Belly Literary Universe (part 2)

Kelri and Veera Part 2: Mutuality

Veera unlocked her door and stepped aside to allow Kelri entry. "Please make yourself comfortable." She said gesturing in an arc like a TV hostess.

Kelri looked at the dark slate tile and black enameled metal furniture and scoffed. "I have a coworker who'd like this style. I would have guessed you'd decorate your apartment a lot more flashy."

Veera shut and locked the door. "Noo. I didn't pick the furniture. I just selected a style they had already. I spend so much time away from home that it's easier to just get a room for a few months. Flashy works on stage, but I prefer something at least a little simpler when I'm lounging around."

Kelri trod into the living room, and sat down on a comfy, if somewhat angular, red couch. "So," Kelri said as she positioned her sloshing stomach up on her lap. "Bellies. That's a thing we both have some kind of appreciation for."

Veera circled around, unsubtly staring the whole time. She collapsed onto the other end of the couch and crossed one leg under the other. A dark shade of red washed over her dark skin. "Yep. Uhh - so how do you know SA?" She deflected.

"The Secret Advisor?"

"Yeah! I've known him for years. I first started talking to him like five or maybe six years ago? It was when I was still in Highschool. Since before I was famous. Met him in a chat room. How do you know him though?"

"To be honest, I don't know how much he wants to say. He didn't tell me to avoid any topics, but - it's complicated. All of it. Our relationship. Who he is."

Veera pointed at Kelri's belly. "Clearly he knows something about us both."

Kelri laughed and gave her stomach a proud pat. "He's the reason I have this."

"Really!?" Veera leaned forward with her mouth hanging open. "Why? How? Come on, you have to tell me all about it!"

Kelri leaned away and smiled, surprised by her enthusiasm. "I guess this is why he wanted us to talk. Uhh where do I even start? I uhh - I'm not that interesting a person. I don't have much in the way of hobbies. Nothing that makes me different than the average person. But for years the one unusual thing I did was eating contests. Every month for a few years."

"So were you always... You know..."

"Fat?" Kelri laughed.

"Yeah. that." Veera's face went red again.

"Nooo." Kelri pulled out her phone and showed Veera the last skinny picture of herself she had.

"Wow. Like, when was that?"

"September of last year? I put on - not exaggerating - over 200 pounds since September."

Veera looked back and forth between Kelri and her picture. "Holy crap. You got. so. Big." She said with praise in her voice. "What changed?"

"The Secret Advisor popped up. That's what. One day he emails me and tells me he can make me win the eating contests. I don't know why I trusted him. But I did. That's a skill of his. He had me go to a doctor's office. And I got some experimental medical treatment. It made my stomach huge. It was already stretched to its limits because of eating contest prep, but this treatment made it so much bigger. And so I won that contest. And then I couldn't stop eating. That's the short story."

"Wow. I bet like, it must have been easy to put on all that weight. If you can eat more, then that's just more calories."

"Well, yeah. But I didn't want this. I couldn't stop eating. I was too hungry. I was used to the hunger of a stomach half its size. I couldn't handle it."