BBW, Romance, ~SWG - they meet, and a relationship blossoms: a familiar theme, wonderfully executed
Sometimes Lynn had to admit that some afternoons at the Hostess Store were pretty boring. Even with water polo matches and practices cutting back her hours, there was still a lot of down time when she came into work.
Perhaps it was due to the fact that Mrs. Phan ran such a tight ship on her own and her few other employees were so diligent that there wasn’t really much for Lynn to do when she got there except work the register. Still, Lynn often found herself with not much to do. On more than one occasion Lynn wished something exciting would happen, just to break up the monotony of her days. But the only thing that ever happened was the regular flow of customers and that was far from exciting.
Part of that flow was Tony Tran every Thursday coming in for milk and bread. Their interactions were brief, largely because Lynn was so habituated to his predictable appearances that he had become just another customer. Never mind the fact that this was a customer her own age who was generally good looking and a good guy on the whole. For Lynn, he was almost just $5.78 every Thursday.
One Thursday the monotony was suddenly broken. It happened so simply that it would not be until much later that Lynn even realized it.
“How are you today?” Tony asked as usual.
“Bored out of my mind,” Lynn replied honestly, checking to see if Mrs. Phan was around. Though she wanted something to fill up her time, she didn’t want more work and a comment like that was just begging for Mrs. Phan to find something for her to do.
“I bet. Only so much you can read,” Tony said.”
“$5.78. I keep wishing something would happen around here.”
“Well good luck with that. I really doubt anything interesting is going to happen in here.”
Without even thinking, Lynn said, “You have any ideas where I could find something interesting going on then?”
It was this innocent, off the cuff response that set in motion all that was to follow. “Maybe. How does a movie sound?”
“Depends on what it is,” Lynn answered candidly as she counted out Tony’s usual twenty-two cents in change.
“Some friends and I were going to catch that new action flick, ‘Slick Guns’. You know, one of those films with some ex-cop with a chip on his shoulder where a lot of stuff explodes,” Tony said.
“Mmmm…I’m always up for one of those,” Lynn said, “All right, when were you thinking?”
“Friday night. You in?”
“Sure. Sounds fun.”
“Meet you at the theater at 7:00?”
“All right, see you then,” Lynn said.
Tony left and Mrs. Phan came out of the back room. “That Tony is a nice boy. I’m glad you’re going to a movie with him.”
Lynn was somewhat embarrassed that she’d been listening to the conversation, but she was at work and on the clock, so she supposed it was only fair. “It’s not like we’re going on a date or anything. Other people are going to be there.”
“Still, you should get out and have fun. What are your years in high school for if not to go out and have fun?”
“Getting into college,” Lynn mumbled.
***
After a short afternoon of work (though it always felt long on Fridays) Lynn hurried home and got changed for the movies that evening. Though it was just a casual outing, Lynn still wanted to look her best. After all, you never knew who you might meet when you went out.
She chose a well worn pair of jeans that hugged her hips and her thighs snuggly, perhaps even tightly. That was the style, after all. Though Lynn wasn’t happy with the fact that her ass looked a bit too big in these jeans, she reflected that just about anything she wore made her ass look big. She was wearing a typically tight t-shirt, which was largely covered by a track jacket to keep her warm.
As Lynn bounded downstairs, Mrs. Phan called out, “Dinner’s ready Lynn!”
“Mom, I told you, I’m going to the movies tonight!” Lynn replied.
“Surely you’ve got time for a quick dinner before you go,” Mrs. Phan said, coming out of the dining room and into the foyer where Lynn was slipping her shoes on.
“I’m going to be late if I don’t go now,” Lynn said, tying her laces, “I’ll eat at the theater.”
Mrs. Phan sighed softly. She would prefer it if her daughter had a nice healthy dinner, but this was one argument that she knew she wasn’t going to win. “All right. Call if you’re going to be out late and have fun.”
“Will do Mom,” Lynn said as she bolted out the door.
Lynn arrived at the movie theater shortly after seven. The theater and adjoining strip mall was a popular place for high school kids to go on a Friday night. As a result, it was nearly impossible for Lynn to find a parking space, only making her even more late than she had been before. She finally got to the plaza outside the movie theater at 7:20, where Tony was waiting with a few friends. There was a Thai girl named Jeanine Lin, a Chinese boy named David Chang, and a Japanese girl named Kei Takano.
“Sorry!” Lynn said, huffing a bit from having jogged up to the theater, “I had to park like two miles away. I forgot how busy it got here on Friday nights.”
“Don’t sweat it. We were all late,” Tony said.
“Yeah, you probably parked just behind me,” Kei said. She was even shorter than Lynn, but much thinner.
“I think you know everyone here, right?” Tony said to Lynn.
“Yeah, hi,” Lynn said. She did know everybody, but not well. Her circle of friends was small, but close. However, she’d had classes with everybody here and knew them casually.
“Say, where’s Leah?”
Everybody’s eyes suddenly went elsewhere and their lips drew tight. Lynn realized that she’d obviously just said the wrong thing and had a good guess why.
“Leah and I stopped seeing each other last week,” Tony said, confirming Lynn’s thoughts.
“Sorry to hear it,” Lynn said honestly. Great way to start off the night, Lynn, she thought to herself.
“Don’t worry about it. I broke up with her. I was tired of dealing with all of her drama, on and offstage,” Tony said, referencing Leah’s prowess in the drama department and the fact she had a tendency to be a bit…passionate at times, “Let’s head in and get tickets so we don’t miss the show.”
“The previews go on forever at this theater,” David said, “We could be twenty minutes late and we’d still catch the beginning of the movie.”
“But I like the previews! They’re usually better than the movie they’re advertising,” Jeanine protested.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tony said.
They bantered back and forth between one another, the talking about various things from music to angst over upcoming school projects to the last movie they each saw. After getting their tickets, they found that they were coming close to the movie’s start time.
“You guys go get seats. I’m going to get some popcorn. Anybody want anything?” Tony asked. He was immediately pelted with orders from every direction.
To make things easier, he said, “How about I just get one of those ultra huge popcorn things with the free refills? I don’t mind going out during the movie to get more.”
The idea was greeted with approval, but it didn’t solve the problem of how he was going to carry six drinks all by himself.
“I’ll help,” Lynn said, “You guys go get seats. And make sure they’re not too close to the front! I hate that!”
“Oh but those are the best seats!” David responded.
“The front is so overrated,” Kei said, “The middle’s the best.”
“No! The sound is so much better in the back,” Jeanine said as the trio headed off to get seats for everyone.
“Why do I think they’re going to stand in the theater and argue about where to sit until we come in with food and make them sit down?” Tony said, rolling his eyes.
“Nah, more likely they’ll get so frustrated that they just sit all over the theater and we’ll have to find our own seats,” Lynn said.
“Thus defeating the purpose of them saving us seats,” Tom said.
They fell silent for a moment, neither having anything to say. Lynn was the one to break the brief silence by saying, “I really am sorry for bringing up Leah. I didn’t know. And still…sorry. I realize that even if you end a relationship, that doesn’t mean that it’s without its pain.”
“Yeah, I miss what I had, but I think I lost that a while back,” Tony said, “It stopped being fun after a while.” He waved his hand. “It’s just better this way, really.”
“Well, I’m sorry all the same,” Lynn said.
“Nothing to be sorry about,” Tony replied.
They’d reached the front of the line and put in the collective order for the group, using money allocated for that purpose. The pair then collected trays of drinks and a huge tub of popcorn and gingerly walked to their theater, successfully not spilling anything in the process. Kei, David, and Jeanine had wound up sitting in the middle of the theater as a compromise (though Kei got what she wanted). Lynn settled into the middle of the five seats between Jeanine and David.
“Slick Guns” was a pretty typical action film with a former cop called upon to stop a bunch of criminals who were engaged in an ambitious heist of a shipment of diamonds with plenty of explosions, an innocent blonde bimbo with breasts the size of casaba melons, and high speed chases. Still, even though it was pretty predictable, Lynn enjoyed the movie, as did everyone else.
Since she was sitting in the middle of the five seats, it made the most sense that Lynn have the giant tub of popcorn on her lap. Everybody else had flimsy trays which they filled with popcorn as they desired. Lynn simply ate from the tub itself, and whenever it was empty Tony went to get a free refill.
Though everyone quietly protested that he’d miss the movie, Tony assured them that he didn’t think the plot was that important that missing ten minutes at a time would really be all that detrimental to his enjoyment. Because everyone was dipping into the tub and taking popcorn, Lynn assumed that they were eating 4/5ths of the popcorn.
However, Lynn was enjoying the movie quite a bit, which meant that she didn’t notice how much popcorn she was actually eating. On average, Lynn was eating about a third of the massive tub of butter drenched popcorn on her own. The fact that she hadn’t had any dinner prior to coming to the theater meant that she was quite hungry, though she didn’t realize the extent of her hunger.
Besides, snacking during a movie was natural for Lynn, so much so that it was an unconscious activity. The fact that the five high schoolers took advantage of the free refill twice meant that Lynn ate the equivalent of an entire giant tub of popcorn on her own. For anyone who has ever bought one of those giant popcorn tubs, you know that this is no small feat.
When the movie was over, the five milled around outside. Though it was after ten in the evening, the strip mall was still a jumping place with teenagers all over enjoying their Friday evening. Even though they’d just watched a movie, nobody was ready to head home.
“Let’s go get gelato!” Kei said excitedly.
The idea was immediately hailed as a good one and they all rushed over to Venezia Gelato, located a few shops down from the theater. The shop was relatively uncrowned for a Friday night and offered free samples of all their forty flavors, ranging from simple Lemon to Blood Orange. There was even a flavor made from Ferrero Roche.
Lynn wound up trying nearly every flavor and liking about half of them. Venezia Gelato allowed its customers to mix and match flavors, and the larger your size, the more flavors you could put in. Lynn wound up getting the medium size as she couldn’t whittle her favorites down any further than three and the medium allowed her to get all three at once. Everyone else just got a small size with two flavors each.
They sat outside at a table eating their gelato and Jeanine was half done with her Kiwi and Triple Chocolate when she groaned, “Oh God, I’m way too full to finish this. I think I had too much popcorn. Anyone want this?”
Lynn, who was nearly done with her Strawberry, Mint Chocolate, and Cannoli (don’t ask me how it tasted like Cannoli, but it did) volunteered to help polish some of it off. However, everyone else just barely finished their own and Lynn wound up single handedly finishing Jeanine’s gelato, feeling quite full afterwards.
“This was really fun,” Lynn said, “Thanks for having me along. Unfortunately I should really get home soon.”
“Me too,” David said, “Pleasure to have you along Lynn.”
“Yeah, you should really come along with us more often,” Jeanine said.
“That sounds good,” Lynn said.
“Then want to come ice skating with us next week?” Kei asked.
“I’ve only skated once or twice in my life. I doubt I’d be any good,” Lynn said hesitantly.
“Oh none of us can really skate. It’s just fun to get out there and try. We usually wind up falling all over one another and looking foolish,” Tony said, “There’s really little chance you could look worse than me out there.”
“All right, I’ll give it a shot,” Lynn said, “When next week?”
“They have skating starting at 7:00 PM,” David said.
“I should be able to make it after work then,” Lynn said.
Everyone said their good-byes and the group parted. Lynn headed home and found that most of the house had gone to bed when she got back, save her father, who had dutifully waited up for her, watching TV as he did so. She headed up to her room, tired from the evening.
"Why is it watching a movie makes you tired?" Lynn thought as she pulled her clothing off, I mean, you just sat around for two hours and all you want to do is fall asleep?
The paradox did not trouble Lynn for much longer because as she undid the button on her jeans, Lynn noticed her belly surge forward a bit now that it was unconstrained. She curiously slipped out of her jeans and looked at herself in the mirror on the inside of her closet door. She was wearing only her bra and panties and her attention was solely on her tummy. Lynn poked her protruding belly quickly, causing it to jiggle a bit, but only a bit. In fact, it was rather hard from all the food that Lynn had unconsciously poured into it.
"Blast it," Lynn thought, "I didn’t eat that much tonight, did I? I don’t even feel that full. This is not good. Not good at all."
Lynn gave her tummy a poke and with dismay watched it jiggle slightly again. If her weight went up the next time she stepped onto a scale, she was not going to be happy. It had been a while since Lynn had last looked at herself in the mirror. Her chubby body swayed as she turned to get a look at various angles.
As usual, she was displeased with its various bulges in all the wrong places. The fact that she still appreciated her breasts and butt (the latter to a certain point) didn’t seem to compensate for the fact she was bigger in every other department. Her belly just seemed to overwhelm everything else—even though in reality it wasn’t that large.
Lynn sighed and put on her pajamas. There was nothing to be done about it tonight. She’d just have to watch herself in the future when she went out. As much fun as she had, if she wasn’t more careful, she’d pork up in no time. Next week shouldn’t be a problem, Lynn thought as she rolled into bed, Ice skating is a physical activity. How could I possibly stuff myself doing that?
***
There are two types of people who go ice skating: those who know what they’re doing and those who have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. The latter stand in awe of the former while the former have to constantly make sure they don’t get tripped up by any of the latter when they invariably fall.
The five teenagers definitely fell into the category of those who had no idea what they were doing. Clad in jeans and sweatshirts, the quintet gingerly made their way along the ice taking spills periodically and laughing all the way. The fact that Lynn hadn’t skated in months, perhaps even a year, didn’t help her as she moved along, just barely keeping her balance as she skated along.
Lynn knew that jeans were an absolute must when ice skating. One bruised knee her first time out had taught her that. As usual, the jeans showcased her bubble butt, which wiggled back and forth as she moved along the ice. The maroon sweatshirt she had on obscured any real survey of her breasts and belly, but the green scarf she had wrapped around her neck was a nice accent to her cute round face. The chilly air in the ice rink made her cheeks rosy and enhanced her good looks.
As she skated along, Lynn caught an edge and suddenly tumbled downwards. As she did so, she grabbed the closest thing that happened to be at hand, which was Tony. This brought both of them down in a laughing heap. As they untangled themselves from one another, they both happened to look smilingly at one another and paused for a moment. In fact, it was a moment—but only one of the two recognized it as such.
Ice skating proceeded without further incidents of note of any sort, and was generally a good time for everyone. As they were unlacing their skates after having indulged in an hour and a half of skating, David said, “I’m starving. Does anyone want to grab a pizza or something?”
“Oh that’d be great!”, “Sure!”, “I’d love to!”, and “Why not?” were the replies and once they’d gotten their shoes on again, they all headed over to the closest pizza joint and, after some deliberations on the proper size and toppings, ordered a large pepperoni pizza and a medium sausage pizza.
“Phew! I must not have had this much fun the last time I went skating or else I wouldn’t have waited this long to do it again!” Lynn said.
“I know. Though does it feel at all weird to be ice skating in California to anyone?” Jeanine asked, “I mean, ice near beaches? Isn’t that a little odd?”
Nobody said anything.
“Nobody? Really?”
“You’re just weird,” Tony said.
“Yeah, that must be it,” Jeanine replied sarcastically and then pretended like she was going to whack Tony over the head.
“So, Lynn, how goes water polo and everything?” Kei asked.
“It’s good. We’re only a few weeks into the season, but we’ve gotten off to a good start.”
“That’s awesome. I hope it keeps up for you guys,” David said.
“Nah, we’ll probably take a nose dive in a week or two or something like that. Never fails with us,” Lynn said.
“That’s no way to talk about a team you’re on!” Jeanine protested, “For that matter, that’s no way to talk about my water polo team!”
“Have you even been to a water polo game Jeanine?” David asked.
“No, but it’s still my team!” Jeanine said, “Just for that, I think we should all go to the next game to support Lynn.”
“That’s really nice of you to offer, but you don’t have to do that,” Lynn said.
“Actually that’d be neat! I’ve never had a reason to go to a water polo game before and it sounds like it’s fun!” Kei said excitedly.
“It’s really overrated. Watching it, I mean. I like playing it, but I bet it’s really boring to watch,” Lynn said, trying to stop the growing enthusiasm. She was all of a sudden a little nervous about the idea that she might have people actually showing up to water polo games to root for her. The reason behind her nervousness was that she wasn’t a great player, certainly not first string. If she knew that people were showing up to watch her, that would only serve to add pressure, which would probably cause her to commit all sorts of blunders during the course of the game.
“You’re just being modest, I’m sure it’s a lot of fun to watch,” Tony said, “I think I heard something about Liam O’Shea going to water polo games recently.”
“Yeah, well Liam’s weird. He reads books for fun. Besides…” Lynn said trailing off.
“…besides what?” David said.
“Nothing,” Lynn mumbled.
Everyone sensed that there was some juicy story at hand and involuntarily leaned in closer.
“It’s obviously not nothing or you’d tell us,” Jeanine said.
“I can’t talk about it. What’s said in the locker room stays in the locker room,” Lynn insisted, “That’s that. I’d tell you if I could, but I can’t.”
“Why not?” Tony asked.
“It’s a rule. There’s a lot of stuff that gets said in there that isn’t intended for other people to hear,” Lynn explained.
“That’s a silly rule,” David said.
“Ooooh! I’ve got an idea, let’s guess!” Kei said, practically bouncing up and down in her seat. It was at that point that their pizzas were brought to their table and everyone was temporarily distracted with digging in to a dinner that everyone was more than hungry to eat.
“I really couldn’t tell you even if you guessed,” Lynn said once she was provisioned with a couple slices of pepperoni pizza, “It would be going against the whole spirit of the idea.”
“Ah, but not the letter of the law. You wouldn’t actually be breaking your silence, just confirming our own powers of deduction,” David chimed in.
Lynn sighed. “Fine. If you can really guess, I’ll tell you if you’re right, but nothing more.”
“Liam’s in love with someone on the team,” Kei said promptly.
“Yeah,” Lynn admitted.
Everybody else at the table looked at Kei in surprise.
“‘Let’s guess’? Why did we go through all of that when you knew all along?” Tony asked.
“Because I didn’t know,” Kei said archly, “but come on, why else would a guy go to a women’s water polo match? It’s not like we all don’t have other things to do with our afternoons. No offense Lynn.”
“None taken.”
“Therefore, what’s the one thing that motivates guys to do anything in life and here’s a hint, guys think about it on average every seven second and it ends in -ex?” Kei continued.
“Oh gee, that’s a hard one. Let me think about that for a while and get back to you,” David said.
“Liam hasn’t even dated a girl in…well…ever,” Jeanine said, “That seems rather hard to believe.”
“It doesn’t mean he hasn’t wanted to,” Kei said.
“And how would you know any of this? Has he been confiding in you lately?” Tony asked.
“No, but girls notice these things if they look the right way,” Kei said nonchalantly.
“I think you’ve been looking the right way because you have a crush on Liam,” Lynn said after a bite of pizza.
Kei instantly colored. “I do not!”
“You do!” Jeanine said.
“No I don’t,” Kei insisted, though a quiet something in her voice suggested that maybe, and only maybe, Kei wasn’t being totally honest with herself or her friends, “I mean, I barely know him. Why would I have a crush on him?”
“All right, I believe you,” Lynn said. She sensed that it would be best if she ended this conversation before it put Kei further into an uncomfortable position. Everyone else at the table picked up on Lynn’s meaning. To further facilitate switching the conversation to a different topic, Lynn reached for another slice of pizza.
“I’ve got to say this is great pizza!”
Everyone agreed.
===
Needless to say, Lynn wound up eating the lion’s share of pizza that evening. The group had actually overestimated how much it would take to feed the five of them and as a result there was about a third of a pizza left over. Lynn volunteered to take it home, to which nobody objected. These leftovers didn’t even last through the next day as Lynn snacked on it throughout the afternoon between lunch and dinner.
These two evenings were just the first in a series of group outings that Lynn participated in that oddly seemed to always culminate in food in one way or another. Though Lynn had sworn she’d watch herself, she always got caught up in having fun with her new friends and didn’t think twice about her vow until she’d get home and her fullness would suddenly become evident.
As is also to be expected, Lynn found that her physique wasn’t benefiting from her continued indulgence with the gang. In fact, she was finding her pants tighter than she liked. The waist of the jeans forced Lynn’s belly to surge upwards and then outwards from the pressure. It was no stretch to say that Lynn had developed a muffin top in the past few weeks, or at least a more noticeable one than before. Her butt pulled the seat of her pants tightly across her rump. Lynn was constantly tugging her shirts down to cover a small gap between the top of her pants and the bottom of her shirts.
Her weight had climbed to over 130 pounds in the past couple weeks (helped along not only by these outings but by absent minded snacking between meals), much to Lynn’s dismay. Every time she swore that she would watch her eating habits when she went out with Tony and the gang, and every time she failed to do that as she wound up having a lot of fun with them.
It was a demoralizing cycle for Lynn—every time she’d look at her weight on the scale, she’d castigate herself for having let herself go, but commit the same infraction at the next opportunity. Lynn never thought that perhaps having fun was more important than watching her figure, even though Lynn was carrying out that philosophy.
Lynn also found she had less time to worry about these things than she had previously. With water polo season underway, her job at the Hostess Store, regular school work, and spending time with her new friends, Lynn was on the go constantly. She barely had time to think these days, and as a result she didn’t think about many things.
One of the things that she didn’t think about was the look shared by Tony and her. Needless to say, it was Tony who was suddenly awakened one of them to the possibility that perhaps there might be something bigger than friendship brewing between them. He wasn’t sure if he was falling for Lynn, but he knew he was attracted to her more than friends should be.
In their continued contact through group outings, Tony only became further confirmed in his opinion. And yet, he never found the perfect time to talk to Lynn alone in the hopes of asking her out on a date. Whenever he was out with her, it was with the gang and for some reason he couldn’t quite bring himself to ask Lynn on a date at the Hostess Store. For some reason, though Mrs. Phan was always conspicuously in the back room whenever he happened to come into the store, Tony could still sense her presence, which was enough to dissuade him from engaging in anything beyond friendly discourse with Lynn.
As can happen with some guys, Tony had been careful not to be blatant about showing his feelings towards Lynn so he didn’t scare her off by coming on too hard. Besides, Tony felt awkward about being overly obvious whenever he was trying to woo a girl. What this translated to in reality was that Tony was actually extremely reserved with his emotions. Lynn actually had no idea that Tony had any interest in her at all. She was simply having fun with her new friends, blithely unaware that one of them was attracted to her.
This was a situation that was soon to be rectified.
(Click here for next chapter)
Sometimes Lynn had to admit that some afternoons at the Hostess Store were pretty boring. Even with water polo matches and practices cutting back her hours, there was still a lot of down time when she came into work.
Perhaps it was due to the fact that Mrs. Phan ran such a tight ship on her own and her few other employees were so diligent that there wasn’t really much for Lynn to do when she got there except work the register. Still, Lynn often found herself with not much to do. On more than one occasion Lynn wished something exciting would happen, just to break up the monotony of her days. But the only thing that ever happened was the regular flow of customers and that was far from exciting.
Part of that flow was Tony Tran every Thursday coming in for milk and bread. Their interactions were brief, largely because Lynn was so habituated to his predictable appearances that he had become just another customer. Never mind the fact that this was a customer her own age who was generally good looking and a good guy on the whole. For Lynn, he was almost just $5.78 every Thursday.
One Thursday the monotony was suddenly broken. It happened so simply that it would not be until much later that Lynn even realized it.
“How are you today?” Tony asked as usual.
“Bored out of my mind,” Lynn replied honestly, checking to see if Mrs. Phan was around. Though she wanted something to fill up her time, she didn’t want more work and a comment like that was just begging for Mrs. Phan to find something for her to do.
“I bet. Only so much you can read,” Tony said.”
“$5.78. I keep wishing something would happen around here.”
“Well good luck with that. I really doubt anything interesting is going to happen in here.”
Without even thinking, Lynn said, “You have any ideas where I could find something interesting going on then?”
It was this innocent, off the cuff response that set in motion all that was to follow. “Maybe. How does a movie sound?”
“Depends on what it is,” Lynn answered candidly as she counted out Tony’s usual twenty-two cents in change.
“Some friends and I were going to catch that new action flick, ‘Slick Guns’. You know, one of those films with some ex-cop with a chip on his shoulder where a lot of stuff explodes,” Tony said.
“Mmmm…I’m always up for one of those,” Lynn said, “All right, when were you thinking?”
“Friday night. You in?”
“Sure. Sounds fun.”
“Meet you at the theater at 7:00?”
“All right, see you then,” Lynn said.
Tony left and Mrs. Phan came out of the back room. “That Tony is a nice boy. I’m glad you’re going to a movie with him.”
Lynn was somewhat embarrassed that she’d been listening to the conversation, but she was at work and on the clock, so she supposed it was only fair. “It’s not like we’re going on a date or anything. Other people are going to be there.”
“Still, you should get out and have fun. What are your years in high school for if not to go out and have fun?”
“Getting into college,” Lynn mumbled.
***
After a short afternoon of work (though it always felt long on Fridays) Lynn hurried home and got changed for the movies that evening. Though it was just a casual outing, Lynn still wanted to look her best. After all, you never knew who you might meet when you went out.
She chose a well worn pair of jeans that hugged her hips and her thighs snuggly, perhaps even tightly. That was the style, after all. Though Lynn wasn’t happy with the fact that her ass looked a bit too big in these jeans, she reflected that just about anything she wore made her ass look big. She was wearing a typically tight t-shirt, which was largely covered by a track jacket to keep her warm.
As Lynn bounded downstairs, Mrs. Phan called out, “Dinner’s ready Lynn!”
“Mom, I told you, I’m going to the movies tonight!” Lynn replied.
“Surely you’ve got time for a quick dinner before you go,” Mrs. Phan said, coming out of the dining room and into the foyer where Lynn was slipping her shoes on.
“I’m going to be late if I don’t go now,” Lynn said, tying her laces, “I’ll eat at the theater.”
Mrs. Phan sighed softly. She would prefer it if her daughter had a nice healthy dinner, but this was one argument that she knew she wasn’t going to win. “All right. Call if you’re going to be out late and have fun.”
“Will do Mom,” Lynn said as she bolted out the door.
Lynn arrived at the movie theater shortly after seven. The theater and adjoining strip mall was a popular place for high school kids to go on a Friday night. As a result, it was nearly impossible for Lynn to find a parking space, only making her even more late than she had been before. She finally got to the plaza outside the movie theater at 7:20, where Tony was waiting with a few friends. There was a Thai girl named Jeanine Lin, a Chinese boy named David Chang, and a Japanese girl named Kei Takano.
“Sorry!” Lynn said, huffing a bit from having jogged up to the theater, “I had to park like two miles away. I forgot how busy it got here on Friday nights.”
“Don’t sweat it. We were all late,” Tony said.
“Yeah, you probably parked just behind me,” Kei said. She was even shorter than Lynn, but much thinner.
“I think you know everyone here, right?” Tony said to Lynn.
“Yeah, hi,” Lynn said. She did know everybody, but not well. Her circle of friends was small, but close. However, she’d had classes with everybody here and knew them casually.
“Say, where’s Leah?”
Everybody’s eyes suddenly went elsewhere and their lips drew tight. Lynn realized that she’d obviously just said the wrong thing and had a good guess why.
“Leah and I stopped seeing each other last week,” Tony said, confirming Lynn’s thoughts.
“Sorry to hear it,” Lynn said honestly. Great way to start off the night, Lynn, she thought to herself.
“Don’t worry about it. I broke up with her. I was tired of dealing with all of her drama, on and offstage,” Tony said, referencing Leah’s prowess in the drama department and the fact she had a tendency to be a bit…passionate at times, “Let’s head in and get tickets so we don’t miss the show.”
“The previews go on forever at this theater,” David said, “We could be twenty minutes late and we’d still catch the beginning of the movie.”
“But I like the previews! They’re usually better than the movie they’re advertising,” Jeanine protested.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tony said.
They bantered back and forth between one another, the talking about various things from music to angst over upcoming school projects to the last movie they each saw. After getting their tickets, they found that they were coming close to the movie’s start time.
“You guys go get seats. I’m going to get some popcorn. Anybody want anything?” Tony asked. He was immediately pelted with orders from every direction.
To make things easier, he said, “How about I just get one of those ultra huge popcorn things with the free refills? I don’t mind going out during the movie to get more.”
The idea was greeted with approval, but it didn’t solve the problem of how he was going to carry six drinks all by himself.
“I’ll help,” Lynn said, “You guys go get seats. And make sure they’re not too close to the front! I hate that!”
“Oh but those are the best seats!” David responded.
“The front is so overrated,” Kei said, “The middle’s the best.”
“No! The sound is so much better in the back,” Jeanine said as the trio headed off to get seats for everyone.
“Why do I think they’re going to stand in the theater and argue about where to sit until we come in with food and make them sit down?” Tony said, rolling his eyes.
“Nah, more likely they’ll get so frustrated that they just sit all over the theater and we’ll have to find our own seats,” Lynn said.
“Thus defeating the purpose of them saving us seats,” Tom said.
They fell silent for a moment, neither having anything to say. Lynn was the one to break the brief silence by saying, “I really am sorry for bringing up Leah. I didn’t know. And still…sorry. I realize that even if you end a relationship, that doesn’t mean that it’s without its pain.”
“Yeah, I miss what I had, but I think I lost that a while back,” Tony said, “It stopped being fun after a while.” He waved his hand. “It’s just better this way, really.”
“Well, I’m sorry all the same,” Lynn said.
“Nothing to be sorry about,” Tony replied.
They’d reached the front of the line and put in the collective order for the group, using money allocated for that purpose. The pair then collected trays of drinks and a huge tub of popcorn and gingerly walked to their theater, successfully not spilling anything in the process. Kei, David, and Jeanine had wound up sitting in the middle of the theater as a compromise (though Kei got what she wanted). Lynn settled into the middle of the five seats between Jeanine and David.
“Slick Guns” was a pretty typical action film with a former cop called upon to stop a bunch of criminals who were engaged in an ambitious heist of a shipment of diamonds with plenty of explosions, an innocent blonde bimbo with breasts the size of casaba melons, and high speed chases. Still, even though it was pretty predictable, Lynn enjoyed the movie, as did everyone else.
Since she was sitting in the middle of the five seats, it made the most sense that Lynn have the giant tub of popcorn on her lap. Everybody else had flimsy trays which they filled with popcorn as they desired. Lynn simply ate from the tub itself, and whenever it was empty Tony went to get a free refill.
Though everyone quietly protested that he’d miss the movie, Tony assured them that he didn’t think the plot was that important that missing ten minutes at a time would really be all that detrimental to his enjoyment. Because everyone was dipping into the tub and taking popcorn, Lynn assumed that they were eating 4/5ths of the popcorn.
However, Lynn was enjoying the movie quite a bit, which meant that she didn’t notice how much popcorn she was actually eating. On average, Lynn was eating about a third of the massive tub of butter drenched popcorn on her own. The fact that she hadn’t had any dinner prior to coming to the theater meant that she was quite hungry, though she didn’t realize the extent of her hunger.
Besides, snacking during a movie was natural for Lynn, so much so that it was an unconscious activity. The fact that the five high schoolers took advantage of the free refill twice meant that Lynn ate the equivalent of an entire giant tub of popcorn on her own. For anyone who has ever bought one of those giant popcorn tubs, you know that this is no small feat.
When the movie was over, the five milled around outside. Though it was after ten in the evening, the strip mall was still a jumping place with teenagers all over enjoying their Friday evening. Even though they’d just watched a movie, nobody was ready to head home.
“Let’s go get gelato!” Kei said excitedly.
The idea was immediately hailed as a good one and they all rushed over to Venezia Gelato, located a few shops down from the theater. The shop was relatively uncrowned for a Friday night and offered free samples of all their forty flavors, ranging from simple Lemon to Blood Orange. There was even a flavor made from Ferrero Roche.
Lynn wound up trying nearly every flavor and liking about half of them. Venezia Gelato allowed its customers to mix and match flavors, and the larger your size, the more flavors you could put in. Lynn wound up getting the medium size as she couldn’t whittle her favorites down any further than three and the medium allowed her to get all three at once. Everyone else just got a small size with two flavors each.
They sat outside at a table eating their gelato and Jeanine was half done with her Kiwi and Triple Chocolate when she groaned, “Oh God, I’m way too full to finish this. I think I had too much popcorn. Anyone want this?”
Lynn, who was nearly done with her Strawberry, Mint Chocolate, and Cannoli (don’t ask me how it tasted like Cannoli, but it did) volunteered to help polish some of it off. However, everyone else just barely finished their own and Lynn wound up single handedly finishing Jeanine’s gelato, feeling quite full afterwards.
“This was really fun,” Lynn said, “Thanks for having me along. Unfortunately I should really get home soon.”
“Me too,” David said, “Pleasure to have you along Lynn.”
“Yeah, you should really come along with us more often,” Jeanine said.
“That sounds good,” Lynn said.
“Then want to come ice skating with us next week?” Kei asked.
“I’ve only skated once or twice in my life. I doubt I’d be any good,” Lynn said hesitantly.
“Oh none of us can really skate. It’s just fun to get out there and try. We usually wind up falling all over one another and looking foolish,” Tony said, “There’s really little chance you could look worse than me out there.”
“All right, I’ll give it a shot,” Lynn said, “When next week?”
“They have skating starting at 7:00 PM,” David said.
“I should be able to make it after work then,” Lynn said.
Everyone said their good-byes and the group parted. Lynn headed home and found that most of the house had gone to bed when she got back, save her father, who had dutifully waited up for her, watching TV as he did so. She headed up to her room, tired from the evening.
"Why is it watching a movie makes you tired?" Lynn thought as she pulled her clothing off, I mean, you just sat around for two hours and all you want to do is fall asleep?
The paradox did not trouble Lynn for much longer because as she undid the button on her jeans, Lynn noticed her belly surge forward a bit now that it was unconstrained. She curiously slipped out of her jeans and looked at herself in the mirror on the inside of her closet door. She was wearing only her bra and panties and her attention was solely on her tummy. Lynn poked her protruding belly quickly, causing it to jiggle a bit, but only a bit. In fact, it was rather hard from all the food that Lynn had unconsciously poured into it.
"Blast it," Lynn thought, "I didn’t eat that much tonight, did I? I don’t even feel that full. This is not good. Not good at all."
Lynn gave her tummy a poke and with dismay watched it jiggle slightly again. If her weight went up the next time she stepped onto a scale, she was not going to be happy. It had been a while since Lynn had last looked at herself in the mirror. Her chubby body swayed as she turned to get a look at various angles.
As usual, she was displeased with its various bulges in all the wrong places. The fact that she still appreciated her breasts and butt (the latter to a certain point) didn’t seem to compensate for the fact she was bigger in every other department. Her belly just seemed to overwhelm everything else—even though in reality it wasn’t that large.
Lynn sighed and put on her pajamas. There was nothing to be done about it tonight. She’d just have to watch herself in the future when she went out. As much fun as she had, if she wasn’t more careful, she’d pork up in no time. Next week shouldn’t be a problem, Lynn thought as she rolled into bed, Ice skating is a physical activity. How could I possibly stuff myself doing that?
***
There are two types of people who go ice skating: those who know what they’re doing and those who have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. The latter stand in awe of the former while the former have to constantly make sure they don’t get tripped up by any of the latter when they invariably fall.
The five teenagers definitely fell into the category of those who had no idea what they were doing. Clad in jeans and sweatshirts, the quintet gingerly made their way along the ice taking spills periodically and laughing all the way. The fact that Lynn hadn’t skated in months, perhaps even a year, didn’t help her as she moved along, just barely keeping her balance as she skated along.
Lynn knew that jeans were an absolute must when ice skating. One bruised knee her first time out had taught her that. As usual, the jeans showcased her bubble butt, which wiggled back and forth as she moved along the ice. The maroon sweatshirt she had on obscured any real survey of her breasts and belly, but the green scarf she had wrapped around her neck was a nice accent to her cute round face. The chilly air in the ice rink made her cheeks rosy and enhanced her good looks.
As she skated along, Lynn caught an edge and suddenly tumbled downwards. As she did so, she grabbed the closest thing that happened to be at hand, which was Tony. This brought both of them down in a laughing heap. As they untangled themselves from one another, they both happened to look smilingly at one another and paused for a moment. In fact, it was a moment—but only one of the two recognized it as such.
Ice skating proceeded without further incidents of note of any sort, and was generally a good time for everyone. As they were unlacing their skates after having indulged in an hour and a half of skating, David said, “I’m starving. Does anyone want to grab a pizza or something?”
“Oh that’d be great!”, “Sure!”, “I’d love to!”, and “Why not?” were the replies and once they’d gotten their shoes on again, they all headed over to the closest pizza joint and, after some deliberations on the proper size and toppings, ordered a large pepperoni pizza and a medium sausage pizza.
“Phew! I must not have had this much fun the last time I went skating or else I wouldn’t have waited this long to do it again!” Lynn said.
“I know. Though does it feel at all weird to be ice skating in California to anyone?” Jeanine asked, “I mean, ice near beaches? Isn’t that a little odd?”
Nobody said anything.
“Nobody? Really?”
“You’re just weird,” Tony said.
“Yeah, that must be it,” Jeanine replied sarcastically and then pretended like she was going to whack Tony over the head.
“So, Lynn, how goes water polo and everything?” Kei asked.
“It’s good. We’re only a few weeks into the season, but we’ve gotten off to a good start.”
“That’s awesome. I hope it keeps up for you guys,” David said.
“Nah, we’ll probably take a nose dive in a week or two or something like that. Never fails with us,” Lynn said.
“That’s no way to talk about a team you’re on!” Jeanine protested, “For that matter, that’s no way to talk about my water polo team!”
“Have you even been to a water polo game Jeanine?” David asked.
“No, but it’s still my team!” Jeanine said, “Just for that, I think we should all go to the next game to support Lynn.”
“That’s really nice of you to offer, but you don’t have to do that,” Lynn said.
“Actually that’d be neat! I’ve never had a reason to go to a water polo game before and it sounds like it’s fun!” Kei said excitedly.
“It’s really overrated. Watching it, I mean. I like playing it, but I bet it’s really boring to watch,” Lynn said, trying to stop the growing enthusiasm. She was all of a sudden a little nervous about the idea that she might have people actually showing up to water polo games to root for her. The reason behind her nervousness was that she wasn’t a great player, certainly not first string. If she knew that people were showing up to watch her, that would only serve to add pressure, which would probably cause her to commit all sorts of blunders during the course of the game.
“You’re just being modest, I’m sure it’s a lot of fun to watch,” Tony said, “I think I heard something about Liam O’Shea going to water polo games recently.”
“Yeah, well Liam’s weird. He reads books for fun. Besides…” Lynn said trailing off.
“…besides what?” David said.
“Nothing,” Lynn mumbled.
Everyone sensed that there was some juicy story at hand and involuntarily leaned in closer.
“It’s obviously not nothing or you’d tell us,” Jeanine said.
“I can’t talk about it. What’s said in the locker room stays in the locker room,” Lynn insisted, “That’s that. I’d tell you if I could, but I can’t.”
“Why not?” Tony asked.
“It’s a rule. There’s a lot of stuff that gets said in there that isn’t intended for other people to hear,” Lynn explained.
“That’s a silly rule,” David said.
“Ooooh! I’ve got an idea, let’s guess!” Kei said, practically bouncing up and down in her seat. It was at that point that their pizzas were brought to their table and everyone was temporarily distracted with digging in to a dinner that everyone was more than hungry to eat.
“I really couldn’t tell you even if you guessed,” Lynn said once she was provisioned with a couple slices of pepperoni pizza, “It would be going against the whole spirit of the idea.”
“Ah, but not the letter of the law. You wouldn’t actually be breaking your silence, just confirming our own powers of deduction,” David chimed in.
Lynn sighed. “Fine. If you can really guess, I’ll tell you if you’re right, but nothing more.”
“Liam’s in love with someone on the team,” Kei said promptly.
“Yeah,” Lynn admitted.
Everybody else at the table looked at Kei in surprise.
“‘Let’s guess’? Why did we go through all of that when you knew all along?” Tony asked.
“Because I didn’t know,” Kei said archly, “but come on, why else would a guy go to a women’s water polo match? It’s not like we all don’t have other things to do with our afternoons. No offense Lynn.”
“None taken.”
“Therefore, what’s the one thing that motivates guys to do anything in life and here’s a hint, guys think about it on average every seven second and it ends in -ex?” Kei continued.
“Oh gee, that’s a hard one. Let me think about that for a while and get back to you,” David said.
“Liam hasn’t even dated a girl in…well…ever,” Jeanine said, “That seems rather hard to believe.”
“It doesn’t mean he hasn’t wanted to,” Kei said.
“And how would you know any of this? Has he been confiding in you lately?” Tony asked.
“No, but girls notice these things if they look the right way,” Kei said nonchalantly.
“I think you’ve been looking the right way because you have a crush on Liam,” Lynn said after a bite of pizza.
Kei instantly colored. “I do not!”
“You do!” Jeanine said.
“No I don’t,” Kei insisted, though a quiet something in her voice suggested that maybe, and only maybe, Kei wasn’t being totally honest with herself or her friends, “I mean, I barely know him. Why would I have a crush on him?”
“All right, I believe you,” Lynn said. She sensed that it would be best if she ended this conversation before it put Kei further into an uncomfortable position. Everyone else at the table picked up on Lynn’s meaning. To further facilitate switching the conversation to a different topic, Lynn reached for another slice of pizza.
“I’ve got to say this is great pizza!”
Everyone agreed.
===
Needless to say, Lynn wound up eating the lion’s share of pizza that evening. The group had actually overestimated how much it would take to feed the five of them and as a result there was about a third of a pizza left over. Lynn volunteered to take it home, to which nobody objected. These leftovers didn’t even last through the next day as Lynn snacked on it throughout the afternoon between lunch and dinner.
These two evenings were just the first in a series of group outings that Lynn participated in that oddly seemed to always culminate in food in one way or another. Though Lynn had sworn she’d watch herself, she always got caught up in having fun with her new friends and didn’t think twice about her vow until she’d get home and her fullness would suddenly become evident.
As is also to be expected, Lynn found that her physique wasn’t benefiting from her continued indulgence with the gang. In fact, she was finding her pants tighter than she liked. The waist of the jeans forced Lynn’s belly to surge upwards and then outwards from the pressure. It was no stretch to say that Lynn had developed a muffin top in the past few weeks, or at least a more noticeable one than before. Her butt pulled the seat of her pants tightly across her rump. Lynn was constantly tugging her shirts down to cover a small gap between the top of her pants and the bottom of her shirts.
Her weight had climbed to over 130 pounds in the past couple weeks (helped along not only by these outings but by absent minded snacking between meals), much to Lynn’s dismay. Every time she swore that she would watch her eating habits when she went out with Tony and the gang, and every time she failed to do that as she wound up having a lot of fun with them.
It was a demoralizing cycle for Lynn—every time she’d look at her weight on the scale, she’d castigate herself for having let herself go, but commit the same infraction at the next opportunity. Lynn never thought that perhaps having fun was more important than watching her figure, even though Lynn was carrying out that philosophy.
Lynn also found she had less time to worry about these things than she had previously. With water polo season underway, her job at the Hostess Store, regular school work, and spending time with her new friends, Lynn was on the go constantly. She barely had time to think these days, and as a result she didn’t think about many things.
One of the things that she didn’t think about was the look shared by Tony and her. Needless to say, it was Tony who was suddenly awakened one of them to the possibility that perhaps there might be something bigger than friendship brewing between them. He wasn’t sure if he was falling for Lynn, but he knew he was attracted to her more than friends should be.
In their continued contact through group outings, Tony only became further confirmed in his opinion. And yet, he never found the perfect time to talk to Lynn alone in the hopes of asking her out on a date. Whenever he was out with her, it was with the gang and for some reason he couldn’t quite bring himself to ask Lynn on a date at the Hostess Store. For some reason, though Mrs. Phan was always conspicuously in the back room whenever he happened to come into the store, Tony could still sense her presence, which was enough to dissuade him from engaging in anything beyond friendly discourse with Lynn.
As can happen with some guys, Tony had been careful not to be blatant about showing his feelings towards Lynn so he didn’t scare her off by coming on too hard. Besides, Tony felt awkward about being overly obvious whenever he was trying to woo a girl. What this translated to in reality was that Tony was actually extremely reserved with his emotions. Lynn actually had no idea that Tony had any interest in her at all. She was simply having fun with her new friends, blithely unaware that one of them was attracted to her.
This was a situation that was soon to be rectified.
(Click here for next chapter)
