Inktober Prompt 4 - Radio

  Fat Music to Get Fat To

The early autumn storm hit like it was still the middle of summer, high winds made the boards on the old house creak and the outdated shutters flapped in the wind while frequent lightning strikes painted the windows stark white. Fall wouldn’t be silenced by the rude summer interjection either though, leaves at various stages of color change blew past the windows and at least half of the gale was as cold as a New England jack frosted morning. Novita sat huddled on the couch under several blankets and flinching at almost every lightning strike as she glaring at her boyfriend who was sitting in the reading nook which projected off the side of the cabin. He was leaning his back against the corner it made with the wall, one leg folded up in front of him and the other bopping restlessly as it always did. His heel made a staccato pitter-patter on the floor that almost formed a melody with the heavy rain striking the window panes around him. 

He didn’t even twitch when a sudden eddy of the wind outside caused the shutter on the window right behind him bang back against the house. Novita let out a frustrated groan, “How can you stand this, Marc!?” He finally looked up from his book at her exclamation. 

“What? You said you wanted to go on a quiet holiday since we both had the time off…” He said, putting the thriller he’d been reading aside and regarding his girlfriend with confusion. “That’s why we came to my great aunt’s old summer cabin.” He shifted himself forward, Marc wasn’t what you’d call chubby but he had a soft paunch that was just noticeable under his sweater. Novita found herself watching her boyfriend’s plump midsection and noticing again how cold her fingers were.

“I know…but you’re the one who suggested this place. You know I don’t like…spooky places.” She glanced at the ancient radio on the mantle, it was one of the many things in the room that could only be described as Victorian Gothic. Marc’s aunt was mad for the stuff, and the cabin reflected it. The place would have looked at home in a cheesy horror movie. Marc frowned and put his book aside before he stood and crossed the room to sit beside Novita. He pulled the blanked around both of them and hunkered down with her as the wind continued to howl outside. Lightning struck outside several more times after that, but Novita didn’t flinch anymore. 

“I know, it’s just…” Marc sighed and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as he often did when he felt frustrated. Novita felt her anxiety over the storm and the house soften another degree. She leaned over and kissed his forehead gently. 

“You wanted to show me around the town, I know.” She said softly, nestling in closer beside him. “You said that eight of your twenty-three favorite places are here.” A wide smile split Novita’s features, Marc was the only person she knew that was quite that fastidiously precise. 

Marc’s cheeks were a little bit pink as he fiddled with his glasses. “Well, yeah. I want…to share those places with you.” He twitched slightly as Novita slid her cold hands underneath his cardigan and pressed them against his stomach. But he relaxed back again without a complaint. 

“My space heater,” Novita said happily. “Have I told you recently that you’re the sweetest guy I’ve ever dated?”

There was another lightning strike outside and the lights flickered, including those on the old radio, but neither of them were paying much attention to the storm anymore. Marc was fighting an outburst of the giggles as Novita attempted to burrow underneath his sweater. “Stop!” He tried to shout, any admonishing effect ruined by the laughter in his voice, “You’ll stretch it out.” 

Novita laughed from underneath the covers, “I think you’re doing a good job of that yourself.” And she gently pinched his small but noticeable lovehandles, he twitched and laughed again. She was sitting back up to see how red Marc’s face was when there was an enormous crash of lightning and thunder. The whole house shook, and every window that they could see was blasted an opaque white from the flash of lightning, Novita screamed. Her anxiety surged back and she nearly fell off of the couch as she reflexively curled into a ball. 

The lights flickered on and off again, the old TV set flashed and buzzed though it hadn’t been on when the lightning had struck. The phones connected to Marc’s Aunt’s landlines chirped and trilled. The radio spat static for several seconds. Then finally after almost half a minute the lights came back on, and the sounds of the storm seemed more distant. Neither Novita nor Marc noticed that the radio still looked like it was on. 

Marc was almost light headed from the scare the sudden noise and light had given him. He shivered, his nerves were jangling but he quickly realized that was probably nothing to what Novita was feeling. His petite girlfriend had withdrawn below a layer of pillows and blankets. Marc could hear quiet sobbing. 

“Novie?” He said softly, his own discomfiture largely forgotten. He leaned down closer to the shuddering pile of blankets that obscured his sweetheart. He could hear soft music, but didn’t pay any attention to that. “It’s okay, I’m here.” He gently nudged some of the blankets aside trying to get a peek at Novita’s face. She turned away. 

He put his arm around her and put himself behind her on the couch, there was barely enough room but he managed it. All the while the music was getting slightly louder. It sounded like some kind of old jazz song. Marc spared a glance for the radio, suddenly remembering that it had kind of freaked him out as a kid too. He suppressed a shiver and leaned his head in close to Novita. “I’m sorry, I should have asked you where you’d have liked to go.” He said softly. 

Slowly Novita turned back toward him, regarding him through the gap in her protective layers of plush softness. The sounds of the storm were quieter now, except for the wind which was still moaning and whistling around the house. “No, no, I wanted to come here. Well, maybe not here, here,” there was another flicker of lightning, distant this time though Novita still flinched before going on. She had nothing against this place per se, but tonight everything seemed so much freakier with the storm raging outside. Novita’s anxious eyes lingered on the radio as it continued to quietly emit music. 

Marc noticed where Novita was looking this time, “Oh, the radio. Yeah it’s always kinda freaked me out too, to be honest. But it was in my great aunt’s will, ‘The radio must stay on the mantle for as long as our family owns the house.’ She was always really particular about it.” 

He stood up and walked to the radio, lifting his hand to turn it off. But then he paused and listened to the bluesy jazzy tune being sung by a man with a rich deep voice. Instead of turning the switch to off, he turned the volume up and spun toward Novita holding his hand out.

“Let’s take out minds off the storm and the low-key spooky,” Novita frowned at him, “Okay, high-key spooky house, but let’s take our minds off of things. Take the creepy old radio’s power away.” Marc leaned down and took Novita’s hand, pulling her gently and waggling his eyebrows at her. 

Novita scoffed and stood up. Marc immediately broke into a kind of rapid clattering tap-dance and waved his arms around like a pantomime actor in an old movie. Novita started laughing hard and caught one of his hands. “What are you doing? Trying to destroy your great aunt’s porcelain collections?” 

“No, it’s…jazz dance, c’mon!” Marc retorted with an air of facetious gravity. He took Novita’s hand again and pulled her closer starting up an awkward but high energy form of the Lindy Hop. Novita couldn’t keep her face straight. As Marc bounced around, really hopping and bopping to be honest, she could see his little paunch bouncing and wobbling around. Then when he pulled her up against him she felt it squish against her. 

The breath went out of her and her cheeks turned rosy, the next thing she knew she was matching his movements and anticipating them. Despite being remarkably distracted by his chubby little belly. 

The two of them kept dancing, their movements becoming more seamless as the music continued to play on and on. Neither of them was sure whether the song had gone on a normal amount of time or not. The only thing on either of their minds was the beat and dancing…and in Novita’s case how increasingly frequently Marc’s belly brushed against her. He looked rounder than he did a few minutes ago. 

Marc spun and shimmied, kicking his heels up. He was puffing a little bit, they hadn’t danced like this in a long time, but it seemed kind of quick for him to be getting out of breath. Novita thought she heard fabric creaking as he spun her and dipped her. She felt his flesh on her own, the warm softness intensifying the contact. 

As Marc danced a few steps away from Novita, he was undeniably fatter. His sweater was riding up and his underbelly was bouncing and rippling hypnotically. Novita was mesmerized and followed the rhythm of the jazz horns and piano back to her expanding teddy bear of a boyfriend. 

They danced and danced, circling each other and despite how much heavier Marc clearly was, he didn’t seem to notice and the heft didn’t affect how gracefully he moved. But he did continue to breathe more and more heavily as his body grew more heavily. 

Soon the stylish cable knit cardigan he was wearing was covering little more than his soft drooping chest. Watching a sweater appear to reduce steadily toward being a glorified bra was fascinating to Novita. Marc didn’t even notice when his pants split wide open and the button flew off of his jeans. 

They danced on, bodies pressed together firmly as Marc’s grew softer and wider. Novita knew that she wouldn’t be able to wrap her arms around her boyfriend anymore, but she didn’t find that thought sad or negative at all. She felt proud, and more in love than she’d ever felt. As the pair danced around the sitting room it became increasingly obvious that Marc’s steps were rattling the floor slightly. China and porcelain clattered softly in time with the tune they danced to.

He only stopped when the music stopped, which it did a few moments later. With a crackling blast of static, which coincided with another distant flash of lightning, the music cut out…and the radio cut off all on its own. Marc struck a sort of “Ta-Da!” pose, breathing harder than Novita had ever heard him breathing. 

“Ooph…man, I gotta get outta this old sweater.” Marc moaned, sitting heavily on the couch which creaked and cracked softly as he did so. He didn’t appear to notice as he pulled on of the bags he hadn’t taken upstairs yet closer. He pulled free a huge pajama shirt and started to fight his way free of the sweater. His belly bouncing and rippling as it drooped between his knees. “Ahhh! Finally freedom for this fat boy!” He tossed the sweater across the room where it landed draped across a chintz chair. 

Novita was so busy studying the new shape of her boyfriend that she almost missed what he’d said. “Wait…you’re…you’re not…surprised?” She choked out. 

“Surprised? That I can still dance like that? About what honey?” He wrestled the ruined pants off next, almost pulling down his underwear with them…his not-actually-too-small underwear. 

Novita stared at Marc’s, now very round face. He was smiling that same open somewhat dopy smile, the only difference was the fatness of the face it was spread across. His dimples were more pronounced, his double (or triple? Quadruple?) chin wreathing his face underneath. “You…you’re…you’re fat.” She finally said. 

Marc just stared at her and then dissolved into a belly laugh that shook his whole body, he guffawed for more than a minute before he got control of himself enough to pull a pair of equally huge pajama pants from the bag. Marc heaved himself up, his belly brushing against Novita as he stood, and started to get dressed again. “Uhm…of course I’m fat, Novie.” He looked at her incredulously. “You’ve been my feeder since we started dating.” 

Novita’s heart skipped a beat, she’d never told Marc that she liked fat guys…let alone that she’d like to fatten him up! “I…I did? I mean, I’ve been…you were…okay?” She babbled, not able to keep her words in a sensical order. 

Marc’s expression was getting more concerned as he looked at her. Eventually he just held his arms out, a wordless offer of embrace. She stepped into it quickly and he enfolded her. “You told me on our third date.” He said softly, rubbing the back of her head gently. “I took some convincing, but I’ve loved every minute of growing with your help.” He stepped back. “Is this like the time you had that dream? Where you said you told me and I freaked out and left?”

Novita’s eyes widened, she did remember the dream. But the Marc who had comforted her was a quarter of the size of this one…and she hadn’t told him that night about why the dream Marc had left her. “Y-yeah…I guess it is.” She wiped tears from the corner of her eyes, when had she started crying? Something strange had happened tonight…but it was something she’d secretly wanted for a long time…and everything else seemed okay and the same for now. 

Marc smiled at her and kissed her on the cheek, “I’ll go pop some popcorn; do you want to watch a horror movie or a comedy?” He asked as he turned toward the kitchen. 

“Oh, Horror movie, for sure. It is the 4th day of Halloween after all.” Novita laughed, watching the wobbling see-saw motion of her boyfriend’s wide rump in a slightly dazed way. 

“Cool, I’ll be your space heater/gravity blanket if it gets too scary.” Marc laughed and went through the door to the kitchen. 

Alone in the sitting room now, Novita put her hand to her head and tried to process what happened. She glanced at the radio, her eye was drawn to a silvery logo just below the speaker. Djinn Standard Music Supplies was stamped on a square piece of silver metal. She assumed it must be the company that made the radio.