Chapter 1

“Focus Kyle!” Professor Williams shouted at his troubled student “Can you just stop disturbing class for one minute?”
Kyle laughed. He was a college student who had just started his freshmen year and had his life already figured out: he didn’t need school, he didn’t need to be nice. He was the quarterback of the football team, the most talented of the entire state, having led his high school team to victory in his sophomore year. He already had several coaches of different major leagues wanting him to join them, so apart from the bare minimum he had to score to graduate, why would he care about a random business class?
“*** Ted” The entire class gasped as Kyle called the professor by his first name “Why don’t be a lil good teacher and try to teach?”
Professor Williams was visually distraught, this kind of disrespect was exactly the reason why no one wanted to teach this deviant “KYLE SHUMACKER leave this classroom immediately and head to the dean’s office!!”
Kyle was escorted out of the classroom while his friends laughed, he was a star. At the dean’s office, the lady knew she couldn’t do anything to him, after all, he couldn’t be suspended in the middle of football season, the school needed him for a new victory. Feeling invincible, the troubled boy went to the outdoor patio to hang out while his friends were still in class, there, he saw an old vending machine with his favorite snacks, some lays chips and Reese’s chocolate… he had some money, but why would he spend his money if he could just kick the vending machine and get some free snacks?
He ran towards the vending machine and started punching and kicking it. The machine made noises that sounded like parts breaking, with a few sparks coming out of the panel. With a final kick, he managed to get a bunch of snacks getting out of it. He grabbed his junk food and headed to one of the tables, where he laid down as if he was in a couch. When his friends got there, he shared some of the snacks and they all started talking, making fun of some nerds, professors and talking about girls.
Suddenly, Bryce pulled out a weird bar from his backpack. It was a foreign brand that Kyle didn’t recognize:
“Dude, what is that?” Kyle asked, starting at Bryce.
“I bought this from my sister’s boyfriend. It’s called pummelig. It’s like a protein bar but… I don’t know… it’s just better than what we have here. it tastes so amazing… Wanna try it?”
Kyle didn’t know if he wanted to, his coach always told him trying off brand and sketchy things was bad for your health… And as the quarterback, he needed to keep his health as good as possible. But as he stared at his friends, they all seemed eager for him to try it. Some even pulling out their own pummeligs and eating it “fuck, I do have a reputation to maintain” Kyle thought, immediately grabbing the pummelig from Bryce’s hands.
As he bit into the bar, the outside had an unexpected crispness, almost like caramelized honey. The first burst of flavor was an explosion—salted chocolate with a hint of roasted hazelnut, rich and decadent but somehow impossibly light. A subtle undertone of something fruity followed, maybe mango or passionfruit, but it wasn’t overwhelming. It danced on his palate, leaving a tantalizing trail of complexity.
The texture was out of this world: soft and creamy with occasional crunchy nuggets, perfectly balanced to keep each bite dynamic. The sweetness was just enough to keep him hooked without being cloying, and the saltiness tied it all together, making him crave the next bite before he had even swallowed.
Kyle’s brain lit up like fireworks. “Holy crap,” he thought, his pupils dilating slightly as his body reacted to the flavor bomb. He felt an overwhelming urge—no, a need—to take another bite. And another. It was as though his taste buds were on overdrive, each one screaming for more.
By the time he finished the first bar, his hands were already ripping open a second wrapper. His heart raced, not just from the protein surge but from sheer excitement. Every bite felt like a reward, a little hit of euphoria. The flavor didn’t dull; it seemed to grow more intense, more complex with each mouthful, pulling him deeper into a sensory experience he couldn’t escape—and didn’t want to.
His friends laughed and cheered as Kyle devoured the third bar, their words fading into the background. He was consumed by the Pummelig. The world outside the protein bar didn’t matter anymore. All he wanted, all he could think about, was the next bite—its flavors, its textures, its ability to light up his senses like a neon sign.
By the fourth bar, Kyle leaned back on the bench, dazed and satisfied yet craving more, his fingers sticky with traces of the addictive snack. “Pummelig, huh? This stuff’s insane,” he muttered, already reaching for another, his mind hooked on the memory of that first, mind-blowing bite.
“Dude stop eating!” Bryce laughed “You’re gonna eat it all!”
“Bryce, dude, can you please bring me some of these tomorrow? I can pay” Kyle seemed electric, with adrenaline running down his veins, but he also had very distant eyes.
“Sure dude, my sister hated it so the ones her boyfriend gave to her are unused, I can give it to you tomorrow” Bryce scratched his chin “After you are done with them, I can order it from Genna’s boyfriend and you give me the money”
“Thank you so much dude!”
After this day, Kyle started eating pummeling bars every day. At first, he felt super dizzy all the time, his body was still adapting to all the extra calories, but his friend did say this would wear off and it would leave just the good feelings. And it tasted to great! He went through a bunch of different flavors and everyone watched as he kept getting more addicted to the bars. He ate them in the middle of class, during dinner and while he played videogame, he just made sure to not eat before practice. It became almost natural to him, he was always carrying one of those bars with him. It seemed like he lost control over it, he was eating more than Bryce, the one who got him hooked on it.
One day, during practice, he was exercising a lot, doing push ups like the rest of his teammates. He started feeling weird, his whole body wasn’t functioning like he wanted to. His eyes started twitching when he moved on to the next exercise and his mind slowly started to come up with possibilities to why he was feeling like this. He had eaten before, so it wasn’t hunger, he had slept well that night, so he wasn’t tired. What has he forgot to do? Coach David came to him to see if everything was okay.
“Hey bud” Coach David put his hand on Kyle’s shoulder “Do you need some water?”
“I..” Kyle felt dizzy again, his body was craving something, but he had no idea what “I guess I could drink some water.”
“Come up” Coach helped him stand up and fixed him some water “Now drink, I’m sure that’s what’s missing.
“You are probably right” Kyle drank it super quickly, hoping it would help him go back to practice.
The quarterback wasn’t expecting a miraculous recovery, but he did expect at least some recovery. After five minutes of nothing happening, he asked coach if he could call it a day and head home, which he agreed. He could barely walk, his whole body was twitching when he got to the bus stop. When he sat down, he grabbed one of his pummelig bars pen and devoured it. Almost immediately, the sugar started traveling through his body, and Kyle could almost feel it arriving in his brain, where he could almost hear the orders for his entire body to relax. Then, it finally hit him, he was craving the bars! He hadn’t eaten any due to his exams in the morning, and he usually didn’t eat before practice, so his body was craving the protein bars! After this incident Kyle started genuinely eating them all the time, including before practice, which was not that good for his money.
When his savings account dried out, Kyle knew he needed to find a plan, so, he managed to get Bryce’s brother in law phone number, and they started texting each other. His name was Erik, he was studying engineering in the same college. They quickly became close friends, they had several common interests and Erik seemed very into Kyle. One day, after one of his football games, he was leaving the locker room when he recognized Erik among the crowd, his sandy blonde hair gave him away.
“Dude!” Kyle ran towards him and gave him a bro hug “What are you doing here?”
“Yoo!” Erik smiled and high fived Kyle “Bryce is playing and his family is here, his sister wanted to bring me cause she hates football” He pulled a cigarette out of a Malboro’s box and lighted it, he took a deep smoke and stared at Kyle “Want some?”
Kyle froze. He was already eating those weird sketchy bars, he knew cigarettes are bad for you, his parents were very strong about this. But something about Erik smoking as so hot, the masculine way he hold the cigarette, the way he exhaled the smoke… He felt his dick pulsate and quickly said goodbye to Erik and ran back home. What was happening to him?