Bubble Blowhard

Gabe thought he was smart by using his own gum. It wasn’t technically against the rules, but the self-inflating properties it possessed, and the added durability it had, definitely was. He took the innocent looking packet of bubblegum from his table and put one stick in his mouth, that was all he needed. The spectacled brown otter chewed leisurely, not partaking in the same manic jaw-aching panic as his competitors. They were racing to get their gum to the perfect consistency for blowing the largest bubble. That was the name of the competition, after all. And Gabe would have the largest bubble, by any means necessary.

“What’s he doing?”

“That can’t be normal.”

Gabe took a deep breath in through his nose, making his whiskers twitch. He felt the fullness in his chest and visualized the bubble growing bigger. Then he blew, releasing the warm hair through his mouth, filling the malleable gum and coaxing it to stretch into a great pink sphere. It grew in front of him with a rapidity that drew gasps from the audience. His vision was eclipsed by a beautiful pink gossamer.

I’m amazing. I’m so good at this. Look, everyone, look at this gigantic balloon.

The audience begun to withdraw. They had worried looks on their face. Gabe was so enraptured by his big pink balloon; he didn’t even notice that everyone but him had stopped blowing. The other contestants backed away from him in a mad scramble, and he felt a strange pressure in his flank. When he looked down, he saw another balloon. This one was covered in denim, like the shorts he wore, and bursting through the hard fabric with bulges of brown latex that peaked through gaps in the torn stitching.

Gabe tried to crane his head to get a better look, but he couldn’t. His neck was gone, his head was sunken into a donut of shiny brown latex. With a moment of horror, as he realized he couldn’t stop pouring air into his pink bubble, he had become a balloon as well. He was more than five times the size of the pink orb attached to his snout, anyone who came in late to the panic would just see two round shapes, pulsating and quivering as pressure welled up within them.

But I need to win. Gabe thought, even as his skin turned pink and he became as transparent as the bubblegum.

I need to blow the biggest bubble. He resolved himself to do anything, and to win at any cost.

I need to keep making it bigger!

Gabe felt a rigidity in his body. His eyes rolled back, and he was deafened by the rumbling groan of his own ballooning body. He was a bubble, which meant, technically, he had won. He was a big pink bubble, a balloon, and he had blown HIMSELF up. That meant he won. He won; he was the biggest. Big, big, big, big. I’m a big silly balloon. He laughed uncontrollably; his snout still stuck to the giant pink bubblegum orb that was dwarfed by his convention hall filling self. He lost his perfect sphere shape, as he warped to fit the corners of the room. Everyone ran out of the convention centre, diving for cover, as Gabe felt a rush of hot, erotic pressure, rush out from his core.

A big, sticky, pink detonation annihilated the convention centre. Gabe was never declared the winner, but he was undeniably the biggest pink balloon there ever was.