STUFFED

Too Much

Courtney orders food to her house before she starts driving home from Bradyn's.

She's still stuffed from eating this afternoon but maybe she'll be hungry by the time she gets home.

Courtney parks her car in her driveway and walks up the steps to her front door. There's already three bags of food waiting on the front step for her.

Courtney loops her fingers through all the handles and only needs one trip to carry everything inside.

She was wrong. She isn't hungry when she gets home, but she's also not going to waste all this food.

She grabs a fork and sits down at the kitchen island. She opens the first styrofoam container.

A steaming pile of stir fried rice, ginger beef, fried chicken in sweet & sour sauce stares back at her. She'd usually finish something this size within a few minutes but she can't find it in herself to start eating. A small pang of guilt tells her she shouldn't. She could put it away in the fridge for later... but leftovers don't taste as good after being reheated.

She just needs to start with the first bite to get her going. Courtney shovels up a mound of rice onto her fork and raises it to her mouth.

It tastes extremely good.

The rest is easy after that. Everything is so good that she doesn't even remember she's not hungry.

Once she finishes the first dish Courtney makes her way through a bowl of butter chicken, bread pudding, and a cheese cake.

Courtney leans back in her chair after polishing off the cake, realizing for the first time how stuffed she is.

"Mmmph" she whimpers through closed lips.

She rubs her swollen hips. Or what she can reach of them.

The doorbell rings.

Courtney stumbles off the chair and waddles over to the front door. Looking through the peephole she can see a delivery driver hopping into their car. She waits until they're completely out of sight before swinging the door open.

By default, her first reaction is to bend down and pick the bag up but this makes her wince in pain.

She tries a different tactic and reaches a foot out to see if she can push it through the front door that way. She almost loses her balance but catches herself. Maybe she should get a broomstick.

Courtney closes the front door and walks back down the hallway in search of a broom. She doesn't get too far though because she gets tired and ends up taking a break on the bench in the hallway facing the front door.

She sits down gingerly.

She puts a hand down on either side of her to try and keep her balance. Even though she's sitting down, she feels dizzy.

Courtney closes her eyes and breathes out, slowly leaning her head against the wall.

A chunky burp rises up in her throat and she's not sure if it's air or the butter chicken so she closes her mouth, forcing whatever it is back down her esophagus. It gurgles on the way down and that just makes her stomach more upset.

Courtney makes a silent vow to herself to never over do it again unless she has supervision. This doesn't feel good and she can't take care of herself in this state.

As she focuses on her breathing, Courtney slips in and out of a stupor. She's fighting to stay conscious but the food coma is pulling her deeper into its clutches.

She sits there for who knows how long, slipping in and out of lethargy.

The sound of the doorbell wakes her right up. All of a sudden she no longer feels drowsy at all.