First Contact

Finished that last installment of Bellflower last night, & wanted to keep writing a little, but something a little different. So I started this blueberry story, & I'm surprised with just how quickly it came together. Despite the title sounding like a sci-fi work or some sort of adventure where the protagonists meet isolated tribes of people or something, I can assure you it's very much down to Earth (at least as far as a blueberry story can be). As of right now, I think I'm just going to leave this hang like this for a bit. As just a little vignette. If response is good, or if the spirit ever moves me, I might have a couple ideas on maybe where I could take it. But to be honest, I've already got a lot on my plate.

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It was late. And while the city wasn't as dangerous as all the folks back home had tried to warn her, they'd probably all have strokes if they knew Abbie was out walking the streets, all on her lonesome at this hour. But then again, she had some pepper spray handy, just on her keychain, if ever in case. And the bodega was only three blocks from her place. It was just that craving for the off-brand "Pina Colada" pops they sold in the freezer there was just too powerful. Besides, she was running a bit low on toilet paper anyhow. And a single roll would get her & her roommates squared away through a proper grocery store run later this week. 

It was quick. Like record breakingly quick. She was in & out in the span of four minutes, & three of those minutes were spent petting the cat. She didn't know what its name was, or even if it was a boy or girl cat, but headcanon? She referred to the noble beast as "Michael," because they just sort of looked like a "Michael." Gave off a very "Michael" energy.

Now it was just the three blocks back. Things were relatively quiet. Almost... peaceful. 

She greedily ripped open one of the two popsicles (one now, one for later), & gave it a lick. The cold, creamy, coconut goodness hit her just right. And she enjoyed a few seconds of bliss. Some cold, fairly close proximity to pina colada taste on her tongue. The empty streets. No other pedestrians really. The traffic very light. Cars were few & far between, but the lull of city ambience still roared, albeit dimly. Almost soothingly.

But that's when her phone started shaking violently in her back pocket, a nanosecond before belting her admittedly obnoxious ringtone loudly into the dark sky of the orange tinged night. The jolts, first the vibration, then the noise, both tried to get her to drop her popsicle. But she managed to keep a handle on it. Once she recoiled, & got the obligatory "Who at this hour?" comment out the way, she wrestled it out of her pocket with care. She had a habit of accidentally fat-fingering the cancel button, even though her fingers weren't, in fact, fat. The number didn't come up as a contact, but at the bottom, there were listings of a previous call history. From a while ago. It made her all the more curious. And that curiosity slowly got her to answer it.

"Hello?" she asked with a bit of trepidation. She heard heavy breathing first, for like a beat or two.

"W-who is... this...?" a stammering female voice on the other end eventually asked. There was a familiar quality to the voice, but it sounded a little far from the phone. As though it were on speaker. But no "hi," no "hello." The violation of etiquette made Abbie snort as she sucked on her pina colada pop.

"That's usually my line." She asserted with a smirk, moving her thumb towards the "end call" button, ready to kill it quickly if need be.

"This is... My name's Cass...? she almost seemed to ask, faltering a little. It took Abbie a second to jog her memory.

"Cass?!" Abbie's brow folded, repeating the name. Cass! From the calavera themed dive bar over on Grand. With long, the tongue twister-y name. What was it? El Arándano Azucarado? They met up there. Mutual friends had set them up together. They met there twice. Like four months back. She was cute. Seemed nice, but a little clingy & not really her type. It didn't really go anywhere, & nothing ever came from it. "Cass, this is Abbie. From like... four months ago. You... you kept my number?"

"Oh. Abbie...?" Her concern suddenly zapped a bit. She sounded a little tentative all of a sudden. As if she may have made a mistake. "I... I'm sorry. I hit the button, trying to get someone, but... but I... I didn't see who it was... who it was calling." It sounded as though something was wrong. She sounded upset, but was struggling to keep some sort of composure, now that she was talking to someone. Especially someone she really didn't know all that well. "I think... it went to you because you're in... you're in there at the top. Alphabetically." The story of Abbie's life. The sheer amount of minutes wasted with butt dials & the like? Years off her life. But something sounded... amiss.

"What's wrong though? Is something the matter?" Abbie asked. Just because things didn't necessarily work out before didn't mean she was a monster & didn't care. Especially if something was wrong.

"I... I don't know..." Cass busted, struggling to prevent what may have been a full-on sob. "I'm sorry... sorry to bother you... I..." Now genuinely feeling some bit of worry, Abbie wasn't going to let up.

"You're not bothering me! But you sound upset." She paused, hoping Cass would fill the gap. Instead there was only a bit of consternated, heavy breathing. "Do you need help?!" Abbie continued, sucking on her pina colada pop. "I mean I'm already out. Right now. Just leaving the bodega. I can come to you! If you want..." It took another pause.

"Y-y.... Yes." She softly resigned on the other end with a slight moan.

"Okay. Where are you?"

"My... my apartment." Cass winced slowly.

"Okay. And where is that again?" Abbie wasn't sure if she even knew in the first place. Just that it was fairly close in proximity.

"12th... 12th & Fremont." That was only four blocks away. "Above... the bagel place. Apartment 3B." She instructed.

"Okay, I'm on my way. See you in a..."

"No!!" Cass screamed. "I mean... don't hang up! Stay on the line... please!"

"Oh." Abbie obliged. "Sure, I can keep talking." Turning to cross an empty street, she still looked both ways "So. What seems to be the problem?" Not intending to sound like such a cop. Cass seemed far too worried to care.

"I... I think... I think it's some kind of... allergic... reaction." she moaned. "I don't know... really... how to... best... describe it." When she said this, Abbie sort of stopped & looked at her phone. She had been imagining she was going through some sort of emotional trauma, or relationship turmoil. Hell maybe even just some sort of rough day. She hadn't for one second even considered a genuine health emergency. She didn't even know how she could help when it came to that type of crisis. She had one first aid class to her credit, but that was way, way back. During girl scouts!

"An allergic reaction?" Was ultimately all she was able to repeat, slightly bewildered. "From what?!"

"I... I don't even know!" Cass cried, seemingly just a further bit agitated. After a few more heavy breaths, Cass let out another resigned sigh. Abbie's phone beeped at her. But before she could see the notification, she heard Cass ask "Have you ever... in your life... seen anything like this?" Abbie pulled the phone away from her ear to see the notification was asking to see if she'd accept this turning into a video call. It was something she never really messed with on her phone & didn't know exactly how to do. But she hit "accept."

A bubble popped open, filling her phone's screen to reveal video of a room. But it was a little hard to make out at first. Like, she could see the back wall & ceiling, with like string lights, lighting everything up with a dim, almost holiday themed glow. She could make out a poster for an old movie & even a few stickers & smaller things that were pinned up & scattered throughout. But in the foreground, there was just this blurry, round, solid, blue lump, blocking most of the view.

"Abbie?" she could hear distantly through the speaker. Other blurry blue tendrils flashed across the image, & suddenly, the view started to change. It began craning over top of the round lump, the lights & ceiling disappearing from view. She saw a spot in the middle. Maybe a divot, but she couldn't make it out. She started to wonder if it was an issue with this feature she had never messed with. But just then, the lumpy mass started to reveal two other lumps, eclipsed behind it. They were both a dark blue too, but contained within something white. Or at least white-ish. Maybe like a bra, stretched very tightly over them. It looks as though whatever the blue things were, they were a bit wet, as the fabric of the 'bra' seemed to be soaking in similarly dark hues. But the angle steadily kept changing, & slowly the other two blue mounds revealed a fourth, slightly smaller, though equally round blue shape. Slowly, Abbie began to make out it was a face. A blue face. Cass's face. But blue! Dark blue! It had been a few months, to be sure, but behind puffy blue cheeks, it had something of a structural resemblance to the girl she remembered meeting up with those few times. Big eyes, button nose. Her lips seemed a bit fuller now. And her once purple hair was now more a pastel-y pink. But it was her.

Slowly, after finally getting a frame of reference for what she was looking at, Abbie thought back & tried to deduce all that she had seen. The two lumps in a bra? Obviously Cass's breasts. Shit. Was she... leaking? And the first lump? It had to be something like a round, swollen belly, almost like that of a pregnant woman, but wider as well. Cass wasn't just blue, she was blowing up like a balloon.

"It's... it's good to see you..." Cass sputtered softly. "But... I think... something's wrong with me..." 

"Cass... I..." Now Abbie was the one stammering, her pace slowing, not realizing she was halfway across a crosswalk. The view in the room started to extend back out.

"It's... it's filling me up." She muttered, reaching her phone away from her to try to get all of herself in the shot. Four months ago, there was no calling Cass fat. She was a literal twig, which to be honest, at the time, partly wasn't doing it for Abbie. But that was all different now. Sure enough, just as Abbie was able to surmise in her head, Cass's body was vastly different now. And a completely different hue. Slumped against her futon, it was billowing out in every direction. Abbie could almost make it out, swearing she could see it pulsating with small surges in real time. It gave the once frail barista something of a fat, exaggerated pear shape. Now, Abbie could even see the growth begin to spill down into her thighs, thickening them as well in some cut off jeans she still wore. With a belt strangely. She drew the phone in close again. "It's making me so... so heavy... Getting hard... to even lift my arms..."

"I... I don't know if I'm really of any help in this sort of... situa..." 

"Abbie, please!" Cass cried. "I... I just need... somebody..."

"No, like..." a car horn honked at her before whizzing by. She had just realized she had stopped dead in the middle of the empty street & the ONE car on the road let her know how dumb that was. Recovering & slowly still heading in the direction of 12th & Fremont, she finished her thought. "I think you need to get to a hospital or something."

"With what insurance?!" Cass had no problem scoffing, despite knowing Abbie had an extremely valid point. "Besides... what... are they going to... even tell me...? That I belong... in the produce aisle...?"

"Produce aisle?" Abbie asked, bemused. The phone pulled back to show the blue stains on Cass's white bra. Her free hand slid underneath with a bit of a struggle. 

"Oh... it's getting... messy..." she huffed to herself. She wiggled it clear with few little dribblets of blue fluid. She was leaking alright! And she was leaking something the same color blue. What Abbie didn't expect was her to bring it to her lips & give it a lick. Abbie tried to fight off a shudder. "It... it tastes of... blueberries..."

"You mean... to tell me," Abbie squinted. "Your body's suddenly producing... blueberry juice...? As some kind of... allergic reaction?!"

"I... I don't know what... what's doing it to me!"  I know it's crazy!" Cass struggled to shout clearly. "Trust me! I know!" Abbie sighed, realizing she hadn't been working on her pina colada pop for a solid few minutes & it was starting to melt onto her fingers. But on the other end of the line, Cass winced & let out a loud moan. "And not only is it producing juice... it's like... pr-producing way... way... too much!" The camera whipped back out again for another wide shot. And sure enough, even more of her was filling the frame.

"Yeah! Hospital!" Abbie suggested again, strongly this time.

"I... I can't...." Cass fretted again. "Besides... it's getting hard for me... to even walk right now..." She panned down to her legs. But with the mic not facing her mouth, Abbie could only faintly hear her say something to the effect of feeling her legs getting stiff & hard to bend. Sure enough, they seemed to be sticking almost straight out at this point, hovering a few inches off the floor. She kicked a little & seemed to quickly be losing her range of motion.

"Okay, I get it." Abbie sighed. "I get it." The phone whipped back towards her face. Tears were welling up in the corners of her eyes. And even they seemed to have some tint to them.

"More than anything... I'm just... I'm..." Cass struggled, slowly getting blubberier. In a few different senses of the word.

"Scared?" Abbie put forward. Instead of speaking, Cass bit back the compulsion to begin bawling & nodded as vigorously as her rounding face would allow. 

"Please... I just... need someone..."

"Okay, well..." looking before crossing the last street. Initial shock seemingly over, she wasn't stopping again. "I'm only a block away!" she announced, still not entirely sure what exactly she was a block away from.

"Th-thank you, Abbie!" Cass muttered sweetly between lips far plumper than Abbie remembered. A blue tear streamed down her puffy cheek. "I... can't wait... to see you..."