The Big Belly BBQ: After Dark

Originally published November 2, 2016.
Contains weight-gain-related themes, physical intimacy, and aggressive encouraging.

The follow-up to The Big Belly BBQ: Daytime, this is where things get more intense for our intrepid protagonist. I mentioned one of my inspirations for this story in the description of the previous installment; my other big inspiration for this story was that I wanted this part in particular to feel like a song by The Weeknd, like an intense, hedonistic trip that’s not all that pleasant. That’s also where I got the idea for Val’s name. I had a hard time thinking of a name for him, until I realized that him being in a hedonistic situation where he’s into what’s happening but also in over his head basically makes him like one of the girls The Weeknd sings about. The Weeknd’s Trilogy compilation had a song called “Valerie”, and so Val got his name.

Though I originally intended for both of these stories to be able to exist as separate entities, I recommend reading The Big Belly BBQ: Daytime first, as that’s where the characters are introduced and established. This story really picks up where that one left off. In this part, after Val and Ryan have gone to the barbecue a few times and always left before evening, Ryan gets too drunk to drive Val home and implores him to take a cab. But Val decides to stay and see what happens at the barbecue at night, and why Ryan is always insisting they leave early. What he finds makes what happens during the day seem mild.

Some informational notes in case anyone reading the story doesn’t have the same fore-knowledge that I did writing it (mild spoilers ahead):
-The black capsules are a fullness suppressant, like Black Hole or Engorge (here, the name “black hole” is meant to be more of a nickname, like the other ones he used). They’re advertised as being for bodybuilders who are trying to eat for muscle growth, but gainers also use them to eat more. I once looked up Black Hole out of curiosity and saw that one of the active ingredients was a kind of “non-psychoactive” cannabis, hence the weed comparison.
-The milkshake really wasn’t spiked; it was just a weight gain shake, meaning it was high in calories and fat.
The addition of these two elements was also meant to be a nod to The Weeknd. The Weeknd sings about parties with pills and drinks too; in his songs, the pills and drinks are drugs and alcohol, but in this story, they’re fullness suppressants and weight gain shake.

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After Val’s first outing to the barbecues, he started returning regularly, getting better acquainted with the other attendants and more acclimated to the intimate atmosphere. With familiarity, he felt more like part of the crowd, even though he stuck out like a sore thumb. Or rather, a pinkie finger.

After a few barbecues, it became clear to Val that he was the only belly-less Guy attending the events. Most days, he didn’t mind his status as the skinniest person there. It only felt like a problem when someone tried to get him to eat when he wasn’t hungry. Ryan was usually able to ward them off, but Val had a harder time of it, not sure how best to decline their offer.

“I’ve already eaten, thanks.”

“Since when is that a reason to stop?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“I should hope not, otherwise Art is doing something wrong.”

“I really couldn’t eat another bite.”

“Nonsense, you’re only just getting started.”

But overall, Val was happy to be able to spend an afternoon with so many fantastically full-figured men, rubbing bellies and watching them wolf down more food than he could imagine eating in a whole day. He only wished he could stay longer than the seemingly arbitrary times when Ryan decided they had to go.

It was During Val’s fifth visit to the barbecue that he got his wish. He’d spent most of the time away from Ryan, finally familiar enough with the crowd to not need to tag along with his boyfriend. It was 5:50, long after he and Ryan usually left. Val looked around the crowd for Ryan until he saw him stumbling toward him.

“Vvval!” he slurred.

“Ryan, are you…”

“Yesh, drunk, shloshed, I’m ssorry. Lisstennn…” Ryan let a hand fall on Val’s shoulder, coming down with more force than Val was used to and nearly making him stumble back. “I fucked up, I know I fucked up,” he admitted in a quieter, more staccato voice. “You d-depended on me to get you out of here before it startsh, and now I can’t.”

“Before what starts?”

“Lishten, here, here,” Ryan said before he grabbed at his pocket, eventually pulling out his wallet. “Here’sh ten dollarsh for a cab. I’m gunna crash here tonight. Get yourself home before thingsh get too wild, o-kay?” he pleaded, his syllables elongating as he spoke.

“What do you mean ‘wild’? What’s going to happen?”

“Just… just get yourshelf home, okay, hun?” Ryan went in to kiss Val on the cheek, but missed and stumbled past him, barely catching himself before he fell over. “Okay. I’m okay. I’ll s-see you later,” he said, giving Val a wave before wandering back into the crowd.

Val looked down contemplatively at the ten dollar bill in his hands, pulling at it as he considered his options. While Ryan certainly knew what to expect better than he did, he found his curiosity getting the better of him. He wanted to know what happened at those barbecues after he a Ryan left. If it really was too “wild” for him, he figured, the worst case scenario would be him having to wait for a cab in the driveway rather than the yard. With a resolute nod, Val stuffed the ten-dollar bill in his pocket to return to Ryan the next day.

After looking around furtively, Val stepped to side to minimize the chances of running into Ryan again. He found Rich taking refuge from the crowd near a far corner of the yard. Rich’s eye’s lit up with recognition when he saw Val, and Val tilted his head up with a smile. “Hey!” he called out.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Rich said with a coy sort of hospitality. Rich straightened his back and pushed his belly out, which Val took as an invitation to start rubbing it. That particular night, Rich was wearing a button-down shirt under his trademark suspenders that was tucked into his pants. It lifted his belly and rounding it out, though it also left it just as wide as before. It made for a more tantalizing shape, even if rubbing the cloth wasn’t as exciting as rubbing the belly itself.

“Remember how hesitant you were to rub my gut your first time here?” Rich asked with an amused smile.

“Yep,” Val chuckled with his hands full of love handles. “Glad I got over that.”

The two continued their conversation and casual touch as the night wore on, talking about how they each met Ryan and how they found out about the barbecues, how Val and Ryan started going out, and the steady growth of the barbecue and its attendants.

As it was starting to get dark, Rich asked, “Say, don’t you and Ryan usually leave by now?”

“Usually. He decided to stay tonight, and I’m going to too.”

With his eyebrows raised, Rich asked “Really?” in a descending tone, conveying more surprise than inquisitiveness.

“You seem surprised.”

“Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?”

“No,” Val answered in an aggravated tone. “Ryan’s been tight-lipped about that every time I try to ask him.”

“Ryan keeping his lips together, huh? Doesn’t sound like him,” Rich giggled with a smirk.

“Wha–whatever. What even happens here after we leave?”

“Mmm, it’s a lot like what happens during the day, just… more intense,” Rich said with a sly smile.

“That doesn’t sound so bad. Ry made it sound like a satanic ritual.”

“Well, the sin of gluttony will be committed so much that it might come close,” Rich said in a light tone that didn’t quite match the severity of his words. Val looked at him inquisitively, but before he could ask for clarification, Rich looked at the crowd and cheered, “Hey!, here we go!”

Looking to the side, Val beheld the crowd of rotund partygoers discarding their shirts. Half of them were already shirtless, and most of the remaining shirts were on their way off. He saw the men’s bellies in all their glory, the various shades of beige and brown, the smooth and the thickly furred, the round and the soft and the wide and those that jutted straight out. Though Val had grown acclimated to seeing large crowds of big men at the barbecue, he was not prepared for a sight like that.

Once Val managed to take his eyes off of the crowd, he looked back and saw that Rich had removed his shirt while keeping his suspenders on. Having already seen Rich’s bare belly before, this didn’t catch Val so off guard. What did surprise him was seeing Rich pull a metal tin out of his pocket and open it to reveal several dozen black gel capsules. “You game?” he asked as he held it out toward Val. “You might as well be if you’re staying.”

“Wha… What are those? Uppers?”

“Nah, nothing like that. This is that black hole,” Rich practically crooned. “This is the void, that unsatisfiable, that endless nameless, that vacuum of space, that capacity upgrade, that ‘bigger on the inside’…” When Val looked back at Rich as blankly as before, he lost his enthusiastic expression and took on a more serious tone. “If you’ve never taken it before, just take one for now and see how it affects you. I usually take three, if that gives you an idea.”

“But what is it?”

“You’ve smoked weed before, right? Same stuff, just won’t get you high.”

“Then what’s the point?” Val chuckled.

“Try it and see for yourself.”

It seemed silly to Val, but if it wasn’t any more intense than weed, he reasoned it couldn’t be that bad. He took a pill from Rich’s box and held it between his fingers. “Just need to get something to drink.”

“They should be refreshing the drinks around now,” Rich assured him as he pointed to the drink table. “You have fun now,” he said before he walked back toward the crowd. As he did, he turned to the side so his soft belly brushed against Val, giving him a smirk before he walked off.

With a flustered sigh, Val slipped around the crowd toward the drink table. Coming in from behind, alongside the usual beers and sodas, he saw two giant punch bowls filled with what he was pretty sure was milkshake, one vanilla and one chocolate. It was the first time he’d seen anything like that at a party, but since he wasn’t much of a drinker, he was definitely game for it.

Using the ladle from the chocolate shake bowl, he filled a large plastic cup and used the shake to swallow the black pill. After the first sip, Val gulped down the rest vigorously. It was the most flavorful shake he’d ever had, so rich and dense that he wondered if it was just melted ice cream. It was frothy, so he reasoned it had to at least have been blended. Regardless, Val enthusiastically filled his cup again and gulped the second cup down almost as fast as the first.

Val was ready to fill his cup a third time, until he felt a lump in his stomach. He thought it was fullness, but he hadn’t eaten since lunch, and he knew two cups of milkshake should not have been enough to fill him up. Then again, he reasoned, maybe whatever made it that rich also made it more filling.

“Hey!, now you’re getting into it!” Val looked up and saw Joey, the first man Ryan introduced him to at the barbecue. Like nearly everyone in attendance, he’d ditched his shirt and his belly was exposed, round and hairy, jutting out over the drinks table. “Glad you finally decided to stay.” He took a cup and dipped it right in the chocolate milkshake, foregoing the ladle. “Have one with me, huh?”

After a shy smile spread across Val’s face, he replied, “Yeah, alright,” and filled his cup again.

“Cheers!” Joey exclaimed, and they bumped their cups before they both downed their drinks.

With the third cup of shake drunk, Val tossed his cup in the trash and gave Joey a wave before walking off, not wanting to drink too much. But as he wandered, he worried he’d done just that. He started to feel woozy, having a hard time walking in a straight line. It occurred to Val that the “milkshake” might have in fact been mudslide, and he scolded himself for drinking so much at once. If the alcohol was reacting with whatever the black pill was, that would only make things worse.

Not helping matters was the challenge of trying to walk around all the rotund men surrounding him. Doing so required a lot of quick-footed side-to-side movements that Val just couldn’t pull off in his current state. So he found himself bumping into a lot of guys, grazing a lot of bellies, and saying, “Sorry,” a lot.

At least, he found himself saying sorry a lot at first. But many of the guys he bumped into seemed to enjoy it. Some would push their bellies into him even more strongly once he made contact. Some rubbed their hands gently on his side as he passed. A couple said, “No worries,” in low, soft tones after he apologized.

As he moved, Val looked up and saw that many of the guys around him were bumping into each other intentionally, and clearly enjoying it. Some would bump bellies and start rubbing each other’s on the sides. Some would make contact before pushing their gut into the other guy, always resulting in a laugh or a pleased groan. And many of them were letting their hands run over each other’s bellies as they walked by.

It was disorienting for Val, but once he wandered out of the edge of the crowd, he ran into a familiar face again. “Rich?”

“Val! You enjoying yourself?”

“Dude… what was in that pill? I feel… tired…”

“Hmm… Have you eaten or drunk anything?”

“Just some of the milkshake. I think it was spiked.”

“Nah, they don’t spike the milkshakes.” With an inquisitive expression, Rich asked, “How much of the shake did you drink?”

“Like… three cups… Why does that matter?”

“Oh you poor thing,” Rich chuckled. “C’mere.”

Val sighed as he ambled over toward Rich, resting his head on his chest and gently rubbing his belly. To his surprise, Rich returned the gesture, and he felt Rich’s warm, soft hand on his own abdomen. Rich wrapped his other arm around Val’s shoulders and pulled him in close. That much was comforting, but Val wasn’t used to a big guy rubbing his belly. It seemed strange at first, but Val accepted it, sighing and letting his head sink into Rich’s soft chest.

The two remained in their embrace until Rich cocked his head down and asked, “How you feeling?”

“Mmm, better, I guess,” Val answered without giving it much thought. With a push, he stood up straight, finding he had an easier time staying on his feet than before. “Actually… a lot better.”

“Mmhm, thought you might,” Rich said with a smirk. “Now go off and have fun. Grab something to eat. You could probably use it.”

The idea seemed ridiculous at first, but Val soon realized his stomach had settled since he’d drunk his third cup of milkshake. And it was dinner time, after all. With a smile, he gave Rich a thumbs up and turned toward the grill.

Val still had some trouble walking straight, but now that he knew bumping into the big guys around him wouldn’t be an issue, it wasn’t such a problem. It was a well-timed realization, because the crowd seemed to have only grown thicker since the start of the night, and Val bumped into a lot of bellies on his way to the grill. Some pushed back against him more strongly than others, making him bounce from one man to another. Others were softer, letting Val sink into their supple warmth as he passed.

The closer Val got to the grill, the harder he had to push to get through the crowd. In spite of how much the partygoers had eaten during the day, they seemed intent on eating even more. As such, Val found himself having to navigate a sea of bellies to get to the grill. In his stupor, it felt surreal that his face could be a comfortable distance away from the other guys’ heads, and yet he still found himself rubbing against blubber regularly. His instinct was to raise his arms to his chest and use those to make his way through the group, but that didn’t do much good when the obstacles were at waist level.

Eventually, Val pushed through the crowd and made it to the grill. Art saw him emerge and exclaimed, “Hey, you finally stayed! You should lose the shirt through.”

“I probably will lose the shirt if I take it off.”

“Don’t worry about it. Yours will be easy to pick out; it’ll be the smallest one here,” he said with a jovial laugh.

“Mmm, maybe,” Val relented before taking a hot dog and slipping back into the crowd.

Once Val was moving away from the grill rather than toward it, he found traversing the sea of guts an easier task. It didn’t take long before he got to the condiments table, at which he found only a few of the other guys standing around. One of them stood right near the ketchup and mustard, so Val nestled up next to him and squirted his condiments of choice. The big guy looked over with a smile, before he looked down with a pensive expression towards Val’s covered torso. After rubbing his shoulder against the cloth of Val’s sleeve, he walked off.

Val paced the perimeter of the yard as he wolfed down his hot dog, surprised at how quickly he ate. He didn’t imagine he could be so hungry, but he figured pushing his way through the crowd was hard enough work to build up an appetite. Before long, he’d eaten the entire dog, and he licked his fingers clean of the stray bits of ketchup and mustard.

As Val walked around the yard, he stumbled upon a pile of shirts on a lawn chair near the fence. This, he supposed, was how the other guys could be so sure they wouldn’t lose their shirts. He pondered taking a trip through the crowd again, without a shirt to dull the experience. As he thought about it, he realized the hot dog hadn’t filled him up the way he expected it to, and he could go for something else to eat. With a smirk, he took off his own shirt and added it to the top of the pile, before turning back toward the crowd with a nervous smile.

As Val started his second trip to the grill, he passed through the outskirts of the crowd with nervous excitement. Where the crowd was less dense, it was easy to avoid bumping into the other guys. As much as Val wanted to feel the warmth of the other men’s stomachs against his own, he worried that being blatant about it would be rude.

Val didn’t have long to overthink the etiquette of shirtless barbecues. As he walked ahead worrying about whether it was gouache to bump into guys on purpose, he soon found himself bumping into them by accident. The other partygoers mostly just grazed Val as he moved through the outskirts of the party, but even that much contact made Val inhale nervously, taking quick, short breaths every time he touched a belly

Once Val got closer to the grill and the crowd got more dense, he found himself wedged between bellies again. Now he could feel the warmth of the rotund men around him against his own lanky frame. Occasionally he felt the soft bristle of their body hair too, but he was most overwhelmed by the sensation of all those guts rubbing against him. All the while, he kept his arms at chest left and let his hands ride over the sea of blubber like surfers, rubbing the guts around him as he passed by.

Val felt so dazed from his trip through the crowd that when he got to the grill and reached the edge, he stumbled out of the crowd and past the food. He landed behind Art and looked up to see Fred and Troy standing in front of him. Troy had ditched his shirt, and his bulbous, spherical gut bulged out in all its distended glory. It was enough to momentarily distract Val from the fact that Troy was standing behind Fred, turning his belly out at an angle so he could pull Fred in close. Fred’s belly stuck out to the side from where Val was looking. So massive were the two men than they had to stand at practically a right angle for Troy to pull Fred close.

Looking farther up, Val saw that Troy had pulled Fred close so he could wrap his arm around Fred’s chest with one hand and feed him a sausage dog with the other. As Troy looked at Fred with devious glee, Fred stared ahead, eyes vacant and eyelids half closed. He chewed the sausage dog slowly, laboriously, as Troy ensured he always had enough to chew on by pushing it into his mouth.

“You want to get huge, don’t you?” Troy asked.

Over the noise of the crowd, Val could just barely make out Fred grunting, “Mmhm,” through a mouth full of meat and bun.

“This is how you do it, tubby. It ends when you want it to, but if you want to get as big as me, that can’t be any time soon.” Once Fred swallowed his mouthful of sausage, Troy pushed the remaining dog a farther in his mouth. Fred arched his head back as much as he could with his mouth full like that, and he let out a pained groan. But he dutifully started chewing again, his lower jaw indicating his willingness to keep going.

“You alright, Val?”

Art’s question snapped Val out of his voyeuristic tunnel vision and made him realize he was still on the ground. After scrambling to a standing position as fast as he could, he assured Art, “Yeah, fine,” before he grabbed a cheeseburger and rushed off. He followed the fence, trying to stay out of the crowd as he nervously wolfed down his second course. He wasn’t sure what he’d just witnessed, but he was starting to feel like he was in over his head.

As Val ate the last few bites of his cheeseburger, he walked around the crowd looking toward its center, trying to make sense of what he’d gotten himself into. With his eyes off of his own path, he soon ran into a familiar face.

“Oof,” Howard exclaimed as he stepped back from Val running into his gut.

“Howard! Sorry about that.”

“Oh, Val, don’t worry about it. It’s more my fault than yours. I’ve eaten so much, I feel like I could’ve popped if you’d run into me any harder.” Val looked down at Howard’s bare gut and saw that it had grown even bigger than he remembered it being. Howard leaned back to let his belly bulge forward and take up as much space as it needed, and from the looks of things, it needed a lot. It seemed to have grown an inch out on each side, and the top was even more rounded and smooth than usual. “But I still have this cheeseburger I took from the grill. I don’t want it to go to waste, but I don’t know if I can eat it.”

In an instant, Val felt it click. He looked at Howard with a determined expression before his mouth curled into a smirk. “You don’t know?” he chuckled. “Well, I do. And it will go to waste. Your waist.”

With a newfound boldness Val didn’t know he had, he stepped right up to Howard, took the cheeseburger from his hand, and shoved it in his mouth. As his left hand kept the cheeseburger propped up, his right hand rubbed the top of Howard’s belly, where his stuffed stomach was. Val swore he could feel the swollen mass of food under Howard’s already firm belly, so he massaged it to help Howard pack in more.

Howard’s eyelids, at first wide open from the surprise of Val’s boldness, soon drooped as he did his best to chow down his burger. He let out a pleased groan as Val rubbed his full belly. Val upped the force of his rubbing when he knew Howard could take it, and in turn, Howard ate even more voraciously.

Once Howard took the last bite of his burger, even he seemed impressed with how quickly Val had pushed him to eat. After swallowing his last bite, he let out a noise somewhere between a sigh and a groan. His head leaned back with eyes closed and mouth agape as Val worked his bulbous stomach with both hands. As Val rubbed his swollen gut, Howard swayed under his touch in rhythm with his motions.

Val wasn’t sure how long they stood like that, but eventually Howard found the energy to pull his head back up and look Val in his eyes. A placid smile adorned his face, with a smattering of mustard adorning the edge of his lip.

“Good show,” Val praised as he gave the side of Howard’s gut a few more pats, trying to favor the bottom to avoid upsetting his massively-full stomach. It seemed only partially successful, as Howard still let out a pained groan, but he soon took on a pleased expression again.

With the burger gone, Howard stepped to the side of Val and hobbled off, walking extra slowly as he dragged the weight of all the food he’d eaten. As he did, he patted Val on the shoulder and grumbled, “Thanks, kiddo,” sounding like he couldn’t talk much louder than that.

As Howard disappeared into the crowd, Val felt his newfound boldness fade. Gradually, it was replaced with a confusion about what had come over him, with a bit of shock as well. He needed something to calm his nerves, so he made his way to the drink table again, hoping some more of that chocolate milkshake might help.

Unfortunately for Val, the chocolate milkshake punch bowl was missing, leaving only the vanilla. With a sigh, he grabbed a plastic cup; dipped it directly in the bowl, too tired to bother with the ladle; and gulped the shake down. Without the satisfaction of the chocolate shake, he still felt off. He reasoned that another hot dog would do the trick to center him again, so he traveled around the crowd and made his way toward the grill.

As Val neared the grill, he saw that Fred and Troy were still in the same position as before, making him feel uneasy. But this time, Fred was behind Troy, and Troy’s massive belly looked even more swollen than usual. Having seemingly expanded a few inches to each side and a couple up and down, his already mammoth gut had ballooned to gargantuan proportions. It looked like it might pull Troy down if he stood wrong.

Soon after noticing the size of Troy’s gut, Val looked up and saw the punch bowl of chocolate shake in Fred’s hands. He held it from the bottom and was tilting it toward Troy’s mouth, as Troy drunk from the rim. Little drops of shake dribbled down the side of Troy’s face, but he seemed to be swallowing it just fine.

“Come on, big boy,” Fred implored, sounding more angry than teasing. “I know you have a limit. I wanna see you reach it. I wanna see you so full you’re begging for it to stop.”

The look on Troy’s face was not one of horror, like Val expected, but rather, determination. He looked straight ahead into the punch bowl with every intention of swallowing every last drop. As Fred kept pouring it in, he kept guzzling it down.

And as Val watched, Troy emptied the bowl, drinking all of the dense shake contained within. Now that the bowl was practically vertical, it dripped all over Troy’s chest, making him look even more slobbish. Once it was empty, Fred pulled it back down and looked at Troy expectantly.

Troy, meanwhile, looked as dazed as Val felt. He staggered and stumbled just trying to keep his footing as he stood in place. The spilled shake crept down his chin and from his chest to his belly. Once it reached the top of his gut, it seemed more inclined to flow down the side than the front. The top of his belly had grown so rounded out that forward was no longer the path of least resistance.

“Well?” Fred asked impatiently.

Troy’s head wavered back and forth as his eyes stared off vacantly. He looked like he might have truly reached his limit… until he held his head up straight, turned it to look at Fred, and curled the sides of his mouth into a smile. “More.”

The frustration boiled visibly in Fred’s face. He stuck his thumb in Troy’s belly button and laid the palm of his hand on the bottom of his gut, as if he might try to pull Troy by his belly. Troy seemed far too fat for that to be viable, but the tiredly amused look on his face made it look like he was game. “Oh you’ll eat more,” Fred promised him sneeringly.

At that, Val knew he was in too deep. He tried to run past the two, only to find that moving that fast made him feel ill. Instead he hobbled to the grill, grabbed a hot dog, and took to walking around the crowd again, trying to make his way out.

Val forewent adding any condiments to his dog, shoveling it in as he stumbled around the perimeter of the yard. He tried to ignore the crowd beside him as he moved, just wanting to get out. As he swallowed the last of the hot dog, he finally reached the gate and threw it open.

But looking down the driveway to the sidewalk, Val felt like he wouldn’t even make it that far. As he started to feel hopeless, he saw a light in the corner of his eye. Looking to the side, he saw someone coming out of the house with a full bowl of milkshake. Val steeled himself for one last trip and stumbled toward the door.

As Val passed the man holding the bowl of milkshake, he called out, “Hey, can you get the door for me? Thanks, man.” Val obliged, pulling the door shut behind him as he stumbled into the living room. The lights were dim as he looked around, seeing that there was already a passed out partygoer in the recliner. Thankfully for Val, he saw a couch across the room and hobbled toward it.

Val fell with a groan as he sat down. Now that he’d found a bit of tranquility, he felt collected enough to pull out his phone and send one last text to Ryan:

“still hree. donnt leeve wuthout me”

With that last worry taken care of, Val let his phone fall in his lap, before slowly shoving it in his pocket. He lay back against the back of the couch with his head limp and leaning backwards. Before long, he fell to the side against the arm of the couch, cradled the pillow beneath him, and fell into a restless sleep.

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Val’s eyes opened slowly the next morning, and he became conscious of a groggy tiredness that made him want to roll over and go back to sleep. He then remembered that he was sleeping on the side of a couch, and as such, he couldn’t roll over. He then became aware of a weight on top of him, and he quickly opened his eyes to look to the side.

Next to Val slept Ryan, leaning on his side with his arm extended up over Val, like he’d tried to wrap it around Val’s shoulders and failed. Ryan was soon stirred from his slumber by Val’s movements, letting out a groan before he rubbed his eyes.

Looking around them, Val saw many of the other partygoers passed out in the house. Most were lying on the many couches and plush chairs strewn about the first floor. One was wrapped up in a blanket with a pillow on the carpeted floor. Very few had found their shirts again before falling asleep.

“Hey,” Val heard Ryan whisper.

“Hey.”

“Let’s get out of here before we wake anyone up.”

The two both took a sitting position before standing up again, both of them finding some trouble in getting upright. Once they were up, they tiptoed toward the side door and Ryan opened it slowly, stepping out with Val close behind.

Once outside, both Val and Ryan let out an exhausted sigh, at which they both chuckled. “Come on. Let’s get our shirts and go home,” Ryan implored.

“Sounds good to me.”

Ryan opened the gate to the yard, only to find even more partygoers passed out in the lawn. Howard had laid down for a snooze near the gate, while Fred and Troy were still near the grill, with Fred’s arms wrapped around Troy’s cheat. If Val didn’t know better, he’d think they were boyfriends, not rivals. Fred lay on his side as he slept, while Troy lay on his back, allowing his bulbous belly to stick up in the air. Even when fighting the forces of gravity, it retained an impressive amount of volume.

Val’s ponderings were interrupted when Ryan pulled him toward the chair with the shirts on it. Val’s was right on top, as he remembered, while Ryan had to dig a bit for his. Once they were clothed again, they left and re-latched the gate.

As the two walked down the driveway, Val asked, “Will all those guys be alright just… being left like that?”

“Yeah, they’ll be fine. That’s how these things usually end. They knew what they were getting themselves into.”

“Ah.”

“Unlike some of us.” Ryan slowed down his already ambling place and looked at Val. “So what are you still doing here?”

Val’s mouth contorted as he looked for the words to form a reply. “I just… I just wanted to see what it was all about.”

“Mmm… well, now you know.”

“Yeah,” Val giggled uncomfortably.

The two were silent for a while as they walked down the sidewalk, neither one of them in any rush. With no cars driving by, the few birds chirping in the nearby trees were the only sounds accompanying the two on their walk. With no idea what to say, Val reached his hand out and touched Ryan’s belly, giving the top a rub and finding it a good deal firmer than usual.

Ryan’s belly retracted reflexively at the unexpected touch, but as Val rubbed, Ryan let his gut relax and leaned back, pushing it into Val’s hands. Val started massaging Ryan’s belly more deeply, at which Ryan let out a quiet moan. Looking to the side, Val gave Ryan a shy, wide-eyed smile. Ryan returned the look with a confident smile and lowered eyelids, before wrapping his arm around Val’s shoulders and pulling him in closer. “You still want to come to the next one?”

“Yeah! I mean, I just… I think I’ll just stay for the afternoon next time.”

“Yeah,” Ryan agreed tiredly. “Me too.”

The two giggled together as they approached the car. Once they got in, Val slumped in his seat, ready to relax during the ride home. His only obstacle was that now that he was sitting, his pants felt a little tighter than they did the day before.