Chapter 59 - the women of their dreams: part 5

133.
The moment her foot had first touched that fragile plank, Faye had felt that something was about to go wrong. Time had seemed to slow down. But, by then, it'd already been too late. The frail piece of timber had already given way and her leg had already been plunged through the stage floor.

Her shock swiftly wearing off, the fiery-haired girl tried to pull herself loose. But her thick calf was stuck tight, the surrounding planks digging into her soft flesh, sinking into the heavy mass of oozing blubber that now made up the lion's share of her once lean limb. She couldn't get up. She was too heavy. She just didn't have the strength.

She was, quite simply, stuck. Held in place by her own weight, her own hopelessly huge and unwieldy body. After a couple of tries at tugging herself loose, Faye fell back, letting her blubbery backside spread across the stage floor as she gasped to catch her breath. Smiling awkwardly, she kept her gaze locked on the planks beneath her, not daring to meet the eyes of her audience. Some way away, a set of footsteps approached.

"Are you alright?" Caroline asked, urgently, putting a hand on Faye's shoulder as she crouched beside her.

"Yeah, but I can't seem to get loose," said the fiery-haired girl, tugging at her trapped leg once more.

Caroline stopped a moment, looking Faye over.

"So I see," she said, at last. "This sure is a fine mess you've gotten yourself into."

"Yeah," Faye let out a nervous laugh, "I guess."

Caroline tightened her lips. "You guess? Is that really the best you can say? This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't been so eager to eat yourself into a huge manatee of a girl, you know that, right?"

Faye's eyes widened, she opened her mouth and closed it again, like a fish, without a single sound having escaped her.

"Still," Caroline shook her head, "I suppose it's partly my fault. I should've known this stage wouldn't be strong enough to hold you." She said, causing the fiery-haired girl to yelp as she pinched a handful of fat off her shoulder. "You're not exactly a lithe little thing anymore, are you?"

Confused, her mind still reeling from all that'd just happened, Faye stammered out some incoherent noises in response.

"And you used to be so thin and pretty. You were the most beautiful girl that I'd ever seen, that any of us had ever seen. And look at you now," Caroline's fingers dug a little harder into Faye's flab. "How could you have done this to yourself?"

For a moment, Faye stared up at the older woman without so much as a word. Before she could think of anything to say, Niall, having finally squeezed his way through the crowd, came hurrying towards her, with Lettie and Martha following on his heels.

"Sweetie, are you ok?" said the tall wild-haired man, crouching beside his girlfriend. "You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

Still glancing nervously at Caroline, Faye smiled as she turned towards him. "No," she shook her head. "I'm fine. But I might need some help getting loose," she panted, still winded by her humiliating display.

Niall stopped a moment to look at the overgorged girl.

"Oh sweetie," he said, smiling at her, "you sure have gotten yourself into a fine pinch."

"Yeah," Faye smiled awkwardly, gazing up into her boyfriend's eyes. "I guess I have."

"Come on then," said Niall, gripping his girlfriend's calf. "Let's get you loose."

Finally free and on her feet, Faye was a panting mess. Her face was bright red, her hair tangled and moist with sweat, a soft groan escaping from between her cherry red lips with each breath she took. Her eyes half closed and her mouth half open, she leaned against her boyfriend's solid frame, resting all her weight on him. She was so tired, her knees ached so bad. She could hardly hold herself up.

As, gently, Niall led her offstage, she kept her eyes firmly on the ground. She knew only too well what a joke she'd made of herself. People would be talking about her little performance for years on end. The story would spread until it was all that anyone knew about her. From now on, she'd always be 'that girl who was so fat that she'd crashed through the stage floor'.

She tried, once more, to play with her old ring, but stopped as another jolt of pain ran through her fat finger. The sausage-like digit was starting to feel strangely numb, yet Faye didn't give the pain much thought. Right now, she just wanted to get away, out of the eyes of the crowd. She longed to be somewhere safe, with nobody but Niall and her food for company.

But she was so tired. So completely exhausted. As she waddled down onto the grass she held her chubby hand over her chest. She needed to sit down, to take her weight off her feet for a moment.

On the lawn, near to the stage, a bunch of foldable chairs had been set up. As soon as she lay eyes on them, Faye set off towards them. With an audible sigh she sank down on one, her broad backside spreading across it, her soft flesh drooping over the edge of her seat. Only when she'd already settled her weight on the tiny thing did she realise her mistake.

For months now, Faye had been spending all her time at the bakery, where the furniture was sturdy and strong. Unlike most girls her size, she'd never learned to be careful where she sat.

By the time she heard the chair creak and felt as its legs started to buckle under her weight, it was already too late. The fragile piece of furniture was too low to the ground, with her belly resting on her lap, weighing her down, there was no way for her to get up. She was stuck, trapped by her own body on a chair she knew was only seconds from collapsing.

As another loud creak emanated from under her tremendous girth, something stirred within the fiery-haired girl. Once again, time seemed to slow. For a moment, all the people around her, most of them still gawping at her or staring in quiet astonishment out of the corners of their eyes, seemed to be moving in slow motion.

Her now usually dull mind raced. Hadn't she suffered enough humiliation for one day? Something seemed to be trying to force its way into her head. A word, perhaps? Vaguely, the fiery-haired girl remembered that something like this had happened before. Yet now, she could only hazily recall that word. Try as she might, it just wouldn't become clear in her head. She couldn't twist her tongue around it. The haze through which it was trying to force itself was simply too thick.

Suddenly, the world seemed to speed up again and, with a loud snap, Faye was sent to the ground, a liquid shockwave running through her flesh as she crashed down onto the grass.