Chapter 8 - four months later

Jogging up her apartment steps, Jess took a long pull on her water bottle as she struggled to pull up the key she needed on the oversize key ring. Her body was layered with sweat from her evening jog, and she swallowed the water almost instinctively, her body taking over for her as she focused on the mess of keys. Stepping onto the landing of her building, Jess popped open the mailbox and felt the vibration of a notification against her thigh. A moment later, stepping up to her door and unlocking it, she felt another.

It was April, finals were on the horizon, but still far away to relax some, and mid terms were firmly behind her. The weather had finally turned for the better and with all the windows open in her place, she felt like it was her own slice of heaven. The past four months had been some of the smoothest of Jess's life, weight had been slipping off of her, shed probably not see her old weight this year, or perhaps ever again, but she no longer looked the inflated marshmallow she had at Christmas time. Now that the weather had turned and spring was creeping onto campus, she could take her work out with her wherever she went and knew in the next few weeks her amount of exorcise would practically double, as it did every year at this time.

She felt on top of the world, and knew, knew so clearly that she shouldn't. She had done things this year, done things to her poor sister, that no one would ever believe. Things that no one could ever possibly attribute to her which was a very lucky truth. And yet of course, she would live with the weight of that decision for the rest of her life. No where near as much weight of course, as poor Samantha would live with for the rest of her life.

Many questions were answered in the days following that chilly Christmas morning. No the shirts were not refundable, no they did not accept returns, no she could not take her sisters place. She was not honestly sure that she would have had she been able to, but she needed to know whether or not the decision was even hers to make. Jess found out that no, Samantha would not pack on all the pounds promised to her all in one moment, nor in a day or an hour. She hadn't gotten an exact number nor a guesstimate out of Crossroads, but had dome some basic math over the past few months, and now understood the basic flow of Sammy's gain. Jess learned that the shirt Sammy had been gifted would not come off of her until she hit her sentenced gain. The poor girl had been a curvy 154 pounds that morning Jessica had found out, and the material would not come off of her until she was a mind boggling four hundred and fifty four pounds.

Jessica knew what Sammy weighed because for her, and for her alone, Sam's current weight and what she had left were printed in similar text across the blonde back. No one else could see them, and no one else could see the text on the front of Sam's shirt either. No one other than Jess and Crossroads thought of Sammy as "The other white meat." For the rest of the people Jessica timidly asked, Sammy had acquired the greatest sense of fashion this year, and it had all started with that "wonderful shirt you bought her at Christmas time." Whether it was a brand new blouse, a fashionable dress, a comfy hoodie, or a classy sweater, no one saw the numbers, no one saw the phrase. And no one but Jess knew it was really just the shirt. Only the shirt, nothing but the shirt until she reached nearly 500 staggering pounds.

Jess knew what the vibrations in her pocket were notifying her about. Sammy had gained another pound just now, and of course, the second notice was an invitation to a live feed. She had no idea how they did it, and Sammy obviously had no idea she was being watched, but somehow, no matter where she was, the Crossroads had an eye on her every move. Jessica would be invited to watch with every pound, invited to see her sister balloon, and according to the Crossroads, invited to celebrate the justice of each plushy pound.

The Crossroads had lent a small amount of help to Jessica in figuring out how quickly her sister would gain her sentenced poundage. They had told her that by the same time the following year Jessica would have put the last pound of her punishment. Taking the weight gain so far into effect, and comparing it out across the year, Sammy would be about 300 or so pounds by the time Jess saw her again for the fourth of July. Today, April 9th, Sammy had just gained her 65th pound. Most days Sammy would gain a single pound, and on some days it would skip her all together. There was no action required or associated with the gain, and it could happen at any time, any place. Often it occurred when she was asleep and the buzzing or jingling, which Jess could not turn off, would wake her in the middle of the night and make her sick to her tummy.

Jessica sat down at the computer and pouted dramatically, knowing she would not be able to hold out, and that eventually, even if she made it a day or two, she would check in on her little prisoner. The page began to load, and the livestream began....