The side job

Max

With the toothbrush still in his mouth, Max looked over the light pink flesh of his stomach at the digital numbers on his scale. 276 pounds. He frowned and turned back to the sink. His moobs moved violently while brushing his teeth and washing his armpits with a bar of soap. In the mirror above the sink he examined the scratch on the side of his left breast. He didn't know it was there and had just seen it by chance. It must have happened during his sleep, because he had not worn any outer clothing today and he had not encountered anyone on the way to the bathroom who had scratched him without being noticed. It often happened that he suddenly had a scratch or a small wound, so he didn't pay too much attention to it. He quickly washed the underside of his breasts and stomach, then pulled up his jeans and buttoned them. It wasn't as tight as the last time he wore it. He even had to buy a belt to keep his pants from falling down. Clothes, he didn't care about them at all. He wasn't like the popular boys at school, who always wore the most expensive clothes to impress the girls. He would rather spend what little money he had at the Bacon Factory, a fast food joint a ten-minute walk from his room. He thought for a moment to make sure he hadn't made a mistake. Today he had a day off. Yes, there were no classes today and he had agreed with himself to look for a part-time job. His mother's new boyfriend had been difficult from the start about her contribution to his studies and home. Last week she announced that she would partially stop making that contribution. She would continue to fund his studies, because that was important for his future. He would be responsible for the living space himself from next month. Nice, such a mother. If only she had some more guts, she would go against that friend of hers with his strange comments and ideas. Max hadn't liked him from the start, that flashy Judo teacher. That he will bore his own children. But they have not had contact with him for some time. That will also have its reasons. He could no longer ask his father for help. He had died suddenly of cardiac arrest five years ago. As Max opened the gel jar, there was a loud knock on the door.
"Will it take long?" came a catty female voice.
'You don't live here alone. I have to join too!'
It was Clarissa, he recognized the voice. She was often the one to get up first. Not only because she temporarily had the house including the bathroom to herself, but also because her lessons started early almost every day. She was the type of student who didn't want to miss a single class and would rather be there an hour early than 5 minutes late. She was also the least friendly of his housemates, he thought. Cold and hard and incredibly meddlesome. Before she left the house, she assigned tasks she made up herself and left them on pieces of paper on the kitchen table, even though she herself was always too busy with her studies to help with those tasks. Without contradicting her, Max opened the bathroom door and a thin, young woman with dull brown hair stepped in. She smelled strange as always and her clothes seemed to be from a time long gone. Clarissa was the 'very eco responsible' type, complete with veganism and a hard fight against animal suffering. Max quickly put a dollop of gel in his blond hair and shook it into shape with his hands. Yes, this is fine. He never spent much time on his hair. They never stayed in place the way he wanted them to and now that Clarissa was there he wanted to leave the bathroom as quickly as possible.
"Can you hold that belly for a moment?" she said, looking at his body with a dirty look on her face.
She had never hidden her disappreciation of a fat body and tried to walk behind Max to get her smelly organic perfumes, which were on a rack in the corner. Max, in turn, had no use for a body so thin you could count the ribs through a dress. And he wasn't into women in general.
"I just found out I've lost 20 pounds in the last few weeks," he said, holding his still-present belly over the sink so Clarissa could pass him.
He did not wait for an answer, because no matter how kindly or well he tried to do it, Clarissa always gave a mean answer in return.

It was quiet in the hallway. Did the others also have a day off or did it start late? It was not usual for the 5 housemates to share their schedules with each other. And that wasn't necessary. They were roommates, not friends. Ah, Joseph lay with his muscular body on his bed with headphones on, he saw as he passed through the slightly ajar room door. He was glad not to be alone with Clarissa. Normally he didn't wake up very early either. His lessons started later and he didn't have to attend them all, he thought. Lying in bed is much nicer, but the tension of looking for a part-time job had woken him up early this morning. He had a room to himself, which had been his only requirement when he started looking for a place to stay while studying just over two years ago. It was a small room with only a bed, a desk and a wardrobe, but that was all he needed. Max was not a cleaner. There were more clothes on his bed and on the floor than in the closet. His trash can was overflowing with empty bags of chips and packages of cookies and cake, but he wasn't interested in that. If it got too messy, he would clean up after himself. That didn't have to happen every day. He opened his laptop and hesitated for a moment about putting on a shirt. It was hot and no one saw him behind the laptop, so he left the shirt off and immediately started looking for work.