Chapter 1

“Wow, what happened to you Greg?” Joanna asked, admonishing her brother for his rather obvious weight gain since she had seen him last. “And these.” Joanna placed her hands to either side of her brother’s new belly as she asked, “Where did these come from?”

“Don’t you start,” Greg replied, and glanced down at his now rather obvious middle jutting out in between himself and his little sister as the two embraced and began to catch up. Joanna had a point though in fairness thought Greg, last year’s Christmas sweater didn’t exactly fit like it once should.

And so after a brief exchange of pleasantries, the reunited siblings sat back down at the airport Burger King table, where Greg had been found by his little sister, as he finished up the last of his burger king meal and Joanna’s flight had come in. She hadn’t been due for another hour or two, but had managed to catch an earlier flight in before the storms. But even despite her early arrival, the pair still had an hour or two more yet to kill before they both boarded the Greyhound for the bus ride home.

Greg felt Joanna’s eyes on him again as he opened up his second burger wrapper and began to tuck in.

‘New guy in town’, or ‘too many late nights at work’. Greg rumbled through the familiar playlist of reasons in his head that he could use to help expolin his recent weight gain to his little sister if she asked him, but she just continued to watch him intently as he ate. But the question was bound to come.

“Was it all the Philly Steaks?” Joanna giggled, as she asked, and now became a little more greedy to know.

“Oh shush,” Greg replied, taking on another mouthful of his fries. “Don’t start giving me hell about this when we get home.”

“Oh I won’t.” Joanna looked back up towards the menu board. “It’s funny,” she added. “You always were the skinny one when we were kids.”

Greg rolled his eyes at his little sister as she got up from her seat and headed off towards the counter herself.

“Salad for me I think,” she said out aloud, and began to walk. “Anything else for you Greg?” Joanna turned back to face her older brother as she asked, thinking he might say no.

“Grab me another chocolate shake will you?” Greg asked, and scrunched up his second burger wrapper, before pouring out the rest of his fries.

“I’ve barely eaten a thing all day,” Greg added, and loosened his belt a little.

“Could’ve fooled me.” Joanna winked at her older brother and puffed out her cheeks as she patted her tiny waist. “Just kidding big brother,” she added, with a goofy smirk. “One large shake coming right up!”

“Great,” said Greg in reply - preferring it to the ‘thanks’ his sister probably deserved. He then began tucking into the rest of his fries, before opening up another sachet of sauce.

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