"Oh for God's sake! Don't tell me she's eating again!"
The father stood at the edge of the kitchen counter and shook his head in dismay as he watched his daughter who was seated at the kitchen table just across the room. She had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a plate in front of her, as she scooped it up in her hands and took a big bite. The little brunette girl couldn't be more than seven, perhaps eight years old, and indeed from her father's apt choice of words, she did have a few pounds on her.
"Shh!" The mother whispered in a hiss as she came around the edge of the kitchen table and waved her hand adamantly, silently beckoning him to 'lower' his voice. "She'll hear you!"
"Well maybe she should." The father said, his eyes never really leaving the child except for the fleeting glance he diverted towards his wife. "She might stop eating every time we turn around and maybe she'll stop being picked on at school."
"Oh will you get off of it?" The mother said, turning to open up the refrigerator door and she removed a quart of chocolate milk. "There is nothing wrong with a little girl having a healthy appetite."
The mother took a cup from the drainer at the side of the kitchen sink and she proceeded to fill it to the brim with the chocolate milk and then carried it over to her daughter and set it in front of her by her plate. The daughter picked it up in her chubby hands and took two healthy gulps before setting it down and wiping her upper lip with the back of her hand and going back to work on attacking that sandwich. The mother came back around to where her husband stood beside the refrigerator and he was shaking his head as she set the milk back into the fridge and shut the door.
The mother turned to her husband and she frowned, "What?"
"You are not helping matters, you know." He answered. "If you'd stop putting that junk in front of her at the drop of a hat, she wouldn't keep eating it."
"Right." The mother said quietly. "Like she'd be unable to open up the pantry or the refrigerator. Like she'd quit eating just because mom didn't serve it. And why should she quit anyway? She's healthy. That's all that should matter to us. It's all that should matter to you. So she has a little baby fat..."
"Baby fat?" The father asked with a raised brow. "Honey, that isn't baby fat. Our daughter is over weight and you won't even acknowledge the fact. This is why she gets treated so badly at school. This is why..."
"Okay, fine." The mother said as she held her hand up to forestall any further debating on the subject at hand. "I'll make you a deal. She'll quit eating so much when you stop buying a six pack every other day."
The father just fell into silence and stared at his wife.
"Wow."
Brandi Shotze sat across the table booth from her 'drinking buddy' and tag team championship partner, Cookie S'Mores. Brandi was rubbing her chin with her hand and she leaned back, taking up a chicken leg in her hand and she said, "Yeah, no offense ... but your dad sounds like a real asshole."
And she proceeded to tear a chunk of the fried chicken off in her teeth and chewed while Cookie shrugged her hefty shoulders, looking down at the large platter the two women had ordered to share between them.
"Maybe," Cookie sighed and she turned away from the platter and propped her elbow up on the edge of the table and rested her chin on her hand. "Then again, maybe he had a point. Neither of my parents knew I had over heard them. They never really did think I could hear when they were arguing, especially when they did about me. They didn't have that whole 'speak quietly' thing down very well. Plus my mom had a voice that could bend steel."
"Hunh." Brandi snickered as she started to pick the front of her teeth with the nail on her pinky finger. "Like mother, like daughter, eh?"
"I guess... hey!" Cookie shrieked and Brandi winced, covering her ear and giving her head a shake to 'clear' it.
"Yow." Brandi murmured. "A visual aid. Roseanne ain't got anything on you babe."
Brandi tossed the chicken bone onto an empty plate and reached for another, frowning as she looked at Cookie just sitting there.
Brandi said, "What are you planning on doing? Just sit there and watch me eat this whole goddamn thing by myself?"
"It's possible." Cookie said with a forlorn sigh. "Talking about this stuff always makes me lose my appetite."
"You're the one that brought it up." Brandi said, taking a bite of the fried chicken goodness.
"I know." Cookie admitted. And she did know. She understood that this melancholy mood was by her own doing, but she brought the topic of the difficulty that was her childhood so as to soothe Brandi's own inner demons. She wanted Brandi to know and to understand that she was not entirely alone when it came to having personal issues, be they past or present. She looked up as if to say something but instead she closed her mouth with a snap. Brandi was turned aside in her seat and jiggling her huge breasts in her hands, and calling out across the restaurant.
"Yeah!? You think yours are so big you gotta show `em off? Take a look at these and then we'll talk!"
Brandi turned back around and just saw Cookie staring at her. Brandi held her hands out in mock innocence and said, "What? She started it showing off her tits to me!"
Cookie said calmly, "She's breast feeding her baby."
Brandi frowned and turned around again to look and made a face before turning back to Cookie and she shuddered, "Damn. That is one ugly ass kid." She leaned in to look over the plate and glanced up to look at her buddy and frowned. "Will you eat something god damn it? I'm not about to eat this whole damn thing by myself! I'll never fit into that damn swimsuit you made me buy for that cruise!"
Cookie rolled her eyes, "Oh give it a rest!" She said. "It wouldn't have mattered what size I'd have grabbed for you. Those things..." She pointed at Brandi's rockets. "...would have threatened to spill out no matter what."
"It's a curse." Brandi said, then waved her hand. "Eat, damn it."
"God..." Cookie sighed and she reached forward and took a chicken leg in her fingers. "You sound just like my mom."
Brandi sat up straight and shook the friend wing in her fingers in Cookie's face. She said, "No, if I was your mom I would have back handed your dad for talking that way about my daughter.
Cookie smiled with a genuine sincerity and shook her head. "I have to admit, you're going to make someone a great mom. And you'll make one scary ass wife too."
"Yeah, don't let that Bo hear you talk like that." Brandi said as she peeled the skin off the chicken leg and popped it into her mouth. "I'm gonna get a piece of that tail before that cruise is over with if it's the last thing I do."
"Dare to dream!" Cookie giggled. "I didn't think it was his tail that had you so fascinated."
Brandi said while chewing, "Well, not just his tail." She looked up as Cookie took a bite and nodded, "Atta girl. So, it wasn't always like that, was it?"
"What?"
Brandi said, "You as a kid. You didn't always go through that shit, did ya?"
"Pretty much." Cookie nodded. "If not at home, then at school. You know how kids are. They can be vicious little..."
"Bastards." Brandi offered.
Cookie said, "I was going to say 'punks' but 'bastards' works too. The girls were the worst. I always thought girls were supposed to mature faster than boys but even right up to high school they tormented me almost on a daily basis with name calling and trying to pick fights. I'd love to meet the guy that came up with that whole 'sugar and spice' deal and back hand him into tomorrow."
Brandi tossed another chicken bone into the plate and held her hands out, asking, "Why the hell didn't you just slap the shit out of those little uptight bitches and be done with it?"
"I did, eventually." Cookie said. "Everybody has their fracture point, and I just reached mine. The captain of the cheerleading team was the worst of them and finally i had it. We were in the girls locker room and she started in on me and I knocked her over the bench and on her ass."
"Good for you!" Brandi nodded in approval and she picked up her beer mug. "Hold on, you didn't get in trouble, did you?"
"Nah!"Cookie said. "She tried tattling to the teachers but surprisingly enough her friends, or former friends, told the teachers she had started it. We both got detention, but that could have been worse. I could have been suspended or expelled for fighting."
"Well, maybe your dad would have finally gotten off your back for finally standing up for yourself."
"He was." Cookie smiled and leaned against the table, staring off. "He told me if I hadn't finally done it, he would have went to their fathers and done it for me."
"Shit." Brandi exclaimed. "What the hell got into him?"
Cookie answered, "Who knows? I guess it was okay for him to talk trash about me but god help anyone else who'd do it."
Cookie picked up another wing and Brandi asked her, "Feeling better?"
"Mm hm." Cookie nodded. "You?"
"Sure, why not?" Brandi said before taking a large swallow of her beer. "But let's not make this a regular thing or else one of us bitches will break out into a chorus of 'Wind Beneath My Wings'."
Cookie erupted into a fit of laughter, causing many a head to turn in the direction of their table. Brandi noticed this and stood up partially.
"WHADDYA LOOKING AT!? MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!!"
"It's good to have an actual friend in this sport, one who doesn't judge you and only sees you for being yourself. I always thought i had that quality in myself that I was done feeling sorry for myself but I think every now and then, those feelings rear their ugly heads and I have to beat them back down. That's why I'm glad to have a buddy like Brandi. Back at the first Supercard when we got paired together randomly, I thought it was going to just be a one-time thing. I was wrong, and I couldn't be any happier for being so. Brandi is the type of person who is her own person. She's happy and content being herself at any and all times, and if someone doesn't like it, then it's their loss, not her's. I couldn't have asked for a better pal and a better tag team partner. I think we could all stand to be a little more like her."
"Make no mistake girls, Cookie is proud of who she is. I have no real regrets. I'm outgoing as can be, and if someone doesn't like who I am as a person, well no offense but tough titties. You don't like that I'm fat? Tough. I don't like that you're anorexic. You have a problem with how I shake my wares and flirt with the boys? Join a convent, because just because you don't know how to have fun, doesn't mean I won't have some fun for myself."
"That's why we compliment one another, and it's why we're going to continue on after this big cruise as the Bombshell Tag Team Champions. We've proven why we're a successful team. The others in this match? Not so much."
"Jessie and Evangelista are lucky to even be in this match. They should be on their knees, thanking someone for this opportunity. Well, actually that might be how at least one of them even got the match in the first place. The two chicks had it out just a few weeks ago, and Evangelista beat Salco, and now here they are, teaming together and expecting to strip the Party Girls of our titles? Oh hell no. It's not going to happen. You two just don't have it between you to do what needs to be done."
"Now the Freakettes? They just might. I mean, Brandi and I met them in the tournament and we won, but those two chicks can be a nasty little combination! And I use that term literally. Rose? Lighten up on those horse pills! You might actually end up looking like a girl again. And how about taking that girlfriend of yours out to eat once in awhile? The poor thing is all skin and bones. Now it's not very often I meet a chick in the ring that's as big as I am, or even bigger, but it sure does make for a fun challenge. And it's going to be nice to have an actual challenge this time for our titles. Two teams going after us, and both are going to fall hard."
"The Party Girls are here to do what we do best. Celebrate good times, come on!"
