The Big Easy
By JNB
The asphalt was still wet from a morning shower, as she strolled through the character-laden streets. The sweet smell of a summer rain permeated the French Quarter and it was at this time that she knew she had made the right decision.Just a month earlier, Katie had left her boyfriend and her family in Dallas. It wasn't an easy thing to do, but she had always known it was only a matter of time. Ryan, her boyfriend, had increased his violent tendencies since being laid off his job and Katie assumed the brunt of his attacks. He had begun to drink a lot, and as the beer went in the hatred and cruelty came out.
She'd never been hospitalized or anything; just a black eye here, a sore jaw there, but Katie knew she deserved better. She knew she deserved a life.
“What'll you have miss?” the cashier at the Café du Monde said. “Excuse me, miss, what can I get you?” he tried a second time.
“Oh, I'm sorry,” said Katie. She had been in a daze. “I'll try two benets and a large coffee with cream and sugar.”
Katie hadn't been to the café yet, but she had always heard of it from people who had traveled to New Orleans. Sort of a New Orleans trademark, the benet is the staple food item served at the Café du Monde. Basically, it's just a deep-fried pastry with powdered sugar on top, but it is definitely no donut. She paid for her order and sat down at a table with a view of the street.
The Quarter was beginning to come alive on this Saturday morning. The vendors were setting up shop at the French Market and the street-side talent acts were beginning to show up for what is usually their biggest day.
Katie took her first bite and was immersed in the sweet flavor of the pastry. “These are really good,” she thought to herself. “In fact, these are so good they could be dangerous.”
Katie's weight-mindful conscience was once again stepping in to warn her of a potential problem. She had always been obsessed with her figure, even though it had never been a problem. At 5'6” and only 115 pounds, Katie was a true vision of the acceptable female form in America. But, nonetheless, she maintained a constant awareness of her diet.
The source of all this internal worry went all the way back to her childhood, when her mother would chide her for her eating habits. Any time Katie would indulge herself her mother would step in. “You're going to be a blimp someday, if you don't watch it,” she would warn. It got to the point, during her developmental years, that Katie didn't even like to eat at home. Worried of the verbal abuse her mother was ready to unleash, Katie never dared to take seconds, let alone ask for dessert.
“Umm, that was good,” Katie said to herself, as she finished the last bite of her last benet. “I'll have to watch myself with this place,” her conscience added.
She gathered her things, mischievously thought about ordering a benet for the road, and headed towards the exit of the shop. As she approached the cashier, she faced a dilemma. Katie knew she had eaten plenty and that the little things were surely high in fat and calories. But they were so good.
“Could I have three benets to go please?” Katie blurted out before she even knew what she had said.
“What am I doing?” she thought, as she paid the cashier. He handed her the box of benets and she grabbed them and walked out the door.
“It's okay,” she told herself, “I'll just eat one on the way home and keep the others for later.” As she walked, Katie opened the box and removed one of the heavenly treats. “You little things are going to get me in trouble,” she said to the pastry as she moved it towards her mouth.
The first one went down quickly, as Katie strolled along Toulouse Street en route to her apartment. She walked up to her apartment door and reached inside her purse to get her keys, but she dropped them onto the ground. Bending down to get them, Katie experienced a faint tightness around the waistline of her pants, which she had never felt before. Her stomach was so full from the three benets that her pants felt too tight.
“See what you've done to me?” Katie said to the box of two remaining pastries in her hands. “But you little things do taste good.”
Katie went inside, turned on some music, and sat down to relax on her couch. She began to think of the morning's events and she quickly realized that things were going to have to change. It was unreasonable to keep herself from doing things she enjoyed. If she wanted to eat something, she would eat it. No more self-imposed guilt trips.
On that thought, Katie went over to the box of benets and took them both out. Four big bites later, they were both gone and Katie returned to the couch for a nap.
When she woke some hours later, Katie was surprised by how hungry she was. She knew she had eaten five benets earlier, but she felt as if she'd eaten nothing now. It was 3:45 in the evening and the thought of going outside in the suffocating New Orleans heat and humidity did not appeal to her.
She decided instead to order in, but she couldn't decide on pizza or Chinese. In the end, Katie decided to order both and keep the leftovers for dinner the next day.
The pizza arrived first and Katie sat it down on the coffee table in front of her sofa. There had been a special on large pizzas, making them cost just a dollar more than a small, so Katie had gone ahead and gotten the big one. She opened the box and gazed at the hot, steaming pizza. “I won't be able to eat this in three days,” Katie thought to herself.
Just then, the doorbell rang. She opened the door to see a small, elderly Chinese man with what looked like way more than she had ordered. He had three large-sized boxes in his hands and Katie thought he must have made a mistake. When he handed her all three boxes and only asked for $6.37, she knew a mistake had occurred. She tried to tell the old man what had happened, but his English wasn't very good and Katie couldn't get her point across. Finally, she gave up and accepted the large order of food.
She went back to the sofa and sat down to what had become a mammoth proportion of food. “Well, at least I've got my meals planned for the next few days,” Katie said to herself. By this time, she was very hungry so she wasted no time in tearing into the food. The pizza was still hot and delicious and before she knew it she had devoured two big slices.
“I better try some of this Chinese before I get to full on pizza,” Katie thought, so she switched over to one of the boxes. When she opened the box, she knew it was not what she had ordered. In fact, she didn't even recognize the box's contents. It was beef in a rich sauce, along with vegetables and rice. She tore into it, nonetheless, and quickly found that it was delicious.
Halfway through the box, she remembered her large pizza and sat down the mystery Chinese food. “I can't believe I'm not even full yet,” Katie thought, “I must be really hungry.”
An hour later Katie sat back in the couch, completely full. The pizza was gone, except one little slice, and two of the three boxes of Chinese food were gone. “What have I done?” Katie said out loud, as she rested her hands on her distended belly. She had opened the top button 30 minutes ago and it allowed her full belly to extend upwards unconstrained.
She began to clean up the empty boxes and she started to put the one remaining piece of pizza in the fridge, but she thought, “What good is one piece of pizza?” Instead, she ate it quickly.
The next morning Katie woke up to hunger pains. “I guess I stretched out my stomach yesterday,” Katie thought to herself. She went into the bathroom and decided to weigh herself. The scale read 118 pounds, a three-pound gain in one day. Katie immediately looked down at her belly. It wasn't as distended as yesterday, but it was definitely protruding more than normal.
Katie couldn't wait any longer. She dressed quickly and went down to a home-style restaurant just a block away. She seated herself and looked over the menu.
“What can I get you, sugar?” the waitress asked in a deep southern accent.
“I think I'll have a sausage and cheese omelet and a short stack of pancakes. Oh, and a side of bacon also.”
“Hun, that's a lot of food. Are you sure you want all that?” asked the waitress.
“Yeah, for some reason I'm really hungry today,” replied Katie.
Just a few minutes later, Katie's food arrived and she began with the omelet. It was very good, but also very big and she began to wonder if she'd ordered too much food after all. She finally worked her way through it, but she had not even touched the pancakes or bacon.
“I'm gonna need a little rest before I can dig into that,” thought Katie of the stack of pancakes. She sat there awhile and when no one was looking, undid the top button on her jeans.
“That's better,” she said to herself, and began to attack the pancakes. They were thick and creamy and absolutely drenched in maple syrup. Just fifteen minutes later, both the pancakes and five strips of bacon were gone.
The waitress returned with a surprised look on her face and said, “My goodness, I never thought you'd finish all that food in a million years!”
“I told you I was hungry,” said Katie.
“Hungry or not, sugar, you better be careful with that appetite or you're going to get fat,” the waitress replied.
Katie just smiled at the lady and asked for her check. As she walked to the cashier, she could tell she had eaten way too much. She could barely even walk she was so full. Strangely enough, however, it was a really good feeling. “Maybe I will gain a few pounds,” thought Katie as she paid her bill.
The next few weeks were marked by Katie eating whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. If she woke up in the middle of the night hungry, then she went to the kitchen and ate. If she found herself feeling the desire for something sweet, then she went down to the Haagen Daaz shop and got a double dip cone. Basically, she indulged her every desire.
Finally a month passed and Katie knew she had put on weight even though she had not stepped on a scale. Her butt, which had once been tight and firm, seemed to jiggle with her every step. Her thighs, which used to be slim and muscular, now rubbed together slightly and they too were softer to the touch. Her breasts, which had always been nicely proportioned C-Cups, had grown even larger and softer, testing her bras to their limits. Probably the biggest change of all, however, was her belly. It had grown soft and it even had a little sag to it. When she sat down, Katie could feel it resting on her soft thighs. She had grown fond of touching it and even squeezing its soft fat in her fingers. She didn't let these changes bother her and continued her eating habits for the next six months.
One day, while eating leftovers from Emeril's, Katie decided it was time to see the damage. She was going to step on the scale. She finished her snack and headed for the bathroom. Stripping down to nothing, Katie observed her new body in the mirror. From the side, her belly actually protruded farther out than her large, melon-like breasts. It was soft and even hung down some. She faced the mirror and lifted up her fat belly. “My gut must weigh at least twenty pounds!” Katie said in surprise at its heft. When she let go, it dropped to its original position and jiggled up and down for a few seconds.
This motion was new to her and she decided to experiment. Katie began to jump up and down in front of the mirror to see how her new body would react. Her belly shook up and down and jiggled uncontrollably. Just above, her boobs were bouncing so violently, they were almost hitting her in the face. Every time they came down, they slapped on top of her big belly and the collision made the loud sound of flesh on flesh.
After this little experiment, Katie decided she had better look at her butt also, for she knew it too had grown in size and feel. She turned around to face her butt towards the mirror and when she took her first glance, she couldn't believe her eyes. “Talk about a lard ass!” Katie exclaimed in a happy tone of surprise. Her butt was huge and dimpled with cellulite. She grabbed each globe with her hands and squeezed the fat, searching for signs of the muscle she had once had. No luck there, her butt simply had too much soft, squeezable fat.
She looked at it from the side profile and was equally surprised. It jutted outwards like she had two basketballs transplanted under her skin. She decided to try her earlier experiment from this view also. When Katie jumped up and down, her butt jiggled so much she could not believe it. She could only do it a couple of times, because the action was so severe. “Well, I guess I can't go running anymore!” Katie said sarcastically.
“Enough stalling,” Katie said to herself, “You came in here to step on the scale.”
So she pulled the scale out from under the sink, straining to bend down that far with her newly acquired mass. When she stepped on it, the needle jumped up and then down and then up and then down, finally settling on 205.
“Two-Hundred Five Pounds!” Katie exclaimed. “That's ninety pounds I've gained in just six months.”
At first she had thoughts of worry, but then she realized how happy she had been over the past few months. She hadn't worried about her weight and it felt good. Anyways, she had actually grown to like her new figure. She was getting more attention from guys and she felt sexier altogether.
“I guess I'm just meant to be bigger than most,” Katie thought to herself.
With that, she got dressed and returned to the kitchen for a treat.