Getting into the Holiday Spirit had never been something that Mrs. West struggled to do. Her daughters, all the way back to childhood, had been forced to undergo every holiday tradition under the sun. From big Thanksgiving dinners to Black Friday Shopping to playing taste tester for the entirety of December while their mom prepared the perfect feast for any visiting family—or even when it was just going to be the three of them.
In hindsight, Tara should have fingered this as the beginning seeds of her mama's fascination with cooking. And perhaps her own seeds of indulgence. This had always been the time of year when she'd go back to school or back to her dorm feeling snug in the pants that she had worn just the month before, and that was before Mrs. West had started showering her eldest with food in a show of support.
But now that December was back around, this had been the first one since Haley left that Mrs. West had a daughter home to indulge in things like making Christmas cookies or building gingerbread houses or...
Ugh, all of their Christmastime traditions really did involve food!
But as they'd gotten older and moved away, it had been a family law, an unbreakable arrangement, that the two of them had to come home for Christmas. No matter how nice Mrs. West was, and no matter how much she loved her daughters, this was something that neither of them were willing to push. Both because they liked coming home for the holidays and... well, their mama could be pretty scary when she wanted to be. And when it came to having her girls home for Christmas? She was willing to pull that card every time.
Unfortunately for Tara, that meant that there was no way that Haley was going to "skip" this year, and her snotty, perfect little sister was going to get an ample eyeful of just how fucking fat Tara had gotten since she'd moved home.
"Holy fuck, I'm a hog."
Staring at herself in the full-length mirror, there was no denying that Tara was bigger than ever. And on an empty stomach, no less! Her round belly bulged out over her pants, muffin topping from every angle as a spare tire of supple gutflesh bulged out from the top of her biggest pair of pants. Even the bulky sweater couldn't hide it—it just made her look fatter! With her round face and double chin, if someone dyed her hair gray and put her in glasses, she felt like she'd have been a dead ringer for Mrs. Claus!
Tara tried to limit her time in the living room today. As much as she had enjoyed getting to lay out these past few days since Big Daddy's was closed for the holiday (working Family Owned had perks like that!) she wanted to minimalize any chance of being in the room when Haley got home. Just... she wanted to be able to prepare for it is all.
Her hair had grown out, she didn't have the money to fix her dye job so her roots were awful, her makeup game was on point but there was no hiding her dimples or her double chin, none of her clothes fit her quite right, she was working as a waitress after being such a bitch about working a nice job that paid her well... and she'd put on eighty pounds since she'd moved home.
How the fuck did that even happen?
Seriously, how had she blimped up to two hundred so quickly? Sure her mom fed her every day, and she ate a lot at work, and Dani wasn't exactly the most encouraging friend as far as diets went...
But eighty pounds?
"Taraaaaaaa your sister's pulling up into the driveway!"
Great.
"I'll be down in a minute!" Tara called back out, "I'm... getting dressed!"
"You were dressed when you went up there!" Mrs. West countered from all the way across the house, "Come down so we can be together when your sister comes home!"
This was going to suck, wasn't it?
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