Lifetime Supply: Chapter 1

Written by: Gaining Fiction

Lifetime Supply is a collaborative story penned by Gainer Stories and Gaining Fiction. Patrons receive early access to each chapter before release on Tumblr.

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“You’re not gonna eat all those, are you?”

“I will unless you plan on helping,” Ryan said. He turned to face his roommate, who was still sweaty from his trip to the gym. Ahmed just shook his head and stepped into the bathroom. When Ryan heard the shower running, he unfolded the letter at the top of the box.

We take our commitments to customers seriously. So when we promise you a “lifetime supply”, we really mean it. How much we send will depend on your feedback, and our customer service team is happy to listen. Adesco is passionate about….

Ryan smirked and put the letter aside. They must have spent a lot on marketing. When he entered the stupid competition advertised on the inside of a candy wrapper, he hadn’t expected anything to come of it. So when he won a lifetime supply of the company’s snackfoods he was more than a little surprised. He was even more surprised when he returned home two weeks after the win to find a large cardboard box on his doorstep.

Inside were products he knew (chocolate bars, pretzels, popular snack cookies) but also products he had never bought before, like mini donuts and snack cakes with fruit fillings. With a shrug, he opened one of the lemon snack cakes and took a bite. Pleased with the result, he grabbed another pack and put his feet up on the coffee table.

Ryan opened his laptop. He mostly did freelance jobs, which he preferred to a more traditional set-up. He decided to work on a few projects he had been meaning to finish up. By the end of the afternoon, he realized that his stomach was hurting. Looking around, he saw that the couch was strewn with wrappers. Once he had gotten into a groove, he just kept eating snacks out of the box without even thinking. Realizing the mess he had made, he gathered up the wrappers and tried to toss them in the trash before Ahmed could see.

Except his roommate was already waiting in the kitchen as Ryan approached garbage with handfuls of plastic. “Wow, you weren’t kidding about eating all those,” Ahmed said, arching an eyebrow. “I was just about to head to the library. I have a bunch of school stuff due way too soon.”

Ryan saw Ahmed off, and then thought about what to do with himself. He had been wondering that a lot since his ex Jason had broken things off a few weeks earlier. Jason hated being at home, and so the two were always out getting coffee, jogging, or shopping downtown. Before they had met in college, Ryan had felt at ease doing nothing, but that was a side of himself he had pushed aside for a couple of years now. Since Jason fled to Europe with his “yoga buddy”, Ryan had a lot more downtime on his hands.

Where in the past he might have gone for a jog, Ryan decided to say “fuck it” and fire up some porn. Since he had the place to himself, he decided to really go for it, stripping off his clothes in the middle of the living room. When he finished, after cleaning himself up, Ryan realized he had room for another snack cake. Sighing contentedly, he opened up a fresh box.

~

Two weeks later, when Ryan returned from a cafe where he had been working, he was surprised to see another large cardboard box sitting in front of his house. He brought it inside and placed it on the floor of his bedroom. He was still only about halfway through the last box, and he already felt like he was snacking more than he should have been. He usually couldn’t afford to have so much food just lying around.

Ryan took out a pair of scissors and opened the new box. Amid new and familiar snack packages, he removed another letter. This one was a survey, listing products and asking him to rank them based on his preference. There were other questions about his usual snack choices, flavours he liked most, and his satisfaction with the quantity and variety in the boxes. At the bottom, there was a phone number with a note: If you have any questions, please contact your Adesco customer service representative, Luke!

Sighing, Ryan decided to crack open a bag of pretzels. Who knew that winning a contest could be so much work?