Contains: stuffing and general fatness.
As I mentioned in the description of my last story, ever since this quarantine started, I’ve had a hard time writing. None of the ideas I’ve come up with really motivated me to get to work and write them. Then I remembered a conversation I had with Biggerisbest7, where he wished he was more confident in his writing, so he could write little stories to accompany his artwork. And it dawned on me, if I’m not having much success writing my own ideas, maybe I’d have better success writing someone else’s. Especially when that someone else is a gainer artist whose work I really love. I brought the idea up with him, and we brainstormed some ideas that turned into this story.
This story is inspired by this drawing that BiggerIsBest7 did. It was one of the three he brought up when I proposed this idea. I did the other two first because I knew this one would result in a longer story, and didn’t want to bite off more than I can chew. After finishing that first story, I had the confidence to try my hand at this one.
Synopsis: Cam and his gigantically fat boyfriend Bubba are anticipating Cam’s parents coming over for dinner. Chief among Cam’s worries is Bubba making a good first impression. Though normally gluttonous and braggadocios about his size, Bubba promises to reign it in and be on his best behavior. But once dinner starts, both Cam and Bubba struggle to keep it together in front of his parents.
Cam rushed around the kitchen as he tended to all the dishes he was cooking for dinner. His parents would be over soon, and they were about to meet his boyfriend. He wanted this night to go well, but he couldn’t stop worrying about what his parents would think of Bubba. Would they like him? Would they think he was good for Cam? Should Cam have told them ahead of time how fat he was? And now that he hadn’t, how would they react to meeting him?
“What do you think, babe?”
Turning around, Cam beheld Bubba standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking quite spiffy. Normally Bubba lounged around the house in boxers and a tank top that hadn’t fit him since several hundred pounds ago. Even at his job, where he’d wear some slacks and a button-down, he tended toward shirts too small for him and undershirts that ended nowhere near his beltline, leaving plenty of spaces for his belly to peek out. But for that night, he’d donned a grey button-down shirt whose sides didn’t billow out between the buttons, and a nice pair of jeans, held up by some black suspenders.
“I didn’t know you had any button-down shirts that still fit,” Cam teased.
“I didn’t,” Bubba replied. “I had to get this ordered custom from the big and tall store. And it was expensive! I had no idea clothes that actually fit me cost so much!”
“You would if you ever updated your wardrobe for your new size,” Cam teased as he strode toward Bubba. Cam loved seeing his boyfriend in clothes that showed off what a fatty he was, but he quite fancied seeing Bubba dressed so smartly. “Thanks for dressing up. I want tonight to go well.”
“I do too,” Bubba said as he reached down and ran his hefty fingers through Cam’s hair. “I want your parents to like me. That’s why I wore my reading glasses.”
“That’s… what?”
“They make me look smarter,” Bubba said with a confident smile.
Even though Cam thought that was a silly idea, he couldn’t resist that grin. “Of course they do, hun. You’re going to make a great first impression,” Cam assured him, standing on his tiptoes, signalling Bubba to lean down and give him a kiss. Bubba had to lean over quite far to move his belly out of the way and bring his lips to meet Cam’s, but he did so happily. To Cam’s relief, none of Bubba’s shirt buttons popped off. “Speaking of which–”
“I know, I know,” Bubba sighed. “I won’t make any cheeky comments about my size. I won’t slap my belly, or lay my plate on it. I’ll cover my mouth if I burp. And I’ll try to not eat more than the three of you combined.”
“‘Try to’?” Cam chided. “Will you please take this seriously?”
“I am taking this seriously, hun! I even had four lunches today instead of my usual three. I’ll be fine, I promise.”
“Alright,” Cam sighed, knowing it usually took six lunches to make Bubba eat like a normal person at dinner. But it was still better than no extra lunches.
“But then again, if you don’t want me to eat like I usually do, why did you make so much food?” Bubba chuckled.
Indeed, Cam was in the middle of preparing three dinners’ worth of pot roast, with baked mac ‘n’ cheese and freshly baked rolls to round out the meal. Each dinner was big enough to serve ten people, as long as one of those people wasn’t Bubba. “You ever heard of leftovers, you lug?” Cam teased.
“Do I look like I leave leftovers when I’m done eating?” Bubba chuckled. He patted the side of his gargantuan belly, creating ripples that took a solid second to travel from one side to the other.
“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” Cam said with a smirk. “Anything you don’t eat tonight, you can eat tomorrow.”
“But why eat it tomorrow when I can eat it tonight?” Bubba asked with a grin.
“So you don’t make a bad impression.”
“Right, right,” Bubba conceded. “When are they getting here, anyway?” A knock on the door answered Bubba’s question before Cam could. “I’ll go get that.”
“I don’t know if that’s–” Before Cam could finish airing his hesitation, Bubba was off. The items on the shelves shook with his enthusiastic footsteps, carrying him at an impressive pace through the living room and to the front door.
After stopping in place, Bubba cleared his throat, straightened his glasses, ran his fingers over his hair, and made sure his shirt was properly tucked into his pants. He wanted to look his best before he introduced himself. Once he was confident he looked sufficiently put together, he unlocked the door and opened it.
Standing outside were a man and a woman who bore a solid resemblance to Cam, who were dressed in spiffy clothes as well. The woman wore a nice sweater, while the man wore a sweater vest on top of a white button-down shirt. “Hi,” Bubba greeted them. “You must be Cam’s parents. I’m John.”
Both of them looked at John with eyes open wide and lips pursed tight. “John,” the man repeated. “Like… the John our son is dating?”
“The very same,” John boasted, extending his hand out to shake theirs.
“Ah… well, it’s so nice to meet you John,” the woman said, extending her hand while the man was still stuck in shock. “I’m Vivian.”
“Great to meet you, Vivian. And you are, sir?”
“Uh, Paul,” Paul answered, seeming more shaken as he extended his hand to shake John’s. In John’s grasp, Cam’s parents’ hands both looked like those of children, so John was careful to not squeeze them too tightly. He’d restricted his boyfriend’s breathing with an overly enthusiastic hug enough times to know better.
“Great to meet you too. Come in, come in!” John said, motioning inward as he stepped aside for Vivian and Paul to pass him.
The two stepped inside hesitantly, but seemed a bit more at ease once they beheld the foyer and living room. “It’s a nice place you’ve got here,” Paul commented.
“Thank you! Most of this is Cam’s work,” John beamed. “I’m not really an interior decorating guy, but he definitely made this place homey. Speaking of Cam, come on, I’ll take you to the kitchen.”
As John bounded past the two, he felt his belly bump against Paul’s arm, but kept walking, hoping he could brush it off. In the hallway to the kitchen, he stopped and backed against the wall, motioning for Vivian and Paul to pass him. He figured this was the polite thing to do, so he was confused when the two seemed hesitant to go ahead of him. That was until Vivian raised her eyebrows and pressed on, and he saw her turn to the side to pass in front of his gut. John did his best to suck it in so Paul could pass, but doing so didn’t create much more room for him. Still, Paul hurried by, to John’s relief. With a sigh, he let his belly surge forward, nearly patting it in relief before he remembered his promise to Cam.
“Cam, honey! So good to see you.” Turning to join the group in the kitchen, John saw Vivian hugging Cam.
“Cam, good to see you,” Paul concurred, embracing Cam with some slaps on the back.
“You too. I see you’ve met John?” Cam said.
“We have, yes,” Paul answered, the extra pause between his words indicating a sort of reluctance to accept the fact that this man was indeed their son’s boyfriend. After walking closer to Cam, Paul leaned in and whispered, “Has he always been so… fat?”
“He’s certainly never been skinny in the time I’ve known him,” Cam said just as quietly, his tone sounding like he wasn’t surprised by the question, but still wasn’t thrilled about answering it.
“Have you tried to help him diet?” Vivian whispered.
“Oh, he eats plenty healthy,” Cam insisted. “He just eats… constantly.”
“That I do!” John chimed in, his hand in the air, ready to pat his gargantuan gut. That was, until he remembered his promise to Cam. As Vivian and Paul looked to the side uncomfortably, John realized he probably shouldn’t have let them know he could hear them. In an effort to make the situation less awkward, he said, “Well, I’m sure you two have had a long drive. Why don’t we all sit down while Cam finishes cooking?”
“Let’s,” Paul agreed. He and Vivian took a seat at the kitchen table, while John waddled to the closest chair and sat down.
Cam turned around to lean on the counter and smile at everyone. After he looked John’s way, he said, “Oh, babe, your shoe came untied.” Without a second thought, he walked up to John and knelt down to tie the lace.
Looking at Cam’s parents, John saw them staring at their son with eyebrows raised. “Your son is such a thoughtful guy,” he said, trying to diffuse the situation. It seemed to work, as they nodded at him with only a slight air of discomfort.
Once John’s shoelace was tied, Cam got back to work finishing up dinner. “So, John,” Paul said, settling into his chair. “How did you two meet?”
“We used to live in the same apartment building,” John answered. “We met the day he was moving in. I… well, do you want to tell the story babe?”
“Uh, sure?” Cam answered confusedly. “I was carrying a box up the stairs, and John rounded the corner the same time I did and knocked me over.”
John pursed his lips and looked down bashfully. Given that Cam had told him to tone down the bragging about his size, he wasn’t sure whether Cam would want him telling that part of the story. “So,” John continued, drawing out the word. “After I helped him back up and apologized profusely, I helped him carry up the rest of his boxes, to make it up to him.”
“It was nice, because he could carry four boxes at a time, even the heavy ones.”
“Ah, it was nothing,” John insisted. “I would have carried more if I weren’t worried about dropping them.”
“Sounds like you were very strong, John,” Vivian chimed in.
“Still am,” John boasted. Just because he couldn’t brag about his heft didn’t mean he couldn’t brag about his strength.
“He was a good deal smaller back then, if you can believe it,” Cam chimed in.
“Haha, yeah. Back then, I could still weigh myself using only one scale,” John chuckled, until he saw that look in Paul’s and Vivian’s eyes. “Uh, anyway, I helped him move all his boxes in, and we finished pretty quickly. We’d already gotten to talking by then, so I stuck around and helped him unpack. I then gave him my number in case he needed anything. And you know what this sweetheart did next?”
“No, what?” Paul asked.
“He invited me back to his place, and he’d made me brownies.”
“It was the least I could do,” Cam said. “That move would have taken a lot longer without John’s help.”
“I would say that was the least I could do after knocking you over,” John chuckled. “But either way, the brownies were amazing,” John beamed, leaving out the part about how he ate the whole tray in a manner of seconds.
“They do say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” Vivian chimed in. Paul shot her a glance that did nothing to discourage her.
“Heh, uh, yeah,” John said, wanting to say, “And Cam certainly had a bigger path than most,” but knowing better.
“So what do you do for a living, John?” Paul asked.
“I’m a mechatronic engineer,” John answered. When he saw the blank looks and polite smiles on Paul’s and Vivian’s faces, he continued, “I work in tech.”
“Oh, okay,” they both said. “That must pay well.”
“Well, not to brag,” John chuckled. “But it was certainly helpful when we bought this house.”
“Do you have to work long hours?” Vivian asked. “I’ve heard that’s one of the downsides of these engineering jobs.”
“It can be. There are certainly some engineers at the office who work longer hours than I do. But I usually get my work done quickly so I don’t have to. The trick is to be good enough at what you do that you can get it all done efficiently, but not so good that they saddle you with even more.”
“Smart,” Paul said. “So what do you do outside of work?”
“Oh, watch Netflix, game…” John struggled to come up with any other answers that didn’t involve eating somehow. “Other than going to the gym, mostly lowkey stuff.”
“Oh, you… go to the gym?” Paul asked with a pause between all of his words.
“Yeah, every weekday after work. Hell, I go more often than he does,” John said, pointing to Cam teasingly.
“I go when I can!” Cam said defensively. “I don’t know how you find the motivation to go five times a week.”
“I guess I just find it more fun than you do,” John said smugly. In spite of his proud smile, Paul and Vivian only seemed more confused.
“Be that as it may, dinner is almost ready. You guys can go sit at the dinner table and I’ll bring you your food.”
“I’ll show you the way,” John said, before groaning as he sat up in his chair. Once he was upright, he leaned back to find his balance, then ambled off to the dining room. He walked through the hallway, passed the living room, and led them to a table that he’d already set for the four of them. John pointed Cam’s parents to the place settings on the side of the table, before he sat in the reinforced chair at the end.
Cam’s parents pulled their chairs in, placing them reasonably close to their place settings. John couldn’t pull his chair in quite so close. Even sitting up as straight as he could, his belly stuck out nearly to his knees, forcing him farther away from the table. He could see that awkward expression on their faces, but wasn’t sure what to do. He could sit at an angle, allowing him to sit closer to the table, but that might just draw more attention to his belly.
Thankfully, John wasn’t left to wonder for long. Soon he saw Cam bringing two plates down the hallway, stacked fairly impressively with everything he’d made: some slices of the pot roast, some of the carrots and potatoes that had been roasted with it, a scoop of the baked mac ‘n’ cheese, and a roll with a pat of butter on top. Cam placed those plates in front of his parents, prompting a complimentary “Oooh” from both of them. “Oh Cam, it looks so good!” Vivian said.
“Thank you!” Cam beamed, before returning to the kitchen.
As Cam brought the remaining two plates to the table, John smiled as he saw that one of the plates was about 50% wider than the others. When the two ate dinner, John ate from a much bigger plate than Cam did. He was relieved to see that much wasn’t changing in the name of making a good first impression. After putting his own plate down at his place setting, Cam brought John’s plate to his spot at the table and put it on the placemat. John smiled at seeing all the delicious food, spreading nearly to the edge of the plate.
“Alright,” Cam said as he sat down. “Bon appetit!”
John didn’t have to be told twice. Cam’s cooking was always good, but even just from the smells, John could tell Cam had pulled out all the stops for dinner that night. But in order to enjoy it, he’d have to reach it. He knew he couldn’t eat with the plate sitting on the table; his arms simply couldn’t reach that far beyond his own gut. So he turned to the side, leaned forward, and took the plate in his hand. Once he’d brought it close, he held it just above his belly, before looking to Cam for approval. With a smile and nod from Cam, John knew he was in the clear, and used a fork to take a bite of one of the potatoes.
John’s first bite confirmed that the food was as delicious as it smelled. Soon he was chowing down, making quick work of the meal. He did his best to pace himself, knowing Cam didn’t want him eating like a glutton. But John’s bites were so big that he still made quick work of his plate. So quick that he took his last bite while Cam and his parents were still eating their single roll each.
Cam’s parents both looked at John with their eyes open wide, eating slowly as they paid little attention to their food. Cam, meanwhile, ate his roll quickly, visibly nervous about what his parents would think of how quickly John had finished his meal. Looking at all the sets of eyes glued on him, John covered his mouth as he tried to muffle a burp. “Excuse me,” he said. “It’s delicious. You’ll love it, I’m sure.”
Paul and Vivian both nodded slowly, before they started eating again. Cam stared at John for a moment before resuming his own meal, unsure what to say.
“So, Paul, Vivian, what do you do for work?” John asked, wanting desperately to diffuse the tension in the room.
“I work in finance,” Vivian answered.
“And I work in early childhood education.”
“What drew you to education?” John asked.
As soon as Paul started answering the question, John could feel a distinct rumble in his stomach. It was the kind of rumble that came after he ate an amount that only qualified as a snack for him, at a time of day when his stomach expected a full meal. Sometimes it was amusing to him to hear his stomach demanding more, when he’d already eaten enough to leave an average person stuffed.
That night, it was anything but amusing. He knew his stomach’s growls were loud enough to be fully audible to anyone around him. Judging by Paul’s and Vivian’s occasional glances toward his belly, he knew that was the case that night.
As dinner went on, it became worse than some digestive noises. The hunger pangs hit John hard as his stomach’s demands weren’t met. He did his best to sit through it, putting on a smile and nodding at the conversation. But he couldn’t keep up the act convincingly, especially with his stomach giving away the façade. Nor could he come up with much to say, since carrying the conversation during dinner was Cam’s job. John was usually too busy eating to contribute.
Cam was not oblivious to John’s suffering. He’d initially hoped John could have just one plate during dinner, for he worried about how it would look for John to eat even more. But with the miserable expression on John’s face, and the loud gurgling distracting his parents, he knew that wouldn’t work.
Silently, Cam stood up from his chair and walked back to the kitchen. He pulled another John-size plate out of the cabinet and loaded it up with more food, hoping he could at least quiet John’s stomach. He walked back to the dining room as quickly as he could without spilling anything. Once he was standing next to John, he held the plate up and quietly cleared his throat.
“Oh, thank you, dear,” John said, taking the plate in his hand. Having already resigned himself to suffering with his hunger, the second plate was a welcome surprise. Not wanting to blow this second chance, John resolved to eat slowly this time. He scooped up a modest portion of the mac ‘n’ cheese–modest for him, anyway–and took a bite.
With the first course sitting in his ravenous stomach, John was able to eat at a more controlled pace. Though he couldn’t help eating in bigger bites, he watched how Cam and his parents ate and attempted to mirror their pace. He tried to take food from his plate about as often as they did, though he often found himself taking a bite sooner. They just talked so much.
Cam’s parents hadn’t asked John any questions since they sat down. Perhaps because he’d been so enthralled in his meal, and then looked so miserable when it was over. So when Vivian asked him, “So, John, have you watched any good shows lately?, he took it as a sign he was doing a good job eating more like a normal person.
He also realized it meant he would have to take a break from chewing so he didn’t talk with his mouth full.
John had to intentionally keep his hand still, so he didn’t pick up more food to eat when he finished chewing. It was strange for him to exercise such restraint, but he knew it was worth it for the sake of making a good impression. Once he’d swallowed his bite, he answered, “I’ve been watching a lot of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, lately. It’s a favorite of mine.”
“Oh yeah, I’ve heard good things about it,” Vivian said.
“You’ve heard correctly, then,” John said with a smile. “At least in my opinion,” be continued, before taking another bite. As he chewed, he hoped he’d done enough talking to satisfy his politeness quota.
“What do you like about it?” Vivian asked. Apparently he hadn’t talked enough.
“Well,” John said, before chewing as quickly as he could so he could talk again. “It’s funny. Seems simplistic, probably, but when people talk about comedies, they get so wrapped up in judging them the way they judge other genres that they seem to ignore whether the show actually makes them laugh. I think that’s the most important thing.”
With his little speech completed, John stuck his fork in the vegetables to pick up another bite. He held back a sigh when Vivian continued, “That’s such a good point!” He looked up with a forced smile, resigning himself to delay eating even longer. “Do you two ever watch Kimmy Schmidt together?” she asked Cam, to John’s relief. Now that he was in the clear, he shoveled an extra big bite into his mouth, a reward to himself for having exercised so much restraint. His next few bites were just as big, before he toned it back down, knowing he had to put up a good appearance.
With that extra bit of conscious self-control, John was able to finish his second plate at a more reasonable pace. As he put the plate down on top of the first one, he was proud to have dined more like their guests. Or so he thought. As he looked around, he saw that everyone else was just past half way done with their plates. And given how people typically ate, he knew it would take them longer to finish the second half than the first. It seemed he was in for another round of waiting for everyone else to finish.
As John wondered how much longer it would take Cam and his parents to finish dinner, he could feel his stomach rumbling again, as if on cue. Soon he could hear it growling, as could everyone else at the table, judging by their stares.
This time, John didn’t have to wait for Cam to get up from his chair and get him more food. As the first noises emanated from his ravenous stomach, Cam stood up and returned to the kitchen. John heard him pull another plate out of the cabinet and fill it with food, before he came back from the kitchen and handed it to John.
This time, Cam was smiling just a bit. It was the same sort of smile he usually flashed when serving John during their typical dinner. It was the intimacy of feeding someone who appreciated the food. In a night when John had spent so much time worried about making a good first impression, it was nice to have that familiar comfort.
As Cam and his parents kept talking about something or other, John took his fork in hand and resumed eating. He didn’t exercise quite as much restraint as he had with the second plate. But with two plates in his stomach, he was able to eat at a more controlled pace. Still, he felt comfortable enough to eat at a pace more becoming of a man like him. A pace that still resulted in him finishing the third plate rather quickly.
“Mmm, delicious as always,” John said as he put his empty plate down on top of the first two. Just because he was trying to make a good impression didn’t mean he couldn’t compliment his boyfriend’s cooking. It just meant he had to use his words, rather than burps or belly slaps. “Could you please get me some more, babe?”
As soon as he finished talking, John realized he shouldn’t have said that. He’d already eaten more food than everyone around him combined, which was itself more food than he knew he was “supposed” to eat. Asking for more would surely not be a good look. All he could do was hope that he’d saved enough face by asking politely, and leave it to Cam to decide how to best react.
To John’s surprise, Cam replied, “Sure,” and got up again. Another round of noises came from the kitchen, before Cam returned with another plate, stacked just as high as the first three. Cam handed it to John with a smile, before he sat down. John couldn’t help but feel surprised at the seeming lack of frustration in Cam’s reaction. Maybe he wasn’t acting as out-of-line as he thought.
After quietly letting out a sigh of relief, John shoveled several bites of food in his mouth, before remembering that he was supposed to curtail the gluttony. After swallowing his last big bite, he picked up smaller forkfuls and tried to eat them at a more mindful pace. But Cam’s cooking was just too good. John wasn’t the type to savor good food; he was the type who showed his appreciation by wolfing it down. To eat slowly seemed rude, like he was dilly-dallying his way through the meal because he didn’t really enjoy it. And though he wanted to make a good first impression, he was really enjoying the meal.
In the midst of his internal struggle, John realized he was eating ravenously again. He tried to slow down, taking more time to chew his food and eating in smaller bites. Must not pig out. Must be good, he thought, repeating the phrases to himself. But it didn’t take long for him to slip back into his normal thinking. Must pig out. It’s so good.
As John’s gluttonous ways crept back, his eating habits changed as well. His fork became more of a shovel, picking up piles of food rather than piercing individual pieces, before he shoved those piles in his mouth. Rather than holding his plate in the air, his hand held the plate steady as it sat on his mountainous belly. Though he was sinking into gluttony, he was still conscious enough to not want to risk his food falling on the floor. That would just be less food for him to eat, and he didn’t want that.
“So, John,” Paul interjected, bringing John’s attention back to a conversation that he’d largely been ignoring. “Have you always lived in the area?”
With his mouth still full of food, John answered, “Oh mo, I gew uo ow ima miwwess. Ma parens hah fie kigs whole, ah I hink aisee em as e e er ou er han it wou be here. Mo room fo us to oam an pway. Esbebee be us we wer very bee!”
Paul stared blankly at John, which did not phase him as he continued shoveling food in his mouth.
Meanwhile, Cam sat mortified at the other end of the table. He did his best to not let it show, lest that increase the awkwardness in the room even farther. But under a plastered-on smile, he was regretting his choice to humor John’s request for a fourth plate. How could he have been so naïve?, he asked himself. He figured getting John another plate would be less awkward than saying no, and risk looking like he had to treat his boyfriend like a spoiled child. But this was surely even more embarrassing.
The only upside was that the embarrassment was short-lived. Once John was wolfing down his meal like usual, the rest of the food didn’t last long. As John put his plate down on top of the other three, Cam’s parents’ awkward smiles turned into expressions of relief. It seemed they were all grateful to be out of that situation. Cam even felt relieved enough to resume eating what remained on his plate.
“Mmm, delicious,” John said.
“Glad you like it,” Cam stated, trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy during a night that had already gone off the rails.
But as Cam looked up to meet John’s gaze, he saw that John’s shirt was starting to billow out. The gaps were stretched apart between the buttons that strained to hold it together. Cam could have sworn the shirt had fit with room to spare before they ate. Had they not accounted for how John’s belly would expand as he sat down? Or had his four courses simply blown up his gut? He knew John could pack it away, but could all that food have swollen him up that much? It was hard to say when John always ate dinner in tank tops that didn’t fit at all. Cam had no reference for how much a typical John-sized dinner could stretch out a shirt.
Making matters worse was that through the gaps in the shirt, Cam could see that John had worn just such a tank top underneath his button-down. Even with a small stack of plates blocking Cam’s view, he could see some skin between the straining buttons. He knew John’s belly button had to be showing for sure. When Cam realized his parents could see even more of John’s exposed belly than he could, he concluded the night couldn’t get any worse
“Hey babe, do you think you could get me another plate?”
Cam’s fork froze in between his plate and his mouth, a piece of potato skewered on the tines. With his mouth still open, he looked up at John in disbelief. But John was unshaken, his hand slowly rubbing the side of his belly as he smiled back at Cam. He seemed completely oblivious to the idea that there was anything embarrassing about his actions.
As Cam stared back, he couldn’t help but smile a bit at John’s shamelessness. That shamelessness was one of the things that had attracted him to John in the first place. He was so proud of his heft, his appetite, the amount that he could put away, and being a threat to public seating everywhere. He ate like it was supposed to be fun, not something to earn or stress over. How could Cam be mad at John for doing that now?
“Of course,” Cam answered. He happily made his way back to the kitchen, filled another John-sized plate with more food, and brought it back with a smile on his face. He did feel a bit conflicted as he saw the confused looks on his parents’ faces, but John’s smile silenced his second-guessing. Cam handed him the plate, but didn’t mind when John put it down on his belly, before digging in like there was gold hidden underneath the food.
The way John plowed through his food was the best praise Cam had ever gotten on his cooking. There was simply no artifice to it, a pure expression of appreciation and enjoyment that couldn’t be faked or exaggerated. A compliment could be insincere, but no one ate like John if they didn’t mean it. Getting that praise on a regular basis made Cam feel like the luckiest man in the world.
Of course, eating so voraciously meant John finished his fifth course fairly quickly. With a burp, he slid his empty plate off of the top of his gut to join the growing pile, drawing some stares from Cam’s parents. His chair creaked as he leaned back, letting out a groan of relief. A few pats of his belly followed, before he pointed at Cam’s plate and asked, “You gonna finish that?”
Cam’s loving smile curled into a devilish grin. After standing up, he picked up his plate and brought it over to John. Rather than hand it to him, he placed it on John’s mammoth gut, with enough of a drop for it to bounce, but not so much that the food would fall off. “I’ll go get you some more, big guy. I know that little bit isn’t going to satisfy you.”
As Cam walked back into the kitchen, he heard John call back, “Yeah, keep it coming babe! I got plenty of–” A deep belch interrupted John. “Oof… room!”
Once Cam was back with another plate, John had made all of Cam’s remaining food disappear. With a grin, Cam picked his plate up and dropped his John-sized plate on John’s belly. As he let out an eager “Mmm,” John rubbed his gut in circles, pressing hard enough that the cloth of his shirt made swishing noises as his hand ran over it.
With John’s sixth course served, Cam sat back down to watch his boyfriend do what he did best: eat. John did not disappoint, wolfing down the food like it was the first meal he’d had in days, not the sixth course of dinner after he’d had four lunches. As one hand held the plate in place on top of his gut, the other shoveled forkful after forkful of food into John’s mouth. His affirmative groans and grunts confirmed how much he enjoyed Cam’s food, not that Cam had any doubt.
Soon another empty plate joined the pile in front of John, and he let out a burp before patting the sides of his gut with both hands. After looking at Cam with a grin, he asked, “You’re not gonna let me go hungry, are you?”
With a smile, Cam stood up and filled a seventh plate. He quickly brought it back to John and plopped it on his belly, allowing John to resume eating before Cam even sat down. Cam watched John just as eagerly, transfixed and mesmerized by the spectacle that was his boyfriend eating.
“Uh, John,” Vivian blurted out, ending a period of stunned silence through which Cam had managed to mostly forget his parents were even there. “How… how long have you been an engineer?”
John let out a protracted belch before answering, “Since I graduated, so over a decade.” The belch was as long as his answer, leaving Vivian with wide eyes and a mouth closed tightly rather than asking any follow-up questions.
Just as tight was John’s shirt, which was starting to form creases around where his mountainous gut was stretching it the most. The gaps between the buttons were stretched like mouths screaming in agony, which the buttons would have been doing if they could talk. Through the top gaps, Cam could see John’s thick chest hair, revealed by the low hem of his tank top. If Cam had seen it earlier during dinner, he might have been mortified by what his parents would think about being able to see John’s chest hair. By then, he was just enjoying the view.
But the only reason he could enjoy that view was because John’s plate was almost empty, leaving no food in the way. Which meant it wasn’t long before John commanded, “Get me another plate, babe. I’m ready for eighths!” followed by a lengthy belch. Cam happily obliged, filling another plate and bringing it back to drop lovingly on John’s gut.
As Cam watched John wolf down his food, he promised himself he’d get John another plate before he finished this one. He wasn’t sure exactly how long that would take, as he’d been too infatuated with John’s ravenous eating to notice. But he figured as long as he was up before John took his last bite, it was better than just waiting until John asked.
Which is exactly what Cam did. So enraptured was he by John devouring his next plate, that he didn’t think to get more until John put his eighth plate on top of the pile. “Are you just gonna sit there, babe, or are you gonna get me another plate?”
Cam’s parents looked at John disapprovingly, before Cam let out a deep chuckle. “With pleasure,” he replied, as his parents looked at him in shock. Cam spent a moment savoring their reactions, before he got up to fill another plate. With John’s ninth plate in tow, he walked back and plopped the plate down on John’s belly.
John wasted no time getting back to eating, plowing through his ninth plate as effortlessly as his first. As Cam watched and admired in silence, Paul tried to interject some conversation. “So, John, how did you get into engineering?”
John’s cheeks had swollen out with all the food that was stuffed inside of them. After he swallowed with an audible gulp, he let out a much louder belch, one that made Paul and Vivian lean back as if they’d been accosted by a gust of wind. Without pause, he resumed shoving food in, at which Paul stared blankly ahead.
Soon that food joined the growing pile in John’s stomach. “That’s the stuff,” John said as he placed the empty plate on top of his stack. His jaw cocked to the side as he let out a belch that reverberated around the house. “I’m still hungry, babe,” he said expectantly, his grin prompting Cam right into action. Soon another plate was dropped on top of his colossal gut.
From the side, Cam could see that John’s rear end had slid ahead in his chair. No wonder his belly looked so imposingly large, Cam thought. But he knew it was mostly his cooking that had swelled John up so impressively wide. And with another plate on his belly, ready to be emptied, Cam knew John was going to bulge up even wider.
Little did he know just how wide. After walking back, Cam heard a ripping noise, followed by a button flying from the other end of the table, right over his chair. He looked back to John and saw that one of his buttons had liberated itself from his shirt. The gap gave an even wider view of his engorged belly, and the undershirt straining to contain it. “Ooof,” John mumbled through a full mouth, before he struggled to swallow all of his half-chewed bite. “Good thing you weren’t sitting there, babe. You could have lost an eye!” John’s fork was positioned right by his mouth, ready to stuff it with food again as soon as he was done talking, and did exactly so.
“I’ll take my chances,” Cam replied with a grin, sitting down with his elbows on the table and his hands in his cheeks, enamored as he watched John plow through another plate. The blank expressions on his parents faces were the twin cherries on top of the whole affair.
The rest of John’s buttons managed to hold on as he finished his tenth course. After laying the empty plate on top of the pile, he tilted his head back and let out a burp. It was shorter than the last few, indicating that the available space in his stomach was shrinking. But that didn’t stop him from looking at Cam, his mouth hanging open, and demanding, “I need more.”
Cam stood up immediately, rushed to fill another plate for John, and brought it back eagerly. By then, John was starting to show some signs of fullness, eating his meal more slowly than he had before. But he still put on quite a show, grunting as he chowed down, letting out regular “Mmm”s to assure Cam the meal was delicious, and rubbing and patting his belly. All the while, Cam couldn’t take his eyes off him.
Soon another button flew off of John’s shirt, giving up the fight against the onset of his expanding belly. Still sitting with his cheeks in his hands, Cam closed his eyes and let the button bounce off of his face. He knew by then that a flying button, though impressive, couldn’t do more than take an eye out. Once it was safe for him to look again, he resumed watching John stuff himself.
With his eleventh plate emptied, John shoved it onto the stack. He lay back in his chair, hands on his either side of his engorged gut as he breathed loudly. “More,” he bellowed, uttering the word for several seconds before taking a deep breath in.
Cam returned with a plate stacked even higher than any of the previous eleven. “That’s all that’s left of dinner, big guy. Don’t leave me any leftovers to have to put away.”
After Cam gave John a thump on the side of his belly, John grunted, “Oof,” before shoveling in the rest of dinner. Rather than tell Cam he wouldn’t have to worry about leftovers, John intended to show him as much.
Three more buttons freed themselves from John’s shirt as he forced his twelfth course down. Neither he nor Cam were fazed by any of them, with John forging ahead and Cam watching adoringly. Once the last button snapped off his shirt, the flaps opened to more fully reveal the mountain of flab underneath. His belly hung out of his undershirt like a cake that had spilled out of its pan during baking. The flaps framed it like curtains hanging on either side of a stage, while John put on a show that left Cam utterly captivated.
The show’s twelfth act ended as John shoveled the last bits of food into his mouth, groaning as he diligently finished his meal. With nary a morsel of food left on his plate, he shoved it onto the pile, where it landed with a clang. As he leaned back, the chair creaked underneath him, complaining about his every movement as he massaged his stuffed gut. Along with the groaning of the chair, John himself groaned contentedly. His belly was stretched painfully tight, but he still smiled, for it was worth every bite.
Cam watched enraptured as John soothed his sated beast of a belly. His parents were just as frozen as they observed the goings on, mouths agape and eyes glossed over as they stared in John’s general direction. It seemed they were too polite to stare directly, and yet they couldn’t take their eyes off the spectacle, even now that it had ended.
For a moment.
“Well!” Cam shouted out as he bounded up from his chair. “I’m happy to see that everyone enjoyed their meal so thoroughly.”
“Oh, yes, it was wonderful, Cam,” Vivian replied, before gently nudging a still-frozen Paul with her elbow.
“Huh? Oh, yes, yes, very good,” Paul concurred.
“But we’re not done yet,” Cam continued. “After all, what is a dinner with dessert?”
Paul briefly glanced at John, who seemed to not notice Cam had said anything. Vivian kept looking at Cam and asked, “What’s for dessert?”
“It’s a surprise, but I know you’ll like it,” Cam assured them. He darted around the table, stacking his and his parents’ three plates before placing them on top of John’s much more impressive stack. After collecting the silverware as well, he retreated to the kitchen.
As John and the chair both continued groaning, Paul couldn’t help but steal a few looks as his son’s overfed boyfriend. After stealing one too many, Vivian nudged him with her elbow again. “Don’t stare.” She whispered. “It’s rude.”
“How do you know I’m staring?” Paul retorted. “Sounds like you were staring at me.”
“Oh shush,” Vivian replied as they both smirked at each other.
Soon Cam came back with three plates in tow, all bearing a modest slice of chocolate cake. “Looks delicious!” Vivian exclaimed.
“Oh it is. It’s my own recipe,” Cam boasted as he put two plates down in front of his parents. Once he put a plate down at his own place setting, he distributed clean dessert forks as well.
As Cam placed a fork down in front of Vivian, she leaned in and asked, “Aren’t you forgetting someone?”
Paul’s smile vanished. As he took another glance at John, he wondered whether John really needed any more food.
“I’m not done,” Cam whispered back. “I wouldn’t be such an unfair host.”
After returning to the kitchen, Cam came back with the rest of the chocolate cake. The slices that had been cut out of accounted for barely a fourth of it. But rather than put it down in the middle of the table for anyone who wanted seconds, Cam put the whole remaining cake down on John’s gut.
In spite of seeming to be in a food-comatose daze, John immediately perked up as the cake was placed on him. “Mmmph, I was waiting for this part,” he said gruffly.
“It’ll be worth the wait,” Cam assured him, before giving the side of his gut a few audible pats.
As Cam walked back to his seat, he heard John wolfing down the cake, grunting in enjoyment. Once he’d returned to his seat, he was happy to see that the show was even better than the soundtrack. John dug his hands right into the cake, picking up a big, messy clump of it before shoving it in his mouth. He shoved in chunk after chunk with impressive speed, as if he hadn’t just been so stuffed he was barely responsive. Cam, meanwhile, took small forkfuls of his slice, savoring the flavor like he savored the sight of John filling himself.
Vivian also ate her slice of cake, looking back and forth between John and Cam. She was too amazed by John’s eating abilities to not take a few glances, and also took cues from Cam on what was the polite way to react. Paul merely sat frozen in place, fork in hand, still skewering the slice of cake without taking a bite.
The deeper John got into the cake, the more vocal he became. His groans of pleasure were accented by moans of pain as his gut stretched. Yet those groans grew louder too, muffling any utterances of pain as John hungrily shoveled in more cake. The mess of frosting and crumbs accumulating around his lips was a cherry on top.
With over half of the remaining cake having joined the twelve courses in his stomach, John took a break from gorging himself to let out a thunderous belch, one that seemed to shake the plates on the table. With that space cleared in his stomach, he dug his hands back into the cake, eating with abandon and groaning in ecstasy at how rich and tasty the cake was.
Yet in spite of how loud John’s groans were, they couldn’t muffle the noises of the chair. Though John didn’t have to move much to transfer the cake from the platter to his mouth, every little movement still made the chair creak underneath him. Yet to Cam, that only made the whole spectacle even more wonderful, a beautiful melodic addition to the soundtrack to John’s gluttony. And with Cam not looking perturbed by the noises, Vivian figured they weren’t a big deal. He and John knew their chairs better than she did, she reasoned. Paul continued staring ahead vacantly.
And so the rest of dessert passed, until John had inhaled the rest of the cake, leaving only crumbs that were too small for his big hands to pick up. With the cake finished, John stuck his fingers in his mouth one by one and licked them clean, savoring the dense combination of crumbs and frosting that his gluttony had created. With his fingers taken care of, he scraped his palms with his teeth to remove the mess from those, enjoying just how much cake there was left to eat. Once his hands were dubiously clean, he used one to wipe the mess off from around his mouth. He made short work of that too, before licking his lips.
Cam stood up, enjoying the shocked looks on his parents’ faces as he walked over to John. He took the platter off John’s gut and placed it on the table. “Good job,” he said with a grin, before patting the side of John’s belly. John grunted at the impact, but was soon back to pleased moans as he revelled in just how stuffed he was.
“Alright, big guy,” Cam continued. “Let me help you up.”
Cam extended his hand, which John groggily took in his own, dwarfing Cam’s hand as his fingers completely enveloped it. John’s hand was a bit messy and moist, but Cam didn’t mind at all. Slowly but steadily, John leaned forward. He had to fight against the pressure in his crammed stomach, brimming with Cam’s delicious cooking, but now very insistent that he stay in place. With both John and the chair groaning in pain, he pushed him forward.
The creaking of the chair grew louder and louder, until John ended up moving in the opposite direction. With a snapping sound, the chair collapsed underneath him, and he plummeted to the ground with a booming crash. Still holding on to Cam, John pulled him down with him, causing Cam to stumble forward and fall on top of John’s enormous belly. All the while, the wood beneath them fractured more, as John compressed the pile with his weight.
“Oh my god!” Vivian shouted.
“Jesus!” Paul exclaimed in unison.
Fortunately for John, the seat of the chair shielded him from most of the pile of splintered wood. Unfortunately for him, the impact of Cam landing on his gut sent a flash of intense pain through his belly. That pain was soon alleviated, as John let out an absolutely thunderous belch. Cam felt himself vibrating as the gas was shaken free from John’s stomach. Even Cam’s parents leaned back, as if the force of the belch was strong enough to move them. With his arms behind him, John propped himself up as he released the air in his gut.
The loud reverberations of John’s burp end with an equally loud groan. As the shock of the event wore off, he realized there was an uncomfortable piece of wood still underneath him. Leaning to the left, he raised his right butt cheek and pulled the piece out. After grunting in relief, he let out a loud fart before sitting back down. With that nuisance taken care of, he grumbled and rubbed the side of his belly, his eyelids lowered in annoyance.
Paul stood up, figuring he should help somehow, though not entirely sure how. He looked to John first, only to be left more confused by John seeming merely inconvenienced by the fall. Cam seemed a bit flustered, but pushed himself up without any apparent urgency.
“Is he okay?” Vivian shouted.
“Oh he’s fine,” Cam grunted as he stood back up. “It’s far from the first chair he’s broken.”
“Won’t be the last either!” John concurred, causing both John and Cam to laugh. Cam’s parents looked at both of them with the same expressions of disbelief they’d sported for most of dinner.
“Is he really going to be okay?” Paul asked as he zipped his coat.
“Oh yeah,” Cam assured him as he saw them out. “It’s going to take more than a bit of a fall to hurt him.”
“I just don’t feel right about… leaving him there.”
Cam looked back to the dining room, where John was still sitting on top of the pile of wooden pieces that were once a chair. With one hand holding him up, he used the other to rub his belly, his head hanging down as he did. “He’ll be fine. It’s better to let him digest before we try to pull him back up.”
Paul nodded, but the shakiness of his smile didn’t convince Cam he truly believed him. Vivian seemed to believe Cam, but she still couldn’t help but look back toward the living room with wide eyes and pursed lips.
“Uh… sorry tonight… didn’t go better,” Cam stammered out.
“Oh, no, it’s fine,” Paul rushed to assure him. “The food was great. I mean, it’s no wonder John loves your cooking so much.”
“Heh, yeah,” Cam laughed uncomfortably.
“He seems nice,” Vivian chimed in. “He was polite when he greeted us at the door.”
“Very polite,” Paul agreed. “And our conversation before dinner was great. He has a really big… personality.”
“I would have said ‘appetite’,” Vivian added quietly.
“Honey…”
“It’s not a bad thing,” she insisted. “Quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, right? And he’s letting you on the expressway.”
“Sweetheart…” Paul grumbled.
Cam chuckled as he scratched the back of his neck and looked back at John. “I guess that’s true,” Cam admitted, prompting Paul to sigh.
“So how many chairs has he broken since you started dating?”
“Vivian!” Paul blurted out in an aggravated whisper.
“Honestly, I’ve stopped counting,” Cam said, at which Paul covered his face with his hand.
“You said he was smaller when you started dating,” Vivian continued. “How big was he then?”
“Well…” A thunderous burp reverberated from the living room, shaking the items on the shelves around the three of them, like John was giving Cam a way out of the awkward conversation. “I think I better go tend to him.”
Both Vivian and Paul looked to the dining room with eyes open wide. “Yeah,” Paul concurred. “Well, we’ll see you later, kiddo,” he blurted out before making a hasty exit.
“Love you, Cam,” Vivian said, giving Cam a speedy hug before hurrying out.
The Plot Thickens 