The Culinary School Spooktacular (Patreon)

Hello all! This is a Halloween story that I started last year, but never managed to finish until now! I worked very hard on this, so I'd really appreciate it if you could give it a read and let me know what you think! However it's quite long, so I apologize if it's hard to get through.

Also, as a disclaimer, because I started it last year, this takes place before any of the comic pages with Nat, Chloe, and Halie! I hope that doesn't confuse anyone too much.

Also also, special thanks to  Undertaker33 and Just_Somedude for reviewing the story beforehand!

Undertaker33:

https://www.deviantart.com/undertaker33 

https://www.patreon.com/Undertaker33/posts

 Just_Somedude: 

https://www.deviantart.com/just-somedude 

And that's all, hope you all enjoy!

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A young woman threw herself against her bedroom dresser, wheezing desperately for air as she leaned over the cold wooden surface. Her legs burned, her chest was sore, and the cry of the outside wind was nothing but a hollow hum in her beating eardrums.

She stared blankly forward, focused beyond her reflection in the wall mirror. Past the glazed-over blue eyes obscured by clumps of matted red hair. Past the once-vibrant red dress tarnished with patches of green and brown, Past the ghostly pale face dripping with sweat, coated with dirt, and stained with deep crimson drops of fresh blood.

Ferocious knocks erupted from the door behind her, slamming the hatch against its housing. The hinges whined as the portal boomed, but all was drowned out by the furious beating of the woman’s heart.

Her eyes darted to the door. It was locked, but how long could it last? The doorknob rattled, gripped by the creature on the other side. The room trembled, an echo of their furious strikes against the threshold. It could give way at any moment. It would come crashing down and then-

The rattling ceased.

An unyielding tide of silence washed over the room. Even the wind was silent, leaving only the sound of blood pumping from the woman’s heaving chest ringing in her ears.

She gripped her dresser, hardly able to hold herself steady. Her eyes watched the door reflected in the mirror behind her.

It was then that the creature spoke. A voice that chilled the woman’s rushing blood, repeating a familiar phrase in an increasingly husky tone:

“Nat, c’mon, hurry up! We’re already running late!” Chloe whined. The room shook again as she stomped her leg in frustration. “You’ve still gotta do my makeup, you know!”

“I-I’m coming, hold on!” Nat managed to speak between tight breaths. She clamored over to the door, turning the lock and opening it a crack. The top of Chloe’s fat head filled the space, eyes scanning the panting woman before her.

“Christ, you sound like you just ran a marathon, what’s wrong with you?”

“Th...the dress was pretty difficult to get on,” Nat responded, finally regaining some composure over herself. At a decent helping over three hundred pounds, a lot of things had become ‘pretty difficult’ for her. “I’m finished though, if you’d like me to do your makeup now.”

Nat stepped back, letting the door open a bit further and feeling Chloe’s eyes immediately scan her body. It made her feel very aware of how her belly puffed with each labored pant.

“Good,” the peering head said absently. “I’ve gotta be honest, I thought your ‘Little Dead Rotting Hood’ idea was stupid as hell, but you managed to make it look cool.”

“Thanks,” Nat said, brushing past the comment’s back-handedness. “I’m sure it makes you feel better about your costume then, right?”

“Hardly…” Chloe muttered, letting the door swing open and revealing her nearly four hundred and fifty pound frame to her slowly recovering roommate.

She was wearing a fuzzy gray dress stretched tight over her bust and middle, reaching down to just above her knees. Attached to the dress at the collar and bottom were large clumps of long artificial fur, which managed to make her look even puffier than usual.

An impressive feat.

The dress had sleeves, constricting Chloe’s fat arms like furry gray sausages, and on her fingers she wore long black acrylic nails filed to look like claws. Her lower legs were covered in more of the long fur, and she wore large monster paw shoes.

“Your version of the character, you’re the monster, right? So why did I have to be a freaking wolf? It makes no sense!”

“Because you’re still in the story!” Nat exclaimed. “You, a werewolf, eat my grandmother, and I, the recently-deceased granddaughter, rise from the dead to take revenge!” She paused, eyes glancing towards Chloe’s titanic middle. “Actually, looking at you, I might have to alter it so you ate grandpa too…”

Chloe flinched, catching her roommate’s meaning. “Shut it! The costume you got me is too damn tight! It’s an optical illusion!”

“I got you the largest size they had, so that’s your own fault!”

“What were you shopping in, the kid’s section!? This is ridiculous!” Chloe spat, reflexively tugging the costume down at the sides. Her ample breasts bobbed down with the motion, pulling the fabric back up when they sprung back into place. “And it’s not like you’re one to talk! Aren’t zombies supposed to be, like, gaunt? You look like an apple!”

“I retained my love for picnics even after death,” Nat sighed, resting her hand on top of her bulging stomach.

Chloe let out a dismissive scoff as she walked into the room and plopped her tail-wearing tail end onto the front of Nat’s bed. It let out a massive metallic creak that made Nat afraid it would completely buckle. There was another sound, completely drowned out by the struggling bed, of the seams of Chloe’s costume crying aloud while her stomach flooded over her thighs.

“Ok, c’mon, Sammy texted me and she’s already waiting outside,” the extra-big bad wolf barked, sticking her head out to receive makeup.

“Right. Let’s get that fat face of yours looking like a wolf.”

************************************************************************************

Sammy sighed, her already constricted chest pressing so hard against her seatbelt the strap practically became hidden, as the right side of her car sank a couple of inches. She should be used to it by now, but it was hard to get used to over a third of a ton suddenly weighing down your car in the form of two of your best friends.

Especially when the load was constantly increasing every time they saw each other, but Sammy bit her tongue.

“So you two look good,” Sammy said, hearing the car frame settle. The suspension held and she released her breath, allowing the seatbelt to return to view, even if just barely.

“Wish I felt good,” Chloe snarled, writhing in the passenger seat to find some semblance of comfort. The entire vehicle swayed with her. “I still feel like I’m in a straitjacket, this thing’s so tight.”

“Girl, you always wear clothes that are too tight. What’s the issue?” Sammy asked, throwing her long wavy hair over her shoulder and turning to face her friend.

Before Chloe could respond, Nat chimed in. “She’s used to being able to at least let her gut hang out.” She reached her arm between the two girls and gave Chloe’s side a firm jab. Sammy watched the hammy digit sink over an inch into Chloe’s hammier side.

The rotund wolf yelped, jumping in her seat and bouncing the car enough to make Sammy feel motion sick. Blushing so hard it could be seen through her gray face makeup, Chloe shouted, “Neither of you know shit! My clothes are fine, Nat just doesn’t know how to shop!”

“Alright, alright! Don’t get too mad, you’ll pop a seam,” Nat said, laughing as she leaned back in her seat.

“Ok, let’s get going,” Sammy swiftly interjected, setting the car into drive and moving to exit the apartment’s parking lot. “So aren’t you guys gonna guess what I’m dressed as?”

“You’re the Starbucks mermaid, obviously,” Chloe said, crossing her arms and resting them on her far-protruding gut. “At least pretendyou like other things.”

“Hey, I do!” Sammy said. “I… just couldn’t think of anything else to dress as…”

She turned the struggling vehicle onto the main road, punching the accelerator with her foot that stuck out just below the felt fin at the end of her skirt.

“Can’t you go any faster? We’re already over a half an hour late,” Chloe said, looking at the clock on the car’s dashboard.

“I’m not going to speed because you guys weren’t ready,” Sammy retorted. “Besides, the party goes all night! There’s nothing wrong with showing up a bit late.”

“She probably wants to make sure all the food isn’t gone by the time we get there,” Nat suggested with a chuckle.

“And so what if I do?” Chloe replied indignantly. “It’s Halloween, part of the fun is the candy! There’s nothing wrong with that!”

“There’s no way that’ll be a problem anyway,” Sammy replied. “The culinary students go all-out for this. Last year, there was enough food left over for a whole other party.”

Chloe’s stomach rumbled in anticipation at those words.

“Anyway, we’re already at the school, see?” Sammy said, gesturing out the window as they passed the large sign reading “Salina University”. “The culinary building is close.”

Now that they’d reached the school grounds, costumed college students sprinkled the sidewalks in small groups, with most moving along the same path the girls were driving. After another minute they reached their destination, pulling into a crowded lot outside of one of the school buildings.

The building was a bright orange spot in the surrounding October twilight. Spotlights were set upon the lawn, illuminating the area to show off the myriad of decorations. Gravestones lined the grass with random bones scattered between, and large cobwebs housing spiders of many sizes were stretched between the various outcroppings of the building. There was a steady stream of students filing inside the building, each checking in with a student wearing a full-body skeleton costume.

“There’s a lot of people…” Nat remarked.

“Yeah, it’s one of the biggest parties around!” Sammy chimed as she pulled into one of the only open spots near the back of the lot.

“I knew we shoulda come sooner” Chloe grumbled, lumbering out of the car.

“Aw, upset ‘cuz you’ve gotta walk the extra hundred feet?” snickered Sammy as she swung her door shut and hit the lock on her keys.

“That’s what I was thinking…” Nat sighed in affirmation as she hefted herself out of the backseat.

Chloe let out a defiant scoff as the trio began their trek towards the building. “By the time we leave it’s gonna be freezing! I’d think that’d bother you too!”

“Ugh, that too,” Nat said with a frown. Her expression lifted however as she waddled in closer to her larger companion.

“I’m surprised you can feel cold at all, with all that extra fur you’ve packed on!” she declared, reaching out and squeezing a huge handful of Chloe’s monstrous middle, and chuckling when the wolf swiped a paw at her.

The girls moved off to the side as other latecomers pulled in to hunt for a vacant parking space. As they continued walking, Sammy noticed her friends’ labored breathing becoming fainter and glanced around to see them falling behind, their middles puffing with exaggerated breaths.

The mermaid rolled her eyes and stuck her hand into her top to grab their entry tickets from her bra.

She quickly regretted the condescending eyeroll as she was reminded that she’d recently outgrown her bras, and instead had the tickets tucked away in her fatty cleavage. In tandem with that realization, it also dawned on her that her own legs were beginning to subtly burn.

It was sometimes easy to forget when she was accompanied by two whales, but Sammy wasn’t exactly in good shape herself these days. Her chest, her ass… her belly… all had grown full and round, and with how things had been going…

She pushed that disturbing thought down and plucked out the three little yellow tickets before approaching the line. Nat and Chloe rolled into the station a few moments later as she was giving her tickets to the skeleton sitting outside.

“Hey! We were invited by Halie Desouris.”

“Cool,” the student behind the skull mask responded as he took the tickets, giving each one a mark and handing them back to Sammy. “You can write your names on these and put them in the raffle if you’d like. Go ahead in!”

“Thanks!” Sammy grinned, stepping inside closely followed by her two friends. They began walking down the hallway towards a door that had an arrow pointing in and strobe lights pouring out of it.

“I could’ve been a skeleton,” Chloe grumbled as she trudged along.

Nat snorted. “Yeah, like you’d be able to pull thatoff. Talk about ‘big-boned.’”

Sammy listened to her friends bickering, her eyes locked on their destination. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on a drink. Preferably something sweet.

************************************************************************************

Halie sucked hard on her straw as she reached the bottom of her drink. The last sip of her concoction rushed past her lips, sweet cider gracing her tongue while the heat of rum warmed her throat. Straw still hanging from her mouth, her wide brown eyes darted back to the door for the… thirtieth?... fortieth?...

She’d lost track of how many times she’d glanced in that direction over the last forty-five minutes.

Her eyes lingered on the door from across the party hall, heart beating in double time to the beat of the music. She felt like her head was swimming as the alcohol mixed with her excitement. It wasn’t often she drank, but she’d allowed herself to develop a buzz to try and calm her nerves.

So why was it giving her… ideas?

The wait for their arrival was driving her mad.

“…Halie? Hey, you ok? I’ve been trying to sign you.”

Halie jumped as her senses rushed back. She turned to see one of her classmates, a short young man wearing an old farmer’s outfit, illuminated by a flickering strobe light that too closely matched her thumping heart.

“S-sorry, Gene, I couldn’t hear you over the music…”

“Can you come give me a hand with something?” he shouted, gesturing with a thumb behind them towards a door behind the food tables.

“O-oh, sure…” she stammered, eyes drifting once again to the door for a final look as she turned and began following Gene.

The music faded as they passed from the party floor, entering into their backroom assembly of treats and sweets. “Thanks, some of the stuff needs refills already,” Gene remarked as he walked over to a counter full of trays.

Dozens of sets were laid out, filled with an endless variety of spooky treats. From a brain made of jello to a cinnamon roll baked to look like a pile of gooey intestines, there was a lot of diversity on display.

“I see,” Halie replied absently, already feeling the urge to get back out and check the door again..

“I didn’t mean to rope you into this, but you were the only one that seemed to be free enough to lend a hand.”

“No problem…” she said, leaning her cane against the wall and reaching for a tray of her own.

“Are you waiting for someone to show up? You were staring at the door.”

Halie’s back straightened. “Uh, yeah!” She paused, and her shoulders began to sag. “I’m… surprised they’re so late, they said they’d come…”

“Well, do you know what they’re wearing tonight?”

“Hm? N-no…”

“Then maybe they’re here already and you don’t recognize them,” he grinned. “Some of my buds really caught me off-guard with their costumes.”

Halie’s cheeks turned a slight shade of pink as she pictured the person in question. “I… don’t think that would be a problem…”

“Oh really? Why’s that?”

“S-so anyway! What do we need?” Halie stammered, tapping on several trays and decidedly not answering.

Gene’s eyebrow perked, but he went along with the change in subject. “Right, I think… here, take this one,” he said as he handed her a tray of pumpkin-flavored cookies.

“Oh, these are actually mine,” Halie said, a bashful smile creeping across her lips.

“Really? I had one, it was really good!” Gene turned back to the table. “Surprised you made so many, though. You really got into the zone, huh?”

The pink in the young woman’s cheeks deepened. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Well, I guess it fits with your costume. Creator of sweets,” he said with a laugh.

Halie let out a slightly nervous chuckle, feeling her blush deepen slightly. She felt her hat tip and straightened it before taking her tray, slinging her cane over her arm and heading back out to the party, cookies in hand.

She nearly dropped them the moment she cleared the exit, her heart leaping up into her throat. Before her mind could fully register what she saw, a deep inner voice purred. ‘She barely fits through the door…’

Just inside the entranceway, silhouetted by the light from the hall, three very familiar- and extraordinarily round- shapes entered the party.

The cookies rattled in Halie’s grip. Her hat felt too tight, her body felt too warm, while her chocolate brown eyes took in the wonderful curves of the most pear-shaped of the bunch.

She was here.

Halie wasn’t thinking. Which was good, because her mind would have short circuited. Her eyes merely hung there as the largest of the shapes perked up, like an animal catching a smell, and bowled into the crowd in her direction.

She saw boys along the path lurch forward, girls get thrown into the surprised arms of their friends, a particularly large, tall young man practically fall over while unleashing an exceptional yell before a pink bob of hair appeared from the mass of partygoers.

Halie’s legs froze. An intense glimmer of blue, the hungry flash of a predator, barreled out of the crowd towards her.

Reflexively she lifted a hand to try and wave, not realizing that she needed two hands for her overburdened tray. She folded just in time to catch the side with her leg and save her sugary prize.

When she looked up, the wolf was atop her.

“Oh wow, jack-o-lantern cookies!”

“H-hi, Chloe…”

Chloe snapped up, only just seeming to realize someone was holding the tray. “Oh!” her belly bounced with the explosive expression. “Hey, Halie! Cool cookies!”

The woman’s head turned, catching the whole table at large in her sugar-seeking sights, and she scampered the best that such a big girl might, tail swishing behind her as if wagging with joy.

“There you are!” someone else said, and Halie snapped back forward, her mouth falling open and her heart pumping directly in tune with the DJ’s beat.

Red hair, unkempt yet pretty.

Red smatters of fake blood, applied in such a meticulous manner to the most adorable face.

A red dress, fanning out over what Halie knew was an enormous frame, serving only to make the girl who wore it look puffier and rounder.

A cherry. The most delicious, juicy, chubbiest cherry, with a cheerful smile spread across a round, pudgy face.

Halie’s cane fell from her grip, but it never hit the ground. She didn’t notice someone had caught it until they were playfully twirling it, pulling her eye to a mermaid’s fat grin.

“A bit on the nose, don’t you think? Miss Wonka…” Sammy’s teasing grin spread wider, giving the chub-lover an exceptional wink and raising a finger to poke Halie’s chocolate-brown hat back into place on her curled brown hair. The mermaid then twirled the cane thrice more, coming dangerously close to knocking someone else on the head and not showing even the slightest bit of concern as she was forced to take noticeably wobbly steps to catch up with Chloe, who seemed to be… inhaling a fist-sized cupcake.

“Oh! Wonka, I knew it!” Nat shouted over the music. “You did a great job with it, I really like your jacket!”

“T-t-thanks,” Halie blushed. “It’s… purple…”

“Well, I can see that!” Nat rolled her eyes, leaning forwards. “…Hey, I think you’ve got your bowtie on wrong.”

“Huh?!” Halie’s neck could have made an audible crack as she looked down at herself. The purple jacket had been pressed, the colorful vest had been done up right, with big black buttons gleaming in the lights from the dance floor. But her bowtie? It was just a gray ribbon that was tied in a bow, wasn’t it?!?

“Here!” Nat’s hands reached the tops of Halie’s cookies, chubby soft fingers gracing the gray ribbon. She tugged it in one spot and it came completely undone, causing the big girl to laugh and Halie to quiver in horror.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this! She was supposed to be charming! Impressive! It wasn’t anything like-

“This was a fun choice. Considering your major and all,” Nat said. Halie gathered her nerve and looked back up. Blue, soft, pleasant, comforting waves of the open sky. Nat’s eyes were as cheerful as they were deep, and Halie could almost feel herself falling into them as her crush’s fingers lightly pressed on her chest.

“I thought… um… it’s…” she swallowed, and found that she was lightly giggling as Nat straightened the bow. “Yeah. Thanks. That was the idea.”

“HEY, YOU TWO!”

Nat’s grin turned to a look of curiosity as she turned towards the snack table.

Sammy was gesturing towards the girls, leaning over the table. Her belly and un-bound breasts bounced up and down as she waved them towards her.

Halie couldn’t help but stare. A skirt shouldn’t stretch that tight over a belly. Arms weren’t supposed to be that wide, nor so well padded. Hips shouldn’t quake with such indulgent abandon. Sammy had been chubby for some time, but those days had now passed. By Halie’s assessment, she was just fat.

The image wasn’t helped by the large chocolate ball spider with a large bite taken out of it she was holding.

She almost missed the pure white tiara on Sammy’s head which, with her white tube top and emerald green skirt, gave Halie the faintest impression of a coffee…

Halie’s round eyes narrowed knowingly. Together, they came to the table of sweets.

“Your hair looks nice out of that braid,” Halie said, trying to look at anything but the girl’s impressive curves.

Sammy blinked at her for a moment before bouncing again, which Halie couldn’t help but notice did… interesting things with to her exceptional chest. “Thanks! At least someone appreciates my costume.”

“You literally dressed as a coffee chain mascot!” Chloe wobbled up to the conversation, carrying a plate packed with an assortment of sweets taken from every tray on the table.

Sammy scowled for a moment before saying, “At least I don’t look like a sheep in wolf’s clothing.”

“You got the expression backwards, you idiot,” Chloe spat back, the meaning behind Sammy’s choice of words going over her head.

Sammy shook her head, turning towards the others. “Hey! So you’ve got all this out,” she waved at the table. “But where are the drinks?”

“A drink? You drove!” Nat folded her arms over her chest.

“One won’t hurt! C’mon!” she circled the table at her semi-awkward waddle. “Halie, show me where the bar is? I need something if I’m going to have her barking me up all night.”

“What’d you say?!” Chloe barked.

“I said for Nat to find us a table! Somewhere away from the speakers, so I can hear myself think!” Sammy shouted back. She tugged on Halie once more.

“H-hey! Let me put the tray down first!” Halie said. She plopped the tray down in the only open space along the long table.

Instantly, three of the cookies joined Chloe’s pile.

“Alright, it’s over this way. And give me that!” Halie reached across Sammy, brushing her waist as she took back her cane before Sammy could take someone’s eye out, and left the snack table.

The party was extremely crowded, with tables and chairs in a haphazard array due to the comings and goings of increasingly drunk revelry. Halie led Sammy, briefly, onto the dance floor, cutting through a short corner to more easily reach the bar at the back.

A long strip of orange and purple lights was set into the bar, flickering color every few seconds and giving the wide selection of bottles an attractive glow. A female mime stood at its center, seemingly nonplussed by the music thumping through the floorboards nor the patrons spilling booze on her bar.

“Hey!” Sammy said, turning to look at Halie. “Good. Can finally hear myself think. You feeling alright?” she stroked the little chocolatier’s arm. “You looked like you were shaking a bit.”

“I-it… ummm…” Halie looked down at her bowtie. “Feel silly. Kinda. Had my bowtie tied wrong.”

Sammy raised an eyebrow, staring at Halie and then down at her ribbon. “That’s bothering you?” she said before shrugging. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not going to make her hate you or something.”

Halie stared down at the bowtie, still feeling Nat’s hands on her chest.

“Hmm. Ok, so what to get,” Sammy wondered, having turned her attention to the bar. She looked to the bartender. “So, what do you suggest that’s sweet?”

“…”

“Hmmm. Maybe try pointing? No? Okay, well we’ll have two rum and cider.” Sammy jostled Halie’s shoulder. “That’s your drink, right?”

“O-oh, yeah, thanks,” Halie stammered, yanked back into reality.

The mime silently poured their drinks. Sammy picked them off the table with a nod to the silent bartender and handed one to Halie.

“Just relax, alright? Everything’s fine,” Sammy said, patting her on the back.

The pair made their way towards the seating area, scanning for their undead friend and spotting her sitting in a booth at the far end of the room. As they approached, Halie noticed the table had several plates on it, with one sitting in the middle and stacked with treats from the food table. She smiled when she was able to spot some of her pumpkin cookies in the pile.

“Hey! Where’s Chloe?” Sammy asked as she bounced her way into the booth seat across from Nat, deliberately only scooting in far enough so Halie couldn’t fit on her side.

Halie slid into the seat next to Nat. She couldn’t help but notice her stomach pressed slightly over the lip of the table, and was impressed she had managed to get so far into the booth.

She looked up to see that Nat had noticed her staring. A cold shot of fear ran up her spine, but Nat just smiled and shrugged.

“Yeah, kinda surprised I fit, myself.”

“O-oh, that’s not-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Nat said with a laugh, her belly bouncing against the table. “Booths aren’t exactly big girl friendly. But it was the only table open, so I didn’t have much choice.”

Across the table Sammy looked down and sighed a sigh of relief, apparently satisfied with how well she was still able to fit in the close seat.

“Anyway, Chloe’s talking to someone over by the snack table,” Nat said, turning and pointing behind Halie.

The girls followed her finger to see Chloe still by the snack table, talking to a girl dressed as a doctor and shoveling what Halie recognized as the intestine cinnamon roll into her mouth.

Halie recognized the girl with her by her sandy brown hair and tall, slim figure. She was one of her classmates.

Standing across from Chloe provided a powerful contrast to the pink haired girl’s extraordinary physique. A trim stomach inverting the curve of an immense gut, a full chest dwarfed by melons as fat as either girls head. Long bronze hair with bushy bangs vs shoulder-length pink and a forehead that shined with the lightest marks of sweat.

It was made so much worse as either girl stood straight, and Chloe’s back pinched her costume between extreme rolls of fat.

“That’s Veruca,” Halie groaned. “She’s one of my classmates.”

“Wonder what they’re talking about?” Nat wondered aloud.

“Probably scolding Chloe for her eating habits. She’s a bit of a snob.”

“That’d be a fight worth watching,” Sammy said, talking a long sip from her drink.

“Ah well,” Nat said, turning back to the table and grabbing a chocolate cupcake with a frosting spider on top off of her tower of sweets. “It’s not worth worrying about it.” Halie watched as she pulled off the paper and shoved nearly half of the spongy treat into her mouth.

The little sweets maker lifted her drink to her lips and started downing it.

Nat swallowed her mouthful of cake and rested her hands atop her stomach. “So you guys really go all-out for this, huh? This place looks amazing,” she mused, looking around at the webs that stretched across the ceiling, full of nests and spiders, and the skulls and skeletons that were placed all across the other walls, watching over the party with vacant eyes. She looked back down at her plate. “And I assume you also all made the food.”

“Oh yeah,” Halie replied, pulled the cup from her lips. “We each make something. It’s a way for us to test our baking skills. We… do tend to overdo it though,” she nervously chuckled.
 “Oh? What did you make?”

“I made the pumpkin cookies!” Halie said excitedly.

Across the table Sammy froze, half-eaten pumpkin cookie in hand. “Oh,” she murmured through a mouthful of pastry.

Halie could practically see the regret on her face for so quickly giving in and eating the bomb of calories. Sammy was supposed to be dieting, but clearly, she didn’t have enough self-control to stop herself from digging in to the excess of baked goods.

“W-well, it’s very good!” Sammy stammered, trying to ignore the teasing grins on the faces of her friends.

“Hey,” a familiar husky voice greeted from just behind Halie. Chloe waddled into view, carrying a mountain of treats that made Nat’s look like a molehill. She looked over at Sammy.

“Scoot over, I wanna sit down,” Chloe urged, waving a pudgy hand at Sammy’s legs. “I’ve been standing for ages.”

“We got here less than a half hour ago,” the pudgy mermaid complained, moving over anyway.

“What’ve you been up to?” Nat asked. “We saw you chatting with some girl.”

“Oh. Yeah, that was… Veruca, I think?” Chloe gave a soft smile before looking over her shoulder, apparently for Veruca. “She seemed pretty nice!”

Halie blinked in surprise.

“She said she’s in your class actually,” Chloe grinned down at Halie, putting her hands on her waist and nodding. “She made the cinnamon roll intestines and wanted to know what I thought.”

“Uh oh,” Sammy groaned. “Is Halie going to have to pretend she doesn’t know you?”

The implication rebounded right off of Chloe. “She really appreciated what I had to say!” she chimed. She had become animated, talking more with her hands, ripples of her weight affecting all of her body.

“I said it was light on the cinnamon and a bit too doughy in spots! She was writing down notes the whole time in her phone, and thanked me saying it’s really hard to get honest critique!”

“I should have known,” Nat chuckled. “If anyone knows anything about food…”

“It’s me!” Chloe gushed. Then, she looked at the booth.

Then, Chloe looked down at herself.

“You okay…?” Nat asked.

“Umm… w-well, actually it’s…” a blush colored Chloe’s cheeks with an embarrassed twinge. “Well, actually, Veruca asked to talk a little more. Get my thoughts on some ideas. I told her I was busy, but maybe I should help her out, yeah?”

“Uhh… okay, I mean-” Nat started.

“Yeah! Okay, see ya in a bit!” Chloe cut her off and, before any of the others could say another word, she waddled off, wolf tail swaying much more dourly than with the promise of food.

“What the hell what that?!” Sammy asked, gesturing.

Nat sighed, sagging slightly in her seat and watched as her belly bunched up on the table. “I knew I shouldn’t have gone for a booth.”

“No, seriously, what just happened? Because she just dumped a table of food in front of me, and I’m about to start going if she doesn’t get her happy ass back here!”

“Normally, she doesn’t even seem to realize,” Nat explained to Halie. “I guess things are finally getting to her since she’s broken some furniture lately. One of our loveseats, the springs collapsed and we had to have a couple of our neighbors help pull her out.”

Halie’s mind went blank. Her mouth instinctively began to form the word ‘hot,’ but she snapped out of her trance just before revealing her interests. She looked across the table to see Sammy glowering at her, having noticed Halie’s reaction.

She was also in the process of shoveling a miniature cream pie from Chloe’s tray into her maw.

Nat picked at the food on her tray. Swallowing, Halie scooted towards her, until her thigh lightly brushed against the redhead’s Sparks went off in her buzzed brain at the moment of contact.

“If you’re interested… I could get some thoughts from you guys, too. I mean, I know everyone else will appreciate them. Can take some notes on my phone or something.”

From across the table, Sammy grunted through most of a muffin, “Eff ‘ou get me on vi’eo, I’ll ki’ ‘you.”

Nat chortled, leaning back in her seat and letting her belly openly bobble. “Yeah, sure! I’d love to help you out!”

Halie reached into her vest pocket and pulled out her phone, tapping the screen and opening up a notepad. She felt delighted to realize that she wasn’t even shaking. “Alright!” she said. “Where should we start?”

**********************************************************************

“You suuuuuuuuuuuuuuck,” Sammy moaned, leaning back in the booth and revealing the strain her swollen gut put on her skirt.

“Are you talking to me, or the chocolate strudel?” Halie asked.

“I think she’s talking to the strudel,” Nat said, lifting the confection up and looking at the bottom. “Aren’t these supposed to be served warm?”

“I. Want. Booze!” Sammy said, each word punctuated with a slap to the table. “I’m not even tipsy!”

“That’s your third drink!”

“I know it’s my third drink! I fuckin… I just want to feel something!” All of the fight went out of the mermaid and she sagged to the side, miserably pouting at her empty drink.

“The chocolate strudel it fine. I’ve eaten too much. Haven’t drank enough.”

Nat rolled her eyes. “Would you quit it? Of course it takes more to get you get tipsy. When I started getting fat, my tolerance went through the roof.”

A flash of green and white flame sparkled from inside of Sammy’s olive eye. “What?” she asked dangerously.

“Don’t go Chloe on me,” Nat snorted. “Come on. How much you weigh now?”

“Like I fucking know! I probably gained five pounds just walking through the door!” Sammy complained.

“If you gained five pounds, it’s because you ate five pounds,” Nat shook her head, gesturing to the remaining scraps that had been Chloe’s mountains.

“Shut up,” Sammy whined, her head thunking down onto the table, tiara staying tied in her hair. “This sucks. You suck.”

Nat shook her head. “What’s next?” she asked, looking over her tray and then over to Halie. “Did we do the ghost lollipop? Wait, you guys made lollipops here!?”

Sammy appeared to try to stand up all at once, slammed her tummy into the table, and fell back into her seat with a pathetic groan that turned into a hideous moan. The two watched as her legs pushed against the wall, sliding her outwards, and then the surprisingly nimble maneuver of lifting her legs up, over her head, and rolling onto her feet.

“I am not that fat,” she said defiantly. “I’m getting another drink.”

Nat sighed. “Well, she’s really trying to prove a point. So, how’re you holding up Halie?”

“Well,” Halie said, turning down to her glass. “I’m also three drinks in, and I’m afraid to stand. Because everything is just…” she turned to Nat and gave her a big wide smile. “just great,” she said cheerily.

Nat giggled. “I’ve never seen you smile so much. Those drinks must be hitting pretty hard.”

They were. She wasn’t quite drunk, but Halie could tell she was very tipsy at this point. But she didn’t care, she was sitting next to the person she wanted to more than any other, and for once she wasn’t shriveling.

Halie turned her body towards Nat’s and leaned her head against the back booth cushion. “I really like your costume by the way. I forgot to say earlier.”

“Oh thanks!” Nat chuckled. “I call it ‘Little Dead Riding Hood.’”

“Ooo, that sounds like the title of a B-movie!” Halie said excitedly. “Like… uhh, ‘Zombeavers.’ Or ‘Satan’s Little Helper’!”

Nat chuckled. “Thanks, Chloe just thought it was dumb.”

Halie blinked twice before her mind finally connected, and she was left wondering if she’d actually been drunk all night. “She’s the wolf!” she said a bit too loud, but feeling excited. Then, her face fell. “Wait, but… If she thinks it’s dumb, then why did she go along with it?”
 “Ah, she just likes having someone to match costumes with, even if she pretends to hate it,” Nat said with a wave of her hand. “She’s a much bigger softy than she’ll ever admit. Both on the outside, and the inside.”

“You better not still be talking about me…” Sammy said as she reappeared and plopped her padded butt back down on the padded seat.

Nat rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, Princess Starbucks. We were talking about Chloe.”

“Yeah…” Sammy leaned out of the booth. “Speaking of, it seems like your class is really taking a liking to her, Halie.”

Nat and Halie, without needing to be told where to look, turned their heads toward the snack table.

Sure enough, Chloe was there with four or five others standing around her and holding out trays. She was readily accepting their offerings like some fluffy royal, switching between snacking and speaking to each of them while they hurriedly typed into their phones.

“Well, I’m glad they’re taking her critical attitude in a positive way,” Nat said, turning back to the table.

Halie followed her sight, but kept going down, centering entirely on Nat’s tummy. What a sight to watch her chew with a belly so full, openly leaning against the table now. Halie’s eyes then gently swiveled to the right as a drink was slowly prodded into her view.

“Ohh…” she blinked, then looked up towards the blonde. “Thanks, Sammy, but I think I’m done drinking. I don’t want to get too drunk.”

“Ah, ok, well, no problem,” Sammy said. Without a second between, her finger had snapped round the top of the glass and drew it back to herself, throwing back her own and hurriedly guzzling it.

Halie’s eyes narrowed. “You… jerk… you can’t use me as an excuse to have more!”

“Psh,” Sammy held up a hand as if to stifle a belch.

Halie shook her head. She looked down at her phone and gave the last half hour a read through before…

“Huh… I don’t…” she looked back at Nat’s tray and saw it was empty.

Nat tilted her head. “What up?” she asked.

Halie’s lower lip pulled down in a humongous frown. “I don’t… we didn’t write anything down for my cookies,” she said, turning back towards the crumbs. A fleck of orange sugar could be seen just on the edge.

“Oh, really? I guess we were chatting a lot…”

“Y-Yeah…” Halie said nervously, knowing the true reason was that she was too busy watching Nat eat her baking. “Well, there might be some still in the back! If you’re ok with having some more...”

“Ok! You can go and check, yeah?”

Halie was nodding before Nat even finished her sentence. She started to bounce out of her seat when Sammy called. “Bring more of those truffles too! The ones with sprinkles!”

“God. You’re gonna be huge,” Nat said.

“What, like you?!”

“Yeah! Like me! I’m fully aware I’m big as a truck!”

“Well, I’m only as big as-”

“A car?”

“I was gonna say a pig…”

“That doesn’t sound too great either.”

Halie walked away, slowly enough to make sure she could hear the full conversation. She wasn’t really able to piece together all of the words over the sound of the music, but she knew for a fact that the noise made her happy. Drunk Halie liked making people happy.

Drunk Halie also liked watching her friends eat.

Sammy was dieting. Nat should be dieting. But here they were eating and drinking and laughing and growing. Tummies, bellies, stomachs and guts. Boobies and thighs and big fat butts.

Why did she get up again?

************************************************************************************

“She seems to be having fun,” Sammy said as she took another sip from her drink, then looked into it. “Lucky little mouse…”

“Why are you trying so hard to get drunk?” Nat asked.

“I just need to let loose! Forget about life for a bit, you know?” She looked down at her bloated middle. “So far tonight’s been nothing but a reminder…”

“I get it,” Nat said. “But maybe stop trying so hard and just focus on other things!”

“I see what you’re saying, but it might be a bit late for that,” Sammy said. “I just took a shot of vodka at the bar. I’m waiting to see if that was enough.”

Nat sighed. “Seriously?”

Sammy shrugged and took another long sip. “So, are you having fun?”

Nat traced her finger along the edge of the table that wasn’t smothered by her stomach. “I mean, yeah. It’s kinda weird with Chloe being off doing her own thing all night, but I’m having a great time hanging out with you and Halie!”

“Halie would be happy to hear that. She gets so worried that you don’t like her.”

Nat squinted. “Of course I do!” her head tilted to the side “Why would she think that?”
 Sammy waved the question off like a little thing. “She’s paranoid! She’s always been a really nervous person.”

“Well, I hope I can prove it to her,” Nat said.

Sammy smiled. She didn’t know if Nat had any interest in Halie, but she could at least tell that it wasn’t impossible.

The girls sat there listening to the party music for a minute before Halie reappeared. From behind her back, the Wonka-dressed woman presented a selection of sweets befitting the chocolatier himself. Double-stacked trays, the bottom containing an entire load of her cookies, another with a towering pile of everything that could have possibly fit onto three different plates.

“Woah…” Sammy felt her eyes widen.

Halie blushed, reaching up and tipping her hat down over her forehead. “I checked the back and… whadya know.” She paused and looked to Nat. “I told you we tend to go… overboard.”

Nat let out a deep laugh. “I can see that!” she grinned. “God, where do I start?”

“With me,” Halie said, sliding into the seat.

Both of the other girls turned to the brunette, a sudden silence rolling over them. It took a few seconds before Halie was as red as Nat’s hair.

“WAIT, NO NOT LIKE- I DIDN’T MEAN-”

Even the music was quiet compared to the power of Nat’s husky laugh, which quickly devolved into delighted snorts of enjoyment as she folded over her gut and leaned on Halie’s shoulder.

Sammy held her face in her hands, unabashedly jiggling and not even caring that she could feel every pound noisily bouncing. After taking a moment to calm down her laughter, she leaned forward and purposefully took up one of Halie’s cookies. Nat was still hoofing, seemingly having worn herself out just from laughter alone, but Sammy made a point of making sure Halie’s blushing red face saw her with the cookie.

“Get your review now. Because, in five minutes, you’ll be completely gone.”

Nat had an arm around Halie’s shoulder, wheezing with delight against the little brown mouse. She’d knocked her hat askew, but Halie didn’t seem to notice. She wasn’t shaking, wasn’t sitting up straight, she was leaning into Nat’s arm and, still blushing, allowed herself a bright little laugh. “Yeah. Okay, sure.”

Nat pulled her arm back, leaning back against the opposing wall and wiping away the tears in her eyes. “That was too good,” she grinned, looking from Halie to Sammy. “Sorry. You’re just adorable sometimes.”

Halie seemed to think for a moment before putting her hands on her waist. Fueled by a confidence she could only have achieved in her drunken state, she turned up her nose and said back, “I like to think I’m adorable all the time.” Nat burst out into laughter once again, and Halie’s cheeks blushed pink with delight.

Sammy wished she felt nearly as good as the others seemed to.

Halie was drooling over Nat, while Nat was quite literally drooling over Halie’s cooking. Not that Sammy could blame her, she was stuffing her already stuffed face after all, but she just…

She wasn’t drunk. She wasn’t even tipsy. It was maddening! How could she not be?! Was it the food, was the bar tender giving her short drinks?! What did she need to do to-

Impact.

Finally, the waiting paid off.

All of the alcohol fighting to get into her system, the vodka and rum, all of it suddenly hit Sammy’s system before she realized that she was lying flat on the bench.

She tried to stand up again, but her legs didn’t work, and Sammy’s body was now completely incapable of one single sit-up.

“Is she alright?”

“She’s laughing. Sammy?”

And she was laughing. She was laughing so much that it practically hurt, her head so bubbly that she couldn’t think about two things without one of them being her own bloated belly.

“Sammy? Sammy, hey, sit up.”

Sammy felt a pair of arms suddenly pulling her backwards, bringing her back up, and she realized that she’d just tried to get out of the booth on the wrong side. And she laughed once again, but this time it was cut short by a loud “Hic!”

“Ohhh, you are drunk, aren’t you?” she heard Halie ask.

“I… am…” Sammy’s eyes caught her unfinished drink. Then she saw Nat, and she saw Nat seeing her.

At the same time, the two both lunged for the glass, but Nat’s pinched sides were a shield of blubber and, while she was quicker, she came up short. Sammy’s fist locked on the glass, lifted it up to her lips, and she drank.

What was she drinking? She didn’t know. She didn’t care.

Her belly was full of so many sweets and such tasty drinks that she couldn’t care less.

“You okay?” Halie asked again.

Sammy leaned back, nuzzling the small woman’s chest. She was soft. Slender, but a good kind of slender. Athletic, like Sammy once was. But no longer. “I’m… wonderful,” she said.

“I think you hit your head.”

“Dance with me,” she said, rolling up to look into Halie’s big brownie eyes.

Halie was so much cuter than she could possibly know. And devious, too. Miss Wonka, hah. If she had her way, every girl in the restaurant would be waddling out, with some of them needing to be rolled end over end.

Sammy should go check up on Chloe.

She didn’t know if Halie agreed to dance or if she didn’t. She had already forgotten. She’d sat up and Halie scooched out, and she’d followed her that way. Head swimming with liquid delight, Sammy drunkenly giggled, leaning onto the table. “You two be good while I’m gone!”

************************************************************************************

“Where are you going?! You dork, get back here!”

“Finding Chloe!!” Sammy called back.

“You’re going the wrong way! That’s towards the bar!”

Sammy just laughed, grabbing her skirt that had fallen down to her hips and hiking it back up as far as it would go. At the beginning of the night that was up to her chest, but now it sat just below her belly button.

“Ugh…” Halie shook her head, lips folded into a pout. “I should go after her.”

“At this point, don’t worry about it,” Nat said, reaching for her next treat on the plate before her.

Halie opened her mouth to insist further, but stopped in her tracks when the obese undead plucked a brownie off the pile and took a gloriously huge bite.

“…yeah, I guess she’ll be alright,” Halie said, sitting back down and watching the chewing beauty.

“You guys really know what you’re doing,” Nat said between bites. “Everything is so good.”

“Thanks!” Halie replied with a bright smile. She looked back at the stack of food. “Um… I think the last thing you haven’t tried the cinnamon roll? Chloe said it was undercooked, but I think the part I grabbed should be ok!” She pulled a big chunk of what looked like a mass of intestines from the pile, plopped it on a plate, and passed the plate to Nat.

Nat froze, still holding a chunk of her unfinished brownie in her hand while she stared at the newly presented treat. After a moment she let out a chuckle. “Is it bad that I find that super appetizing?”

“Well… you are a zombie after all,” Halie joked.

Nat let out a hearty laugh, her compressed belly causing the table to shake along. “Yeah, you’re right,” She said as she broke off a piece and shoved it into her hungry mouth.

************************************************************************************

Chloe was not happy.

She’d been enjoying herself, indulging in good sweets and talking about them with Halie’s classmates, when all of a sudden she was tugged away by her apparently drunk friend from the snack table and onto the dance floor.

“C’mon Chloe, loosen up!” Sammy yelled over the music, taking a sip of her next drink as she hopped up and down to the beat. Her massive boobs, each almost the size of her drunk, stupid head, bounced so furiously that Chloe was waiting for one to clock her in the chin and knock her out cold. Bobbing about like a dancing cow, Sammy reached out and grabbed one of Chloe’s hands.

Chloe glowered.

Sammy giggled and laughed. “Don’t like the music?” she asked.

Chloe felt her eyes roll, her lips folding into a pout. But… I mean, come on… she used to like this stuff, right?

Well, not this music. This music sucked. It was too loud, too bassy. But this atmosphere.

Chloe had loved this atmosphere only a few years ago.

She began swaying casually, but her heart really wasn’t in it. At least emotionally speaking, because literally her heart was already thumping inside of her chest.

Why did people ever dance? It was so strenuous, and it was made only worse by the horrible, constricting fabric prison she was jammed into, and which seemed to be growing increasingly tighter as the night went on.

She pulled her hand back from Sammy’s clutches, plucked the final pumpkin-shaped cookie off of the plate she was holding and took a big bite. She was at the end of her second plate, and she wanted little more than to grab another.

After all, Halloween wasn’t for standing or swaying, and it definitely wasn’t for dancing. It was for treats, and Chloe wanted treats.

An idea popped into her head, something she’d noticed when she had been led into the back room earlier. Over the flood of scents that she could almost taste on the air, she remembered picking one out, specifically finding the treat, and scowling at it.

Had they brought it out by now? They must have. They didn’t have nearly enough stocked for a real party.

“Hey Sammy,” she yelled over the music, “Someone made some coffee-flavored chocolates that I’m sure you’d love! Let’s go give them a try!”

The bait was set, and the obese mermaid immediately sharpened to its scent. Sammy was already weak to propositions of food, her bloated figure betrayed her tastebuds. But it wasn’t chocolate, but coffee, that was her true weakness.

“Ohhh that sounds good,” Sammy mused, stopping her bouncing with her middle following suit several seconds later. “Where?”

Chloe led them over to the corner of the snack table. She pointed to a plate of shards of dark chocolate with a printed label that read, ‘coffee-flavored.’

“There you are,” Chloe said, barely finishing the statement before turning her attention to the other treats at the table. “Your one true love. Now go on, Starbucks, and leave me alone.”

Sammy excitedly grabbed a piece of the brown bark and shoved it into her mouth.

“Mmmmmmmmh,” she moaned as the chocolate melted on her tongue. She placed down her drink, grabbed a plate, and began piling more of the coffee-flavored candy onto it.

Meanwhile, Chloe was frozen in place. She had spied a particularly tasty looking candy apple across the table, but as she leaned over to grab it, she felt a sudden release of tension around her middle.

Her eyes darted to her side to discover that the seam running all the way from her hip to her armpit had completely split. Not slightly, not gaps. It had torn all the way through like a zipper flashing down a sweatshirt, and with the purest sense of horror, Chloe saw as the top began to fall open.

Her entire side was exposed. Her hip, her tummy, and then her breast, before Chloe’s arms snapped shut like a vice, pinching the fabric closed. She stared at it, looked at how the bottom still showed skin on her hip, and twisted to clamp her arm all the way down.

A geyser of alarmed embarrassment shot off in her stomach and rushed up towards her heart. Quickly stepping to the side, she passed by another couple who’d come up to the table, and could feel each pound jiggle and bobble as she trundled towards the nearby bathroom.

“C-Chloe?” Sammy asked after her, confused.

“Don’t look at me!” she shouted, then stopped, taking two steps back so she was next to Sammy. “Tell Nat to come meet me in the bathroom!”

Sammy turned to look at her, but she had already taken off, face burning, heart thumping, legs straining. Even her fuzzy tail seemed to be sagging.

”Chloe?” Sammy asked, slowly turning in a full circle. She looked after where Chloe had gone, seeing the barrel-shaped hole that had been made in a small group near the crowd.

“What the hell was that?” she drunkenly mused, taking another bite of the chocolate.

**********************************************************************************************

Laughter sprang out from the booth in the corner of the party hall.

“No, stop! Stoooooop!” Halie cried melodramatically, holding up her arms as Nat loomed over her, reaching towards her slowly.

“It’s too laaaate, you’ve given me a taste for braaaaaaaaaains!” Nat said in a low, grumbly voice as she leaned in closer, mouth open wide.

“No!” Halie yelled, reaching to the table and grabbing a chocolate cupcake off the plate, and shoving it into the advancing zombie’s hungry jaw.

“Mmhmm,” the undead redhead mumbled, biting down on half the cupcake and sitting back to chew, trying her best not to choke from laughter before swallowing the pastry. “Nevermind, this is much better,” she said as she brought the second half to her mouth and took another bite.

Halie giggled. “My powers of chocolate and candy are unstoppable.”

They truly were. Looking over the table, in just the last half an hour, over half the sweets mountain, a dozen of Halie’s big pumpkin cookies, and a large slab of jello frontal cortex had disappeared. Like a calorie-packed magic trick.

And Halie had eaten nothing more than a single spoonful of the jello.

This night was bliss. Not only was she spending it with the girl of her dreams, but she was confident, funny, and most incredibly, practically getting the chance to feed her crush’s incredible appetite by her own hand. This was the kind of stuff Halie had only ever daydreamed about.

The girls sat there laughing about their silly antics, when Sammy reappeared.

“Hey Nat,” Sammy said, taking another bite of chocolate, “Chloe needs you in the bathroom.”

“Huh? Why?” Nat asked through fits of giggles.

“I don’t know, but she sounded serious about it,” Sammy shrugged, sitting back down with a thud. “I think I got her mad by trying to get her to dance.”

Nat sighed. “Alright, I should go check on her then… wonder what’s wrong…” She moved to slide herself out of the booth, but barely budged. Her stomach was now pressed firmly against the table, holding her in place. “O-oh…”

The redhead strained, trying to turn herself slightly this way and that, but Halie could see both her thighs and her stomach now, and neither had anymore give.

“Oh, fuck…” she mumbled.

In social situations, there sometimes comes a point where someone will take a joke too far after they’ve had their confidence built up. Unfortunately, thanks to a mix of said confidence and alcohol, this was Halie’s moment to do so.

“Uh oh, looks like the zombie’s gotten trapped!” Halie teased, reaching over and giving Nat’s stomach a firm pat.

Nat froze, staring at Halie’s hand on her middle and quickly turning red. The girl truly appeared like a cherry, all semblence of her normal pale complexion gone from her face completely.

Across the table, similarly pinned, Sammy sat against the wall, a piece of chocolate still hanging between her teeth and watching the display play out with surprise.

It was only a moment, but it felt like minutes before Halie’s inebriated mind realized that Nat wasn’t laughing.

She recoiled as if she had touched a hot stove. “Eep! I’m… I didn’t… sorry!” she stammered, feeling a sense of dread wash over her. The nice evening that she had built crumbled like nothing, and she felt like she was falling with it.

She got up out of the booth, looking frantically between her two friends. “Uh-”

“H-hey, Halie, I’m not feeling super well,” Sammy said, pulling herself up out of the booth once again. “Can we go get some fresh air while Nat checks on Chloe?”

“Y-yeah,” Halie responded faintly.

“Alright, we’ll meet you out there,” Nat choked as she sucked in her belly, pushed against the table, and moved herself all of an inch towards the entrance to the booth before her weak arms collapsed. “I’ll… I’ll be a minute.”

“Umm… do you need help?” Sammy asked.

Nat sighed, belly flopping further over the table. “Oh, God. Probably. But I can get myself out. It’s my fault for picking a booth,” she huffed a bitter laugh.

“Alright,” the drunk mermaid nodded. She turned back to Halie, put up a finger, then leaned back over the table. With a final drink now in hand, Sammy began to wobble away from her friend’s prison. “Come on, you,” she hooked an arm through Halie’s. “If I fall, I’m taking you with me.”

As they walked out the door and down the quiet hallway, Halie’s mind replayed the moment again and again. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID! Her mind repeated that single word as she felt her esteem fall lower and lower. She was finished.

“Hey, you… ok?” Sammy asked as she stopped walking to turn and look at her friend. “That was… something…”

“I… really fucked up…” Halie said, staring at the floor.

“It wasn’t great, yeah,” Sammy sighed. “If you’d done that to me, I’d probably have slapped you. But I dunno, Nat’s not me.”

Halie was silent.

“Nat’s… well, it’s not like she’s Chloe. She doesn’t have a stool break on her every other week. It’s more… once a year. She makes a big show of not caring, but of course she still cares. There’s a lot about being bigger that… well, I mean… you get into a mindset.”

Sammy’s breath clung to the cold autumn air. The temperature had dropped substantially since the night had begun, and it became quickly apparent.

“Fuck,” Sammy said, rubbing a hand over the quickly hardening spots on her breast. “I should have parked closer.”

Halie had no idea what to say. She fidgeted with the brim of her hat in her hands, still holding it, not wanting to put it back on. Her mouth spoke for her.

“That’s why you wanted to let loose…?”

Sammy turned down, billowy hair brushing over their backs. “Huh? Because I parked too far off?”

Halie blinked at her.

“Oh! Oh… yeah, kinda. It’s just… it’s not a great feeling, you know? Like, okay, I know there’s guys and girls out there like you who like bigger girls. That we’ve got our own place in that world. But it still hard to find that confidence anyway.” Sammy sighed deeply. “If it’s tough for me, imagine what it’s like for someone who doesn’t know about all that, you know?”

The little brown mouse nibbled on her lip, thinking. The more she thought, the worse she felt. But it wasn’t the same pain she’d felt before from her damaged self-esteem.

Empathy panged from inside of Halie’s chest so much that it hurt.

“She doesn’t know how beautiful she is, does she?” she asked.

The blonde woman smiled. It was a sad, beautiful smile that lifted one side of her face but didn’t reach up to her eyes.

“I hope you get to show her that someday.”

**************************************************************************************************

Nat walked into the women’s bathroom. “Chloe?” she called out, looking around for her friend.

“In here,” sang a low, depressed voice from the handicap stall at the back of the room.

Nat went over to the door and slowly nudged it open. Chloe stood in the corner, her costume hanging completely open from a long vertical slit down the seam. Her hip, her gut, even up to her breast just hung out in the open.

“Oh, Chloe…” Nat sighed.

The big girl moved, grabbing both sides of the firs and tugging them together before giving up and just letting her heap of a love handle fall back out of the side. A new sound joined it, an echo around the bathroom as her hip blubber dropped and the bottoms ripped too.

“Ah, shit,” she spat under her breath.  “Stupid costume,” Chloe said, not so much angry this time as distressed. “Why’d you make me wear this…”

“I’m sorry, I thought you were just being stubborn,” Nat said. “I didn’t think this would happen.”

“It’s ok I guess…” she gave a little half-smile. “Guess I can sometimes be ‘the girl who cried wolf.’”

Nat snickered. “Clever.”

“Thanks. I came up with it fifteen minutes ago while I was waiting.”

Another laugh, harder this time, but it was one that they shared. Nat smiled at her friend. Somehow, it felt like Chloe was doing more to make her feel better.

“So, since you’re so clever, have you thought up a plan?”

Chloe shrugged. “No. I spent it all on the wolf thing.”

”Ah, damn.”

Nat’s eye began drifting about, trying to take stock of their meager supplies. It caught upon the nearby dispenser and, slowly, she felt a true grin color her face.

“Hey, you didn’t want to be a wolf. How do you feel about mummies?”

****************************************************************************************************

When people think of zombies and mummies, they usually think of decaying corpses, stripped of all of their flesh and muscle until they’re little more than bones.

Tonight, everyone at the Salina University Halloween Bash had those expectations completely demolished as two of the fleshiest women many of them had ever seen emerged from the women’s bathroom out onto the party floor.

“Alright, let’s get you out of here,” Nat said.

“Hold on, I want to grab some stuff to go,” she said, turning to walk to the snack table yet again.

Nat quickly reached over, slipping a finger behind a piece of Chloe’s wrapping and tugging just enough to let the weak paper begin to rip.

“Mmph! Fine!” Chloe whined, falling into step behind Nat as they headed towards the door to the hallway.

Once out of the party hall, they spotted Halie and Sammy standing against the wall and chatting.

“Hey!” Nat cried out, walking up to the other two. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” Sammy replied, eyes drifting over to Chloe. She let out a loud snort. “What the hell happened to you? Was the snack table to die for?”

“Shut it, Starbucks,” Chloe sneered.

“She tore her costume. This was all we could think of to get her out of here with,” Nat explained.

“Oh…” Sammy said. “So, why are you wearing it?” she asked.

Nat grinned, a piece of two-ply draping over one eye. “I can’t let her have all the fun, can I?”

“Can we just go home? I’ve been eating candy all frickin’ night, and we skipped dinner! I want something with sustenance!”

“We had pizza, remember?”

“Pfft. You had pizza. I had like half a slice.”

“You ate half of the whole damn thing!”

“Uuugh, fine.” Sammy said. “Gimme a sec.” She took her drink, still half-full, and began to down it furiously. Her already bloated belly expanded further with each massive gulp, pushing down her skirt bit by bit. She finished it off with a massive grunt of relief.

“You’ll have to drive,” she said to Nat.

“Yeah, and you’ll have to spend the night at our place,” Nat responded.

Halie, who’d been nervous to speak, popped her head into the conversation. “W-well, I guess I’ll see you guys later then…”

“No you don’t!” Sammy’s hand descended atop of her head, smushing her hair. “You’re too drunk to drive tonight, too!”

“Y-yeah, but it’s ok,” Halie stammered. “I’ll figure something out…”

“Don’t be dumb. You’re more than welcome to come with us. Stay at our place tonight,” Nat said.

Halie felt her face go hot. “I-I dunno…”

Sammy gave her a firm elbow to the stomach. “She isn’t askin’ ya! I’m staying too, it’ll be a sleepover!”

“Ohhh,” Chloe perked, “that means we can get pizza!”

Nat silently glared at Chloe before her stomach betrayed her with a belly-quivering rumble. She sighed, shaking her head. “What toppings does everyone want?”

“You already know that!” Chloe folded her arms.

“You know what I like too,” Sammy added.

Pointedly, Nat looked down to Halie, lifting an eyebrow.

Playing with her hands, Halie stumbled through “Uhh g-green peppers...”

“Yayyyy you’re coming!” Sammy sang, giving Halie a big hug.

Halie would have said something, but it was hard to communicate with a heap of Sammy cleavage pressing into her face.

The group left the building and walked out to the car.

Nat went to the driver’s side door, Chloe went for the back passenger’s, and before Halie had a chance to react, Sammy went for the back driver’s side door. She turned back to Halie and gave her a sneaky grin.

Halie’s heartrate quickened ever-so-slightly as she took shotgun.

It wasn’t like sitting in a car. More like a roller coaster, rocking and swaying, but with belabored grunts instead of screaming and cheering. There was a hard knock in the back of her seat followed by, “Can you move up a bit? I always get cramped back here.”

“Guuuuhhh… Shoulda waited till you got in,” Sammy said, covering her mouth and her stomach, her face turning a slight shade of green.

“Shut up!” Chloe belted.

The driver’s seat clacked several times backwards, reaching almost all the way to Sammy’s chubby knees before Nat could even try to fit into place.

The designated driver clamored into the car, finally fitting her giant behind into the seat with a profound thud. Halie looked at her face, caked in horror makeup, and smiled. Nat caught her glance and smiled back, a cheery grin with a deadly gash running down the side of her neck. Contrary to what she might believe about herself, she looked absolutely perfect.

She would have to tell her. Someday.