Chapter 1: Silver Linings

A fairly short, nude woman stood on her scale. She was just over five feet tall at 5'2", the young woman had dark hair that sharply contrast her light skin and blue eyes. Ellen had flawless skin, almost. The woman had a thick layer of freckles scattered around her body, seemingly at random, But her skin was otherwise free of blemishes. All of that, combined with her almond eyes that hinted at some sort of Asian ancestry, made the woman feel like she was an amalgamation of incongruent physical features, created by someone plugging words into a computer at random, rather than being an actual person, who was born like any other.

Ellen had not really dated much. She had just graduated from high school, where she focused on her studies, when she got a job at a convenience store near from her home. Ellen's parents had recently passed away in a car accident, which left the young woman in charge of selling off their property and finding a way to survive. Rather than celebrating her graduation and going to college, the girl had to look for ways to survive on her own. She shook off these thoughts, and decided to focus on more immediate concerns. Maybe it wouldn't make her feel any better, but Ellen knew this was better than stewing on her problems. So she focused on reality.

Ellen always weighed herself in the nude, the girl liked to be sure that no weight beyond her own was measured. It made the scale more accurate, which she valued quite highly, and it made her seem a bit skinnier. Which she had mixed feelings about. Ellen's mom had been more than a bit obsessed with her own weight, and her daughter's as well. But now Ellen was free from her mother's insistence that she stay skinny at any cost. Ellen didn't really want to stay skinny though. In fact, she wanted the exact opposite of that. The idea of gaining weight had always gotten Ellen going in ways that emberassed her to no end. Ways that brought a bittersweet feeling to the thought of her mom's death. The woman had never found out about Ellen's eccentricities, and now she never would.

Ellen watched the number on the old-fashioned radial dial of her scale go up and up with a sense of dread, mixed with excitement in her mind. It went well passed her old high point of a hundred and twenty pounds, spinning and spinning. As it passed one thirty she thought of her trip to the buffet, and shivered slightly. As the number passed one hundred and thirty five, the young woman bit her lip and thought of her last trip to Wendy's. Ellen had been going there more since she'd found herself alone. Ellen knew it was unhealthy, but she wasn't exactly a chef, and simply wasn't in the mood to try cooking right now. So, fast food it was, and Wendy's was her favorite. The number on the scale was now going up quite slowly, but it was going up nonetheless. It came to a halt at one hundred and forty two.

Ellen, still nude, stepped out of her restroom. The girl, no, the young woman's stomach growled. She had skipped breakfast, as she had an empty kitchen sans milk. Nobody at the house could ever really cook all that well, and so they ate out, or made sandwiches, most days. The idea of going out made Ellen bite her lip as she thought. I am already gaining weight anyway, maybe I'm just fated to be fat. To be really fat. To become a whale-sized ball of lard who can't stop eating without an angry woman telling her to stop. Ellen leaned into the idea and began touching herself, glad that she was alone for once. Ellen spoke aloud, "Yeah, I bet she'd call me fat." Trying to think about something brighter only turned her mind to fat, to fat and sex. So Ellen rubbed her clit gently and gave a breathy gasp as she said what she had thought a billion times before. "It's just a fantasy," then she breathed more heavily as she stepped into her little living room. Ellen flopped onto her couch and gasped as she slid two fingers into herself, while one continued to rub her clit. She had done this more times than she could count, but now she didn't gave to worry about someone coming into the room as she did. So, instead of that, Ellen's mind dove deeper into her fantasy. She muttered, "Forget a meal. I have an inheritance now. Maybe I'll just live at Wendy's" she gasped bedore moaning and continuing, "Just eating and eating. I'll get so fat that they'll have to roll me out of there. No, feeding me will just be their new business model." When she was thinking clearly, Ellen would know that her inheritance wasn't even close to enough for that. But, for now she indulged in her fantasy, saying, "Every burger they make. Every piece of chicken, all of the frosties, straight in here," and she pat her stomach, shuddering with pleasure as she continued ranting. Only to be interrupted by the sound of paper slipping through the slot of her front door. It was the mail, but that could wait a minute, Ellen would see what that was when she was done. So, she grinned as she imagined herself swelling to impossibly large sizes, as the Wendy's struggled to satisfy her, endlessly growing, belly. Ellen screamed as she finished. She had always wanted to try that, but couldn't with her parents at home.

Then, after collecting herself a bit, Ellen went to check the mail. It wasn't the actual post though. As Ellen thought on that she concluded that she should have known. USPS dropped that off at the office of the apartment complex. No, this was a letter from management. She read it aloud, "Out of respect for the severity of your current situation we are giving you a, one month, grace period to look for new living arrangements. After this we shall give you an additional warning, befire beginning the eviction process, as we have a strict policy of disallowing people with no steady income to rent in this complex. If you would like to speak on the matter further, please feel free to visit our office." Ellen took a deep breath, and muttered, "Those bitches," she briefly tensed up on reflex, expecting her father to yell at her for cursing. Then it hit Ellen, she wouldn't scold her, ever again. The young woman sobbed as she tried, and failed, to bury her sorrow in her newfound freedom, practically screaming every last piece of profanity she could think of as she stormed into her bedroom to get dressed. Ellen had to get out of this place, and she knew it.

Ellen had just secured a job at a little convenience store about a block away. So, as she stormed out of her home, the woman decided that she might as well check it out, before her first day at work. As Ellen looked at the sign in frint she laughed at there silly name, "Eight Twelve? Are they just trying to one up seven eleven, like, literally?"she chuckled and stepped in to meet her new boss. Ellen had been hired by the proprietor of the little store, who was trying to turn the one man operation into something more.

When Ellen opened the door she was greeted by a man whose name she knew was Todd. Todd was just under six feet tall, and had short, spiked, brown hair. He had a clean, white shirt, and brown eyes. Ellen waved, and calmly said, "Hello Todd, or should I call you Mr. Baker? Maybe boss? I'm Ellen. Nice to meet you in person." Todd perked up and smiled, Saying, "Hi Ellen," as he waved, "Todd is fine. So, you're a day early. What brings you down here?" Ellen very much did not want to tell him the truth, and said the first other explanation to come to mind, "Not much. More boredom than anything else. I figured that, since I live close by anyway, I'd drop by and say hi, maybe see what it would be like working here." Todd grinned and said, "Well, it's a crazy slow day. So there isn't much to show. But, since you're here anyway, how about I show you how to use the cash register?" Ellen nodded and said "Sure, sounds good."

Ellen moved beside Todd, and had an odd series of desires. She wanted to hug him, to touch him, even to smell him. But that sounded stupid, creepy, and a bit insane. So, instead, Ellen did her best to pay attention and be serious, as Todd walked her through the basics of how to use the register. After a moment Todd said, "How bout this, I'll pretend to be a customer and buy something, and you get some practice by ringing me up." Ellen thought it sounded like a fine idea, and nodded, cheerfully saying, "Yeah, sounds good. Go ahead." She took a position at the cash register, while Todd grabbed a random impulse purchase candy bar. After a moment, Ellen said, "Ooh! A fast break. I love those things. If I didn't have to pay for rent, you could pay me in those and I would be happy." Todd smiled and said, "Well, my roommate was just arrested, and I've git to pay his part of his rent for a while. So, if you're serious we could totally do that." He chuckled heartily at his own statement. Normally Ellen hated it when people laughed at their own jokes, but on him, she found it strangely endearing.

Ellen watched Todd as he went through how to use the machine. But, it wasn't especially difficult to figure out. So, Ellen used this opportunity to munch on her candy bar and learn more about Todd himself. As he spoke, she found herself liking him more and more. His hair, his voice, his eyes, every little thing about him. Ellen remembered that, even if only as a joke, the man had invited her to live with him. As Ellen thought about that she caught herself blushing. Then, Ellen felt panic speeding her heart along when Todd asked her, "Are you feeling alright? You're redder than a tomato." Elen did not want to say that she was blushing because she'd been imagining all of the things that he could do to her if she lived in his home. So, once again the woman found herself telling a lie, rather than the, emberassing, truth. She said, "Oh. It's just, ummm," she looked down at the, now empty, candy wrapper in her hands and said, "The fast break. I wasn't kidding I just," and she ended up putting far more emphasis on the word, "adore," than intended. Ellen took a quick breath and, feeling flustered, continued her little ruse, "Adore the things. Like, I wasn't kidding before. I would gladly work for these things if we lived in a world where that was practical." Todd raised an eyebrow, and said, "Huh, you don't say. Well, how's this. I'll make that part of your payment. For a week at the very least. You just take as many of those things as you want, and let me know how many that is. Then, after a week, I'll know what that costs, and I'll decide whether to make the deal permenant. Sound good?" Ellen nodded gleefully, she may have lied about other things, but she really did love fast breaks. An intrusive thought came into Ellen's mind so hard that it made her blush again. She could take his offer, then spend every moment there weren't customers, completely focused on candy. Ellen smiled, this was her silver lining. She was alone, but that meant that nobody could hate her for gaining weight. Ellen was free. The thought felt dirty. Not dirty like mud, dirty like am S&M club. Ellen held onto that idea. Being able to eat all she wanted to was her silver lining. Todd spoke up, "Damn you're face is red right now. You must really love those things." He then grabbed a few fast breaks and handed them to Ellen, saying, "Here, consider this your first 'paynent,'" he laughed, before saying, "For training day. I'm sorry, but I really don't have much to do for the day now." Ellen unwrapped a candy bar as she spoke, saying, "We can just hang out and chat if you like, I really don't have anything to do today. That's the other reason I came down here." Todd pulled out his phone and said, "You got a Spotify account? We could make a9h7 blend if you do."

An hour later Ellen left, happily munching on another fast break, while humming and rhinking about silver linings and freedom. As she left, Todd thought to himself. Seven fast breaks. She ate seven of them. The thought excited Todd to no end. He wouldn't tell a cute girl he'd just met, but Tod loved a girl who could eat. The idea that Ellen might start eating a lot more because she worked for him excited Todd to no end. He honestly didn't know why, but Todd was silently imagining how many of those bars the woman would eat if she had them for a whole day, or a week, maybe years even. He shook the thought out of his head as the old timey bell on the door rang. Todd really did love his customers.

Ellen got home and had an idea. Silver linings, she found one. There must be more. Ellen could do anything but what could she do? No, what would she do? Ellen remembered her parents each agreeing, people who just do whatever they want were regenerates. "Well," Ellen said as she took off her top. Ellen tossed it onto the couch. Onto HER couch. With a giggle. She did her best interpretation of her mom, saying, "Oh no, my beautiful daughter wouldn't stop being proper." Then her pants came off and Ellen's impersonation shifted to her father as she spoke in a gruff, deep voice, "she wouldn't prance around in her underwear." As she moved her hands behind her back and began unhooking her bra as her voice became feminine again, imitating her mother as she said, "Certainly not naked." She tossed her panties onto the growing pile of clothes on her couch with a giggle. The giggle was a precursor to full on hysterics, as she spoke between laughs. "And she absolutely wouldn't want to est even more sweets after that display." She opened her freezer and pulled out a tub of ice cream, speaking in her own voice and saying, "Oohh rocky road!"while shivering at the cold, she said "my favorite!" Then took it to the counter, as she imitates her father's voice, saying, "Absolutely not before dinner!" giggling maniacally as she took the lid off, saying, " and you'll put things away neatly!" throwing the top of the ice cream like a Frisbee. She plopped the tub on her counter, speaking in a voice that tried to be both of her parents, resulting in one that eas neither, "you'll definitely use silverware. I mean, you aren't an animal!" as she plunged a hand into the ice cream, shivering with how cold it was. Ellen pulled out a fistful of ice cream, shoving as much into her mouth as would fit. Ellen let the part that wouldn't fit in into her mouth fall onto the counter, where it would melt.

Ellen then noticed that her nipples were hard. At this point she had given up on imitating her parents. She grabbed one of her breasts in the hand stained with melting ice cream. Then she said, "Of course I wouldn't be the type of degenerate to get horny from this." She began to rub her clit with her clean hand and said, "No," and gasped, sliding her clean hand into herself, saying, "Just the clean one." Even in this state of mind, Ellen wasn't gonna give herself an infection doing this. She gasped and grabbed the tub of ice cream, saying, "You know, I've always wanted to try this while eating." She moaned, stepping out of the kitchen as she continued, "While splayed out in the open." Ellen plopped onto her couch and gasped as she fingered herself with one hand, holding the ice cream to her face with the other. She screamed, "Eating like a pig!" before shoving her face into the ice cream. Ellen didn't pull her face out of it again until she needed air, at which point a loud gasp resonated through the room. Ellen continued to finger herself as she moaned wordlessly, thinking of how she wished this could happen every day. Then a realization hit her and, even in the throes of this experience, she just had to say it, "But I can! I can do this every, single, fucking, day!" then she gasped again, tearing a chunk of ice cream out of the tub Ellen had a thought and said it aloud, "But I'd get fat." She gasped again as she felt herself passing the point of no return, she spoke in a ragged and passionate scream, "I'll get so fat! I'll never stop this!" and came, hard. Harder than she ever had before. After panting and gasping for a moment, Ellen had a thought. What would happen if she really did do thar every day? No? Once a day was not nearly enough.

Neither knew it, but what Ellen had just done was very nearly identical to a fantasy that Todd had more times than he could count.