~BBW, Intrigue, ~~WG - Alice is back in town job-hunting, but bags Laurie and Jen
“You okay back there, sweetie?”
“Um, y-yeah, Mrs. Hiller.”
Alice felt sick to her stomach, and it wasn’t just because of the stack of pancakes she had for breakfast before she left the house. She’d dreaded facing her mother again for the first time since she escaped from the weight-loss camp she’d been sent to at the beginning of break. However, she knew she couldn’t spend the rest of the year at Tyler’s house, as tempting as it was.
She was sure she put on weight due to the huge dinners Mrs. Hiller made for the family, and not to mention the many snacks kept around the house in a vain attempt to put some meat on her new boyfriend’s bones.
Alice knew it wasn’t unusual for a teenager (especially one with her distinct lack of enthusiasm for unnecessary physical exertion, cheerleading excepted) to put on a few pounds over Christmas break, but she knew her mom would have a fit as soon as she walked through the door.
Thankfully, she still fit into most of Tyler’s sister’s wardrobe, and was satisfied that at least her prominent belly’s expansion would be relatively hidden from view. Tyler didn’t tell her that she still looked heavy from behind, and that she was very noticeably wider from just a month ago, if just for the simple fact that he was kind of enjoying it.
Alice was resting her head on Tyler’s shoulder, breathing in the pleasant smell of his t-shirt, which had, for a startling change of pace, actually been washed for this particular day. Tyler was holding Alice’s hand, which he had surreptitiously moved closer to her round middle, a move she was too nervous to notice.
Tyler leaned in closer to her ear. “It’ll be fine, Alice. Why do you need to impress her anyway? She’s been treating you badly for awhile, from what you said.”
“I know, but I have to live with her, you know? Ever since Dad took that job in Singapore, she’s been such a…y’know, B-word.” Alice could never bring herself to say a swear, even when she was probably justified.
She sat up as saw her house approaching through the car window. “I think I just have to face this, and whatever happens…ugh.” Alice slumped back into her seat as Mrs. Hiller parked the vehicle.
Getting out the side door, she placed her hand on Tyler’s shoulder. “I think you should hang back; I don’t think my mom’s particularly enamored with you at the moment.”
Tyler looked upset. “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t know if you should be facing her alone.”
In the front seat, Tyler’s mom twisted around to face them, her face a mask of concern. “If you want, I could..”
Alice shook her head. “No, no,” she said. “Thank you so much, but I couldn’t ask you to do that. I think it’s best if I just do this alone.”
“Alright, just call me if anything happens.” Tyler leaned in and kissed Alice and gave her a quick hug, his hands pressing in to her fleshy flanks.
As soon as they pulled away, Alice giggled, which she was not known to do very often. She waved goodbye as Tyler’s mom drove away, and then steeled herself for the encounter she’d been delaying for weeks.
Up until now, Alice had felt confident that her heavy winter outfit disguised her increased poundage. But now she was beginning to doubt that. As she walked toward the front door, she noticed small gaps between the buttons of her jacket, which were being stressed by her pudgy middle. Alice sucked in her stomach and the gaps closed. It was effective, but she didn’t know how long she could hold it. Holding her breath, she pressed the doorbell and listened to the harsh ringing sound reverberate through the house.
She waited, hardly daring to breathe, listening intently for the sound of footsteps within. And waited. And waited.
After a full minute had gone by, Alice began to relax. “I guess no one’s home,” she said to herself. She breathed out, letting her round tummy slowly fill out her jacket again. She bent down to look for a possible spare key to let herself in while suddenly, above her, the door swung open.
“Get up and get inside. Take your shoes off; I don’t want you scuffing the floor.”
Startled, Alice looked up with an unhappy face. “Hi, Mom.”
Alice’s wraith-like mother glared down at her chubby daughter with barely disguised disgust. Her right eye was twitching angrily. Alice quickly remembered to suck in as she straightened up and walked inside.
“So,” began her mother, closing the door behind her, “I hear that you didn’t like image enhancement camp. I hear that you ran away. And I hear that you didn’t lose any weight. In fact, I SEE that you gained weight.”
“Mom!” cut in Alice, “Stop it! First of all, stop badgering me about my weight! I don’t know why you care so much. I’m not that fat and I’m okay with the way I look! Second, I haven’t gained any more weight!”
Alice, of course, knew that this second statement was a lie, but she hoped that her mom wouldn’t be able to see her extra puffiness through the layers of jacket and sweater she was wearing. As long as she kept her gut sucked in, she reasoned, her mother would be none the wiser.
“ ‘I’m not that fat!’” repeated Alice’s mom, “Alice, baby, please! That’s not the point! Fine, fine, maybe you’re not “that fat” now, but what about in the future? What about next month? Next year? The way you eat, you’ve been swelling up like a beach ball all year. And I’m going to see to that this stops right now!”
“I am not swelling up!” shouted Alice angrily. Or rather, shouted as well as she could while holding her stomach in. She should have known that she’d have to listen to another of her mother’s long lectures…but she honestly didn’t know how much longer she could hold herself in before she had to release her belly.
“Alice, Alice, Alice!” said her mother. “You can’t honestly tell me you’re not fatter. I thought you were a butterball last summer, but you’re even bigger now.”
Alice knew it was true. She’d only weighed 165 lbs over the summer, and now, last time she’d checked, she was 180 lbs. She hoped and prayed that it hadn’t gone up since then… God, why couldn’t her mom just leave her alone?
“Whatever, Mom! That’s not important; what is important is that I’m okay with how I look. I know I’m kinda chunky, but that’s no reason for you to give me all this grief. Nobody else cares! Now I’m going to my room!”
Alice turned to leave, but her mom grabbed her arm and twirled her around.
Dammit! thought Alice. She’d hoped that she could get away, so that she could finally let out her breath but her mom was having none of it.
“Don’t you take that tone of voice with me, young lady!” snarled her mom. “You’re my daughter and I’ll raise you as I see fit!”
Her mom continued ranting, but Alice wasn’t listening. God, she really needed to breathe! She was straining to hold her sizeable paunch in, but it was becoming more difficult by the second. Alice almost wondered if her face was starting to go blue from the strain.
“And another thing! Don’t think I don’t know you’ve gotten even tubbier since you’ve started dating your freaky geek friend there! I don’t care if he doesn’t care that you’re a big fat cow, but I do! And take off that coat! Don’t think you can hide that potbelly I know you have!”
“I don’t have a potbelly!” squeaked Alice, now really straining to hold in her gut.
“Oh no? Then take off that coat. You’re inside, why don’t you just take it off, huh? Unless you’re trying to hide something?”
“I’m…I’m….” Alice was lost for words so she just shrugged her shoulders. As long as she could keep her gut in, she should be okay without the jacket. Slowly, hesitantly, her fingers fumbled with the buttons to open her jacket.
“See?” she said, opening the jacket. Underneath, she still looked chunky, with her hefty boobs and pudgy tummy in a tight sweater, but as long as she sucked her belly in with all her might, she only looked a little bit poochy rather than huge.
Her mother scowled. “Fine, I suppose you haven’t got THAT much of a potbelly.”
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “I was positive she’d have a bigger potbelly,” she muttered under her breath,
“See, Mom, it’s not that bad,” said Alice, quickly buttoning up her jacket
again. “You always think that I can’t be trusted around food, that I’m always going to be getting fatter and fatter once I’m away from you. But when I’m away from you is the only time that I’m not gaining weight!”
This was a lie and Alice knew it. She’d been packing on pounds regardless of whether her mom was around or not. But her Mom didn’t know it! And if she could keep her stomach held in…and keep away from any scales around the house….her Mom wouldn’t find out. In fact, Alice’s comment seemed to have hit a chord in her mom.
“You..don’t gain weight when I’m not around?” she said quietly. A look of concern crossed her normally angry face.
“Yes,” said Alice. Then she added: “You know, it’s hard to lose weight when you’re always badgering me. You know I eat when I’m upset and all your yelling just gets me so…so..frustrated, Mom! Please, stop talking about my weight and I’m sure I’m slim down much quicker.”
For once her mom was quiet. In fact, it looked like she was thinking this over.
“Really, Alice? Do you really mean that?”
“Yeah, Mom, I do. Please.”
Her mother arched one perfectly manicured eyebrow. “Well…I suppose it’s worth a try…Lord knows nothing else seems to work.”
Alice couldn’t believe her ears! She was so excited that she almost let out her breath, which would have allowed her stomach to inflate to its full, button-busting size. She caught herself just in time.
“Really? Do you mean that?!”
“Sure…why not? How much worse could it get?”
“I mean, really? Do you promise? Because you’ve said you wouldn’t bug me about my size before, and you’ve gone back to –“
“I said I’d be quiet and I will!” snapped her mom. Alice smiled a bit as she heard this. Finally, the pressure was off.
But Alice’s mom was not finished yet. “However, that just means I’m not going to mollycoddle you any longer. Most importantly, I’m not buying you any more clothes and certainly no junk food. If you want to stay a size 20 or whatever the hell you are at this point and eat properly, then I’ll provide. But if you want to keep blowing out of your jeans with the pizzas your slacker boy keeps shoving in your face, I want no part of it.”
Alice was thoroughly embarrassed and confused at this point. The fact that her tummy kept grumbling at the sight of a package of Oreos behind her mother didn’t help matters. “Wh-what are you saying.”
“Alice, my baby,” her mother said with an off-putting smile as she walked up to her, “you’re going to have to get off that fat butt of yours and get a little job.” Alice’s mother patted her daughter’s bulging belly in a particularly condescending way.
Now standing alone in the kitchen, Alice didn’t know what she was supposed to do. There’d be no more arguments with her mom over her weight, but only because the woman acted as if she was giving up on her. In five minutes, Alice’s mother had made her feel like a complete failure.
“Now go to your room and get changed. We’re having carrots for dinner.”
She didn’t need to tell Alice twice. Alice practically ran up the stairs, her enormous size causing a huge clatter as she ran. She got to her room and slammed the door shut. Quickly, she unbuttoned her jacket and released her belly. Her stomach burst out to its full size, stretching her sweater pleats and causing the sweater’s hem to ride up the curvature of her belly slightly.
Her tubby gut spilled over the waistband of her jeans, hanging just slightly over her crotch. Alice gasped and wheezed, trying to catch her breath after holding in her stomach for such a long time, but her quick shallow breathing only served to make her already enormous abdomen look even bigger.
“Finally!” she gasped. “Phew, I don’t think I could have held this tummy in for another second.” She looked down at her mighty front, slowly easing in and out with her labored panting. Gingerly, she ran one plump hand over the arc of her soft flabby stomach. Pausing briefly to give a quick – but unfortunately futile – downward tug on the sweater’s hem.
“Thank Goodness, I think Mom bought that story,” she said to herself. “Finally! I hope she stays true to her word this time. Maybe then my life here won’t be so miserable. And maybe then I can at least stop gaining!”
If past experience was any teacher Alice knew that she was unlikely to lose any weight, especially not now as she knew that Tyler liked her chubby look. And without the threat of never being attractive to men hanging over her, why should she reduce?
“Hopefully, I’ll just stay this size,” said Alice. She rolled her eyes. “A mere 180 pounds. But I can’t let Mom find out how much I really weigh. I’d never hear the end of it then. I’ve got to go shopping and get some new, baggier clothes. Then I can hide this extra weight and convince her I’m the same size I was when I left for fat camp.”
Dinner was, as usual, an unpleasant affair. It wasn’t just carrots. There was some steamed broccoli as well, but it still wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy a girl half Alice’s size, let alone Alice herself. So it was little wonder that, after supper when her mom had gone to bed, Alice helped herself to a little snack in the kitchen.
She opened up the refrigerator and found a half-full carton of eggnog, taking it and the Oreos and sat down on her couch with a heavy thud. Alice spent the next half-hour devouring her snack. When she was finished, Alice leaned back, and noting her mother was upstairs, unbuttoned her overstressed jeans .
Alice rested her hand on her rounded stomach, satiated but still worried. She knew she had to call someone to get a job; to (as much as she didn’t want to admit it) validate herself in front of her mom, to prove to her she wasn’t just a pig who sits around eating cookies all day. Usually.
Alice grunted as she moved her hefty body toward her cell phone on the floor, her belly still full. Grabbing it, she dialed “1”, and immediately heard Tyler’s voice. “Hey, Alice! What’s up? How’d it go with your mom?”
“It’s a long story…My mother took me back in…but she’s not happy about my weight. She said that she wouldn’t harass me about it anymore…”
“Well, that’s good!”
“Yeah, I suppose. But she also said that she’s not going to feed me anymore!”
“At all?”
“Well, she’ll give me carrots and broccoli from the looks of it. But that’s not nearly enough; I’ll starve within a week! She says that I need to get a job.”
“A job? Like any job?”
“I suppose. I’ll have to start looking in the morning.”
“Well…if you’re interested, I could get you a job at the place I work.”
Alice thought about it for a second. Did she really want to work at a pizza parlour? Surely the temptation would be way too much for her. She knew her willpower was nothing to brag about, and being surrounded by greasy, cheesy pizzas all day would surely make her weight skyrocket at an even more astronomical rate. But, on the other hand, if she was around pizza all day, she’d probably get sick of it really fast. So that probably wasn’t that big of a problem. And, besides, it meant she’d get to spend more time with Tyler.
“Would that be okay?”
”It wouldn’t be a problem at all. I could get you an interview when I go into work tomorrow. It doesn’t pay very well and it’s kind of a sucky job…but it’s as good as you can expect in food service.”
“Well…sure, that sounds fine. Would you do that for me?”
“You bet I will.”
“Thanks, Tyler.”
***********
“You okay back there, sweetie?”
“Um, y-yeah, Mrs. Hiller.”
Alice felt sick to her stomach, and it wasn’t just because of the stack of pancakes she had for breakfast before she left the house. She’d dreaded facing her mother again for the first time since she escaped from the weight-loss camp she’d been sent to at the beginning of break. However, she knew she couldn’t spend the rest of the year at Tyler’s house, as tempting as it was.
She was sure she put on weight due to the huge dinners Mrs. Hiller made for the family, and not to mention the many snacks kept around the house in a vain attempt to put some meat on her new boyfriend’s bones.
Alice knew it wasn’t unusual for a teenager (especially one with her distinct lack of enthusiasm for unnecessary physical exertion, cheerleading excepted) to put on a few pounds over Christmas break, but she knew her mom would have a fit as soon as she walked through the door.
Thankfully, she still fit into most of Tyler’s sister’s wardrobe, and was satisfied that at least her prominent belly’s expansion would be relatively hidden from view. Tyler didn’t tell her that she still looked heavy from behind, and that she was very noticeably wider from just a month ago, if just for the simple fact that he was kind of enjoying it.
Alice was resting her head on Tyler’s shoulder, breathing in the pleasant smell of his t-shirt, which had, for a startling change of pace, actually been washed for this particular day. Tyler was holding Alice’s hand, which he had surreptitiously moved closer to her round middle, a move she was too nervous to notice.
Tyler leaned in closer to her ear. “It’ll be fine, Alice. Why do you need to impress her anyway? She’s been treating you badly for awhile, from what you said.”
“I know, but I have to live with her, you know? Ever since Dad took that job in Singapore, she’s been such a…y’know, B-word.” Alice could never bring herself to say a swear, even when she was probably justified.
She sat up as saw her house approaching through the car window. “I think I just have to face this, and whatever happens…ugh.” Alice slumped back into her seat as Mrs. Hiller parked the vehicle.
Getting out the side door, she placed her hand on Tyler’s shoulder. “I think you should hang back; I don’t think my mom’s particularly enamored with you at the moment.”
Tyler looked upset. “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t know if you should be facing her alone.”
In the front seat, Tyler’s mom twisted around to face them, her face a mask of concern. “If you want, I could..”
Alice shook her head. “No, no,” she said. “Thank you so much, but I couldn’t ask you to do that. I think it’s best if I just do this alone.”
“Alright, just call me if anything happens.” Tyler leaned in and kissed Alice and gave her a quick hug, his hands pressing in to her fleshy flanks.
As soon as they pulled away, Alice giggled, which she was not known to do very often. She waved goodbye as Tyler’s mom drove away, and then steeled herself for the encounter she’d been delaying for weeks.
Up until now, Alice had felt confident that her heavy winter outfit disguised her increased poundage. But now she was beginning to doubt that. As she walked toward the front door, she noticed small gaps between the buttons of her jacket, which were being stressed by her pudgy middle. Alice sucked in her stomach and the gaps closed. It was effective, but she didn’t know how long she could hold it. Holding her breath, she pressed the doorbell and listened to the harsh ringing sound reverberate through the house.
She waited, hardly daring to breathe, listening intently for the sound of footsteps within. And waited. And waited.
After a full minute had gone by, Alice began to relax. “I guess no one’s home,” she said to herself. She breathed out, letting her round tummy slowly fill out her jacket again. She bent down to look for a possible spare key to let herself in while suddenly, above her, the door swung open.
“Get up and get inside. Take your shoes off; I don’t want you scuffing the floor.”
Startled, Alice looked up with an unhappy face. “Hi, Mom.”
Alice’s wraith-like mother glared down at her chubby daughter with barely disguised disgust. Her right eye was twitching angrily. Alice quickly remembered to suck in as she straightened up and walked inside.
“So,” began her mother, closing the door behind her, “I hear that you didn’t like image enhancement camp. I hear that you ran away. And I hear that you didn’t lose any weight. In fact, I SEE that you gained weight.”
“Mom!” cut in Alice, “Stop it! First of all, stop badgering me about my weight! I don’t know why you care so much. I’m not that fat and I’m okay with the way I look! Second, I haven’t gained any more weight!”
Alice, of course, knew that this second statement was a lie, but she hoped that her mom wouldn’t be able to see her extra puffiness through the layers of jacket and sweater she was wearing. As long as she kept her gut sucked in, she reasoned, her mother would be none the wiser.
“ ‘I’m not that fat!’” repeated Alice’s mom, “Alice, baby, please! That’s not the point! Fine, fine, maybe you’re not “that fat” now, but what about in the future? What about next month? Next year? The way you eat, you’ve been swelling up like a beach ball all year. And I’m going to see to that this stops right now!”
“I am not swelling up!” shouted Alice angrily. Or rather, shouted as well as she could while holding her stomach in. She should have known that she’d have to listen to another of her mother’s long lectures…but she honestly didn’t know how much longer she could hold herself in before she had to release her belly.
“Alice, Alice, Alice!” said her mother. “You can’t honestly tell me you’re not fatter. I thought you were a butterball last summer, but you’re even bigger now.”
Alice knew it was true. She’d only weighed 165 lbs over the summer, and now, last time she’d checked, she was 180 lbs. She hoped and prayed that it hadn’t gone up since then… God, why couldn’t her mom just leave her alone?
“Whatever, Mom! That’s not important; what is important is that I’m okay with how I look. I know I’m kinda chunky, but that’s no reason for you to give me all this grief. Nobody else cares! Now I’m going to my room!”
Alice turned to leave, but her mom grabbed her arm and twirled her around.
Dammit! thought Alice. She’d hoped that she could get away, so that she could finally let out her breath but her mom was having none of it.
“Don’t you take that tone of voice with me, young lady!” snarled her mom. “You’re my daughter and I’ll raise you as I see fit!”
Her mom continued ranting, but Alice wasn’t listening. God, she really needed to breathe! She was straining to hold her sizeable paunch in, but it was becoming more difficult by the second. Alice almost wondered if her face was starting to go blue from the strain.
“And another thing! Don’t think I don’t know you’ve gotten even tubbier since you’ve started dating your freaky geek friend there! I don’t care if he doesn’t care that you’re a big fat cow, but I do! And take off that coat! Don’t think you can hide that potbelly I know you have!”
“I don’t have a potbelly!” squeaked Alice, now really straining to hold in her gut.
“Oh no? Then take off that coat. You’re inside, why don’t you just take it off, huh? Unless you’re trying to hide something?”
“I’m…I’m….” Alice was lost for words so she just shrugged her shoulders. As long as she could keep her gut in, she should be okay without the jacket. Slowly, hesitantly, her fingers fumbled with the buttons to open her jacket.
“See?” she said, opening the jacket. Underneath, she still looked chunky, with her hefty boobs and pudgy tummy in a tight sweater, but as long as she sucked her belly in with all her might, she only looked a little bit poochy rather than huge.
Her mother scowled. “Fine, I suppose you haven’t got THAT much of a potbelly.”
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “I was positive she’d have a bigger potbelly,” she muttered under her breath,
“See, Mom, it’s not that bad,” said Alice, quickly buttoning up her jacket
again. “You always think that I can’t be trusted around food, that I’m always going to be getting fatter and fatter once I’m away from you. But when I’m away from you is the only time that I’m not gaining weight!”
This was a lie and Alice knew it. She’d been packing on pounds regardless of whether her mom was around or not. But her Mom didn’t know it! And if she could keep her stomach held in…and keep away from any scales around the house….her Mom wouldn’t find out. In fact, Alice’s comment seemed to have hit a chord in her mom.
“You..don’t gain weight when I’m not around?” she said quietly. A look of concern crossed her normally angry face.
“Yes,” said Alice. Then she added: “You know, it’s hard to lose weight when you’re always badgering me. You know I eat when I’m upset and all your yelling just gets me so…so..frustrated, Mom! Please, stop talking about my weight and I’m sure I’m slim down much quicker.”
For once her mom was quiet. In fact, it looked like she was thinking this over.
“Really, Alice? Do you really mean that?”
“Yeah, Mom, I do. Please.”
Her mother arched one perfectly manicured eyebrow. “Well…I suppose it’s worth a try…Lord knows nothing else seems to work.”
Alice couldn’t believe her ears! She was so excited that she almost let out her breath, which would have allowed her stomach to inflate to its full, button-busting size. She caught herself just in time.
“Really? Do you mean that?!”
“Sure…why not? How much worse could it get?”
“I mean, really? Do you promise? Because you’ve said you wouldn’t bug me about my size before, and you’ve gone back to –“
“I said I’d be quiet and I will!” snapped her mom. Alice smiled a bit as she heard this. Finally, the pressure was off.
But Alice’s mom was not finished yet. “However, that just means I’m not going to mollycoddle you any longer. Most importantly, I’m not buying you any more clothes and certainly no junk food. If you want to stay a size 20 or whatever the hell you are at this point and eat properly, then I’ll provide. But if you want to keep blowing out of your jeans with the pizzas your slacker boy keeps shoving in your face, I want no part of it.”
Alice was thoroughly embarrassed and confused at this point. The fact that her tummy kept grumbling at the sight of a package of Oreos behind her mother didn’t help matters. “Wh-what are you saying.”
“Alice, my baby,” her mother said with an off-putting smile as she walked up to her, “you’re going to have to get off that fat butt of yours and get a little job.” Alice’s mother patted her daughter’s bulging belly in a particularly condescending way.
Now standing alone in the kitchen, Alice didn’t know what she was supposed to do. There’d be no more arguments with her mom over her weight, but only because the woman acted as if she was giving up on her. In five minutes, Alice’s mother had made her feel like a complete failure.
“Now go to your room and get changed. We’re having carrots for dinner.”
She didn’t need to tell Alice twice. Alice practically ran up the stairs, her enormous size causing a huge clatter as she ran. She got to her room and slammed the door shut. Quickly, she unbuttoned her jacket and released her belly. Her stomach burst out to its full size, stretching her sweater pleats and causing the sweater’s hem to ride up the curvature of her belly slightly.
Her tubby gut spilled over the waistband of her jeans, hanging just slightly over her crotch. Alice gasped and wheezed, trying to catch her breath after holding in her stomach for such a long time, but her quick shallow breathing only served to make her already enormous abdomen look even bigger.
“Finally!” she gasped. “Phew, I don’t think I could have held this tummy in for another second.” She looked down at her mighty front, slowly easing in and out with her labored panting. Gingerly, she ran one plump hand over the arc of her soft flabby stomach. Pausing briefly to give a quick – but unfortunately futile – downward tug on the sweater’s hem.
“Thank Goodness, I think Mom bought that story,” she said to herself. “Finally! I hope she stays true to her word this time. Maybe then my life here won’t be so miserable. And maybe then I can at least stop gaining!”
If past experience was any teacher Alice knew that she was unlikely to lose any weight, especially not now as she knew that Tyler liked her chubby look. And without the threat of never being attractive to men hanging over her, why should she reduce?
“Hopefully, I’ll just stay this size,” said Alice. She rolled her eyes. “A mere 180 pounds. But I can’t let Mom find out how much I really weigh. I’d never hear the end of it then. I’ve got to go shopping and get some new, baggier clothes. Then I can hide this extra weight and convince her I’m the same size I was when I left for fat camp.”
Dinner was, as usual, an unpleasant affair. It wasn’t just carrots. There was some steamed broccoli as well, but it still wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy a girl half Alice’s size, let alone Alice herself. So it was little wonder that, after supper when her mom had gone to bed, Alice helped herself to a little snack in the kitchen.
She opened up the refrigerator and found a half-full carton of eggnog, taking it and the Oreos and sat down on her couch with a heavy thud. Alice spent the next half-hour devouring her snack. When she was finished, Alice leaned back, and noting her mother was upstairs, unbuttoned her overstressed jeans .
Alice rested her hand on her rounded stomach, satiated but still worried. She knew she had to call someone to get a job; to (as much as she didn’t want to admit it) validate herself in front of her mom, to prove to her she wasn’t just a pig who sits around eating cookies all day. Usually.
Alice grunted as she moved her hefty body toward her cell phone on the floor, her belly still full. Grabbing it, she dialed “1”, and immediately heard Tyler’s voice. “Hey, Alice! What’s up? How’d it go with your mom?”
“It’s a long story…My mother took me back in…but she’s not happy about my weight. She said that she wouldn’t harass me about it anymore…”
“Well, that’s good!”
“Yeah, I suppose. But she also said that she’s not going to feed me anymore!”
“At all?”
“Well, she’ll give me carrots and broccoli from the looks of it. But that’s not nearly enough; I’ll starve within a week! She says that I need to get a job.”
“A job? Like any job?”
“I suppose. I’ll have to start looking in the morning.”
“Well…if you’re interested, I could get you a job at the place I work.”
Alice thought about it for a second. Did she really want to work at a pizza parlour? Surely the temptation would be way too much for her. She knew her willpower was nothing to brag about, and being surrounded by greasy, cheesy pizzas all day would surely make her weight skyrocket at an even more astronomical rate. But, on the other hand, if she was around pizza all day, she’d probably get sick of it really fast. So that probably wasn’t that big of a problem. And, besides, it meant she’d get to spend more time with Tyler.
“Would that be okay?”
”It wouldn’t be a problem at all. I could get you an interview when I go into work tomorrow. It doesn’t pay very well and it’s kind of a sucky job…but it’s as good as you can expect in food service.”
“Well…sure, that sounds fine. Would you do that for me?”
“You bet I will.”
“Thanks, Tyler.”
***********
