My Eternal Gratitude

[cheddarlion]

**You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant...**

"Rise and shine, campers! Love playing that classic from Arlo Guth-" 

::SMACK::

Claire cursed herself for forgetting to unset her radio alarm clock the night before. She'd been working her ass off at college all semester, waking at 6am to go on her runs, before showering and getting ready for classes. Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday, and she'd even forgone eating since a small breakfast the prior day, so she could be ready for maximum gluttony today. Her plan was to sleep in until maybe 10 or so, and begin the feast. But now she was up at 6am, famished, with none of her extended family likely to wake for several hours, and no appetizers likely to appear for several more. 

She threw on her stretchiest yoga pants underneath a loose and flowy top. She'd managed to avoid the freshman 15, and any sophomore 60, and junior...jellybelly? in her first nearly five semesters of college. But her 5'7", 115 pound frame would look absurd with the amount of food she intended to put into it today, and she didn't feel like showing her dozens of relatives her likely epic food baby. Especially not her cousin, Jake. 

Woah, don't worry, this isn't that kind of story. Jake was her aunt's adopted son, and she got to see him once a year when they came to visit on Thanksgiving. He had grown over the years into a wiry, handsome devil. The fact that he wasn't technically a blood relation became more important to Claire every Thanksgiving. She'd never really found a way to broach the topic with him...have YOU ever thought about how to ask your cousin out? Now that they were both 21 and their parents would let them have some wine and beer this year, maybe inhibitions would be lowered? Maybe something would just happen? 

Despite her intentions to save her appetite for the feast, Claire realized she couldn't wait the five hours before the deviled eggs appeared. She tiptoed into the kitchen, with vague designs that all ended in some sort of hearty breakfast. 

"Oh look who decided to wake up early!" her uncle James whispered from the dimly lit kitchen. "You know Santa doesn't come for another month, right?" One of James' go-to jokes was pretending not to know what holiday it was. Never got old. James had even brought a carton of eggnog as a practical gag, which he was adding to his coffee at the moment. Claire leaned into the fridge and realized that it was chock-full of everyone's Thanksgiving ingredients and dishes, with nary an egg or a carton of orange juice to be found. 

"Guess I'm just looking to make a down-payment on the pig-out session today," she said, gathering what she thought would be undetectable morsels from the side dishes that had already been finished and were chilling in the fridge. When she turned around to face her uncle, he looked shocked at the large paper plate she held, heaped with corn pudding, cranberry sauce, three kinds of mini pies, and other assorted goodies. 

"Well it's not like you can't afford it! Tell me, do you do ANYTHING other than run and study up at that college of yours? You're skin and bones! Here, have some eggnog to wash it down." He poured her a tall glass of eggnog, and she thanked him as she carried it back to her room. She liked her uncle, but just was not quite ready for his energy so early in the morning. 

Claire dug into her pilfered goods with relish. Cold or not, this was the best breakfast she'd had in months, probably partly because she hadn't eaten for nearly a day. She found herself modestly satisfied after finishing the plate, and maybe a little more than satisfied after chugging the 8oz glass of eggnog, just to keep it from going bad. She found herself drifting off back to sleep...

*You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant...*

"Rise and shine campers! Love playing that classic from Arlo Guth-"

"WHAT THE HELL?" Claire woke with a start, crumbs of mini pies falling off of her loose flowy top. She looked at her radio alarm clock, which had just flipped over to 10:01am. After re-orienting herself, she remembered that the classic rock station plays Alice's Restaurant every few hours on Thanksgiving. She heard noises from the kitchen, and felt her stomach rumble - phew. She hadn't ruined her appetite with her morning smorgasbord, and now she was awake at just the right time to start eating. This was going to be the best Thanksgiving ever. 

[cheddarlion]

Claire wandered into the kitchen after composing herself, to see lots of extended family, in for the long weekend. Her uncle James was yukking up a storm in the living room, flirting with one of her dad's sisters. "You see, traditionally, if the turkey sees his shadow, we have six more weeks of thanking!" Claire found her mom, putting the final touches on the turkey before it went into the oven. Claire had gotten in late last night and this was the first time she'd seen her mom in months. Anne was a well-preserved, robust woman of 52, with a standard middle-age spread. She looked nothing like her younger sister, Phyllis, who was the largest of Claire's aunts, probably pushing 300 pounds. 

When her mother was at a stopping point, Claire walked over to give her a big hug. "How's my favorite chef?" 

Anne awkwardly gave Claire a hug with her elbows - "Raw turkey hands!" Always the pragmatist. "Gimme a second, and once we get this bird in the oven, I want to hear all about your semester!"

Claire turned around to see Phyllis walking a little too close to a TV tray with a glass of wine on it, and bumping it with her ample rear. The glass fell onto the carpet, splattering wine all over Phyllis' tent-like blouse. Claire moved to help sop the wine out of the carpet while Phyllis returned to her room to get a new top. There was a slight stain, but Claire managed to get most of it out.  

Her mom pulled herself away from meal prep long enough to sit down with Claire. She was famished, but Claire's goal was to keep the snacking light until mealtime. Her willpower was sapped by the glass of wine her mom poured for her, and she found herself crushing almost an entire bowl of chips and dip that had been set out next to her on the couch. 

"So you're certainly not giving into the college lifestyle, I can see. You're so skinny! Do you need more money on your meal plan?"

"Oh come on mom, I'm 21 - I can pretty much eat whatever I want for now. Not that I do." Claire had been to a few parties this year, but always kept it to one or two beers. "I'm looking forward to going all out today, though!" 

"You'd better bring it, kiddo. We have a 30-pound bird, and it looks like everyone has brought enough sides to feed an army. Good thing they're sticking around the rest of this weekend, or we'd be digging out of leftovers for months!"

The next few hours went by in a bit of a blur - Claire caught Jake's eye from across the room, but didn't manage to say hi. He was as wiry and handsome as ever. Claire found herself picking at this and that, but still had quite an appetite when the meal began. 

And what a meal it was! Her mom had not lied - the table was filled with the turkey, stuffing, rolls, gravy, and cranberry sauce. The counters had been put into use holding sides like corn pudding, creamed spinach, cinnamon rolls and so on. Her aunt on her dad's side, Jenny, had moved to the south and just married Joey, a large southern gentleman. Joey had bizarrely brought ribs...sort of a Thanksgiving faux pas, thought Claire. But on Claire's third trip to the sides counter, she thought she ought to try one...and immediately regretted that she was feeling nearly full. It was the most succulent, tangy, perfectly seasoned thing she'd ever had in her life. She had planned for this to be her final plate so as to save some room for dessert, but as soon as she had cleared it, she inhaled deeply, got up from the table, and loaded up her plate with three more ribs (and some creamed spinach; gotta balance all that meat off with some veggies). When she was done, she was more full than she'd ever been in her life. She was glad Jake was sitting over at the satellite table in the other room, so he wouldn't see her face smeared with barbeque sauce, or how gingerly she had to walk over to the dessert buffet. 

Claire didn't know how she was going to deal with dessert - she'd spied about 5 different pies and cakes she desperately wanted to try when getting a sneak peak at the fridge early this morning. She figured she could get away with cutting minuscule slivers of each, but when she arrived at the buffet, her relatives had formed a murderer's row, looking expectantly at the folks approaching, ready to cut simply massive hunks of the item they'd brought. Claire couldn't say no and she walked away from the dessert table with two plates, loaded down with six full-sized servings of dessert. The three glasses of wine she'd been poured at dinner left her head spinning a bit, but also helped her to really relax and loosen up her stomach muscles. With the pressure of not disappointing any of her relatives greater than the pressure on her stomach, which she had now sort of tucked over her yoga shorts, she worked her way through the piles of pie and cake - lemon meringue, apple, pumpkin, pecan, German chocolate, and a bread pudding that her uncle Joey had brought that hadn't looked like much this morning, but turned out to be the best of the bunch.

Claire felt high. She slumped back in her chair. It's amazing how we feel versus how we look. She felt like she was going to burst, like she was 8 months pregnant. The rest of her family saw a drowsy-looking waifish girl with a delicate chin. Phyllis looked enviously at her. True, had Claire been wearing a more revealing top, they'd have seen a pretty serious food baby, but surely one that would pass and leave Claire's delicate hips and thighs untouched by the time tomorrow rolled around. 

A couple hours later, when Claire became ambulatory again, she wandered into the living room where the men (and most of the women) were watching the final Thanksgiving Day game - the Lions were down by 14 against the Bears with three minutes left in the game, on their own 10 yard line. Her uncle James, of course, was a bit of a degenerate gambler, and had bet on the Bears -6.5. He offered Claire a beer - even though her stomach had settled a bit since the feast, the thought of 12 ounces of bubbly carbs in her stomach didn't sound great. She declined. "Oh come on, have a little fun," James implored. 

"Can't we change this to a Christmas movie? As soon as the Thanksgiving meal is done with, it's time to turn the corner! Plus the Lions aren't going to come back!"

"Sure, they won't win, but they could still get a touchdown and two-point conversion, and then I'm fucked!"

Claire didn't know football that well but knew the tone of her uncle's voice - he was grasping at straws. "Tell you what - if you lose your bet, I'll drink TWO beers. But if you don't, I get to pick the next thing we all watch." The room agreed and they settled in for the last three minutes. 

Improbably, Matt Stafford started throwing laser beams over the middle, and the Bears defense didn't seem that interested in stopping him. A sack left the Lions in 4th and 13 with 0:40 left, but Stafford scrambled for 16 yards and went out of bounds inside the 20 of the Bears. The next pass was a quick out to the sidelines that the Bears defender tried to jump for an interception, which left the wide receiver with a waltz into the end zone. One of the announcers, Chris Collinsworth, chimed in "now it's unlikely, and most teams wouldn't do this, but the stats say you should go for 2 here." His partner, Al Michaels, a bit of a degenerate gambler himself, cheekily said "well this probably won't matter a lot to the Lions or Bears, but a lot is riding on this." Sure enough, the Lions went for 2 - and converted! Claire heard the sound of two beers being cracked, and her uncle moaning at his misfortune. The Bears recovered the onside kick, and kneeled out the clock. Claire gingerly sipped her first beer. James put on It's A Wonderful Life before leaving the room, muttering to himself. 

A woman of her word, Claire found herself sloshing herself to bed after the two beers and random munchies that made their way into her mouth during the movie. It had been a glorious day of eating. Back in her room, she took off her blouse, and laughed at her absurd silhouette - a mound sticking out of the middle of an otherwise willowy body. Good thing this was just once a year. Although there were going to be plenty of leftovers hanging around all weekend, tempting her. She'd have to go for a run tomorrow, she thought to herself as she dozed off. 

**You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant...**

"Rise and shine, campers! Love playing that classic from Arlo Guth-"

::SMACK::

"Goddammit!" Claire looked around the room, a bit disoriented. She'd forgotten to turn off her alarm clock again. The DJs must have had Friday off, and were playing the tape from yesterday. Kind of a bad decision, since Alice's Restaurant was good for maybe once a year, tops, and from there got a little tiresome. Claire looked down at her slightly bloated stomach and thought about going for a run. But first...she felt a weird hollowness...as if she hadn't eaten for an entire day. This was how she'd felt yesterday morning, but she had *certainly* eaten yesterday. Before her run, she'd just grab a snack from the kitchen to give herself a little energy. She pulled on her yoga pants and loose flowy top, which she somehow must have ** folded before going to bed last night? She didn't remember doing that but they were right on the top of her suitcase. 

Stealing into the kitchen, she was surprised by her uncle James sitting there. "Oh look who decided to get up early! You know, Santa doesn't come for another month, right?" 

[cheddarlion]

Claire glared at her uncle, who was again pouring a bit of eggnog into his morning coffee. He loved his callback jokes. "Eh, I just thought I'd grab some breakfast. I did a pretty solid job yesterday but for some reason I'm starving this morning!"

"Well it's not like you can't afford it! Tell me, do you do ANYTHING other than run and study up at that college of yours? You're skin and bones! Here, have some eggnog to wash it down."

Claire did a start as the words sounded eerily familiar, and she opened the fridge to see untouched plates of food. Her relatives must have all brought doubles of their dishes. She gathered this and that from the dishes in the fridge, and walked away with a loaded plate. She belatedly grabbed the glass of eggnog as well, remembering that it had been damn delicious yesterday. She'd let herself eat today, but it was back to healthy living tomorrow. She patted her full tummy after finishing off the plate, and dozed back to a nap. 

Feeling a little guilty for her continuation of yesterday's indulgence, she went for a brief jog in her neighborhood. A Lamborghini driving at twice the speed limit almost ran her over, but it screeched to a halt just short of her. A little shaken, she ran back to the house, showered, and put her loose blouse and yoga pants back on. 

As she wandered into the kitchen and living room, the din of relatives rang out just as the day before. James bellowed from the other room "see, traditionally, if the turkey sees his shadow, it's 6 more weeks of thanking!" Claire raised her eyebrow a bit, and walked to her mother, who was...preparing another turkey? 

"Another turkey??" Claire laughed as she massaged her mom's shoulders from behind. 

"Oh hold on a second hun, I've got raw turkey hands! Gimme a second and once I get this bird in the oven, I want to hear all about your semester." 

"Well I mean nothing much has happened since yesterday but I did raid the fridge this morning." 

"No, silly, tell me how your classes are going! Did you meet any boys?" 

Claire laughed nervously and sort of wandered away without knowing how to respond. She looked up to see her aunt Phyllis moving backwards towards a TV tray with a glass of wine on it. Not wanting a repeat of yesterday, she weaved her way across the kitchen and grabbed the wine just as Phyllis' rear was making contact. "Great save, Spiderwoman!" James bellowed from his station in the couch. Phyllis looked up with relief. 

"Oh wow, glad you have those reflexes!" Phyllis gasped. "This is my favorite top, too!" 

"Oh, and you wouldn't want to stain another o-" Claire looked up to see her wearing the identical top from the day before. It was stain-free. She looked around, and realized that everyone was wearing their clothes from yesterday. What was going on?? 

Sure enough, everyone seemed to be gathering momentum for another feast. There were certainly enough leftovers from yesterday, but that didn't explain the brand new turkey her mother was roasting up. Claire had a few glasses of wine, hoping they would blot out this weirdness. She was glad of the re-do on the feast by the time the table was set; she'd been starving when she woke up this morning, and her pilfered plate of breakfast staved off the hunger a bit but by early afternoon she was famished again. 

Somehow her uncle Joey's ribs hadn't been demolished yesterday - the pile of them on the counter was enormous. Claire looked across the table to her mom and motioned to the ribs "aren't those AMAZING?"

"I don't know, you tell me kiddo. Go grab some and bring one back for me." 

"Oh you had some yesterday, too, don't lie." 

Joey interjected "Ha! You'd have quite a stomachache, they were raw yesterday!"

Claire looked at the table, perfectly set, her relatives all dressed identically to yesterday, save Phyllis, who was wearing her unstained blouse. Her head started spinning. She started to ask what she suspected, and realized that she was going to sound crazy for asking if she was looping the same day. She had to figure this out herself for now. Fortunately, what she wanted to do anyway was what she needed to do to blend in: eat a Thanksgiving-sized amount of food. She managed to ease back a bit this time, saving a bit more room for the dessert attack she knew was coming. Her mother noticed. "Oh what's wrong dear, you're skin and bones...don't be shy!" 

Claire didn't give in to the temptation (yesterday's gorging was a little too much to be enjoyable)...but her mother's words triggered something in her mind. If time was somehow looping for her, this was amazing luck. She could have looped on midterms day or something else unpleasant. Instead, she got to enjoy family, a day off, and an incredible feast! She was still probably going mad or something, but you know...could be worse. 

The disoriented and stuffed girl slumped back after swallowing the last bites of bread pudding, feeling pregnant. Phyllis looked enviously at Claire again, whose slender face belied the food baby pushing out her yoga pants underneath her unrevealing top. 

When Claire felt like she could walk, she heard the football game again from the other room. This convinced her of what was going on, finally - Uncle James wouldn't be cheering this loudly as a joke. As she walked in, James offered her a beer, and she decided to have her first fun with the situation. "Tell you what, uncle. If the Lions score on this drive and get a two-point conversion, we have to watch whatever I want. If they don't, I'll drink THREE of those." James didn't know his niece was so into football, but he was never one to pass up a good bet. Sure enough the Lions faced a 4th and 13, as they had yesterday. Matt Stafford rolled out, and started scrambling...and slipped short of the line to gain! Claire's confusion compounded, but she dutifully cracked the first of three beers as James was a good winner and put on A Wonderful Life for Claire. Maybe Claire had forgotten exactly what happened yesterday. Oh well, she'd probably get another chance "tomorrow." 

Back in her room, Claire again gazed at her absurd silhouette, possibly even more bloated around the middle than the first go-round, from the third beer. She closed her eyes gradually...

**You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant...**

"Rise and shine, campers! --"

::SMACK::

Claire looked over at her radio alarm clock, showing 6:00am...and after remembering her situation, she smiled. Who knows how long this was going to go on, and she'd try and find a way out of it...but in the meantime she was going to enjoy it. She pulled on her flowy top and yoga pants, and made her way to the kitchen. She was famished. 

[cheddarlion]

Claire made her way to the kitchen, grabbed her plate of food, heard her uncle's jokes and remarks about how skinny she was, and accepted her glass of eggnog. She decided today to figure out who almost hit her while jogging, so she went on another run, watching for luxury cars this time. She started a couple minutes early, and hid by the intersection where it had happened yesterday. Sure enough, a Lamborghini came barreling down the residential street at at least 45mph. She saw an enormous African-American man driving it, decked out in Detroit Lions swag. She got the license plate number, too...for future fun. 

Back inside, she took her traditional nap, and joined the festivities. She saved the wine from spilling again, and avoided giving any hints that she was looping this day repeatedly. Claire decided to really push things today, and so she got the same three helpings of food as her first day, an additional pile of ribs, and then the ungodly amount of dessert. She leaned back, hardly able to breathe. Phyllis again looked on with envy. 

Finally remembering how the game ended up, Claire made the bet "OK Uncle, there's no way the Lions score here - I'll drink three of those beers if they scored and get the two-point conversion." James guffawed "yeah no shit, it's pretty unlikely...it'd be just my luck, but you gotta give me better odds than that. FOUR beers, but if they don't, you get to watch whatever you want." Claire confidently took the bet, and when it got to 4th and 13, she knew Stafford would come up just short...but he didn't! What was going on? As Claire sipped the first of her four beers while watching A Wonderful Life, she pondered the mystery. 

That night, taking her top off, Claire woozily giggled at her absurd form, which was even more bloated in the middle, from the extra indulgence and four beers. 

The next seven loops went by similarly - most days, Claire absolutely stuffed herself to the gills with food and beer, which she was really developing a taste for. As she realized there were no consequences and she could eat even more without literally bursting, she increased her capacity to five plates plus ribs and dessert. Her goal was to make herself laugh in the mirror each night, looking absolutely pregnant with food, and she succeeded. 

One day, she tried an experiment - she told her family she was feeling sick and didn't eat much at all. That was incredibly difficult, but she was curious why she was waking up famished every morning. By the time she went to sleep, she felt like her stomach was digesting itself. She woke up the next day very hungry, but identically hungry to the other days. She also tried staying up all night, eating as much as she could all night, but when the clock struck six, she found herself lying down in her bed, feeling as if she hadn't eaten for nearly a full day. Apparently her hunger was re-setting from the last non-loop day. 

On day 11, she pulled on her loose/stretchy clothes, and made her way to the kitchen. "Oh look who decided to wake up early!" her uncle James whispered from the dimly lit kitchen. "You know Santa doesn't come for another month, right?" 

"Guess I'm just looking to make a down-payment on the pig-out session later today," she said as she leaned into the fridge to load up her plate. Turning around, she anticipated the tall glass of eggnog. 

"Oh, I can't wait either," said James. Huh. That was weird.  

"You sharing that eggnog?" 

"Oh sure thing," pouring her a tall glass, as was the tradition. "Just be careful with that stuff, it's a bit of a calorie bomb." 

Claire was a little weirded out - she'd found that later in the day, things tended to change a bit (still hadn't figured out the football game yet), but this had been a rock-solid routine for the first 10 loops. 

She got back to her room and after eating her breakfast and washing it down with eggnog, she looked at herself in the mirror, as she hadn't other than to evaluate how well she'd done at gorging herself, in the evening. Her face seemed a tiny bit puffier than she remembered...but who could remember? She looked up the selfie she had taken while saying goodbye to her college friends "yesterday" - sure enough she definitely had sharper features in the photo. Nervously she pulled out the scale from under her bed. She hadn't weighed herself in months, but Claire was pretty sure she was right around 115 when she'd started all of this. She stepped on and looked down (suddenly she noticed her stomach was sticking out a bit as well - from breakfast?) - it read 124. 

 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 11

Claire decided to test whether her indulgence was indeed carrying over from past loops. It's possible the scale was miscalibrated or that she had put on a little weight earlier in the semester. She first tried on a pair of non-yoga pants, and found them to be fairly tight, and give her a slight muffin top. Was it a muffin top or just a little extra skin? She thought it was arguable. She'd already seen her uncle this morning, so pretending she was sick was off the table, so she decided she would indulge as much as possible for the next two loops, to get a statistically significant change, and then force herself to starve two loops in a row, to see if that pulled weight off. 

She was also curious to see if James' change in behavior was a fluke, or if other people were noticing. As usual, she greeted her mom in the kitchen at the turkey station. "Hi mom!" 

"Oh, Claire! Turkey hands! But let me get this bird in the oven and we'll talk about your semester!"

Over a bowl of chips, Claire mentioned that she'd been running every morning, which normally prompted the offer of a meal plan increase and an observation that she was skin and bones. "Oh that's so good to hear! It's important to stay healthy! Except today of course. You'd better bring it kiddo."

Huh. Shit. One more for the pile of evidence that this was real. 

Claire was still coming to grips with the long-term implications of what this meant, but for now on a mission to determine scientifically and for certain what the rules of this time loop were. And that mission meant eating with gusto for the next two loops. She got to five plates again, plus dessert. Phyllis and a few members of the family noticed the indulgence and looked on, amazed. Phyllis thought back to when she was Claire's size, and a hint of worry crept into her mind for Claire's future. 

Claire had stopped messing with betting her uncle for the last few loops, but she'd grown to enjoy the beers. She made her way over to the living room a little early (she was getting better at recovering from the food coma post-feast), and watched the game with James and a lot of the guys. She managed over the course of the evening to put down five beers, more gradually this time, but still an immense amount of liquid. When she stood up, she noticed that her bloated stomach was nearly showing from underneath her loose and flowy blouse. Possibly just a result of pushing her limits? 

Loop 12 was an approximate repeat of Loop 11, as planned, although the twinge of shame Claire felt the prior loop, when she suspected her family members were gradually changing their treatment of her, was reduced...none of them remembered this in Loop 12, and so she was getting a fresh start. 

When Claire woke up on the morning of Loop 13, she got her traditional breakfast (since she had weighed herself after breakfast in Loop 11), and nervously pulled her scale out...this was the moment of truth. She looked down to see 127. 

This definitively proved to her that the indulgence from previous days was sticking to her. The consequences of this started to hit her - who knew how long she'd be in this loop, or if she'd ever get out, but she was gaining almost a pound a day doing the default amount of indulgence. Perhaps she could ease back a little rather than go absolutely all-out, but the fact was that she was waking up every morning absolutely starving, and surrounded by massive amounts of incredible food, being encouraged to indulge by all of those around her. This was going to take some incredible will power. 

Claire went for a run for the first time in about 10 loops, and sure enough found herself getting much more winded than she had previously. This time she tried to get a better look at the large African-American man in the Lambo, and realized that she recognized him from a close-up during the third quarter yesterday - he was a lineman for the Lions! She realized that she must have subtly disrupted his day on Loop 2, when he almost hit her, and this was enough to mess with Stafford's scramble on 4th and 13. 

Going back to the house, she decided to just tell people she was sick, and thus not eating. She winced when no one insisted she was skin and bones or worried that she had an eating disorder...but that was to be expected at this point. It was just as hard as she remembered from the earlier loop where she was testing out how hunger worked. The good news was that she was marginally less hungry when she woke up the next loop, and merely had to repeat the sheer will power of the prior day. 

On the morning of Loop 15, she tried her non-yoga pants on to see if there was any progress...they were still incredibly tight, and gave her what was now undeniably a muffin top. She tested out the breakfast routine with James...no spontaneous offer of eggnog yet. Her post-breakfast weighing showed her to be 126 pounds. Claire sighed. She was hoping to have lost at least the three pounds since her two all-out loops. She figured out that she could probably have a normal Thanksgiving meal one time for every two loops that she starved herself. As she thought about how hungry she felt each morning when she woke up, and the will power it took to get through just these last two days, Claire was filled with dread for the first time. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 15, continued

Claire went through Loop 15 with a sense of relief; while her hunger stayed about the same every loop, her willpower was wearing thin. She had intended to take it easy, but once she started eating, and people started noticing her taking it easy, their encouragement combined with her hunger led to her getting pretty well-stuffed. She downed three large plates of traditional Thanksgiving food, a few ribs, and then the assault-by-dessert. Phyllis, between her own large plates of food, seeing her take her third glass of wine gushed "oh Claire, it's so good to see you finally loosening up a bit!" That stung Claire a bit, but she was getting used to this idea - no one would remember a thing tomorrow. 

After dinner, Claire embarked on another mission that she'd been meaning to - she wasn't sure why it had taken her this long or why she was so nervous, but she finally went over and talked to Jake. "Hi, Jake, how's your semester been?"

Jake looked down at Claire and blushed a bit. Claire had always been kind of willowy for his tastes but it seemed like she'd been indulging a bit this semester, or at least had had a healthy Thanksgiving feast. No, it was more than that...her face was a little fuller, which doesn't happen from just one day of indulgence. "Oh, great! I'm taking this fascinating topology class. It's really interesting; along with my cosmology stuff, I've been learning so much about like...the fabric of space-time. Did you know that the universe is possibly infinite, but more like a 4-D loop than a vast endless field? Like, there's no end of time; it's just a repeat of another time and place from the past? Of course on our scale, we could never tell."

"Oh um, totally. That makes sense."

"Wait, really?" 

Claire had forgotten herself; "oh I mean like it makes sense that you'd be into that stuff. You've always been such a dork!" 

"Ha, says the accounting and biology double-major! You know, a lot of cosmology is like accounting - there are rules and everything has to balance." 

Claire had thought of this, of course...but it sparked some new thoughts that she might try out later. "So I was wondering if there's something you could help me with...come over to my room during A Wonderful Life tonight?" 

"Uhh...sure. Aren't people watching the game, though?" 

"No, silly, I mean later when we're all watching A Wonderful Life. I mean, probably that'll be on, cuz that's what people watch once Thanksgiving is over, right? I'm not sure that's what we'll watch because I don't know the future or anything." The wine prevented her from determining whether the coverup job had been sufficient. 

"...uh, ok, see you in a bit then." Jake wandered away, a little confused. 

Claire once again retired to the living room and started downing beers to get herself nice and ready to make her move on Jake. She had the game results down now - she hadn't interrupted the Lions player earlier today during her run, so she knew Stafford would complete his scramble. She bet Uncle James 6 beers if she lost, and $100 plus choice of movie if she was right. He took the bet, and finally she won, which was lucky because she was dangerously full, finishing her fourth beer as the Bears kneeled out the clock. She took the crisp $100 bill from her uncle, and requested Miracle on 34th Street. A few minutes into the movie, she looked across the room to Jake and motioned towards the hallway to her room. 

Entering, she looked at herself in the mirror to make sure she was presentable. Oof. Her loose flowy blouse was much less loose and flowy than it had been. This was her largest, most forgiving top...she'd have to do something about this. Not bad, though...her boobs were looking fuller than they ever had, and if this didn't work maybe she could starve a few days in a row and make another run at Jake. Her head spun a little, with the roughly 8-9 drinks she'd consumed over the course of the afternoon and early evening. 

Jake knocked gently, and came in. "So what did you need help with?"

Claire lost her nerve and possibly her better judgment. "Um so...have you ever heard of a time loop in real life? Like in Groundhog Day?" 

"I mean I've seen Groundhog Day." 

"No, I mean could that really happen?" 

"No, definitely not. Well...I mean maybe in theory...I don't like to say never to these things, but also in theory a tiger-antitiger pair could materialize in front of us. It's just never going to happen."

"What if I told you it is happening?"

"Oh I see. You're fucking with me. Very funny."

"No! I swear I'm not. How can I prove it?" 

"What am I going to say next?"

"OK, well first, that's not how it works because tiny disturbances earlier in the day have changed things...but also this is the first loop I've had this conversation with you. I'll be better next time." 

"Holy shit. You're serious. I mean I don't believe you but you think this is really happening." 

"OK, so for future loops, tell me something that no one else knows, and then I'll be able to prove it to you next time."

"Um...wow. So humoring you, how many loops have you been through?"

"I think this is 15. Man, how else can I prove this to you this time? I don't want to waste this loop. Wait, ok I got it. Look at this picture of me and my friend. How long ago do you think this was taken?" She held up her phone, showing him the photo of her in extremely tight jeans and a form-fitting top.

"Well the leaves are off the trees...so probably a year ago or so?" 

"Yesterday."

Jake involuntarily looked Claire up and down. "Uhh...wh..."

"You don't have to be polite, I've put on some weight. Sort of an unbelievable amount of weight, for one day, right?"

Jake felt a stirring. "Umm...wow. How much?"

"A little more than 10 pounds, as of this morning."

"OK but wait, doesn't everything reset every day?" 

"Well in this type of loop, apparently I don't reset...it's as if I ate the food from my last loop...except for some reason I'm starving every morning. I hadn't eaten anything since 'yesterday' morning, so I'd be nice and hungry for today. I didn't know today was going to last forever." 

"What else have you done so far? Oh and I think I have an idea for what I can tell you that no one else knows." 

"Honestly, it was only a couple of days ago that I discovered that the food was sticking to me for sure. I was kind of just enjoying Thanksgiving over and over again. I'm getting a little nervous now, though...like I'm going to be enormous if I don't find a way to stop this." 

"OK so...I can't believe I'm saying this. Here's my secret that you can tell me next time to prove that you're looping: I've always been kind of into women gaining weight."

"Uhh...what??" Claire looked at Jake as if he had two heads. "Um, that's fucking weird."

"Oh I see, so you're time looping and I'm the weird one."

"You're not fucking with me?" 

"No, I'm - wait holy shit YOU'D better not be fucking with ME. Oh shit I can't believe I just admitted that."

Claire, realizing the irony, felt bad, but remained absolutely shocked. She'd never heard of this as a thing, and Jake always seemed so normal, if kind of a dork. "Um, ok...I'm gonna get us some more beers." 

Claire grabbed two six-packs from the fridge with the rest of the family in the living room, and stole back to her room. They both cracked one open. Claire remembered that nothing mattered. "So I'm gaining roughly a pound a day. In a few more loops, I won't even be able to get this top on I bet." 

Jake got a look in his eyes that was unmistakable. Holy shit, he wasn't fucking with me, Claire thought. Or at least...he wasn't fucking with her metaphorically. Because they immediately started literally fucking. An hour or so later, exhausted, Claire decided to continue her inquiry. They talked long into the night, speculating about time loops and how this could be happening to her. Jake was worried about the implications for the universe, if matter as well as Claire's consciousness was being preserved over the time loop. 

"Wait, so time is looping and you're worried about conservation of matter or something?" Claire asked incredulously. She was so fascinated, she didn't notice the radio alarm clock had just flipped over to 5:59am. She took a big swig of beer as Jake delved into another mini-lecture. 

"So even if we're in a new--" 

::splutter::

Claire spit up a bunch of beer from her position on her back, coughing as Arlo Guthrie's familiar song came over the alarm clock radio at 6am. Jake was gone. The beer in her mouth was an interesting new twist - this was end-of-loop beer that had made the trip with her. This would be a new good piece of information to bring up with Jake tonight. Claire considered whether today was going to be a feast or famine loop. Her gnawing hunger perpetually pushed her in one direction, but she knew she had to keep things relatively under control by resisting it. But she remembered the other new information she had learned last night, about Jake's preferences. Fuck it, today was definitely an eating day. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 16

Claire decided after breakfast to go for a run...maybe if she ran enough in the mornings, she could stay ahead of the Thanksgiving onslaught. She ran five miles, puffing the whole way. She'd never consciously had to count calories or exercise to stay slim, so she didn't realize that even this large amount of running was only burning about 600 calories. Claire tugged at her lycra shirt - sure enough that was getting tight as well, showing off her slight love handles. 

Getting back, she decided to do something about her now too-tight-to-comfortably-feast top. She snuck into her mom's room, and looked at the selection - the size 14s would be a tent on her, but the size 10s were appropriately loose without being absurd. Claire's loose and flowy blouse had been a size 6, and this was much looser. 

She said hi to her mother again, and explained that she'd forgotten to bring anything nice enough for the meal home. "Oh honey, my clothes will just be swimming on you! At least plenty of room to put all this food today!" 

Claire was hungrier than ever, after her run. The mid-day and afternoon went by in a blur, with numerous heavy pours of wine, four plates of food, and the traditional six helpings of dessert. This time, she sat at the alternate table, so she could get a head start on chatting with Jake. Among the other folks at the alternate table was her cousin Ashley, about a year younger than her and Jake. Ashley was in great shape, but naturally a little curvier than Claire, perhaps 115 pounds but only at 5 foot 3 inches. "Oh my god, I can't help myself around this food. I'm going to put on so much weight during the holidays this year! Claire I can't believe you eat so much and stay looking like that!" Ashley had always had to work to stay in good shape. Jake (again, no blood relation) sort of shifted uncomfortably in his seat as Ashley talked. Claire knew the look on his face from last night.  

Claire pulled Jake and a couple of six-packs of beer into her room after dinner. "Jake: I'm time-looping."

"Whaa?" 

"OK, so I know you won't believe me because you didn't at first last time. But I'm living the same day over and over again. Here's a picture of me from yesterday, right?" Claire took her top off, to reveal her comically bloated form, to go along with the start of some soft love handles going over the sides of her yoga pants. Jake saw her face was clearly puffier than it was in the picture. 

"Um...wow." Jake tried to pull himself together between shirtless Claire in front of him and her insane claim. "But how do I know that's a picture from yesterday?"

"Oh you don't. But last loop, you told me how much this turns you on."

Jake stammered. "Wh- no it doesn't. I mean..."

"You can't deny it because you already told me right here, maybe about 2 hours later into the last loop. Look, you're studying stuff like this in school...maybe you can teach me, and you can help me figure out what's going on."

Claire put her top back on, and she and Jake started speculating about how it worked. She told him what she'd figured out - that eating in past loops was causing her to gain weight (he was very impressed with her control study), but that her hunger was carrying over from the prior day. She mentioned the beer from the night before. 

"So it seems like if it's inside your body, it comes along for the next loop? The beer can you were holding was gone, right?"

"Yeah. And the clothes I'm wearing revert back to what I went to bed in on Wednesday. Speaking of, I kind of like this top but it was a pain to sneak into my mom's room and get it. I'd rather have it in my room in the morning so I can go out in it."

"Hmm...so I have an idea about that. Can you scrunch it up, and get it into your mouth, and then you'll have it tomorrow, like the beer?" 

"Huh, maybe!" They continued to talk about the looping, and then of course gave in to their desires after about four beers apiece. Claire learned a lot about topology and math, and considered writing her notes down on a paper and eating it...but that would be too gross. Probably wouldn't survive the trip through her digestive system. 

The clock wound past 5:58am..."so Jake, this is where we say goodbye. It's so weird to me that you won't remember any of this tomorrow. Or maybe you will but I'll be gone? Are there now 16 timelines where I've disappeared from existence, but everyone else continues on?"

"Huh, yeah I guess *I'll* find out. Oh, the top, don't forget!" 

Claire hurriedly started pushing it into her mouth, but there was too much material. She only got about half of it in when she found herself on her back, listening to Arlo Guthrie. 

Gagging, she pulled the cloth out of her mouth. The top was whole! This was interesting. She really needed to get some larger exercise gear, though. She threw it on and thought about breakfast. Was this a starving day? She'd really gone hog wild the last couple of days, and the underwear she was waking up in was getting pretty tight. But she was SO hungry, as usual. The morning runs would probably be good enough to keep things under control. 

For the next 10 or so loops she continued to carry over her mom's blouse (she checked the closet one day - there was an identical copy in there!), and go for a long run in the morning, only to be absurdly hungry for the Thanksgiving feast. She continued her late-night fuck-and-think sessions with Jake, and found herself holding her own more and more during the conversations, getting a little bit further into understanding what was going on each time, despite Jake starting from scratch. She established that indeed, a continuous object just had to be partially in her mouth in order to take it along for the next loop. One day she convinced her mom to loan her her engagement ring, and duplicated that for the next loop, before realizing that it wouldn't really do her any good. She'd pilfered some athletic clothing from her mom that she took along with her for the morning runs. 

Claire was in a pretty good rhythm, and between the progress being made in figuring out the rules of the loop, and her confidence that she'd eventually figure her way out of it, she stopped thinking quite so long term. The runs were probably keeping her weight under control. It was a bit of a shock to her when, after greeting her mom some time in loop 28, telling her about why she was wearing her top, her mom failed to remark that the top would be swimming on her. Instead she said "oh you know tomorrow we'll have to take you shopping for some new clothes. I know how college can be! But for today I don't want you to worry about that." Claire had a feeling she knew what she wasn't supposed to be worried about. 

She ran back to her room, slightly panicked. She looked at herself in the mirror - was that a hint of a double chin? Was that there a few days ago? Was that giving her away? The change would be so gradual to her, but no one else at that party had seen her for months, so to them she was showing up with her bloated face. The top covered everything else, but lifting it up she saw some pretty serious love handles pushing over her straining yoga pants. Nervously she stepped onto the scale - she couldn't have put on 5 pounds since the last weigh in, could she? She looked down to see 137 flashing up at her - a gain of 11 pounds in just two weeks worth of loops. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 29

Claire went to the kitchen in her mom's blouse, grabbed a smaller breakfast, and skipped the eggnog, leaving her pretty hungry. But she was determined to keep this under control. Her mom again failed to claim that Claire would be swimming in the size-10 blouse, giving Claire little nudges of shame. She was telling everyone that she wasn't feeling well, and despite the gnawing hunger, skipped snacks and even passed up on any of the Thanksgiving feast. Sitting across from Jake, not eating, she watched Ashley going to town on plate after plate of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and then dessert. Jake was watching intently, too. 

"So, Jake, I'm wondering if there's something you can help me with? Can you come by my room while we're all watching A Wonderful Life tonight?" 

"Yeah, sure, uh huh." Jake was still a little mesmerized by Ashley. 

Claire retired to her room, partly to avoid the temptation of food, partly to work on a particularly tricky math problem that Jake had given her as "homework" in a past loop, almost unable to concentrate over her hunger. The hours ticked by, and Claire looked up at her clock to see it was 2am. Jake had never come by. She stole around the house, poking her head into guest rooms, until she found the one Jake...and Ashley were in. 

Claire wrote this loop off in terms of collaboration with Jake (or anything else with him), but at least she'd managed to not make a pig out of herself. 

Loop 30

After a sensible breakfast and long run, Claire realized she needed to get Jake's attention this loop. She ate with extra fierceness at the alternative table. "Oh my god, I can't control myself around this food! I'm going to put on so much weight during the holidays this year!" Ashley gushed between bites. "Claire, you and I are going to be rolling out of here." 

"Oh my god, I know!" said Claire, patting her stomach. "I'm definitely going to have to cut back after the semester I've had." 

Sure enough, Jake came over to Claire's room that evening. Well that was easy enough. After the weird conversation, they got busy in multiple ways. Claire brought up an idea that had been building: "Look, this is a big ask but...I'm tired of explaining this all to you every loop. We could work so much faster if we were looping *together*. And this is lonely!"

"Umm...wow, I'll have to think about that. Will it even work? How would we do it?"

"Well...I'd just have to put part of you inside me...right as the clock ticks to 6am. That's nothing we haven't done at this point." 

"Look, it's one thing to take a blouse with you, but have you tried anything living?"

"Ummm...no." Claire and Jake worked out that she'd have to try it on the dog before she tried it on him. 

"Look, Claire, no offense, but I don't know that I'm willing to take this plunge even if it works. It seems like we've made some progress, but I don't know if it'll even be possible to get out of this. You're practically asking me to marry you, but this is an even more intense commitment." 

Claire thought about it, and realized what she was asking of Jake. It was difficult, because she had gotten to know him so well over the past few "weeks" of loops, but the next day she would have to convince him all over again. And now she knew that in any loop where she wanted to make progress with Jake, she was probably going to have to make a pig of herself. 

Loop 35

Claire had done the necessary experiments to determine that at least a dog and a cat had the ability to come along with her in the loop. She was happy to observe that it seemed that living things didn't duplicate - it would have been tough to deal with or explain two Jakes to the rest of the family, and the purpose of this was partially to make her life in this loop a little MORE normal, not less. She'd been eating well - the loops were beginning to drive her batty, and now the hunger, the desire to be with Jake, and the desire to make progress towards getting out were all pushing her to make quite a pig of herself. Her morning runs got longer and longer in an effort to counteract this - she was rapidly regaining her former lung capacity, although the extra weight was also progressively making the running harder. Had she done the math, she'd realize that her runs were burning roughly 1000 calories at best, and mostly undone by the fact that she was even hungrier later in the day. 

Claire returned to the main table for this loop; drinking a lot of beers and snacking heavily in front of Jake, with maybe a subtle hint of showing off her food baby seemed to be enough to lure him to her room. Phyllis watched Claire demolish plate after plate with a concerned look on her face. "Honey, so tell me about school. I remember my days as a Delta; I was about your size when I started out, and that chef we had in our house probably did me in." 

"Oh, you know I've just been working so hard I don't have a ton of time to do much else, I guess." 

"Yeah I imagine it's hard to find the time to exercise." 

Claire was growing weary of the backhanded remarks but she didn't know what to do about them, and frankly they were justified. At least she wouldn't have any trouble drawing Jake out this loop.

Back in her room, she explained the usual to an incredulous Jake. She was going all-out in trying to convince him to join her in the loop: awesome Thanksgiving dinner, good company, the likelihood that they could figure out how to leave...the more she pulled, the more adamantly against it he became. This loop was her life, but it was scary and a new concept to Jake. By now she had started to fall in love with Jake, but he didn't know her all that well. She was asking him to jump off a cliff with her, without knowing where the bottom was. 

They finally went to sleep next to each other around 2am, and Claire awoke alone, with corners of various articles of clothing in her mouth and that goddamned Arlo Guthrie song on the radio. 

Loop 36

Claire weighed herself to check in on the damage - she was up to 144, continuing her gain of nearly a pound per loop. Her stomach definitely stuck out now, with soft pooches of fat pouring over her yoga pants. Her thighs had grown significantly, too - she'd been progressively running with more and more weight every morning. Claire's boobs had picked up their share of the weight - she was going to have to figure out her new cup size one of these loops, and find one of the women here of the same size so she could steal their underwear. She added "steal bra - try on" to her mental checklist of tasks. She skipped stopping Aunt Phyllis from knocking over wine today - she had called her fat yesterday! Like she had room to talk! 

Claire felt grim today. She had made a decision, and she didn't know if it was right, but the stress of the situation was getting to her. 

Instead of her mom's top, she wore her original outfit from the earlier loops. It was much tighter than it had been of course; it clung to her stomach and love handles. It was a little disconcerting, seeing everyone's eyes bulge as they saw Claire's nearly 30 pound gain in all of its glory. It was a lot for a semester, but not unheard of. At the alternate table, Claire went absolutely all out. "Oh my god I don't understand how this is so good. I can't even stop myself," she gargled, her mouth full of potatoes and gravy. Her top rode up as she ate, exposing the lower inch or two of her stomach. "Ashley, you're hardly eating. Come on, who do you think can eat more dinner rolls?" 

Ashley was certainly doing a number on the food herself but was in awe. "Umm...I think you can. I really have to keep myself under control these days - I wouldn't want to..."

"Get fat? Oh come on it's the best." Jake shifted nervously in his chair. He couldn't believe how hot this was. It was like Claire knew every button to push. When Claire was finally at her limit, she leaned back and relaxed her gut. It pushed forward out over her lap, hanging suspended by all the food inside. She looked right into Jake's eyes. "Wow, I'm going to need a nap after all that." She waddled gingerly towards her room. 

Jake couldn't help himself. He knocked on her door after a discrete amount of time. She knew who it would be. "Sorry, admission is 12 beers minimum." Jake went and grabbed two six-packs from the fridge and returned. "OK maybe I was a little premature - I'm gonna have to digest this all before I start pounding beers." 

"Claire, what is going on? Are you ok?" 

"Oh yeah I'm fine. Just hungry." 

"Forgive me but...you've put on some weight since I saw you last summer."

Now was usually the start of the talk. But not tonight. "Oh yeah I've just turned into a total pig. You like that though, don't you?" 

"Wha - no. I mean...well I don't have a problem. You're beautiful." 

"Oh I can tell the way you're looking at me. You want it don't you? Just be careful - there's a full load here," slapping her belly, as it made a noise not unlike a ripe watermelon. 

They carefully but passionately rolled around on the bed for the next two hours, and Claire was ready for some beer. "How about we play a drinking game? Kings?" 

"Sure thing!" Jake wasn't a huge drinker but he would go along. 

Claire pulled out a deck of cards that she had stacked earlier in the day. Jake found himself drinking at least double what Claire was. A few hours later, he finished his 8th beer. "Well that (hic) looks like that." He was soon sleeping soundly on Claire's bed. 

Claire looked down at him. This was the way. She set her phone's alarm for 5:58am and went to sleep next to him. 

::BEEP BEEP:: God, it was nice to not wake up to Arlo Guthrie for once. Jake still lay next to her, stirring a little with the alarm but then going back to sleep. Claire looked as the clock moved to 5:59am. She snuggled up next to Jake, took his hand, and started tenderly sucking on his forefinger.

 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 37

Claire looked over as the day reset - and Jake was gone. "Huh??" She'd put the dog's and cat's ears in her mouth, and they appeared beside her in her bed the next loop start. She'd have to figure this out. Of course she couldn't ask Jake for help on this issue; he could never know about this. Or I guess he could, what was he going to do, hold a grudge? "Hey Jake, I need some help kidnapping future you into my hell loop." 

Claire put on her size-6 top (she hadn't taken her mom's top along this loop; she had other things she needed to pull along), wandered into the kitchen for her breakfast - and saw Jake there, looking bewildered. Uncle James said "hey you two, do you think you're gonna find some Christmas presents or something?" Jake laughed politely, and pulled Claire aside into the hallway. 

"Um what just happened?" 

"What do you mean?"

"Um," Jake pulled Claire into her room so they could talk privately "I was just in your bed, and then I'm suddenly waking up in my bed - in different clothes than I was wearing last night."

Huh, maybe it did work. "Oh, huh - YEAH I mean, that's super-weird! I was WONDERING where you went!" Claire was wondering that, but in a different context. "Maybe you sleep-walked? And um...sleep-changed?" 

"I...I guess I must have." 

Yawning exaggeratedly, "Oh boy...well my plan was to sleep in today, so...off you go!"

Jake returned to his room, still a little confused. Claire sighed with relief. OK, so Loop 36 Jake is here now in Loop 37, she thought...humans must work under different rules. He doesn't know he's looping and he doesn't know that I know that I'm looping. Claire decided to avoid Jake as much as possible today, early on, to avoid any slip-ups. The main question in her mind was whether Jake was permanently looping with her, or if she was going to have to seduce him again. The clothes she pulled into one loop hadn't been reappearing unless she continued pulling them along (when she needed to wash her mom's top after 3-4 loops, she just pulled a different top along with her for the next loop). Claire decided to try letting Jake alone today, to see if he'd come along in the loop naturally. This was going to require a bit of an acting job at first. 

Re-emerging from her room at 10am or so, she saw Jake was already a little frantic. He made his way over to her "OK something weird is going on, right Claire? Everyone is wearing the same clothes as yesterday - and so are you?" 

She looked around and feigned surprise "Well, to be honest, this semester I've outgrown everything I own except this top, and I figured today would be a little more casual. This is weird though. Looks like there are some pretty awesome appetizers again today though! I'm STARVING." This was not a lie; she hadn't gotten breakfast with this morning's encounter. 

Jake was more on guard for the supernatural after waking up in a completely different place than he'd gone to bed in this morning. "Look, Claire, you mom is making another turkey. Are - are we time-looping? You remember we had Thanksgiving yesterday, right?" 

"Um...no. Well I mean yes, yesterday was Thanksgiving, but time-looping? No, there's probably a reasonable explanation for this."

"But what? Look, I checked it out - remember when Aunt Phyllis spilled wine yesterday? There's no stain on the carpet or on her clothes!" 

"OK...I don't know if we're looping, but that's definitely weird. I think we need to keep it cool and observe. No one else seems to notice so maybe it's just us. They're going to think we're crazy if we bring it up. Just pretend this is the first time we're doing Thanksgiving dinner." Claire convincingly tucked into plate after plate of food, her now very tight size-6 top riding up a smidge further than yesterday. 

Jake was kind of confused by Claire's nonchalance but agreed with her analysis. He made meaningful eye contact with her every time something repeated. When Uncle James put on the Bears-Lions game in the living room, he pulled her aside. "See we're DEFINITELY re-living yesterday!"

Claire finally pretended to be convinced. "So what should we do? Maybe things will just go normal tomorrow?" Jake agreed that they should wait and see. 

They reconvened in Claire's room that evening, over beers. Claire was frustrated with how she was going to have to bring Jake slowly along, pretending to rediscover all the rules of the loop...but once that happened, Jake would be an asset and a companion. She was also wracked with guilt over lying to him, though. She decided to release him from the loop, if possible, by not sucking on his finger as 6am struck. 

Loop 38

Claire awoke and weighed herself - she'd really gone for it the last two loops, out of necessity. Shit. The scale read 148. She'd have to cut back some for a few loops even if it meant no evening meetings with Jake for a while. She was about to go to the kitchen when she heard a quiet but frantic knock on her door. It was Jake. "Claire, you remember yesterday was Thanksgiving right? And the day before?"

She pulled herself together, not expecting to have to continue acting. "Yeah...better go check whether it's Thanksgiving again."

Of course, it was. Jake pulled Claire aside again. "You know, I've been thinking and this might not be the worst thing in the world for us. Let's have some fun with it. I mean I'm not that big of an eater, but you clearly - " 

"I clearly what, Jake?"

"I mean...the way you were going after that food. You're not fat. I just mean...based on how you were eating the last two days, you enjoy it. And the best part is, you won't gain any weight!"

Claire started to correct him, but caught herself "Oh umm...yeah! Wow! Are you sure it works that way?" 

"So this is kind of a coincidence, but I've been studying stuff like this in school. Basic mass accounting suggests that we can't take anything with us from prior loops, including food we ate."

Claire's stomach rumbled - she didn't need much convincing to make something a "feast" loop. Now she had the added need to not give herself away. "Oh wow, that's so cool! Thanksgiving number 3, here we come!" 

The next 10 loops, Claire made a moderate pig of herself - she went on runs under the guise of doing reconnaissance. She was trying to cut back, but not so much that Jake got suspicious. She basically allowed her intense hunger to guide her into a convincing performance, while she tried to figure out how to convince Jake that he was wrong. He'd notice eventually. They gradually "discovered" rules of the loop, and even made some new progress.

She was leaning back in her chair after her last bites of Loop 49's Thanksgiving, back in her mom's flowy size-10 top for these last few loops, although it was becoming less flowy by the loop. Jake had just come back from the bathroom, looking relatively pale. He motioned for Claire to come with him; they met in her room. 

"Claire...there was corn." 

"Huh?"

"Umm...in my poop. I don't know if it was there before, but I saw it this time...and I haven't eaten any corn...except for at this very meal."

"Wait, so you're absolutely sure it's a rock-solid law of physics that matter can't make it through these loops, and you're convinced by some corn?" 

"There's just no other explanation...so can I ask you to weigh yourself? I haven't noticed any impact on my waistline but I haven't been eating all that much." Claire stepped onto the scale; it read 155; she tried to avoid gasping, although she knew it had to be something like that after ten straight loops of feasting. "OK so that's the baseline - let's weigh you in a few days. Just eat normally and we'll see if anything changes." Jake looked at Claire...he was trying to remember if she looked this soft when they'd first started looping but he couldn't quite remember. 

Claire was relieved - she needed to get her weight under control, and she'd be able to stop the charade in a few days. In recent loops, her mom had gone from gentle mentions of the need to stay in shape, to her eyes starting to bulge when she saw Claire for the first time since the start of the semester. This most recent loop she didn't even pretend. "Oh Claire, honey, what happened? You've put on a LOT of weight!" 

"Oh mom, I just...I twisted my ankle at the beginning of the semester, and I've just been partying too much I guess!" That explained it, right? 

"I mean, maybe we should get your thyroid checked? This looks like more than just party weight! You're still my beautiful girl and I love you but I'm worried!"

"I know, mom, but it's fine. I just have to get back on a healthier diet and exercise routine."

"OK let's talk about that...tomorrow! Today is about the food! I don't want you worried about it, just for this one day of the year!" 

Claire nodded, and dutifully (ok it was more than duty) dug in to her Thanksgiving feast for the next few loops - to appease/reassure her mom, and *for science*. They weighed her after the meal in Loop 52, and sure enough she was up a few more pounds to 158. Jake was convinced. "Damn...I'm sorry Claire. Guess you'll have to just cut back a little."

Claire didn't need to feign distress "Dammit, though, that's the problem: every day I wake up STARVING. This is going to be so miserable - I'm surrounded by amazing food, I'm starving, and now I have to resist that shit? Forever!? Let's take tonight off; I want to be alone."

Claire looked herself in the mirror - she'd moved up to her mom's size-12 top, which concealed most of the increase in her body, but her face was definitely showing the gain. Even the slightest look downward pushed a double chin into view. Taking the top off, her love handles and stomach now slightly concealed the band of her yoga pants, which were stretched nearly to their limit by her thighs. Her breasts bulged comically out of her B-cup bra - she still hadn't managed to acquire any well-fitting underwear, but she had plans to raid Ashley's suitcase next loop. 

Back in his room, Jake was curious about something. He was wondering how bad he was at noticing Claire's gain - he could usually tell when someone in great shape put on a little weight, but once they were a little chunky like Claire was - or was now after this last semester of college - it was harder to tell. He clicked into an album on Facebook, which was arranged chronologically. WOW. The first picture was from August 20; Claire had been THIN, and quite recently. He remembered now seeing her around late August, and it matched well. Claire's behavior in the first loop, the drinking, the indifference to getting fat...it had matched well with her roughly 30 (now 40?) pound gain. 

Jake readied himself for an onslaught of photos of Claire doing keg stands and gradually plumping up. *click* September 3 - a picture of Claire with one of her running buddies, seemingly after a 10K, looking slim as ever. *click* September 16 - Claire doing stir-fry night in her dorm's kitchen, the wok full of vegetables and Claire looking waifish. Jake clicked faster through the photos. October 31 - Claire in a "sexy Karl Marx" costume, not a scrap of fat on her. *click* November 25, i.e., yesterday - a selfie with her friends, captioned "bye for the week!" Claire was in skinny jeans and a crop top that showed off her perfectly flat stomach and nearly curveless hips. 

The implications washed over Jake like a bankruptcy - gradually, then suddenly. Claire wasn't being honest with him! 

[cheddarlion]

Hi folks - if you're enjoying this, just reassuring you that there will be more in a couple weeks, but I have to take a brief break for now. This is my first piece and I really like how it's turning out; hope you do too!

[cheddarlion]

Loop 53

Jake wasn't sure how to bring this up with Claire - he wanted to confirm that she really was lying. That evening when they met for their brainstorming session, he started to probe. 

"So it's kind of bad luck that you'd already put on some weight when this all started, huh? Probably wouldn't get so much grief from your mom if you were only up like 10 pounds from the last time she saw you." 

Claire gulped and her mind raced. "Huh, well now it's more like 15 since this started but yeah, definitely wish I hadn't partied so much this semester." 

Well that confirms it; she's intentionally misleading me. But why? Jake thought back to the first loop, when Claire seduced him. She must have known his tastes. He remembered her weirdly sucking on his finger at one point, just before he appeared back in his room at the start of the second loop. Claire had been sort of avoiding discovering the "put things in my body to pull them over to the next loop" trick in hopes that enough time would go by that Jake forgot his first loop. But Jake had gotten there on his own; it made sense if Claire was able to gain weight.  

Claire tried to change the subject and distract Jake. "Kinda wish I hadn't partied so much today, too, for that matter." She lifted her top to reveal her swollen gut. She'd gone on a long run today, nearly 10 miles, but that only made her hungrier for dinner, and now she was on her 6th beer during the brainstorming session with Jake. It really seemed to be getting harder to do a starvation loop, but she knew she was going to have to get going on those soon, or she was going to get enormous. 

The flirtation had its desired effect (or so she thought), and they rolled around in bed for the next couple of hours. Lying there next to Claire, Jake had an idea for revenge. 

Loop 54

Claire decided to not eat this loop, feigning sickness. She even tried just staying in her room so she wouldn't have to deal with her mom's shocked face, but her mom came in at one point. "Oh honey are you ok? Your face is so swollen!" Claire had to "admit" that she'd put on some weight this semester so her mom wouldn't drive her to the hospital. 

It was excruciating - Claire needed to do this for about 100 more loops to get back to normal, and she despaired. Her nearly 160-pound body seemed to be crying out for food even more than when she had starved at a lighter weight in earlier loops. Jake came in that evening, looking excited. 

"OK, I think I figured it out! Or at least I have an idea. If you imagine space-time as a river, we're stuck in like an eddy. We can't go forward."

"OK, I'm with you."

"So, whatever it is that is keeping us here, it's based on an equilibrium - only our bodies are caught in the eddy - something about our bodies is just right to just keep looping around and around. We need to do something to upset that equilibrium."

"OK, but what?"

"Well you're not going to like it. Or maybe it'll be fun. But we're going to have to change our mass enough so that we interact with the eddy differently."

"Shit." Claire knew, and thought Jake didn't, that her 115 pound body wasn't different enough from her current body to jar her out of the eddy. Now she had to lose even more weight than that? "How much different do we need to be?" 

"Well I've done some calculations, and we're probably looking at at least a 100% change. Up to 200%."

Claire gulped. "You mean...increase? Yeah I guess you'd have to if we're doing more than 100%."

"Yeah, it's more complicated than this, but going with the stream metaphor, things with more mass are less subject to turbulent flow, and tend to move in time according to first-order expectations." 

Jake pulled out Claire's scale, and hopped on. It read 160 - damn, I've actually put on a few pounds during the loops. Better get used to it anyways. "So the good news is, we're starting from about the same spot. I think if we want to leave at the same time, we should try to go up at the same rate. I'd guess we'll have to go up to at least 300 pounds."

Claire gulped again. She had actually planned, once they figured out how to get out of the loop, to try and drop some weight before exiting, if possible. But now Jake was telling her that the only way out was up - in weight. 

Loop 55

Claire grabbed an even larger breakfast than normal in her morning fridge raid. Uncle James had long-since stopped offering her a glass of eggnog, and Claire felt awkward asking for it now. She was going to have to be more zen about people's reactions to her if she was going to go through with this, but she wasn't there yet. The good news was that this wasn't forever - she'd imagined being in this loop for decades, maybe centuries, being endlessly hungry. Now she was going to have to exit at 300 pounds or more, but then she could get on with her life and hopefully lose the weight. 

She felt too full after her morning breakfast to go for a run, and regretted that. Her thighs had been growing over the loops, and not just flab (although there was definitely that). She realized that she could control whether she exited the loop at 300+ pounds of pure flab, or in as good shape as possible for 300+ pounds. Her dad's weights were in the garage - she'd have to sneak out there in future loops with Jake. He surely didn't want to exit as a 300-pound blob either, although on his 6-foot-plus frame it wouldn't look so bad. 

Jake was having mixed feelings about lying to Claire. To keep it going, he would have to also put on weight, although he'd secretly always wanted to know what it felt like to be a fat dude. He also wasn't sure it was a lie - a lot of unexpected rules had emerged from this time loop, and his idea for revenge on Claire for bringing him into this was based on some of the topology he had studied. It might work! But he still generally liked Claire, now his only companion in this strange world. 

Claire had reassured her mom that she didn't have a thyroid issue earlier in the day, and when Phyllis saw Claire she was reminded of her years of college during which she had gained probably 100 pounds. The two began their journey in earnest at the satellite table. Ashley had been the unabashed pig at the table in the past, but now both of them were putting her to shame. "OK, who can eat 4 dinner rolls faster?" Claire challenged. "OK but loser has to do a shot of gravy." Jake retorted. Claire managed to top her all-time record for consumption, eating six plates, and even going back for seconds on the bread pudding. They both returned to Claire's room with bulging bellies, but not without a couple of six-packs of beer, to add on to the copious amount they'd ** during dinner. 

"OK so maybe this won't be totally not-fun," Claire sloshed. "But we should eat healthier - we have all the time in the world here. After this loop, let's go heavy on the protein. No need for all of our added mass to be fat!"

Jake agreed, of course knowing the likely futility of the endeavor. He also had no intention of helping Claire eat healthier - there wasn't a lot of health food available on Thanksgiving anyways. 

They weighed themselves after drinking most of the beer - Jake suggested they do it every night, to make sure they were keeping up with each other, and since the relevant mass was at the end of the time loop - when 5:59am Friday morning tripped back to 6:00am Thursday morning. 

Jake removed his polo shirt and moderately tight jeans to reveal a massive food baby on his otherwise stick-like figure. He reflected that he'd have to figure out something like Claire's yoga pants out if he was going to continue this. He looked down and saw 165. "Not bad, huh?"

Claire removed her mom's size-12 top and peeled off her yoga pants, which were getting to be ludicrously tight. Her stomach bulged forward comically, well beyond her breasts. This would be mostly food/water weight, but she reflected that if the relevant mass was in the evening, maybe she could get away with "really" being only 305 pounds if the necessary weight was 310. She looked down at the scale, past her stomach, to see 166. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 60

*You can get anything you -- *

::rrrrrripp::

Claire had wondered how long it would be. She was changing into the clothes she brought with her from the previous loop every morning, but she'd been waking up to progressively tighter and tighter underwear, the pair she had put on "last night" - when she weighed 115 pounds. They had some give to them, but that give had been maximized about 10 pounds ago. Guess she had this to look forward to every morning now, until she got out of the loop. She changed into the bra she pilfered from Ashley's suitcase, her mom's size 12 top, and also some of her mom's yoga pants. A few loops ago, her stomach was bulging over the waistband of her own yoga pants all the way around, rolling the elastic waistband over itself onto the pants. Not that anyone could tell - the 360 degree muffin top covered the top band. She was up to 173 at the end of last loop - a gain of more than a pound per loop since she'd actively started trying. At this rate, it'd probably be four more months worth of loops before she had enough mass to break free of the time eddy. She thought about going more slowly so she could gain mass in a healthier way - maybe more muscle instead of fat...but four months in this loop seemed like an eternity already. Jake agreed. 

She'd been working out with Jake in the garage two of the last five loops - the heaviest weights they could, since they were not trying to burn calories...just keep themselves in relatively good shape. She'd started out squatting 80 pounds. If she was building muscle, it was hard to tell. Jake was luckier - he definitely was developing a pooch and softening a bit, but his wiry frame was merely filling out a bit so far. He was also up to 173 as of the previous loop. 

Uncle James could tell Claire had put on *some* weight in the dimly lit kitchen, when she went for breakfast, but it didn't seem like a supernatural amount. But the eye bulges were piling up when Claire made her appearance in the late morning. She hadn't seen most of her relatives since the previous Thanksgiving - putting on 60 pounds in a year was a lot but not unheard of. She had to figure out what to do with her mom, though - she'd seen her in late August, and now 60 pounds (and rising) was starting to seem like an absurd amount. She'd stopped approaching her mom as she was prepping the turkey, but after some time her mom inevitably sought her out. 

"Oh is Claire here? I miss her so much, where's my little gi--" she came eye to eye with Claire's bloated face, on the verge of a permanent double chin. Pulling her aside "Claire, sweety, what happened?" 

The lie about her early-semester twisted ankle failed to assuage her mom...but it didn't matter. She promised she'd go get some blood work done tomorrow. Her mom still insisted that she enjoy herself for today. No problem. 

Claire was absolutely ravenous despite eating a larger breakfast in the morning. She imagined a 173-pound body probably needed more calories. She'd resolved to cut back on the alcohol and carbs, but frankly so far that had mostly been a failure. People pushed dishes and glasses of wine her way, and she didn't really want to say no. Plus, frankly, turkey by itself is pretty dry and flavorless. You need the turkey, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes...Claire was drooling at her mental justification. And then she was enjoying it in real life. 

Six plates, seven large helpings of dessert, four glasses of wine, and two beers later, Claire for the fourth time in the past six loops didn't feel up to the workout with Jake. She waddled away from the table. Her mom's size-12 top was now getting a bit snug - it was flowy anyways, but Claire felt it pinching her a bit after this round of Thanksgiving dinner, and it definitely showed off her bloated stomach. She snuck into her mom's room and grabbed a size-14 blouse, the largest her mom had  - she had also been thinking about who else at the dinner would have the next size up. Phyllis was the obvious endpoint - she probably weighed roughly the minimum amount Claire would have to get to in order to leave the loop. 

Claire and Jake snuck away to her room with more beer and fooled around. Jake still had mostly a bloated stomach, but he was starting to develop some minor love handles. Claire's stomach didn't quite look pregnant anymore - it definitely protruded due to the massive amount of food she'd just eaten, but the protrusion was covered with a thick layer of fat that would have been there no matter how much she had in her stomach. Her boobs were filling out Ashley's bra nicely. The one thing that kept giving her away, no matter how loose her clothes were, was her face. Before their nightly weigh-in, Ashley examined herself in the mirror, and saw a double chin. That was just because of the angle of her head, though, right? If she looked straight ahead, it went away...or did it? She noticed she was doing the neck crane that fat girls do, to avoid double chins in selfies. Relaxing again, the second chin returned. Well that was that. Certified fat girl. 

The scale confirmed her extra heft; it was 175 for both her and Jake that evening. 
 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 70

Claire's underwear had begun ripping almost clean off each morning - there was a painful thread or two that refused to snap, but she was able to physically rip away the remnants before they left too much of a mark on her skin. She hoped that with added girth soon, they would just tear all the way. Her tight morning underwear and the Arlo Guthrie song were the most tedious part of this looping business. 

She'd resolved, and mostly succeeded, to get more serious about working out. The easiest time to do so was an hour or so after digesting her morning fridge raid. Jake seemed to have a little more stamina than she did - he went at the weights hard, and was definitely looking more built, despite his growing stomach. Claire was up to squatting 100 pounds, and was happy for it - she'd definitely started to feel less vigorous in recent loops. She had tried to go for a run one morning, just to see something new in the neighborhood, and found herself getting winded quickly, her legs burning with 75 extra pounds. 

Her double chin was now a permanent feature, as she'd guessed on loop 60. At the end of the last loop, she was up to 189 pounds - almost a pound and a half per loop. She now definitely weighed more than her mom, and her mom's size 14 tops were fitting appropriately on her to start the day, and snugly by the end of the Thanksgiving feast. She was getting adept at promising her mom to go to the doctor tomorrow when she expressed concern. Claire couldn't help but feel self-conscious among her other relatives - she knew at some point the gain was going to start overcoming their politeness and they were going to start asking questions. The worst part of all of this was the perpetual awkward feeling that people were staring at her and gawking. 

Jake had a suggestion to ease this: immersion therapy. Claire would put herself in the most embarrassing situation she could, and then in subsequent loops she'd understand the worst-case scenario. 

Claire had decided to give this a go. After her morning workout and shower, she pulled out her size-6 top. She was among family so she decided to keep the larger stretch pants, but the top would do nicely. She hadn't put it on since the loop where she seduced Jake. Struggling to get it over her torso, she looked at herself in the mirror. The top clung to every side of her breasts, and revealed cleavage that definitely hadn't been there 75, or even 40, pounds ago. It pulled up well short of her bellybutton, exposing the vast expanse of her stomach. Her love handles poured generously over the waistband of even the larger stretch pants. She could feel the fabric straining with each movement. 

She was still met with only shocked looks when she made her entrance into the kitchen. Her mom took her aside as usual, trying not to embarrass her. "CLAIRE, sweety, what happened? Are you ok? Also, you need new clothes!" 

Claire decided to go with a minor gaslighting. "Oh mom I may have put on a few pounds but this still fits fine. Shows off my abs," she said with a straight face, patting her gut. 

"Claire, you...you've put on a LOT of weight! This is more than a few pounds!"

"Come on, mom, that's not cool. I may not be a stick anymore but that's an unhealthy attitude."

"I...I don't know what to say! I think we should take you to the hospital right now! You've gained so much weight in such a short period of time, there must be something wrong!"

"Oh mom, don't ruin Thanksgiving. I promise I'll go get checked out tomorrow."

Her mom relented as usual, but Claire could tell she hadn't been comforted. Maybe this wasn't the best idea. 

But the die was cast for this loop, and Claire's plan was to really push herself, to make it feel less awkward when she merely stuffed herself in future loops. Even after 70 times through, Claire still had a hard time really feeling that none of these people were going to remember anything the next time...but she was trying to remedy that. She repeatedly emptied her wine glass quickly after it had been filled. Her tipsy state pushed her awkwardness even further into the background. The first thing she did was focus on dinner rolls - after everyone had taken a couple from the bowl at the satellite table, and she had had a couple of normal plates of dinner, she grabbed the remaining dozen or so, and started methodically eating them. Fairly stuffed, she walked over to the main table, where her mom and aunt Phyllis and roughly a dozen other relatives were. She leaned garishly over the table, her bare stomach brushing the tablecloth, and grabbed a handful more. "Sorry, we need some over at the little kid's table. Oops, got some gravy on my little tummy!" She wiped it off with the dinner roll and stuffed it whole into her mouth, as she walked away. The relatives all looked down, embarrassed. Phyllis was stunned herself - she was no stranger to gluttony but Claire was on a path to bad things if she kept this up. 

She was already nearly full, but she decided that she would make it her goal to total the mac and cheese. There were always plates and plates of leftovers of any dish served at Thanksgiving, but she thought it would be a fun challenge to try and eat it all. Everyone was winding down at the satellite table, including Jake, who had been no slouch in the eating department himself, as usual. Probably about 70% of the mac and cheese remained in a 3-qt casserole dish. Claire grabbed as much as would fit on her plate, about half of it. She started tucking in. "Wow, Claire, I don't know where you put it all," said Ashley, who was sporting a small food baby of her own. "You sure you can handle that?" 

"Itsh just sho good!" Claire said, gasping between mouthfuls. She was trying to eat quickly because she could feel her capacity catching up to her. The fabric on her size-6 top had now ridden all the way up, bunching up between her boobs and the top of her stomach. After about 5 minutes, her plate was clean. She took a healthy sip of wine, and summoning all of her will power, leaned forward to refill her plate from the casserole dish. She was actually glad for the top; she had started sweating from the exertion, and her mostly-exposed torso was radiating heat away. She'd hoped to rip the fabric, but all she felt was some tightness under her armpits; it seemed like this top was one that just rolled up rather than tore. 

After 20 minutes, she gave up, with a few forkfuls left on her plate. She was sad - she'd hoped to get at least through this table's portion, and maybe clear out the main table's. She leaned back, her stomach jutting out nearly to the edge of the table. There was no question of relaxing or sucking in her gut, since her stomach had expanded to its absolute max capacity. As Claire lay there, unable to move, she did the math on what she'd eaten. The rolls were probably over 2000 calories, and the mac and cheese was probably 350 calories a serving...and she'd probably had roughly 20 servings. This was easily her biggest eating day yet, even though she skipped dessert. 

When she rejoined Jake in her room that evening, she still had to just gingerly sip on a single beer while her body continued to digest. She was up to 192, and he was only at 190, since he'd merely stuffed himself rather than nearly killing himself with mac and cheese. "You really put on a show out there today. How did it feel?" 

"Honestly, it was pretty mortifying. I don't know if it worked. That size 14 is going to get tight on me soon. I don't know if I can go out there day after day with my gut hanging out. I wore that top so it would be swimming on me, originally!"

Jake looked up suddenly and almost asked a question, and then tried to maintain a neutral expression. Claire had slipped. Claire caught his look, though. Oh shit. Did he figure it out? 

Claire decided she'd have to be more careful - her head was still swimming with food and wine. "I think I'm not in the mood for anything tonight, Jake...mind if we split up for the evening?" 

Jake went back to his room, thinking about the next step. He knew Claire had brought him into this loop. But she didn't know he knew that...until now maybe. He'd have to be more careful himself. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 71

After removing the shreds of her absurd wakeup underwear, Claire texted Jake from her room: I think I want to hide in my room for this loop. Can you bring me some food? 

Jake obliged, sneaking Claire her usual generous helping of Thanksgiving foods for breakfast. Her mom hadn't seen her come in the previous night, so she texted her similarly and said she was stuck at the airport and might not make Thanksgiving. This could be a new trick. 

Claire was having mixed feelings about having dragged Jake into this. She thought about coming clean - she realized that she almost had at the end of the last loop by accident: the size-6 top had definitely not been swimming on her the loop that Jake started joining her. Claire logged onto Facebook and eliminated all evidence of her last semester - this was one more chore to take care of every morning. 

Her room was a little claustrophobic, but the isolation was a welcome break. She hadn't realized how stressful it was, dealing with the whispers and looks from her family. She'd have to do it again at some point, but for today this was a nice break. She did some browsing of the internet - other than the football game, she hadn't really taken advantage of knowing what was happening in the outside world. She could probably get at a car if she wanted to. Heck, she was getting kind of tired of Thanksgiving food - maybe there was a Chinese restaurant open. She texted Jake: Going out this loop - see you "tomorrow". She'd found a Chinese place open about 3 miles from her house, near the mall. That would be perfect - she could hit up one of the early Black Friday sales afterwards, maybe, and grab some new clothes. 

Jake mingled with the Thanksgiving crowd after his daily workout and shower. He was proud of his arms, but he was definitely developing a gut. He missed Claire in more ways than one: no one had noticed his gain when hers was so shocking, but now he was showing up about 35 pounds heavier. The gain so far was reasonable, and reasonably distributed, and it's not considered as much of a faux pas, so he was subject to endless ribbing sort-of-compliments sort-of-teasing about his new heft. He suddenly felt self-conscious next to Ashley - he wasn't waking up starving like Claire was, so it was a real effort to stuff himself every day. Now he was feeling fat and exposed. He decided that if Claire could take a day off, he could as well - he ate a reasonable amount of food, but nothing extreme. Ashley as usual put on a show with her eating, displaying a small food baby. Jake tried to entice her into his room, as he had in a loop that neither of them remembered, but his dad-bod was a bit of a turnoff to her. She didn't say as much but he could tell. 

Claire had walked to the Chinese restaurant - she was skipping the workout today so it was probably good to do *some* exercise. Her jacket was extremely tight - she hadn't needed it all this time. No one knew her there, and they never would again, so she was having a blast. At first she panicked when she realized the buffet wasn't running on Thanksgiving...but she had a credit card that she'd never have to pay off. Freshly starving after her walk, she ordered three entrees, to go, and two boba teas. Maybe she'd freak the wait staff out with her gluttony in a subsequent loop but today she didn't feel like being judged. While she waited, she decided she would start learning a new language - Korean, it turned out, was what the family spoke. She gave them a generous tip and thanked them for the food and lesson. 

Taking her spoils to an abandoned food court table in the mall next door, she dug in. The chicken fingers were covered in fluffy breading that was absolutely dripping with grease. Still a bit hungry, but a little overwhelmed with the greasiness, she moved on to the General Tso's chicken. It was crispy and sweet, with just a little bit of kick. She mixed it in with one of the two large containers of white rice, and felt absolutely stuffed, but her stomach was settled. Her size-14 top was definitely revealing the outlines of her gut when she relaxed it. She looked down at the time - it was only 2pm, and the early Black Friday sales wouldn't start until 6. If she could get some larger tops, she was game for her final entree, the lo mein. She did some hunting on her smartphone and found the one dive bar that was open nearby. 

Preparing to walk in the chilly air for another mile or so, Claire sucked in her stomach so her jacket would zip. Once it was closed, she relaxed and felt the tightness around her middle. It wasn't ideal, but it was less embarrassing than showing off her gut in her too-tight top. Claire watched the Lions-Bears while downing pint after pint, keeping her coat on. She was definitely feeling constricted, but her jacket was acting like external spanx. At halftime, she went into the bathroom and unzipped her jacket off before sitting down. "Wow, what a relief," as she let her stomach fall forward. ::scrrrrch:: Oops. Relaxing her stomach suddenly tore a small rip in the side of the top. She couldn't believe how far out her stomach was sticking - four...or was it five? pints would do that, she guessed. All progress towards the unfortunately necessary goal. 

After downing a few more pints (scamming the final one off the bartender by predicting the final score of the game), Claire sloshed her way back to the Black Friday sale. She picked up a size 18, 20, and 22 top, as well as some larger stretchy pants. She was up to a DD bra, a relief after jamming her now sizable breasts into Ashley's pilfered bra every day. Another thought she'd never expect to have. Once she was done with the size 22, she could probably move up into Phyllis' wardrobe. 

Now wearing the size 18 top, Claire ate the cold lo mein. It was enormous - the restaurant had probably given her a double portion because it was a slow day or something. Just the end-of-day challenge she needed, though. The noodles slid into her stomach like jell-o...no one bite felt impossible or even all that filling, but she was gasping for air and could hardly move by the time she finished. She considered just sleeping in the food court, and waking up in her room like normal, but decided against it. She waddled home, sneaking to her back window, and hefting herself in through it. After lying on the floor catching her breath for a while, she weighed herself - 193. She'd not only managed to keep the three-pound increase from loop 70, but build on it. Maybe this wouldn't take as long as she thought.  

Meanwhile, alone in his room, Jake was lying on the floor catching his breath - he had finished a few sets of push-ups. He looked down at the scale afterwards to see 189. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 72 

Claire's adventure in the previous loop had shaken her out of a rut - she felt relaxed and like the world was a bigger place now. She texted her mom that her flight was delayed, and texted Jake that she was going to do another loop out of the house. She deleted her Facebook photos, donned her new size-18 blouse and other better-fitting clothes, and left early, without even grabbing breakfast. Near the mall and the Chinese food store, she'd spotted a Dunkin Donuts that she was surprised was open on Thanksgiving. She walked to the shopping center again, since it would have been tricky and she might have risked seeing people if she took her mom's car. 

By the time she reached it, she was absolutely ravenous. She carelessly ordered a dozen donuts - no plan to eat them all, but it wasn't like she'd ever have to pay the credit card bill. Claire settled into an isolated nook in the mall and started scrolling on her phone while she devoured her breakfast. The first 5-6 went down almost effortlessly. This and the Chinese food from yesterday was the first thing she'd had other than Thanksgiving food for roughly 10 weeks. She continued eating her 7th, 8th, and 9th donuts with gusto - they were so good, and so new! She started feeling a bit gross on the last bite of the 9th. Claire thought about stopping, but decided to make it a challenge to finish the dozen. Getting out of this loop fast was the only way she was going to keep her sanity. By the 11th donut, though, she was shaking and sweating from the intense amount of sugar and fat she had just consumed. 

Claire's plan had been to find some sort of impromptu workout to do in the mall - maybe some heavy boxes she could squat with. But she had to instead gingerly lay herself down on a bench, while the donuts digested. Dammit, she remembered she was also trying to eat more protein. No need to be a total blob when she got up to 300 or whatever was necessary to jar her from this time eddy! She'd make sure to order something higher in protein at the Chinese place for lunch. 

* * * 

Back at the house, Jake realized he had hit a bit of a wall last loop. He was tired of stuffing himself every loop, and now he felt self-conscious around Ashley, not to mention the rest of his relatives. He hit the weights with a passion again after a small and sensible breakfast. He'd catch up in weight with Claire in future loops. His workout gave him a hearty appetite, so he got a couple "big guy" remarks at the table but he stuck to healthier options to the extent they existed, and he refused any alcohol. 

* * * 

Claire didn't need to wait for Black Friday, since she had her clothes all set at home, but just being in a new place had been so invigorating last loop. She ordered three entrees to go from the Chinese place - General Tso's, beef and broccoli, and sweet and sour pork. The General Tso's was a treat, but the other dishes were just to get her protein up. She didn't realize that they were drenched with sugary sauce, packing at least 1500 calories each, most of which was sugar. She flirted with the kid behind the counter for her 20-minute wait, picking up an additional Korean lesson. 

After she ate the General Tso's and the beef in her nook in the mall, she headed back to the bar to kill some time watching the football game. With a size 18 top, she was able to take her jacket off and really let loose. The beers went down really easy, too easy - she had five of them by halftime again. Her new clothes were holding up great - she didn't realize before how restrictive her moms' workout clothes (and, eventually tops) had been. In the bathroom at halftime, her figure was relatively hidden by her top, but she gaped at her bloated face. Pulling the fabric tight against her stomach, she saw it extended well beyond her breasts. 

After clearing some space at halftime, she managed four more pints of beer during the second half. Claire found herself some mixture of unable and unwilling to suck her stomach in hard enough to zip her coat...it didn't matter because the walk from the bar to the mall was relatively short, and she was again sort of hot from the mixture of exertion and her body trying to burn off thousands of calories. She decided to buy a new coat at the mall - although she was running out of space in her "take along tube". This was what she called the plastic tube that she stuffed with corners of the articles of clothing or other items she wanted to take along to the next loop. She'd put the tube in her mouth when she went to bed, and everything that was in the tube was with her in the morning. Maybe she'd just pick up a size 20 when she needed it, and leave that space for the larger jacket she desperately needed. 

Two hours later, when she'd explored the store to her heart's delight, the absence of 80+ ounces of beer in her stomach left her a bit hungry, and she ate her vegetable lo mein on the way home. It had sounded so healthy, but it was a massive carb-and-fat bomb. "Have to find healthier stuff for my main course tomorrow," Claire noted to herself. She heaved herself into the window of her room, and for the first time in several loops felt merely full, not stuffed to the max. She examined herself naked in the mirror - changes were becoming less evident, as a few pounds added to a 190-pound body were harder to spot than a few pounds added to a 115-pound body, but her delicate double chin was becoming less delicate every day. Her stomach stuck out much further than she'd remembered or hoped - her goal was to have some stout legs and butt by the time this was all over, and maybe some semblance of a figure...but this was not the path to that. Her walks were not the same as the squat sessions with Jake - she'd have to find a way to do strength training of some sort. Stepping on the scale, she looked down and saw 195. Up 80 pounds, from when this all started, with probably at least another 100 pounds to go. 

* * * 

Jake did a second workout after getting shot down by Ashley. He was feeling frustrated with these loops, and even though he felt bad for lying to Claire about the need to gain weight, the longer this went on, the more furious he got at her for dragging him into this. He thought about how long he'd let this go on, and whether he'd ever come clean to her - for all he knew, he was stuck with her for eternity, so this was high stakes. He'd have to keep gaining weight to keep appearances up, and honestly that had gotten a little tiresome. Maybe a few more weeks of loops and he'd fess up, or just pretend that he discovered a mistake in his work. He looked down at the scale that night - 188. 

Loop 73

Claire put on her new jacket and slipped out the window. On her way to Dunkin' Donuts, she texted her mom as usual. She texted Jake "hey, hope you don't mind but I'm taking a break from Thanksgiving for a couple of weeks I think. Let's text each other our weights once in a while to make sure we're keeping up with each other." Jake didn't mind the break, although he hadn't seen Claire for a few loops - he was dying to see her progress. 

Claire was again starving when she got to Dunkin' Donuts...she had been intending to maybe get several of their healthier breakfast sandwiches, but the donuts were calling out to her when she got to the counter. She felt the need to complete her challenge from the day before - coming up just short was nagging at her. In her nook in the mall, she found herself again sweating and shaking as she popped the last bit of the 11th donut into her mouth. She looked at the 12th with hatred and disgust. It was mocking her. Every signal from her body was telling her not to put that thing in her mouth...but she forced her arm to reach out and pick it up. She put a bite in her mouth and methodically chewed, and gulped it down. She almost wretched -- but she didn't. But that was her max for this time. She lay back on the bench for the next couple of hours, slipping in and out of a sugar sleep. 

* * * 

Jake had decided that he was done gaining weight, at least for now. There was probably no way he could keep up with Claire after how far behind he'd likely fallen, and he'd just make some excuse when they reconvened. His paunch had shrunk just a bit over the last two days, and he was feeling great. 

* * * 

Claire wandered for a while when she was feeling human again - she took in the other shops in the area that were open or might be open later in the day. She couldn't believe it had taken her this long to get out of the house. She got her three entrees from the Chinese restaurant, ate two, and once again downed numerous beers at the bar. She could tell her capacity was increasing because her post-shopping meal around 8pm left her wondering if she should order a fourth entree next time. It was nice to be able to walk home not feeling painfully full, though - her added weight was making walking difficult enough. 

* * * 

Jake finally managed to entice Ashley into his room again - he guessed it was his relatively swole arms, since the paunch's reduction was barely perceptible. When he took his shirt off, she teased "dang, too much bulking! Not that I should talk, I've been on a bulk the last week or so." She patted her food baby, which was almost entirely due to the large dinner she'd just had. He enjoyed her softness, though, even if it wasn't the epic curves and squish that Claire had developed. In his post-coital bliss, he got a text from Claire. "I'm up to 196 - how are you doing? Should I slow down?" He decided that the end of the weight gain-to-get-out-of-loop charade was in sight, and this couple week separation where they wouldn't see each other was the perfect time to get the most out of it. "Wow, go you! I'm a little behind but I'll eat extra tomorrow - 195 for me. Full steam ahead!" 

 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 85 

Claire pulled the scraps of her underwear away from her pelvis - it had finally completely ripped without any help. Small blessings. She had been planning on today being the last loop where she went to the mall - she missed Jake. Honestly she didn't miss the rest of her family - it was creepy, encountering them, not remembering any of the past 12 weeks of HER experience. God, what would they say now that she was that much bigger? 

She walked up to the counter at Dunkin' Donuts - "five power breakfast sandwiches, please," Claire said triumphantly. The lady behind the counter didn't know why this was a celebration. Claire had *finally* finished the dozen donuts in the previous loop. She couldn't stand how close she was getting each time without quite getting that last donut down. It wasn't purely a matter of capacity, apparently - the amount of sugar and fat all at once was hitting some sort of threshold. But now Claire could start eating a healthier choice for breakfast - and start working out again. She'd spotted some boxes outside of a closed store that looked like the appropriate weight. Each previous loop, she'd been too shaky and nauseated in the morning to do the workout, and then there were too many people around the mall by noon. "Oh, and two Boston cremes." Those still looked *amazing* - she'd just have them in moderation. 

As alluded, Claire was not having any problem with capacity. She'd gotten up to four Chinese entrees and eleven pints of beer last loop. The beer she knew was probably not great for her, but she had no idea that the Chinese entrees were so bad...they were full of chicken, and rice, and vegetables! She'd been limiting herself to only one of the entrees being deep-fried, and the rest were just plain meat! 

As Claire munched on her third breakfast sandwich, she wandered over towards her planned workout spot in the mall. She felt her size-18 blouse starting to cling to her stomach a bit. Maybe once she got back on the exercise train, she'd redistribute some of this weight to her legs and butt...if not, it was getting close to time for size 20. She forced down the fourth sandwich - damn, these things are awful. Tossing the fifth, she arrived at the store with the boxes. The coast was clear. 

Claire had regularly done jump squats as part of her workout in the beforetimes. She decided to warm up with about 30 seconds of plain old squats before adding the heavy box. Fifteen seconds in, her thighs were on fire. The added weight from just her body was too much! She took a break while she caught her breath. Going about half-speed, she managed about 20 unweighted squats over the next couple of minutes. Her thighs again burned with the effort, and she had to sit down. How had she let herself get so out of shape? She'd assumed the walking was sufficient to keep her from backtracking, but so much of it was done while delirious from food or pints upon pints of beer, she hadn't noticed how hard it was getting to walk. When she tried to do another set, her thighs basically refused. Dejected, she enjoyed her two donuts, and thought about lunch. 

She'd been making good progress with her Korean lessons - every day she greeted the surprised proprietors of the shop with a Korean phrase, and when they responded, she asked what they meant, and how to answer. She was now up to about a minute of conversation, and she was starting to piece together words and phrases on her own. She added 6 egg rolls to her four-entree order today - she was starving after her relatively healthy breakfast. 

* * * 

Jake cranked out a final set of 40 push-ups and hopped into the shower. His stomach was just a little pudgy at this point - he'd lost 8 pounds over the last two weeks of loops. Last loop, Ashley had stopped teasing him about bulking when he took his shirt off - which was a shame because that had been kind of hot. He was missing Claire - it was kind of frustrating to see Ashley stuff herself loop after loop, with no impact on her figure. Also, other than brief text exchanges, he had no one else to talk with about what he was experiencing. He'd thought about bringing it up with Ashley, but hadn't yet. 

* * * 

Boy, it was true what they said about Chinese food. Without the dozen donuts, even two entrees and four of the egg rolls left Claire feeling very hungry by the time she bellied up to the bar for the football game. She ordered two pints as she sat down. "Sorry little lady, only one allowed at a time. We get too much trash in here ordering five shots and then telling us they got no money. Plus, the second one'll get warm by the time you get to it." That sounded like a challenge. 

"Oh yeah, how long does it take for a beer to get warm?" She threw her credit card down on the bar. 

"I'd say about 4 minutes in, you'd rather I pull you a fresh one than one that's been sitting out."

"Heck, I'll drink *three* beers in that time. If I do, you gotta serve me what I ask for the rest of the game. And I want the three beers for free." 

The bartender ran the card and, satisfied, said "you're on." Instead of the domestics Claire had been pounding the last two weeks, he poured out three pints of Sierra Nevada. 

Tilting her head back, she poured the first pint down her throat in about 15 seconds. Only after she'd swallowed the last of it did she realize the trick the barkeep had pulled. She pressed on, though, downing the second heavy, high-calorie, high-alcohol beer in another minute. By now she was feeling a little woozy. Her stomach was now pressing moderately against her size-18 top, and she was feeling almost full.  "Holy shit," the barman muttered. She gasped for air for a second, and started methodically sipping the final pint. As the timer hit 4 minutes, she placed the third empty pint glass on the bar, leaned back, her stomach distended in front of her, and gave a triumphant belch. 

Claire took the rest of the first quarter off, but once the pints had worked their way through her, she continued drinking. Not wanting to waste a good bet win, she ordered two pints at once for the rest of the game, which did cause her to drink faster - didn't want the beer to get warm! By the end of the game she'd had 13 pints including the Sierra Nevada, and was unpleasantly **. She staggered to a bench between the bar and the mall, and collapsed - she felt the touch of her stomach on the top of her thighs through her stretch pants. 

After about half an hour, and a rock-bottom moment of peeing behind some bushes, she had room for the cold Chinese entrees, which helped her sober up a bit. She forced herself to go to the mall, because she definitely needed a size-20 top. 

On the three mile walk back, mostly sober now, she found her legs becoming sore from the exertion in the morning. She resolved to power through the pain tomorrow - she couldn't be an unathletic blob of 300 pounds of fat when this was over. And healthier food! 

After rolling herself over the window sill late that night (thank god it was close enough to the ground to allow that maneuver), Claire took stock of herself again. Her thighs and ass had definitely grown, and her DD bra had been getting tighter, but her stomach was still taking the brunt of all of this gain. It rounded out obscenely in front of her, still mostly sticking straight out, but her hand was definitely ensconced in fat when she stuck it underneath. Her face was almost unrecognizable, compared to when this had all started. 

She leaned forward, craning her neck over her gut - huh, when had that started being necessary? - the scale said 219. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 86

As Claire rolled out of bed and cleared the remnants of her torn underwear away, she thought about facing her family in her current state. Her mother had almost wanted to call an ambulance for her 30 pounds ago - seeing the Dunkin Donuts clerk and the nice Korean family and the bartender was much easier. She texted Jake that she wanted another two weeks of loops away from Thanksgiving dinner. She knew she'd have to see her family when all of this ended, but for now it was easier to wander. Jake texted back "Understood - clocked in at 210  myself last night btw. Slow down, girl!" 

Claire thought about slowing down, but she had been stuck in the loop for over a month longer than Jake - she needed to get out ASAP. Plus, would it be the worst thing in the world if she ended up escaping the time eddy a little earlier, and ending up in the same timeline as a Jake whom she HADN'T intentionally dragged into a repetitive hell? This was kind of weird - she'd never see *this" Jake again if she left the loop earlier than he did, but she'd see *a* Jake. 

Her legs and butt ached as she trudged to Dunkin' Donuts, from the exertion last loop. She resolved to do regular workouts, including today. Her stomach wobbled a bit as she walked - that had been happening for a while now, but she noticed that it was a lot less absurdly bloated than when she evaluated herself at the end of the day - her morning gut was pure flab. 

Claire ordered four of the high-protein/low-cal breakfast sandwiches, plus two Boston creme donuts and a latte. Taking advantage of her intense hunger, she wolfed down three of the sandwiches before their dry texture led her to slow down. She enjoyed her treat of the two donuts, and then feeling relatively full, but being a completionist, she choked down the last sandwich. The dozen donut challenge she'd given herself over the previous weeks had been much more fun. She decided that if she did a solid workout today, she'd reward herself next loop with a dozen next time. 

Sure enough, she was able to kill some time before lunch by heading over to the store with the boxes outside of it and trying some squats. She wasn't ready to add any weight, but she managed to work up a good sweat with about the same number of body-weight squats she did the previous loop. Her legs burned and almost gave out as she finished her second set of 20. It wasn't much, but it was a start. 

Approaching the Chinese place, she decided to take this loop off from lessons. The kid behind the counter, Daniel, who she got her daily Korean lessons from, was kind of cute, and she could kind of sense he was into her. In fact, his interest seemed to have been increasing over the past couple of weeks of loops. Without letting on that she knew any Korean, Claire ordered her four entrees and a dozen egg rolls. Daniel called the order back to his parents. Claire couldn't quite translate the response perfectly but it was something like "Big white lady going to eat all of that?" Damn right she was. Daniel blushed. Claire decided to have some fun. "What's wrong? I don't bite...much." Daniel turned an even deeper red. 

Claire managed to get out of Daniel that he would probably be able to get off work soon - they were preparing for the early Black Friday rush that evening, but they hadn't been expecting much business at lunchtime. Claire was surprised to learn that Daniel was actually 22 - older than her! She suggested he come watch the football game with her at the bar in a couple hours. He said he'd do what he could. 

Freshly hungry from her workout and relatively healthy breakfast, Claire took her food to her isolated nook, and ate two of the entrees plus 8 egg rolls. Knowing Jake was well behind her in weight, she felt less pressure to absolutely stuff herself, but she was still looking to make the progress to get out of the loop as quickly as possible. 

Daniel didn't come to the bar; Claire was disappointed, but decided that this was her next challenge. She'd been shocked by Jake's confession that he was into bigger girls, but now seeing the way Daniel looked at her, she started to wonder how prevalent this was. 

Claire staggered home after ten pints and the remainder of the Chinese food. She was now up to 221 pounds, keeping up her gain of 2 pounds per day. When the coast was clear, she snuck into her mom's room and snatched a size 14 top to take along for the next loop. 

Loop 87

Claire felt like an idiot - she'd gotten the whole dozen donuts down, but she'd forgotten how it made her feel to eat all of that. Satisfied - yes, in more ways than one. But also sweaty and shaky, and not even able to think about doing her morning squats. Oh well, probably best to take a day off anyways. Her legs were even more sore than they had been the previous loop. 

When she felt reasonably able to walk again, Claire went into a bathroom stall and pulled the size-14 top out of her bag. She couldn't believe that this, and even the size-6 top, had once been absurdly large. She removed her size-20 top and pulled the smaller one on. It clung to the sides of her stomach, going just barely over her love handles, but she managed to pull it all the way down. As she moved she felt the underside of her gut and said love handles exposing themselves, and the fabric straining dangerously. Yes, this would do. 

Wearing her very large coat, as usual, she walked into the Chinese restaurant and ordered her "usual". "Big white lady going to eat all of that?" came the call from the kitchen, in Korean. As Daniel blushed, she winked at him. She chatted him up again, in English, and invited him to the bar later in the afternoon. 

When the food came out, she gushed "Oh my god, that smells amazing. I was going to take all this home but I just have to dig in." She removed her coat, revealing her now overly form-fitting top, and sat down in one of the booths in the empty restaurant. She dug in to the General Tso's first, playing up her enjoyment of the sweet heat, popping an egg roll into her mouth seductively from time to time. She watched Daniel out of the corner of her eye, and could tell he was enraptured. As she opened the second styrofoam container and dug into the beef and broccoli, she could feel both her stomach and top straining, individual threads and seams from the top gradually extending past their breaking point. There would be no dramatic explosion but her gut would not be contained by the top. By the time she finished her second entree, an inch of flab stuck out from the bottom of her blouse, and she was again nearly rendered immobile. The dozen donuts had still not digested, so the two entrees plus 10 of the egg rolls represented a new frontier of fullness. It took her nearly an hour to be able to get up and waddle away to the bathroom, to change back into her top. 

At the bar, Claire, now back in her size-20 top, marveled at how easily the first pint went down. Cheap beer and Chinese food were apparently not all that filling. She was about to order another when she heard from behind her Daniel's voice - he had shown up! Claire was right about him. He ordered the next round, and they talked for the next two hours, except for halftime, when they made out in the bathroom. Claire feigned ignorance of the language and scammed another Korean lesson out of Daniel over the course of the game. He had to leave before the fourth quarter, but Claire was feeling good about her seduction skills. 

Claire was in no state to do any sort of workout, so she finished her two cold Chinese entrees. Feeling run down but ecstatic, she decided to take a Lyft home rather than walking - she had the driver drop her off a block from her house, and snuck in the back window to her room as usual. She was up to 222; Jake texted back and said he was at 212. 

Loop 120

Claire pulled on her size-26 top and after sending her standard text message to her mom about a delayed flight, shuffled herself out her back window. The maneuver was getting harder lately; she cursed herself for not keeping up with her squats - it was so easy to just promise that she'd do them next loop. After all, she literally had all the time in the world. She heaved herself down the block, out of sight of her house, put down a pin for a Lyft. The walks down to the mall area had gotten so tedious. Always the same. Plus she could read about topology and the fabric of the universe on the rides there. She'd been corresponding with Jake via text - he'd said that she would have to gain to at *least* about 300 pounds before she shook free of the loop, and now that that amount was maybe in sight, she wanted to understand it better to know whether she had a few weeks or a few months more of this. There was a big difference between 300 and 400 or 500 pounds. Jake said he'd been researching, too. Together, they'd figure this out. 

The two weeks more of skipping Thanksgiving had been extended, and as the end came into sight, Claire decided this was probably the right way to do things until she got out of the loop. She could probably avoid seeing her mom for a few more months after Thanksgiving, and hopefully by then have lost some weight, and prepared her mom for the extreme weight gain that would still be evident. 

Claire had tried to be good about her diet, but her motivation to get out of the loop, plus her ferocious hunger when she woke up every morning, kept her having far more days with donuts than with those dry protein-packed sandwiches. She'd gotten to the point where the sweats and shakes from eating a whole dozen donuts had stopped, but she decided not to push it any further than that - there were plenty more calories to be had later. 

She'd been seducing Daniel almost every loop; it turned out that just taking her jacket off and eating a couple of entrees was enough to lure him to the bar. After he left in the late third quarter to get back to the restaurant, she'd started making her bet with the bartender about drinking three pints in four minutes every loop - and developed a taste for Sierra Nevada, so she was downing between 10 and 13 pints of it each time through, although Daniel only saw about five of those. She'd started ordering a Lyft home regularly, feeling too ** and full to really want to walk home. 

She missed Jake, and had decided that whatever happened, she was going to come clean to him. She'd apologize, and hoped he'd still stay in contact with her for however long they were in this together. At this point, she knew as much as he did about the science behind this, but two heads were better than one. Plus, he was the only other "real" person in the loop with her. 

After her usual day, she heaved herself over the windowsill of her room. Loose top or no, she was quite obviously a very big girl now. Her double chin now melded with her neck about halfway down. Her stomach now had a slight horizontal fold in it along the axis of her bellybutton, and the flab hung down a bit even when she was stuffed with five Chinese entrees and a gallon and a half of beer. Her love handles had merged with her gut to just form a large band of flab that surrounded her entire lower torso. This was what she needed, though. It might be close to the time when she could finally move on with her life. 

She got onto the scale, and leaned forward to look over her stomach - it said 292. She was increasing at over 2 pounds per day; she might be done with this hell in less than two weeks. Jake had been texting her with his progress - he was up to 285 as of last loop. She couldn't imagine what he looked like at this point.

"Hey...I'd like to see you. I need to tell you something. How about a visit?" 
"Sure - I'll be over in a few. I have a lot to tell you, too."

She heard a verrry gentle knock on her door, to avoid anyone else noticing that he was going over to her room. Jake walked through and Claire gasped. Jake was...enormous! 

 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 87, late evening

Ashley snuck into Jake's room, in the mood for love. He'd been such a string-bean before, and he must have put on 20 pounds of muscle in the last year! 

"Ashley, I need to talk to you about something. You know that movie Groundhog Day? Well I'm in it. Or, that situation."

"Hahaha, yeah right."

"No, really. I've been looping...I think about 50 times now. Claire has, too."

"Claire is stuck at the airport!"

"Nope, she's just tired of doing Thanksgiving here...and I think there's another thing going on, which I'll tell you about later."

Jake showed Ashley a pic of himself from the day before Thanksgiving - he was lean and stringy as she remembered him. She was more convinced. "But I thought you started over every day fresh."

"Yeah, we did, too for a while. Whatever state of hunger we had from Wednesday night, we keep that in the morning when we wake up. But whatever we ate last loop, sticks with us. You haven't seen Claire."

"Oh my god, is she jacked too? I hate her! She's so good. If I ate Thanksgiving every day, I'd be an actual butterball." She patted her tiny food baby for emphasis. 

"Yeah, I think she's more like you than you think. Last loop she checked in at around 220 pounds."

"NO. WAY. You're fucking with me on this aren't you?" 

"Dead serious."

"OK, but this sounds awesome. How many times have we hooked up?" 

"We've been sort of regular for the last couple weeks." 

"Ew! Gross!" Jake was taken aback. "Just kidding! Dude, you're so lucky. This is the best day ever to be trapped. No consequences, day off, great food..."

Jake couldn't believe Ashley's perspective on this - he hated the loop from the minute he realized he was in it. 

"So...do you know why this is happening? And why is it just you and Claire?" 

"Ashley, there's something else you should know - I haven't talked about it with Claire - she doesn't know I know...but you can take things from one loop to the next if they're inside your body, or even partially inside your body, at the time the loop resets. It works with food, it works with things...it also works with people. Food and things don't get stuck in the loop, though - if you don't take them with you again, they go away. But we know once a person is looping, they keep looping. Because that's what happened to me. Claire was sucking on my finger when the loop reset - she did it on purpose, I'm pretty sure. I don't know how long she's been looping but she lied to me. I found Facebook photos - she was a waif as of 'yesterday', and when I first ran into her in my first loop she was probably about 30 pounds heavier." 

"Damn, you hooked up with HER too?" 

"She'd been looping for a while! She knew exactly what buttons to press." 

"I'll have to compare notes with her. Although I guess it would have to be now because I won't remember any of this next loop, right?" 

"Yeah, probably not." 

Jake and Ashley fucked around for the next couple of hours, and began to wind down. "I guess this means no awkward morning after, either, huh?" cooed Ashley to a groggy Jake.

"Yeah, we just go back to where we were at 6am when the loop resets." Jake turned over and went off to sleep. Ashley quietly set her phone to vibrate at 5:59am. 

Waking up with the vibrations, she remembered the weird conversation she'd had with Jake. He was still fast asleep - she waited until 5 seconds before 6:00, and slipped her finger into Jake's mouth. 

"Mmmph..wha? Wampt, Ashlumph - N-" 

Loop 88

Jake awoke alone, as usual. Shit, did it work? Before he could figure out how to do some recon, he heard a knock on his door. Ashley slipped in. "Oh my god I woke up in my bed! Does that mean it worked?"

Yeah it worked. "You have no idea what you just did."

"Oh come on this will be fun. So it's really Thanksgiving morning again?" 

"Yeah, it really is. How do you think you're going to get out of this thing? You know we could be stuck here *forever*, right?" 

"Better than growing old and dying. Do we get older? Can we die?"

"I guess I haven't been in the loop long enough to know, but from everything I've worked out, probably not. It's amazing how much Groundhog Day got right." 

Jake had continued collaborating with Claire via text, sending her PDFs of topology and cosmology literature to read. He'd assembled a list of papers that he thought would be helpful; they worked out a system where they would each read one every loop. He wasn't too worried about her learning about his lie about the eddy and the need to increase mass, because it seemed to match well with how things really worked - for all he knew, it was true. He had been hedging a bit in recent loops; he decided he would never tell Claire that he made it up...just that it was a mistake. 

After they snuck some breakfast out of the fridge, each accepting a glass of eggnog from Uncle James, Ashley accompanied Jake to the garage. "So this is how you got so jacked, huh? Ugh, I HATE working out." Ashley watched as Jake went through his sets. She begged off this time, since she didn't have any workout gear. 

"Well you're going to have to find some. Claire actually has some in her room that she probably doesn't need anymore." 

"How did she get so big so fast? You said she's been in about 50 loops with you? And she'd put on 30 pounds before you started looping together?" 

"Yeah...part of her issue is that she'd starved herself the day before, so she'd be extra hungry on Thanksgiving day."

"Ohhh...shit well I definitely didn't starve myself yesterday but I was pretty hungry when I woke up this morning."

"Well, get used to it. You are a crazy person for wanting this. You don't regret it still?" 

"Hey, I think it sounds fun. And I bet you'll find us all a way out of the loop. Just make sure to tell me!" 

Jake thought guiltily about the way out that he'd told Claire. "Yeah I'm not as hopeful as you." 

Later that day, Ashley went to town on dinner - she made little jokes to the rest of the table "man, good thing this is just once a year!" Jake was incredibly turned on, but still confused by Ashley's good spirits. Some people just knew how to make lemonade out of lemons. 

After dinner, Jake was perusing the topology literature, and found what he'd been looking for all this time. Someone had written an article speculating about the possibility of a real-life Groundhog Day. It got almost everything right about their current loop, and it had some incredibly specific conclusions. 

"For individuals trapped in such a time eddy, there would be resonance masses consistent with exit. These sit at approximately 1.725*10^5 g, and integer multiples. However, the Pauli exclusion principle would likely prevent more than one body from utilizing any given resonance exit. In fact..." 

Jake stopped reading. He'd been coming around to something like this idea himself. He did the arithmetic to put it into Freedom Units...damn, 380. For the lucky one. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 89

Jake woke up alone in his room, same as every day since Claire had pulled him into this. He weighed himself - down to 178. Damn. Claire was up to 225 as of last night. He again felt guilty for what he was about to do (or attempt), but Claire had dragged him into this and he deserved the first exit. 

Jake had determined that there were likely mass-based exits to the time loop - and they were multiples of 380 pounds. But only one person could exit per mass - they would block the exit. So the next person to exit had to be 760 pounds, and the next had to be 1140 (if that was possible), and so on. He had to get out. But Claire had almost 50 pounds on him now. The only advantage he had was that he knew it was a race. Although the way Claire was gaining each loop, she may as well have known. 

He was smart, though - even Claire was trying to be relatively healthy and gain in a way such that 300+ pounds would not leave her a complete blob. Jake now needed to throw all caution to the wind and sprint to the goal. 

There was also the problem of Ashley...he felt bad, but Claire had at least a 100-pound head start on her. He didn't know if a human could be 1140 pounds, but one of them was going to have to get there, to get out of the loop. She'd volunteered, but she hadn't volunteered for THAT. 

Jake grabbed an extra-large breakfast feast from the fridge, and accepted Uncle James' eggnog that morning. Ashley joined him in the garage in her standard Thanksgiving attire "I promise I'll do it next time...I'm just not feeling it today." Jake wasn't sure how to break any of this to Ashley.

"Yeah you know, me neither. This is kind of silly, isn't it? What's the point?" 

She caressed his tricep - "I can see one point..." Jake was going to miss this. 

At Thanksgiving Jake ate with renewed gusto. Ashley noticed and tried to keep up. Her top, already relatively form-fitting when this started, had gotten juuust a little tighter over the two loops, and after many plates, she had a pretty solid food baby going. Nothing like what Claire had managed in a few of those loops, thought Jake. But a start - probably something she'd have to get used to doing.

Back in their room that evening over beers, Ashley poked at Jake's own food baby "see, now you're getting into it!" 

Jake didn't understand why Ashley was so sanguine, but it let him put off the explanation. At various points throughout the night and early morning, he snuck to the fridge without Ashley's knowledge, to top himself off. At his 4am trip, he scouted out the densest foods from the leftovers; there was butter, but he probably couldn't bring himself to eat that. But did he want to stay stuck in a time loop for an extra year, exiting at 760 pounds? He cut off a pat of butter and tried to swallow it whole. He almost wretched, but got it down. He cut another one, slightly larger. He got this one down, but it left him unable to eat any more of anything. Oh well...he'd have to work on this. Every calorie counted. His goal was to gain 3 pounds per day, to ensure himself of catching Claire. 

Loop 120 

Jake heaved himself out of bed. He'd hit 250 last night - a decent achievement. Claire was infuriatingly managing to gain almost 2 pounds a day, or even more, and said she was up to 292. He'd only picked up 8 pounds on her, which was not a good pace, but he was ramping up. He'd discovered that he could smash part of a dinner roll over a chunk of butter, and swallow it whole, like a pill. He'd gotten up to almost four sticks of butter in the late evenings/early mornings, a whole pound of pure fat. This was on top of his expanding capacity at Thanksgiving dinner. 

Jake was blessed with a few bits of luck, in terms of awkward conversations. First, his mom had seen him yesterday - so he learned her movements during the day and avoided her, and she didn't seek him out the way Claire's mom had sought her out. Second, he had found a very large sweater in one of his uncle's suitcases, and that covered up his rapidly flabifying body, while his face hadn't yet taken too much of the gain. He was 6'2", so he wore the weight decently well. He'd gotten a few "big guy" quips from relatives who hadn't seen him in a while but it was nothing he couldn't laugh off. The luxury of being a guy. Finally, there was Ashley. 

Ashley had probably gained a pound per loop, at least. Her 5'3" frame hid almost none of it. She didn't seem to mind at all - and she hadn't even upgraded her wardrobe until she physically couldn't get her jeans over her butt. It was a magnificent butt now - both round and wide. Her stomach had definitely grown flabby, like the rest of her, but her breasts had taken a surprising amount of the weight. She was still a knockout even for the traditionally-minded. People almost openly brought it up - "wow, you've been having fun at college, huh?" She somehow managed to just laugh it off and grab another helping of mashed potatoes smothered with gravy. All of this diverted attention from Jake. 

He didn't understand Ashley's attitude, but he didn't know how to bring it up himself, given that he was himself engaging in massive gluttony and expanding quickly. Ashley had of course noticed his rapid expansion, and was teasing him relentlessly. She didn't seem to be all that into it, but he was all she had now for company, so she continued to take advantage. 

Claire had seemed anxious to spend time apart, and Jake was happy to oblige, but the three of them were probably going to be in the same room together soon, and Jake was going to have to get his story straight. Plus Jake was dying to see Claire...Ashley was incredibly cute, but the thought of Claire at 290 pounds was intoxicating. In fact, tonight was the night. They were going to see each other for the first time in almost 50 loops. He decided he was going to (almost) come clean. 

He was not disappointed. Claire was almost the size of Aunt Phyllis - her face and neck was almost swallowed all the way around by a double chin. Her breasts were magnificent, but her stomach was the star. It showed even through her giant top. She seemed to have developed a bit of a waddle, and was leaning back a bit when she stood, if he wasn't mistaken. 

"Wow."

"Wow yourself, big boy, I can tell you have a pretty serious gut under that sweater." 

"Claire, I'm here because I have to tell you something." 

"No, let me go first. This is the worst thing I've ever done but I have to tell you. I understand if you never want to talk to me again. I had a moment of weakness...and I pulled you into this time loop with me. I did it on purpose."

Jake was shocked by her confessing, finally, and it almost changed his mind...but he held firm, for now. "Claire...I sort of guessed that. I was curious when you showed up here 30 pounds larger than you'd been last summer...and I found your Facebook photos. But now I have my own confession: I may have exaggerated my certainty about how to get us out of this loop. I was mad at you for pulling me into this, and lying about it, so I sort of made up the thing about the mass."

Claire's eyes bulged "Wait, but - the literature - it makes sense..." 

"Well it's not totally made-up. And it might work! But I don't know if it will. And I didn't really care when I told you. And I'm sorry for that."

"Well we're too close to give up now. Let's go a little further - you said it would be something over 300; we can always lose it if it doesn't work. We have all the time in the world." 
Jake was surprised at how well Claire was taking the news, but she wasn't wrong, given what she knew. "There's one more surprise for you - come on in!" 

Claire gaped as Ashley entered. She'd thickened considerably - her breasts were almost as large as Claire's, and her hips/butt area had expanded. Her stomach was a bit flabby, and poked out in a moderate-sized band of pudge over her jeans. The stomach was also stuffed from the Thanksgiving feast she'd probably just had for...who knows how many times in a row now. "Jake - I recognize the irony here but how could you!?" 

"Oh, he didn't - I joined of my own accord! This is crazy, huh? Look at you, you're enormous! You look like a whole different person! Kind of a dick move, Jake, telling her she could probably escape if she gained enough weight. Jake, you know us girls have to watch our figures," patting her tummy. 

"Huh? Why would you volunteer for this?" 

"I just thought it sounded amazing! How awesome is it living with no consequences?" 

Claire shot a look down at Ashley's ample behind. "Yeah well at least you don't wake up starving every day. I can think of at least one consequence." 

"Oh, I'm pretty damn hungry when I wake up. But whatever...I'll get back into shape once we figure a way out of here." 

Claire and Jake looked at each other - neither of them could remember feeling this way. But was Ashley wrong? Wasn't this...kind of fun? 

They all stayed up together, drinking prodigious amounts of beer, until the loop reset. Jake had to sacrifice his surreptitious butter-eating for this loop, but he figured 2000 calories of alcohol and carbs would partially make up for it. Although Claire managed to get down even more beer than he did - her capacity seemed to be bottomless. He'd have to up his game. Ashley only managed to down a six-pack, but it gave her an exaggerated beer gut. Jake glanced at it and tried to imagine how large Ashley was going to have to get, to leave the loop. She was the one Jake felt truly sorry for. 

Loop 121

Claire looked at the window as she was pulling on her large clothes - it was good to see Jake and Ashley, and now she'd have two bits of company if she rejoined Thanksgiving. But her mom wouldn't be able to handle her new size. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. She kicked herself for all of the awkward conversations she'd endured. There was an easy way out of this. 

She texted her mom again, and now Jake and Ashley - she told the latter two that she was doing one more loop on her own and then would join them for the next one. She eased herself out the window, and trudged to the corner, where she got her Lyft to the Dunkin' Donuts. She decided, as a farewell, that she would really see how far she could go this time. She grabbed two dozen donuts and headed to her nook in the mall. As usual, the first six were glorious - she practically inhaled them. She thoroughly enjoyed the next four, although the sweet was starting to build up in her mouth. She took some small sips of black coffee - that was a trick she'd learned, and it practically reset her tastebuds. She powered through the last two of the dozen - she thought back to when that last donut had seemed an insurmountable obstacle. Claire still felt a little gross and full now, after eating the full dozen, but besides not really wanting to move much, she was feeling pretty ok. 

She opened the second box and began methodically chewing. The first two were ok, but midway through the third, she started getting the sugar-and-fat sweats again. "A four-donut improvement over when I started. Not bad." She forced the last half of the donut down, and took a bite of her sixteenth...but then hit the wall. She slept her sugar coma off for the next two hours, as usual. 

For the first time in a lot of loops, she didn't feel guilty about her lack of squats. It was the last day of this - she'd get back into working out with Jake (and now Ashley) next loop. She really needed to - every step was becoming a struggle, and she realized in the back of her head that it was not just because she was incredibly full most of the day. 

Claire got to the Chinese place just as they were opening at 11. "Good thing we have no buffet, white lady would ruin us!" she heard from the back, in Korean. Mean. She winked at Daniel and said quietly in her broken Korean "don't worry, I'd leave a generous tip." His eyes bulged and he started stammering, as he usually did. "Don't worry, you can make it up to me - buy me a drink later." She left back to her private mall nook with her four entrees this time - she knew Daniel would be along now; no need to show off for him. 

She managed her usual two entrees before the football game - on top of the extra donuts, she wasn't sure she'd be able to, but the difficulty with the donuts was less about capacity and more about the sugar rush. Once that was over, it was full steam(ed pork buns) ahead. Also a couple or ten egg rolls. OK now she was full. She had to muster the will to trudge over to the dive bar, but she wanted to meet up with Daniel. She briefly considered calling a Lyft but she decided that would be ridiculous for just basically a ride across an empty parking lot. 

Once she was at the bar, her stomach had settled just a little. She started off with a pint of domestic, which she sipped carefully. By the time Daniel arrived in the early second quarter, she had a little capacity again. He bought her a Sierra Nevada, the first of five she would consume in his presence. He kept himself to two beers, since he had to return to work, but they hooked up in the bathroom at halftime as usual. "Last time for a while, Daniel, enjoy it." After he left, Claire made her usual bet on whether she could chug 3 beers in 4 minutes with the bartender, and had two more beers over the fourth quarter. 

Claire staggered to the mall for early Black Friday - this was the main reason she needed one last loop out here. She grabbed an XXL turtleneck off of the shelf and brought it to the dressing room. She'd thought it would be too big but it actually clung to her beer-bloated gut fairly tightly. She gaped at her figure in the mirror - she'd never eaten this much, and hadn't worn anything really form-fitting for a while. Plus it'd usually been a few hours between the bar and getting home. Either way, it did most of what she needed - her face still definitely looked rounder than it used to, but it covered up the double chin that hung a lot of the way down her neck. Its arms also extended past her wrists. She pulled her size-26 top over it, and it looked ok for what she was going for. She grabbed a size-28 just in case, on her way out. 

She picked at the two cold entrees and the last of the egg rolls as she sat outside the mall on her secluded bench. She was nearly at capacity...but wasn't sure if she could say she had really gone all-out today. She snuck back to her breakfast nook in the mall - sure enough the donuts she'd left this morning were there. That would be a fitting capper to the day. There were seven whole ones left, and one with the single bite out of it. She ate the first few and the partial one with no problems. Three left, and now she was feeling more tentative. She forced herself to chew the first. Now she was sweating and shaking again. The alcohol helped, though - and her sense of completionism pushed her forward. Turning off her gag reflex, she crammed the second into her mouth whole. It stuck to the top and bottom of her mouth as she chewed; it was a little drier than this morning, and her mouth seemed like it had stopped making saliva in protest of all the food. She swallowed, and almost felt the donut sort of come to rest at the bottom of her esophagus rather than in her stomach. This was the fullest she'd ever felt. She looked at the final donut with a familiar feeling of disgust and hatred. She'd failed to finish the second dozen, but she definitely felt like she'd pushed herself as far as she could go. 

She was tempted to take the Lyft all the way back to the house and just go in the front door, but she forced herself to stop the car a block early and trudge all the way back to her window. She worried about how hard walking was becoming, but she knew that it was likely due to still being ** and the immense amount of food she'd just had. The window was about waist height; her fullness required her to very tenderly lean her body across it, and sort of gradually shift her mass until more of it was inside the house than outside. Then she sort of clumped down a couple of feet to the floor of her room. What a day! 

When she gathered her breath, she walked over to the scale - it said 295.  

Edited March 22, 2021 by cheddarlion
typo

[cheddarlion]

Loop 122

Claire threw on her black turtleneck and just to keep things extra-covered, her new size 28 top. She went into the kitchen to find Uncle James in his traditional spot - he looked shocked. "Is that...Claire?" 

"Yep, it's me! Surprised?" 

"You...you're bigger than the last time I saw you." For once James didn't have a quip. 

"Ha! Gotcha! I'm wearing this fat suit for a school project, for two weeks. It's convincing, isn't it?" 

"Wow! You had me going there." He still looked shook. But seed planted. 

Claire grabbed a heaping plateful of early Thanksgiving food - it was paltry compared to her epic breakfasts. James didn't offer her a glass of eggnog, still reeling from the "fat suit" trick Claire had played on him. She didn't really feel satisfied after the plate, so she grabbed her mom's keys and drove out to the Dunkin' Donuts. No need to sneak around and avoid being seen now - she'd be back for the meal this time. But she pulled away from the drive-thru with her dozen donuts, and sat in the parking lot chowing down. The last one was a challenge, with the additional Thanksgiving food she'd already eaten, but she got it down. 

Within an hour, she was ready to join Ashley and Jake for a workout in the garage. They both begged off - Jake asked if she needed a spotter, but he wasn't feeling the workout this morning. Claire tried a few warm-up squats with no added weight, and found herself winded almost immediately. She was glad no one was around to see this - it was embarrassing! She caught her breath and did seven more unweighted squats - her thighs felt like they were on fire! Gasping for air, she waited again - and found herself unable to even get a second squat on the third go-round. Oh well. Tomorrow she'd do eight, and the next day more, and she'd get herself back into shape. 

Claire did some get-out-of-the-loop research in her room, and then re-emerged around 11am. Everyone gasped/laughed when she appeared. Uncle James had told them about her project, and that was all people wanted to talk about with her, including her mom. No requests to go to the hospital, and even fresh encouragement to eat heartily today. Success! 

The satellite table was a bloodbath - Jake, Ashley, and Claire were all demolishing the spread. This time it was Claire who distracted from Ashley and Jake's increasing size, but everyone at the table was in awe at the amount they were eating. Claire re-filled the mac and cheese from the main table's dish. "Damn, you ate all that, Claire? You sure that's all fat suit there?" Uncle James, what a scamp. 

Claire couldn't believe the amount Jake was putting down - he was on a mission. It looked like he had grown just a little even since two days before. She'd have to check to see if she was keeping up with him - he'd said he was at 285 a few days ago. What she didn't know was that he had been inflating his weight a bit to cover up for the fact that he'd fallen almost 50 pounds behind before. Jake was both in a race to 380, and a race to keep Claire from knowing that he'd been lying about his weight. 

Ashley was simply enjoying herself - which would ordinarily have been a bit of a spectacle. Her short stature combined with being stuffed left her looking 6 months pregnant. 

Claire was feeling extremely full, but went to get her traditional six helpings of dessert. The servers cut her even bigger pieces than before, all making jokes about how she's a "big girl" now. She returned to the table with roughly the equivalent of a full pie on her plate. Claire inhaled deeply and for the next hour, methodically powered through. She took a bite of each pie/pudding/cheesecake in succession, keeping her mouth from getting overly tired of any one flavor. Her morning donut challenges had prepared her for this moment. She felt like she was going to burst, but finally she got the last bite of bread putting in, and leaned back in her chair, delirious. She could feel her turtleneck riding up a bit on her stomach, but her massive tent of a blouse covered everything nicely. Sipping wine slowly for the next hour, she finally felt capable of standing again. Her thighs absolutely burned - the two straight hours of sitting after exerting herself had left her incredibly stiff. She could barely walk, but she made her way back to her room. It was an amazing feeling - she just let her massive gut fall forward as she walked, and people assumed it was the fat suit. 

Collapsing onto her bed, she texted Jake and Ashley for a later drinking session/meetup. They came into her room a couple of hours later, with a 30-rack of beers, as she'd requested. Over the next few hours, she and Jake drank twelve each, and Ashley drank six. They discussed the coming loops. "So if this mass thing works, you guys leave? Then I get stuck with non-looping Jake and Claire?" 

Jake knew this specific scenario was hopeless, but he was keeping up the ruse. "So yeah, unfortunately, I think you'll be the only one looping. But from our perspective, say we make our escape when we reach 350 pounds...I think we'll encounter you, with your memories of these loops, and some additional. The 350 pound version of you will come out, seemingly instantly." 

Ashley hadn't really thought about either reality...that she'd be looping alone, or that she'd be 350 pounds when she exited. "And there's no other way out?" 

Jake, not exactly lying, confirmed. 

"Well I'm going to try and catch up with you guys as soon as I can, I guess." She hopped up, and slid out Claire's scale, which had a stray sock under it. Claire pointed this out, and Ashley removed it to get an accurate reading. "162" Ashley declared - Jake couldn't believe how round she looked at that weight - Claire at 5'7" had just looked kind of pudgy...although Ashley certainly had consumed a lot of food and beer. 

Jake went over to the scale while Ashley was otherwise occupied and Claire seemed safely nearly comatose on the bed. It said 260 - a gain of 10 pounds in just three days. "290" he declared. He'd close both the gap with his earlier lies, and the gap with Claire, he hoped. 

Claire was curious - she'd expected a bigger gain the day before, and she wondered if the stray sock had been there last time. Still aching from the attempted squats, she oozed off the bed into a standing position, and stepped on - the scale said 301. "Should I slow down, Jake? Should we both, and wait for Ashley to catch up?"  

"Hmm...it might be a while before Ashley catches up, but at least we can get closer ourselves. Could happen any one of these loops now." Exactly the break he'd been looking for. Even if he gained over 3 pounds per day, at the rate Claire was going, she'd beat him to 380. 

Jake snuck out in the wee hours of the morning for his four sticks of butter. He needed to do more, but he just couldn't bear it to swallow another bite. 

Loop 123

Claire awoke and decided to do a starvation loop. She'd still go out to seed the story of her "school project" with Uncle James, but she resisted grabbing any breakfast from the fridge, no matter how much her stomach was growling. Her legs still ached from the exertion the day before - maybe she'd just stay in her room today? 

* * * 
Jake had decided to add another element to his sprint to 380. He drove out to the corner store around 7am and picked up two quarts of heavy cream. He'd had a white Russian before - how hard could it be? "Gahh!" he cried out to no one in particular. Ashley, in the guest bedroom, heard him and popped in.

"Oh, what a great idea!" seeing the cartons. She grabbed a carton, took a giant swallow, and came away with a sour face. "Whoa...maybe not such a great idea." Jake was jealous, though - he could barely get a  sip down, and she had just drank 4-5 ounces. He decided to dissolve some sugar in it, and pour it over ice, for better flavor, and he found he was able to slowly drink a glass of it.

Ashley claimed one of the cartons for herself - Jake didn't mind as long as Claire was still holding off. She took a deep breath and took another swig directly from her carton. She nearly gagged, but kept it down. "Well that's going to take some getting used to. Put me down for one of these tomorrow, though." She got another giant glug down before she worried the next one would cause her to refund everything she'd just eaten. Jake forced himself to drink another 4-5 oz glass himself. Ashley, as usual, had it right - he was just going to have to get used to this. 

* * * 
"Whatever." Claire couldn't take it anymore. She'd made a good-faith effort to work out, but found she had no energy, and her sore legs didn't want to do anything. She made her appearance in the late morning as usual, to gasps and laughter, and instead of starving, ate a normal Thanksgiving dinner, meaning that she waddled away from the table merely full, and only having had a few glasses of wine. Jake and Ashley continued their onslaught of the meal, and both walked away from the table stuffed to the gills. 

Despite her relative forbearance, Claire found herself a pound heavier that evening, at 302. If this mass thing didn't work, she realized she was in trouble - it had taken almost her full effort to just eat a normal amount of food, and she still found herself picking up a pound. She'd just have to find out if it worked. 

Loop 124

Claire made a possibly hunger-addled decision - she was tired of this loop and wanted to just be done with it. Jake and Ashley seemed awfully cozy together, and they could keep each other company if she made an early exit from the loop. Claire frankly felt a little bit bitter about the bond the two had formed. She plunked herself into her mom's car and hit the Dunkin' drive-thru again. She felt like a challenge today - she ordered two dozen donuts. Without a full plate of Thanksgiving food already in her stomach, she managed the first dozen with relative ease, only feeling a bit gross by the final one. The record was fifteen plus a bite, and she found herself hitting the wall as she finished number 15. With her stomach obscenely bulging over the seatbelt, and brushing the steering wheel, she forced the sixteenth one down. Could she get another? No. She was a sweaty, shaky, sugary mess. Claire felt terrible, but also a little nostalgic for her shopping center loops. She was wishing she could hang out in the empty mall and then see Daniel, and drink too much at the dive bar. She'd already made her appearance to James, though, so that was off for this loop.   

* * *

Jake and Ashley continued to work on their heavy cream - Ashley got down 3/4 of a carton this time, and Jake managed a third glass diluted with ice and sugar. Jake could feel the effects of his rapid gain - he was up to 264 last night, and his jeans were being swallowed by his gut day by day. He'd have to ask Claire to pick him up a larger sweater the next time she went to Black Friday. Ashley raided Claire's mom's closet for a size-12 top, which with her stature, did a better job of actually covering her tummy than it had of hiding Claire's, at a similar weight, but her entire body was much more round. It wasn't going to be much longer before she faced her own questions. She was up to 164 as of last night. 

* * * 

At their meeting that evening, after all three putting on another incredible show of gluttony, they addressed the issue that they couldn't *all* be doing a class project that involved wearing a fat suit. Jake and Ashley were both puffing up rapidly. They decided to do a rotation - two of them hang out at the shopping plaza on any given loop. They'd claim that there was an emergency or something (and Claire would go with her usual story of the delayed flight) to explain their absence from Thanksgiving. Claire would slip out the back window and get into the car that the other one pulled around the block when it was one of her shopping plaza loops. 

Loop 130

Today was a Claire-and-Ashley loop for the plaza. Claire for the first time noticed her butt subtly scraping the bottom of the windowsill as she heaved herself outside. She had wanted to just walk out the front door with Ashley but they didn't want to risk anyone seeing them - it was Jake's turn to "wear the fat suit". Dammit, maybe we can at least set up a closer meeting point, puffed Claire to herself as she got into the car a block down the street. 

Claire had introduced Ashley to the wonder of Dunkin' Donuts four loops back - she'd been a quick study, seemingly immune to the sugar sweats, and had downed a dozen her second time. Claire managed to get an even 18 down this time. Ashley housed 14, and it seemed like she might have had room for more. For lunch, they'd agreed to go their separate ways - Ashley dropped Claire off at the Chinese place, and she drove down to the convenience store. Claire thought about the long walk to her private nook and decided that privacy was over-rated. She put in an order for General Tso's, vegetable lo mein, and a dozen egg rolls. In broken Korean, she winked at Daniel and said "big white lady is gonna eat it all here." She slid herself into a booth, and invited Daniel over for more Korean lessons and light flirtation. She wanted to invite Daniel to the bar, but she also wanted to keep him to herself. She satisfied herself with teasing him with a moaning performance as she wolfed down 5000 calories of Chinese food. Daniel, being a sweetheart, even brought her two boba teas during her meal. Claire considered ordering another entree but didn't want to make too much of a spectacle today. She found her stomach had pushed itself out to give a slight hug the top and bottom of the table no matter how far back in the booth she leaned. 

Ashley had agreed to keep the heavy cream a secret from Claire - Jake said it was a competitive thing, and Ashley, feeling the same way, didn't see any reason to give up the edge. She had finally managed to get a whole quart down a few loops ago - Jake was still working his way there, but was close. That was her lunch today. She picked up a quart for Jake later - he'd switched his pound of butter to breakfast, and the cream for the end of the loop. 

Ashley picked Claire up from the Chinese place, and they made their way to the bar. Claire's stomach was pushed out much farther than it had been an hour earlier; Ashley did not look so bloated, but the cream in her stomach was dense and filling. What Claire had in capacity, Ashley had in her ability to eat almost anything and not have it make her feel sweaty or gross. They both slipped in and out of food comas until it was time to head to the bar. 

They were both feeling relatively fresh when the game started at the empty bar - Ashley had processed a lot of the cream, and Claire hadn't quite pushed herself to the max at lunch. Claire asked the bartender if he'd buy her the three beers if she could finish them in under four minutes. He looked her up and down, evaluating her girth. He didn't usually do bets (people tended to know what they were capable of) but he was bored. "Tell you what, you do four in four minutes and you got yourself a deal." He poured five pints of Sierra Nevada, one for Ashley. Claire opened her throat and poured the first two down in just under a minute. She took another minute to drink the third. Now she could feel her bellybutton fully exposed by the turtleneck (but the size-28 blouse was still holding up). The 48 ounces of heavy liquid gurgled in her stomach. She paused, gathered herself, and let out a massive belch. With a full minute left she put the fourth empty pint glass down on the bar. Ashley was in awe. Claire saw that fifth pint, though, and felt her competitive hackles raised. Bartender didn't think she could do four? The belch had cleared just enough room in her stomach - she crossed her eyes and focused - she poured the last drop down her gullet as the timer for four minutes went off. Her stomach was tight as a drum...she felt herself getting light-headed, and as she let out another massive belch, she actually lost her balance, and slid off the stool. She thudded onto the ground, with surprisingly little impact - her now massive bottom provided her with a soft landing. 

"Oh my god are you ok?" Ashley leaned over her. Claire was fine, but she tried to roll up back to her feet, she found herself lacking the energy. The bartender and Ashley both took one shoulder and helped her to her feet. 

"I'm ok. Just lost my balance." 

"That was pretty epic. Where did you learn to do that," Ashley exclaimed jealously.  

"Not sure," thinking back to the probably 20 or so loops where she got herself three free beers by chugging. 

Ashley ordered two beers to "train," taking, to her, a disappointing five minutes to drink them. Claire processed the five beers by the end of the first quarter, and drank (at normal speed) nine more through the rest of the game. Ashley took longer to recover from her two-beer attempts and "only" managed six.

Walking to the parking lot, Claire plunked herself down into the passenger seat. "What are you doing?" Ashley motioned to the mall, where they had to pick up new clothes for all three of them.

Claire was physically incapable right now of walking the 1500 feet across the parking lot to the mall. Her head spun, and her stomach felt like it was full of 14 pounds of beer. "Go on without me." 

Ashley reluctantly, carefully drove through the parking lot, trying not to show signs of her drunken state. She stopped at the curb to let Claire out. Claire sort of lurched towards the open door, but couldn't muster the oomph. "Help me uppp" Claire slurred. Ashley went around and pulled on Claire's arm, as Claire gave her best push...and stood her up on the sidewalk. Dang, Claire was heavy! 

Ashley parked and herself sloshed her way to the entrance. They both sobered up with a churro, and did their shopping. They got a two-sizes-too-big sweater for Jake, a size up turtleneck for Claire, and one for Ashley (she had finally started to show a double chin the last few loops), a size-18 top for Ashley and a size-30 top for Claire.

Ashley was still absolutely stuffed, but Claire wanted a nightcap; she'd forgotten to get extra Chinese entrees. Ashley set Claire down on a bench near the mall exit, and walked over to Dunkin Donuts just before they closed, and grabbed another dozen. Claire managed ten of them, while Ashley forced two down. 

Claire and Ashley realized they could just leave the car there, so they took a Lyft home. Ashley walked Claire to her window. The donuts and beer still sat heavy in her stomach. She leaned onto the window sill, but couldn't quite muster the energy to get her center of mass over the edge. Ashley got down and pushed her hands into Claire's side - it was like pushing on Jell-o; it didn't feel like she was doing anything, but suddenly she felt the weight reduce and then heard a thump on the other side of the window. Claire rocked back and forth and got to her feet and helped pull Ashley in. 

Claire took off her size-28 top and admired the silhouette her turtleneck cut. Her gut extended out magnificently, but also hung down and revealed itself below the bottom of the fabric. She could feel the cool air on underside of her gut. The sleeves had seemingly shrunk, as the fabric was used to cover her expanding arms and torso. It clung lasciviously to her F-cup breasts, outlining their shape on all sides. This was great, but she definitely needed the size up if she was going to claim she was wearing a fat suit. 

Ashley herself was expanding quickly - her breasts were still taking a lot of the weight, but her large rear and wide hips were also pulling their share. Her stomach was extremely soft but still sort of hidden by her other assets. 

"Shall we weigh in?" Jake had texted - he was up to 305 (he was really at 293 - his pound of butter in the morning and nearly quart of cream in the evening had gotten him up to over four pounds a day, but he was slowing down his reported numbers so that they would converge.) 

Ashley stepped onto the scale, and it read 179. Over two pounds per day, since she'd started drinking heavy cream. 

Claire stepped on and went to lean forward to look over her gut, but almost lost her balance. Ashley read off the scale for her - 322. Claire had come just short of three pounds per day in the last week of loops! She could feel herself closing in on whatever was necessary to get out of this. She had decided she would go to 400 if necessary, which should take less than a month of loops if she could keep this up. She felt exhausted after her big day. She hadn't really been doing any squats, but she could tell that all the walking through the mall and between the stores in the plaza were keeping her limber and spry. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 140 - Claire

::snap:: Claire's underwear had begun breaking almost explosively when it went instantly from being around the hips of a 115-pound waif to someone now well upwards of 300 pounds. Today was a Jake-and-Ashley go outside loop, so she got to do Thanksgiving this loop. She was glad - getting in and out of that window was difficult, and all the walking in the plaza was exhausting. 

In her outside loops with Jake, they'd agreed to just go their separate ways for the day. Claire sensed an underlying tension but she couldn't figure out what it was. She was happy with the arrangement, though - she liked her alone time in the shopping plaza. Jake would pull a second car a block away from the house for her, and she would drive off to the plaza in that. Her stomach was starting to brush the steering wheel even before she ate anything. She was up to a record of 20 donuts, and on the outside loops with Jake, she ordered five Chinese entrees plus a dozen egg rolls. She was eating two of them plus the egg rolls in the Chinese place, and then had a few beers before Daniel showed up at the bar for the football game, and had five more sandwiched around the make-out session. After he left, she had continued the tradition of claiming she could chug 3 beers in 4 minutes, only for the bartender to raise the number to four. The new element was that she had stopped going to the mall on these loops - she was too ** to drive, and the walk just didn't seem worth it. The bartender figured she'd ordered enough beers, so he let her munch away at her three remaining entrees after the game ended. 

The loops with Ashley had gone similarly to loop 130 - Ashley had improved her chugging game, but it was nowhere near Claire's. She'd managed to tie Claire with 20 donuts the last time. She tried to stay more sober so that she could drive Claire around after Claire had had too much to drink. 

But today was just Thanksgiving. She pulled on her size-32 top over her XXXXL turtleneck and found it a little tighter than she'd expected - she texted Jake and Ashley to pick up the next size up. She stunned Uncle James with her "fat suit" early in the morning, and then took her mom's car to Dunkin Donuts. She slid into the driver's seat, her gut pressed firmly against the bottom of the steering wheel. She'd have to see if she could borrow a different car next time she drove. 

Claire grabbed two dozen donuts, and got through her now-traditional 20. She thought about trying to finish all 24, but felt good about what she'd eaten and didn't even feel gross or sweaty! That could be for later. She pulled back home, extricated her gut from the steering wheel, and waddled back to her room. She had grown to love the gasp/laughter when she made her appearance at 11 or so. She glanced at Phyllis and realized that she was significantly larger than her now. Her mom pulled her aside again "are you ok under all that? This seems like a pretty intense fat suit! You must be hot!" Claire reassured her mom that she would be fine. "OK, I admire your dedication to the project; I just don't want you to have a bad Thanksgiving!" 

"Actually, mom, it's a little tight over by the serving dishes. I don't want to knock anything over with this thing - do you think you could grab stuff for me when the meal starts?" 

"Sure, sweetie!" 

Claire sat up at the main table this time - she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of this before. Her mom brought her plate after plate, and she didn't have to keep getting up. She did go red a little when her mom expressed amazement at all she was eating. Her mom was so happy to keep Claire fed, though, and she continued bringing loaded plates. Claire had once again neared her limit as a plate full of desserts was placed in front of her. Five pints of beer in 4 minutes, 20 donuts in one sitting, three Chinese entrees...she'd never felt as full as when she managed to get half of the desserts down. 

She had started sweating, and leaned back in her chair, her gut still nearly reaching the table. She was defeated, and she was ready to digest in place for the next two hours. The chair had other plans, though. ::crrrrrrrrr--SNAP:: She collapsed to the ground with the chair, a broken shard of wood stabbing into her side. The intense amount of food in her stomach and the pain combined to cause her to lose consciousness. 

The next thing she heard was her mom talking to a doctor. "...the fat suit gave her some protection, though, right?" 

"Ma'am, I'm not sure what you're talking about." 

"She was wearing a fat suit - it's for a school project." 

"Ma'am, I don't know how to tell you this, but your daughter weighs 350 pounds. That is not a fat suit on her." 

"But that's impossible, she was very fit last summer!"

"Maybe she put on some weight in college; it happens." 

"Not THAT much weight."

"Well the odd thing is that we've done some blood work, and it's usually very stressful to a body over time, being that weight. However, she seems perfectly healthy. Lucky genetics, I guess..." 

Claire pretended to be asleep this whole time, and then actually dozed off. 

Loop 140 - Jake and Ashley

Jake and Ashley both got their quart of heavy cream from the corner store, and Jake mixed his with a cup of ice and about 15 packets of sugar. Ashley took hers straight - but they both finished, as they'd been doing for several loops now. Jake had gotten good enough at this that he'd replaced the butter with a second quart of cream - one first thing in the morning, and one late in the evening. Once he got past the queasy feeling, he had plenty of volume in his stomach for subsequent gorging. He was up to 340 pounds as of last night - he was amazed at the size of his gut, especially after the late-night beer sessions. But the giant sweater combined with his 6'2" height just made him look like a bigger guy, unlike Claire, who had exploded into a big wobbly fat girl. His face had definitely filled out - the sweater was a turtleneck to cover up his double chin partially. 

He was still pushing as hard as he could to catch Claire - he was 8 pounds behind her as of last night. Ashley finally got curious. "Why are you doing this? You seem uncomfortable constantly - whatever weight you have to get to, you'll just follow Claire out of the loop a few cycles later. And I'll be along shortly myself. Why not just enjoy it instead of pushing so hard?" She patted her stomach. She'd gotten up to 203 last night. Her stomach had finally started making some progress; she was getting more and more ball-shaped by the day. She was definitely starting to feel huge - at 203, she wondered if she was proportionally fatter than Jake right now. "Why the secrecy over the heavy cream, too?" 

Jake had been meaning to enlist her help, so he decided to come clean. "So...it turns out that the only way out of this is to weigh exactly an integer multiple of 380 pounds, plus or minus a few ounces. But only one body can use each exit...so once someone gets out at 380, the next person has to get out at 760. The next has to get out at 1140." 

Ashley gaped. She thought about slapping Jake, yelling at him...but she decided to play it cool. "So...you're trying to beat Ashley to 380?" 

"Essentially, yeah. But she's a monster! She doesn't even know we're racing and she's kicking my ass." 

Ashley didn't know what to say - as stunning as it was that she was going to have to get to above 300 pounds, now she was going to have to get to 760? Or...?

"But you can't tell her! Or, don't tell her until you're ready to leave yourself. She's got a head start on you, but you might be able to catch her for 760." 

Ashley realized that she had chosen this - but it seemed unfair that Jake was going to get out of this loop at a sane weight, even in a normal human shape, whereas she at 5'3" was going to have to get to 700+ pounds? Was that even possible? 

They continued on their way - they'd started going to the grocery store, for variety. It was mostly filled with last-minute Thanksgiving shoppers. Some days they'd consume boxes on boxes of Oreos and chips, another time they'd bought a little hibachi and some charcoal and made a bunch of cheeseburgers. Today they bought a huge pile of candy bars. 

They drove back to the house that evening, Jake in pain from having topped 10,000 calories of candy, Ashley having stopped around 6,000 calories but feeling stuffed. They'd texted Claire about their ETA, but she hadn't responded. They'd usually gone in her window and closed off the evening with a beer or six or twelve. They looked inside and saw the empty room. They tiptoed around to Jake's guest room and slipped into his window. Not wanting to show their faces, they stayed in Jake's room. Jake had planned to tack on another 1500 calories of beer, but instead he just drank his second quart of heavy cream as the clock struck 5am. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 141

::snap!:: Claire's underwear exploded off her as usual as Arlo Guthrie played. She reached down to her side where the chair's broken leg had stabbed her - it was a pretty solid scrape, but nothing serious. They must have taken her to the hospital because she fainted. 

The real issue became apparent as she looked around her room - she hadn't taken any appropriate clothes along with her. She had the size-6 top laid out on her suitcase. To think that had been loose and flowy at one point. 

Texts came in from Ashley and Jake - where were you last night? Are you ok? 

Guys - I had an accident and they took me to the hospital. Nothing serious but I need some clothes or I won't be able to leave my room. 

Jake slipped over to Ashley's room so they could talk in person. "Hear me out, Ashley...what if we didn't?"

"Jake! We can't! First, she'd know something is up. Second, I don't think it'll work. And third, I don't want to be openly hostile to her! I like my cousin!" 

Jake grumbled to himself - he was desperate to get to 380 first, but he agreed. He was up to 344 last night,  but her reported weight was 352. This was going to be close. 

The best they could do for Claire was slipping into Aunt Phyllis' guest room after she'd joined the party in the late morning and grabbing some of her clothes. The pants fortunately had an elastic band, but they were extremely tight. The top, a size-26, now left very little to the imagination. Claire's bare gut and love handles hung down several inches, almost exposing her belly button. They all decided that this would be a Claire-and-Ashley loop, and that Jake would do Thanksgiving today. 

Ashley stood outside Claire's window - Claire had gingerly positioned herself on the edge, and was trying to very gradually roll out. Ashley held Claire's side, feeling her hands squish several inches into her flesh as Claire fell. Claire winced as Ashley helped her to her feet, the wound in her side throbbing a bit. It was a moderately successful landing, but Phyllis' blouse had snagged on the windowsill and torn, exposing a vast swath of Claire's rolls. 

They trudged down the block, finally getting Claire safely into the car. It was already noon, and Claire was starving - Jake had run out to get quarts of heavy cream for himself and Ashley earlier. Ashley pulled into the Dunkin' drive-thru and ordered them four dozen donuts. Claire mowed through her first 18 easily. "AHHH. That hit the spot." She now was somewhat full, but nowhere near capacity. She ate the next three more slowly, reveling in her new record. She felt a bit queasy, but forced the final three down. Finally, two dozen in one sitting. Her bare gut now pushed out under the bottom of her blouse, over the seatbelt, and rested warmly on her upper thighs. Ashley also managed a personal record of 21...she felt better than Claire looked - no sweating, no delirium, but she was stuffed to the max. 

Claire was ready for more food, though, as long as it wasn't sweet. Ashley drove them to the Chinese place, and ordered Claire a lo mein and a dozen egg rolls. Claire looked through the windshield, wishing she could say hi to Daniel, but not wanting to go out with her obscenely torn blouse. Ashley gaped as Claire devoured it all over the next half hour, the last couple of egg rolls going a little slower. She patted her massive gut. "OK, NOW I'm full. Oof, too full." 

Ashley had been thinking all morning, and now had made up her mind: "Claire, I need to tell you something..." 

 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 141, continued

Claire laughed after Ashley told her everything. "So he thinks he's going to beat me to 380, huh?" 

"He wanted to just strand you in your room when he heard you didn't have clothes! I get that he's mad at you for pulling him into this - but that's cruel!"

"Well I guess it's him or me. Um...this is awkward but what about you? I don't think you can beat him to 760...or, like, would you even want to? What would the rest of your life look like?"

"Yeah...I don't know. Honestly this is still kind of fun. Maybe I'll just try to lose some of this and stay in here indefinitely? Hook up with the new skinny Jake once current Jake leaves?" 

They had some time to kill until the stores opened for early Black Friday - Ashley also told Claire about Jake's heavy cream secret, and his previous lying about his weight. "But I saw him weigh himself a few days ago - he's telling you the real weight now." 

"So it seems like he's at a pace of about 4-5 pounds per loop, which means that to be safe I'll have to get there in 8 loops. I'll have to up my game - I think I'm going about 3 pounds per loop right now." 

Since they couldn't go into the bar like normal with Claire's tattered top, Ashley drove them to the grocery store and picked up a 30-pack of beer. They sat in the parking lot outside the mall pounding them back. 

"Ooof, I gotta pee something fierce." Claire looked around and the coast was still clear. She opened the door to the car, but winced as she tried to lean forward and get out. "Ashley, can you give me a lift?" Ashley tottered around to the passenger's side and putting all of her drunken effort in, helped hoist Claire from her seated position. Claire took care of business in the bushes and resumed drinking. 

Several hours later, the final can was consumed. Claire had lost count but was pretty sure she had taken care of 19-20 of the cans. She let out a massive belch, satisfied that she was making good progress today towards her necessary consumption. Her gut now completely obscured the lap belt, and she had the seat reclined to make herself more comfortable. She wrote a list of articles of clothing she needed Ashley to pick up for her. She changed into the top in the car when Ashley returned, and felt much better, finally being fully clothed. 

The Chinese food place was closed, and Claire felt the need to top herself off for the evening, so they got a Lyft to the grocery store. Claire was still fairly **, so stayed on a bench outside the store. Ashley got them each a quart of heavy cream, and two boxes of Double Stuf Oreos. Claire took a swig of the cream and almost gagged. 

"Ha, not as easy as it looks, eh?" Ashley chugged about a third of her quart. "I don't know why, I can just ignore the heaviness. I don't have the capacity you do but this is my secret power."

"Yeah...do you have something to cut it?" Claire was steadily munching through her Oreos, on the second row of her first box. Ashley explained about the ice that Jake was using, and went back into the store to get her a cup of ice. Chilled, the cream was not so bad, and Claire gradually got through it. She felt the familiar dizziness as she finished the first row of her second box of Oreos. Ashley had given up after her quart of cream and her first box of Oreos. Her stomach stretched out beyond her large breasts, stuffed to the max, but she looked positively slender next to Claire. The two girls digested on the bench in silence for the next couple of hours, and called another Lyft home. Ashley wedged Claire into the window, and shoved until she spit through on the other side. 

"Ooof! Sorry I can't be more help - my side is killing me today!" Claire looked her new size-34 top over to check for rips or tears, finding none. Ashley herself struggled up into the window. They weighed themselves - Claire was up to 356, and Ashley had reached 209...keeping up with Claire, plus the heavy cream was getting her to a 3 pound per day pace. Jake texted that he was up to 349. 

Loop 143

Claire was anxious to be in the house for Thanksgiving - she had realized how important it was that she calibrate her scale - according to the topology research that Ashley had told her about, even being a quarter pound off would ruin the resonance and cause her to miss the exit. Her wound was mostly healed, but walking was getting to be more and more taxing regardless. She plodded to the garage and got 150 pounds of dumbbells and stacked them on the scale. It said 148. She'd gotten to 360 at the end of last loop, but maybe she was at 362? Jake had continued his frantic pace -  they'd all weighed themselves in her room, and he was up to 354 - or probably 356 in reality? No doubt *his* scale was calibrated correctly. 

She thought about going out and grabbing a quart of heavy cream that morning, but the thought of wedging herself out of the car and back in an extra time at the grocery store was a little overwhelming - she instead got two dozen donuts at the Dunkin' drive-thru and enjoyed them as her gut pushed progressively further into the steering wheel. 

Before dinner, Claire surreptitiously swapped her original chair for a sturdier one, and had a lovely Thanksgiving meal - her mom once again brought her plate after plate, while she just sat there and shoveled it in. She managed to eat most of the massive plate of desserts before leaning back, almost feeling high with how full she was. Uncle James of course quipped "careful, or you won't need that fat suit to do your project!" Claire would have laughed if she was capable of movement in her core at all. 

The three loopers convened late that night; they'd started getting some heavier beer from the grocery store, and more of it, as their capacities had expanded. Ashley was especially impressive - she was now taking down at least 12 beers, while Jake and Claire were downing 18 apiece over the course of the evening. Jake was looking extremely heavy, but still out of place next to Claire's massive rolls that now hung several inches down her legs when she stood. Not that she was doing much standing tonight - an hour after her final beer, she still lay down on her back, her back flab flattening out horizontally on the floor, but her gut still protruding impressively into the air. Ashley cradled her belly like she was setting up for a maternity shoot. 

Jake was up to 359, Ashley was at 216, and Claire was up to 364, according to the scale, which Claire knew was two pounds off. "Aww you guys are converging! I'm going to miss you when you leave, but I'll be right behind you," said Ashley. She was indeed blowing up quickly - her chin was now full-time doubled, and her arms revealed significant puffiness. Her arms no longer quite hung straight down by her side as  her hips flared out. Claire couldn't imagine what she would look like at nearly double this weight, never mind significantly more. 

Claire not only had her secret of the scale's inaccuracy, but Ashley had smuggled her a quart of heavy cream and a fountain cup full of ice. After Jake and Ashley left her room for the evening, she forced herself to chug down an additional pound worth of calories. It almost made her gag, but she consumed the whole quart. She was just a few days away from leaving the loop! 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 149

Claire was in an extra-good mood as she tore away the shreds of her skinny underwear. She heaved herself out of bed, and looked at what she'd be dealing with for the next phase of her life. Her stomach had a deep horizontal line down the middle of it, splitting the flab into two sections. Her massive breasts hung heavily down to the top of her stomach. Every step she took was an effort - far from her morning runs that she'd been going on at the start of all of this. 

But she was in a good mood because she'd reached 377 as of last night. She'd indulged in one last consequence-free fling with Daniel at the Chinese restaurant the previous loop. Maybe she'd look him up once this was all over. Jake was only at 372, packed to the gills with food and beer. There was no way he could put on 8 pounds in just one day. She drove with Ashley to Dunkin' - she wanted to spend one last day with this version of her.

As they munched on their donuts - Ashley had asked for two dozen, and Claire "only" 18, not needing to go crazy today, Claire asked Ashley what her plans were. 

"Well, it seems like we're pretty much immortal, right? I'll have forever to figure out another way out of this, and if I don't and I get tired of it all, I guess I'll have to try and get up to 1140 pounds? The possibilities here are endless!"

Ashley was still so excited about the loop, it made Claire wonder if she was making the right decision. But she looked down at herself, and over at Ashley, who continued to expand loop by loop. Ashley had driven today because Claire couldn't get behind the steering wheel, but her gut was already starting to reach forward onto her lap when she sat down, and would soon be touching the wheel. 380 pounds was something people lived with...double or triple that, if she decided to leave, was the end of a normal life. 

They snuck back to the house and into Claire's room with two cases of beer, some heavy cream for Ashley, several pounds of cheese, and numerous loaves of bread from the grocery store. Jake, doing Thanksgiving this loop, served as the lookout as they went in the front door - Claire hadn't been able to get back in through the window for two loops now. She reflected on this, and on her now tight size-34 top, which Ashley had had a hard time finding, and considered herself lucky that this was the biggest she was going to get. Her turtleneck, the largest size she could find, was now stretching out over the top and front of her massive stomach, but leaving the bottom exposed underneath her top. 

Back in the room, Claire weighed herself...this was unusual for the late morning, but she wanted to ensure that she was on track to be 380 precisely as the clock ran to 6am the next morning. She was shocked to see that she was only 372 - but reflected on the amount of beer and other food she was about to consume, as was the usual course of things, and this seemed about right. 

The two ate and drank through the day, staying silent as possible (since the rest of the family thought they were each away on emergencies). They dreaded the confrontation with Jake later that evening - once he was done with Thanksgiving he had often joined them for beers afterwards. Claire worried that as she reached 380, he would try to interfere. But there was no word from him as the clock struck 2am, 3am...

At 5:45am, Claire was on track to reach exactly 380 - she stood on the scale naked, as Ashley read off 379lbs, 4oz from the scale. Exactly 12 ounces away; the weight of one beer. 

"Well, Ashley, I'm not going to miss you because I'll see you tomorrow, but you won't be seeing me for a long time. Or maybe you'll see skinny me again?" 

"I'm going to miss you! I hope skinny you believes me when I tell you I have to wear a fat suit for a school project!" 

Claire put her clothes back on and they hugged each other, their bloated stomachs blocking them from fully encircling each other with their arms. They laughed at the situation, and Claire chugged her final beer of the loop. 

[cheddarlion]

Loop 144

Jake woke up, in a fresh panic. Claire was at 366 as of last night, and he was only at 361. The scale had said something different when he weighed himself in her room, but he went back to his correctly calibrated scale to check. Claire was smart and probably had figured out that her scale was wrong. She was going to beat him to 380, and he had no idea what happened when two people were simultaneously at 380 when they got to the end of the loop. He needed to give himself an extra day. 

She'd been gaining at least 3 pounds per day recently, if not 4. He suspected Ashley had snitched - not only had her reaction been negative to his idea of stranding Claire in her room, she didn't seem to appreciate the moral balance of the situation. Claire had pulled HIM into this. Either way, he had to assume that Claire knew about the 380 exit point. If she kept "sprinting" all-out, she'd be able to get to 380 in three or four loops. 

He plotted it out - this loop, 370, next 374, next 378, next 380 - she'd been stuffing herself to achieve fast increases, but would surely be able to manage "only" a 2-pound gain on the last day if she knew her target. 

That was the key. She'd have to miss the target for sure, and then he could slip in under the wire while she was figuring out what happened. As it was, things were lining up perfectly. He decided not to get greedy. He dropped Claire off at the shopping plaza - they'd been going their separate ways when Ashley was doing Thanksgiving. He picked up a scale at the pharmacy, drove back to the house, and heaved himself in through her window. Jake stepped on the new scale - he was at 356. On Claire's, it said 354. Not a bad start, but he had to guess that she knew about the two-pound discrepancy. He fiddled with Claire's scale a bit until it gave him a reading of 352. 

Jake found his way into Claire's room at some point each morning for the next four loops - he reduced by an additional two pounds each day. Claire was continuing to sprint forward. He'd sketched out a plan:

Loop 144: her scale read 366, she'd assumed 368, reality 370
Loop 145: reading 368, Claire thinks 370, reality 374
Loop 146: reading 370, Claire thinks 372, reality 378
Loop 147: reading 372, Claire thinks 374, reality 382
Loop 148: reading 374, Claire thinks 376, reality 386
Loop 149: Jake 380! 

Things went almost exactly according to plan. Loop 146-147 had been nervous - what if Claire had taken it easy or really gone for it in one of those loops? But she fortunately pigged out exactly as much as she had been recently, and was likely right around 382 when loop 147 ended. Claire had picked up a bit of steam, so by loop 148 her scale was reading 377, but by then the dye was cast. He snuck into her room while she and Ashley were out getting donuts and made the final adjustment downwards - by 12 pounds. She'd get herself up to 392 by the end of today, and by then he'd be gone. 

Loop 150 

*You can get anything you want -* POP

Claire woke up, oriented. But hearing the nightmare song and exploding out of her underwear undid that, as she remembered what was supposed to happen this time. She looked down at her enormous naked body and heaved herself out of bed. She texted Ashley to confirm. Hey - is it still...Thursday? She relieved herself in the bathroom attached to her bedroom while she waited for the answer: Yeah...is this still you? 

It was indeed still her. Ashley knocked ferociously on Jake's door to find a wiry, groggy, confused 21-year-old boy still under his covers. She left before he could figure out what was going on, and slinked to Claire's room as stealthily as her rotund gut would allow. "Jake is gone!" 

"Fuck! What happened?? We were so careful!" Claire pulled out her scale and stepped on - she was at 385. This was before her planned day of gorging on beer, donuts, and Chinese food, which probably added nearly 10 pounds by the end of the loop. Ashley stepped on out of curiosity, to find herself at 234 - a full 8 pounds more than she'd thought she was the previous night. Ashley did Thanksgiving that day - she pulled over enough weights from the garage while no one was looking for them to confirm - the scale had been tampered with. 

Claire lay on her bed most of the day, naked and stunned. Naked because she hadn't taken any clothes along with her. She was secretly hoping that Jake and the topology research were wrong, but Jake's exit from the loop seemed to confirm that it got something right. She'd now learned a lot of topology herself and concluded that it was pretty ironclad. There were going to be a lot more loops in her future.