Chapter 2 - the party the pretty girl and the potbelly

It was Friday night, and Adrian and I heard about a huge party happening in a house on campus. We had been to a few parties here before and they were always awesome, so of course we wouldn't miss this one. As I was getting ready I put on my best jeans, hell bent on getting laid tonight. I struggled with them a bit, since Adrian would sometimes do our laundry (and obviously wasn't very good at it) he would sometimes slightly shrink my jeans.
We headed off to the party and when we got there it was already crazy, we instantly got started on some beer. It wasn't long when I was feeling pretty good, about two thirds down the road to being drunk. I was near the dance floor when my eyes landed on one of the most stunning girls I had seen since going back to school. She was a gorgeous latino girl, with big green eyes, long dark highlighted hair, and a smile that stopped my heart. The weird part is I felt like I recognized her from somewhere. For the first time in my life I was too nervous to go over and strike up a conversation, but I was in luck. She noticed me staring at here and made her way across the dance floor to me. As she got closer I got a better look at her body, and it was amazing. Smooth tan skin, and a little bit of softness in her curves, which was exactly my type. She got to me and introduced herself. Her name was Nicole.
We had one of those conversations where the music is so loud you have to lean in close and yell in each others ears. As we got friendlier she got a little touchy and when she leaned in would place her hand on my chest or my stomach. We talked for a while, and it felt really right. She was laughing at all my jokes, and her sarcasm was on par with mine. She excused herself to go to the ladies' room, and as she walked away ran her hand down from my chest to right above my belt and said something that caught my ear.
"I like your belly".
I thought this was strange, I mean girls had complemented me that way before but they usually say something along the lines of "nice abs". We were both pretty drunk though so I didn't think much of it. A few minutes later I could see a drunken Adrian across the room starting a fight (which was normal) so I went over to break it up. I took him outside and realized he was pretty gone, and I was rather drunk myself so I decided it was time we returned home.
I got Adrian home and in his bed where he instantly passed out, I put on some pajama pants and lied down in my own bed. As I fell asleep I had a million thoughts about the girl at the party, how pretty she was, how I would find her again, and her weird comment "I like your belly". I was too drunk to really think very hard though, and I soon passed out myself.
It seemed almost instant that I was awake again and it was saturday morning. I looked at the clock and it read 11:46 am. I was a bit hungover, but at this point I was used to it. I groggily got up and walked out to the main room. Adrian was already up (surprisingly) he had just walked in from a shower and wore nothing but a towel around his waist, but I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
I guess it had been a while since I'd seen Adrian without a shirt, but for the first time I realized that he was getting fat! His abs had morphed in to a rounded mound of flesh that jiggled with each step. He had small love handles starting to bulge from his sides, and even his pecs had softened. I guessed he had put on 15 pounds or so of pure blubber. he walked passed me into the bedroom and shut the door to get dressed. I'm glad he did that too, because for some reason I was getting an erection and my pajama pants couldn't really hide it.
It was a bit surprising but at the same time made sense. He had stopped working out altogether, and doing nothing but drinking and stuffing himself like a pig. I felt lucky that I kept up running or maybe I would share his same fate.
He emerged from the bedroom in a pair of jogging shorts and a sleeveless tee shirt and went right to our dorm kitchen area and pulled out some leftover pizza. As he wolfed it down I had no problem telling him what I noticed, as we were best friends it was easy to criticize one another.
"Dude, are you sure you should be eating that" I asked.
Adrian seemed confused "why?"
"Well, to be honest, your getting kind of fat."
He didn't seem to care "yeah, so?"
"so, you look like you've gained 15 pounds!" I was a bit surprised by how nonchalant he was being.
He patted his growing belly, which now seemed so noticeable I couldn't believe I didn't realize before. "Closer to 20 I think" He said, his mouth full of pizza "It's no big deal I'll lose it when i get back to the gym."

That seemed to make sense, I absent mindedly grabbed a slice of the cold pizza. "Well you better be careful, you're starting to look like a pig."
Adrian seemed a little offended by the comment "Hey. Look who's talking"
I was a little confused by his comment. "what?"
" I know you haven't gained as much as me" He responded " but people with glass beer bellies shouldn't throw stones."
I was definitely shocked by this comment. I mean, I knew my abs had loosened up a bit since I hadn't been working out, but not nearly enough to justify calling it a beer belly. I instinctively put my non pizza holding hand on my gut, and realized it did feel pretty soft. Adrian seemed like he could tell I hadn't realized this before. He told me to go look in the mirror.
I went in the bathroom and felt like I was seeing myself for the first time. It wasn't the image of the portly adrian I had noticed that morning, but he was right. I had definitely gained weight, mostly in my stomach. Where I once had a tightly defined six-pack now sat what looked like a ten pound ball of dough. As I stood there in nothing but my pajama pants I also noticed the slightest appearance of love handles and a "softness" on my chest. My arms also seemed a bit fuller, and so did my face, but not much.
Adrian waked in and stood next to me in the mirror "chill out dude, it's no big deal, everyone gains weight in college". He took off his shirt.
Where three months ago there were two, well toned health nuts, now stood two dough boys with beginner bellies, wolfing down cold pizza.