Bellflower Part 37 (Patreon)

 In this installment, Holly tries to reach out, but gets a surprise text. And Rachel is feeling overwhelmed.

Sorry it's so late & a bit on the short side. Don't know if you're aware, but the world's been kind of crazy lately! But to be fair, I fell a bit behind before that even.

At the moment, I'm going to be at home, & so far, I feel fine! Other than trying to share the space, I should hopefully have a lot more time to work in the next week or so, & hope to utilize that.

I had planned something differently to do in this part originally but I'm going to hold off for just a few. This one is more of a segue at the moment, but I figure it was better to check in & continue again very soon. Anyway, sorry for the gap! Stay safe, everybody!

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37

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“-Urp-oooohhhhhhhh,” Holly groaned, before leaning back & sinking deeper into her spot on the couch. Which was kind of remarkable given how heavy she felt.

“Was it to your liking, Miss Holly?” Penny chirped, already knowing the answer full well.

“Oh. Of course.” Holly hazily strung together the words disjointedly, after not anticipating having to talk. “Like… always.” She instinctively squeezed a loose fist, applying the knuckle of her index finger up to her lips to keep in a burp. Internalizing it made her whole body jostle uncomfortably. After a second’s recovery, she continued. “I’m just… It was so good. But so… so much. Heh, I don’t think I can… -urp- move.”

“Well, it is your day off after all. You do not have to move if you do not wish to.” Penny purred persuasively.

“Thanks,” Holly flapped her wrist with a smirk. “In that case I think I won’t!” Following it with a soft little hum of a giggle, she let her arm droop onto her stomach. Gently with an exhale, as not to disturb its sensitive contents.
“Is there anything else I can get for you?” Penny seemed happy to oblige.

“No! Please!” the urgency made Holly let out a slight “urp,” before continuing half-jokingly “I’ll pop!”

“As long as you are content, Miss Holly,” Penny chirped, with a begrudged subtext too subtle for Holly to pick up on. Especially in this moment. “Should that change, please let me know.”

“Oh you know I will.” Holly smiled, her belly rising beneath her heavy arm with another long, but relaxed breath.

She’d must’ve watched this specific episode of House Seekers at least four times already. She remembered being particularly annoyed about the boyfriend’s dismay when it came to the wallpaper in the second bathroom of the overall extremely cute bungalow that the girlfriend seemed to really like best, & how much that seemed to figure into their decision to go with the third option: a generic suburban mcmansion instead. Holly remembered arguing at the TV at least twice “It’s wallpaper! You can just peel it off, jackass!” She was just about to instruct Penny to change it, feeling just a wee bit too stuffed, & well, frankly, just plain lazy to reach the five feet it would take her to reach the remote sitting on her coffeetable. But that was when a graphic for the girlfriend came up, coming back from the commercial break. “Courtnee.” With two “E’s.”

But Holly’s thoughts immediately turned to her friend Courtney, spelled in the more regular configuration. They hadn’t even talked since that phone call, weeks ago. Courtney had never reached back out again, like she said she would. At the same time, after hearing things were okay, Holly hadn’t really given her friend a lot of thought either in the ensuing weeks. She came up in that awkward toast at Ladies’ Night but otherwise? Nadda. And suddenly, Holly felt kind of bad.

It was like she had been distracted with everything going on with… work? Wait. Work hadn’t been that crazy. Sure they had to all pitch in to pick up Courtney’s slack but it wasn’t like the workload was all that heavy. Holly sat there, sinking further into her couch, wondering what could’ve been so much of a distraction. Why hadn’t she given Courtney a second thought? In weeks? It was almost like some sort of out of sight, out of mind thing where she just didn’t seem to come up. She suddenly felt terrible & wiggled to shimmy her phone out of the tight pocket of her incredibly snug flannel pajama pants. She’d solve that right now! With a text!

She had been finding it harder & harder to use her phone recently. It seemed like whenever she tried to do one thing, three things would open. There must’ve been an update or something where the buttons got a lot smaller! After some fiddling, she went to her texts, only she couldn’t find the ongoing chain she had with her friend. It was like it just suddenly wasn’t there? Holly’s brow lowered slightly. She hit the home button to back out, going back through her contacts instead. Strangely, it took three passes, back & forth each time for her to realize there was no listing. There was suddenly no sign of Courtney in her phone! Did she get deleted somehow? With that update? And less at the forefront of her mind, behind that shield of denial she maintained, part of Holly began to wonder if maybe she had accidentally fat-fingered the wrong thing & deleted her by mistake. But then she suddenly had a brainwave! She went back to the Ladies Night group text. Courtney HAD to be included in that! And even if she wasn’t in her phone any more, her number would be included in the- It wasn’t there. Andrea, Camille, Deidre, Regina, even Veronica. But weirdly… no Courtney! And scrolling further & further back, there were responses to things she knew Courtney had said. There was a response, but no text from Courtney, making the thread lose all sense. She didn’t realize how panicked her expression was becoming, & Penny almost startled her.

“Is something the matter, Miss Holly?” The AI asked a calm but also slightly pointed way.

“Oh it’s sooo weird.” She started, waving the phone in her palm. “I just wanted to send Cour-”

Her phone blipped with a notification all of a sudden, pulling her attention mid-sentence. A text. From Mom? Instead of finishing that sentence, she felt compelled to hit the bar at the top of her screen.

“R U & Rach fighting again?” Her mother shorthanded. Holly suddenly realized she hadn’t really been in much contact with her recently either. Their weekly phone calls with one another had just seemed to drop off too. God, what was happening to her? Was she becoming a shut-in? Like Rachel growing up? “Y?” she followed up.

“Hello 2 U 2.” Holly kicked back first, before adding. “No more than usual. She hasn’t been around 2 much TBH” Almost immediately the floating ellipses started to bob as her mom was responding in real time.

“Hi.” She added briefly, with more ellipses. “Asking Bc she sent me this:” The text sat there for a second on its own. A colon without an immediate follow up. Holly was curious, but it was her day off & holding her phone up was a lot  of work. At least too much for her right now, it being such a lazy day & all. But the phone blipped again with another notification as she let it drop halfway down.

“Ech,” Holly lifted it back up, annoyed. As expected, it was an image attachment. Holly was shocked her mother was able to figure it out, but tapped it all the same. In the tiny thumb, she could make out her light pink sweats. But…

The photo filled her phone screen. It was her pink sweats. And her old marathon t-shirt that was always a tent on her. She remembered wearing them the other night. And it was on her couch, in her living room, in her condo. Very likely taken from a position her sister Rachel would have been sitting, or maybe laying. All of it seemed so familiar. And the woman who seemed to be the subject of the photo, taking up so much of its real estate, had her same blonde hair, put up in the same kind of messy bun before bed she always did even. But Holly, for the life of her, could not recognize the person. They were just… too big!

Rachel couldn’t shake the tense feeling that had persisted ever since her phone call. Her drink didn’t help. Her brownie didn’t help. And that second brownie she got to go on the way out didn’t really help much either. All she was trying to do was try & get someone else to help intervene with her sister. To get help opening Holly’s eyes, so she could see just what it was she was doing to herself, before it was too late! And what did she get for her effort? Just a lot of raw, complicated emotions getting dug up & laid bare.

She knew it was dangerous for her to go back to the Condo, within any proximity to Holly, especially in her current mood. She’d likely clear out at least half the fridge again. That is if Holly hadn’t already herself. But also, being out in public wasn’t much better. Not in this current headspace. And if her emotions weren’t enough, that second, ineffectual brownie weighed heavily on her mind as well. Which was why her pace was hastened, even though she had no particular place to be. Her steps seemed to be with purpose, but really, she was just trying to not completely break down. 

She was TRYING to help! And instead? She was basically, wait, no, literally just called a big, fat liar for it! For all her trouble! And, yeah, okay! Her relationship with Holly over the years? Maybe it always had been a bit tumultuous. But that didn’t mean that she ever wanted anything terrible happening to Holly! After all, they were sisters! Holly was there to help her when she needed it! All she wanted to do was return the favor! Before Holly ended up just like Courtney, or who knows precisely however many other tenants. Why was it seemingly so fucking impossible?!

“Hey you!” 

So entirely in her own head, Rachel almost didn’t hear it at first. But as it slowly dawned on her that she might have been the “you” in question, she froze. She first became aware of her surroundings again, realizing she must’ve looped the whole shopping center in her angry daze. At this point, she was right back outside the coffeeshop again, only this time, having approached from the other angle.

“You okay? You look a little...”

Right. The voice. Rachel’s neck spun confused, trying to find its source.

“Rachel, over here.” It giggled, mousily. That’s when Rachel recognized the voice, & saw Camille. “What’s up? You look… stressed.” She asked before taking a dip sip of her cappuccino, the foam sitting on her upper lip. She didn’t seem too concerned with the way her chubby frame filled out her navy colored sundress. But under the table, she pushed the empty chair across from her out with her foot & nodded to it sharply.

Rachel, clenching her eyes for a second took a deep breath before joining the mousy rich girl.

Holly couldn’t deny it. 

Every context clue in the world was screaming that the secretly taken candid photograph was of her. Heck, even the face, caught in profile, seemed close. Puffy, but close. But... it just couldn’t be! The woman was way, way, way too… big! And far too round! The way her ass stretched the pink sweats, straining their seams? The bulge of the girl’s belly? Making that once huge t-shirt unable to cover all of it? Hell, the chins? Plural?! It… it… wasn’t her! It couldn’t be! And yet? Who else could it have been? It had to be her. And as the realization slowly started to set in, the shock became overwhelming.

Holly knew full well she hadn’t really been making the healthiest choices lately. And whenever she could, Rachel was always keen to remind her. The way she had outgrown some of her favorite items of clothing? How she seemed to be eating like, all of the time? She knew she had gotten a bit fat. But not… this fat. And round! And just plain… bulgy! She was having trouble processing it.

“Hello?” a follow up text from her mother popped up, followed by more dots. Holly fought off the tears in her eyes, awaiting the next message. “I couldn’t believe she would photoshop U like that! After U took her in!” Holly bit her lip & thought for a second, before smashing her thumbs on the keypad. 

“Yeah,” she started. “Photoshop!” Responding to their mother. But really, it was Rachel who she couldn’t wait to talk to!