Sponsored Part 02

Cody’s day at the office seemed to fly by. He hadn’t done much, but he didn’t care either. His mind was still too focused on that app and what had happened the night before. The thought of being able to lose that annoying belly and getting paid for it without any work was a thing of his dreams. Everyone in the office seemed to have taken notice of his extra confidence as he strutted around without a care.

‘DUDE! Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier??’ he texted Mark.

There was a few minutes before he’d gotten a response. ‘Cause it’s not for everyone.’ Cody rolled his eyes. The fact that Mark had been keeping a secret like this made him wonder just what else the guy was hiding. Or how much money he’d made off the thing. Though it seemed like you could only have one sponsor at a time. They’d buy a certain amount of time and then you had to agree to it. 

‘Well I wish you told me sooner…’

He quickly received an unimpressed emoji. ‘I take it you like it so far?’

‘YEAH MAN! Why the hell wouldn’t I? I mean fuck, if he didn’t hit the limit last night you probably wouldn’t recognize me.’

‘Just be happy the limit’s there… The way my sponsor’s talking, you might want to make sure you keep it enabled.’ 

Again, Cody rolled his eyes. ‘Quit sounding so ominous dude.’

‘All I’m saying is be careful. If your not going to be, then I can’t do anything to help.’

“Whatever,” he pushed his phone away, angry that his friend was being such a killjoy about it. If anything, he thought Mark would be happy that he might actually start to keep up. ‘Or maybe he’s jealous,’ Cody felt the thought run through his head and he pushed it out. ‘He’s not jealous. That’s not who he is,’ he rationalized. 

Ever since Mark had come back from college he’d been different than the Mark he’d known in high school. Even so, he was never one to be too conceited. A bit uppity, sure. But not conceited. 

The chime on his app went off causing him to nearly jump out of his chair. There usually wasn’t too much noise outside of quietly talking on the phone when someone was with a customer in his office. Other than that, it was the occasional clearly of the throat or cough. Not many people made idle chit chat. And playing games on the phone was strictly prohibited.

He opened the settings and turned the messaging feature to vibrate. However, the automatic message afterwards didn’t seem to have another function. 

‘Hey. Whatcha up to?’ his sponsor messaged him.

‘At work. What’s up?’

‘Work??? Where do you work? Can I see?’ Then the app chimed. ‘$5 will be added for a photograph of your workplace.’

“Shit,” Cody growled as he tried to silence his phone again. It didn’t even matter that he’d turned his media settings down. Jeff, in the cubicle next to him, paused what he was doing then went back to work. ‘It’s just an office building…’ he lifted his phone up and snapped a quick picture. Then sent it. 

‘Cool! My dad works in one of those. But I don’t have to. He says I’m a lazy piece of shit but I don’t care. He still pays me as long as I go to college.’

‘Yeah? What are you studying?’

A series of laughing emojis filled his screen. ‘I don’t. I got this nerd who does all my homework for me. But I’m not all bad. I pay him for it. Still, I’m not wasting my time with that shit.’ 

Cody suddenly felt a pit in his stomach. ‘He’s just some rich kid. If anything that just means he’ll pay me even more,’ he tried to convince himself, but the pit didn’t go anywhere. 

‘Hey! I bet you look super sexy in your office clothes! Send me some pictures. But only 2 this time!’ The phone chimed again. ‘Send photographs (maximum 02) of yourself to your sponsor for $5 each.’

Jeff cleared his throat and Cody knew full well he was going to have to move. ‘I know. I know,’ he kept his thoughts to himself as he moved to the bathroom. The office had a couple of them that weren’t often used. He pulled out his phone and snapped two more pictures. Cody rolled up the sleeves of his blue button down shirt. The black and lighter blue striped tie went down across his chest stopping right above his black belt. Besides it’s brass buckle, the belt blended in with his black pants.

‘You do look good!’ the message read. ‘Do you do a lot of work with your hands? You look like you’re really good with them.😉 ’

‘I did. My dad owned a carpentry shop and would have me help him move some of the wood around the shop.’

‘Well, you can move my wood all day… 😍’

Cody nearly threw his phone at the very forward and very poor sexual innuendo. He felt his face flush red. “Get it together,” he slapped his chubby cheeks. His phone chimed and he could feel hair starting to grow underneath it. The auburn hair color started pushing through his fingers as a full beard rounded his chin and grew under his nose. “What??” he could almost lose his thick fingers behind the length of the hair that had grown on his face. 

His phone chimed again. He reached for it but seemed to have screwed with his depth perception as it didn’t feel like he was reaching for the right spot. Really it was because his limbs were starting to lengthen. Down to his bones they started to grow longer and denser. He could feel the hem of his pants starting to ride up his legs while his feet were more cramped in his shoes. The big toe was shoved against the front of his shoe, begging for more room. Even as he wiggled it, it just couldn’t get comfortable. 

Then another chime. He could feel his belly starting to rumble again. It was the same as the night before as it started to pull ever so slightly back into his body. He could feel the extra space between his skin and his belt. But it was more uncomfortable this time. He felt his pants slipping over his butt and they nearly fell to the floor. 

Cody grabbed them and tightened his belt around his waist. It was only one loop but still noticeable. As was how his pants came about two inches up from his shoes. Luckily he remembered to wear black socks, so it blended in. But it was still annoying to have to feel them riding so high.

He looked over the series of messages. ‘Grow a beard. Once completed, $15 will be transferred to your account.’ ‘Gain 2 inches in height. Once completed, $30 will be added to your account. Because you are now over 6’3” it will cost $20 per additional inch in height instead of $15.’ ‘Lose 2% of your body fat. Once completed, $40 will be transferred to your account.’ He looked at his settings and saw that he was maxed out at the $100 mark again.

It took a few moments to remember that now he had a full beard as well. “Shit!” he cursed under his breath. “Mr. Cook is going to fucking kill me!” Cody went back to his phone. ‘Hey. I can’t have a beard where I work?’

‘What year’s he living in? The fucking stone age? Hmmm… That’s no good. I wanna see it…’ There was a short break before his sponsor messaged again. ‘You know, if you raise your minimum, I can change some small things around you as well. Just alter small things but still, I could make it so you can be accepted with the beard.’

Cody felt himself slowly giving into the temptation. Since he’d joined this company, he’d have to shave nearly every day and the days he’d forgotten he’d get yelled at. “It’s just a little facial hair,” he reasoned with himself. Looking at how the beard angled his face into something far more masculine than it had already been made him feel good.  He could see the lightish orangey brown and felt it gave him a very distinguished look. Besides it was already trimmed perfectly that most businesses wouldn’t even bat an eye at. 

‘What do you say?’ his sponsor messaged.

‘How much?’

‘Small changes are $50. Bigger ones cost a bit more. But I think something like this would count as a small one.’

Cody went into the setting of his app again. He could see the limit set for $100 dollars. His thumb hovered over the button. ‘$50?’ he thought about it a bit more. ‘What about $100 more?’ His eyes caught his reflection again. He could see his belly retreating back into his body. It’d been a couple years since he’d been this skinny and he liked it. “Fuck,” he cursed again. He fought against the greed and only upped it $50.

‘Done,’ he texted his sponsor.

‘Alright!’ it was a few seconds before he heard the chime. ‘The rules of your workplace are far laxer. $50 has been added to your account.’

This change wasn’t nearly as noticeable. He could feel his stiff shoulders relax and the top button of his shirt come undone. Even his tie was a little looser. He still felt a pang of discomfort as he left the bathroom. The last thing he wanted to do was piss off Mr. Cook. The old guy really had it in for keeping the rules, no matter how archaic they may have been. 

Cody peeked his head out of the bathroom. Looking around, everything still seemed the same. Nothing too crazy. But if this guy could change his physical appearance; was it really out of the realm of possibility to change everything else? Cody took his chance and stepped a little further out. With his added height, he could easily see over all the cubicles. There were a couple of guys with beards. 

‘Shit…” Cody thought to himself as he walked through the office. It wasn’t just that. Several people had more casual attire as well. Mr. Cook had always made sure that everyone wore a nice button up shirt with tie and black pants. Sometimes khakis if he was allowed a casual Friday. But right now he could see several people in sweaters, more comfortable dress shirts and jeans. 

“Eh-hmmm,” Mr. Cook cleared his throat behind Cody. It nearly made him jump. “I appreciate the effort. Lord knows how much your generation refuses to wear anything decent, but please, and I stress this, make sure it fits you properly. I’m running a business, not a day care. If you can’t buy clothes that fit you properly, please start looking for another job.”

“R-right!” Cody answered. He stiffened up almost expecting to be yelled at. “I’ll make sure to have something more suitable tomorrow!”

“Good,” Mr. Cook shook his head as he walked away. 

Cody could hear some mumbles under the older man’s breath but didn’t respond to them. He was still in shock from not getting the normal scolding from even having a bit of scruff from not shaving. He went back to his desk and sat down. 

‘Did it work?” his sponsor asked.

‘Yeah! I didn’t think it would man! My boss didn’t say anything.’

‘Good. Hey so can I get a picture? I want to see what you look like… So...’ He added a rolling eye emoji.

Part of Cody struggled with it for a second. This was the first time in a long time he’d received this kind of validation. He didn’t realize how lonely he’d felt until he saw someone calling him attractive. But he fought off the urge. ‘No.’ he responded.

‘=P Stingy… You know you can always raise your limit again~~’

Cody had to take a deep breath. The temptation was growing. An extra $5 for just a photo? ‘No.’ he needed to enforce his boundaries. 

‘Fine…’ he added another rolling eye emoji. ‘I’ll wait for tomorrow…’