What’s Best for Bethany Pt. 2

It took a bit of strategic planning, followed by a bit of managing & maneuvering after that.

But now? After a few hours, Bethany had a roof over her head once again. At the very least. Good timing, with the sun was starting to set, slipping in just before the neighbors all came home from work & things started to get just a little too chilly with the crisp autumn air.

“Today was just so… emb- embarrassing,” the round redhead whined from swollen features. She let her hands & chin droop into her puffy, almost spherical body. It was partially out of a sense of relief, partially because she wanted to be invisible. To hide, as impossible a feat as that could possibly be for someone her size.

Rolling would have made more sense. The most sense actually. While her body was pretty heavy, it would’ve been the most practical means of transporting her, AND it would’ve taken a lot less time.

But of course, when the prospect of being rolled was initially brought up, a proud Bethany begged & pleaded against it. Instead, she desperately opted to ‘stay on her feet.’ She insisted that she just 'needed a little help walking. And given the fact she was already something of a wreck, already in tears? Evan caved, per usual.

The problem was, at her current size, her feet no longer touched the ground. So for Bethany, ‘walking’ constituted scooting back & forth along what was essentially the seat of her seriously overstretched dark leggings. Short sweeping motions. Side to side, inch by inch in an approximation of a walking motion without an actual step ever be taken. And now that the young couple had finally reached home, her fiancé Evan could at last breathe a sigh of relief as he propped her upright in the center of the empty bay.

To make enough room, their SUV have to sit out along the curb. But Evan was too bushed to go back to her office to get it anyhow. Still, without an automobile there, hogging up its usual space, their garage was the only part of the townhouse that made sense for someone of Bethany’s… current carriage. In fact she almost took up the same amount of room. Even if the floor was cold, hard concrete. Their rental being so new, it was all relatively clean at the very least. Which was a godsend. Because it was really starting to look like this was where Bethany was going to have to live for the time being. After all, There was no shot of her squeezing in through any of the normal doors. Not any more. Not at her size now.

Bethany had always struggled with her weight. But never anything like this. Between athletics back in school & poor coping mechanisms when it came to dealing with stress, her size always seemed to fluctuate like crazy. But between thicc to maybe sort of chunky.

She was pretty chubby when her & Evan first met, back in college. And while her body wasn’t something she was ever quite comfortable with, if you were to ask Evan, her broader, sturdy figure was partially what first captured his attention. That & her flowing red locks, & that little snaggletoothed grin of hers. Evan liked a curvier figure. He liked a convex tummy. Even as Bethany continued to yo-yo, even skirt with the realm of full-on fatness at times, he never seemed to mind. If anything, there were times where he’d tempt her into overindulging. For him.

Upon their engagement though, that seemed to stop. Bethany announced that she would be going on a very strict diet. That she did not want to be a ‘fat bride,’ ‘squeezed into her wedding gown like some kind of sausage.’ It stemmed from something about a certain picture of her sister from her wedding that seemed to set this all very firmly in her mind. Evan, a little disappointed, still remained supportive of her decision. Even if he did secretly, selfishly, harbor hope that all those months of discipline would eventually result in a strong rebound the other direction. Which was ironic to think about now.

Through months of diligence & hard work, Bethany was true to her word.

It was tough, but by early May, she managed to slim down to a size smaller than she'd been at any point over her college years. Moreover, she maintained it proudly, confidently all throughout bathing suit season, with several trips to Evan’s family’s beach house. And Evan, supportive as ever, took solace & happiness from the fact that she was happy with herself. Even if the thought of a bigger Bethany did itch at him every so often in the back of his mind.

And then Pumpkin Spice season came around…

“How did you even manage- rolling on out of here this morning?” Evan hit the button for the automatic garage door, catching his breath in the process. His tone was cold, frustrated, but mostly exhausted. Talk about a workout, helping to sway Bethany’s heavy frame back & forth, took more out of him than he thought. The way she wanted to be rocked back & forth, the whole way home had just about left him as broken as when they first moved into this townhouse. He stretched & tried arching his sore back, rolling his shoulders. It was the type of exertion that would’ve been way sweatier if there already wasn’t a chill in the air. In the span of a month & a half it was as if Evan’s fiancée had become a Sisyphean boulder.

“It- wasn’t- wasn’t easy.” Was all Bethany murmured, before becoming even more red in the face. This time out of a bit more humility than her own exhaustion. Still her response answered nothing. If anything it begged the question why even go in at all? Her bosses had made going in optional. But Evan was just too damn tired to press further. Before settling, he just wanted to make sure she was comfortable, maybe get her a little something to eat. Then it'd finally be time to go sit down. “They were- double doors, Ev. Double!” A look of abject horror settled somewhere between Bethany’s features & her overall puffiness, as she referred to the building she worked. And the glass entrance from which her globular body had to be extricated. In fact, she was still tender & red, the parts of her sides where the doors pinched into her, trapping her for a few hours. The whole thing had to be dismantled around her, pane by pane.

“Yeah well- I’ve been telling you- what’s ever is going on with you & your coffee problem-“ Evan started to sigh to his blimped-up bride-to-be. He was hoping to avoid bickering, as tired as he was. But they had already discussed how she had been doing this to herself. Though on some level, he did sort of blame himself. He should’ve intervened much, much sooner. But he himself, got just a little too greedy.

“It’s… I- I don’t have a problem!” Bethany continued to insist, even while she herself knew just how woefully untrue it was. Her face was locked in sort of a pitiful, puffy pout.

It was just a few weeks ago. Bethany, essentially at her thinnest ever, came home from work, completely unable to shut the fuck up about this coffee someone in the office had grabbed for everyone. With pumpkin spice. 

Evan chided her sudden, caffeinated burst of enthusiasm, saying she was essentially just the meme. A white girl obsessed with pumpkin spice for fall. Bethany doubled down, joking that she was ready to bask in what she called her ‘basic bitch era,’ vowing to drink as much as she could this fall. Evan scoffed, not giving it another thought beyond that at the time.

But then, going into September, Evan first started to get sick of hearing about it. Bethany was always droning on & on endlessly, obsessing over how much she loved her new lattes. He started to question why she was coming home with cups to drink with her dinner. They were going to keep her up all night. But the answers were weird, nonsensical. Excuses like she had to stay up late to work on 'reports.' But he'd wake up in the middle of the night only to find her online shopping, seeing if she could score off brand ground bags of the stuff for home, along with all the accoutrements.

Initially, he was worried. He started to become concerned with what seemed to be a developing, unhealthy addiction. He saw the money she was spending on all this 'Pumpkin Spice.'' She was treating it like a drug, & it was cutting into their savings. He noticed how very little sleep she was getting. The sleepless nights, only to leave before dawn that next day, when the coffee place first opened. He wanted to confront her about it…

At least until he started to notice Bethany’s business casual wear suddenly becoming just a little tight.

Snug at first. No biggie. But after leaving one day in one of her old 'fat' button downs, he noticed her coming home with straining buttons by the end of a business day. It seemed like all those lattes were starting to thicken up his fiancée back up. And, even better, as long as she kept having more of that junk to drink, the less she seemed to mind how tight everything was starting to get on her. In fact, she barely seemed to even notice at all. And while he might've been sick to death of hearing about how much she loved 'pumpkin spice,' Evan bit his tongue, thinking he had inadvertently stumbled onto a cheat code to a thicker, happier fiancée.

After two weeks, Bethany had already developed something of a round potbelly. It was coupled with wider hips & bustier chest. She was closer to the weight she sported when they first met. And sure, admittedly? Evan might’ve started to get a little handsy around this point. Even if he was a little guilty that he let it happen & now she'd probably grown a little too fat for her very expensive wedding dress.

Then again, it wasn't like he was buying the lattes for her. This was all her doing. He was just kind of a backseat enabler. Even if he did have to sit through her talking about how much she couldn’t wait to have her next cup. As a coping mechanism, he’d just try & think about how just a little bit thicker that next cup could potentially make her.

By the following weekend, Bethany had grown plumper than she had ever been. He worried this might be the moment it started to dawn on her that maybe she was a little out of control. After all, she was starting to get just a little too large for some of the stretchiest & roomiest items in her wardrobe. But Bethany didn't seem to care in the slightest, even if trying to squeeze into things had become an ordeal. Usually, getting dressed came before getting more coffee, & her thoughts seemed to be more focused on the coffee.

And while there was something of an unusual teardrop-shaped roundness to her new frame, Evan loved it. He even started to surprise her with a few extra cups on Sunday morning. Sure, maybe it took things a little beyond 'enabling' but the way he saw it, she was going to get them anyway. He was just saving her time. And those cups were happily accepted & greedily downed in about a minute flat. It was like the good old days, before all this wedding talk. Back where he’d try & pamper her. Let her overindulge.

And sure, maybe deep down, a small part of him did feel a little guilty that he had found something of an exploit. Bethany had genuinely wanted to be a slim bride before all this. And it wasn’t like he was going to keep pouring this junk down her throat if she suddenly wanted to stop.

But Bethany only seemed to beg for more.

And more.

Maybe in a way that didn’t seem all that characteristic to her.

And as a result, she continued to keep unwittingly growing bigger, & rounder.

Quickly.

Perhaps maybe even a little too quickly.

That’s not to say Evan wasn’t attracted. Strangely, he was loving every second of this process. His bride-to-be’s body pushing out in every direction. He encouraged it with a bit of reckless abandon. Which was how she was kind of consuming the lattes anyhow. Even if she was starting to take up the whole bed by herself. Or how she was getting too big to bend in certain ways. Or how he’d have to help her here & there. He loved the roundness. And Bethany didn't seem to mind it, so long as there was more to coffee to be had.

But then again, it was getting harder & harder for Bethany to actually do anything on her own. Or fit just about anywhere. The way she'd clumsily waddle into things? Or the little shoves she started to need to make it through certain doorways? They acted as reminders to Evan that maybe this was starting to become a problem. That maybe he should say something.

The thing that really started to sway him was how Bethany was acting now. The personality Evan loved seemed to take a back seat to her incessant thirst, & always, desperately wanting more. If Bethany wasn’t drinking a pumpkin spice latte, she’d instead, probably be begging for another latte. It was the only thing that was ever on her mind.

Evan tried to sneak a few concerns in there. Talk about how much money she was blowing. It was a lot after all. Or how he couldn't always be there to help her, even if he did love Bethany's big, round body. But Bethany never seemed to pay attention. Or care. He started to realize when the hints weren't working? That he perhaps was just a little too late that maybe he should say something. That maybe he should stop enabling this. That maybe it was time to get her to admit she had a problem.

A few days ago, when he came home to a mess of empty coffee cups & Bethany's feet suddenly no longer touching the floor he decided it was time to stage an intervention.

"I'm an adult!" was one of the things Bethany feebly tried to argue. "Let me do what I want!" These were coupled with the classic chestnuts like "I DO NOT have a problem," & "I can quit any time I want! I just... don't want to." Evan was ultimately unsuccessful, but secretly banked on her gradual loss of mobility inevitably sorting the problem out on its own.

But it didn't.

And Bethany continued to grow for two more days, slowly pushing out just as wide as she was tall.

Then wider.

“You know I’ll love you no matter what. Even if you get twice this size.” Evan insisted, trying to hold Bethany’s hand. An awkward undertaking, given how far away it was from her head now. Even her fingers were thick & turgid, hardly able to bend. “But I just- what that coffee’s doing to you… I mean, for one, it’s all you ever think about any more! And- and- just look at all the money you’ve blown on it!” He remembered, strengthening both his argument & resolve. “That was supposed to be for the wedding!”

“I- know-“ a mousy Bethany lamented, sounding as if she was finally starting to see the light. “You’re- you’re right. You're absolutely right.” She exhaled. “We should talk about this…” her voice trailing. “… after just... one more cup. One more will help me get my head straight. After today…”

“What?” Evan asked, looking at her with astonishment. “No! I’m not getting you one.”

“Please!!” There was a sudden urgency to Bethany’s plea. "They close in ten minutes!!" As tired & helpless as the redhead was, there was a fire in her eyes, charged by her compulsion for more pumpkin spice.

“I’m… I’m not doing that.” A bewildered Evan scoffed. “It’s like you care about that swill more than you care about me.” Bethany’s wild eyes all but affirmed it even if she herself kept quiet. “Not another cup. Can’t you recognize what that shit is doing to you?”

“So you DO think I’m too fat…? YOU?!” Bethany sneered. “I thought you liked me big!” For how nonchalant she seemed letting herself get this size, there was something weirdly calculated about her suddenly trying to acknowledge it. And to do it in this way.

“I do! Very much!” Evan insisted. “It’s just that… something seems… not right about this… Before ANYTHING ELSE? I think we need to get you some help-” He started to pull up something on his phone. “I even found this therapist. They even kind of specialize in this sort of thing. Dr. Melani-“

“I don’t need help,” Bethany whined before screaming as loud as she could in her current condition. “I NEED more pumpkin spice!” Evan stood there silently for a beat, watching as it seemed like Bethany was trying to move. It started as a wobble, trying to gain momentum but she wasn’t getting anywhere fast, as her feebly kicking feet could attest to. “A lil’ help!” Bethany insisted.

“What, are you going to try & make your way to the shop without me?“ Evan chided.

“Fine!” Bethany snapped. “Just get the door, wouldja.” Bethany finally got enough momentum, wobbling her swollen butt cheeks back & forth to reach the tippy toes of her kicking foot. She kicked off strongly, trying to pivot. It was

“It’s another fuckin’ latte…? Or Me.” Evan said firmly. But Bethany had almost turned half way around already, even as awkward as it was for her.

“I get it,” Bethany guilted. “You think I’m too fat! Just get the door! I can’t be with someone who doesn’t want me to be happy.”

“I don’t want you to explode! You’re already the size of our goddamn car!” Evan scoffed.

“See?!”

“That’s not what I… C’mon!”

“Get- the door! I’m going for coffee!”

“Fine.” Evan snapped.

“Fine.” Bethany snapped back.

“No fuckin’ way you’re making it on time.” Evan sighed, stifling a laugh.

“Then I’ll be there bright & early for open!” Bethany huffed stubbornly.

“And sleep outside the place overnight?!” Evan cackled in disbelief. “No goddamn wa-“

“Watch me!” Bethany insisted stubbornly. A frustrated Evan didn’t see her making it out the garage on her own. He decided he’d go eat dinner. Check in on her when she finally cooled off.

Only Bethany kept going.

The trip was arduous.

Several times, Bethany was ready to give up. Her already stretched & strained muscles were screaming in agony. Every kickoff to pivot to her other foot became more exhausting than the last. But her need for pumpkin spice drove her.

And luckily most of the few blocks it was to the coffee place were downhill, aiding her rotation that much more.

She swore she saw Evan drive past around midnight. He must’ve collected the car & wanted to check on her. But he didn’t stop. He didn’t say anything, as Bethany kept on going.

By the first signs of dawn, Bethany had finally reached the parking lot. The unlit sign a welcome beacon, signaling she had made it the home stretch. It wouldn’t be long now. That pumpkin spice was all hers. She looked around as other fans, just like her had started to gather, waiting on them to open. None of them were very thin, but few had the issues moving she did.

That’s when Bethany realized waiting in line wouldn’t be her only problem.

Looking at the door & feeling how far her sides extended filled her with sheer dread. As nightmarish flashes of her ordeal the day prior played back through her head. And these doors seemed even narrower. With metal frames.

“He- hello…?” She called, feebly, hoping anyone would bother to listen as a line of equally addicted, albeit just slightly smaller pumpkin spice aficionados lined up in droves around the store. “I- I don’t- think I- I ask f- for much-“

She was going to have to rely on the kindness of strangers.

Strangers more interested in getting their own cups of pumpkin spice.

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Ok so this started off as a spur of the moment vignette to accompany that art of Bethany, & started going long when I went a little overboard & got a longer story out of it. Posted separately just because I wanted to post the art as soon as I could to keep on pace with things.

Was hoping to get a chance to sit down & finish this up prior to this but I've been having a rough time at my dayjob. And I’m still a little unsure about the final result, but I’ve got other things to focus on next, so I can work on making them better & potentially circle back to this if the spirit really moves me.

Part of this was me kind of wanting to go back, & flesh out her fiancé a bit more. Paint them maybe a little more sympathy/hubris than the way she’s made it sound in the art, as something of a scorned addict. As crazy as some girls get about craving pumpkin spice, as far as the lore goes, we’ve only ever explored it from them being too big to get more themselves, but not how that need impacts those around them. And I liked the idea of making her fiancé conflicted about the transformation, but ultimately trying to do the right thing for her sake. Even if it did come just a little too late...

And I liked the idea of a determined headstrong round girl doing everything she can to make it to the coffee shop for more Pumpkin Spice. Even if she had outgrown her legs. That's determination right there!

Anyway I hope you enjoyed it.

Looks like Helen Parr won the poll pretty handily so be on the look out for that. Still owe both some Mel & Moira sequences too though.