Chapter 10 – Skype
While for most people Thanksgiving would be a happy time of year, spending time with family and sharing in the frivolities, it wasn't really something Chloe looked forward to, at least since her Dad died five years ago. No, instead of happy days filled with warm family moments, for Chloe it meant spending time in the company of her antagonistic step-father, hating every moment of it while trying not to get into yet another argument with him, at least for her mother's sake. This year, however, was a little different.
As much as the day itself was spent in a somewhat tense atmosphere as she tried not to rise to the bait and ignore her step-father's comments before dinner, this year she had something that she was thankful for, and that was Max's return to Arcadia Bay. Having the younger girl back in her life had helped her see just how much she had gotten off track in her life, having been expelled from Blackwell at the end of her Sophomore year.
Having survived through dinner without argument, Chloe felt she shouldn't push her luck any further and excused herself upstairs, leaving her mother and step-father to enjoy their dessert. Making sure to stealthily snatch a couple of beers from David's supply in the fridge, she quickly took off, heading upstairs to her room and locking the door behind her.
'Glad that's over for another year.' Chloe huffed to herself as she plopped down on the chair by her desk, placing the stolen beers on top. However, despite her grumbling there was still more she was thankful for, and that was that Max had kept her promise of keeping in touch while she was away in Seattle and was due to skype her once she'd finished dinner with her family. Until then, the punk figured she'd relax with a drink and a smoke as she quickly rolled a packed joint and lit it, allowing the warm smoke the fill her lungs with a pleasant burn before exhaling a cloud of smoke that hung lightly in the air.
Closing the door behind her and leaning back against it, Max sighed in relief that she was now alone and could relax. As much as she enjoyed her family's company, there was only so much socialising she could handle for one day before she needed to recharge, otherwise she became stressed out. The other reason she was glad to be alone was that she could finally relax her strained stomach muscles and let her belly spill out. This caused the already tight waistband of her skirt to dig in even further and her shirt buttons to groan in distress as she rubbed her swollen gut trying to ease the pressure. 'Ughhh, I wish Chloe was here as she always makes me feel better after I get this full,' Max thought, lamenting the absence of her girlfriend's comforting and tender touch with how round and full her belly felt.
Slowly waddling over to her desk, she sat down and placed the sneakily obtained pieces of pie and bag of sweets on the desk in front of her before firing up her laptop. As Max sat there waiting for it to boot up, she assessed just how round her belly looked in her tight shirt, if she'd thought it was strained a moment ago, sitting down just made it worse as even the seems were stressed against the growing bulges of fat. 'No wonder Mom kept asking me if I was really still hungry, I guess I have gotten pretty fat since Chloe started feeding me.' She pondered as she recalled some her family's earlier comments after coming downstairs for dinner in her current outfit. 'Speaking of Chloe...' she thought as she logged on and spotted the skype icon on her desktop.
"Shit!" was the first thing Max heard as the call connected, shortly followed by a muttered "Damn bottles." It only took a few moments longer for the video feed to show the slightly flustered image of her girlfriend.
"Having some trouble there?" Max asked giggling a little as she watched Chloe run a hand through her hair while the other was holding a bottle of beer that she had seemingly knocked over in her excitement to answer the call.
Sighing in frustration, the punk glowered at her girlfriend but only for a moment when she saw the cute freckled face smiling at her from the laptop screen, upon which she rolled her eyes and smiled back before relaxing into her chair again. "Hey there, big city gal."
"Hardly," Max scoffed. She'd never quite gotten used to the size and noise of living in a large city, truth be told she much preferred the quieter and slower pace of the small town she'd grown up in, especially around the holidays. "How're things down there?"
"Well I didn't start any fights with David this year or piss Mom off this year, so it's going better than it usually does around here. Plus, free beer, so can't complain." Came the halfway flippant response, but when it came down to it, this year had actually been pretty decent truth be told. "What about you? How's Seattle doing?"
"It's been good, seeing Mom and Dad, and the rest of the family. Although, way too much socialising for one day." Max replied, knowing Chloe understood her need to withdraw when it got too much for her. "But I did manage to score some extra slices of pie from the kitchen on my way up here," She added angling the camera to show off the plate on the desk in front of her. Doing this also had the effect of making her belly the centre of the frame allowing Chloe to see just how tight her shirt was after a day of stuffing herself.
"Looks like you've had more than a few slices already there, babe," Chloe commented noticing the buttons that were badly strained under the bulge of flab behind them.
"Maybe..." Max replied coyly, knowing that she had definitely eaten more than her fair share of her Aunt's pumpkin pie before retiring to her room. Rubbing her belly so Chloe could see, "I ate so much today that my cousins kept asking if I was pregnant or something."
"I can definitely see why if you were walking around wearing that," The punk teased, enjoying the view that she currently had. "I'm surprised those buttons are still holding on."
Feeling her cheeks heat up at the teasing comments and wanting to enjoy this time with her girlfriend, Max looked over at her door anxiously, concerned that someone might walk in. 'I better lock the door before I do anything else.'
"Uh, hold on a sec..." she said while adjusting the position of her laptop and standing up, which gave the punk a view of just how tight the rest of her outfit was around her waistline and ass. 'I should probably grab my headphones too while I'm up.' She realised as she clicked the lock into place.
Settling back down and plugging in her headphones, Max re-adjusted the screen so that it better framed her plump body, ensuring that her face was also visible so she could eat on camera.
Realising what was happening, Chloe couldn't help but lean in closer to her laptop, partly as she was so rapt by the sight in front of her, but also so she could keep her voice down while continuing to tease and encourage the plump photographer.
"Are you hungry, babe?" she asked in encouragement.
"I'm always hungry around you," Max replied, patting her belly as if to show the truth in her claims as the result of her greed over the past few months was clearly evident.
"Then eat for me, baby," came the husky voice over her headphones, "Show me how hungry you can be."
Feeling herself getting turned on even further, she picked up the first slice of pie and took a large forkful, making sure to get a bit of the heavy whipped cream along with a generous helping of pie. Letting out a satisfied moan as the sweet filling and topping filled her mouth, taking a moment to enjoy the sensation of her extremely tight clothes and already pretty stuffed belly as she tried to fit even more in there.
The first piece, while extremely filling, wasn't too tough but the second proved more of a challenge as she groaned in a little discomfort at the tightness in her gut. That's where the encouraging words of her partner helped keep her motivated. Encouragement and teasing such as "You know you want to finish it.", "Such a greedy girl eating like that.", "Keep going, just think of how much fatter it's going to make you."
Soon enough she had put away all but the last few bites, her belly tighter than she could recall in recent times, even after the feeding sessions they had before Thanksgiving. Knowing she only had a couple of bites to go, Max took as deep a breath as was still possible and picked up another forkful, slowly enjoying the tastes and texture as she forced herself to ignore the almost painful tight feeling, between the amount she had eaten and her restrictive clothing.
It was then as she was finishing the last mouthful that she heard a loud creaking sound from her shirt, but before she had time to even process this, there was a sudden plinking noise and her belly felt the release of the external pressure, surging forward to take up space in her lap as one of her struggling buttons had finally given out. The sudden loss of one of her shirt's fasteners meant the others were under even more stress than before and a further tear could be felt forming around the button at the lower part of her belly as the fabric lost its battle too.
"Holy shit, dude..." Max heard from the laptop after a moment of surprised silence from them both. As much as she knew that she'd outgrown that shirt, she hadn't realised she was at the point of popping buttons on it just yet.
Giggling as she rubbed her belly, Max looked at the excited face of her girlfriend who was grinning from ear to ear, her hand having disappeared from shot down toward her groin.
"Such a fat girl now, busting out of your clothes like that. Are you gonna have anything left that fits you?" Chloe continued to tease, getting more worked up herself. "Being honest here, babe, I'm gonna wank myself to sleep thinking about that tonight. That was so hot."
Her face turning a bright shade of red and with how turned on she was herself, Max certainly agreed with that sentiment even if she wasn't quite as crude as to say it out loud like her more brash girlfriend was prone to do. However, she wanted to wait until she was back with Chloe and share that need with her rather than take matters into her own hands right now.
Their conversation continued as Chloe teased her some more as she stripped out of her ruined shirt and struggled to unfasten her skirt since there was no give in the fabric and she couldn't suck her belly in enough with how full she was. Contemplating how little of her old wardrobe would likely fit now, she promised Chloe that she would bring back a few items to show off for her on her return knowing they would both enjoy a repeat of tonight's popping achievement.
However, after a little while longer they both started to get tired, the events of the day and amount of food in her gut making Max desperately want to collapse into a food coma and Chloe from the slight buzz of her ill-gotten beers.
"I should probably let you get to be-." Max began to say.
"You know I love you, Max?" The sudden statement was posed as a question, a little of Chloe's vulnerability showing with the sudden change in conversation from what their plans were for the rest of the week. "I uh-
"Of course, I do," Max was quick to reply, trying to alleviate any possible reason for the punk to doubt her. "and I love you too, Chloe. I always have."
The pair smiled sweetly at each other before Chloe broke the silence once more. "It's just that, uh... I'm glad you came back..." Trying to find the right words was always difficult for Chloe, preferring action to demonstrate how feelings but this was something she had to get out. "I know I kinda fucked things up with school and, well, a lot of things... I should have been better at-"
"You can't blame yourself, you've been through a l-" Max tried to interject, but was cut off.
"Yes, I can Max. I choose to stay angry at everything and everyone for too long after Dad died, and I should have been better. You made me realise that I want to do better, to be better." Chloe swallowed before continuing, "I was talking to one of the guys at work and he told me about these online classes I could take to get my GED, and I, uh, I signed up for them last nigh-"
"Oh, Chloe that's amazing," Max instantly responded in encouragement, knowing that Chloe had always been a brilliant student when they were younger and that she still held an interest in science, even if her academic career had been on hold these last few years.
"I just signed up, dunno how well I'll do at them." Chloe tried to stem the enthusiasm, not wanting the younger girl to get her hopes up. "I mean it's been a while since I've done any studying..."
Underneath the usually cocksure front that her girlfriend presented, Max knew that this self-doubt wasn't necessarily about her ability to achieve what she set out to, but more a fear of living up to perceptions others held of her, that she was a loser and a drop out that wouldn't amount to anything.
"Chloe, I know you can do this," Max started, wanting to reassure her. "You were always a better student than I was, remember? And you helped me get a A- on my last math test, I normally barely scrape a C+ in math."
"Yeah, I guess I did huh?" Chloe replied feeling her confidence build again. "You really think I can do it?"
"I know you can," Max replied warmly, firm in her belief in her girlfriend's ability to do whatever she set her mind to.
A moment passed as they continued to gaze lovingly at each other, not wanting the moment to end. However, tiredness got the better of them and they had to finally end the call with Chloe promising she would give this opportunity her all and not to talk herself out of it anymore. Once they finally settled into their separate, and somewhat empty feeling beds, despite the distance, they felt like they were closer than ever. That this short time had allowed both of them to grow into the people they were meant to be.