New Year, New You

Chapter 1

Steve and Alice had always been the picture-perfect couple. Steve, tall and effortlessly charming, had the kind of classic good looks that turned heads wherever he went. Alice was equally captivating, her radiant beauty matched only by her wit and the warmth of her smile. Together, they were the couple people envied—a pair that seemed to have stepped straight out of a movie.

On New Year’s Eve, the two were in high spirits. They hosted a lavish party at their sprawling home, with the champagne flowing freely and laughter echoing into the early hours of the morning. As the clock struck midnight, Steve and Alice toasted to the coming year, locking lips in a kiss that felt like a promise to keep their love strong for yet another year. The drinks continued to flow, and by the time they finally retired to bed, both were too drunk to do much but collapse into the covers, wrapped in each other’s arms.

When Steve woke the next morning, sunlight streamed through the curtains, cutting through the haze of his hangover. Groaning, he sat up and rubbed his eyes, his head pounding like a drum. He reached out for Alice, but his hand froze midair. The figure beside him was unrecognizable.

Alice, the woman he had kissed just hours before, was now... different. Steve blinked several times, certain his vision was still blurry from the alcohol. But no, there was no mistaking it. The woman lying next to him had gained what looked like hundreds of pounds overnight. Her once-slender frame was gone, replaced by one that was undeniably morbidly obese. Her face, though still familiar in its essence, was fuller, her features softened by layers of flesh. Her delicate hands were now thick and dimpled, resting heavily on the bedspread.

Steve's heart raced as his mind struggled to process what he was seeing. At first, he thought it was some kind of cruel joke. Maybe this was someone else entirely? But when the woman stirred and opened her eyes, she smiled at him in the same way Alice always did. It was her. There was no doubt about it.

"Morning, sweetheart," she said, her voice as sweet and loving as ever.

Steve’s mouth opened, but no words came out. He was paralyzed, caught between disbelief and panic. Finally, he stammered, “Alice... is that... you?”

She laughed lightly, brushing his question off as if he were still groggy from the night before. "Who else would it be?" she teased, sitting up and stretching. The bed creaked beneath her weight, a sound that made Steve flinch.

“How—” Steve began, but his voice cracked. “How did this happen?”

Alice frowned, her brow furrowing. “What do you mean?”

“You...” He struggled to phrase it delicately, but his shock got the better of him. “You weren’t... like this yesterday.”

Alice tilted her head, confusion and hurt flashing in her eyes. “What are you talking about, Steve? I’ve always been like this.”

Her words hit him like a thunderbolt. Always? No. That couldn’t be true. Just yesterday, she had been the same slim, beautiful woman he had fallen in love with. He remembered every detail—the way her sequined dress hugged her figure at the party, the way she moved with effortless grace. But now... now she was saying this was normal?

“I—I need a minute,” Steve said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and stumbling to his feet. His head spun, not just from the hangover but from the sheer impossibility of what was happening.

He paced the room, his mind racing. Was this some kind of hallucination? A side effect of drinking too much? He pinched himself hard, the pain sharp and real. No, he was awake. This was real.

Behind him, Alice sighed. “Steve, you’re acting strange. Did you drink more than I thought last night?”

He turned to face her, his stomach churning. “Alice... yesterday, you looked completely different. You were—”

“Thin?” she interrupted, her voice now tinged with irritation. “Is that what you’re trying to say?”

“Yes!” he blurted out, unable to hold back any longer. “You were thin yesterday, Alice. And now you’re... you’re not. How can you not see that?”

Alice’s expression darkened, and for the first time since they’d met, Steve felt a flicker of fear. “I don’t know what kind of cruel joke this is,” she said quietly, her voice trembling, “but it’s not funny.”

“It’s not a joke!” Steve insisted. “I swear, something’s happened. This isn’t normal.”

Alice stood, her massive frame towering over him in a way that made him feel small. She looked him in the eye, her gaze piercing. “Maybe you need to take a good, hard look at yourself, Steve,” she said coldly. “Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe it’s you.”

With that, she stormed out of the room, leaving Steve alone with his thoughts. He sank onto the bed, his head in his hands. Was he losing his mind? Or was something far stranger at play?

As the day wore on, Steve began to notice other oddities. Photographs around the house showed Alice as she was now, not the slim woman he remembered. Their friends and neighbors didn’t bat an eye when they saw her. It was as if the world had shifted overnight, rewriting history to make this new reality the only one that had ever existed.

But Steve remembered. And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something—or someone—had altered his life in a way he might never understand.