The West house was a rather modest looking one. It was a three-bedroom, two bath, and was one of the many additions during the degentrification of the Boiling Springs area. Courtney had never actually driven there, and picking it out from the many other cookie-cutter homes proved to be somewhat challenging. She stood there, in the doorway, rang the bell, and pulled the hem of her shirt down over her bulging belly. It must have rolled up on the drive over…
“Hello Courtney, are you looking for Haley?” Mrs. West cooed as she stuck her head through the doorway, “She told me you might be coming by.”
Like her daughter, Mrs. West wasn’t the tallest woman. She had brown hair, though it was a bit more faded than her Haley’s, and held that same sense of benevolence about her. She was dressed very casually, in a loose Clemson sweatshirt and a pair of dark mom jeans. Her long brown hair was pulled up in a messy pony. Like Haley, she wore her weight well. She was a rather full-figured woman, but unlike Haley, she developed a full motherly set of breasts and wide birthing hips as opposed to her daughter’s spoiled gut.
“Hi Mrs. West!” the bespectacled chubster said with an awkward smile, “Yeah, I’ve got some homework for her from the past few days.”
The last time Courtney had walked through the threshold of the West family home, she’d left with a packed paunch and one less button on her pants. She’d wisely worn sweats to this little outing, and definitely not because they were the only things in her closet that fit her anymore.
“Oh sure, she’s up in her room.” Haley’s mom stepped aside and allowed the curvaceous cutie room to get inside, “I don’t know if she’s told you, but she’s not exactly feeling well…”
Courtney could smell the kitchen from the living room, and she could tell by the myriad aromas and scents that Mrs. West wasn’t taking her daughter laying down… laying down. She’d obviously taken a step up with her treatment of her doughy daughter—something that Courtney was admittedly a little concerned about. It had been a week since Courtney had last seen her friend, and she could only imagine the treatment that she’d been getting since she’d come down with the flu.
“Her room is right up the hall, the last door on the right.” Mrs. West said sweetly, “Make sure you knock, just in case she’s asleep!”
Down the hall and to the right later, Courtney Caldwell tapped lightly on the door.
“Mama?” Haley’s voice came from inside, sounding no worse for wear, “Is that the pancakes? Are my pancakes done?”
“What? No, it’s Courtney.” The plump brunette furrowed her brow, “Can I come in?”
There was a long pause as Haley’s tone corrected itself.
“C-Come in…” she said weakly from the other side.
As Courtney opened the door, she couldn’t help but feel that something was amiss. Plates, cups, and silverware were piled high next to Haley’s bed. Beneath the cocoon of her soft gray blanket, Courtney could see a mountainous gut rolling high into the air.
“Hey Courtney…” Haley managed in her most pathetic voice, “What’s up?”
“Not much.” Her friend answered flatly, “Just… wondering why you haven’t been to class for a week.”
Haley’s bright blue eyes widened in what was surely an attempt to look even more pitiful. She coughed sadly.
“I’m sick.” She whimpered, “Stomach bug.”
“Uh-huh.” Courtney folded her plush arms, “Is that why you’ve got your mom cooking you chocolate chip pancakes?”
“…are they ready?” Haley arched her neck ever so slightly to look past her friend in the doorway.
“Haley!” Courtney stomped her foot, “You’re not sick at all!”
“Shh!” Haley whispered, disrobing her blanket and exposing a big round gut, full of food and sloshing with fat, “Keep it down, Court! You don’t want my mom to find out, do you?!”
“I don’t know, Haley!” Courtney said in an intentionally loud tone, “Would that mean she’d stop feeding your fever and you’d have to come back to school so you could take your finals?!”
“SHHH!” Haley toddled to a standing position, “Alright, alright, just… just keep it down!”
And that was when Haley explained her recent string of absences. It wasn’t just her MWF classes that she had missed either, she’d missed both of her TR classes! Haley told Courtney about meeting up with Mackenzie and her recently recapitalized fears of not being good enough for college. And then a side note about how her mother had really enjoyed having her home, so it made the guilt a bit more bearable to see her so happy…
“So lemme get this straight—you decided that you were going to play hooky for a week so you could lay around and get waited on hand and foot by your mom?” Courtney raised one of her thick brown eyebrows, “Haley, come on. You could have seriously hurt your chances of passing all your classes—what are you gonna do if you fail your finals and lose your scholarships because you decided to take a week off?”
“I know, I know…” Haley whimpered, her double chin creasing, “I just… I’m worried, okay? Mackenzie was way smarter than I was and she dropped out around this time, and—”
“Didn’t Mackenzie get pregnant?” Courtney cut in
“Y-Yeah…”
“Then she obviously wasn’t that smart.” Courtney put her hand on Haley’s shoulder, “Look, if you’re worried, I get it. But you can’t just… run away from your problems, okay? Let me help you out.”
“Okay… no more hooky.” Haley smiled gently, “Do you… want to stay for dinner?”
“What?” Courtney grimaced, suddenly green around the gills, “No, I—”
”Girls!” came a familiar voice from deeper inside the house,” I hope you’ve still got your appetites!”
And it became clear as Mrs. West entered the bedroom with enough food to feed four girls, that the decision had been taken entirely out of Courtney’s hands.
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