Lexi's Last Binge

Chapter 1

“True confidence comes from self love” Lexi typed, adding a heart emoji after a beat of consideration.

She frowned down at her phone, mouth twisting in consideration as she scrutinized the potential caption. She erased the oft-repeated platitude and bit her lip, as deep in thought as she ever found herself in her newfound and well-revered public-facing position.

“Body confidence means loving yourself at every size”, she tried again, once more frowning as she read the short caption back to herself. She sighed, turning her attention instead to the picture that the brainstormed caption was meant to accompany. She was in her typical Instagram garb, spandex athletic gear from a brand she served as an ambassador for, and she was configured in her typical Instagram pose, a mirror selfie in which she’d twisted around to display her most prominent, and most beloved, asset.

Her Instagram following had grown dramatically since she’d graduated from university, and while her sorority sisters and friends had concerned themselves with entering the workforce, Lexi concerned herself with bolstering her Instagram presence to make a real career of her propensity for taking pictures that showed off her ass. Jumping on the body positivity trend that had exploded in popularity on social media of late hadn’t exactly been her initial plan, but when she finally returned to the platform after her long absence caused by her unexpected and undeniable gain over the course of her study abroad, she had to have some explanation for why her ass was no longer the only part of her body storing extra fat.

She’d begun a series of posts and reels about loving yourself at every size, each video and picture carefully curated to make her waist appear thinner while accentuating her backside, and had amassed a near army of followers who shared the same sentiments, plus-sized girls who loved the kind of representation that Lexi offered. She was still larger than she had been, that was inarguable, but she was the kind of plus-sized girl that society praised and admired, all due to her exaggerated hourglass figure.

She was well aware of the scores of body-positive influencers who did not have access to half of the opportunities, brand deals, and engagement rates that she did, but instead of practicing what she preached in terms of ‘loving yourself at every size’ she privately ridiculed them for their own less desirable fat distributions.

At the back of her mind, she was well aware that she weighed as much, if not more than some of the other girls in the community who didn't have a fraction of her success, but as she’d always convinced herself, weight in her near overly voluminous rump didn't count, couldn’t possibly lump her in with the rest of the girls that she secretly considered fat, and worse than that, lazy. That kind of hypocritical thinking flew in the face of the way she’d acted just a few years ago when her body was far slimmer and her lethargy was only matched by her appetite, but now that she’d essentially become a fitness influencer, she found herself actually engaging with the fitness element of her newfound role. She’d begun working with a trainer just prior to her graduation, another popular Instagram personality named Brittany, and had actually changed her eating habits, allowing the knowledgeable Brittany to create a diet plan for her that Lexi adhered to with a surprising degree of devotion.

Her incident at the sorority house right before winter break had convinced her that a massive change was necessary, and after being caught in the middle of a pig out by another sorority sister, her shame had driven her to seek professional help. Professional, Brittany was, and unlike the majority of social media fitness influencers, was actually certified in fitness and nutrition, her qualifications and her years of study were well displayed by the before and after client photos she had pinned to her page.

Brittany had created a workout plan for Lexi alongside her diet, and after it became clear that Lexi had no motivation to engage in any real fitness that wasn't specifically catered to the perfection of her oversized ass, Brittany modified the plan significantly, leaving her client happy and finally seeing results. The progress that Lexi had made hadn't exactly made her slim again, but her body was once more enviable, and Brittany's program had truly worked wonders.

Lexi’s success had inspired Brittany to start a new series “Booty Boot Camp for Beginners” and the series had grown so popular across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok that Brittany was now able to fund her lifestyle on views and subscriptions alone, an accomplishment that Lexi often (and loudly) took credit for.

Lexi was featured in nearly all of Brittany's Booty Boot Camp videos, and in return, Lexi insisted that she be Brittany's main focus and priority. The few hundred dollars a month she received from her other clients paled significantly in comparison to thousands of dollars in sponsored revenue accompanied by the explosion in the success of her own personal brand, so Brittany agreed to drop the rest of her clients at Lexi's behest, Lexi still the type to feel slighted when she wasn't the full center of attention.

The maturity of adulthood had yet to strike her, and with the faux celebrity lifestyle, she was now living, by all appearances it never would. She reveled in the likes, the comments, and the praise, and it kept her focused and dedicated to the diet and workout plan that Brittany carefully arranged for her and strictly oversaw. Unlike most of her previous clients at that weight, weight loss was not Lexi's goal, and her diet plan reflected that. She ate in a slight caroline surplus, although that surplus consisted of plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and far less greasy junk food than Lexi had formerly shoved down her throat on a daily basis, and that surplus contributed to the slow and steady growth of the asset she considered the key to her semi-stardom.

Her considerations frankly, weren’t far from the truth. While the internet did have a current fixation on body positivity, there was a very specific formula to the kinds of bodies that they choose to be positive about, and Lexi fit the bill perfectly. Her followers were as enticed by her enormous ass as they were by her trite, unoriginal encouragements towards self-love, and while she may put a lot of time and energy into the selection of a perfect catchy quip to accompany her provocative photos in skintight or barely there gym wear, the vast majority of those that supported her were already double tapping the photo before they even realized she’d included a caption at all.

Her engagement data showed that while the majority of her followers were young women ages 21-35, the perfect demographic for advertisers interested in peddling unregulated snake oils like teas that promised to make you thin or green powders that boasted health benefits they couldn't possibly provide, those women weren't the vast majority of her following by any means. Lexi had an entire slew of male followers, some of them entirely silent followers who liked each and every one of her posts and then talked to themselves in her dm’s for months, asking her on dates, promising to buy her things, and swearing fealty to her while they lauded her with compliments about her body. She never responded to these men but it was no secret, at least not to Brittany, that she adored that kind of attention.

She would read the sometimes sweet, sometimes vulgar, sometimes downright heinous messages to Brittany as if they were an annoyance, rolling her eyes at their compliments and pleas with an unmistakable smile plastered to her face. She finally had the amount of attention she wanted, the amount of attention she knew she’d always deserved, and she would do anything to keep it that way, even if it meant adhering to a diet where she never got to glut herself on chips and sweets again.

She stared at the pending post more intently, as if looking at her own body would give her the inspiration she required to ideate the perfect phrase to direct even more attention to her body than her exaggerated and obvious pose already did. She studied herself carefully as if the photo hadn’t been taken moments ago, a smug smile crossing her face as she contemplated just how much her butt had grown since working with Brittany. Brittany truly was a miracle worker, and the quaking, wobbling ass that most people from her past would’ve assumed could grow no bigger had done just that, and dramatically so.

The spandex of her GymBunny branded leggings was clearly straining to hold her all in, and the angle with which she’d chosen to arch her back to make her backside protrude even further was making the photo appear exaggerated to the point of photoshop. She knew that some girls in the body-positive fitness community edited their photos, but she’d never had the need, and proved so by posting photos of her body in motion just as often as she posted stills.

“Dangerously thick” she typed, immediately deleting the option before it had a chance to breathe. She had to walk a real balancing act with her account after recognizing that social media wasn't kind to those who were as braggadocious about her looks as she was, which meant attempting to employ a false humility that she told herself was for the sake of the women that followed her.

“I don't want those poor fatties to actually feel bad about themselves” she’d said on more than one occasion. “They can’t put down the fork, they have no ass, and here I am with the kind of body their man would drool over. I have to be nice”

Brittany typically just nodded when Lexi went on these kinds of tangential rants, knowing her client well enough to be well aware that Lexi needed the self-esteem boost brought on by her own words despite her bravado.

She sighed again, pressing a hand to her temple as if the strenuous task of writing a few words underneath her salacious photograph was enough to give her a headache, and pressed her eyes closed, deep in thought. What could she say that would draw eyes up to her ass without outright bragging?

Her eyes flew open and a self-satisfied grin split her face, her finger beginning to fly.

“No matter what society says about the way women should look, I love my body just the way it is.”

Perfect. More than just humble, the caption could almost be interpreted as self-deprecating, which meant that alongside all the comments surrounding how amazing she looked, she’d also received an outpouring of support that her body was indeed perfect, that it did look exactly the way a woman's body should look, better even. All that and she’d still sound relatable to the insecure girls who followed her and were desperate to feel better about their own bodies that looked nothing like hers? It was ideal, primed for virality as many of her posts were.

She smiled and hit post, leaning back in her chair as if after a hard day's work. She had yet to actually complete her workout for that day, had only put on her gym clothes and posed, but she and Brittany had recently increased her workouts and adjusted her diet plan due to a development that Lexi found more than alarming: she’d found herself in a plateau.

Brittany had sworn to her endlessly that plateaus were very common, an element of fitness journeys that were rarely discussed but often experienced, but Lexi wanted to hear none of it. She wasn't concerned with the number on the scale, how much weight she could lift, or her cardio endurance, but she was extremely concerned with the growth of the asset her income now relied on as much as her ego, and her greed for more only exacerbated the distress he felt now that her ass, hips, and thighs seemed no longer to be increasing in size.

Prone to lashing out when frustrated, Lexi had berated Brittany about this on multiple occasions, questioning both her intelligence and her qualifications as she blamed her trainer for the lack of continual transformation. Despite the fact that she was now the perky fitness expert's sole client, Lexi had begun to insist that Brittany wasn’t spending enough time and attention on her, leading to threats about the removal of all of Brittany's booty boot camp videos that featured Lexi. Lexi was very audible about the fact that she knew Brittany's videos featuring the curvaceous beauty were her most popular, and their removal would lead to income and popularity losses that would be terrible for Brittany's overall brand.

With that very real threat looming over her, Brittany had suggested that the two of them move into a two-bedroom in Brittany’s complex, therefore giving Brittany the opportunity to go a step further by personally preparing all of Lexi's healthy meals while simultaneously giving Lexi access to the state of the art gym, sauna, steam room, yoga studio, cold plunge, and other fitness amenities that had drawn the athletic trainer towards the overpriced complex in the first place. It was a solution that had placated Lexi temporarily, but as the plateau went on, her patience thinned.

She heard a key in the lock and looked up, already scowling at Brittany's imminent entrance.

“You’re late,” Lexi grumped as Brittany entered, arms laden with reusable grocery bags.

“Only by two minutes,” Brittany countered apologetically, her deference to her overbearing client evident even in her posture.

“This is exactly why I'm not seeing any results, we're supposed to be sticking to the plan,” Lexi went on, clearly intent on argumentation.

It was Brittany's turn to sigh, and she set the bags on the counter, a pair of leeks for her famous low-calorie leek and potato soup peeking over the top of the bag closest to Lexi.

“Lexi…” she began. “I told you. It's just a plateau. All you have to do is stick to the program, it's foolproof.”

“If it's so foolproof then why have my measurements been the exact same for the last two months?” Lexi shot back.

“Because sometimes that happens,” Brittany responded, her pitch elevated by her exasperation. “That happens, but it's only temporary. And Lexi, honestly, how much bigger do you need your ass to be? You look perfect as is, right now. Everybody online is jealous of you, a comment calling you body goals got over 10,000 likes last week. You don’t need any more mass in your lower body, you really don’t. Any bigger and you won’t be able to fit in airplane seats.”

“Who’s the employee here,” Lexi retorted haughtily. “You or me?”

“Employee?” Brittany shot back uncharacteristically. “You don't even pay me!”

“Oh, I don't pay you?” Lexi retorted. “Let’s see your income reports from the creator fund for all those videos I starred in for you. No one would’ve ever followed a Booty Boot Camp program from you if I wasn't the main focus, you barely even have any ass.”

Brittany frowned, taking a steadying breath. While her proportions were nowhere near the unrealistically overstuffed behind that Lexi sported, she was a fit, well-formed girl, her daily adherence to her own strict fitness plan evident in the hint of abs that peeked over the tops of her high-waisted leggings whenever she worked out in a sports bra. She was used to insults from Lexi about her body given that Lexi only valued one particular feature, but her patience with the bratty influencer waned with each passing day.

“Whatever,” Brittany finally relented. “Let's go downstairs and start the workout.”

“Don't I need to eat first?” Lexi snarked. “God, you claim you have all these degrees and stuff but I basically know more than you.”

Brittany caught herself mid-eye roll and suppressed another sigh.

“Yea. Yea, let's get you something to eat.”