Chapter 3

Mel rattled on: “Truth is, we only met a year and a half ago. I’ve doubled in size since then. Kennedy is a bad influence.”

Kennedy wasn’t looking up, or even breathing, she was just guzzling food. Michaela watched her, and took her cue.

The two fat blondes said nothing, they just ate. Mel filled the space as she bounced a cellulite stretched thigh up and down in anxiety.

“Yeah, we like to eat for sure. That’s why we were kinda hoping to meet with people, get a sense of their lifestyle, get a sense of their priorities. We definitely live large and it shows, as you can tell. Kennedy here is actually a pit, I swear we met and it’s like this inner fat girl inside me was just cut loose. She can tell you, I used to be like…140 and cute. Now I’m almost two hundred pounds heavier and it’s all because she taught me to never deprive myself of the good things.”

Kennedy gobbled and burped, while Michaela multitasked. She listened to Mel, and was piling multiple items into one bit handful. 

“Yeah, I absolutely blew up when I moved home.” Michaela said casually, “Like I just let myself go to the absolute extreme. I couldn’t help myself. But my boyfriend loves it. And so do I, now. I’m sure the three of us would definitely suffer the consequences of living together…”

Kennedy finished first and raised her hand for more pancakes. “Mel, come on, less chit chat, more getting fat.” She slid a half finished stack of pancakes over. 

Mel blushed. “I think we should meet our prospective roommate a bit more before we totally go balls to the wall, don’t you, Ken?”

Mel kicked her friend under the table. Kennedy ignored her, instead lifted up her deflated belly and dropped it on her lap, fully out of the restraints of her jeans. 

Michaela kept her head down, making small talk about work and her family as she picked away. Kennedy’s second round arrived, as well as Melissa’s third helping of pancakes.

After nearly forty minutes of small talk and big eating, Kennedy leaned back, sickly looking. And stuffed to the brim.

Michaela was still grazing, slurping away at a new bowl of soup and perusing the dessert menu. 

Mel was really embarrassed, frustrated with Kennedy’s petty showing. It was clear that she was intimidated by this monstrous, obese presence in the room. Michaela was clearly once a bad beauty. In her day dream, Mel imagined a much smaller, more meeker Michaela — freshman year, with perky tits and a fat ass. Now, she was blimped up all over, nearly the width of the entire booth and with an appetite that would outmatch a family of four.

Mel crossed her legs. Would this be a good idea? Surely this would only encourage Kennedy to get back on the gain train, but could she endure the intensity? Shouldn’t this be a positive relationship instead of an adversarial one?

“Anyway,” Michaela said, slurping the last of her second ice cream sundae. “I’m all set for the first of the month, if that works for you.”

Kennedy was barely making a sound, just breathing great laboured breaths, pathetic in her defeat. Michaela had probably pounded back 12,000 calories in the last hour - probably double what Kennedy had stomached. 

“Okay, cool! We have to interview a few more candidates this afternoon — we’ll let you know who we decide is the best fit!”

Michaela hiccuped and smiled. “Ah. Okay.”

Mel tweaked her head. “What?”

“I get it. You’re used to being the big girls around town. You two were probably the fattest in your graduating class, right?”

Kennedy burped and groaned.

“I don’t want to mess up your rhythm.” With a titanic heave, the superiorly fat Michaela Gardiner stood up, her wide legs lined with angry red marks from where the chairs had pressed against her thighs. She reached up and stretched, her glorious belly finally spilling up, out, and over the waistband of her pink sweat shorts. Mel could only stare in glory.

“Let me know when you’re ready to step up your game.”

With that, she blew them a kiss and thundered away, The two defeated fatties watched as Michaela paid at the front cash, bagging a homemade pie as she did so. As she backed up and out the door, she slid one of the pie’s slices out of the tray and ate it with her bare hands.

Disappearing into her car, Mel watched in wonder as her hero drove off. 

Now that — that was what it was all about.