The Joy of Eating

[hamazon]

**This story is just something I started writing one day based on something that really happened to me, though I tried to keep it pretty gender neutral in the second person. This is the first story I've posted on here, so I'd appreciate any feedback.**

You walk through the store, hunting for *the* thing. You don't know what it is yet, you aren't thinking that clearly, but you'll know it when you see it. And then, staring through the clear, frost-rimmed freezer door, you see it: the family-size lasagna. The bright "FAMILY SIZE" makes you squirm a little in the aisle and, as you put it in your cart, you get a small thrill from the thought that the other customers will think this is for a party or a family and not just you.

On the way to the checkout, now that you've found the centerpiece, you notice other things and, as if in an electric haze, you automatically put them into your cart: chips, dip, soda, chocolate, candy, donuts, everything you've been denying yourself for months---everything you've caught yourself daydreaming about. The thought of finally being able to just *eat* tomorrow makes your mouth go dry and your chest tighten. 

12:01 AM. It's finally tomorrow. Immediately, as though an alarm had gone off, you jump up and grab the chips and dip, your heart pounding with excitement. The taste immediately transports you back to childhood happiness and half the bag is gone before you fully realize it. You glance at the clock: 12:07 AM. You feel a now familiar tightening and warm electric tingling throughout your body. The only reason the chips aren't gone is because you don't want the pleasure of eating to end so soon. You stiffly stand, put the food away, and go to sleep...

You wake up earlier than normal, excited for the long-awaited day to resume. You don't normally eat breakfast anymore because of intermittent fasting or some other bullshit, so just having breakfast feels almost extravagantly naughty. You start with the half box of waffles from the back of your freezer and they're gone in less time than they were in the toaster. Since you never eat breakfast, you have no other breakfast-specific foods, so you return to the chips from earlier and minutes later the bag is just crumbs that you tip into your mouth. It's been maybe 10 minutes, you realize as you look at your phone. You're eating faster out of excitement and body's normal safeguards are only slowly starting to alert you that you're full. 

As unwelcome as this news is, it gives you time to cook the lasagna, which takes almost an hour and a half(!) to cook. You see the bright "FAMILY SIZE" label again, and your excitement returns, suffusing your body with an almost manic buzzing energy that only grows the more that you think about it. 

After an eternity, the oven beeps, the lasagna is cooling, and you realize, vaguely shocked, that you're actually hungry again (this from the same person who got full the previous week from two small tacos). You take several servings' worth to start and begin eating, slowly at first because of the molten cheese. Then, only dimly aware of it, you speed up, taking larger bites, not even fully chewing, just trying to get as much food in your mouth as you can before your stomach signals your brain to ruin your fun. The more you eat, the heavier you feel, and the heavier you feel, the more your chest tightens as the tingling begins to take on a hardening insistence.

You stop for a moment to catch your breath, your mouth lightly orange-red from grease. The brief pause is long enough for your body to send its signals, and you suddenly become aware of the tightness in the sides of your stomach as it presses lightly against your shirt. This only makes the thought of having just one more piece that much more enticing...

After a brief nap and the last of the chips, dip, and soda, you realize that you didn't buy enough food. Going online to buy a pizza, your incipient gluttony seems to guide your hand as you add a large pizza, chicken wings, breadsticks, and a 2-liter soda to your cart. You suddenly become aware of your clothes: all of your nerves seem hyper sensitive and the idea of waiting for anything seems interminable. Luckily, you remember you bought donuts...

Thirty-ish minutes later, the doorbell rings. Wiping donut crumbs off your shirt and pants, you hastily rearrange your clothes to hide your obvious excitement to get your food. As soon as the door closes, the urge to eat hits you almost physically. In your excitement, you sit the food partially on your naked lap (when did you have time to take your clothes off?) and time seems to jump: you open the wings box and then there's just a pile of bones and your own sticky fingers, you look over at the pizza and the half-empty box is stained with wing sauce and grease, you go to take a drink and the soda is lighter, only half full; the breadsticks seem to have disappeared.  

At this point, the eating is less frantic, but the *need* is as insistent than ever. You know you can't possibly finish all of this food, but the fun is just in the eating: feeling the greasy, buttery cheese, the slightly sweet and tangy tomato sauce, the texture of the crust as it passes over your tongue. It is all maddeningly arousing.

You realize slowly, as though coming out of a tunnel, your heartbeat thundering in your ears, that Netflix is asking you if you're still watching, but you have no idea what was even on. Done with the pizza for now, you stand to get the last of the donuts and candy, and you feel something you haven't felt in months: the solid heaviness of satiation as everything drops down in your belly. Your belly is pushed out more than it has been in a long, long time, and even the thought of trying to suck it in causes pain to lance through you. It's slightly unpleasant as both you and your body become painfully aware of just how much you've eaten, but there is a warm, wet pleasure with the pain. You know that your next binge is going to come a whole lot sooner... 

[throwaway56342]

Great story/vignette! Very hot!