It hadn't technically been "her room" since high school, and that had certainly helped foster the hazy sense of unease that had come with moving back home with her mom. It was hard, getting used to moving back to podunk Spartanburg after two years of living it up in Charleston. Her own apartment, someone next to her, the sounds of the city bouncing against her windows. For the past two weeks, Haley had hardly slept at all, even underneath her favorite fluffy pink comforter and her freshly washed cotton sheets. Things had changed so much while she was away...
"Haley!" Came a sing-songy voice from downstairs, "I made your favorites—chocolate chip pancakes!"
That was going to take some getting used to too. Haley had been able to sleep in well into the afternoon back when she and her now ex-boyfriend lived in the city. Having her mom cook for her was great and all, considering that she hadn't eaten an honest, solid breakfast probably since she left hom. Most days, she wouldn't eat until noon. But it was clear as day that that particular habit would have to change in the West household...
Even if she would have much rather slept her day away, Haley knew that she couldn't resist the siren song of a home-cooked meal. The smoky smell of bacon and the sizzling of eggs on the pan made her mouth wet. As much as she wished that her mother wouldn't cook such heavy breakfasts, they were growing on her...
"Ugh, don't jinx it." Haley told herself with a roll of her deep brown eyes, "The last thing anyone in this house needs to do is grow."
As she trudged sleepily down the stairs of her childhood home, she was greeted with the reminder that among one of the largest changes that had occurred during her time away, her mother's figure was one of them.
Mrs. West had never been a particularly skinny woman, at least as far back as Haley could remember. What mom of two in her mid-to-late forties was? Even still, Haley could vaguely remember a time when her mother didn't get out of breath bringing in the groceries, or when she could stand right up against the oven without her tummy getting in the way. That had started to change around the time that Haley was in high school and Tara had started going to Wofford, when she started to get kinda big. But at some point in the blur that was Haley graduating, moving out with her boyfriend, the two of them moving to Charleston so that he could play in a band, and all of that, Haley's mom had absolutely blown up.
It was still very much her mom, like Haley recognized her when she sat across the dinner table or popped her head out from the kitchen. Her straw-colored hair had faded and gotten a bit longer, but it still framed the same brown eyes that had glowered at her every time she and Tara had gotten into a fight when they were kids or lit up when Haley came home with a good progress report from school. But her high cheekbones were now buried underneath chubby chipmunk cheeks that folded around the corners of her mouth and dimpled when she smiled and a prominent double chin. Her soft matronly figure had exploded outwards into a heavy apron of maternal flesh, giving her this exaggerated pear-shaped figure that ballooned outwards the lower that Haley's eyes traveled.
Haley could recognize her mother from the front without any issue—but when she was eclipsing the fridge late at night, giant ass swaying contentedly as she hunted for "a little something sweet after dinner" when all Haley wanted was a glass of water, it took some reminding that this massive woman was, in fact, her mother.
All in all, Haley's mom had probably put on a hundred pounds since both of her daughters had moved out of the house—that had to have put her at somewhere just over three hundred.
"There she is—my little sweet potato!" Haley's mom practically cooed like a dove as her daughter dragged herself through the kitchen, "How'd you sleep?"
"I slept alright." Haley lied as she sat down at the head of the table, "After dinner last night, I sort of passed out."
"There's nothing like going to bed on a full belly." The older woman said with a pat of her precious daughter's cheek, "Especially when it's full of comfort food cooked by your mommy."
Haley smiled awkwardly as her mother turned slowly back towards the smorgasbord of food that she had been preparing since... gosh, it had to have been pretty early. Mrs. West had always been an early riser, so that was no shocker. But the liberal amount of food that she whipped up "just because", combined with the frequent snacking and sampling from bowls of eggs and plates of bacon helped Haley to understand just where at least some of that extra weight had come from...
"Do you want maple syrup on your pancakes?" Mrs. West asked vapidly, fat butt sashaying excitedly as she started to bring breakfast over to the table (but not without sneaking a quick bite of egg with her chubby sausage fingers) "You've got a big day today—first day of college!"
"No thanks, mama." Haley smiled, serving herself some modest portions from the bowl of grits that had been waiting for her, "I'm still full from last night."
"Oh come on, you have to have a good breakfast." the wide woman wobbled as she waddled across the kitchen, placing a big plate of pancakes in the center, "At least promise me you'll eat this sausage. It's your favorite!"
"Okay, okay..." Haley relented, picking a brat off the pile, "Sausage it is..."
Before her laid the same spread that had greeted her every morning since she had told her mother that she wanted to move back in. Bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausage, and biscuits straight from the tube. There were to be muffins, at least the evidence of muffins, but Haley had a sneaky suspicion that they had wound up being the first course for a certain someone with crumbs still around her mouth... After two years of living off of ramen noodles, sandwiches, and dollar menu items, Haley wasn't exactly one to complain. Even after two weeks, she hadn't said so much as a word against the prodigal daughter treatment. But she couldn't help but think that her mom might have gotten too comfortable with food while she and Tara had been away...
Picking up her fork and starting to saw into her pancakes, Haley tried to take mindfully sized bites of her breakfast while her mother... didn't.
"Ooh, honey, pass me those biscuits..." Her mom was still panting after waddling around the kitchen all morning, her belly touching the table slightly even seated a good distance away from the table, "Mmm... ooh I put the grits too far away, could you send those my way too?"
"Sure." Haley struggled with the old country crockery's weight but managed, "Here you go, mama."
"Doesn't all this look so good?" Mrs. West asked, watching the grits flow like water onto her plate, "Your mama is such a good cook, isn't she?"
"The best." Haley chuckled with a congratulatory pat on top of her mama's head, "Anything else while I'm up?"
"Oh no honey, you sit down and eat your food." Mrs. West's bicep sloshed violently as she waved over to the other side of the table, "I'm sorry I don't mean to have you waiting on me..."
Haley turned back towards her chair, and even got a step forward before her mother quickly interjected—
"But since you're up, would you mind making me another cup of coffee? Oh! And the blueberry syrup is still on the counter, would you mind getting that for me?"
Haley sighed as she course-corrected, the sound of her fat mama enjoying her breakfast finding its way between her nerves.
At least she'd be out of the house for the rest of the day. USC Upstate might not have been the best college in her area (certainly no Wofford) but at least it would give her a chance to get out of the house and away from her mama's fattening meals...
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