Chapter 1 - 1

Closing his computer down for the night Nate looked down at his hand. I had come to rest on the sizable ball that had begun to form right in his middle. He simply could not understand what was going on. It seemed no matter how much exercise he got and even cutting down on calories seemed to help... it just made no sense. Getting up from his desk he went over to his night stand and opened the draw. He had had trouble sleeping the last few months and had begun to take a sleeping pill to help him relax. Sighing to himself he opened the bottle and took one of the little ovals inside. Within 10 minutes he was curled up asleep in his bed. Then it came to him... that dream that never seemed to stop anymore night after night ever since he broke up with Elizabeth.

Liz as everyone called her had been a very bright very pretty girl the only real issue she seemed to have was if she didn't watch herself she tended toward the little more than curvy side. It was an issue she had fought her whole life but it was one issue that Nate had absolutely no idea about as they hadn't met until after school. Liz had always been the plump girl in class, but, after graduating and moving away from her home town she resolved to leave that whole thing behind and become fit and beautiful. She had achieved that goal by the time she met Nate.

Their first few dates together had been absolute magic they went to concerts and plays and even a few movies though Liz was always careful to never have anything beyond a diet coke sitting in the darkened theater she knew what that popcorn dripping with butter or chocolaty treat would do to her waist line and right now she wanted Nate's lips on hers and hands on her waist more then she wanted those extra calories. The closest she got to tasting those things anymore was the butter she tasted on Nate's lips when he kissed her in the back row.

After a month of doing those kinds of things Nate wanted to take her out to dinner at one of his favorite places unfortunately for poor Liz the place didn't seem to serve anything but junk food. Looking at the menu she felt an almost panicked flutter in her stomach. Finally she settled on a child's burger and fries. Explaining that she wasn't very hungry. At the end of the date Nate and Liz sat in the front seat of Nate's car outside of her home talking and kissing. When Nate tried to reach up under Liz's shirt she felt that panicked feeling in her stomach again. She had stepped away from what was safe and she could feel herself getting fatter and fatter every second sure that Nate was be absolutely disgusted by the feeling she pushed his hand away and quickly left the car begging off the need to get off to bed as she had to get to work in the morning.

Liz got inside her apartment and stripping down to her underwear got onto her scale closing her eyes afraid to look she took a deep breath and looked down. The numbers had not moved from that morning and she sighed in relief stepping back to the floor. She knew it was silly to panic over such a silly thing I mean after all it was only once and she hadn't gone overboard. Still that night as she slept she dreamed that she was that fat girl once again and no matter what she did she couldn't not change it growing bigger and bigger until she popped. She awoke in the morning in a cold sweat pulling on her shorts, tank top and shoes she ran on her treadmill until she could not move anymore. Shutting down the machine she hobbled to her bathroom and getting into the shower resolved to do everything in her power to never let that happen again.