Lessons in humility

Chapter 5 - a mutually beneficial arrangement

Raya wasn't able to help me with some of my technical courses and because of that I didn't get to see much of her. I had made some friends in those classes who helped me with some of the more difficult parts of the course. Sometimes they would be over at my place when Raya came by to test her creations on me and she was pretty pleased when I had some of my friends over. It was good to get other opinions on her meals. There were three of us usually and like me my friend David and Grant started packing on the pounds too. We started to call ourselves the Fat Boy Club after that, it made Raya laugh which was something I enjoyed seeing from her. I had gained twenty-five pounds in the month that led up to the final exam in our Business Practices class I started sitting on the bench seats at the back of the lecture hall because I was simply too fat for the desks now. One day Raya wanted to weight me to see how much I had put on since I agreed to be her guinea pig and I was actually curious to see myself. I had been keeping track before but then I just got lazy and stopped caring; when I was kicked out of the frat house at the beginning of the semester, I weighed one-seventy-two. And now it's been four months since I left.

"Holy shit...is that right?" I asked.

"Yep; you've really been pigging out haven't you? You're sitting at three-eighty-six." Raya replied.

"That's like..." I said and then I struggled to even do basic subtraction.

"A gain of two hundred and fourteen pounds in four months you dumb jock." Raya said playfully.

"Wow, no wonder I get stuck in the desks." I said.

"How the hell can you get so fat in such a short time? You pack on at least fifty-three pounds a month." Raya asked.

"I get free food from work downstairs; my boss likes me so he gives me all the leftovers and I eat a lot of take out and junk." I replied.

"I can see that." Raya said as she poked my doughy belly. "And no doubt that I've helped fatten you up some more with my food." She added.

"You don't seem repulsed by my weight, why is that?" I asked.

"I don't care what you do to your body; you're the one who has to live in it. I just like the irony of it all. A former jock slash frat boy gets fat and lazy and finds out how it feels to be on the other end of the teasing and bullying he no doubt took part in when he wasn't fat and lazy." She replied.

"And you also seem to have a lot of resentment for fraternities too; want to tell me about it?" I asked.

"No. You have work to do and a test to study for. So get to it." Raya replied.

"Yes teacher." I said.

I sat down on the couch again and my belly flopped out I quickly tried to cover it again but the relentless bulge refused to be hidden away. I saw Raya smirk at my predicament.

"Something funny over there?" I asked.

"You're so fat you can't even keep your shirt down. I find that funny." Raya replied.

"Well you keep making me eat all that amazing, delicious food of yours; can I help it if I start to put on some bulk?" I said.

"You can always stop, but you always want more." She continued.

"Your food is too good to waste, I can't stop eating it." I said.

"I always wanted to know what makes a former jock like you just decide to start gaining weight one day. It just seems like it's the total opposite of what you would do." Raya asked.

"I don't know, one day I just started eating everything I could see and even when I was full I still wanted more. And then I realized that it felt good to be stuffed so full that it hurt to move, also I noticed my energy level was decreasing and I got tired more easily. I just wanted to be lazy and didn't even work out anymore. My eating became mindless and half the time I didn't even realize how much I had eaten until I saw all the packages lying around me." I replied.

"So you order like four extra-large pizzas and eat every one of them alone?" She asked.

"Yes and that actually sounds like a good idea. I'm going to order some." I said.

"What? You just ate a whole cake I made and you're STILL hungry?" Raya said.

"Yes." I said as I dialed the phone.