Ronnie crouched in the living room, her towering frame swelling in the room. She was gentle with the walls, but there was nothing she could do about the floor so all she could do was hope that it didn’t give out. She was kneeling down, trying to spread her weight out.
 
 
David looked down at the coffee table, his glasses falling to the edge of his nose as he ignored Ronnie the best he could, organizing his work to catch the light that was cascading around her. Despite his 5-6 times size difference, he was used to this scenario; Ronnie inviting herself over to his house, David entertaining her with answers to her questions for a few minutes before refocusing on his work, Ronnie eventually giving up and heading home to repeat the process at a different point of time.
 
 
“Sooooo, what are you writing about?” Ronnie asked, easily able to read his paper but wanting to talk to her friend.
 
 
“Just a paper for school.”
 
 
There was another pause, Ronnie shifting again and causing the house to creak. It was happening again, David was shutting down into work mode again. It happened every time she came over, Ronnie didn’t know what changed in the last 4 years. He used to be happy to hang out with her, even supporting her choice to grow and walking with her through the process.
 
 
But then school started and despite her own returning help, David seemed to spend less and less time with her, using a multitude of reasons to justify why he kept avoiding her. Ronnie had to go out of her way to get to see her childhood friend again, forced to sit outside at moments and talk through the window at him.
 
 
Ronnie reached for one of the papers, swishing it around to read it. It was very well written, David had a talent for being able to form his words as if taken directly from his mind without any need for correction, which is why he preferred the old paper method to a computer. Said that the ability to erase and backspace work interrupted the flow and made him think about his word choices less.
 
 
“Is this for a class? You are really diving in on Greek History, how many pages is this?”
 
 
“Yep. 23 so far.”
 
 
“That’s a lot to cover.”
 
 
“Yep.”
 
 
“...”
 
 
“...”
\
“Hey, want to see something cool?” Ronnie asked, sitting back and actually bending the wall behind her. Ronnie winced as David looked up, a disappointed look on his face. Unlike many of the other women that went through the growing process, Ronnie had bulked up during the process, layers of comfortable fat covering her frame. Her parents said that it made her as soft on the outside as they knew she was on the inside, but she could feel the looks that people directed at her.
 
 
“...Fine.” David put down the pen and leaned back on his couch, crossing his arms to look up at her. “But I really have to get this done tonight.”
 
 
“Don’t worry!” Ronnie said, showing her hands in a surrender pose. “It’s just something quick, something I figured out I could do in the last few days. Here, let me lean down.”
 
 
Ronnie adjusted her legs so that she was kneeling, allowing herself to lean forward and rest her breasts on the coffee table, which creaked under the weight of them alone. With David right in front of her face, Ronnie opened her mouth, taking a deep breath before flexing her throat and straightening her neck.
 
 
David was able to look straight down her throat, seeing a long and flexing tunnel leading into darkness. He had heard of people being able to open their throats directly into their stomachs, but it was such a trivial and useless thing that he didn’t think it was worth noting. Deciding that humoring Ronnie would mean that she kept bugging him, David sighed loudly and looked away, picking up his phone from the couch.
 
 
“That’s pretty cool, Ronnie, but I really have to get back to work. I want this done be tonight-”
 
 
David was cut off, feeling Ronnie’s powerful hands grip him by the chest, pinning his arms to his side. Looking back up, David’s sight was blinded by red as a tongue pressed into his face, hooking under his chin and pulling him deeper. The tunnel that he had casually glanced into was suddenly filling his sight, pulling him deeper and stretching his spine.
 
 
Ronnie shifted her hands and pushed, feeling her throat stretch out as more of David’s body went in. This was the largest thing she gulped, she had practiced with watermelons and a number of other things for this exact moment and it felt just as glorious as she imagined. Ronnie plucked off David’s shoes, swallowing for the last time to completely trap David inside of her.
 
 
“Sorry David, I don’t want you to burn out. I talked to your professor to ask for an extension, but apparently you jumped the gun for hard working; the due date for your pretty essay isn’t until the new year.” Ronnie twisted and began to crawl, exiting the house and allowing herself to stand tall and stretch. “So, I’m ordering you to go on a stay-cation and loosen up.”
 
 
Ronnie felt her IPad buzz and, picking it out of her pocket like a phone, saw that there was a face-time request from David. Swiping to answer, she saw the glow of the phone bouncing off of David’s face, illuminating the wrinkled walls of the stomach. Ronnie never saw the inside of her stomach before, but it looked just the same as everyone else's, nothing indicating her size or the fact that a fully grown human was filling it out.
 
 
“What the hell, Ronnie?!”
 
 
“Were you able to hear me?”
 
 
“No! Your stomach is so loud I feel like I’m going deaf, let me out!”
 
 
“You’ll get used to it. You’re going to be spending a lot of time in there, after all, in order to get all of the rest you have been ignoring.” Ronnie patted her stomach, her layer of fat completely hiding David’s form.
 
 
“Ronnie, let me out.”
 
 
“Nope. I showed you a neat trick, this is just the finale.” Ronnie paused, waiting for the crosswalk to change. “I’ll make sure to send a cord down so that you can charge your phone. I…I still want to talk to you. You haven’t given me the time to actually talk to you at all since you started school.”
 
 
“You know how important school is for me! I want to be a…” David trailed off, seeing Ronnie’s face reveal her true emotions. He had never felt good for her, especially after she confessed her feelings for him in the 10th grade. David was sidelined by it, reacting poorly by shutting down emotionally and turning his attention to his work.
 
 
He didn’t realize how much Ronnie was hurting, it was kind of ironic that he was only realizing this after Ronnie ate him and trapped him within her. David looked at his screen, Ronnie passing by signs and trees, glancing down at her IPad to see David’s reaction. David sighed.
 
 
“I’m sorry for my indifference, Ronnie. And specifically, I am sorry for pushing you away.” David thought for a moment. “Did you ever apply to that vet clinic like you said before?”
 
 
Ronnie laughed. “David, that was 3 years ago, I didn’t even start my growth cycle yet!”
 
 
“Well? Did you get the job?” David asked, grinning.
 
 
Ronnie rolled her eyes, making sure to jostle David with a hip wiggle. “No, I didn’t get the job. I was working at Buster’s Pizza Joint up until I started my growth cycle. After that, I wasn’t able to hold down a job.”
 
 
“Wait, you’re jobless?”
 
 
“I have an interview in a few days, apparently my cycle is nearing completion and I’ll stop growing.”
 
 
“How have you lived all these years?”
 
 
Ronnie shrugged. “Mostly just bouncing from place to place, wherever I can crash. Doing odd jobs to earn meals. The cycle wasn’t kind to me, as you can see.” Ronnie grabbed a part of her flab and jiggled it, pushing her IPad out to show it.
 
 
“You are beautiful just the way you are, Ron,” David said, using the name he used back in the day. “If you need a place to crash, I guess I’m not using my bed tonight.”
 
 
“David-”
 
 
“Really. It’s the least I could do.”
 
 
“Thank you, David.”
 
 
Ronnie continued walking, chatting to David as she did that. She had a few hours until their devices needed to be charged and she wanted to spend it with her friend.