Part XVIII

As soon as they stepped out of the ice cream shop, Callisto called Darshan and told him that she'd dispatched the Roene demon.

"Yes, Darshan.  Mmhmm...yeah.  No, nobody saw us except the girl who works at the ice cream shop, and she was in the back when I killed it.  Yes.  Yes!  Stop worrying.  Okay?  Yes.  Okay.  Goodbye, Darshan."  She hung up her phone and slid it back into her pocket and took a lick of her ice cream.  "Geez, he's worse than my mother."

"Is everything okay?" Xander asked from around a mouthful of ice cream.

"Yeah, everything's fine.  He was worried that someone saw me kill it, but you're the only one who was there.  Oh, and he still wants me to stay with you tonight, just in case."

"He...wait, what?  You're...staying?"  Xander nearly dropped his dish.

"Yup, we're gonna have a sleepover!" she exclaimed happily, patting him on his well-padded back.

He felt his face redden.  "Is that really necessary?"

"Probably not, but would you rather Darshan stay over?  He's not going to leave you by yourself now."

Yes, Xander thought immediately.

"Hey!  That's not very nice," she said, shoving him playfully, her hand sinking into his soft side.

"Do you really have to?"  Xander's face blushed further at the feeling of her fingers pressing into his fat. 

"Yes."

"I...I guess you can sleep in my bed," he told her reluctantly.

"That's okay, I'll sleep in Adrian's."

"Um, I don't think you want to do that."

"I was going to ask you for fresh sheets first."

"Okay, good.  As annoying as you are, I wouldn't subject you to that."

She stopped walking, a look of distress upon her face.  "You really think I'm annoying?  Don't lie."

"I'm sorry...you're not annoying.  You just...you just don't seem to get...people."

"And by people, you mean 'you.'"

"Well, yeah."

"I think I get you more than you realize, Pudge."

"Then why do you call me that?"

She looked surprised.  "That really bothers you?"

"Yes," he said.  No, he thought, that part of him that liked being fat rearing its difficult head.

Cee grinned at him.  "See?"

Xander sighed, knowing that he couldn't hide much from her.

"Look, I know things are complicated for you right now.  I get that, I really do.  And I'm sorry about it.  It sucks.  But you've got to learn to accept yourself sooner or later, and why can't it be sooner?"

"You think you're going to help me accept myself?"

"Who knows?" she shrugged and licked at her ice cream.  "You were comfortable enough to have eaten all your ice cream, at least."

He looked down at his bowl and saw that the delicious treat was gone.  He scowled and tossed the bowl and spoon in a trash can as they passed.  "And you know that I shouldn't have."

"Why not?  Who cares what the scale says?"

"I care.  My parents care.  Everyone cares."

"I don't care."

"Come on, that's a lie.  Just look at me."  He held out his arms so she could take all of him in.  "You're telling me you don't think I'm disgusting?"

She looked him up and down, her eyes lingering on his big belly.  "No," she said softly.  "No, Xander, I don't think you're disgusting at all."

He stared at her, blushing.  She gazed right back, calmly slurping up her ice cream.  "Well, then," he finally said, "there's definitely something wrong with you."

She rolled her eyes at him.  "There are many things wrong with me," she said flippantly.  "So.  Let's watch a movie tonight.  What do you have that's good?"

"Um, what kind of stuff do you like?  I'm afraid I don't really have any girl movies."

"Well, that's good, because I hate girl movies.  The more violence, the better."

He rattled off a brief summary of his dvd collection.

"Ooh, I haven't seen the second Alcyor movie yet; let's watch that."

"You like Alcyor?"

"Yeah, it's one of my favorite movies!"

"But it's so..."

"Gory?"

"Yeah."

She grinned at him.  "Exactly.  Lots of violence, blood, and a good story with an awesome plot twist.  Totally my thing."

"I didn't think girls liked that kind of stuff."

"Well, Pudge, I'm not your typical girl."

They had finally reached Xander's dorm, so he let them in and they began the climb to his room on the third floor.  A few minutes later, huffing and puffing, he let them into his room, which was still covered in packages of food from his binge the previous day.

"So do you have some good movie snacks among all this stuff?" she asked, peeking in one of the unpacked bags from the grocery store.  "Oh, you have gummi watermelons, my favorite!  May I have some?"

"Yeah...sure...help...yourself," he breathed.

"You should have some water," she told him as she ripped open the bag of gummies.

"In a...minute."  He seated himself heavily in his desk chair and cringed when the whole thing buckled beneath him with a loud snap and sank a few inches.  "Shit," he muttered, standing up again.  He bent down to examine the chair and saw that he'd broken the hydraulics.

"Everything okay, Pudge?"

He swallowed hard.  He'd known that he'd break it sooner or later, after all, the chair's capacity was only 300 pounds, and he'd had it since the beginning of the school year.  But breaking it with her there seemed to be worse somehow.  "Fine," he said, his voice cracking.

"What's wrong?"

"N-nothing."

She came over to him and laid her hand on his shoulder.  "It's just a chair.  You can get a new one."

"I'll just break that one, too," he muttered angrily.

"Come on," she told him, gently guiding him away from his desk.  "Why don't you put the movie in?  I'll make some popcorn."

A few minutes later, Cee removed the bag of popcorn from the microwave and plopped down next to Xander on his bed.  He had to stop himself from moving away from her uncomfortably, not wanting her to call him out on it.  But then she leaned back into him, and he couldn't help it - he shivered and tried to scoot away so that she wasn't sinking into his soft side.

"Aww, come on, Pudge, it's cold.  Share some body heat," she told him.

"I thought you were never cold?"

"Not when I'm walking around outside.  But when I'm sitting here doing nothing, I get a little chilly."

He sighed and stopped moving, swallowing hard as she snuggled up to him and threw the blanket over their legs.

"There, see?  Much better."

He hoped that during the movie, she'd realize just how gross he felt and would move away from him.  But he had to admit, having her smushing into all his fat felt pretty good.  He quickly shoved the thought out of his head before she caught it.

She just yawned and snuggled closer.

Halfway through the movie, Xander reached for a bag from the grocery store and commenced eating everything in it: those little peanut butter and chocolate cakes, gummies, a bag of chips, and a bag of pretzels.  He cursed himself the whole time, but he couldn't help it - having her so close to him made him so nervous, and he was definitely a nervous eater.

The movie ended with Cee laying her head on Xander's shoulder.  "That was really good," she told him with a sigh.

"Um, yeah..."

"The final fight was awesome," she said.  "That honor stuff gets me all choked up every time."

He turned his head and looked down at her.  "Really?"

"Yeah, it's so much more emotional than that stupid relationship crap girls are supposed to like," she explained, her head still resting on his soft shoulder.  She yawned again.  "I don't know about you, Pudge, but I'm beat.  Do you have a shirt I can borrow to sleep in?"

"Um...I...I guess so..." he said, reddening.  He panicked, not wanting her to see what size his shirts were, but then he remembered that she knew what size his clothes were anyway.  If she hadn't read it from his mind, she certainly found out when he relived the scene at the mall with the Roene demon.

"Oh, don't worry about that.  Of course your clothes are going to be bigger," she told him, "you're a big guy."  She patted him on the arm, sending his flesh jiggling.

Xander just sighed as he hefted himself to his feet.  He dug around in his drawers until he found one of his old three exes, a dark green one, and pulled it out.  He clutched it to his chest for a moment, feeling as if he were giving a piece of himself away in that old shirt.  He reluctantly handed it to Cee, who was holding out her hand expectantly.

"Thanks, Pudge.  I'll be right back," she told him as she skipped over to the door and let herself out.

He let out another sigh as he pulled his pajamas out and started to take his shirt off.  Just then, the door opened.  He ripped his shirt back down over his protruding belly with a gasp as Cee said, "I forgot to ask, left or right for the girls' bathroom?"

"L-l-left," he managed to stutter out, his hands clenching his shirt with incredible force.

"Thanks!"  She left again.

Xander let out his breath explosively.  He trod over to the door and locked it before he lifted his shirt over his head and fought his way into his tight pajamas.  He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and shook his head.  What was he doing?  He couldn't let her see him like this, with his ass and his gut hanging out so much.  He began to remove his shirt again in order to put his regular clothes back on, but a knock came from the door.

"Pudge?"

He gritted his teeth and opened the door.

He stared at her.  His shirt came down to her knees.  It looked absolutely ridiculous on her, hanging off her as if she had shrunk down to a fifth of her normal size.  Her coppery hair was tousled about her shoulders, and she had a sleepy expression on her face.  She looked incredible.

She stared back at him, her eyes dancing up and down his huge form.

"What?" he said, uncomfortable after a few seconds.

"Nothing," she told him as she broke her gaze and walked into the room.  "Are you going to help me change the sheets?"

"Um, yeah."  He rooted around in his closet for his spare blanket and set of sheets and handed them to her, then gingerly removed Adrian's bedding and laid it over his roommate's desk chair.  He helped her put the sheets on the bed and smooth out the blanket.  When they were done, they both stood there awkwardly, not looking at each other.

"Okay, well, I guess it's bedtime," she finally said.  She nimbly climbed into Adrian's bed and pulled the covers up around her shoulders, yawning again.  "All that demon-killing wore me out."

"Okay, um, well, goodnight," Xander said.  He locked the door and switched off the light, and then climbed into his own bed amidst the creaking of the springs at the addition of his weight.

A few seconds of silence went by, and then, in a small voice, Cee said, "Goodnight, Xander."