Three days wasn’t much of a vacation. It may have been the holidays, but Tara still had a busy work life ahead of her back in Charleston. That didn’t leave much time for getting to know one another, but it certainly left enough time for plenty of family meals. At least, if Mrs. West had anything to say about it. With two girls to feed, the already overworked woman couldn’t help but kick herself into overdrive. Breakfasts led into lunches, which led to dinners. Sometimes there was only handful of hours that her daughters may lay at rest before she whipped up another caloric onslaught for her baby girls!
Haley had grown accustomed to it, but Tara had been left far behind.
“Okay, like, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, okay?” Tara belched softly into the breadth of her palm, “But if Mom makes me eat anything else today I think I’m gonna barf.”
“Tell me about it.” Haley answered, nonplussed by the excess mass occupying her stomach, “Hey—you be the one to tell her to stop. I’ll wait.”
The lanky blonde was already bottomed out, but her greedy guts of a sister was merely picking her teeth, already looking forward to the treat that was going to be dinner. She knew that her mama was sure to go all out now that Tara was here. The only question is, what could it be? She’d been talking about turkey lately. But she saw her mom wrestling with a honking heft of ham the other day when she came home from the grocery store… had she already eaten that? Had they already had ham? All this food, it was getting so hard to remember…
“Goooood… I’m gonna spew…” Tara cupped her stomach on either side, poking quietly into a cute little rock-solid pot belly, “No wonder you’re so fat.”
“Don’t make me poke you in the belly button.” Haley cut her eyes
“No don’t, for real… the thought alone makes me wanna…” Tara wretched, “Gawd…”
They had managed to survive one of their mother’s many meals together, yes, and it had leant Tara an understanding as to why her little sister was looking like such a porker these days. Just imagine if Tara herself had to deal with such vicious stuffing day in and day out—she’d be a whale by now!
“Like, what’s wrong with her?” Tara continued to whine, “She never used to cook like this when we were kids.”
“Empty nest syndrome? Who the heck knows.” Haley snorted dismissively as her hands came to rest on the chubby belly that splayed out in front of her, “All I know is, her cooking’s a lot better than when we were kids.”
Tara looked at her little sister, with those round cheeks and that double chin. Those gross love-handles and that supple stomach that flopped out over her pants—something had to be done about this. She had enough trouble getting dates now, but with her luck and metabolism, she’d put on ten pounds before she got back to her apartment in just a few days! The food was good, and it really was nice to see Mom again, but there were somethings that she just wouldn’t sacrifice…
She had to look her best for that New Year’s party, and binging on southern home cooking was definitely not the best way to get into her little black dress!
“Look, sis—”
“Don’t call me sis. It’s expositional and clunky.”
“Fine, Haley, do me a solid.”
“Anything for you, sis.”
“Could you… maybe… I don’t know… cover for me?” Tara winced, “I love mom and… I mean, you’re kinda cool sometimes. But if I sit down at the table, she’s going to want me to eat and… this is just too much, y’know.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“What, really?”
“Totally. I’ll lie and tell Mom you’re sick.” Haley rubbed her jelly belly contemplatively, “Like… stomach bug or something. You’re violently, horribly wretching in the bathroom, and food is the last thing that you need.”
“You’re the best.” Tara said with a quick awkward hug as she hobbled to her feet, “Oh, here she comes, I’d better—”
And just like that, one West woman left and another one entered. Mrs. West came bounding into the room looking pleased as punch until she saw that only one of her daughters had remained. A confused, disheartened look spread across her face as she put her hands on her wide birthing hips.
“Haley, where’d Tara go?” she asked, glancing side to side, “I could have sworn that I heard her voice…”
“Oh she’s in her room. Puking up buckets.” Haley answered nonchalantly as she watched TV, “Said she’s not up for dinner, blah blah blah, “y’know, right?” and so on.”
Mrs. West blinked.
“Oh, and that she’s sorry.”
If the thought of having her visiting daughter out of culinary commission bothered her, she only showed it for a moment. She was perturbed momentarily, an annoyed noise escaping from somewhere low in her throat, before she sighed dejectedly.
“Oh well.” She hummed, “I made so much to eat though, I hope she feels up to some leftovers a little later.”
“Not to worry about that, Ma.” Haley licked her lips as she rocked herself to a standing position, cradling her distended gut, “I think that between the two of us, we can knock it out…”
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