Chapter 2 (Part 4)

Two hours later, her alarm rang out. Signaling an end to her peaceful slumber and the dawn of her first Halloween in college. Exhausted, getting out of bed was a real struggle. Kelly fell back asleep three times before her repeating alarms finally forced her to wake up. Now running slightly late, Kelly sent Michael a ‘good morning’ text before heading off to her shower.


She was still bloated from her sizable late-night snack, but the memory wasn’t on Kelly’s mind. She was thinking about the rest of her day. Specifically, as she took her time washing herself in the hot water, she pondered the pros and cons of skipping her 8AM class.


Kelly had never skipped a college class before and in her mind, it was a slippery slope. If she skipped one class, what was to stop her from skipping another and another? She had invested everything she had, and everything Michael had in her education. Skipping class not only would be like slapping herself in the face, but it would also be like slapping Michael too.


Getting out of the shower, Kelly tried her best to hurry, but her routine always took time. She normally tried on at least three outfits before finding one that suited her given mood, but sometimes she’d try on as many as six or seven. Luckily today was no different than usual. Then there was makeup. Kelly always tried to be tasteful with it, but today called for a little more than usual to cover up the bags under her blue eyes.


Eventually Kelly settled on a vibrant light-blue v-neck that really flattered her generous cleavage, and a stretchy orange mini-skirt with a lovely heart shape design. She picked out some stylish socks that matched the color of her shirt and some shoes that matched the color of her skirt. Feeling confident and showing a lot of skin, Kelly knew she was underdressed for the weather today, but feeling chilly was the price to pay for looking good and it was one Kelly was fine with making, especially now since she was still warm from her shower.


Mostly ready, but not quite finished, Kelly headed downstairs for some breakfast intent on repainting her nails while she ate. Dom and Sabrina were still sleeping, but Logan and Kev were both at the kitchen table chatting.


“What’s up sleeping beauty? Looking good. What are you dressed up as? An angel?” Kev chirped trying his hand at flattery.


“Nope, just a girl who got maybe four hours of sleep last night at best. Thanks to you.” Kelly replied with a bit of attitude. She was tired, cranky and hungry, a perfect storm.


“Want some breakfast?” Logan offered trying to play peacekeeper.


“I would love some French toast.” Kelly hummed, as she turned her attention back to Kev, “Don’t forget you promised to give me a lift to class.”


“I remember. I remember. No worries.” Kev sighed, while he watched Logan spring into action preparing Kelly’s meal.


“How are you not tired?” Kelly wondered a little puzzled by Kev’s apparent attentiveness.


“I pulled an all-nighter. It will hit me after lunch.” Kev rationalized, as he stood up and excused himself, “I’ll be right back.”


Once Kev left the room, Kelly started painting her nails, as Logan continued to cook. The sweet smell of French toast graced Kelly’s nose, lifting her mood. Feeling her stomach growl, Kelly sighed, “Oh my god I’m sooo hungryyyyy…”


“Yeah, not getting a lot of sleep will do that to you.” Logan hummed, as looked around the kitchen for the powdered sugar.


“Why is that?” Kelly wondered, as she put most of her attention into her nails.


“Umm, well sleep had been shown to have an impact on our appetite hormones.” Logan mused, “It can affect Ghrelin, Leptin, and Cortisol. Ghrelin’s job is to trigger your appetite to let you know that it’s time to eat. However, it has been found that when people are sleep deprived, their body produces significantly more ghrelin than usual, resulting in an increased appetite. Leptin is a hormone that suppresses our appetite when we’ve had enough to eat. When you don’t have enough sleep, your body produces less leptin, resulting in greater food consumption. And Cortisol levels increase when we are stressed, often causing an increase in appetite and a redistribution of our fat stores to around our waist. Cortisol levels also increase when we haven’t had enough sleep. Maybe it’s why we also have a shorter temper when we’re tired?”


“Huh…” Kelly hummed impressed by Logan’s pretty consistent wealth of random knowledge. “How do you know that?”


“I dunno, it’s something that always stuck out to me when I took biology last year.” Logan shrugged, as he put Kelly’s meal on a plate for her and then put it in front of her, “bon appétit.”


“Thank you so much!” Kelly chirped, as she suddenly realized something. Having just finished painting her nails, they needed to dry. Carefully tapping her phone to look at her time, Kelly realized she only had a few minutes left to eat before she had to go. As Logan turned to clean some dishes, Kelly stopped him, “Wait, Logan, could I umm… Have some help here?”


“What’s wrong?” Logan turned and replied looking concerned. He quickly noticed Kelly holding her hands up and realized her dilemma.


“My nails need time to dry, and I gotta hit the road soon. Could you… feed me my French toast?” Kelly requested sheepishly. She couldn’t help, but blush, it was such a silly thing to request. She hadn’t been fed by someone else since she was a baby, but here she was, with that as her only option to eat something before class.


“Ugh… I mean… Sure. Haha!” Logan stammered looking taken quite aback.


“You don’t have to. I know it’s kind of a weird ask.” Kelly blushed feeling she may have put Logan in an awkward situation.


“No, no. I’d love to.” Logan smiled, as he quickly took a seat next to Kelly and began cutting her French toast up with her knife and fork. He made sure to cut them into small pieces to reduce the risk of spilling any syrup or powdered sugar on Kelly.


“Come on, hurry up, feed me, I gotta go!” Kelly urged comically, as she held her hands in the air lackadaisically.


“Here, open wide.” Logan responded quickly but carefully forking a nice bite-sized morsal into Kelly’s eagerly awaiting mouth.


“Mhh! That’s good.” Kelly munched talking with her mouth full. Once she finished and gulped down her first bite, she earnestly opened her mouth wide and demanded, “Another!”


With that Logan got into the zone, being sure to time Kelly’s bites precisely when she finished her previous one. In a short amount of time, a lot of eating was happening on Kelly’s part and not a lot of talking between either of them. Frankly, Logan didn’t know what to say, he was just enjoying the moment.


In five minutes, Kelly destroyed four pieces of French toast in record time. Logan could hear her enjoyment with each and every bite he had fed her. Now that it was all said and done, he was feeling fulfilled in a way he’d never anticipated.


“That was really kind of you. I loved it. Thanks Logan. You’re my hero.” Kelly chirped now that she was all finished.


“My pleasure.” Logan echoed, as he remained seated, and Kelly stood up from the table to find Kev so he could take her to class.