Fat Happens (WG, reality change)

[Lyssa]

Fun story, I'm really enjoying it.

[audipwr87]

This story is just getting better and better!!

[audipwr87]

Hoping to see the next chapter of this story! I'd hate to see it become lost like alot of the other great stories on here that were never finished.

[Vilegaramonde]

Not at all.
I just took a trip for a week and couldn't write.
I'm back on it as of now

[Vilegaramonde]

Chapter 5


Monday had arrived far sooner than Miri had liked. Her nerves kept her awake at night, causing her to spend her free time pacing around her apartment and stress-cleaning anything she could find that looked even remotely out of place or disorganized. By 5 AM Monday morning, every counter had been scrubbed, every floor mopped and vacuumed, and all of her laundry pressed and folded with obsessive speed and precision.

Periodically during her runs into the bathroom to put away a brush or deposit a hair tie into a drawer, Miri would pause to scrutinize her figure in the mirror.
She'd picked out a flattering outfit: a black tank top with a deep green overshirt that successfully hid the puffiness of her arms and flattened the roundness around her belly button a bit. Dissatisfied by the effort it took, she was at least happy to see a flat stomach again. The young woman was pleased to see her chest was no longer as flat as it once was despite still being far from what anyone would consider "busty." The only things Miri had to sigh about while clothed was the perceivable pinch of her jeans around her hips and the round swell of shirt fabric over the sides of them. She had no idea when she'd fallen off the regimen that kept her barely hovering above a double digit weight, but Miri could feel just how uncomfortably tight her size 10's were getting. Her stomach didn't puff out or lose it's false flatness with the shirts she had confining them, but her hips and sides were definitely going to need to be hidden, she thought.

Several times, she had thought to stop and make breakfast, but found her nerves too shot to eat a full meal and her jittery energy too much to allow her to stand still long enough to prepare an actual meal. Instead, Miri had grabbed a bottle of salsa and dipped into it nearly an entire bag of tortilla chips as she walked back and forth throughout the apartment, washing the stove and fridge handle or between moving tables and couch segments to sweep and vacuum. She opted to put the bag away and look for "real food" before her mom decided to show up extra early trying to catch her unprepared and still in the middle of cleaning.

She stared into her fairly stocked fridge wondering what to eat, finding nothing appetizing. In her nervous state, the hungerless state she had long trained herself to achieve was stopping her body from associating anything but the most insignificant amounts of food with pleasure. Or rather, anything substantial all at once. The longer Miri scoured the place for something to do, the more she found herself snacking on a candy bar or a pack of gummies or the odd pop tart. Each time she reprimanded herself, having snapped out of her frazzled daydreams only to catch herself munching on sugary or salty treats to stave off her morning hunger.

It was then that she remembered a time in high school when she woke up feeling energetic and downright unable to eat in the morning.

"Not the most healthy thing in the world," she thought, momentarily congratulating herself for getting into the habit of fueling herself in the morning before dropping her hand to her side and feeling the brush of her since-widened waist.

Recanting, she said, "But it sure as hell got the job done."
Miri looked at the second pop tart sitting on her plate and sighed as she brushed the crumbs off of her hands. She picked it up and wandered over to the trash can, trying to remember where all the extra weight had come from after she met her first goal of 100 pounds. The scrawny girl had planned on losing even more at that point, still unhappy with however little thickness her skin had to it.

"Jesus," she thought aloud, staring at nothing in particular.
"Yester-me was crazy. I wonder what I'd have thought then if I saw me now."

For a moment, the green-eyed girl was at odds with her past self, imagining what excuses she would make to the skinny teen and what she would have said back.
The justifications sounded just as bad in her head as she would have imagined.
"I'm just not 16 anymore." She thought.
"Weak." Came the response.

"I don't have time to exercise all day." She reasoned.

"That's a lie and you know it." Her inner self challenged.

And then a harsh, but pleading thought popped into her head. One Miri had thought thousands of times while crying over an exercise plan she couldn't complete or in an attempt to force herself to avoid eating something off her scheduled meal plan.
Back then, she would have said it was what she wanted most.

She heard it over and over in her head, as she did many, many times before.

"....Don't you want to be skinny?"

She did.
She wanted it.
A thin waist.
Small, dainty arms.
Collarbones.
Pronounced hips.
Firm abs and tight thighs.

She wanted to be small and smaller.
Her daze was broken by the taste of the smores pop tart on her tongue.
"No wonder I'm so fat now," Miri sighed.
She pressed her flat palm against the restrained flesh beneath her shirt, feeling her hand squish into her lower belly as she tried to push the roll forming over the front of her jeans back behind the lip of the waistband, sucking in a little as she did.
"I'm just mindlessly eating now."

Miri walked away and grabbed her phone, initially only planning to check the time. It was 8 o'clock in the morning. Despite it being early, it was only a matter of time before her mom walked through the door, and Miri did not want to have to deal with that on her own.

Nervously, she decided to give Tawny a call for support.
After few rings, she picked up.

"Hey."
Miri felt bad hearing the tiredness in her friend's voice, but was already committed to the call.

"Morning! What's up?" Miri chirped, trying not to sound nervous.

"Sleeping. Why?" Tawny replied shortly.

"Ack. Sorry. I know it's early, but I was wondering if you guys wanted to come over to my place?" Miri asked hopefully.

"Uhh...mmph." Tawny grumbled through the speaker.
"Probably later? I'm not really big on running or whatever, but you can ask Meg if she's up for it."

"Actually, I'm not gonna be running today." Replied Miri.

"Oh. Finally gave that up, huh? About time. Those jogging clothes were looking way too small to be moving around in."

Miri rolled her eyes at the quip. Her jogging clothes were stretchy enough that she didn't have to worry about them being tight at all, but it seemed that her friend couldn't resist teasing her anyways.

"Actually my mom is coming over and I was hoping you guys would join me and stuff. Actually meet her."

Tawny paused for a second.
"You mean your overbearing mother who would instantly take pot shots at me for being fat despite being fat herself and makes you feel really bad about yourself because she tells you how to be all the time?"

"Yeah..That's the one," winced Miri.

"Well, sorry lady, but uhh....Why would I wanna do that?" Tawny asked, causing Miri to imagine her standard eyebrow quirk.

"Cuz I'm looking for support and for someone to stop her if she does all that stuff?" Miri said.

Again, there was a pause.

"Ok, so I gotta level with you here. I don't know your mom really well at all. I ONLY know the bad things you say about her, and that paints kind of a not cool picture of her. Secondly-"

"She's not ENTIRELY terrible," Miri interrupted.

Tawny returned fire without skipping a beat, shutting her friend's weak defenses down instantly.

"Well if she isn't terrible, then maybe you could start saying nice things instead of just bashing her all the time. All I hear is that she is a slanderous monster who loves hurting people to feel good about herself, and frankly, I don't actually know you well enough to go over to your house and fight your mom for you.
Meg, sure. We live together. But counting online, we've only known each other like two months, tops. I don't think you're doing it intentionally, but the things you complain about her doing, you do too.
You judge, you nit pick, you use people. When you and Meg went to the mall and ate you got on some waitress for not looking skinny despite being fatter than her, and you do the same to just about everyone you see."

Miri shrank down into the couch, taking slow bites of her pop tart as her friend whipped into a frenzy of tough talk.

"EVEN NOW you're trying to get your friends to go to your house so that we can take the heat off of you when your mom sees what you look like, which according to you was going to happen no matter HOW you looked. I said she looked chunky from a distance one time and since then you've been prodding me to say it again and again.
Miri, *I* am fat.
Meg is fat.
We both like to tease and comment on what we see, but that is playful. But when you sit there and heckle people for being fat in a mean kind of way, you are coming after us too. And that's not cool.
Fat happens. It's normal. It happened to me, it happened to your mom, it happened to you. I need you to realize that it's NOT A BAD THING."

Again, Miri was stunned.
She had no idea that her friends were telling each other what she'd said on their outings or that they had negative feelings towards what was said.
She didn't know why she had thought they wouldn't, but still, she was blindsided and guilty as charged.
Choking back tears and frustration, she tried to salvage the conversation gracefully.

"I don't think you guys are bad or look bad just because you're bigger." She stated shakily.

Tawny let out an audible sigh.
"That's not what I'm looking for. You don't say 'bigger' when you talk about me or other people.
So I'll walk you through it: Am I ugly?"

"No." Miri replied firmly.

"Am I thin?"

"No."

"Describe me in a word. And don't give me a bullshit answer like 'blonde;' you know what I'm looking for. What is the first thing people notice about me?"

Miri hesitated.
She paused for a while trying to find a way around answering the question the way she was expected to with full knowledge that her reluctance was only proving the point.

She hesitated longer.

After the silence became too much, she finally opened her mouth.

"You are fat."

"How fat? Fat like you?"

"No." Miri replied again, relieved by the short time bought by simple answers.

"How fat?" Tawny probed mercilessly despite sounding noticeably less angry.

"Really fat. Like almost twice my size." Said Miri, her heart sinking as she did.

"Jeez, girl, I'm not THAT big." Tawny said with a slight chuckle that was immeasurably relieving to the girl on the other line.

"I'm like 230 pounds, not 300. But yes. I am very obese and that is ok. I look great, and I love myself. Thank you for being honest with me.....Even I I had to force it out of you."

Miri was starting to feel better, but still felt the need to defend herself and hopefully lighten the mood.

"You do look great. Also, just to clarify, two of me does not equal 300 pounds."

"Ooh, big whoop. It's what, 20 pounds off? How much do you weigh, like around 140?" Tawny asked, appearing to take the statement well.

Miri stood up and looked herself over reflexively, feeling her muffin top peeking out from under her shirt before answering "Somewhere around there, yeah."

"Yeah. I'm nowhere near that huge. But if I was, that would be ok and I hope that you can start feeling that way soon.
If you want to bring your mom by to say hi, that's cool. But you need to have your day together first, and if you feel bad, try talking to her about it. You are a grown woman. You can do it. Plus, what's she gonna do, ground you?" Tawny asked, sounding supportive and done with her rant.

Miri wanted to reply, but felt a buzz against her head indicating a text that was almost certainly her mom.
She stuffed the last of the pop tart in her mouth and and attempted to chew it before responding.

Tawny caught notice and asked, "....Mir, have you been eating something this whole time?"

Guiltily again, the emotionally drained Asian answered "..Uhmm...Yeah actually."

"You. Fucking. Fatass. WHICH ISN'T BAD. I am teasing you. You are awesome. But still! Oh my god, you and food. Sorry to make you stress eat, haha." Tawny laughed, causing Miri to smile and blush from embarrassment.

"Yeahhh...But I actually gotta go. My mom is texting and probably here." She said.

"Alright. Be cool and have fun. Good luck."

Both women said goodbye and then Miri checked on her message which was indeed Lori telling her she was ten minutes out.

Feeling out of emotional strength from the lecture she'd just received, she halfheartedly cleaned up her crumbs and tried to do some more cleaning before her mom showed up.


At around 10, Miri heard a knock at the front door that caused her to jump up out of her seat as if she'd just been caught stealing. Her heart smashed against her chest as she adjusted her shirt that had ridden up while she sat. Finally, she took a deep, sighing breath and opened the door.

Lori was kneeling next to the small plot of well-grown and vibrant irises when the door opened. She wore a straw sun hat with a pink ribbon around the top and a faded pink/yellow sun dress that draped over her body loosely, her night black hair cascading in front of her face.

"Hey!" Miri called out pleasantly, nervous, but still genuinely happy to see her mother after a month away from home.

"Hiii," she coo'd cheerfully.
"I like your flowers. They are very beautiful. The moisture here must be very good for them."

Lori looked up with a very big, but soft smile, her eyes briefly and very rapidly scanning the image of her daughter standing before her.
A motion that while otherwise invisible to most was glaringly obvious to Miri.

Miri invited her in, also making a less-discreet evaluation of what she was seeing while Lori looked around, oblivious that anyone could possibly be scrutinizing her.

For the most part, Miri rationalized, her mom looked the same as she could remember. A bit of sly, nerve-wracking realization had suddenly hit her.
Lori's size in comparison to her own seemed relatively the same as before: a little softer here, a little rounder there, and only slightly fuller in the chest area. Delighted, Miri allowed herself to rationalize inside her head as she observed her mother from all angles as she looked at the place and furniture.

"Our proportions are still the same. And...I've gained almost ten pounds since I moved here.....She's getting fatter too."

"Miri? Can I use your bathroom? I need to get out of my dress." Lori asked, still smiling.

"Sure. Right over there." Miri shrugged, familiar with her mom's habit of changing out of dresses when she was indoors to avoid appearing out of place.

"Sun dresses are for sun." She would say.

When she stepped out, Miri's eyes were glued to Lori's figure. Clad in a pair of khaki shorts and a conservative purple tank top, Miri could see every inch of her frame. The younger woman observed that for all her complaining about her daughter's figure she did, Lori was the very picture of middle-aged softness. Her arms were plump and tattoo' d on one side with a blue and red hummingbird by a flower, and her ample thighs were held tight by the shorts as they rubbed together. She had the appearance of someone who had once been athletic and fit, but had since lost any greater level of athleticism. Miri attributed this to her age, wondering what she'd looked like before the years and a pregnancy had slowed down her metabolism.

Miri reasoned that Lori had had a waist resembling her own when she was about ten years younger, if not a bit smaller.
"Fat happens," she thought as she compared her childhood memories to what she saw now. A soft, but smallish waistline had developed into wide, squishy hips and a plump belly that sat atop her shorts, emphasizing it's smooth roundness.
She may not have been thin, but she was definitely pretty, Miri thought, not displeased with the idea that she could look similar in 20 or so years.

"You look nice." Miri said genuinely, prompting a smile that seemed more legitimate than the others she had seen previously.

"Thank you! You are always so pretty. I like your outfits. We should go shopping together sometime." Lori said, visibly happy.

"We can go today if you want," Miri offered, optimistically. She was surprised at how well things were going and began to relax a little, genuinely hoping that her being away from home had given both of them enough distance to appreciate each other's company again. As Lori began prattling on about how empty the house was with Miri gone and how much she liked the apartment and it's decor, Miri couldn't help but think that things were going remarkably well.

After showing her around the apartment, Miri listened to Lori's stories of her first time going off to college and living on her own. They traded tips on meal ideas and clothing choices, making the younger of the two feel especially grown up in the way she was able to hold a conversation on adult matters without being interrupted by someone nearly twice her age, let alone her own mother.

Even more entrancing though was Lori's behavior upon sitting down on the couch to chat. Miri had set a bowl of chocolates on the table as a kind of courtesy to whomever she was entertaining at the time, just as Lori had taught her to do from a young age. The gesture had always been more decorative than anything, and in all her years of doing it, no visitor had ever taken more than a piece or two from the bowl, no matter what chips or candies had been set out as if they were only there to allow guests to be polite and refuse them.
The longer the two women talked however, the more Miri realized that that wasn't the case this time.

As the conversation progressed, Lori could be seen reaching over into the bowl, taking several pieces of candy, and popping them into her mouth one by one until her hands were empty, at which point, she would simply grab more. Miri wondered if her being absent from the home and not being around to be criticized allowed her mom to snack and graze without guilt, causing the additional poundage. Noticing that the bowl was beginning to empty after about an hour and a half of straight talking, Miri asked, "Hey, I'm gonna grab some chips, do you want some?"

Lori gave her a somewhat disapproving face before replying "You know, you seem to have a lot of snacks lying around. I think you are getting addicted to junk food."

There it was.
Miri had known something like that was coming, but didn't know what or from where. Sighing, she let it go, interested in seeing what the response to resistance would be.

"Soooo...Is that a no? I was offering for you cuz you look hungry. Like, I actually wasn't gonna have anything." She replied smartly.

Lori bobbed her head side to side before asking "What do you have?"

"Barbecue, sour cream and onion, and regular tortilla chips with salsa." Miri said as she walked to her small kitchen.

"Wow. There's so many. I'm guessing you haven't had time for a diet lately?" Lori questioned again, looking away from the bowl, but still plucking candies from it.

Again, Miri tried to roll with the comment, knowing that if she played dumb and ignored roundabout statements and insinuations, Lori would have to be direct, and in doing so, rude in another person's house. That, Miri knew, was something that her proper mom was just not willing to do.

"I've been going out a lot, so kind of. Why do you ask?
Also, I couldn't pick, so I'm just bringing everything." She said coyly, mimicking her mom's notorious fake smile.

Lori seemed taken aback, her eyes widening and looking slightly alarmed.
"Oh....I don't need that many....and I've just noticed you look a little more....feminine than before."

"Excellent." Miri thought, her inner smile full of razor sharp teeth.

"Did I not look like a girl before? And it's no problem. I can always buy more and I know you can't resist a good treat." Miri pressed hard, making things up on the fly.

"Okay...if it's not a problem, I could try a couple," said Lori, looking longingly at the three bags of chips set onto the table in front of her.
"And you looked like a girl before, just now it looks like there's....a little more to you."

This was what Miri had been waiting for for years. She would fantasize about winning these passive-aggressive spats for so long, but would fall apart whenever she got the chance. But now she wasn't at the mercy of the rules of the house, and Lori increasingly lacking in room to make comments that didn't apply to herself as well, all Miri had to do was shrug them off and refocus back onto the softened Asian lady.

"Well, you know how that goes," Miri started, her eyes sparkling.

"I'm not a teenager anymore, and my body is starting to get ready for motherhood more than marathons. I can't be expected to look like a kid forever." She said, intentionally closing off room for responses and smiling pleasantly as she gingerly licked barbecue flavoring off of her fingers, pressing her elbow against her chest slightly to exaggerate her fuller bust.

"Are you planning to have kids soon?" Lori asked, unable to decry her highly-touted pedestal of being a mom.

"I'm not sure yet. I still have a long time to think about that, but my body wants what it wants. I'm glad to see that you are finally treating yourself as well." Miri said sweetly, happily tonguing each finger after the tips became coated again with orange seasoning.

Lori didn't seem to be anything but thoughtful as she reached into a bag for her 5th or 6th handful of chips, brushing her fingers on a napkin to avoid sticking them in her mouth.
"Well now that I am living all alone in the house, I have no one to eat all my cheat foods for me, haha. Without someone to watch you, temptation can just be too much. I'm sure with your appetite, you know what I mean."

Normally, Miri would have shrunk back from such a statement, but a combination of adrenaline and seeing her mother stuffing handful after handful of greasy potato chips into her mouth made her want to fight it out. She reached over the table for the salsa, feeling her shirt rise up as she leaned over, her chubby belly rolling over her jeans and onto her lap until she sat back, exposing the bottom half of he belly button.
Miri tugged her shirt down again, feeling somewhat self conscious about her size, but almost hoping Lori would say something about it so she could return fire.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, the food here is just sooo good, it's hard to be around it and not indulge. And now that I get to relax with you, I can see where my appetite comes from." Miri stated coolly, trying to slow down before the exchange became a fight.

"You should really get a napkin. People will think differently if they see what a messy eater you are." Lori advised, making Miri aware of how much she was sucking on her fingers trying to get more flavor before returning them to the bag.

"I'm not messy, it's just the chips." Miri defended weakly.

"Oh?" Lori accused.
"Don't lie to me, I've seen your place already. You barely cleaned up, you have food in like every room, and you wipe your hands on your shirt after you stick them in your mouth. Cravings are okay, but don't be a pig because of it.

Miri grew flustered.
This was how it always started. Something Lori said would ring her bell and put her on the defensive, then she would fall apart.

"Who said anything about cravings now?" She asked, brushing the crumbs off her shirt and onto the floor.

"Didn't you? You told me you were getting ready for motherhood earlier, so I figured that's why you had been eating so much." Lori reasoned.

"Uhhh...I'm not pregnant, mom" Miri said, feeling herself losing ground.

"Well, you are eating everything in sight and your belly is getting big, so what else could it be?" Lori said.

Miri became indignant, pressing her hand into her belly and feeling it sink into it's plump lower roll.
"First off, I haven't been with anyone, so no, I'm not pregnant. Secondly, it's normal for women to gain weight as they get older. You've been getting fatter too, so get off my case."

Lori frowned, tilting her puffy face downward and causing her slight double chin to look even rounder than usual.
"It's ok for me. I'm older than you. I didn't start gaining weight until I was 35. You're in your low-20's still, so I don't see how you could get so fat without stuffing your face the way you do. You may not be able to slim down like you used to anymore, but that doesn't mean you have to just let yourself go. Your problem is that you are addicted to junk food and never exercise. All you want to do is eat, and that's why you're having such a hard time maintaining your weight. I eat half of what you do and I get bigger. I can't help it anymore, so you have no right to call me names."

The two sat in silence for a little bit as Miri got up and paced around her apartment, picking up the odd bottle or can that had fallen onto the spotted floor. As she walked, she felt the tightness of her pants digging into her love handles uncomfortably, forcing her to try and discreetly unbutton them, providing instant relief. She glanced over at the bag of gifts she had prepared and decided to try and de-escalate the situation.

"Hey. I got these for you the other day." She said flatly, handing Lori the bags.

Lori shuffled through them, seemingly unfazed by the previous argument and acting as if she was just stating obvious facts that Miri just didn't want to hear. She checked out each record, smiling and thanking her daughter profusely as she probed for the next item.

"These are really beautiful," she said upon receiving the dresses, insisting that she try them on them and there.
As irritated as she was, Miri obliged in judging each outfit and saying that every one of them looked amazing, if only to avoid the argument that would follow if she said something looked bad.

Eventually, this led to both women playing dress up in whatever was available, with Miri trying to look elegant and not-pregnant in roomy sundresses that only caught on her stomach and butt, and Lori barely squeezing herself into empire-waisted bell-bottoms and tight fitting shirts.

Each one would try to secretly scrutinize the other's size, with Miri especially annoyed at her mother's flabby appearance as she carried on claiming that she and her daughter really could be twins since they wore the same outfits.

Finally, as the morning wound into late afternoon, Lori announced that it was time for her to head home, but she did still have a gift for her grown-up daughter.

Miri walked out into the driveway and found both her mom's newish-but-worn BMW parked in her driveway as well as a shiny black sports car gleaming sharply as it sat next to the curb.

"What? Woah. What?" Exclaimed a stunned Miri, unable to comprehend the situation fully.

"You're an adult now, so you need to be able to take care of things on your own." Lori explained.
"So I figured that this would be a good way to say that I'm proud of you, and I love you. Even if we get on each other's nerves sometimes."

Still shocked, Miri reached out and hugged Lori, squealing thanks as she bounced up and down, causing her soft belly to bounce and jiggle as she did.

"Okay. Here are the keys, you know how to drive it. I love you, but I need to pick up Julie from the mall. She drove the BMW up here for me and is still waiting for me." Lori said, handing off the keys.

As she drove off, Miri stood with mixed feelings about the gesture, as her mom drove off in the shiny new car, and left her with the older, more beat up one.

As she walked back into the house, she shook her head and muttered
".....I dunno what I was expecting, but still cool."

[Junketh71]

This was interesting. The WG was realistic and well-written, and it is nice to see that Miri and her mum have parted on a friendly note - sort of. I'm still not sure where the story, and Miri, will end up in the end, but so far, it is still a nice and interesting story to read.

[audipwr87]

I love how the remarks her mom gave her not only effected Miri's weight but also her style of living; starting to become a slob and what not. Great chapter! I look forward to the next one!

[Vilegaramonde]

Thanks to both of you!

I'm glad you're enjoying and I adore the feedback.
I've already started on the next chapter, but I'm always delighted to hear what you all like and are interested in seeing.

[Vilegaramonde]

FINALLY.

I apologize for the wait, as halfway through my creative rush (which was delayed by a week or so), I magically butt-deleted my calculator, my banking app, Pokemon go, and my notes app, which conveniently held the entirety of my progress on chapter 6 as well as many important things for my work.

After tediously rewriting EVERYTHING, here is the next part of the story.


Chapter 6

The following Tuesday morning was a welcome event for Miri. For several nights and the days that preceded them, she had been fretting non-stop about the state of her home or appearance, dreading what her mom was going to think of it when she had arrived. Now that Lori had already come and gone, the green-eyed girl was finally able to sleep well into the afternoon, as had become her custom whenever no one was there to heckle her awake.
It was around 1:30PM when Miri's stomach began growling and aching, the empty feeling being nearly the only thing that could rouse her from bed outside of another person's intervention. She lay under her blankets, awake but eyes closed as she pondered what would be quick and easy in the kitchen, unwilling to spend the time and effort it would take to actually cook something.

Miri laid there in bed for another 30 minutes before actually throwing her legs over the side of the mattress, forcing herself to sit up as she brushed the tangle of hair out of her face. She lifted her hand to her chest, pressing and pinching the soft layer of skin there as she attempted to convince herself to give whatever she had in the house a chance before taking her new car to grab some chili cheese fries from the diner. For a moment, she thought about what her recent ritual of eating fast food for breakfast would do to her figure, feeling her chubby belly resting warmly on her thighs as she leaned slightly forward in bed before getting up to find decent clothes.

"Well, at least I know where I get my appetite from," she thought aloud as a memory image of her mom's fatter, but similarly shaped waist flashed in her mind.

Miri tugged the lip of her lacy, red panties over her stomach, smoothing out the line from her thighs to her waist, then grabbed a mostly-clean purple tee from the basket of laundry she never quite seemed to get around to folding. Even on the off chance that she did however, the piles would sit folded on her bed as she became distracted by tv and would eventually wind up on the floor or back in the basket as Miri binge watched whatever show she'd been into, eagerly trying to catch up to Tawny and Megan so she could talk about it with them.

Miri grabbed a crumbled pair of jeans from the side of the bed and wiggled from side to side as she pulled them up, feeling the waistband material from yesterday's outfit stretch to accommodate her as best it could. Even as a skinny teen she'd had some difficulty finding pants that fit her somewhat disproportionately wide hips, but as she progressed through high school, she found that her weight gain had only added to the problem.
Now, the plump college student required a belt to tighten the loose denim above her ass since her hips and butt jutted out much further than her waist did, creating a gap that one could see her underwear through if they looked down into it. Even as she tightened the thin black strip of leather, she felt the denim pull downward towards her, still exposing the small of her back while simultaneously pressing into the thick ring of fat around her hips and waist, giving her a generous, flabby muffin top in the front and sides that consisted of a large roll around her belly button and a smaller, thinner one beginning to form just over it.

Looking into her mirror, Miri lifted her arms in the air and watched as her shirt rose about an inch or two, exposing some barely tanned skin, but not so much that she felt the need to change. She checked for any blemishes before washing her face in the bathroom sink, then applied some light makeup to darken her eyelashes, and finally brushed her long, stick straight hair out of it's unkempt state. Miri decided to forego the shower both due to an impatience for being hungry as well as wanting to keep the natural oils in her hair from washing out. She posed and took a few selfies on her phone, happy with her brilliant white smile and the glossy shine of her hair.

With her morning rituals complete, she threw on a pair of latticed black sandals, grabbed her keys, and headed out the door.
The BMW drove as she remembered, having had to ferry her mom around whenever she didn't feel like driving, which was fairly often. Again, Miri's resentment flared up, irritated that while she had had to walk nearly everywhere she went, Lori couldn't be bothered to be the one to drive herself to her own appointments.

"Fucking lazy." She muttered, still relishing in the comfort of the vehicle and delighted that she herself didn't have to walk all the way down to the mall area to get something to eat.
It dawned on Miri that she should be thankful for her mom's generosity considering that was why she could drive in the first place, but that soon devolved into an irritated notion that Lori wasn't being generous at all. It was more than likely, the young woman realized, that her mom had simply wanted to buy a new car since she didn't have to pay for another person in the house, but didn't have a place to put her old one.
Miri's driveway just happened to be a convenient place.

After finding a parking space, Miri made a beeline for the cafe, reluctant to be in the heat or deal with the afternoon sun for longer than she wanted to, which basically meant at all. Soon, she came upon Alice's, the reasonably sized almost-restaurant that she and Megan had visited before. Miri chastised herself for not paying enough attention to remember the name of the establishment more than it's general location.

Stepping inside, she felt the warm, humid air hit her and drown her in the smell of meats, cheeses, and sauce. Smiling, she hungrily stepped forward into the line, marginally distressed at the three or four people ahead of her. After a few seconds of standing around, she noticed a plastic beach protruding from the dividers and opted to give her legs a rest, somewhat tired and aching slightly from her walk from the parking lot. In high school, standing and walking for hours just came with the territory of being a kid, and as Miri thought back to those days, standing in front of the school or on the school track, she recalled how absolutely oblivious she was to just how much legwork the adults had been forcing kids to do.

"Fucking ridiculous." She thought out loud, muttering under her breath. Feeling the relief in her puffy legs, she sighed, recalling the increasing difficulty of being constantly on her feet as she finished her thought.

"Luckily, that's not me anymore."

The line began moving, and Miri hoisted herself up from her seat, looking around the restaurant and observing it's patrons as she did so.
Virtually every person sitting at a booth enjoying a meal or standing at the soda fountain refilling a cup was impressively obese. She saw a married couple sitting nearby with several plates surrounding both of them as they eagerly dug in, still laughing and chatting with their young and fairly still-thin kids, a boy and a girl, who also had large, albeit smaller meals in front of them.
Miri looked across the room to an incredibly wide brunette woman who was facing away from her, her many rolls of back fat forming deep creases in her shirt.
Even though she'd let herself get a little pudgy over the years, Miri reasoned with herself that she was still nowhere near as obese as anyone in town.
The smallest person in the entire building aside from Miri herself was the cashier she'd spied during her first visit, already showing the results of working around food all the time and prompting Miri to again verbally confirm her earlier suspicions.

"Someone is looking especially round today..." she trailed off quietly as she stepped up to order.

"Hi! Welcome to Alice's, what can I get you today?" The cashier said in a sing-song voice, flashing a smile as she did so.

The girl appeared to be in her late teens and vaguely of Hispanic origin. Mixed, Miri figured as her eyes momentarily dropped to her name tag.

Monkey.

"Monkey?" Mori asked quizzically, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes.

"It's Monica, but yeah." The girl responded cheerfully.

Miri tilted her head backward and slowly nodded.
"Ohhh. I was confused for a sec, I'm sorry. Can I actually get an extra large child cheese fry with sour cram and extra avocado?"

"Sure thing! And it's cool. Happens like every day," laughed Monica.

"Z'at gonna be all?"

"Uhhh...." Miri thought for a moment, staring up at the menu.
"Actually can I also get a breakfast burrito with that? Combo please."

"Suuure thing....." Monica drawled slowly as she typed in the order on the cashier's screen before looking up again.
"I like the breakfast burrito too. They're a little greasy, but who cares, right? I've had one like, almost every day since I started working here."

Miri had to hold herself back from being catty and picking at the genuinely sweet girl in front of her, but even so, she couldn't deny her willingness to believe Monica's claim. Her caramel-brown hair looked a little greasy from the environment, matted down and pulled into a messy ponytail. She had a honey tan and a tiny mole just off the side of her lip that was indeed cute, but offset by the puffy roundness of her cheeks that continued down below her chin which was threatening to double should her diet stay the same.

Walking away, the supple Asian narrated her thoughts yet again as she filled an extra large soda cup.

"That girl just can't control her appetite."
A second thought hit her as she capped her cup and pictured the rest of the patrons in her mind.

"No one here can, apparently. No wonder everyone is so fat."

As she looked up, she saw once more the family of four, both parents greedily stuffing their faces while their husky children did the same as if their second (or third) burgers were going to vanish if they weren't eaten fast enough.
Peering around the corner, a massively round-bellied girl appearing to be in her early twenties with short bleached-platinum hair and heavy eye makeup stared at a single milkshake surrounded by two empty plates covered in garbage and another empty milkshake glass. She was panting heavily, causing her enormous stomach to press into the booth table when she breathed, unbuttoning several buttons on a pair of black jeans before sighing heavily and reaching for the shake.

Miri stood at the counter, continuously sucking on her straw as she waited for her food, silently judging Monica as she buzzed back and forth between the grease vats and cash register, sneaking handfuls of fries here and a chicken strip there, playfully putting her finger to her lips when she turned and saw the soda-buzzed Korean.

"Jeez she's gotten big," Miri stated flatly, noting Monica's fuller figure compared to the last time she'd seen her.
The cashier had exhibited a potbelly before, but now it had swelled forward impressively, filling out her uniform shirt and straining her belt as it attempted to hold the last inch of fabric beneath her slacks. While Monica's legs remained soft, but fairly thin, her upper arms had grown spongy and thick, causing small splits in the sides of her short sleeves. Her belly seemed to have taken most of the weight, leaving her formerly disproportionate bust looking less prominent, but emphasizing the cashier's thick double chin.

Unsurprised, Miri shook her head and sighed.
"Looks like everyone who eats here gets huge.

The last statement gave her pause. She had gotten so caught up picking on everyone else, she'd accidentally criticized herself; a mistake she'd been making too often for her liking since moving into town. She reasoned that she wasn't exactly thin either, she wasn't as big as everyone else.

In an attempt to ease her conscious and deflect her shame she recanted, sighing, "But at least I'm not fat like THAT."

The catty remark did indeed make her feel better about her size, recalling how much thinner Monica had been than her on their first meeting, and how insecure Miri had been about her own quivering belly mushrooming over the shorts she barely fit into since she'd quit running before the move.

Now, seeing the thinnest girl in town having grown too big to tuck in her shirt was immensely satisfying.
She received her order and sat down with a happy grin, biting her lip slightly as she spaced out two orders of chili cheese fries and their matching breakfast burritos.
Pausing momentarily, Miri contemplated whether or not she would be able to finish all of what she had set in front of herself and just what it would do to her figure.
Excited and salivating, she reasoned quickly that she could always save the leftovers for later. She rolled her eyes at her own moment of guilt, reflexively chastising herself for going from a tiny and trim teen who only ate two meals a day and never over 1000 calories to an overweight college student binging on cheese and greasy potatoes.
The thought was dismissed as quickly as it came and Miri took several euphoric bites, eagerly awaiting the next.

"It's not like I'm gonna be losing weight anytime soon."

[audipwr87]

Great new chapter! Sounds like Miri is accepting her new sedentary lifestyle. Sorry you had to retype everything!