literature

The Lodge - Chapter Two

Deviation Actions

BrokenCassette's avatar
Published:
14.7K Views

Literature Text

By early morning the snow had finally stopped, leaving a flaky white crust on the roof of the lodge. Breakfast wasn't served until seven, and though that had once seemed a steep wake-up time, Xavier didn't seem to mind usually. He had certainly gotten used to keeping odd hours in his time working there.

Still, even with the rush of last night still very much alive, Xavier found it a bit hard to leave the safe security of his futon. Suddenly realizing how comfortable his pillow was, he finally made an effort to heave himself to his feet. Grunting at no one, he felt a shiver run down his spine, the cold air against his skin making him rethink the entire idea. As he lumbered towards the bathroom he kicked the radio gently, one of his sleepy toes eventually finding the snooze button.

Stretching a bit as his insides growled, Xavier scratched at his puffy stomach, which hung effortlessly over the taught band of his briefs. Cringing at the touch of cold linoleum, he climbed onto the scale hesitantly as he usually did when he woke up. It had been his ritual every week for at least a year or two now, and felt like little more than routine. He hadn't been able to see pass his belly in years, so he relied on the scale's audio. A slow, robotic voice called out to him:

'three. hundred. and. fifty-seven. pounds.'

"When did I..." he began to think, blowing a small tuft of red hair out of his face before deciding it wasn't worth stressing about. He had meant to get a haircut before the year was up, but it was hard finding a salon with chairs big enough for him to squeeze into. It didn't seem worth the embarrassment.

Feeling a thick handful of his belly dip into the sink as he brushed his teeth, Xavier could feel his formerly snug sleepwear getting tight around the back and sides. That particular morning his fingers and toes felt especially plump and raw. "That time of year again." he quietly mused, rubbing his stomach absentmindedly. For as long as he could remember Xavier tended to put on weight during the winter months, even when he was a kid.

After crawling out of the shower a few minutes later at least slightly conscious, Xavier wrapped a lengthy towels around his middle before standing in front of the mirror again. Looking at his reflection was a strange experience for Xavier. He had always been shy, and his sudden jump in size during college had only exaggerated that. When he graduated from high school he was a lanky 160 pounds, but it was obvious things had changed quite a bit since those days. He would sometimes search his image fruitlessly, running his fingers over whatever curve or roll looked most threatening on that particular day. It never felt like a negative experience - more like an intense curiosity.

"Oh, great..." Xavier moaned, pulling a pair of black slacks from the dryer that were now several sizes too small. He scowled as he realized his clothing had shrunk in the wash again. Turning red at the very idea of wearing such tight clothes, he squirmed in place. "Can't wear those to work...but..." Realizing that his dress shirt was in that load as well, Xavier figured it had probably also shrunken. The briefs that he had on were already snug from an earlier load of laundry, and even in the privacy of his own home Xavier felt silly wearing something so revealing. Taking a deep breath, he held his shrunken pants tightly, gulping as he shoved his first leg inside, feeling it become tight before long. Frustrated, he pulled them as far up as he could, somehow managing to convince the seams not to unravel despite their protests. "I guess that's good enough." he moaned to himself, all too familiar to the feel of clothing stretched tight against his skin. The button of the jeans pushed into the bottom of his belly irritatingly. Already feeling his skin start to sweat from the stuffiness, Xavier sucked his middle in as much as he could, holding his breath as he quickly did up as many buttons on his shirt as possible, relieved when none flew off upon releasing his bulging stomach. "Okay." he sighed, reassuring himself.

Though he didn't like talking about it, it was true that Xavier had put on a lot of weight since graduating from high school. He could never tell for sure if it had been the freedom to eat whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, or merely the fact he was constant cooking and had no one else to eat any of it. One day he felt himself getting a bit soft around the middle, and it never seemed to stop. His clothes grew too small at a frightening rate. There was a time when he was able to turn around in the kitchen without knocking things over, but now he had to be careful not to hit anything in his path. Most of the things Xavier wore came from thrift shops and such, since he outgrew things so easily. With another deep breath, Xavier gathered his things before taking one last look in the mirror and then starting off downstairs.

* * *

It was dark outside still - almost as dark as it had been last night, which is what Xavier had been thinking about for the last while. The more he thought about it, the more surreal and choppy the memory seemed to become. A small, silent part of him was still wondering if it was nothing more than an elaborate dream.

As he finally touched down on the ground floor, the soft crooning of strings started wafting in from the foyer. Unsure how anyone could possibly play the harp this early in the morning, Xavier took his time meandering towards his destination, hovering for a few brief moments beside the site of Ilene's late night break-in attempt. The surrounding carpet was still a damp, soggy red.

His hopes for an uneventful morning were dashed as soon as Xavier saw that January, dressed in casual clothing today, was approaching he made his way down the hall towards the dining room, looking sour as always. "You." she growled, always making it a point to never use his actual name, "Eliza's going to be late, so you need to get in there before it starts filling up." Xavier looked at her quizzically, though her expression remained annoyed. "Well...who's in there right now?" he asked cautiously. January shrugged, rolling her eyes. "Not my problem." she whined before waltzing off. As she passed the harpist she sneered - just her presence seemed to muffle the gentle sound of the orchestra.

Rattled, Xavier pushed his way into the kitchen, noticing for the first time that his thighs both brushed up against the sides of the narrow door jam. Thankfully, he thought, the kitchen was almost empty save a few stern-looking cooks, none of whom took notice of Xavier. When he had the chance, Xavier enjoyed watching them work - though he was only a waiter, his true passion lay in cooking. The sound of vegetables being diced and boiled filled his ears as he sighed happily. From a few feet away, the sound of a sturdy fingernail tapping against plastic suddenly caught Xavier's attention.

"Fancy meeting you here." Leaning on a chair propped against the kitchen wall, a girl fiddling with a small novelty teacup was smiling at him with tired brown eyes. Struggling to finish buttoning up his vest, Xavier closed his eyes as though trying to catch a few more seconds of sweet sleep. "I didn't know you were working today, Marah." he grumbled. Marah took another sip of her cup, which Xavier could see was just water. She had always been a bit of an eccentric.

"Oh, I don't." she replied happily, gently pushing her chair up and down. "But they're working on something in my room right now so I figured I'd chill out here for a while." Xavier shrugged, playing with his shirt cuffs absentmindedly as he wore a contented expression like Marah had never seen before. Putting her cup on the ground, she popped up from her seat, resting her chin on one of the supply shelves as she looked at him with intense curiosity.  "You look happy today." she mused. Xavier paused for a second, but continued adjusting his uniform, now struggling to finish lacing his tie. "I guess." he said simply. Marah, hardly satisfied with such a vague answer, rested her chin on Xavier's shoulder, though she was barely able to reach so high even on her toes. "Oh come on, you gotta give me more than that." she groaned, talking into his ear like a persistent mosquito. "Don't make me beat it out of you." Xavier shook her off casually, pulling at his taught trousers one more time. "I need to get out there, maybe later." he insisted, giving her a friendly glance before pushing open the doors. Pouting, she took her seat again. "Secretive as always." she muttered, taking another long sip.

The dining room was usually busy at breakfast, despite the hours being so early, and that day was no different. Luckily someone had the good sense to always schedule at least two waiters at any given meal, so Xavier's workload didn't seem so daunting. Though it was faint now, the smooth smell of food wafting in from the kitchen made Xavier wish he had eaten something before coming. Though breakfast food was probably his favorite kind, he had the terrible habit of skipping it some days.

"Xavier!" someone called out. Seated at the table closest to the window facing the lake was an average looking man wearing a smart red shirt that made him look a bit like a lumberjack. Doing his best to navigate past the sea of eating patrons, Xavier made his way over to the man, who looked like he had been up for several hours already. Sitting in front of him was a thick stack of flapjacks, smothered with butter and syrup. Xavier's stomach rumbled. "Mr. Romstead, good morning...feeling hungry?" he added, the very scent of buttermilk pancakes only adding more fuel to Xavier's current voracious appetite. The man chuckled, nodding his head. "You know it! I need all the energy I can get today." Xavier looked at him, his expression one of surprise. "What's going on? Something big?" he asked, knowing that Rick Romstead (though one of the nicest members of the staff) wasn't usually much of a hard worker. Instead of a reply, Xavier felt someone tap him gently in the middle of his back, surprising him. "Pardon me." said a soft, familiar voice.

Turning around a bit too quickly, Xavier looked down to see that he had almost bowled Ilene over with his sizable belly, who looked unfazed as he tried his best to give her room to move. She was looking up from behind sleek silver eyeglasses. "Hi there." she said brightly. Looking rested and cheerful, she almost seemed like a different person. The butterflies that had taken up residence in his belly came back to roost in seconds flat as Xavier carefully maneuvered himself out of the way, cheeks burning. "Oh, excuse me." he said quickly, beginning to realize how close the two were. "That's alright, you're fine." Ilene assured him, laughing. Xavier began twisting the menu he'd been holding in his nervous hands. Ilene took a seat next to Rick, who looked quite pleased with himself. "Xavier, this is my niece Ilene." he announced, holding his hands up as if showing off a fish he'd wrangled. Ilene waved sweetly, looking much more perky now that she had a chance to get some sleep. "Y-yes, we've met before." Xavier croaked, feeling his muscles tense up.

"Nice to formally meet you." she chirped, looking genuinely happy to see him. The glasses she was wearing today did indeed look much nicer than the ones he had accidently destroyed the night before. Rick, who Xavier could now see had the same eyes as Ilene, spoke up.

"Ilene's here to help us set up internet connections for the lodge - first the communal areas and then hopefully to all the individual rooms." Xavier could remember that Rick had been talking about doing such for years now, but never seemed to have the opportunity to make it a reality. "So that's what you meant..." Xavier trailed off, recalling what Ilene had told him last night about her being there. Ilene nodded.  "I'll be here for the rest of the year getting everything ready. It's been so long since I came to this place, everything looks so different." Though Ilene was just now beginning to nurse the glass of orange juice in front of her, Rick had already inhaled a good portion of his meal. For such a small man, he ate an astonishing amount. "I'm glad that I ran into you, Xavier," he started, still picking apart his stack of pancakes. "I've got some business to take care of with another new employee, but I'd love for Ilene to learn the lay of the land, since she'll be spending time all around the lodge. Would you mind showin' her around for a bit while I take care of some things?"

Feeling the hair on the back of his neck begin to prickle, Xavier swallowed hard before responding. "Oh, well, of course. That's no problem...but...I'm working right now." Xavier lamented, unable to hide the disappointment in his voice. Rick laughed. "Well of course you are, my boy, but that's no trouble. I think I saw Marah slinking around in the back, I'm sure she'd be able to cover you for an hour or so."

* * *

"Hey, Marah..." Xavier started, feeling himself start to relax again now that he was  once again in the sanctity of the backroom. "Can you cover for me for a little while?" Marah, who was now bouncing a rubber ball against a refrigerator, jumped up. "Are you kidding me? If it's something to do, I'm your gal."  she boasted. Taking a moment to toss her coat aside, Xavier could see that she had been wearing her work uniform underneath. "So what's so important that you're taking off from breakfast duty? Your favorite duty?" Marah inquired, now playing with her stringy black hair in the reflection of an oversized toaster. "It's something Rick wants me to do." Xavier told her. Looking up from the pile of clothing in his hands, Xavier could see from Marah's expression that his description had hardly satisfied her curiosity. "I'm just gonna be showing someone around, that's all." he said sternly, though as soon as he turned his attention back to the contents of his locker he grimaced.  

"Dirty...dirty...way too dirty..." Xavier mumbled as he began dropping several pieces of clothing to his feet, looking desperately for something he could wear that wasn't quite so revealing. "I knew I should have taken this stuff home with me last night." he groaned, looking at his now-empty locker. "You look fine." Marah insisted, now working at removing the cluster of rings laced onto her fingers. "Besides, who cares? You're just showing someone around, right?" Xavier remained silent, reaching into his locker effortlessly in hopes there was something he had overlooked. He finally gave up, shutting the locker begrudgingly. "Right."

Glancing through the pick-up window into the dining room, Marah saw Ilene slowly getting up from her chair and gathering her things before walking towards the door. She smirked, edging closer to Xavier. "Oh. I get it now." she said smoothly, sliding in front of Xavier before he could leave. "Are you heading out with that internet girl? Rick introduced me to her before you came in." Xavier tugged at the strained buttons on his shirt, trying fruitlessly to somehow hide their anguish. "If he introduced you, don't you think you should use her actual name?" he replied smugly, all too familiar with conversations like this one. Pouting, Marah threw her hands up in pseudo-defeat. "Oh whatever. Go have fun with Irene." Xavier pushed the door open before calling back to her over his shoulder. "Ilene." he corrected. Marah grinned at him before pushing the door leading to the dining room open. "Fine. Have fun with Ilene."

* * *

Ilene was standing near the glass doors leading into the foyer, holding her coat in her hands when Xavier came out, his knees wobbling slightly. "There you are." she said, quietly cleaning a bit of dust off her glasses. Immediately the butterflies returned just as Xavier knew they would, but somehow he managed to speak through their uproar. "Are you all ready to go?" he asked, wishing he was wearing something a bit more casual and roomy. Ilene didn't seem to mind. "Yep! Lead the way."
It's a bit shorter than the first chapter, but that's because I made this one a little too long, so I decided to cut it into two chapters. I'll have the preview image up before long. Hope y'all enjoy~
Comments8
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Lycantheropa's avatar
This is really cute, and once again, amazingly written!