Chapter 3 - wake up call

The next morning I woke up and went to the bathroom to get ready for work. As I was standing there in my boxers, brushing my teeth, I couldn't take my eyes off of my midsection. My gut was still quite swollen from last night, but wasn't as tight as usual. In fact, it jiggled just slightly when I moved my arm to brush my teeth.
I put my hands to my belly, and realized it wasn't stuffed, just bigger. noticeably bigger. I stood there and jiggled this mass, that seemed to appear out of nowhere. I could feel the weight of it as i lifted it up from the bottom. I stood up straight, stood sideways, bent over, inspecting this bump. I couldn't believe it, but it seemed that for the first time in my life I was sporting quite a pot belly.
I turned around to inspect my butt which seemed a bit softer. And were those love handles starting to appear on my sides? It even seemed like my chest looked a little soft. I played with my cheeks and neck, wondering if my face seemed a bit pudgy.
I pulled out the bathroom scale, and stepped on. The numbers stopped at ....185? I couldn't believe it. That was almost thirty pounds over my normal weight of 157. I looked at myself in the mirror, and had to admit to myself that all the bad eating was catching up to me, and I was gaining weight.

...

I spent that whole day constantly aware of my new gut. As I put on my pants for work, I had to suck in to get them to close. When I let the air out I couldn't believe how tight these pants were. A few more pounds and they wouldn't even fit. The buttons of my slim style shirt were stretching across my belly. When I put on my belt I realized that I had moved up two holes, and could almost not get it fastened at that size.
When I sat in the car, I couldn't believe how big my gut seemed when I sat down. It hung completely over the seat belt, and I could feel it wobble whenever the car hit a big bounce.
When I got to work, I saw my Friends Jake and Scott. The three of us had been best friends since high school, and at one point we were three skinny little guys. Not anymore. Jake had been married a few years earlier, and he and his wife both put on a ton of weight. He was probably eighty pounds heavier than when he got married. Scott had only started gaining weight a year ago when he hit thirty. It was hard to tell how much he'd gained, as he hid it with larger clothes, but since he had always been the scrawniest of us, it was easy to tell he was a much plumper version of himself these days. I was the last hold out to our thin days, but it seemed like over the past few months that had started to change. I wondered if they would say anything.
Jake brought in his everyday donuts for everybody, which I usually avoided since I was never hungry in the mornings. Today though I walked over and grabbed two. I couldn't help it I was starving. When I finished my third donut, I noticed that when I sat at my desk, instead of falling into my lap, the crumbs rested on the top of the mound that was now my belly. I brushed them off and looked at how I could touch my belly to the edge of my desk, though I was further away than normal.

...

I waited for someone at the office to say something about my gain but nobody did. I could see people's eyes drift to my midsection, clearly noticing the difference, but I guessed they were being polite.

I went out to lunch with Jake and Scott, and we all ordered huge meals. I finished the whole thing, and the guys joked how I must have been hungry since I didn't ask for a box. They still said nothing about my weight gain, and we went back to work.
After lunch I was in the bathroom stall, Enjoying the relief of unbuttoning my pants and letting my belly breath, when I heard someone enter. After a second I heard them talk and realized it was Jake and Scott. They were talking about me.

Jake: "I noticed he's started getting chubby, and it's no surprise with how much he's been eating lately"

Scott: "I know, I wonder if he's noticed."

Jake: "Probably, I know everyone else has. He better be careful or pretty soon he'll look like me"

Scott: " Ha, Yeah, I guess sooner or later we all get fat"

Jake: "I'm still getting used to you with all that extra flab, have you put on some more weight by the way? You're looking extra plump these days."

Scott: "Shut up dick, you're one to talk."

They laughed and left the bathroom.

...

I sat and thought about what my friends had just said. I already knew that I had gained weight, and that I could see a big difference in my body, but now I knew that other people were noticing it. I put my hands on my belly, jiggled it, and told myself for the first time that I needed to go on a diet. I stood up, struggled to close my pants, and thought about how starting now I would go back to my old eating habits, start running again, and try to avoid junk foods.
This plan lasted about an hour, until it was time for someone's birthday party in the office. They brought in a huge cake, and made a big production out of it like they normally do. At first I turned down the offer of cake, but as I stood there while everyone else was enjoying it I couldn't help myself and asked for a small piece. I was handed a piece that was definitely not very small and inhaled it. People were grabbing seconds, so I snuck over and cut myself another piece that was almost twice the size of my first. I stood by Jake and Scott, who were each scarfing down more than their fair share of the delicious cake, in a poor attempt to disguise how much cake I had taken for myself. It's not like anyone would notice though, since cake days were always everyone's excuse to pig out, and there definitely wasn't a shortage of large guts and huge asses for the cake to be stuffed into. In fact, with my new shape I was starting to blend in better with this crowd than before.
Jake, Scott, and I were cleaning up the party, and as I was packing up the leftover cake (probably enough for 6-8 pieces) Jake suggested we split the leftover cake and eat it so there aren't leftovers. Scott agreed right away. This was kind of how they acted all the time over the last year or so, ever since Scott started getting fat, always taking opportunities to eat more. Usually I didn't partake in their gluttony, but today I wanted more cake so I agreed too, and the three of us polished off the remaining cake.

...

When the work day ended, I couldn't wait to get out of there. Not so I could go home, but so I could get in my car and undo my belt and pants. I couldn't be stuck in my suffocating size 30s any longer. I sat in the car, with my belly sticking out from under my tight shirt, and told myself "diet starts now".
Driving home though I started thinking about dinner. I suddenly was hungry again and every fast food place I drove past looked delicious. I quickly decided I would start my diet tomorrow, and would splurge for one more night. I got an extra large value meal from McDonalds, some extra fries, and a pie. I ate most of it on the way home.
When I got home, and decided that since this was my last night to splurge, I would pig out on everything I could find, that way I wouldn't have the junk food in my house anymore to tempt me.
I put on a pair of loose (well, used to be loose) sweatpants and a t-Shirt that I couldn't pull down all the way, grabbed a bunch of food and plopped down on the couch.
I laid there and lifted my T-shirt to reveal my swollen belly. I played with it and marveled at the doughy mass as I stuffed myself with food and watched TV. I kept telling myself I had to get rid of it, that I needed to be thin again, but deep down inside something was telling me it didn't bother me and I didn't really want to. I always thought that getting fat was frowned upon, and was something that would happen to other people, and not me. I couldn't admit this to myself yet at the time, but now that it was happening to me, I kind of liked it.