Growing (part one)

chapter 1

Eliza's belly was like a tank, massively voluminous and perpetually raring to be filled. Without question she had an appetite to match. Once she got started there was no stopping her, and heaven help anyone who got in her way. One was liable to lose a limb if you tried to come between Eliza and her food.

“Slow down, Eliza!” her friend and roommate Margot pled to no avail. “You know what happens when you eat too much too fast.”

Margot’s words fell on deaf ears though, as Eliza was already well into the throws of another epic binge. It was a Friday evening at the pair’s apartment, and as was the usual Eliza went ahead and spent a large percentage of her weekly pay on food to be eaten immediately.

“Give me a break, Margot,” Eliza said through a mouthful of mush, globs of sauce splattered across her lips and cheeks, “some people like to drink over the weekend, some people like to smoke weed and get high — I just want to eat! What’s so bad about that?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” said Margot as she rolled her eyes, “I’ve heard this spiel before.”

Margot just stood back, appalled and yet not at all shocked by her roommates shameless display of gluttony. The table in the center of the kitchen was piled high with all manner fattening foods: buckets of spicy chicken wings and boxes full of seasoned and deep fried potato wedges, several pizzas, bags filled with greasy cheeseburgers and fries — and of course there was a seemingly endless supply of carbonated beverages.

“I’m just trying to look out for you,” Margot sneered, “every weekend it’s the same thing. You overeat and get a massive tummy ache, and then I end up having to spend the rest of my weekend taking care of you. You’re not the only one who works hard around here; I’d like to be able to enjoy my weekend too!”

“Who’s stopping you?” Eliza scoffed. “You want to have fun? Go have fun!”

“Fine!” Margot fired back. “Maybe I will!”

Seemingly unfazed, Eliza went right on stuffing herself relentlessly, making a huge mess in the process. Her enormous rear end hung over the edges of the stool she was seated upon, the thin cotton fabric of her leggings wearing that much thinner as her meaty buttocks and thighs expanded. Her belly had no hope of being contained by any shirt or top, and so it did the only thing it could do and hung out in the open air as Eliza leaned forward as far as she could to the table’s edge, grabbing for anything and everything in her sight indiscriminately with her bare hands and shoveling it into her mouth.

“Maybe I will just go out and spend the weekend at Bradley’s house,” Margot continued. “He’s been wanting me to come over and spend the weekend with him. I haven’t felt our relationship was really at that stage yet — I mean we’ve only been seeing each other for a few weeks — but maybe I will.”

“You should!” Eliza fired back, an errant glob of barbecue sauce erupting from her lips and landing on Margot’s brand new virgin-white shoes.

“Ugh!” Margot groaned aloud, pushing up her glasses with her left index finger, her slender frame leaning forward as if she were ready to jump into a boxing match. “That does it!”

Margot stormed off toward her bedroom, her shoulder-length ginger locks flapping in the breeze behind her as she stomped her feet on the floor. Once in her room she hastily grabbed for a duffle bag and began to pack in a huff, blustering curses and bitter utterances under her breath.

“Who does she think she is?” she said as she dashed about the room. “After all I’ve done for that girl, she has no respect for me at all!”

Moments later Margot emerged from her room, jacket on and duffle bag in hand. “I’m leaving!” she declared loudly.

“Have fun!” Eliza answered, not looking up from her repast for even a moment to acknowledge her friend.

“Oh, I will!” Margot said definitively. “Bradley and I are going to have LOTS of fun!”

Eliza went on chowing down with no reaction.

“We are going to go dancing and have some drinks! It’s going to be awesome!”

Still chowing. No reaction.

“Then we’re going to go back to his house and have lots and lots of sex!”

Nothing.

“For days and days! We’ll just wear each other out!”

Nil.

“I probably won’t be able to walk afterwards!”

No words. No sounds but the constant chewing and chawing coming from Eliza’s lips.

“Well,” Margot whinnied after standing in the kitchen doorway for an awkwardly long period of time, “don’t you have anything to say?”

Eliza put down her chicken wing for a moment, and held up her right index finger, gesturing that Margot hold tight and wait for her reaction while she finished chewing and swallowing the slurry of chicken and potato she held in her puffed-out cheeks. After a moment or two, Eliza swallowed and licked her lips before bracing herself to emit her final thoughts on the matter at hand.


BWWWOOOOOORRRRRPPP!!!!

“Ugh! So disgusting!” Margot cried as she turned her head to the side. “It’s like you’re a damn burp-machine!”

Thinking nothing of it, Eliza went right back to pigging out. Margot stood back for a moment and looked at her friend, reminding herself of a time when the two of them were much closer and got a long much better. It wasn’t really all that long ago, but at this very moment it felt to Margot like it was ancient history, thinking to herself that perhaps this friendship had run it’s course.

“Fine!” said Margot. “If that’s all you have to say then I’ll leave you alone — but don’t even think about calling me when you’re on the ground writhing in pain because you’ve overstuffed yourself again! I’m not coming back here until Monday morning, and I’m not going to be the one to help you this time. You’re on your own!”