The Bellflower Part 7 (Patreon)

In this installment, Rachel & Holly have a bit of a heart to heart. Or well... Try to, after getting a little day-drink drunk. And Rachel does a little more digital snooping. But what is Penny up to exactly?

I had a little too much fun writing drunk Holly. This wasn't supposed to be a part unto itself, but it was a fun interaction & I still think there's enough other things to help move the story along & start ratcheting up the intrigue a bit more. I also do feel a little bad that there wasn't a lot of other activity on the site between updates to this, but I spent some time trying to work ahead a little on this as a focus for most of my free time this week. More will be spent on images & other stuff coming up again shortly, so please be on the look out. I mean in case stories aren't your thing so much.

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7

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"Tha' was FUN!" Holly rasped, her head waving to the side with a bit of a flop. Rachel got smacked by bit of her ponytail as she turned to look at her with glassy eyes. "Don' you jus' love Deidre?"

"She's... great." Rachel winced, as she ushered her drunk older sister up to her door. Smooshing into the side of her to help keep her upright? She was shocked by how soft she had gotten. Downright... squishy almost. And with most of her weight bearing down on her to lean, she was definitely heavier.

On approach, the lock unbolted & the door to Holly's opened on its own with its signature hiss, Penny well aware of their impending arrival. After all, she had acted as their chauffeur in the unmanned shuttle. Rachel was surprised but not at all shocked there were actual, honest-to-God drones in this neighborhood, & not just the corporate kind. And despite their hostilities, luckily for Rachel, Penny remained pretty silent, more than she expected. The whole ride in fact. At the same time, there was a heaviness to that quiet. A weird vibe that she couldn't quite place. Almost like a smouldering parent that had to pick up their misbehaving children. And that they'd "have a talk later." But Rachel didn't let it bother her too much. Because at the end of the day, she didn't answer to a piece of software. Still, the ride itself seemed to take forever. The AI drove a bit like a grandma on her way home from church. She knew this because it was Sunday, & neck & neck with them on the road? Somebody's grandma. On her way home from church.

As they stepped inside, they had to enter Holly's condo side ways, as Holly's hips were seeming a bit too wide to fit them both in through the doorframe at once. At least comfortably. At the same time, the short little steps she used to pivot caused Rachel to shake a little too much, something she was hoping to avoid. A  quiet "Shit" was all she could manage before a "Brrrrappp" rattled out of her mostly tot-loaded gut, the echoes spilling out into the hallway before the door could shut & seal itself off behind them.

"Ew. You pppig!" Holly sneered an inch from her face. It was a joking disdain, but she could tell there was an inkling of genuine disgust buried in it. "P-piggy. 'Scuse -hic- 'scuse'yu."

"Yeah. Yeah. How many mimosas did you even have?!" Rachel threw back at her, catching a whiff of Holly's hot breath. A loose spark would have probably ignited it.

"I did-den know there was a -hic- g-gonna be a... tes'." Holly grinned sloppily. Rachel clenched her eyes shut for a second, bottling up her frustration as they made it through the narrow hall & into the wider kitchenette area. She had a bit of a hard time processing how all of the grease in that massive morning meal of hers wouldn't have worked to at least soak up just a little of the booze. But apparently no. Not at all. And no comparison at all to the extremely mild wine buzz from the other night.

Rachel did however think back to their high school days. There were rumors she had always heard about Holly. That she was notoriously something of a lightweight. That friends would try to get her blasted off very little & how she'd put on something of a show for everybody. But that was also many years & maybe as half as many pounds ago. You'd think she would've built up something of a tolerance. In all honesty, it wasn't something Rachel knew to be true first hand, if only because the sisters never seemed to attend any of the same parties. But the legends were often the talk of the whole school the following Monday. Holly's much more popular friends would always go out of their way to let wallflower Rachel know for a laugh.

"Why don't you sit down, get comfortable, Miss Holly?" Penny beamed in, the monitor unfurling from its roost in the ceiling like an inverted version of some medieval dragon uncoiling its neck. "Take a load off, as it were." The one time Rachel wanted Penny to maybe help intervene & that's the best she could offer? Suggesting Holly "take a load off?" She was heavy & Rachel almost felt ready to die.

"Oh I will!" She nodded, adding something of a shaky point/thumbs-up at the screen. Rachel had gone far enough. Delicately, she unyoked her neck out from under Holly's thick arm, slightly tacky with light perspiration from the midday heat. As she did, she was careful not to bend too much herself if she could avoid it & illicit any more gas releasing from her own tight tummy.

"You're home. So... -oof-... you're on your own now, you lush." Rachel said after a pat on her sister's meaty back, getting no immediate reaction one way or the other. Holly seemed to be composing balance & it required concentration. Carefully, Rachel stretched as upright as her gut would allow & gave her some space to figure out her equilibrium for herself. Free of her chubby, slightly sweaty, but definitely tipsy sister, she breathed a deep sigh of relief, putting her sunglasses back in her purse & her purse on the table. Slowly, she started towards her little corner of the living room, looking almost ready to collapse herself. Although maybe not entire for the same reasons. Though vaguely nauseous, she considered maybe the bathroom might be wiser. More just out of capacity issues than anything Holly seemed to be dealing with. Instead, she brought her left hand down to rub her own very full middle, giving a slight massaging rub. It needed it.

"Anything I can fix f..." Penny started with her usual doting sandwich-maker bullshit. And Rachel was not having it.

"No!" She snapped to the monitor sharply for the both of them. Not only could she herself not even think about food at the moment, she felt more than comfortable answering for her older sister, given how much she had stuffed herself silly at brunch. But apparently, Holly had other ideas.

"Hey! You don-tuh..." She struggled, to take a step towards the living room to follow, eventually letting out a soft little hiccup. "... how'd...do'yu know when I'm f-full?" Rachel responded without turning to look or breaking pace.

"How?! Because look at your gut sticking out, Hol." And with that, Holly followed Rachel's advice & looked straight down, her neck bouncing a little as she tried to focus. Something was off for a brief moment until it dawned on her that for the first time in her life, she was noticing a very distinct lack of her own two feet. And it certainly wasn't her bustline. It was never that. "You're almost ready to pop." Rachel added, causing Holly to poke her head up hazily before bobbing it back down, her ponytail whipping along with her erratic movements. It was like the middle of her was sticking almost straight out to get in the way, creating a round, firm bulge. But... oh no!

"Dammit... I got a greezestain on my new dress..." she said, wiping at a small, long since dried smudge along the crest of her belly by hand in complete futility. It distressed her way more in this moment than her distended abdomen. "Buh hey!" She looked up. "No! Now're home? We need to hav' it out. Right. HERE." She pointed towards the floor, stomping her foot to literally put it down. But Rachel wasn't even watching. She was too busy fluffing a few throw pillows to maximize her comfort.

"About what?!" the younger sister asked as she eased herself onto her corner of the couch gently. Too much jostling would do her in right now. Which is why, with surgeon's precision, she worked carefully to undo the tight waste of her skirt. Free from constraint a little too much belly poked out for her liking. But even accentuated by sitting in something of a pronounced slouch, it didn't hold a candle to the one Holly was sporting. And not that thinking about it in those terms made her feel "good" exactly. But maybe just "slightly better" at least.

"Ha'bout you bossin' me a'roun." Holly continued to slur as she staggered closer. As awkward as she was, by sheer luck she wobbled clear of the coffeetable before smashing her knee into it with some strange klutzy, unintended deftness in an effort to stay standing.

"I'm not bossing you around!" Rachel moaned with a sigh, without making eye contact. Dealing with an absolutely plastered Holly before 1pm? Wasn't one of the things she figured she was going to need the patience for today when she first got up this morning from this very corner of couch.

"You... ARE though." Holly said with a sing-songy whine, plopping down next to her. "You ARE." The impact was almost too much for Rachel, whose eyes widened as she held back a belch. "Yer so... mean... calling me... calling me f-fff-ffat...like... youuu-do. Alla'duh time." She gesticulated as she talked, waving her arms around her plump frame to demonstrate her frame, while shaking the couch. Rachel winced, feeling the vibrations, & fighting off another burp. She fought tooth & nail, opting to try & let the gas out slowly.

"I... I'm not calling you "fat!" I only... jus'... worry about you. You just don't seem... like you, really. And you don't seem able to... see it for yourself. Or even help yourself lately. Being unhealthy? It's not... like you." Some of Rachel's own mild buzz had been killed off, sobered partially by rushing to drag Holly's fat ass to the bus stop in a timely fashion, partially by the shock of discovering Penny was their ride back. But now in, safe & sound? She could still feel a tiny bit of buzz again, creeping back in around the corners. She threw her neck back onto the cushion behind her. While it wasn't the most comfortable, it was easier than having to hold it upright.

"Lsssten..." Holly hissed, picking herself up into more of a kneeling position with a bit of an unintended wobble. Before she continued, she raised both hands up in that palms forward way people use to punctuate assuredness. "Ahm toe'lly in control. Like... toe'lly. Ahm like... basically? A grownup!" The young professional two years older than her assured her, slurring.

"I didn't... say you weren't." Rachel contended, rolling her neck along the cushion to look straight up for a second. She didn't see Holly shakily raise a finger again as if to try to hush her. Almost like she did at brunch, only far less steadily. But she pretended to ignore it. "Just that it's unlike... well... You!" Holly waited enough of a pause for Rachel to roll her head back to the side & look at her. When she was ready, she continued, trying to be as serious as she'd been throughout this whole stupor.

"You don' tawk to me, fer like.... yeers!" She began as Rachel listened with her own hiccup. "We don' speek! And you only want to... when you dezzzper-ly need a place to stay... AND I offer You! To come." She punctuated "you" even though it wasn't the end of the sentence. As drunk as she was, the statement wasn't entirely untrue, making Rachel perk up, albeit slightly uneasily. "So if you don' tawk to me fer how long? How're you in... -hic- N-E pos-zishion... tuh tell me! What's me?" she leaned in, her elbows out as her hands patted her own chest to punctuate "me" both times.

Rachel centered her head for a moment to think on it. Maybe it was her own slight level of inebriation. Or maybe it was how uncomfortably stuffed she felt, making it hard for her to think. But fuck. How was ultra-drunk Holly owning her in an argument right now?! Admittedly, she had made something of a valid point. Rachel had been sort of avoidant, maybe. Like, always! But it had also always just kind of been her nature though. And, sure, maybe Holly had changed in the ensuing years. They hardly talked. And maybe her sister wasn't exactly the same vapid jock she always thought she was. Maybe it wasn't right for her to suddenly come in & butt her head into her sister's affairs. Call her out for putting on a little weight here & there. Wait no! The Bellflower! Everything was weird here! Oh, fuck, but she couldn't just say THAT. She was already doing everything in her power to not come off as some kind of paranoid lunatic about this stuff in front of her. It would definitely push her away! But fretting like this, she was also inadvertently allowing for a long, somewhat pregnant pause to occur, as Holly patiently, albeit wobbily, awaited an answer.

"Because it's all entirely... antithetical to what I've... always known to be the perception of... you." Rachel finally blurted. Holly slumped from her eager kneeling position into more of a lean into the back of the couch. Not only did it shake the whole seat, it caused Rachel to moan. "Ech! Take it... easy..."

"Ant..." Holly looked up at the ceiling. "Anty-theh-tickle... to wuh..." Rachel realized the words were too big. Admittedly, maybe even for a sober Holly, let alone the mess before her now. But the poor thing was trying to repeat it to herself to give it all another go. Like that would somehow change anything. Part of Rachel really wanted to let her struggle with it for a few minutes, but the part of her that was overly annoyed by it won out in th end. She took it upon herself to spell it out plainly.

"Okay, basically?" Rachel tried to adjust herself to face her sister. But also back away a little, as Holly had slumped in a little too close to her personal bubble. But already against the arm & scarcely able to move, it was maybe all of an inch that she bought herself. "Fine, I might not know you as well as I thought. And sure, you might've changed, we don't talk often." Holly settled into something of a smug, hazy smile hearing this. Like some small victory. However, Rachel wasn't done. "But growing up? Every detail about you, that I knew? The things that, like, made the overarching idea of what made you you to me? The running? How obsessed with Track you were? The amount you exercised? The discipline? Hell, the way you used to taunt me about my weight unmercifully?!"

"It waz'n un-mersss..." Holly tried to interject but Rachel was too busy picking up a head of steam to be swayed.

"Seeing you now? Like this? I feel like that idea of Holly in my head?" She looked over, flinching that she might be getting just a little too real. "She would be flipping the FUCK out. Scream. Probably even call you a "Cow" or something." She added, citing a specific example of one of Holly's old go-to chestnuts for her back when the roles were reversed.

"Buh-Aha!" Slurred Holly. She didn't sound particularly offended. In fact, maybe she wasn't even entirely listening. Because she sounded downright jovial, as it took Rachel a second to realize she had said tried to say "But A-ha." The problem was it had just all run together. And in that short span she spent trying to gauge her tone & decipher her exclamation, she loomed in closer. Closer than Rachel really liked. As she did, Rachel noticed how her sister's belly hung now the slightest bit as she leaned in. Holly then stuck out her wobbly index & middle finger on her left hand, slowly reaching towards Rachel's forehead like some kind of hammered ET. At first she tried to resist. But she was cornered. "Dats'shur Head-Holly." Holly almost giggled brushing her head very lightly with the very tip of her middle finger. Beyond it, Holly's eyes were literally crossing to look she was so close. Rachel pushed her hand way in no mood. Instead of reacting, her right hand came up & tapped herself near her heart. "Ahm Real-Holly. An' I think food's PRIT-ty kewl!" She punctuated it with a self-assured nod & point up to the side at nothing.

"Obviously." Rachel sassed, as she had a hard time not eyeing the bulge in her sisters sundress. Snug in new places & a stain here & there, it didn't flatter her quite as much as it did just a few hours prior. Holly reared back a little, shaking the couch more to Rachel's dismay.

"Ahm ferrrr... ser-i-ous tho." she attempted to say. Seriously.

"So did you want me to prepa..." Penny chimed in.

"Penny: OFF!" Rachel attempted with a dull roar. She had almost been waiting for it this whole time, & was frankly shocked it took this long. A half beat behind in reaction time, Holly's expression perked up at the computer's voice but soured with Rachel's. While not "off," the AI went back to being nothing more than a silent observer. "I admit," Rachel eventually offered. "Maybe you're not the same Holly I thought you were. And maybe I'm biased because that Holly always seemed to have very little issue bringing up MY weight!" She said, ultimately doubting drunk Holly's assessment, but going along with this conceit for the sake of argument. "But Hol! Objectively? The strange desire to suddenly order a massive fried egg burger? And how many plates of tots? How many Mimosas? What?! D'you think all that is... good?!"

"You 'ad toz too y'know!" Holly bickered, folding her arms while smooshing further back towards her side of the couch. She was probably only keeping tabs because she greedily wanted more tots for herself. But Rachel could tell by the change in her sister's expression, as much as she hated to admit it, she knew she was right. Yet she also wanted to make sure that Holly using her own overindulgence against her as some sort of crutch wasn't going to fly.

"Yeah!" Rachel wholeheartedly admitted. "What do you want me to say? I went overboard! Hog-wild! I way overdid it today! I REALLY shouldn't have! And you know what? I feel fucking AWFUL because of it!" she said looking down at her own protruding gut. She hadn't realized that she had both hands gently rubbing at it unconsciously, like a new mother just starting to show a burgeoning bump.

"Same deal!" Holly threw her arms up. "I'wuz starving-Uh!" She said with a bit of a bellow. Rachel took a deep breath.

"And in the moment itself?" She thought Holly was maybe a little too wasted to understand, but she felt as though she really needed to vent about it. "I... I just don't know! I couldn't... help it! And something about THAT?! It SCARED me. And it should scare you too." She looked at Holly, who had a flash of receptiveness that seemed to fade back to her stubborn, glazed eyes. "What I'm saying is, none of that's any good! I don't feel good about letting myself fall into that. Whereas today, you made me worry even more, because you basically decided you were going to run with it. Almost, like...double-down on it."

"Cuz ahm done feelin' bad about eeten' what I want to EET. I jus wanna enjoy thum." Presumably "them" meaning "meals." Rachel took a deep breath to say something she figured Holly wouldn't want to hear. But it needed to be said.

"Which, over time? Leads to... Courtney." she said, staring straight out in front of her into the middle distance. It wasn't entirely her intent, but there was a bit of sass to it.

"Euch," Holly threw her own head back & hollered. She seemed wounded by it. Wounded for her fat friend. "She's... she's soooo nice!! Why do you het' -hic- 'er zo'much?"

"I don't HATE her!" Rachel corrected, looking down as she shook her head. There was a gurgle in her belly, as she experienced something of a microburp. "Hell! I hardly know her because she barely looked up from her box of eclairs at me the other night!" Out of the corner of her eye, she notice Holly perk slightly at the mention of eclairs, which wasn't the intended effect she was after. "And you said it yourself! Even SHE is starting to get concerned about what's going on with -hic- her."

"Yeh, but not... not all 'th time," Holly tried to specify, as contrary as it seemed to her point earlier. Then again, during brunch, she thought maybe she played up exactly just how concerned she said she was maybe. To help put their minds at ease. At the end of the day, even Holly thought she didn't seem worried enough. But now? That sort of helped her argument. "She dozen' let it bother her... allll the time. She's SoooOOOooo happy. Jus'...! You jus'.... haveta get tuh know'her!"

"I would honestly love to! I'm sure she's wonderful! As sweet as you say or whatever. But she's also nearing the ballpark of quarter of a ton." She said flatly, with Holly throwing her arms up in exasperation. "At least! If she hasn't already!"

"Tck, you're soooo Kuh-ruuuuel-luh!!" Holly moaned into her hands she theatrically covered her face with in overly animated disbelief.

"It's the truth!" Rachel insisted. "I mean, I'm not trying to be mean. Or even catty about it. But objectively! How much would you say she weighs?"

"Ob-juh?..." Holly trailed, before deciding better of it. "She's..." she seemed thought for a second. Long & hard, given her sloshed stupor. "... on the heavier side, ok! But..."

"How much?!" Rachel was looking for clarity. "Throw out a number."

"T-t...two..." Holly tried. And struggled. Even she wasn't buying that as it came out her mouth.

"Two?!" Rachel's mouth went agape at how ridiculously low ball that was, trying to contain laughter. "As in "two hundred?" Is that honestly what you were going to say?!"

"Ok ok. Thre..." Holly attempted.

"Dude!" Rachel scoffed, "Try at least on the higher side of "F-f-four." At the very least. Being charitable. But I'm saying "F-f-five." As in five hundred."

"Wuh?! N-noooo." Holly whimpered, feeling she wasn't properly defending her friend against her bitchy younger sister's wild assertions.

"Y-yesh!" Rachel mocked, overemphasizing the slurred speech too in her impression. Holly felt almost like a bad friend for letting this go on. But Rachel, without taking her eyes off her, suddenly shouted up towards the ceiling, looking to push it further.

"Penny! You apparently blabber amongst the other Pennies all the time, or whatever." Rachel said callously. "How much does Holly's friend Courtney weigh? You MUST know!"

"My programming does not permit me to share & discuss such personal matters with residents." The machine defaulted.

"Hah!" Holly sharply sounded towards Rachel. It was going to stay a mystery.

"Oh c'mon! Come right the fuck on!" Rachel growled at the stupid machine. "That's BS & you know it! Yesterday, you tried to tell us she needed rest because of meds she was on or something. You didn't have problems telling us then! And you probably even have pressure plates in the floor or something to know how much we all weigh at any given time!" The last bit was more her own paranoia seeping in, but she still very much figured it to be true.

"And yesterday you said that sharing such information was something of a violation of privacy, if I remember correctly." Did Penny just snark at her?

"She's nah'tellin'!" Holly laughed, waving a finger back & forth as a taunt. Rachel rolled her eyes, accepting the dumb robot would never take her side.

"I'm not wrong." she insisted to Holly, folding her arms delicately above her tummy. "I'm guessing at least five hundred." Then again too, she wasn't really that great at estimating this sort of thing, & the number certainly felt high. Really high. But also, definitely not outside the realm of plausibility after seeing the poor girl. Holly spun in her seat sideways, effectively rolling a little closer to Rachel, & back into that slightly uncomfortable range.

"Bez-ides," she pisshawed. "Ahm not THAT bad."

"You SAY that," Rachel sighed, having been waiting for it. "And I probably would've believed you too. At least until you fuckin' housed that burger!"

"It was so -hic- gud!" Holly moaned for a brief moment, before her eyes lit up & she let out a petite gasp. "We should turn brunch into uh tradishhion!"

"Oh, so you can get it every week? A whole month's worth of calories in one fucking sitting?" Rachel rasped. "Ahm not as BAD as Courtney." Angry by her sister's mockery, Holly pounded the couch a few times, beating it with her open palms.

"Yer doing it again-uh!" She groaned. That weird valley girl punctuation she ended sentences with was a new one to Rachel, but she could feel it slowly driving her mad.

"No. YOU'RE doing it again." Rachel tried to stay calm. She could feel something of a nasty gas burble on deck & one false move would certainly rattle it out of her.

"Doing what-uh?" Holly barked.

"I don't know! Be-being a brat!" Rachel stretched.

"Ahm the oldest!" Holly countered.

"And you're still a huge brat!" Rachel countered back.

"H-yooge?!"

"You heard me!"

This exchange had gradually risen in volume line for line, leaving the silent staredown now occurring between the two of them all the more palpable. Sheer daggers, with Rachel & her arms folded & Holly, hazily trying to muster some intensity. But then, her glassy eyes darted down. In a swift motion, she reached out & put her hand over Rachel’s vulnerable tummy bulge, almost palming it. And suddenly she gave it something of a violent wobble with evil glee. Poor Rachel’s eyes shot wide.

"HOLLY!" Was all she was able to winced before "What the fu-RRRrraaaAHppp!-ck?"

"Keep hitting those toz..." Holly snickered. But her follow up wasn't as strong. "And... y-y'eah!" Rachel exhaled sharply through puckered lips, slowly trying to regain her composure. Though, at the same time, she did feel just the slightest bit better.

“I know,” Rachel eventually admitted. “I already said. Today, I fucked up to! But we can’t let ourselves KEEP fucking up.”

“S’nuh… Iz nah a “fuh-k-up” if’it makes you… -hic-... happy.” Holly smirked.

“Do I look happy right now?” Rachel scoffed, fighting off another belch. “Because I feel… miserable.” Holly sat quietly for a second. But then her hand started to reach in once again. Rachel reacted, trying to bat her hand away, but saw her demeanor was different. 

“Saw-ry. Ahm saw-ry.” She said, hovering her hand over top of Rachel’s belly bulge to give it something of a delicate air-pat. Rachel let out a deep sigh.

"Look! I'm not trying to be mean to you. Or to your friend, I just..." she followed it with another deep breath. "... I don't want THAT to happen to you."

“It won’t!” Holly’s tone slightly more argumentative than assuring.

“Good! Because we pinky-sweared... remember?” Rachel was attempting to be a little more playful. Cheery. On Holly’s usual level. “And that MEANS something, dammit!" Holly slowly started to chuckle.

“O-K,” She managed. “No more... “Wake Up Burgers,” I... guess,” continuing in something of a low key mumble/hiss. “Even though it WAS ser-i-ously delissshhhhhh.” She picked up again at her usual, slightly louder than needed volume for this conversation. “But you need to get off -hic- my ass sooo much! Jus’ lemme be, awright? Jus’ because you los’ yer baby fat, yer not sum expert, O-K?”

"Fine!" Rachel conceded. She shed the weight living in the city, walking everywhere. It didn’t just disappear. Holly made it sound a little too reductive. But they’d argued enough, & Rachel was tired of it. "I guess I'll be less of a pain in the ass about it. Maybe we don't have to be so stringent about it, I guess. But we still need to be mindful."

"You keep zayin' that." Holly sneered, disgusted a just a little. "I have a brain in my head, y'know! See? Full of mind." It was a lame joke, she’d even cop to that.

"I mean like... "Aware!" "Pay attention to what you're -hic- doing!" Not just “no Wake Up Burgers ever again.” I’m saying you can’t go ape shit all the time!"

“Scout’s hon-hic-honor.” She hiccupped, hoisting two fingers in the air. It was random & a response undoubtedly spurred on by her level of inebriation.

“Weren’t you only a Brownie?” Rachel side-eyed.

“ZzsooOoo?” Holly laughed, falling back into the couch again, & giving Rachel a bit more of the space she needed. “A scout’s z’ill a scout.” She let out a yawn, showing she was tired too. They were barely halfway through the day, & here they were: stuffed, drunk, & ready for bed. And given their current states, the sectional seemed as good a place as any. Holly’s eyelids shut as she nestled into her middle cushion of couch with a wiggle. “Ray-shel?”

“Yes, Hol.” Rachel’s own eyelids growing heavy.

“I mizz’d -hic- bickerin’ with you.” She admitted.

“I… missed bickering with you too, Hol.” Rachel softly snorted.

“Ahm glad you came.”

The stylized face on the monitor in the middle of the room was starting to get a little concerned. Over the course of the girls’ drunken discussion, it went from its base, typical smiley emotion, to more of a flat mouthed, serious expression. Sure she set the white noise generator to an optimal level, it seemed to take much longer than Penny had anticipated for both sisters to finally nod off. She did this for three reasons. One, going off their blood alcohol levels, a little sleep seemed as though it would do them a world of good. Two, for her purposes, minimizing any activity would certainly reduce harm, & optimize the net benefits of their “brunch” outing. And three, after a meal like that, a nap would give her a perfect window of opportunity to conduct one of her regular "assessments."

"Miss Holly?" She chirped pleasantly. Holly seemed to snort slightly, but was fast asleep. In fact she had something of a  snore slowly coming through in her breathing. Onset apnea? Very delicately, a mechanical arm came out & oh-so-delicately nudged Holly's left shoulder forward, repositioning her for more optimal respiration. And it seemed to do just the trick. "Miss Rachel?" Despite her very nature, Penny had a bit of trouble concealing the disdain in which she said her name. The same mechanical arm zigzagged the ceiling track to the corner nearest Rachel. It delicately picked the top right of her crossed arms up at the wrist, only to let it drop, like a wrestling referee looking to see if a combatant was conscious. Instead, it flopped onto her full belly, making the girl wince & burp a small burp in her sleep. But she too, was out. Like a light. And that’s when all the arms went to work.

Unfurling like ceramic tentacles from the ceiling above the sectional, at least a dozen arms unfolded & bore down on the girls. Two started by pushing into grab Holly by arms, gently lifting her up into more of a sitting position. While her neck seemed to roll limply,causing her head to droop, this position let her mound of belly slump freely onto her lap, allowing another two arms to do something of a scan on the bulge. Meanwhile, another arm delicately pinched at some of the excess flab on her upper shoulder, & another seemed to take her body temperature by way of an infrared thermometer. And as this went on, the others all started doing the same to Rachel. Hoisting her up, poking, prodding, assessing her while she slept off her mimosas.

Beyond perhaps maybe a little too much to drink, all vitals appeared to be within the top percentile. Not just good, but healthy. While the AI certainly had her reservations about the abrupt addition of a potentially volatile external influence to her extremely controlled environment, things weren’t deviating too far from many of the simulations she ran when this all became a possibility. It not only seemed to push the original subject beyond what seemed a point of plateauing, it seemed as though the strategy of treating this catalyst as less of a threat & more like a new, bonus acquisition was going to pan out with quite a bit of success. Despite harboring something of a poor attitude & even stubbornly avoiding the app, this new subject had even started to acclimate a full three days ahead of some of the more optimistic projections. Perhaps though, the subject wouldn’t even need the app. Perhaps just bumping up the strength on the sibling’s would be enough.

Satisfied after running a few more favorable projections in its system, the system decided that would potentially lead to several favorable outcomes & was, in fact, the way to go. Happy with these assessments, the mechanical arms returned the sister’s back to their original positions on the couch, delicately placing digits back in the exact spots they were before. Leaving both Rachel & Holly slumbering comfortably & completely unaware.

“Bee-dee-lee-boop!”

"Wha…?" Rachel moaned. She awoke in the same position she last being in on the couch. Only somehow, now? Holly wasn't. Instead of just being uncomfortably close, she was now propped up against her, head on her shoulder, effectively using her whole body weight to wedge her into the arm of the couch."Hol, what the hell?" She complained softly. Holly in turn let out something of a coo, but didn't wake up, or even budge an inch. The lighting in the room was different now, darker somehow. It made the blue blink of her phone light up the whole corner of her vision, causing her to paw for it.

Before even checking the notification… that couldn’t be right. It seemed to read 7:43. PM. Wait! They couldn’t just fall asleep for 6 & a half hours & waste an entire day! Could they? Given the orientation of the tower, it would make sense as to why the lighting was drastically different. Well that, & Penny having gotten the blinds.

“Fuck,” Was all Rachel could say quietly, but definitely not at a whisper. Despite how bad she might’ve needed to sleep things off, part of her didn’t mind Holly waking up, given all the smooshy weight bearing into the side of her, & the fact that she had a job & it was totally going to fuck up her sleep schedule. But the “Fuck” wasn’t enough to cause much of a stir. Not enough to wake her. Rachel tried giving her a slight shove. And for a second, Holly did readjust, only to bear down a little heavier & get more comfortable. For her. Not Rachel.

Just then Rachel’s phone blinked blue again. It was a friend request from an archaic social media site she forgot she was even signed up. Hell, did people still even use it any more? While most of her cool friends gave up social media years ago, the only ones she paid the slightest attention to were both Instantgraph & Tweaker. In fact, she'd even forgotten she still had the app for the archaic site on her phone. Clicking the vague notification took the app a long time to load up. Oh! It was from Deidre. She was a bit older. And definitely maybe a bit out of touch. Her being on older social media checked out. 

But wait. The picture didn’t quite look like her. The woman in the picture was maybe just a few years younger, & her hair, although pulled back, slightly longer. But she stood on top of a ridge, looking out over a luscious green vista of shorter rolling hills, as if she had hiked her way up there & took the picture to mark the occasion. She was also much thinner. Well, not so much thin, like a runner in the case of “old Holly.” But much more athletically built for sure. Definitely a lot more toned. Like she could kick your ass if she wanted. A slight midriff revealed tight abs, a far cry from the lumpy roll of flesh she sported there today. But given that the photo seemed a bit older, maybe she was just sporting a mild case of office & “ladies’ night”-induced late twenties/early thirties spread. Like a gain to be sure, but something much more milder, far less rapid than whatever Holly was going through anyway. She clicked accept, bringing her to Deidre’s profile.

She saw a lot of the same info she’d gleaned or guessed from before. Minnesota. 31. Sisters, with nieces & nephews. Seemingly bi, at least. Working backwards from the present, there was a “life event,” that simply said “Moved to The Bellflower in Oakmont” on October 23rd. Wait! Another photo. From last Autumn. October 6th, precisely. It looked like Deidre competing in one of those messy/triathlon/obstacle course type weekend events. And the woman in the photo was the same, toned athlete from the profile picture, not the soft, mostly demure woman she shared tots with hours ago. So her gain WAS like Holly’s after all? Sudden, fairly rapid. She tried to follow it into her photo album, hoping to find some picture of her in the intervening months. It looked like there were several dozen, but that they were all taken during some holiday event back home with her family. So from early October, that would put them at Late December. They were mostly ones she was tagged in. And during the Christmas party, she wore an ironically kitschy sweater. All the sisters in her family seemed to. Their mom too. The sweaters were too bulky to make out much, but Rachel could already start to see it in her face. In the triathlon photo, it was lean, determined. In one of the Christmas ones Rachel clicked on at random, Deidre had two sugar cookies in one hand, with a singular large bite sunk through both & what looked like an eggnog in the other. But her face was round, her cheeks puffy, & with a guilty expression played up for laughs. It was seemingly posted by her sister Blanche, with the caption “Well I’m glad someone liked my cookies this year.” And as Rachel scrolled through, photo after photo, she couldn’t find a picture of Deidre without food in her hand. Usually cookies, but sometimes just holiday chocolate. She must’ve gorged herself silly that night! Hup! Suddenly there it was, a photo where Deidre was sat on the couch, the mound of a round belly cinching against even the bulky sweater material. It wasn’t unlike her own from earlier. Which reminded her. She took her eyes off her phone for a moment to look down.

It was still a bit sore, but it seemed like most of what was in there had digested. It didn’t stick out as far, but at the same time, it hadn’t entirely gone away. Giving it a gentle poke, it was way less firm, but just a bit squishier than she had hoped. She wondered if it even would go away. Or if it was… just there now. Of course it would go away! What was she even saying? She just needed a decent jog! Yeah! She’d go for a jog! Maybe not tonight, but the first opportunity she had! Whether she could coax Holly’s fat ass into one or not, it didn’t matter. She was a “grown up” after all.  But yeah! A Jog! And after that jog? Definitely some crunches! And also? She really didn’t like thinking about it. She couldn’t admit it as bluntly, but there was something a little more comforting that came with the detached view of seeing it happen to someone else instead of acknowledging it happening to herself. Which is why she went back onto her phone.

The Christmas stuff seemed to go on forever. It looked like they had fun, but the type of family holiday gathering that would just make Rachel feel anxious & weird. Having noticed her belly starting to sprout in that one photo, she started zipping through them with finger swipes until suddenly she found another random photo a week later. It looked like a New Years thing. Out at a club. Or whatever lame, sort of “basic bitch” 31 year-old version of a club for corporate drones was. Wait! Oh shit! After trying to follow Deidre & her plumpening through photos, she recognized her first, filling out a little black dress a little awkwardly, creating muffin-like bulges in a few places. But then realized she was standing next to a skinnier Regina, from the other night, a much less curvy Veronica & Andrea, & holy shit! Courtney! She was practically half her current size, maybe a little further along than where Deidre was now.  And it was as if they were all reacting to something funny she had said or did. And just behind Courtney was… Holy Shit! A mostly THIN Holly! Rachel clawed for the photo details. December 31st alright. Roughly six month ago.

Rachel let her phone drop as she looked over at her chubby sister. Had she really almost doubled her weight in the space of just half a year? Did all of these girls? Hell, did Courtney?!

"Uuunnnnnggggghhhhh" Holly moaned. She felt what seemed like Rachel jumping underneath her, almost like her sudden noise had scared her sister. Who at someone she ended up resting on? But Holly was mostly distracted by the feeling of her head ready to cave in on itself. "Why in d'-hic-hell... did you let me drink so... much?" Rachel wrestled to put her phone away quickly. It was almost as if she was guilty of something but Holly was too sore to press her on it.

“I… I tried to…” Rachel’s fumbling continued, even after her phone’s screen was off. This new information was staggering to her. But at the same time, the last thing she wanted to do was start that whole “talk” over again. But the worry & dread made talking to Holly difficult. That’s when Penny intervened.

“May I be of some assistance?”

“Oh, Penny!” Holly moaned, struggling to get upright. “Know of any decent hangover cures?!” Out from under Holly’s weight, Rachel took a deep breath. She was too in her own head to hear the actual response the AI offered. But she started seeing robotic arms unfurling across the way in the Kitchen. She was going to make food. And Rachel, once again, was feeling hungry. But also? She didn’t think she could be here right now. She shot up to her feet suddenly. “What’s your deal?” A groggy Holly asked, rubbing her face & clenching her eyes from few bits of the light in the room. Rachel started digging through her bag. Putting on the other day’s shorts & a t-shirt instead of the skirt & blouse from earlier. She did this haphazardly. Almost a little frantic.

“Uh… out!” She muttered, seeming miles away. “I ha… I just have to go. Out.”

“Oh.” Holly murmured. Rachel looked at her & they locked eyes for a second. “Well, ok…” The older sister managed. Still waking up, something about the way she slouched seemed to make her look a little rounder. Bigger. Her bulges just the slightest bit bulgier. It made Rachel more uncomfortable. But instead of saying anything, she just grabbed her laptop. And her charger, upon realizing it probably wasn’t even fully charged at the moment. “Is everything, alright?” Holly called after her.

“I…” Rachel said, stopping in front of the corridor by the table. “I don’t even… I don’t know.” Before continuing, she heard the AI.

“Your eggs, Miss Holly.”