. I was sitting at the table with my belt unbuckled and smudges of brown and red sauces on my shirt. There were oily flakes of spring rolls and stray grains of rice covering the table, as well as a few splashes of cola. There was even an empty bowl that once had soft serve in it, evident by the puddle of melted cream surrounding it. There was a woman standing in front of our table, tapping it with a pen. "Lady, hello??" I looked around, but Charlie was nowhere to be seen. I opened my mouth to speak, but a rumbling burp came out instead, and I blushed, afraid to say anything. "Two hours is up thirty minutes ago! You need to leave." I looked around again for Charlie, and saw her coming back from the soft serve machine. She had a huge bowl of ice cream with six spring rolls sticking out of it, whipped cream and chocolate sauce drizzled over the entire thing with two cherries on top.
"Oh my, no!" The woman, who clearly worked at the buffet, started pointing her finger at Charlie. "I just tell your friend; your two hours is OVER!" The woman shook her finger in Charlie's face, but Charlie just sat down with the tower of soft serve and spring rolls and handed me a spoon. Then, she turned to the woman,
"We can't waste this. I promise we'll eat it all. Then we'll leave." She smiled at the woman, who shook her head and said,
"You finish everything or you pay for two more hour!" before storming off. I gaped at Charlie in horror.
"Charlie!" I moaned, "I am so, so full. It hit me all at once. I don't think I can eat another bite." Charlie chuckled and pushed the bowl toward the middle of the table.
"You can," she said, "I'll help, don't worry. You just told me a few minutes ago, that Chinese food makes you feel hungry again within a few minutes. Something about the MSG, right?" Charlie winked at me, and bumped my foot with hers under the table. "We don't want to pay for two more hours. That wouldn't be worth it unless we ate for two more hours...so what's it gonna be? This dessert, or two more hours of eating?"
I moaned again, and another burp slipped out. "Ugh, okay. Let's do it." I sat up and rubbed my belly under the table with one hand, while bringing slow bites of soft serve up to my lips with the other. I stifled ecstatic noises with every bite I took. I was unbelievably full, but I was feeling something better than I'd every felt before. I looked up and Charlie was nibbling on a spring roll, staring at me.
"What?" I asked her, feeling awkward and suddenly very aware of myself.
"I'm just impressed," she got up from her side of the booth and came over to mine, scooting in next to me. She pulled the bowl closer to both of us and picked up a spring roll, stuffing it into my mouth. "you've helped me finish almost the entire thing." One of those ecstatic moans slipped out as I took the first bite of the spring roll. I'd purposely focused on the soft serve because I didn't think I could handle the weight of any more greasy, fried food in my stomach, but now I felt like I needed to eat more of it. It was as if the Chinese food hunger was kicking it. Maybe it is true what the say about the MSG?
Charlie and I finished the soft serve and rested back in our seats, but before we could even put our hands on our bellies to rub them, the woman came rushing over and hustled us out the door. We waddled to my car and nearly fell into our seats. Instinctively, we both reclined our seats back and lifted our sweatshirts, exposing our gluttonously overstuffed bellies. We rested there for a moment with our eyes closed, gently rubbing our own bellies in complete silence, with the exception of a soft whimper, belly gurgle, or hiccup every few seconds. We had never been that stuffed before, and somehow it made me feel closer to Charlie.
"We did it!" She turned to me, cradling her belly as she sat up in her seat a bit. With every movement her belly made a noise. "I'm so proud of us."
"Me too. I didn't think I could do it." I sat up in my seat too, feeling the strain of countless plates of Chinese food crammed into my gut.
Charlie leaned toward me and I leaned toward her too. Our bellies gurgled in protest to our sudden movement, but we ignored them and suddenly, we were kissing. For a moment, I felt a warm tingling throughout my body, and then I felt a bubbling and had to pull back before a large belch came out of my mouth, shaking my belly.
"Oof," I blushed, and Charlie started giggling. Before I knew it, we were both giggling, holding our bellies in pain.
"I guess we'll be ready for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night." Charlie grinned at me. I rolled my eyes,
"Yeah, if we're not still full from today!" We drove back to my house talking happily about our classes and our favorite types of pies.
We opened the front door and were greeted by the smell of apple cider. In the kitchen, my mother was stirring a pot over the stove. I expected her to turn around and scold us, but she kept her focus on the pot. Our sweatshirts were covering our outrageous food babies, but I was still grateful that she didn't have the opportunity to guess where we were or what we had been up to.
"Would you girls like some cider?" she asked us. I couldn't imagine putting a single thing in my mouth, but Charlie immediately accepted for both of us. I took my mug and we went upstairs to my room.
Immediately, we ripped off our clothes to get into pajamas. Overeating is exhausting, and all we wanted to do was go to sleep. We got into my bed, each with our mug of cider in hand. We flipped open my laptop and turned on a nature documentary about the ocean, but neither of us were paying much attention. I can't say what Charlie was thinking, but I was distracted by thoughts of our binging...and thoughts of our kiss. I slowly drank my cider and could feel each hot gulp sliding down my throat and into my stomach, settling into the too-much-food I had eaten. I'd over done it. I'd dissociated and eaten more than I could handle, but the euphoria excited me.
I finished my cider and lay back in the bed, closing my eyes. I heard Charlie close the laptop and felt her get up to switch of the light. Then, I felt her get back into bed, and move her body close to mine. She snuggled under the covers and put her arms around my swollen belly, spooning me. I could feel her stomach pushing against my back, at least as bloated as my own. Her breath was warm against the back of my neck, but her hands were cool against my skin. She rubbed my belly in slow circles, gently grabbing it every so often. Sometimes, she slid her finger into my belly button for just a second, and pressed down. I moaned and she released, and returned to rubbing me gently. We fell asleep like that, and woke up to the sun coming through the curtains.
***
The morning of Thanksgiving was busy and Charlie and I were given endless tasks to do. Most of them involved being away from the kitchen, a purposeful arrangement by my mother. By the time four o' clock rolled around and we were ready to start setting out the food, everybody was grumpy and hungry.
"So, how do you do your Thanksgiving dinners?" Charlie asked, "At my house, we used to always go around and say something we're thankful for." Carly smiled and jumped up,
"I want to start!" She stood and proudly said, "I'm thankful for my family and for Molly being all the way home from college because I missed her so much!" Carly beamed at me. In that moment, I remembered how lucky I am to have a sister who looks up to me and loves me so much.
"I'll go next." I said, "I'm grateful for you too, Carly!" I blew her a kiss across the table and she caught it, "And I'm also grateful that Charlie could join us this year." Charlie piped in,
"And I know we're all grateful that you made such a delicious meal for us Mrs. C!" She smiled at my mom.
"Well," My mother said, "I'm also grateful that all of you are here to share this wonderful meal with us." and my father butted in:
"Okay, okay. I'm grateful that it's time to sit down and eat! Let's go, I'm starving!"
We all settled into our seats and began passing around the serving bowls. I watched my mother carefully take tiny spoonfuls of mac and cheese, greens, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and mashed potatoes with a dribble of gravy on top. She laid a thin slice of white turkey meat beside it all, but all of her food still barely covered the plate.
Meanwhile, the rest of us were leaving no room on our plates, piling them high with as much of each dish as we could.
"Save room for pie!" My mother scolded, "I made so many different types, and I want you to be able to taste them all!" Strange, it almost felt as if my mother was trying to feed us all. It was so unlike her, but I didn't care. I wanted to feel completely overfed, like a stuffed turkey that was about to burst, even more full than I the day before, my belly bubbling and rumbling with the pounds of food packed into it, trying to digest everything as I continue to eat more, pushing past the aching fullness.
At one point, I heard my father say, "Wow, Charlie! You've already joined the clean plate club!" Typical of Charlie, I thought. She nearly swallows each plate of food. I still had know idea how she did it. Regardless, I cleaned my plate soon after and heard my father applauding me in the background...but I'd fallen into the trance again.
The only thing I was aware of was the taste of each bite of food in my mouth: cheesy, butter-coated pasta, sweet and tart cranberry sauce, rich, flavorful gravy, creamy mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, and wine to wash it all down. I could hear my family and Charlie talking as I ate, but I couldn't make out the words they were saying over my furious gorging.
Once again, I snapped out of my euphoric state all of a sudden. Everybody had gotten up from the table except for my mother and I, and she was glaring at me from where she sat. I looked down at my plate and saw that it was empty, as was my wine glass. Luckily, I'd managed not to make a mess on myself like i had at the Chinese restaurant, but I was visibly full.
"You're a pig, Molly. Get yourself together." I just sat there, glaring back at her. I unbuttoned my jeans right in front of her, and licked my fingers dramatically.
"Mmmm, so good! I could eat another plate!" I couldn't help but taunt her. After all of her years of making me feel bad about myself, I wanted to rub my gluttony in her face.
"You better not have any pie, or I'm not going to talk to you for the rest of this trip." I smiled at her,
"That works great for me."
Just then, my father came into the dining room holding a pie in each hand, followed by Charlie holding a pie and each hand, and Carly behind her, holding one pie: a chocolate meringue. My dad set his two on the table "Pecan pie and peach cobbler! Not pie."
Charlie set hers down, "apple pie and pumpkin pie." and then Carly put hers down on the table and we said together,
"Chocolate meringue! Mmmmm!"
"I'll take one of everything," I gave my mother the coldest look I could while Charlie cut a slice of each pie for me and tried to fit them all on my plate.
"Whoa, there Molly! Don't go too crazy, You don't want to make yourself sick." My father looked at me with somewhat of a concerned face, but still a soft smile. My mother was fuming silently, not moving a muscle. I took the plate full of pies from Charlie and began to eat them, as fast as I could. I shoved each bite into my mouth, barely tasting them at all. This time, I could feel everything. There was no trance where I ate endlessly without realizing it. I was eating through the pain this time, and all to teach my mother a lesson.
I finished that plate of pie and had to immediately excuse myself. I ran up the stairs to my room and tugged off my pants before flopping onto my bed. My belly was towering over me, a mountain of food that felt heavier than the years of my mother's torment. Maybe I'd gone too far. The aching was unbelievable. I felt like my skin couldn't stretch as far as my belly needed it to, and everything was pulsing. I felt lightheaded, but I was unsure if that was from the insane amount of wine I'd consumed or if it was from all of the blood rushing to my stomach to try to digest the enormous meal I'd just forced into it.
I heard the door creak open and Charlie walked in. I felt her lay beside me, and she put her hand on my belly, lying on her side so that hers pushed into my arm.
"Are you okay?" She sounded worried. I hoped that I hadn't ruined her Thanksgiving.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that." I didn't know what else to say.
"You're clearly not fine, but that was quite an impressive show you put on out there." She slapped my belly and it gurgled just as I belched. We both started laughing.
"Ugh, Charlie. I'm so fucking full. Why did you let me do that?" I moaned, rubbing the sides of the ball of food in front of me while Charlie rubbed the top.
"How could I not?" She smiled, "I love watching you eat."