Jasmine's Secrets
By Jay Tee
7. The Day After Soon, as both obese young confused neighbors abandoned the Double Darling, a sudden silence stung their ears, a remnant of the recent cacophony of sounds.
"How, I can't hear a thing!" Charlie said. Jasmine walked a few steps backward in order to have a good glimpse of his enlarged body. Clearly in the range of the three hundred pounds, Charlie's body was extremely appetizing in Jasmine's eyes. "Don't you find me ridiculous?" he asked her.
"Are you kidding? I've always have a thing for you and - ..." She knew she had gone too far. The silence again. Jasmine was suddenly uncomfortable with the situation.
"I've always have a thing for you, too," Charlie said, smashing the silence in pieces. "But I was in love with the idea of seeing you getting fat one day... and..." She suddenly stopped walking. "Sorry, am I upsetting you?"
"Oh, my God..." Jasmine said in a low whisper. "Charlie... I used to imagine that you were fat! That was my secret... wish." Their eyes became the perfect mirrors for each other souls. The street was empty. The moment was unique... Okay, I let them alone for a while... I supposed the lovebirds needed it.
Twenty minutes later, a city taxi driver was amused at the sight of the couple. They were young and attractive but fat – and they didn't fill the usual cliché of the oversized people he knew. They were acting like college youngsters, telling each other secret things and exchanging quick laughs.
"...I started with the seeds a few weeks ago. I still wonder who or what put them in my mailbox. That's a mystery I suppose I can live with," Charlie said, leaning over her body to reach the proximity of the girl's right ear.
"Yeah, that's creepy, don't you think? It makes me think on the Twilight Zone or something..." Jasmine retorted in the same tone, her stocky hand covering her mouth.
"Exactly!" he said. "But it seems like there's no malice in the entire situation. I went psycho the first few days... but, later on, I realized nobody gave a shit, and nobody was lurking in the dark."
The cab stopped in front of the building. It was quarter past four, but the night was giving them the benefit of the concealment. Charlie paid the fare and off they went. The couple stopped in building's doorway; the soft light of the street lamp made them two yellow icons of plumpness. They looked at each other again and they moved inside.
"I'm not sure how safe it will be to use the elevator together," Jasmine said with a dreamy smile in her face, her bulky cheeks drawing the perfect portrait.
"You go first, Jasmine. After all, I am supposed to be a gentleman," Charlie replied. He closed his eyes, putting his hands behind his giant torso: a gent's pose. But he opened one eye and added, "Of course, I hope to see you tomorrow, if you like..."
Jasmine treasured that moment, more than anything else before - more than chocolates or candy sticks. "I'd love to," she said. And both heads were in the right position and nearness to allow a little kiss, a little contact between both mouths – a brief romantic touch, however intense.
Jasmine returned to her apartment and went directly to the bedroom. She was happily tired, blissfully out of breath. It was Saturday already. She didn't need to trade her body for the former self. She would stay in bed waiting for Charlie. Her prince will find the way in like in the bedtime stories and fairy tales of her childhood. She let herself drop into the softness of the bed's clean sheets. But this time she forgot her present weight. The bed cracked under her 330 pounds. The mattress touched the floor after a noisy wooden smashing sound.
She stayed laid down, motionless, for a few seconds. "Oh, fuck!" Jasmine finally said. "My bed...I liked it a lot. I don't really like this part of the charm..." She turned around to start getting in her feet. "Oh, I'd wish life wasn't so painfully real sometimes." Jasmine removed the black dress from her immense body and remained naked in the dark. She finally laid back down on the bed's debris, and a numbing sensation took her entirely. "There will be time tomorrow to fix things up," she decided.
But suddenly an image of something forgotten startled her. "Holly shit...Ra'shelle!" She grabbed her purse and located her cellular phone in seconds. The number of Ra'shelle's mobile phone was, of course, saved n her address book. It rang four times.
"Yeah?" said the voice of Ra'shelle, wherever she might be.
"I'm so sorry, Rach... I've been so stupid tonight... How could I let this happen? I never should have dragged you along in the first place. I'm sorry... So sorry!"
"Oh... Nevermind, you blobby ass. Right now... Everything's OK. There's something I want to tell you tomorrow... Can I pay you another visit?" Ra'shelle was amazingly chilled out and the tone of her voice was... well, impossibly relaxed.
"Err... Sure... Please, but... Are you OK...? I mean, are you all right ...for real?" a confused Jasmine wanted to know.
"Never better, honey. I'll see you tomorrow... What about lunch time?"
"Sounds fine... OK..."
"Perhaps I'll bring someone with me. We can ask for some pizzas. I don't know. We'll see... OK, bye!"
"Bye..." Jasmine replied. The phone call finished. The situation was extremely odd, she thought. Had Ra'shelle scored in the Double Darling? Not likely. But then, the weight of the present events made Jasmine feel profoundly sleepy. A warm dream invaded her unconscious mind. A soft smile arched her features.
The morning after arrived. It was twenty past eleven when Jasmine woke up. She decided she wanted to be dressed up. It was a delightful feeling to go around naked, but soon enough she realized that it was a little bit cold and there was a lot more skin surface to feel the chills running down and over. So she decided to take a hot shower.
This time the water washed her all over, and in a matter of five minutes she was a lot slimmer to fit in the old sport pants. She didn't, however, shrink completely. She stopped when she knew that her proportions would suit the maximum stretching of the garments. There, she was a different Jasmine again, absolutely naked and looking herself in the mirror. "Not bad, uh?" she thought about the 185 pounds she had decided to keep.
She flashed on a fresh start in this new body. Maybe she'll enter the magazine building on Monday, carrying an extra few pounds beyond her usual 115. Maybe no more than ten more pounds, just to see what the reaction would be. But she knew, no matter what, her ultimate goal was to get as fat as possible - as fat as her work duties would allow. It was a bold aim, but not unrealizable at all.
She put on an old pair of pink sweatpants, clearly elasticized but fitted to the former girl that Jasmine was. Her almost one ninety pounds fit into the pants without ripping any fabric. It was tight all over, but this didn't matter. The tightness in her hip area felt like the golden gates of heaven.
Then she picked the only T-shirt she could use, a white spotted flannel she wore to bed during the winter: old and ragged enough to hold her flesh inside without further concern about the integrity of the piece. Her stomach fought to stayed uncovered, but Jasmine finally lowered the T-shirt down her navel line. Part of her paunch was visible, but she thought it made for a lovely casual touch.
She was strongly interested in getting a substantial breakfast as soon as possible. Her last binge had been heavenly, so she stepped outside of her apartment, slowly and carefully, and went down the corridor. The number 6 was her lucky number: Charlie's apartment. She pressed the buzzer.
"Are you interested in sharing a breakfast? I'm ravenous!" Jasmine said to a very sleepy Charlie. His weight was normal again. This disappointed Jasmine a little bit, but then she remembered her own bed cracking experience. "I guess your bed is grateful for having you back like that."
"Yeah, well... This is something you'll learn within the next few days. I'm hoping to buy a strong one somewhere next week. I crushed mine the second night," Charlie explined. His hair was a total mess, but Jasmine kinda liked it.
"Really? I can't believe this... I just crushed mine too!" she said in excitement. "I suppose I should do the same..."
"I'm sleeping on the mattress, and it's not very comfortable to get a good sleep in the floor... so that's why I shed the weight during the nights," Charlie said to her with a bit of grief, explaining the reasons for his slenderness, as if the fact of being thin in front of her eyes were a capital sin.
A change in his relaxed pose indicated he was allowing Jasmine to move inside. She entered Charlie's apartment, and they both quickly decided to feast on a continental breakfast. After all, it was almost lunchtime. Charlie was well provided for any occasions, but they also called for dozen of donuts. They were about to dispose of the table when the cellular phone of Jasmine started to sound.
"It's Ra'shelle, my friend... the one you met yesterday. I got to take it," she said to Charlie.
Epilogue