Chapter 4

Starting the following work day, it wasn’t just Kev that delivered food to Ryan; Jake started too—and it was an obnoxious amount. One day it was a box filled with burgers, another day a family bucket of fried chicken, and then another day it was an XL box of pizza. He’d oftentimes deliver the food to Ryan with a smirk on his face and would drop the food off with a playfully snide remark, like, “let’s put that appetite to work! It’s about time someone else has the biggest gut in the office” or, “since you can’t go a minute without stuffing food in your mouth, I thought these would come in handy.”

Without any protest, Ryan happily accepted and even played into some of Jake’s comments. All the excess food he had been eating however clearly was leaving an impact on him. His clothes started stretching. The buttons on his shirts were spreading further and further out as his belly pushed outwards. His belly even started to show through his shirt’s placket, revealing to the world that a soft, doughy belly had completely replaced his former abs.

One day, when Ryan was wearing an exceptionally tight shirt, Jake asked him, “Damn, boy, you planning on popping out of that shirt today?”

“Wasn’t exactly what I was planning,” Ryan smiled. He began scratching a part of his belly that was exposed through his shirt’s placket.

“Well there might be a change to your plans… because look what I got!” He said as he pulled out two large 2.5 liter, party size bottle of Coke. “Wanna chug them?”

“Both of them?”

“No just one! The other one’s for me,” he winked. “We can make it a competition. Last one to finish owes the other lunch for a week.”

“If I win, is this on top of all the extra food you already give me on the daily?”

Jake nodded.

“Then you’re on!”

The two men knocked off the bottle caps, clinked their plastic bottles, and Ryan said, “Bottoms up, bro.”

The two began chugging their bottle. They heavily breathed in and out in-between gulps. Every 10-15 seconds or so, one of them take a small break to burp and then would go right back to chugging. Ryan was slightly behind Jake, but that was because Ryan’s burps were a bit longer than Jake’s. His were far more guttural and loud than Jake’s, and after each burp, he had to reorient himself back to the task at hand.

Halfway through the bottle, Ryan couldn’t shake the fact that the Coke was seriously burning his throat with all the carbonation. But at the same time, he noticed that his belly was clearly swelling with all the Coke he was drinking. He looked down to catch a glimpse of his belly, and he noticed that the buttons on his shirt were strained! They were holding on impressively, and they began to dig into Ryan’s belly as it swelled bigger and bigger.

Jake started groaning. He let out a soft moan and started rubbing his belly. He let out a large burp that lasted a solid five seconds. He then directed his attention to Ryan who, was almost done with his soda. “Damn that guts gonna burst through that sorry excuse for a shirt any second now, huh?”

Ryan didn’t respond. All he had was just one… more… gulp… And done! “Oof!” He groaned, feeling his belly gurgle. He let out one final burp that lasted ten full seconds. Mid-burp he stretched his body, and his belly pushed forward. As he did that, one of his shirt buttons finally gave in as they ripped, flinging forward. Ryan couldn’t help but chuckle and smirk.

“Damn, bro, you’re a tank!” Jake said.

“Heh, thanks,” Ryan said. “It’s kinda fun pushing this thing to the limit,” he said as patted his bloated belly.

Just then, Kev walked into the room and said, “What’s with all the ruckus, boys?” He then noticed empty coke bottles and Ryan’s bloated belly, and said, “That seems to track.” He then laughed. “Ryan won, I assume?”

“Course he did,” Jake said. “This guy can handle anything!”

“That so, huh?” Kev started. “I believe you, hell I’ve seen it myself.” He paused for one moment. “Ryan, meet me in my office when you’ve got a sec, alright?” Kev walked out of the conference room.

“Soooooo,” Ryan said to Jake. “You gonna start buying me lunch today or do we wanna start tomorrow,” he smiled.