Toni's story - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The rest of the fall passes quickly for Toni, even though he was feeling quite down. Riku had no longer contacted him and they were never working at the same time anymore. Toni guessed that Riku had asked Helena to move them to different sifts. Initially Toni was very sad about losing his best friend and due to that he had eaten heaps of food in hope of feeling better. No matter how much food he ate could help him to get over the situation, though.

Due to his even bigger food consumption, Toni gained even more weight during the fall. When he finally, reluctantly visited the scales in mid-October, he was shocked to see that he now weighed 128kgs (282 lbs). He had never met anybody who would have weighed that much, at least according to his own, subjective estimations. He had known that he had gained weight even before stepping on the scales, though. He had noticed changes in the mirror and his clothes. He now needed size 42/32 jeans, which were incredibly hard to find in shops, and XXXL shirts. He had noticed his face getting even chubbier and he now had a very prominent double chin.  His massive belly covered his belts when he was standing and sat on his lap when he was sitting. His love handles were too big to hide under any shirts. On one hand he was pleased with his gains but on the other hand he loathed himself for losing control on his eating. Gaining weight and eating wasn’t all that fun alone. It was a lesson that had cost him one friend to learn.

As Toni had to start to prepare himself for the Finals that he’d have in March, he slowly accepted the facts. Riku no longer wanted to be around him and he would be going to the army, no matter how painful it would be. It also helped him that Aleksi opened up to him. Aleksi had been very apologetic about his behavior and Toni learned that he had been using steroids to help him with muscle growth. Aleksi had told him that he had hated his new angry personality and that testing the illegal pills was the worst decision he had ever made. Toni soon found out that Aleksi was again the same person as he used to be, and due to that they started to hang out together again. It annoyed Toni a bit, though, that Aleksi seemed to think that the reason for Toni’s weight gain was the fact that Aleksi was not friendly to him. But that’s how Aleksi had always been: self-centered. He could notice that Aleksi tried to help him lose weight, and soon he found out that he was being more active physically than he had been ever since he had met Riku at the clothing store. He also noticed that hanging out with Aleksi gave him less time to eat, since Aleksi seemed avoid meeting in any places that offered food, and thus he ate less than before. As Riku still lived in the same apartment building with him, he saw Riku occasionally, and noticed that he hadn’t either gained or lost weight.

Due to his increased activity and more healthy eating habits, Toni noticed that he started to lose weight. He wasn’t very happy about the change, though, since it seemed to drive him even further from the good times that he had had with Riku. During the winter he saw the number on the scales go down to 120kgs (265 lbs), then to 110kgs and finally in February down to 100kgs (220 lbs). At that point he started to be way too busy with studies to hang out with Aleksi, so his weight plateaued at 100kgs and even went up by a few kilograms. He was a bit self-conscious about it, since it didn’t happen to anybody else that he saw during the month of holidays that were meant for studying. Secretly he was happy about it, though. He still liked playing with his belly and he had now found out that watching at other people’s bellies on the internet was one of his favorite activities these days. He noticed that it didn’t quite give him the same pleasure as rubbing bellies with Riku did, which alarmed him a bit. He wasn’t sure what to think about his interest in bellies, but as he couldn’t help himself, he kept lurking at the pictures enthusiastically.

After Toni was done with the finals, he found out that he was back at 110kgs (243lbs). The weight stuck to him so that even though he started the physical activities with Aleksi again, he wouldn’t lose any weight. He could see it puzzling Aleksi a bit, but at that point he didn’t care. Toni noticed that he started getting less and less comfortable when he was hanging out with Aleksi. The two of them simply were so different that they no longer had much to talk about now that the finals were over. As they started seeing each other less, Toni started to realize the things that were important to him. He realized that he wanted to spend time with Riku and that it wouldn’t happen unless he made certain confessions to him. The problem was, though, that he didn’t know what Riku was thinking about it. Toni knew that he couldn’t find that out unless he talked with Riku and he wanted to do that before changing to the army’s green uniform in July.

Catching Riku wasn’t all that easy, though. Riku didn’t answer to his calls and he never saw Riku in the corridor either. Toni made up a plan that he’d wait on Riku’s front door as long as it would take until he’d finally get to talk to Riku. He executed his plan in April on a Saturday. He had asked Helena when Riku would be working, so he knew when he would come home. Still, Toni had to wait for an hour when he finally saw Riku.  Riku had not changed at all. He was still just as fat as he had been when he had ended his friendship with Toni. Toni noticed this because Riku was, by chance, wearing the same clothes as when he had rushed away from Toni’s apartment in September. Riku tried to ignore Toni. When Riku started to grab his keys from his pocket, Toni finally spoke to him.

“Oh, come on. We need to talk!”

“Weren’t you spending time with me only to avoid army?” Riku asked angrily, trying to find the right key.

“You know that it’s not true,” Toni said.

“What do you want then?”

“Perhaps we should go to a bit more… private place?” Toni suggested.

“Oh, whatever,” Riku said and opened the door of his apartment.

Toni had actually never been in Riku’s apartment. Riku had always brought stuff, such as food or his PlayStation to Toni’s apartment. Toni noticed a few things at once: Riku’s apartment was much bigger than his and he had stylish furniture. Riku had a bedroom, living room and an office. The apartment was furnished like it would have been designed by professionals. Toni couldn’t help but wonder how Riku could afford all this with a student’s budget.

“Do you live here alone?” he asked.

“Yes. But what was it that you wanted to say?”

Toni went quiet for a moment. Riku’s mean behavior was new and very discouraging for him. “Well, I have been missing the great times we had last summer a lot and I am sad that we haven’t contacted each other in a long time. I wish that we could be friends again,” he said. As Riku remained silent, Toni added: “I have figured out things that are important to me in life. For one reason or another, you are one of them. You can’t even imagine how depressed I was when you stopped contacting me! You know that I will be going to the army in a matter of months and I’d like to get things right between us before that.”

As Riku still remained silent, staring at Toni with a blank expression, Toni figured that his speech hadn’t worked. He turned to leave and uttered a goodbye.

“Wait,” Riku said silently. Toni stopped. “It is not like I haven’t missed your company. I would have loved to continue meeting you every day like we did last summer. It is just that I felt that you used me. When you said that you were exercising, I thought that you hadn’t enjoyed eating with me and the growth that happened to both of us,” Riku continued putting a hand on his belly.

“Oh, no! I enjoyed it more than you could imagine,” Toni said and stopped to think. Why had he really tried to lose the weight he had gained? After all he had enjoyed gaining weight and the feelings that he got from outgrowing clothes and seeing the bigger and bigger figures on scales. It had made him feel naughty in a good way. The best thing of gaining weight was the belly rub sessions with Riku, though, without a doubt.

“I think I can imagine. Would you like to eat dinner with me?” Riku asked and smiled. Toni agreed and smiled back.

The dinner that Riku prepared  was by no means small. It consisted of two pizzas, a huge bowl of spaghetti Bolognese, six burgers, a cheesecake and a huge pile of brownies. When Toni saw the food, he thought that they could never finish it all. He found that his old appetite was back, so he got through his pizza and his share of the spaghetti in about fifteen minutes. After that he was so full that he thought to stop eating.  Riku had eaten even more than Toni had, as he was now munching through his last burger.

“Has your appetite gotten that small? Back in August you could have eaten all this in no time. Come on, you’re going to have to eat half of the food now that I prepared it.”

Toni knew that Riku was wrong. He had never eaten that much in his life. Still, since he thought that it would be rude to decline, he started eating his burgers. He managed to eat two but then he hit the wall again. His belt and jeans were painfully tight so he undid both of them.  After that he found out that he could eat more, so he got through his last burger only to notice that Riku was done with the cheesecake and brownies as well. He saw that Riku had undone the buttons of his shirt and that his belly was very bloated; seeming almost twice as big as before they started eating. Riku rose from his chair, which seemed to require quite an effort, and waddled to Toni. He started to rub Toni’s gut gently after lifting up Toni’s shirt. Toni soon found out that he could eat more and so he could eat the half of the cheesecake and his share of brownies.

Toni was full. Fuller than ever.  Riku started rubbing his belly again and after some minutes Toni tried to get up to the sofa - with little success. Eventually he was able to waddle to Riku’s sofa, which required tremendous effort from him as he felt that his belly was trying to pull him to the floor like he had swallowed a big stone. Once he got to the sofa, Riku followed him and sat next to him taking off his shirt and pressing his full belly on Toni’s belly. The two of them sat there for a while enjoying of the closeness.

“I’ve missed this so much,” Toni said silently.

“Me too,” Riku said.

“Do you realize that I can’t go on like this until I’m done with the army, though? It will be hell for me if I get any bigger.”

“Don’t worry about that. Surely they send you back home when they see how fat you’ve become,” Riku answered with a silly smirk on his face.

The thought got Toni excited. He had totally ignored the possibility that he might be freed of the military service due to being too fat even after he’d get there. He at least hoped that it was possible. Now that he was friends with Riku again, he would surely just let himself go. After all nothing gave him the same pleasure as stuffing himself to the maximum and then rubbing Riku’s belly and having Riku rub his after that.