Across The Way (Patreon)

A vignette that started as a warmup while working on this last Bellflower chapter. In some ways, it’s a little more adult than some of my other stuff, & includes a bit of voyeurism, more as just a different device I don’t think I’ve seen in an inflation story before. 

This is just a quickie as I continue to work on art. I have a bigget project I need to bang out for my dayjob tonight & tomorrow but a relatively free weekend after that, so stay tuned, & keep your eyes peeled.

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“Hello?” Mia called out upon entering the door, arms full with bags from the co-op. “Payton? You home?” Having gone a little overboard with groceries this time around, she could’ve really used a hand. Besides, it wasn’t like her roommate ever really pitched in with the shopping. Or utilities. Or rent usually. Least she could do is help her when she needed it. Instead…

“Mia! Get in here,” She heard a voice that was laughing but mixed with a rasp of measure. As if her roommate was trying to modulate her usual, boisterous volume. “Come quick!”

“Where… are you…?” Mia looked around inquisitively, setting the bags down one by one, careful not to crush the eggs. While she didn’t make as much effort to speak quietly, she did become aware of another voice letting out a snide chortle, punctuated by a barely audible “Omigosh.” After a long day at the office & lugging four totes of groceries a handful of blocks, the last thing Mia felt like doing was entertaining company. She kicked off her stubby heels, letting them fall where they may.

“My room, ya dingus!” The ‘where else’ inferred by Payton’s impatient tone. “Hurry!” She said, halfway dropping the pretense of whispering. Mia realized it should’ve been obvious. The whole apartment took on that all-too familiar skunky burnt smell. The same one whenever Payton left her door even part way open. She could almost see the acrid clouds looming out of it. Not that Mia was that much of a prude or anything but Payton partook constantly & like, shared space, y’know? “C’mon! C’mon!” Her roommate rushed.

“I have groceries, dude!” Mia let her growing annoyance be known, pulling a carton of oat milk out of the one tote she got from her last work conference. The snickering coming from the smoky room down the hall only intensified seemingly independent of her reaction. Mia looked to see a wide eyed Payton poke her head out, trying to contain her giggles.

“Groceries can wait! You’re totally missing it!” She gave an insistent, beckoning wave, & finally the curiosity got the better of Mia. With a sigh, she at least put the eggs in the fridge & begrudgingly trudged down their hallway, into the cloud of dank, smoky air.

Their apartment was all new construction & halfway nicely decorated, even if everything was cheap as hell, given the unfortunate location. The way things were set up, Mia’s bedroom, at the end of the hall, overlooked the front of the building, out along Sixth Street. But Peyton’s looked out the side of the building. And just alongside of the building, nestled into a little gulley of mostly concrete, sat the commuter rail line, coming in from the suburbs. In fact, she usually tried to blame being that close to the trains as a way to weasel out of paying her full share of the rent. Mia never budged on the issue, considering the whole ten feet of difference & front facing windows didn’t really make her situation all the better. But it never stopped Payton from trying. In fact, if Payton’s sister, Mia’s friend & first roommate didn’t up & move on account of her company relocating to Kuala Lumpur, this whole ‘friendship of convenience’ would’ve never happened organically. And it probably wasn’t going to last the next few months when the lease came to be renewed.

“What?” Mia asked plainly, holding so much contempt for whatever it was, she asked “What am I looking at?” amidst a long blink as she entered the room. It didn’t help that when she did open them, Payton’s room was a disaster. The ‘Damn B, you live like this?’ meme come to life, only with more of the clutter being tye-dyed, making everything even more of a visual cacophony.

Every corner Mia looked into seemed like money she wasn’t getting back on her deposit. And just generally speaking, there was hardly any chance of ever getting that weed smell out. Nevermind that one skirt Mia let her borrow months ago, crumpled up underneath a pile of Payton’s month-old dirty laundry. As Mia noticed Payton’s company, she didn’t know whether to feel embarrassed for letting part of their apartment be this gross, or kind of disgusted that this person didn’t seem to mind Payton’s superfund site of a bedroom.

“Oh god, what are they doing now?” The visitor snickered without looking up.

“Look!” Payton waved Mia in further, from her vantage point at the window. Her & her friend were peeking through either end of her drawn Venetian blinds. Mia could see the built up dust on each slat from across the room. In her stocking feet, she regretted taking her heels off, even if her dogs were a-barkin’. It would’ve offered at least some kind of protection from whatever could be lurking in Payton’s never-vacuumed throw rug. She hesitantly stepped over a pile of Payton’s clothes & shoes to get a closer look at whatever it was they were so giddy to watch.

“Where am I looking?” Mia asked with a begrudging sigh as she stepped over more junk to swap places with Payton, inadvertently bumping into her dresser. A loose pile of books toppled but Payton didn’t seem to mind.

“Across the way.” She snickered. “Don’t worry, you won’t be able to miss it! Just… don’t be too conspicuous.”

Mia placed a delicate finger under one of the slats of Payton’s grubby blinds, lifting it just enough to create an eyehole & peek through. At this point, she figured these stoners had seriously overhyped whatever it could possibly be, as her eyes adjusted to the stark early evening light of outside. Everything was warm & golden.

Across the gulley & the train tracks that sat in it, another large condominium sat lateral to their building. The sort of 5-over-1 style mixed use monocultural abominations that pop up everywhere these days. But whereas their building had these smaller side windows, the condos had large, floor-to-ceiling, glass sliding doors that led to short, mini balconies, allowing them an almost unimpeded view directly into the unit across the tracks from them.

The glass doors immediately across the way peered into what looked like a pretty nice living room, with slightly upscale, but by no means luxurious furniture. Its track lighting seemed halfway dimmed, but things were lit enough to give her a pretty clear view.

The motion that caught Mia’s eye first was the back side of what looked like a brown haired man’s head, bobbing in a kind of circular motion. You could easily see he was pretty toned, given the shirt he wasn’t wearing. As Mia looked closer, she realized he was pretty low to the ground, as if on his knees, &… burying his face between a pair of thick, yet feminine legs, into what seemed like a nude woman’s crotch.

The reason she didn’t immediately identify the man’s partner was the stark, unorthodox shape of her midsection. Because as the woman slouched backwards on their deep, pleather sofa, an impossibly round, swollen belly jut almost directly straight up in front of her. It overwhelmed the woman’s entire lap, spreading pretty far laterally as well. Stretched tightly, it was taut & firm looking, bobbing, sometimes from her partner’s motion, other times, her own quakes of ecstacy. The way her tummy dominating her from this angle, there were only a few glimpses at the woman’s face between the bobs, disappearing behind large, perky breasts. If it wasn’t for her messy bun poking out on top of her head, there would’ve hardly been anyway to tell she was a redhead.

As the full scene started to come together for her, Mia felt the blood starting to enter her cheeks. For as straightlaced & prudish as she may have seemed? Mia was something of a connoisseur when it came to women with bellies. But being a much more diligent & fastidious person than her roommate, she was always keen to delete her browser history. Not necessarily pregnancy so much, but the shape came pretty close to what it was she often fantasized about. Wait, there was no way on Earth that Payton knew, was there? Internally, she panicked, but forced a sort of look of almost disgusted nonchalance.

“So we were just like… sitting here,” Their guest explained, after allowing enough time for Mia to have gotten a good look. “We had the blinds open, & Payton looked, & we noticed they were just like… going to town on one another!” Mia slowly tried to look in the guest’s direction, but had a hard time looking away. She also felt a bit self-conscious of her reddening cheeks. “We drew the blinds to not be as apparent about it. I’m Sumi by the way.”

“Mia,” Mia said sharply, partly not wanting to miss what her neighbors would do next.

“Sumi’s new at the shop,” Payton explained.

“Great,” Mia said, a bit tired with there always being someone new at the shop. There was always a strange new miscreant in her home. “So what’s the big deal?” She went on to try & downplay. “They’re being intimate, & she’s like… really pregnant?” Mia tried to summarize. “Really, really pregnant.” She admitted, imagining she must’ve been carrying twins, just hours away from entering the world. That’s reason enough for you two to creep on them?” She muttered but continued to gawk for herself. “Just let them have a last bit of fun before their babies arrive.” She tried to sound sympathetic, despite not looking away. “Could be the last sexy-time they have for months!”

“Oh! No!” Payton giggled. “No, you’re coming in late. She didn’t start things off looking preggers like that. She wasn’t pregnant at all. Look closer!” Her roommate instructed. Mia scrunched her face, a bit befuddled. The woman seemed far too large to not be extremely pregnant. That’s when the guest decided to chime in & help her out.

“You see that tank?” Sumi directed softly. “Off to the left there?” From his crouching position, the man bounced back on the balls of his feet, revealing what seemed like a helium tank sat next to their couch, just off to the other side of them. The sort of tank you’d find at a child’s birthday. For balloons. Only this one had a hose, leading from the nozzle, with the other end of which, winding around & running into the man’s hand.

Mia tried to suppress a knowing, excited gasp, but couldn’t prevent her eyes from widening.

The man, delicately, lovingly, stroked the woman’s belly, & seemed to ask her something. Struggling to find as much purchase as she could, the woman tried sitting up on her elbows to look over the crest of her belly. The way it seemed to jostle now, made the swollen parts of her almost seem a little… weightless. Firm, but light. She mouthed something in response, bit her plump lip & gave a straining, yet giddy, eager nod. The man gave the lower underside of her belly a light peck of a kiss before outstretching his arm to unkink the hose. Her knuckle curled as she gripped into the blanket of her couch & she seemed to brace herself as the man plugged the end of the hose somewhere below her distended stomach, & reached to open the nozzle.

Mia could see the rubber stiffen & contract just an instant before the woman threw her head back & started to writhe in place. She seemed to be racked with overwhelming ecstasy, outstretched fingers caressing the sides of her dome like middle. Mia swore she could see it pushing her fingers even wider apart. Watching so intently, she almost yelped herself.

“It’s not that they’re just fucking.” Her roommate butt-in crudely, interrupting Mia’s vicarious immersion. “Over the last half hour or so, he’s preceded to blow her up like some kind of fucking parade float!”

“Buh- balloon,” Mia corrected, pedantically, trying to conceal how red her face was getting by refusing to look anywhere but the neighbors’ direction. Her explanatory tone was unwittingly almost emotionless. “Floats are just cars with some paper mache & extra junk thrown on them. He’s… inflating her like… a balloon.”

“Yeah.” Sumi said in a giggling murmur. “Like a blimp.” Sumi knew not what she was doing. Now Mia was biting her own lip, inhaling deeply through her nose & catching way too much skunky air, leading to a cough.

“Parade what-ever.” Payton shrugged off, seemingly taking note of Mia’s strange behavior but not prodding. At least not now. “He’s pumping a fuckton of air into her & she’s just so… into it. It’s crazy.”

“It’s not as crazy as you think,” Was the kneejerk response Mia bit back between her teeth. But no. She couldn’t! Instead, she opted to remain silent, & just watched intently as her neighbor across the way grew bigger & rounder. “She’s… big…” was all she was eventually able to mutter.

“Right…?” Payton laughed, still only at about forty percent of her normal volume, despite the windows being shut tight & a train gulley between them.

“And he’s pumping her more.” Sumi commentated for Payton. “Holy fuck! She’s getting massive!”

“Oh god! I gotta see!” Payton announced, pushily trying to muscle her way back in. Mia had to give over a few inches. She was worried that at such a proximity, her roommate would notice she was almost trembling now.

She had only ever dreamt of this sort of a scenario. Fantasized about it with strangers on the internet. But watching as her neighbor’s midsection grew larger & rounder? She almost wanted to use Payton being behind on the rent as a reason to lock herself in this room to watch this all unfold, all to herself, unimpeded. Would there be some other opportunity to sneak in & try to catch them in the act later? No it was too goddamn gross. She wondered if she could maybe catch a peek from the living room? No, the angle would be all wrong. All she knew was she could hardly contain herself as Payton wiggled in closer. Silently, Mia struggled to push back & get a better view.

With so much of it having pushed to the front of her, now the air within the woman across the way seemed to slowly overtake the rest of her, as everything from under her breasts to her nethers seemed to be part of the same growing sphere. Hell, even her partner had to hold the hose as it seemed like her swelling asscheeks started to lift her slightly higher off the couch. Her legs seemed to be lifting with them, her heels looking as though they weren’t touching the ground as easily, the fuller & stiffer her joints got. The man still needed to guide the end of the hose as now, running out of places to go, things seemed to start swelling towards him. Even when she rocked, the woman’s face had disappeared entirely from view. The messy bun of red hair was even starting to fade from view, the rounder she got.

If Mia had first peered in on her now, she never would’ve mistaken the redhead as pregnant. And far too round to just be fat. Now, this was precisely like those stories & pictures on the internet.

“Yo, your neighbors are straight fuh-reaks!” Sumi cut the silence with a jittery laugh. Mia exhaled sharply. “How can she hold all of that?”

“She isn’t like… gonna explode, right…?” Payton asked, suddenly seeming a little concerned, as the woman’s knees seemed to grow too stiff to bend. They started to stretch outright to either side of the woman’s partner.

“I… hope… not.” Mia stammered, trying to not sound weird. But totally sounding weird. Luckily Sumi didn’t seem to pick up on it & cut the silence before Payton could.

“Yo, or queef a fuckton.” She chortled crudely. “Fuck, could you imagine?”

“Oh gawd,” Payton buckled, partly amused, partly disgusted. “She’ll start & never stop. Just like, the world’s longest-“ Payton pantomimed deflation with a drawn out, tip-of-her tongue raspberry. When she did it, she shimmied, & unwittingly rocked the blinds.

“Watch it!” Mia shrieked. Even though the man was facing the other way, & the woman’s eyeline was out of view, she panicked that the motion would draw too much attention & bring an abrupt end to the show.

Payton, instead, interpreted it as Mia being grossed out by the idea of their balloon neighbor’s prolonged gas-passing.

“Oh, don’t act like you’ve never!” She scoffed. “I live with you, remember…”

“No!” Mia contested angrily. “I mean-“

“Yo, why is your face so red…?” Sumi finally noticed. “Are you… okay?”

“I…” Mia stuttered, only growing redder. She forced her face back forward. “I’M FINE.” She insisted sternly.

Across the way, the woman’s legs were looking less like legs. So much air was filling her body, they were becoming fat, cone-like stumps, as her crotch had pushed to the point where it basically was sitting between her knees. And from her “laying” position, it had also risen about three feet higher than where she started as well.

“This is like a fucking cartoon, man!” Payton said, sheepishly watching Mia as much as she seemed to be watching across the way. “She’s so fucking round.”

“I was joking about the queef,” Sumi nervously chortled. “But I hope she doesn’t like… pop! No way she has that much more room in her.”

Mia watched as the woman’s sausage-like toes flexed & wiggled, her roundness expanding to meet her feet. It was a motion that seemed less out of concern, & more curious to see what she could still possibly move. After all, she was getting to be as round as she was tall.

“She’s like a fucking ball at this point!” Payton laughed, stating the obvious.

“Don’t pop don’t pop don’t pop don’t pop don’t pop don’t pop don’t pop” Sumi seemed to mantra, skittishly starting to look away.

“I think- she knows what she’s doing…” Mia said under her breath. After another few seconds, her swollen body started to press out past her feet, causing them to dimple into the corners of her round figure.

Once again, her toes wiggled. This motion seemed a little sharper than the last time. The man leaned to hurriedly turn off the nozzle. The hose went limp.

“Oh thank, fuck!” Sumi sighed.

“Thing seemed like they were about to get messy.” Payton laughed, but the relief present in her own voice as well. Mia stayed quiet, her eyes wide, taking in every detail.

The fleshy sphere, tilted back on the deep-seated sofa heaved after what seemed like a few deep breaths. Its partner retracted the hose & wheeled the tank a foot or two further away. He seemed to be clearing a bit of room, also giving their coffee table a bit of a shove. He approached the sphere again, giving the area near what must’ve been a very tender clit, a bit of a tickle. The sphere shimmied in place, helpless to do anything about it but quiver. He seemed to laugh & Mia had never in her life, felt so turned on by an interaction between two people in her life. She nearly fainted on the spot. At least before he started to run his hands up along what was the woman’s belly. He seemed to be trying to coax her forward, tilting her off the couch as if to roll her. Mia finally let out a soft, unintelligible yelp, as slowly, the round woman’s upper body & head came back into view of the sliding glass doors. Luckily, her present company was in a likewise amount of shock.

“Holy fuck!” Sumi gasped. “Look at her!”

“She’s… gigantic.” Payton speechlessly muttered.

Upon reaching a “face to face,” upright position with the man, the woman seemed to try & touch the ground with her feet. It wasn’t happening. She bobbed futilely in place, the man needing to snag her before she keeled over, onto her side. The couple both seemed to share a laugh about it. Mia was taking deep, sharp breaths between her teeth.

“Yo!” Payton finally noticed. “What is up with you?!”

Her outburst, once again, shook the blinds. This time however, completely within the spherical woman’s eyeline. She looked directly in their direction, & suddenly she seemed to gasp.

“Nuh-“ was all Mia was able to exhale before the man turned around, & looked in their direction. He sneered & dove for the cord. In a millisecond, the blinds on their side seemed to close shut.

“I think they finally noticed us…” Sumi laughed.

“You-!” A frustrated Mia growled in Payton’s direction. She wasn’t sure what to say.

“Me…?” Payton shrieked. “What the FUCK?” Her contempt almost seemed to become jovial. “Oh my gawd! Look at how fucking flushed you are! Holy shit!” She laughed, slapping her thighs. “You were totally fucking into that, weren’t you?”

“I…” Mia’s expression stiffened. She tried to. Unblush the best she could, just mentally. “I don’t know what you’re fuckin’ talkin abo-“

“You were!” Payton cackled. “Holy shit!”

“Was not!” Mia lied, before immediately stomping out of Payton’s room. It was only a few further paces until the door to Mia’s room slammed.

“Nice meeting you.” Sumi announced after her, with almost perfect comedic timing. She waited another beat before turning to Payton at a normal volume. “And what, are you really going to sit here & pretend like that wasn’t hot as fucking hell?”