Chapter 10

"Touché." Cam smiled in response to my statement, taking a break from eating. You remembered that about me. You're right. I still don't care about money. Well, I guess I still believe that money can't buy happiness." Cam stated before taking a long swig of soda. "But certain expenses of mine *bwap* have gone up over the years, and I'd like to at least break even. Excuse me." Cam apologized again.

"No, that makes sense," I said, ignoring her burp in a sense of self-pity. Yes, the burps bothered me, but something told me that this was normal for Cam, which was kinda gross. I pushed those niggling thoughts from my mind. "Everyone likes to be comfortable." Honestly, I didn't want to pry on what those 'certain expenses' were, guessing they were entirely food-related. From the looks of her embarrassingly outgrown outfit, it wasn't like she was putting much of her budget into clothes.

"We'll see, though." Cam took another big bite of burger and chewed for a minute, seemingly thinking. "Maybe I'll come around and stick with finishing up my degree. It's probably the smart thing to do, given I'm already this far in the hole. Besides, two of my favorite classes have been this year, so things are looking up. Last semester, I took a poetry class I adored."

"Oh yeah? Reading poetry or writing?" I inquired, intrigued. Admittedly, I hadn't read much poetry, and the last time I'd written a poem was in the fourth grade.

"Writing." Camryn expressed through a mouthful of food.

"You write anything good?"

"I think so." Cam mumbled before pausing her eating and proceeding to look at me nervously. "Maybe I'll read you one of my poems later." Then she vulnerably added. "If you want, that is."

"Cool. I'd like that." I smiled, genuinely curious to hear what she wrote. At moments like this, I was finding myself drawn into the aura Cam had about her, which used to draw me to her back in Freshman year. Every little thing about her, who she was, and what she did always fascinated me more than it probably should have. However, it was much easier to resist that gravitational pull, ironically, given how heavy and undesirable her body looked to me. "What's been your other favorite class?"

"The one we're in together now." Cam said while resuming her eating and speaking short sentences between bites. "Social deviance. It's absolutely fascinating."

"Yeah, I don't mind it." I said, truthfully, since it was one of my easier classes. "A lot different than all the economic BS classes I've been doing every year." Getting four years of a constant barrage of numbers thrown at me had made this social deviance class a breath of fresh air. "What topic did you pick for your end-of-year presentation?"

"Ummm..." Cam took a large bite of her burger, seemingly considering if she wanted to tell me. "It's.... kinda... a surprise."

"Oh yeah?" I could see that there was a part of Cam that wanted to tell me what it was, but she looked a bit uncomfortable, retreating into her thoughts. "Your topic is that good, huh?"

"Mhmmm." Cam hummed in confirmation, unwilling to expand on her secret topic.

"Who are you working with again?" I asked, genuinely not knowing.

"No one." Cam stated bluntly, a touch of bitterness in her voice.

"What? I thought we were supposed to have partners." I pressed, a little confused. Our assignment had been clear that we were supposed to do this project in pairs.

"We are. Guess there is an odd number of students in our class. And guess who was the odd one out?" Cam breathed matter-of-factly, taking a particularly large and forceful bite of her burger.

"Oh... sorry. So you're working alone?" I asked, feeling a bit bad, given Cam had asked me to work with her (back when I assumed she was Alana).

"Mhmmm." Cam affirmed, taking another bite in an effort to close out any further discussion on the matter.

"Well, Alison and I are doing role-play for our presentation." I offered, trying to change the topic away from something Cam clearly didn't want to talk about. Maybe it was unhelpful, but I couldn't help but find my mind drifting to that incredibly frisky underclassman, Alison, and her smoke show of a body. It felt bad to let my intrusive thoughts win, but thinking about Alison was a welcome alternative to the present company.

A few days prior, Alison had surprised me and dressed up as a slutty police officer. As soon as I came into her dorm, she had me in handcuffs, put me in a chair, and proceeded to do a strip tease. The way her booty shorts clung to her ass and her tiny little crop top showed off her sexy midriff had me thankful to be under her arrest. God, she was a hot little minx. That evening, I'd gotten a pretty hot lap dance, followed up by a blow job tease, and then my final 'punishment' was fucking her reverse cowgirl while cuffed to the chair. That girl was always full of surprises, and I knew I'd miss her after I graduated.

"Oh, role-play sounds fun." Cam mused, snapping me out of my short daydream before she started scarfing down the last few bites of her third hamburger. "Who doesn't like role-play?

"Right?!" I enthusiastically agreed, finding the subject new and fascinating. The entirety of that sexual kink had really amped my ability to be creative before getting in the sheets, and Alison seemed to enjoy how into role-play I'd let myself get into.

Learning anything... useful? Cam asked cautiously. She was studying my reaction to the topic oddly closely, as if there was something she wanted to ask but was holding back.

"Yeah, I guess I'm learning a lot." I answered. "Kinda an interesting, playful sexual activity where you take on specific roles, adopting different personas or characters to enhance the intimate experiences. So much of it is mental, which elevates the physical stuff. The scenarios, costumes, and dirty talk can be broad, but I can see how role-play helps partners explore fantasies, and I think it could add to the excitement of any relationship."

Cam raised an eyebrow in a semi-impressed way. "You sound like an expert on the subject. I'm sure Alison is *bawp* a great role-playing partner..." She seemed to intentionally pause. "...For your presentation topic, that is."

At this point, I was barely paying attention to Cam's dainty yet disgusting burps that she was starting to stop excusing herself for. Yet each one was further painting her as a slob in the way I saw this new Cam.

"Yeah, she's a pretty solid project partner." I stated nonchalantly, not touching on the details of our 'partnership.'

"You two seem close." Cam said, seemingly reading between the lines.

"We do?" I asked, feigning ignorance, unsure if she was referring to any of the time I was spending with Alison outside of the classroom.

"You do." Cam affirmed, pausing for a moment before starting a question it seemed she had wanted to ask. "So... Are you... together? Like a couple?"

The question took me off guard, but I had a quick answer. "Uh, no. I wouldn't say we're anything serious." At least, that's what Alison and I had agreed. No boyfriend-girlfriend title, which suited me fine enough. Even though Alison was possibly the hottest girl I'd slept with in my college years, the sultry Sophomore seemed a bit high maintenance and immature for my tastes outside of the bedroom.

"So, you're just fucking." Cam smirked after her blunt statement.

"Hahaha, yeah." I admitted, laughing. "Is it that obvious?"

"Extremely. I think the whole class can see you two eye fucking each other." Cam laughed in response. "But fair play, she's very good-looking. A lot of people would say hooking up is what college is all about... for some of us." Cam trailed off, sounding slightly self-conscious. Once again, I saw her eyeing her greasy bag of burgers.

"Yeah, I guess that's one of the many fun parts of college." I agreed, sensing that she was feeling self-conscious about something in the way her tone of voice changed.

"You're not into her, though, right?" Cam asked, prying her eyes away from the bag and back to me for a moment. "Like, you're not trying to date her or anything?"

"Eh... probably not." I responded honestly after a second of thought. "We're just keeping things causal. I'm not really into her like that."

"Good." Cam started to lean forward toward the food bag, which made me internally groan.

"Good? Why are you asking anyway?" I asked, following her outreaching hand with a look that I hoped came off as judgemental towards what she was trying to grab.

In the time since we'd sat down, I barely noticed how much more her shirt had ridden up, exposing yet even more inches of her grotesquely doughy stomach that was well overdue for any abdominal workout. Honestly, it would take more than some crunches to fix the disaster zone her formerly hot body had devolved into. All that aside, in her current state, I had half a mind to ask her to pull down her shirt and cover the exposed parts of her belly to spare me from the sight.

"Uh... no reason. Just asking." Cam said, responding to my question while her eyes were unable to meet mine for long, as if she was culpable of something. It was apparent both she knew and I knew that she was guilty of overeating, yet despite that, Cam was riffling through the bag a fourth fucking time. I'd never witnessed such a lack of awareness of proper eating habits.