Chapter 2 – Realisations
It was fairly late on Monday when Chloe and Rachel came barrelling in the front door of Chloe's house loudly chatting among themselves as they raced up the stairs. Only pausing briefly to shout hello to her mother and asking what was for dinner, to which the reply came that she needed to clean her room up otherwise she wasn't getting anything, but the recognisable smell of mac and cheese answered the question for her.
Once in her room Rachel made herself comfy on the bed while Chloe grumbled about having to deal with throwing her laundry in the basket and at least picking up the various bits of rubbish from her snacking that littered the floor.
"Damn it," Chloe groaned causing Rachel to shift her attention from her phone. "I must have dropped some ketchup, why didn't you say anything?"
"Because I didn't notice?" Rachel responded with an arched eyebrow as to why she was being blamed. "I'm not your keeper, Price."
Chloe rolled her eyes, "Seriously though, how long have I been walking about with ketchup-stained jeans?"
"Does this have anything to do with Max?" Rachel probed immediately sensing the reason Chloe was worried about her clothes looked. In particular as they had been hanging out with Max at lunch time and dropped her back off to be a good student and do her homework unlike Rachel who had decided to skip it and spend the evening at the Prices for dinner.
"No, it's not about Max," Chloe sulked but didn't explain further but Rachel knew she'd been right. Instead, she stripped out of her now stained jeans and grabbed a fresh pair from her closet. Tugging them on took quite some effort thanks to her now much thicker thighs and ass but it was obvious when she went to button then that her gut was going to make that difficult.
However, she wasn't prepared to admit she'd gotten even fatter over the last month and did her best to suck in her gut as Rachel watched with an amused expression, "You've gained weight again haven't you?"
Chloe flipped her off and refocussed her attention on her jeans, straining to bring the button closer to the hole with great difficulty, but Rachel just shook her head and laughed at her annoyance. "They must have just shrunk in the wash or something."
"Chloe, can you be real for a moment and just admit you're still gaining weight. I'll even take you shopping for new jeans again if you play nice?" Rachel partly teased but also partly concerned that their weights had continued to increase.
"How about you play nice and you'll still get dinner tonight?" Chloe rebutted, knowing the whole reason Rachel tagged along was that she had a craving for some old-fashioned home cooking rather than the refined healthy meals her parents usually cooked.
"I could always not share the weed I just bought…" Rachel threatened knowing she had the upper hand in this battle of minds.
After a moment of staring each other down Chloe relented, "Fine, I need new jeans."
"Because of that gut of yours?" Rachel teased in a gloating manner, "How much have you put on anyway?"
"Don't push your luck." Chloe grumbled as she finally got her jeans fastened letting her gut bulge out over the waist band, her shirt barely able to contain her as a stip of . "I don't even know how much I weigh right now anyway…"
"C'mon aren't you even curious to know how much?" Rachel continued to press.
"Ughh, why do you want to want to know so badly anyway?" Chloe grumbled as Rachel rummaged through the floor of the closet to find the scale that had been thrown in there a month ago. She'd been fast approaching numbers starting with a 2 and hadn't cared to see more last time she'd checked.
"Right up on there now tubby," Rachel gleefully called out dragging the punk over.
"You first since you care so much," Chloe retorted nudging the shorter girl who simply rolled her eyes and stepped up onto the platform.
"169lbs," Rachel said with a sharp intake of breath, she hadn't realised how much she'd put on this last month. She stepped back down and out of the way as Chloe took her place.
"Maybe you should call yourself tubby," the punk teased, before looking down at the needle to see what the results were. Her belly was starting to get in the way looking straight down but she could still see the numbers.
The needle wiggled as she adjusted her footing, but it finally came to a rest.
"Damn, 212lbs is pretty huge isn't it?" Chloe pondered out loud as she considered how close she was to having gained nearly 100lbs in less than a year.
"We really should cut back on this weed, Frank was right about how strong it is," Rachel commented still taken aback by how high those numbers were. She was certainly getting further away from the slim and slender girl she had been growing up. In fact she had been about the same size as Max until this year so it really put it into perspective how much she had filled out.
But for now the scale was shoved back into the closet to be ignored as Chloe sparked up another fresh joint for them both. Plans of a shopping trip for the weekend made as they made their way through the snacks Chloe had lying around her room.
Tuesday was a slow starting morning as Rachel had a free period first thing and usually enjoyed a long lie, or if she woke up early, aimlessly wander around campus chatting to people and inspiring those who's muses had graced them with their presence that day. But this morning when she had heard the soft sound of music from the far end of the hallway she decided to drop in on Max and see what she was up to.
It seemed Max was still lounging about in her pyjamas clothes as she ran through some warmup exercises on her guitar. She looked fairly sleepy still as she smiled softly up at Rachel as she entered.
"Hey," Max greeted through a yawn that took over the moment she opened her mouth to speak.
"Did you not get enough sleep last night?" Rachel was always a morning person much to Chloe's annoyance when she crashed over. Max never really seemed to be either a morning or night person in particular, but she was definitely never this groggy looking unless she'd had trouble sleeping.
"Just stressed about this test for English," Max shrugged, it was one of the other AP subjects she was taking beside photography so sometimes the workload was a bit much and she had to study late into the night. And obviously given the amount of empty crisp and chocolate wrappers about, a lot of late-night snacking too.
"I feel you, Mrs Hoida is pretty rough on marking," Rachel empathised, while she wasn't taking AP English herself, she had heard from others about her rigid marking scheme.
Max grumbled a little more about her scholastic worries as she stood up to put away her guitar before wandering over to her desk to turn on her laptop. Her morning routine typically involved checking for any important emails or messages before getting ready for classes.
As Rachel got a look at Max moving about she realised the normally lithe photographer was looking a little more filled out. It was barely noticeable if you weren't looking but considering she'd seen her own figure soften in much the same way she could spot it a mile off. She wondered if Max had even noticed it herself but decided she would keep that thought to herself for now as there was something far more interesting she wanted to know first.
"So, how's it feel being back in Arcadia Bay?" Rachel asked in a deliberately casual manner that only many hours of practice had perfected. There was a reason she loved drama classes and often got the lead role in school plays after all.
Max turned in her chair to face Rachel, who had quickly occupied the space she'd left on the couch, and lolled her head to the side considering the question for a moment before answering.
"It's strange," She began almost feeling the words out as she spoke, "It feels like nothing's changed, but at the same time that everything has changed, you know?"
"Hmm," Rachel smiled but tried to reign in her enthusiasm lest she give away her intentions too soon. "In what way?"
"I mean the town is exactly the same, the same buildings, shops, sights, but…" Max sighed not able to work out how to continue.
"the people?" Rachel prompted noticing the omission in Max's list.
Max shrugged, "I dunno, I mean I see a lot of the same faces around town as when I was a kid, just everyone's a few years older. Besides Chloe, and well Joyce, I don't really know."
Feeling that she had to steer Max a little if she was going to hear what she had been wanted to find out, Rachel prompted once more, "How about Chloe? Is she different from when you were kids?"
"Chloe is…" Max started, trying to find the words to do how she felt justice, "She always been amazing. She made me feel like I could do anything no matter how much it terrified me at the time."
With that Rachel saw Max's face light up into a smile as many memories flooded the photographer's mind. She'd heard from Chloe about the many years the two had spent running about The Bay playing pirates and getting into mischief that now looking back was ridiculously innocent compared to what she and Chloe had done in more recent years, but Max was still a little more innocent than them at least for now.
"She's my best friend," Max continued, "I never stopped thinking about her when I was in Seattle."
"And how about now, how do you feel about her?" Rachel continued to press. "I mean she's changed a fair bit since then, no? Blue hair, tats, and 'tude, I mean five years can make a difference, right?"
While Max wasn't particularly guarded, her somewhat sleepy state made her easier to read and Rachel saw the immediate flush of warmth to the girl's cheeks as she through about the punk. That was almost immediately followed by a brief look of panic as it hit her.
"So, you do have a crush on her then?" Rachel felt her control slip and Cheshire cat grin take over at getting Max to realise that she was having more than friendly thoughts about her best friend. She'd spotted the longing looks and occasional flushes whenever the two were around each other.
Max swallowed deeply and tried to calm her heart rate, "H-how did you-?"
"You're too easy, Max," Rachel chuckled but decided to take it easy on her. "But she does have that effect on people, myself included once upon a time. Although only you and I know how much of a softy she is even when she fronts that fuck you and horse you rode in on attitude."
"Wait, you have a crush on her too?" Max queried once her brain had processed Rachel's statement and stopped just nodding along while her mind was otherwise occupied with this newfound understanding of her feelings around Chloe this last month or so.
"Had." Rachel clarified, "We never really worked out though."
Max looked at her questioningly but too polite to just straight up ask why. Also probably feeling awkward about finding out the girl she was somewhat awestruck by at first meeting was also her crush's and best friend's ex had something to do with her reluctance to ask questions.
"You already know that Chloe is loyal, it's one of her attractive qualities but..," she searched for the best way to phrase things, "I struggled, I couldn't be everything for her in the way she needed me to. It caused so many fights… In fact, we barely spoke for several months after a particularly bad fight."
"I'm sorry," Max wanted to reach out but felt awkward since she'd been the reason for the topic to come up in the first place. "Chloe didn't tell me..."
"That's probably because she doesn't want you to hate me out of loyalty to her," Rachel only partially joked, her tone made it clear there was an element of truth to her insecurities. "But it's in the past, we both agreed to put it behind us and act like adults. Besides we're better friends than anything else."
All of this new information sent Max's mind spinning but she was pulled from her thoughts by Rachel suggesting they head out and get brunch before classes start. That way they could clear the air while making the most of their morning.
Those weekly brunches quickly became a routine for the two to share without the buffer of Chloe and led to them developing a deeper connection of their own. But before long those extra meals started to have an effect as Rachel found as even her newly bought jeans were getting tight again. Her favourite shirts no longer covered her belly if she forgot to hold her abs tight leading to her feeling like she constantly had to tense her middle or feel like a stuffed sausage in her clothes.
She knew that it was partly her lack of discipline over her eating but that weed was really the catalyst as she'd never had this issue in the past no matter how bad the munchies hit, it just seemed to be with this strain it didn't really stop after the initial high had worn off. Rachel realised Frank had been right to warn them, but he still hadn't gotten a new supplier so it was a moot point. If they wanted to smoke this was all there was to buy.
With only a week or so until Thanksgiving Rachel knew that the holidays were going to be difficult to deal with. Chloe had tried to waive off her concerns, that it wasn't a big deal and that she could easily work off a few extra pounds if she wanted, leading Rachel to believe Chloe was still in some sort of denial about just how quickly she was growing even though her gut was obvious to anyone who saw her. Bulging out against her shirts especially when full, her new jeans even looked painted on after only a couple of weeks use. It was getting ridiculous that she seemingly didn't care to do anything about it.
Max at least understood her worries when she spoke to her about it during their most recent weekly brunch and confessed to her own difficulties as she was beginning to feel her own clothes get tighter in these last few weeks. She was worried she'd need to replace her wardrobe after Thanksgiving if she wasn't careful as she'd now gained her own 15lbs or so over the last three months being back in Arcadia Bay just from being around the two of them.
Rachel couldn't help but joke that Max might catch them up if she wasn't careful, but her stomach's demands were too strong to resist despite her promises to herself that she would reign in her own appetite. Managing to eat a large stack of pancakes, eggs, and bacon to herself without even struggling. It was obvious that this year's holiday season was going to do some damage.