Chapter 16A - Nicole

After a very refreshing Thanksgiving break, Nicole returned to campus with mixed feelings. Though she had been excited to get back, she knew she wouldn't be seeing her boyfriend, Carl, for the entire month of December. During his Thanksgiving break, he had found his grandfather in poor health, so he decided to stay and help take care of him while taking the rest of the semester's classes remotely. Since he lived on the opposite coast of the country, Nicole knew she wouldn't be able to see him until he flew back in January. It was hard for Nicole to process how she would spend the remaining weeks on campus since she had so recently built most of her life around Carl.

Ever since Nicole had gone off to college, she had found herself spending thanksgiving not with her parents but with her aunt, who lived 2 hours away from the college. Once Nicole had left the house, her parents had taken to world traveling on lavish vacations quite frequently, so Nicole barely saw them. The last time she had spent time with her parents had been nearly a year ago for Christmas. Not seeing them was all fine by Nicole, who often found her parents to be overbearing. As long as the money kept flowing into the personal account they had set up for her, Nicole could not care less about seeing them. Besides, Nicole's Aunt was the sweetest lady ever. Having not had kids of her own, Nicole's Aunt often spent any holiday Nicole decided to spend with her spoiling and pampering Nicole with whatever she wanted. It was nice to be doted after by someone other than Kate. For that part, it did seem like Kate had been rather busy for Nicole's return to campus. The entire kitchen was stocked full of foods to snack on. Since Carl wasn't around, Nicole had plenty of spare time, and snacking seemed a likely time filler. Though Nicole promised herself, she'd use this time to get back into the party scene as well.

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The Sunday before classes picked up again, Nicole was off doing Kate a small favor, picking up some baking supplies at the grocery store. Nicole didn't often do anyone favors if there wasn't anything in it for her. However, Kate had assured Nicole that she would be appropriately rewarded.

As Nicole perused the aisle's looking for baking chocolate, she got distracted in the snack aisle. There was an extra butter variant of her favorite popcorn brand that was catching her eye. As she reached for her desired aspiration, Nicole heard someone say her name from down the aisle. "Nicole? Oh my gosh, Nicole! How are you!" Nicole turned to see a massive form of a girl waddling towards her. It was Cassidy.

The last time Nicole had seen Cassidy was at that frat party towards the beginning of the semester. Nicole remembered completely ignoring Cassidy quite successfully then. Now, it seemed a little more challenging since they were the only two people in the aisle. Despite having ignored Cassidy across all texts and social media, Cassidy still enthusiastically approached Nicole as if they were friends, causing Nicole to roll her eyes. Knowing there was nothing she could do to avoid the blimp, Nicole sighed and gave a lazy wave. A smile crossed her lips not because Nicole was happy to see Cassidy, but because she knew if she ran now, there was no way that fat tub of lard would be able to catch her.

All freshman year, Nicole had watched Cassidy eat herself from fat to even fatter. There was no denying that the girl hadn't slowed down this semester either. Other than her face, Cassidy's body was exploding with fat. Most notably, her stomach. Cassidy was wearing a large tight top with some sort of button-up over it that clearly would never be able to be buttoned up. It appeared that every stitch of clothing she was wearing was working extra hard to keep the young obese girl's fat from bursting out. Nicole was disgusted that anyone could eat themselves into a body that grossly overweight.

Cassidy spoke first; her voice sounded winded from the short walk over. "Hey, Nicole! I almost didn't recognize you. Long time no see. What are you up to?"

Nicole regarded Cassidy with all the fake politeness she could muster. "Hey, Girl. I'm just here grabbing some things, got a Facetime date with my boyfriend later, and we're going to try and watch a movie virtually. Pretty lame, right?."

Cassidy was seemingly exploding with excitement. "Oh my gosh, Nicole! I saw you were in a relationship on Facebook!? Is it the handsome boy on your profile picture? Carl right? I never thought you'd let any boy tie you down. No wonder I haven't been seeing much of you this semester. Guess he's been hogging you all to himself?" There was a clear nervousness in Cassidy's voice, like every sentence needed to impress and hold Nicole's attention.

It was funny how ignorant Cassidy was when it came to how little Nicole cared about her, but Nicole was fine letting the girl prattle on. It was nice to brag to another girl that wasn't Kate for once, even if it was a girl that Nicole had no respect for. "Yea, totally. I really like him. We've been together for almost a month now. Plus, he's got a body that just doesn't quit." Nicole started to act bored, moving past the popcorn to the chips.

Glancing over at Cassidy, Nicole noticed that she was staring at her body in an almost bewildering look. It was probably jealousy. Surely it wasn't often that Cassidy saw such a toned body on display. When Cassidy realized that Nicole had stopped talking, her eyes leveled with Nicole's again. Though every few moments, they seemed to flicker south.

"I'm so happy for you, Nicole. You look... Happy. It's honestly really refreshing to see you, uhh.. so happy."

Getting bored with the conversation already, Nicole decided to turn things on Cassidy. "Thanks. So.. elephant in the room, Cassidy... But everything okay? You really look like you've been... well, you know." she leaned in a whispered, "Putting on weight." Nicole couldn't help but smile as she pulled away, grinning to herself for putting the fatty in her place.

Cassidy's face turned beat red. She shifted her weight and feebly tried to close her button-up around her waist. It hadn't been the most polite conversation topic, but Nicole didn't really care about being polite to someone Cassidy's size. Nervously clearing her throat, Cassidy stammered out a response. "Uh.. yeah. I put on a little bit since last year." She tried to make light of the situation. "That dining hall sure is doing me in," patting her belly for emphasis. The laughter from Cassidy afterward was nervous and uncomfortable.

Nicole firmly looked at the fat sack sagging over Cassidy's jeans, "Truly." Her voice became more stern. "You going to fix this? I mean, you don't want to go on blowing up semester after semester. I'm sorry, just being honest, but this really isn't a good look for you. I say this as a friend, you've really let yourself go, girl. It's pretty gross."

Cassidy looked like she was about to cry, but there was an understanding on her face that agreed with every word Nicole had just said. The girl seemed downright ashamed of herself. After a long awkward pause, Cassidy seemingly had collected herself. "Yea, you're right. I've really let things get out of hand. I just needed a kick in the ass to help me see that. So... honestly, thank you, Nicole. My diet starts tomorrow. Would you... I don't know.. would you want to come to the gym with me sometime, maybe?"

It took all of Nicole's will to keep herself from audibly scoffing at that request. There was no way she'd want to see that blubber flopping all over the place in a gym. Besides, Nicole didn't want Cassidy holding her back. Not that Nicole was going to the gym anyway, but if she did, she knew she'd be able to outpace the cow by miles upon miles. "Oh, that's sweet of you to ask dear, but I've been doing home workouts."

Again, Cassidy's eyes flicked to Nicole's midriff and then back. "Sure.. sorry. I didn't mean to presume.. maybe we can hang out sometime soon when you're less busy with your boyfriend? Hopefully, I'll be on my way to a smaller figure by then."

Nicole walked back and reached for the box of extra buttered popcorn again, now pretty much done with the conversation. "Yea, hopefully. We'll be in touch, Cassidy. Good luck with everything." As Nicole moved to leave the asise, a huge man appeared beside Cassidy and put his hand on her back. He looked like he weighed over 400 pounds. "Hey, baby. I got all of your favorites. Ready to check out?"

Wow, Cassidy had a boyfriend. The guy was pretty tall but also enormously fat, like Cassidy. Frankly, it was good of Cassidy to find a man that was bigger than her. Even though Nicole was disgusted by both of them and didn't even want to picture what they looked like fucking, Nicole was happy that they at least knew their place. Fatties only deserved other fatties. Cassidy looked embarrassed at the arrival of this guy.
"Thanks, Jeff, but I'm all set. I think I need to cut back a little bit. Uhh, Nicole, this is Jeff, my uhh.. friend."

"Charmed," Nicole said, giving Cassidy a knowing smile. Through seeing through the bag's plastic, Nicole saw many sweets that she had never tried before. "Yea, why don't you let me take those off your hands. Cassidy is on a diet after all, Jeff."

Jeff looked genuinely confused as he halfheartedly held out the bag, not knowing if this was a joke. Nicole snatched the bag away and added her popcorn to it's contents. "Looks like you should take this guy with you to the gym. Later."