He awoke the next day to a stomach growling with hunger, as he usually did. But today, he decided, he was going to feed it. Gone from his mind were any hopes of dieting down to a reasonable weight or even depriving himself enough to keep his weight steady. His little binge the day before had shown him that, unfortunately, the only way he would be able to keep his sanity was to keep eating. So he pulled on some of his new, roomier clothes and made his way to the food court.
Luckily, Sheriece was working the early shift that day. "Hey, there, sugar, how you doin'?" she asked him sweetly as he walked up to her counter.
"I'm doing okay, Sheriece, how about you? How was your Christmas?"
"It was jus' lovely, dear, and how was yours?"
"Ah, nothing special. I just went grocery shopping."
"Grocery shoppin'? I hope you got more than that rabbit food you been eatin'," she gently chided him.
"Don't worry, I gave up on the rabbit food," he told her sheepishly.
"Good boy!" she exclaimed, patting him on the arm. "You need some real food to keep you strong an' happy. Now what can I get for you, sugar?"
He told her he wanted a double order of chocolate chip pancakes, six scrambled eggs with cheese, three orders of bacon, one order of sausage, and two orders of home fries.
"I'll have it right up, darlin'."
He looked around the food court as Sheriece busied herself at the grill. There were only two other people in the room, and both were helping themselves to cereal from the plastic containers stored at the island in the center of the food court, and neither of them - a guy and a girl - seemed to have noticed that he was there, ordering his usual truckload of food. He wondered if he should have ordered so much, but he quashed those feelings as the scrumptious smells started to reach his nostrils. Who was he kidding? He'd eat it all, and then some.
A few minutes later, his order was up. "Here you go, Xander," Sheriece said as she piled the last of his containers in a brown paper sack. "And here - I brought you some o' my famous Snickerdoodles, just like I promised," she told him, pushing a large Christmas tin across the counter to him.
"Aww, thanks, Sheriece, you didn't have to do that."
"Oh, I know, but you know you're my favorite customer, and I knew you wasn't goin' home, so I couldn't let you have a Christmas with no cookies," she told him matter-of-factly.
He blushed a bit, and thanked her again, then made his way over to the seating area with his food. He normally wouldn't have dared eat in the food court, after several encounters with classmates had shown him that he could only hope to be humiliated by doing so, but it was Christmas break and there was hardly anyone here. He only saw one other person sitting over in the far right corner, engrossed in a text book as he slowly ate some cereal. So he made his way over to a booth, since he didn't think the standalone chairs would hold him, and, after some adjusting of the - thankfully - moveable table, sat himself down and began to unpack his breakfast.
He started with the eggs. Sheriece must have given him about ten, and he happily wolfed them down, stopping only for an occasional bite of sausage, bacon, or home fries, or a sip of his orange juice. When those were all gone, he opened up the container of pancakes and smothered them in butter. He almost orgasmed as he took his first rich, creamy, chocolatey bite. His hand slipped under the table and began to rub small, soothing circles into the side of his belly as he ate, stopping only to pick up his orange juice and put it to his mouth. But they were gone all too soon, and he decided to dig into the cookies.
He was so engrossed in popping cookie after cookie into his maw that he didn't notice the girl staring at him from a few tables away. He only became aware of her when she got up and sauntered over to him, stopping a few feet from his booth.
"So," she said, her hands on her hips, "this is how Xander diets?"
He dropped the cookie he was holding and blushed. She was tall, about 5'9", and pretty with a short brown bob and dark, black eyes. "What?"
"This is how the piggy diets? By stuffing his obese face with rich foods that are only going to make him blow up even more?" she sneered at him.
Suddenly the stench of rotten meat filled the air, making Xander gag.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," she clicked, shaking her head as she leaned down closer to him. "At this rate, you'll be 400 by this afternoon, you know that?"
All the blood drained from his face. How did she... His thoughts immediately flashed back to the guy at the mall. Did they know each other? Had he sent her to make fun of him, too?
"Leave me alone," he mumbled, looking down at his cookies.
She laughed. "What, so you can gobble down more? So you can pack yourself full of shit that's only going to make you fatter? So you can pretend that eating 'til you burst is the only way you'll 'stay sane?'" she asked in a mocking tone.
Suddenly Sheriece was there. "Can I help you?" she asked testily.
The girl turned to the woman and actually hissed at her. Sheriece's eyes widened as the girl dashed back over to the table that she'd been sitting at, gathered up her things, and left the food court in a rush. Both Sheriece and Xander stared after her.
"What on earth was that about now?" she asked him a moment later.
"I...I don't know," Xander stuttered, feeling the blood creep back into his cheeks.
"Was she givin' you a hard time?"
"I...uh...a little...but it's no big deal..."
"Oh, honey," she said, moving to sit down across from him. She stopped when she saw that he had the table pushed over all the way into the other seats so there was no room for her. He felt himself blush madly as she looked down and realized just how big he was.
"It's okay, Sheriece. Your cookies are delicious, by the way," he said, trying to distract her.
"Aww, thank you, darlin'. I'm glad you're enjoyin' them. Now I'd better get back to my grill. You come back and visit me for dinner, you hear? I'm workin' til six."
"Okay, Sheriece, I will." He watched her head back over to her counter as his brain went wild. How had that girl known, just like the guy at the mall? How had she found him? Or maybe they weren't connected? And what was with that hiss?
His phone rang, a call from an unknown number. But somehow he knew who it would be.
"Hey, Pudge!" a familiar voice said gleefully.
"Um, hi, Callisto..." he trailed off.
"Whatcha up to?"
"N-nothing."
"Breakfast? Ooh, sounds good, I'll be right there." She hung up.
He stared at the phone in his hand, swallowing hard. He quickly hefted himself up and threw away the remnants of his breakfast so she wouldn't see just how much he'd eaten.
"I hope you weren't throwing any food away there, Pudge," she said from behind him as he sat back down. "You shouldn't waste."
He jumped a little, causing the booth to squeak in protest. "Geez," he muttered, "where did you come from?"
"Oh, I was outside. Hmm, looks like there's no room for me to sit," she commented, flipping her flame-colored hair over her shoulder and eyeing his seating arrangements. "Oh, well. It's really pretty on campus today, so I thought I'd come find you and we could take a walk together. What do you say?"
"You're not going to leave me alone, are you?"
She just grinned and grabbed his hand.
I loveeee it!
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