chapter 1

"Do you think Jeff will get fat?" Gabriela asked me.


We giggled quietly as we checked out my brother's friend. He was fairly good looking, kind of lanky with shaggy blonde hair.


"Oh yeah, I bet he stuffs himself today and then keeps eating until he has a huge belly," I joked and we giggled again, getting a couple funny looks.


"You're so bad, Stace," she whispered.


"Oh please," I snorted, "like you can't wait to get your hands on a guy and start fattening him up."


It was a weird conversation for a pair of 18 year old girls to have, I'll grant you that. Gabby and I had been best friends since we were like 3, however, and frequently referred to each other as cousins even though there was no blood relation. You could tell there was no relation just by looking at us. I was blonde and fair while her Latino and Native American blood was evident by her dark hair and beautifully dusky skin.


She was pretty much treated as extended family from a young age, my family had a tendency to just "adopt" friends. That was probably why our Thanksgiving gathering was about 40 people.


But anyhow, we both discovered at a fairly young age that we enjoyed the thought of fattening up our significant others, so it became a bit of a running joke that we were going to marry a couple of guys and feed them until their bellies were so big and round that they needed help tying their shoes.


"I dunno, miss fancy college gal," Gabriela shot right back. "Ever heard of the the freshman 15? You might end up being the fatty."


I laughed, although those words did kind of make my stomach feel funny.


"Yeah right, I ain't gonna chunk up. I'm the one who makes others chunk up. And you better be careful or else I might take aim at you."


"Bring it on, bitch."


For all our blustering, neither of us ever denied ourselves at Thanksgiving. It was a family tradition, after all. Each year we ended the meal barely able to move, groaning and giggling as we compared food babies. Of course, the morning after we were back to our trim and slim selves and never really gave it a second thought.


That year was no different and we retired to the sofa after dessert to complain about how full we were and try to push our stomachs out the farthest.


I was true to my word, however, and graduated a college a few years later at the same 125 pounds I was when I entered. I got a decent office job right out of college and was so busy the next couple years that I didn't get back home for many holidays. Gabby had skipped college and went right to work for an uncle who was an archeologist. She spent a lot of time out of country, every time she posted a picture online it seemed that she was in a new place.


From what I could tell, she remained in great shape like always. I, however, was finding the pressure of corporate life to have an unanticipated impact on my waistline. It wasn't much, but over three years I saw my weight creep up to the mid-130's. My abs weren't so defined anymore and there was beginning to be a worrying amount of jiggle around my ass and thighs.


I decided as the old year drew to a close that I was going to resolve to lose all my excess weight. Of course, at the company Christmas party I won a prize - a ten day cruise in February. It would be silly to diet before then, so I resigned myself to one more blowout before hitting up the gym with a vengeance.


I did not hold back while on the cruise. Both food and alcohol were readily available and I indulged in both. Those fruity drinks probably contained enough calories by themselves to ensure I didn't lose any weight, but that didn't keep me from stuffing my face continuously. At times it felt like a 10 day buffet and I almost forgot what it was like to be hungry.


Each meal I'd end so bloated I could barely stagger back to my room, but still I would be right back in the dining room for the next meal. On one of the last days, I had changed into my bikini after lunch to sun myself some more by the pool. On my way out, I caught sight of my reflection in a dark window.


I looked like a plump, juicy hotdog about to burst. The one word that kept coming to mind was "swollen". My bulging stomach would not have looked out of place on a woman who was six months pregnant.


So I suppose it should have been no surprise when my post-cruise weigh-in showed an all-time high of 146. I was still young, though, and not in terrible shape, so I told myself that losing 20 pounds shouldn't be a big problem.


Then I was assigned a huge project at work. Seriously, a huge project. I was putting in 12 hour days, ordering out for dinner each night at the office and not even thinking about the calories. Before long I was upgrading my wardrobe as my thighs and rear chunked up more and my stomach started sticking out so far in front that I had to lean forward to see the numbers on the scale.


Not that I checked the scale too often as the needle maintained a steady ascent past 150. By the time the project ended in September I was pushing 160. Needless to say that I was not my formerly trim 125 pound self when Thanksgiving rolled around.


In early November I learned that Gabby would be back in the States for Thanksgiving. I was very excited to see my friend after more than a year, but a little concerned over what she might think about my heavier form.