Chapter 3: A Big Friday in September

After that Saturday night, the new roommates initially were having a hard time building anything more than a friendly cohabitant, much to Ashley’s chagrin. She worked as a lead bartender at one of the busier bars in town, and that required her to work four nights a week from four pm to two am, Wednesday through Saturday. She would come home Sunday morning in the early hours and sleep until noon. After the second week, she caught Jessica watching TV on the couch and suggested that they do a weekly brunch, to help get closer. Jessica instantly loved the idea, so they would go to a rotation of boutique restaurants and kitchens that made hearty, filling brunches topped with bottomless mimosas. After the first brunch, the girls cemented that as part of their routine. They both had a blast and really enjoying each other’s company, not to mention the delicious food!

After their brunch on Sundays, they would spend the rest of the day lounging around. Mondays and Tuesdays Ashley would be off, but Jessica would still go in as a teaching assistant. Ashley would graciously get groceries and make dinner for the week. Wednesday through Friday they would hardly see each other, since Jessica would leave before Ashley woke up, and Ashley would leave before Jessica got home. Ashley still made dinners for Jessica and to bring with her to work, but after the first night Jessica greedily ate all of Ashley’s leftovers, Ashley made it a point to always bring home “leftovers”. Sure enough, Ashley would wake up every day to the leftovers long gone. Saturdays Jessica would hang out after her long week, usually either inviting friends over or going to someone’s house to party. Ashley didn’t mind caring for Jessica so that she was free to live her partying and carefree lifestyle. This routine went on for the first few weeks of the semester, and those Sunday brunches were a good gage to what each other was up to that week.

Sunday was also the day that Ashley saw Jessica in the comforts of their apartment for the first time in four days. Every Sunday, Ashley would take stock in the subtle growth of her gluttonous roommate. An extra little roll develops one week, a slight outward expansion of Jessica’s chest another week. In the month that they had lived together, Jessica was already up another eight pounds, pushing her up to 178 pounds. Ashley, initially nervous about gaining weight with Jessica, had only put on four pounds, putting her at a still-healthy 139 pounds. The change was subtle for Ashley, as it mainly resembled bloating, which she was accustomed to hiding and to the naked eye her slight gain went unnoticed. Jessica, being the lazy girl she was, continued to lounge around the apartment in too-tight booty shorts and too-small t-shirts, sending Ashley’s feeder fantasies in overdrive. She still maintained to dress appropriately for her TA classes, but with a bigger increase in weight that she was accustomed to, it made getting dressed in the morning start to be a struggle.

One morning, Jessica was trying to button up a shirt and pair it with some khakis. That was a Friday morning, and she made the mistake of meeting some friends for happy hour on Thursday night, which led to her coming home buzzed and basically raiding the fridge of that week’s dinner options. She had binged on three meals, easily over three thousand calories. That morning, she was still feeling the effects, along with her new padding, causing the buttons on her shirt to leave some skin exposed. She managed, eventually, to button all of her buttons and hide the gaps by untucking her shirt. Otherwise, she would have had gaps exposing her belly button and her deepening cleavage. But that led to another problem, as her khakis were glued onto her thighs and ass. That morning, she actually had to jump up to hike the pants up to get them to zip up and fasten. The thud of her landing caused a stir in Ashley, but she was too tired to investigate, otherwise she would have fainted at the sight of Jessica cramming her swelling ass into those pants. After finally getting them done, she tried to bend over to get her shoes, but the cold air that caressed the several inches of back fat and muffin top caused Jessica to shoot up and realize she needed to wear a jacket that class to cover her skin.

It was eighty degrees that day, a warm day in September. Students gave her weird glances all day, and it was the first time Jessica felt a little self-conscious about her body. That feeling lasted all of thirty seconds, because as soon as the last class left for the day, her professor cheered her up by showering her in compliments about her body. Jessica liked working under Professor Amber Kane, the prodigy psychology professor of Sterling, but sometimes she got…weird feelings about her. She was brilliant, and an expert in the field despite recently getting her bachelor's degree, but sometimes Jessica would catch Professor Kane stare a little too long at the girls sprouting the freshman fifteen or the boys getting beer bellies. So when Jessica was obviously exploding out of her clothes that day, it felt great the Professor Kane complimented her, but it made Jessica a little suspicious about her ulterior motives. It made Jessica more suspicious when Professor Kane invited Jessica out to have a couple drinks after work. It wasn’t illegal or anything, but she was a little conflicted. But, she ultimately decided to join her young professor for drinks that night.

It was Friday night, and at 3am, Ashley was shocked when she heard the sound of the TV playing as she opened the door to their apartment. “What are you doing up, Jess?” Ashley curiously posed. Jessica was eating a bag of chips and laughing at the sitcom she was watching.

“Just got home, wasn’t tired though so here I am haha!” as she waived the bag up.

“Well, I brough home some loaded nachos for you if you want them.” Ashley prodded. Jessica’s eyes perked up at the thought of Bull’s Eye’s nachos.

“Mmmm yes please, gimme gimme!” Ashley chuckled as she handed over the box to her greedy roommate. “Mmmph! Shoo good! How was work?” Jessica asked between mouthfuls. Ashley was pleasantly surprised that Jessica was up and wanting to talk this late in the night.

“Actually, it was pretty great. I got promoted to assistant manager!” Ashley beamed.
“WHATT! That’s awesome! Congrats love! If anyone deserves it, it’s you, the way they make you have no fun over there!” Ashley’s smile grew wider as Jessica was genuinely happy for her. “We need to celebrate! Hang on.” Jessica propped herself up and lumbered her way to the kitchen to pull out a bottle of tequila they had bought for special occasions. It had only been drunk out of for the weekend they moved in, so there was still over three quarters of the bottle. Jessica bent over to fetch the bottle from the bottom counter, and Ashley couldn’t help but stare at Jess’s widening ass eating up her grey booty shorts. God Ashley wanted to grab that thing and hold on for dear life. Then, to make the show better, Jess reached up to grab two shot glasses, causing her black Stranger Things t-shirt to ride up, letting Ashley know that Jessica was once again nursing a seriously bloated belly. Jessica made her way back to the couch and poured two very full shots and proposed a toast. “To your amazing, well-deserved promotion. And to you, for being an amazing roommate!”
Ashley smiled so much her cheeks were starting to hurt. “Aww, thanks Jess! Cheers to that and to you, too!”

After taking a couple more shots, they decided to catch up about their nights. Ashley’s was pretty boring other than getting promoted, except for how she stopped a potential fight between a couple of girls. Jessica, meanwhile, went into detail about her night with her boss, and was trying to gauge a reaction from Ashley. Jessica talked about how they went to Flanigan’s, a local Irish pub, for drinks. Jessica didn’t really want to go home to change, so she went in her too-tight clothes, which had only gotten tighter as she ate throughout the day. Professor Kane, who insisted on being called Amber after hours, had time to change into a white v neck t-shirt and some slim jeans, looking like a total knockout. Everyone, even Ashley, had heard that Amber was the stuff of dreams, but Jessica felt nervous being so ill fitted while Amber looked like a model without any real effort. She wore her strawberry blonde hair down today, framing her perfect face, and the combination of push-up bra and t-shirt made her perky boobs hypnotizing.

Amber had taken control of the night as soon as she sat down at the bar. She ordered the drinks, she ordered the food, she controlled the conversation. Not to say that Jessica was shut out, but they always talked about what Amber wanted to talk about, which was Jessica. Amber had ordered a round of dark beer common in Irish pubs, not even asking if Jessica liked it. Jess would drink anything really, but it still would have been a little nice to be asked. Jessica brushed that thought aside when they clinked their glasses and Amber proceeded to chug her entire pint in eight seconds. Whoa! Jess was not expecting that from little miss perfect. Feeling pressured to keep up, she chugged her beer, much to the approval of Amber. “Whooo atta girl! It’s Friday, let’s party!” Jess was stunned. She didn’t know what to do or say. Jess had rarely been speechless in her life, but this was one of those times. Noticing the awkward silence from her protégé,

Amber laughed. “Relax, we’re off the clock. I know you’re more fun. Let lose, I promise it’s okay. What happens stays between us.”

Jessica nodded and lightened up when another round of beer came. “Okay, now whoever finishes last has to buy next round.” Amber challenged. Jessica accepted and wasted no time in downing her beer. Amber kept it close, but Jessica was trying to get comfortable in this strange situation. Amber laughed as she accepted her punishment and bought another round and some appetizers.

Ashley was glued to the couch, listening to Jessica’s story while they took more shots. Jessica went on to describe how Amber was matching Jessica bite for bite and drink for drink. Amber had asked about Jessica’s background and why she wanted to be a TA. Jessica talked a lot about how she didn’t know what she wanted to do in her life yet and how staying at school as a TA while getting her Master’s was an acceptable plan for her parents. Amber would let Jessica ramble and smile when she got excited about her friends and her time at Sterling. Before Jessica knew it, it had already been four hours! She hadn’t even noticed how much she had ate or drank because the conversation flowed so naturally. Her eerie thoughts about Amber had long vanished, probably by her fifth beer.

Jessica took another two shots, as she was bracing for the story to take another turn. “So hic! Then I look down, and my God my gut is busting through my clothes! And I hic felt sooo embarrassed and nervous and I didn’t know what to do! Like my buttons hic popped! My pants and my gut button hic? I dunno, the one just under my tits?”

Ashley stifles a shiver at the thought of her buxom roommate bursting out of her clothes. She was daydreaming and almost missed a crucial detail in her haze. “…and she just rubbed my thigh and said it was okay and she had some bigger clothes at her place, so we-”

“WHOA WHAT?! Hang on a sec! What did you just say?”

“What? The part about my button popping off right in her face?”

“No, no, no, the last thing!”

“Well like I said, she comforted me and we went back to her place so I could change. What’s wrong with that hic!”

Ashley knew something was off instantly. “Don’t you think it’s a little weird she just rubbed your thigh like that?”

“I dunno, maybe. But I think it was more of a comfort thing, like healing or something I dunno, why hic!”

“Nothing, continue.” Ashley smirked and took a swig of tequila straight from the bottle.

So Jess, who was already buzzed to start her story, was getting trashed progressively with each tequila shot. But, Ashley could gather that nothing super strange happened between Amber and Jessica that night. They went back to Amber’s place, who for a skinny fit woman had some awfully big clothes that Jess fit perfectly into. Jessica changed, they had a drink while waiting for an Uber, and went to another bar, a more upscale place so Amber could introduce Jess to some of the other professors. Jess stumbled through telling how they each had a boatload more to drink and that they ended up wasted. Jess thought it was funny that Amber had a cute little food and beer baby belly after the night. She said it was so cute the way it bubbled out and pushed her jeans down to make room. The two girls laughed and hugged and Amber offered to do this every week, like a-

“mentoring sesh. Thasswhat sh’called it hic!” Ashley was skeptical of Amber’s intentions, but was happy that Jessica was getting along so nicely with her boss.

Now it was four am, and both girls were giggling and sloppy. Ashely needed to go to sleep since she had one more night remaining, so she got up, wobbling and trying to hold her balance, she hugged her roommate goodnight, being bold and kissing her on the cheek.

“G’night Jess, hic! Love ya girl, see you t’morrow.”

Jess squeezed Ashley’s neck and returned the peck. “Love you too, thanks babe hic! For tonight, it was soooo hic fun!”

Ashley needed to do more research on Amber, but that would have to wait. For now, Ashley needed some sleep and sweet dreams.