Chapter 10 - moving out

With her Junior year in the bank, Jess had spent the first month of summer setting up a new apartment with a classmate she had been growing close to over the last few years. Maria was a quiet girl, but had a clever sense of humor, and a devilish smirk Jess had come to look for and admire.

They had been room mates on campus for the last two years, but had shared cramped spaces with two other girls, and had met when living in the dorms Freshman year. Now it was time to try out a split rent, and see how the friendship held together when the strain of adult life was added to the mix. Each girl had a year left of school, but their parents agreed that life lessons such as apartment living were just as important as academic ones.

The move went seamlessly and after two weeks, the girls had went out and rescued a kitty from a local kill shelter as a sort of split responsibility as well as a soft and cuddly housewarming gift. The month that passed between the end of the semester and her annual Sister vacation on the fourth of July was one of the best months Jess had ever experienced, and the buzzing in her pocket every other day or so, to update her on her sisters spiraling weight gain hardly seemed to bother Jess in this extreme comfort zone.

Unlike Jess, Maria had never gained a pound in college. Nor did it seem to Jess that Maria ever worked out, the young Italian woman simply knew how to balance her diet and her fun. This made for a contrast between the two of them at different points throughout the year.

When, in their sophomore year, Jess had gone through a short lived stage where she was interested in other girls, the two had briefly dated. During this year Jessica hit her heaviest weight, and to her surprise, the curvy but very fit Maria only seemed to like her more. The phase had not ended because of a lack of interest on either part, Jess noted, but rather because she had returned home that year, and was quite embarrassed at how much her tummy had grown, overhanging her jean shorts for the first time in her life. After Jess had ended things between them it was Maria who made sure they remained friends, and Jess was not only thankful for this, but all this time later she felt she was indebted to her friend for keeping their relationship alive.

Once or twice during the years Maria had offered Jess the chance to rekindle the flame between them. And Jess admitted that she was quite tempted, but seeing the way that Maria continued to eyeball her bulging tummy, or her growing ass told her that Maria would forever be a dangerous force when it came to her figure. And so the two remained friends, and from time to time they would act intimately, cuddling during a movie, or kissing lightly before falling off to sleep, but nothing like the way it had been, and Jess knew that was for the best when it came to whether or not she became Maria's piggy.

But things had warmed up a bit again lately, and Jess had to admit she was not looking forward to spending a weekend away with her sisters, and the constant reminder that she had ruined her baby sister. And of course, there was also the fact that she was not going to enjoy being away from the calming presence of Maria.

The truth was, that the curse, or charm, or however the Crossroads would phrase it, that surrounded Sammy kept Jess from being able to share the knowledge of her sisters massive gain with absolutely anyone. In a way, since it also meant she could not be held responsible, this relieved her, but Jess knew that Maria would get a certain kick out of seeing Sammy balloon, and that sort of distraction might help mitigate some of her guilt, or at the very least serve as a sizable distraction to the buzzing in her pocket that trumpeted the fact that her sister was nearing 300lbs with more than 150 left to go.

As the weeks passed by, and their relationship started to blossom once again, it became more and more clear that Jess needed to share the gain in some way with Maria, she needed Maria to see the gain for herself. The trip to the Island with her sisters was fast approaching, the thought of seeing Sammy for the first time since Christmas was looming ever more present in Jess's life and thoughts. She would have to make a change of some kind, a way to relieve some of this stress and the building guilt she felt. And the truth was, she hoped that another fatty for them to focus on, might keep Maria's attention away from her own belly. This, of course, only made her feel more guilty, and in turn, only drove her further in the direction of finding a solution. But to do this, Jess knew she would have to communicate with the Crossroads, and even worse, to ask them for something. Jess knew placing herself in that position was placing herself in an unwise place to be, and naturally, that any request made of the Crossroads would be very very costly.