Brittany's Belly - Part 10

Britt was dreading the day. She had dreaded yesterday as well, but things ended up being ok. Mrs. Cox was not as ruthless and demanding as Britt originally thought. She even got to have some snacks, but went a little overboard on the pizza. At least she didn’t starve all day, like she was anticipating today. Today she had no reprieve from her mom, she had no Mrs. Cox to potentially save her, and after two straight nights out at MickyDees, she doubted her sister would be down for a third straight trip in a row. Today she was with her mom all day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was also the day her mom was going to make her start …*shiver* exercise. Today was going to be hell.

She could at least pretend to sleep in. In college she tried to not have any classes before 11am, because Britt wasn’t much of a morning person. As she laid in bed she felt hungry, but she knew nothing much awaited her downstairs anyways, so she was better off laying in bed for an extra hour or so. The massive McDonalds meal from last night had already made its way out of her stomach, leaving the hungry girl's belly quite empty. Her goal of overeating to make up for the lean times wasn’t really working, but at least in the moment it was a nice thought.

Eventually Britt had procrastinated enough, and despite whatever small and healthy portions her mom was about to serve her for breakfast, Britt had passed her breaking point on being hungry for the moment. Bouncing down stairs, she was met with a sliced grapefruit and plain whole grain toast. ‘Delicious.’ she thought as she rolled her eyes. But food was food, so she sat down and ate it. Of course it didn’t take long for her mother to start in with the exercise talk.

“Alright missy, you know what we are doing today, exercise. Now I don’t want to hear any whining…”

“But mom!!” Britt started to whine right away. “Can’t I just have one more day until we start exercising?” Britt would do just about anything to push this off for as long as possible.

“No! Most definitely not. You are going to work out and eat healthy until this…” Diane poked a skinny finger into her daughter's bubble belly. “Until this… thing, is gone, you hear me?”

Britt knew she wasn’t getting out of this. Today was going to suck. After breakfast Britt went upstairs and changed, returning to her mother to get this over with. They started with some stretching, followed by some sit ups and push ups. “Ok, now that you are warmed up, time for a run.”

“Like running in place? We don’t have a treadmill.” So far Britt had kept from breaking a sweat, which she was quite happy about, but that was only because they hadn’t left the air conditioned house yet.

Diane groaned. “I sent you to college to get smarter, how did it have the opposite effect?” Diane looked at her daughter dumb founded. Britt still wasn’t putting it together. “Outside.” Diane finally said after a long silence, pointing out the window.

Britt had a look of realization on her face, before it fell flat when she realized running outside was the last thing she wanted to do. “Now I’ve laid out a path that you should be able to handle. You’re going to head up Garfield St…” Diane carried on, explaining the loop she had planned for her daughter. It was a couple of miles of back roads that would eventually lead back to their house. “Got it?” She asked to confirm.

Britt knew exactly where to go, but she wasn’t happy about it at all. It was summer, it was hot out, Britt would be running. None of this added up to fun for the young co-ed. But there was no way out. At least her mom wouldn’t be there the whole time, lashing at her heels telling her to go faster.

Britt opened the front door, stepping out into the summer heat. Having slept in, and taken her sweet time at breakfast and getting ready for the day, the temperature had plenty of time to rise already, the sun feeling warm on Britt’s face as she started. A few steps to the end of the driveway transitioned into a light jog as she turned on to Garfield St. Running, or even jogging, felt so foreign to her, as she hadn’t done anything like that for over a year now. Beta Kappa Theta’s were never seen jogging. Despite their stereotype of being tall beautiful blondes, most of them got a little chunky over their tenure with the sorority, as emphasis was placed on outfits, accessorizing, and make up, over physical health, exercise, or wellness. Jogging led to sweating, and sweating led to messy hair and ruined makeup, so it only made sense that Britt had not had a decent jog since high school, and she hadn’t missed it.

Within minutes sweat started to appear on her brow and started to moisten her eyelashes. As much as sweat bothered her, her focus was surprisingly somewhere else. If you were watching the young lass run you’d have a pretty good idea what was distracting her though. With each stride her bulbous belly bounced up, and then fell down with the rhythm of her step. Her workout gear was suboptimal at covering such a tremendous gut, so the large pooch had its day in the sun.

As Britt turned on to the next road she knew she was nowhere close to done, and also knew she wasn’t going to be able to run this entire thing, she was just too tired and out of shape. Once that thought drilled into her head, it took all her willpower to not stop running. Unfortunately for Britt, she had very little willpower these days, continually opting for the easy, or in her case tastier, options in life. Her light jog slowed to a pacing crawl almost immediately. The sweat still poured from her face, and had also dampened her arms and back. Britt felt disgusting.

She used this downtime to curse the one person that had put her in this position, her mother. ‘Why the hell does she have me out here? Ok, ok, I gained more than just a few pounds, but the crazy diet she had me on more than makes up for it. I’ll be back to my old size in a couple of weeks eating like she has me.’ Britt totally ignored the fast food she’d been having with her sister, or the unlimited snacks she was looking forward to during her shifts at Mrs. Cox’s house. ‘This exercise thing is so bullshit, and I can’t even look forward to lunch when I’m back because I know it’s just going to be a leaf of lettuce.’ Britt continued to mentally grump as she walked the route her mother had told her to run.

Finally she was back on her street and her house was just in sight. She jogged the rest of the way, looking to keep up appearances at least at the end here. Her mother was waiting for her at the door when she returned. Britt huffed like she was out of breath after running the whole loop. She even hunched over and put her hands on her knees for dramatic effect. “Britt, did you run the WHOLE time, like I asked?” It was more like she had demanded, but yeah sure ‘asked’.

“Of course, that's why I’m so out of breath, see?” Britt panted.

“You’ve been gone for 75 minutes. That run should have taken you 35 minutes, 45 tops, since I’m sure you haven’t dawned tennis shoes in over a year. I know you must have walked for at least a half hour!”

“What do you want from me mom, it’s my first day! So what if I walked a little! I had half a grapefruit for breakfast, what do you expect out of me?!?” Britt yelled. She didn’t even want to do the stupid run in the first place.

“There was also toast!” Diane reminded her. “Plenty of carbs to help you with your run.”

“Oh and let me guess what’s in store for lunch, something green and leafy, with no dressing, flavor, or anything. Whatever, I’ll be in my room.” With that Britt stormed off, spending the entire afternoon in her room, away from her mom. She only slipped down at one point to grab her lunch. Even if it was just lettuce, it was better than nothing, and nothing was feeling brutal for Britt. Part way through the afternoon she wasn’t sure how she was going to make it the rest of the day. She tried to fill up on water, but she could only drink so much. She was thankful that she had a shift at Mrs. Cox tomorrow, but that was so far away. Britt figured she just had to deal with the empty stomach cramps until then.