Don’t give the milk away for free or else there’s no reason to buy the cow.

Or something like that. It had become Jenna’s mantra these days. She didn’t particularly like it, but she knew there was some truth to it. It was the reason she hadn’t kissed Tom on their first date and part of the reason she wasn’t throwing herself at him in public at school—even though she wanted to do both. Back when Jenna had been learning the ropes of dating in eighth grade and then the beginning of high school, Mrs. Shcherbatsky had taught Jenna the axiom.

“You’ve got to make boys earn things,” Jenna’s mother had said, “Don’t just give them everything. They’ll just walk away from you without a second thought. Besides, you’ll get a reputation you won’t want.”

At the time Jenna hadn’t quite understood that last part, but she quickly learned what her mother was talking about as she saw other girls do precisely what her mother had warned against. They were viewed as being “easy”, for lack of a more polite term. Jenna began to realize the wisdom in her mother’s words and put them into practice immediately. She’d had great success with them too. By withholding just enough she’d garnered several devoted boyfriends over the years.

And now she wanted to throw all her mother’s advice to the wind. Every time she saw Tom she had to stop herself from running to him so he could embrace her. She wanted to put her arm around him and have him do the same. She simply wanted Tom so badly. Yet she didn’t do any of the things she wanted.

Jenna just couldn’t buck the advice that had been so ingrained into her when it came to dating. Even though she felt there was something different about her relationship with Tom when compared to her other boyfriends, Jenna couldn’t make herself loosen her rules. It killed her to keep Tom at a distance—though neither could pretend that they were “just dating”. Both teenagers knew that there was something more going on, even though it had only been one date.

However, Jenna did take comfort in one thing. As she’d told Tom, her mother had never said anything to her about what to do on a second date. By that point Jenna usually had things well in hand and this time looked to be no exception. Jenna was rather certain that she could be patient until Friday when she was to meet Tom at his house for their second date.

***

Jenna was anything but patient when Friday rolled around. That afternoon after practice she hadn’t needed as long to get ready. As a result, she sat in her room and looked at the clock, willing it to tick down quicker so she could head over to Tom’s house without being absurdly early. The less time there was before she had to leave, the more maddening the wait was.

Unlike their last date, Jenna had dressed slightly more casual. She’d chosen jeans rather than a skirt this time after feeling slightly awkward in her skirt last time. Jenna had also decided to go with a collared rugby shirt with thick blue and white horizontal stripes. The stripes did little to make Jenna look slimmer, but she was a little less concerned with her appearance since Tom hadn’t seemed to notice anything during their last date. After all, she’d stuffed her face for half the date and he hadn’t even batted an eyelash. So what if her belly looked a bit larger when not slimmed down (even if fractionally) by vertical stripes? It was no problem that her thighs filled out the jeans, or that every curve of her butt was emphasized much more in her jeans than if she’d been in a skirt.

She drove over to Tom’s house where she met his parents in largely the same manner that Tom had met the Shcherbatskys, which need not be recounted here. One thing of note was that Jenna got to meet her “sister”, Jenna the Golden Retriever. The dog was energetic and wagged her tail excitedly when Jenna the human came through the door, immediately coming over to the other blonde in the room.

“She’s sooooo cute!” Jenna said knelt down to pet the dog, and by doing so giving Tom a view of her cleavage through the unbuttoned top of her shirt. “She’s happy to see me!”

“Eh, she’s happy to see anyone so she can sucker them in with her good looks and get them to pet her,” Tom replied.

“Sounds like we’ve got quite a bit in common,” Jenna said with a mischievous glint in her eye. Tom was thankful that his parents walked in ten seconds later and hadn’t caught that exchange or else they might begin to wonder precisely what sort of a girl their son was dating.

Tom and Jenna’s second date, which was at the Burger Shack (it tasted better than the name might suggest) was much like the first. It too need not be recounted. All that you need to know is that Jenna polished off a 1/3 lb cheeseburger with fries and that the more they talked with each other, the more each fell for the other.

When they got to Tom’s house, they both got out of the car and Jenna walked with Tom to the door.

“Nice choice for dinner Tom,” Jenna said.

“Thanks for coming. You made it all the better,” Tom replied.

“Awww, thanks,” Jenna said, reddening a bit. She was more in control of herself tonight, but she’d still not been totally able to keep a cool demeanor. In all honesty, Jenna liked the fact that Tom could thrill her and shake her out of her usual poise, even if it did mean she sacrificed a bit of her composure.

“Well, I suppose then I’ll see you tomorrow,” Tom said.

“Yeah, see you tomorrow Tom,” Jenna said.

Then came the awkward pause from their first date as each tried to figure out the best way to leave things.

Should I kiss him or not? Jenna thought, Maybe I should hug—!!

In mid thought Tom had locked lips with Jenna. It was the first kiss in her life that had taken her totally by surprise. However, after the initial shock she put one hand gently behind Tom’s head and wrapped the other around his back, drawing herself closer to Tom’s body as he put his arms around Jenna. Her plump body pressed tightly against Tom’s body. In their embrace, Tom could feel every bulge of Jenna, but in the ecstasy of the kiss he’d fantasized about for years he barely felt a thing other than his lips against Jenna’s. Tom was a decent kisser, but Jenna was more skillful from her greater experience, so she took charge a bit in that department.

When they gently pulled apart, their faces stayed close together. Jenna had a small smile on her face. “Well, I guess someone decided to take charge,” Jenna said softly.

Tom said nothing for a moment. “I don’t really have anything to say to that other than thanks for not being offended and not slapping me.”

Jenna laughed softly. “Just for that…” She pulled Tom into another kiss, this one shorter, but still just as enjoyable. When they’d finished, they pulled apart. “Good night Tom. I think I’ll be seeing you later.”

“Count on it,” Tom breathed as they parted ways.

***

Jenna and Tom from this point forward were a couple, even if they didn’t admit it to themselves or anyone else. The kiss had sealed their status as boyfriend and girlfriend. It was inevitable from that point forward that they become more than friends, or even close friends. Though they saw each other regularly on the weekends and went on dates—including to rather prominent local places where people usually went to be noticed on dates—they almost never hung out together at school. Jenna on her part was still conscious of the social divide that existed between them, which kept her from bring Tom into that elite circle of RFK’s junior class. Tom, on the other hand, didn’t want to press Jenna too hard on any topic. Though his kiss marked the beginning of Tom coming into his own more and more in dating Jenna, in many areas Tom was allowing Jenna to call the shots in their relationship.

It was two weekends later that Jenna got a call from a flabbergasted Christy.

“I swear to God it’s true Jenna!” Christy said excitedly.

“Come on, it was barely a month ago that she was seeing Vince,” Jenna said incredulously. She was watching TV and having a bag of chips, two activities that now automatically went together for her, while she talked with Christy. “Tara’s not the sort of person to get back on the horse so quickly.”

“I saw her with Liam today at the movie theater! They’re obviously together! I wouldn’t have thought Tara would have started seeing someone again this quickly either, but she has!” Christy insisted.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Jenna said.

Sure enough, the next week Tara brought Liam around and they started eating together with the water polo team, which always ate together during the season. After a customary interrogation, the team accepted Liam and found him quite wonderful indeed. Everyone approved of Tara’s new boyfriend, who was a lot nicer and seemed more genuine than the last one. Jenna herself thought he was rather nice, though he couldn’t hold a candle to her Tom.

The even sent social repercussions throughout the school. Though Tara was a bit of a marginal figure in the top tier of RFK High, she was still someone prominent. Though Liam was well known because he was smart, he was not remotely close to the elite circle Tara and Jenna traveled in. “Dating down” like this was rarely done and it always caused a stir when it happened.

On a more personal level, the event liberated Jenna. Though she’d been hesitant to publicly be with Tom as his girlfriend, by her actions one would have thought she was begging to be noticed like Tara and Liam had been. She and Tom had gone to the movies the night before Christy had seen Liam and Tara there, and that had been on a Friday night when there were a lot more people at the movies. It was almost a miracle that Tara and Liam had been spotted on a Saturday morning and Jenna and Tom had escaped noticed on a Friday. Jenna and Tom had also been having dinner at more popular eateries as of late. Though it seemed no one had seen them together, it was really only through sheer luck that they hadn’t been spotted yet.

Now that Tara had shattered social divisions by dating Liam without shame, Jenna had no hesitation about following in Tara’s footsteps. If she’d stopped to think about it, Jenna would have found it funny that she was following the lead of Tara Kelly, who was far from the social trendsetter that Jenna had once been. Then again, Jenna was far from the social trendsetter she’d once been as well. In fact, Jenna was closer to Tara then she might care to admit, in both size and personality. However, for the moment, none of this occurred to Jenna. She was focused only on the fact that she could soon be openly with Tom as his girlfriend and it wouldn’t create the same stir as it would have if Jenna had come out dating Tom from the beginning.

“Jenna’s actually dating Tom?” they would say, “Look how far they fall…”

And when later that week Jenna brought Tom over to the water polo clique for lunch, there was a stir. However, as Jenna had predicted, it wasn’t as large as it could have been and in a couple of days it was forgotten. But for those first few days of their relationship going public, Jenna felt the eyes of all RFK High upon her. At times she felt embarrassed, at times defiant, at other times simply elated—the last generally when she was with Tom.

After those two days were over, Jenna and Tom—as surprising as it might be—became a perfectly ordinary couple. They held hands, ate lunch together, hugged, and sometimes even kissed in public. Together they were happy. It was like so many other relationships going on at RFK High and schools everywhere. So, one evening after a quick and simple dinner as the pair walked towards Tom’s door, Tom made a proposition that, though it seemed a bit awkward to Tom, was a perfectly normal outing for a couple.

“Say, this might sound silly, but I was thinking that on Sunday you could come with me when I take Jenna D—” which is what they’d agreed to call the dog, hence the D, “—with me to dog beach. She really likes going in the water.”

Jenna had an internal moment of panic. Go to the beach with Tom? In a bathing suit! He probably expects I’d wear a bikini too! Nobody goes to the beach unless they’re in a bikini! But I’d look so fat in it! But going to the beach with Tom would be fun, and I haven’t been in ages! “Isn’t the water a little cold this time of year?” Jenna asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, but you know how warm it’s been this last week. The paper was putting today’s water temperature up around 69 degrees. When it hits 70, it’s warm enough for me to go. It’s always warm enough for Jenna D. Fur coat and all,” Tom said.

Tom was right, it had been warmer than usual lately. It wasn’t out of the ordinary to get a stretch of nice weather like this in Southern California at this time of the year. However, it had been warm for a while, and the weather reporters were saying that they could lapse back into regular cooler weather any day now. And I don’t want to say no to Tom. I’d take any excuse to spend more time with him, Jenna thought. So she decided to take a chance and gamble. “All right, we’ll go. But if that water isn’t 70 degrees, I doubt I’ll go in,” Jenna said.

“I won’t make you,” Tom said, “Want to meet over here on Sunday around 11 or so?”

“Sounds great,” Jenna said with a smile. She was smiling more these days, especially around Tom. She hadn’t felt this great since she’d dated Craig, and she felt better than that. “See you Sunday Tom.”

“I’m already looking forward to it,” Tom said.

“So am I,” Jenna said and she sauntered to her car with a spring in her step.

***

Jenna found the next morning that she didn’t have a bikini that fit her anymore. The discovery was not unexpected, but it still highlighted her fears about her beach outing with Tom. He would surely expect her to wear a bikini if it was warm enough, and Jenna had to be prepared for that. To wear anything else would only underscore her recent weight gain, even if it did give her more body coverage. It would also definitively establish that she wasn’t chubby, plump, or curvy. Jenna would be forced to call herself fat. Girls who didn’t wear bikinis were either prudes or they were fat, and no one was going to mistake Jenna for being a prude with her good looks. Then again, fat girls who wore bikinis were disgusting. For the moment, though, Jenna was just going to have to take her chances.

After finding the water temperature in the newspaper to be 70 degrees, Jenna went to buy a new swimsuit. Though she hoped that the water temperature would drop, Jenna had to be prepared. She went to the store and bought a new blue bikini in size 12. It gave slightly more coverage than the bikinis she used to wear, but it was a bikini all the same.

Jenna’s hopes were in vain. Upon consulting the paper that Sunday, she discovered that the water temperature still sat squarely at 70 degrees. While the blonde loved the sun, she thought it was doing her no favors right now heating up the ocean. She got dressed with her bikini substituting for her undergarments and put on a pair of jean shorts and a white tank top. Though her shorts showed off her flabby thighs and thickening calves a little more than she might like, Jenna figured that she was going to be flaunting her legs quite a bit anyways once she had her shorts off at the beach. No sense in worrying about what she’d look like in these shorts when she had to worry about what she was going to look like in her bikini. Likewise, Jenna wasn’t much concerned about her belly stretching the bottom of the tank top. One bright spot was that one could see her bikini top through the thin material of the tank top in that typically titillating style, which made her feel sexy as it always had.

Upon arriving at Tom’s, Jenna’s canine counterpart rushed out to meet her, tail wagging. After the obligatory petting on the front lawn to placate the dog, Tom set out for the beach with his two Jennas. They got to the leash-free beach and set up a couple towels with an umbrella for shade. It was a sunny day, cooled a bit by some wind off the ocean. Because it was a warm day in the waning autumn, the beach was well populated with people and dogs. This might have made Jenna slightly more nervous about revealing her bikini-clad body, but only slightly more so if at all. In reality she was only concerned with what Tom was going to think of her fattened figure.

Jenna the dog waited patiently as the towels and umbrella were set up. Once that had been done, Tom took a tennis ball and threw it out into the ocean for the golden retriever. “She loves fetching,” Tom said, “If I’m not careful she’ll go for other people’s tennis balls and bring them to me as well.”

“Sounds like we both get a little overenthusiastic about you,” Jenna the blonde replied somewhat coyly.

Jenna the dog returned with the tennis ball in her mouth, half wet from the waves. Jenna the human threw the ball and the dog was off again. When she turned back to Tom, Jenna found him peeling off his t-shirt, leaving him in only his swim trunks. Tom wasn’t extremely fit, nor did he bristle with muscles, but he was generally lean. Physically he was less fit than just about every other guy that Jenna had dated in her life. This isn’t to speak ill of Tom, for that would be untrue. In reality, Tom had a slightly better than average build—and Jenna liked it. She’d heard something about how some movie stars who weren’t ultra fit were being considered attractive now, “heralding an age of the common man” the reporter had said, or something to that effect. She hadn’t really believed it then, but now that she saw her boyfriend with his shirt off she thought she now understood.

“Well, well. Looks like we’ve got a new hunk on the beach,” Jenna said as she gave Tom a squeeze.

“Oh please,” Tom said giving Jenna a friendly shove.

“No really. All the other girls must be looking at you right now, like that one over there,” Jenna said.

“She’s looking in the opposite direction,” Tom replied.

“Only whenever you look at her. She’s embarrassed because you’re so hot,” Jenna said earnestly.

“More likely scared that my girlfriend will kill her if she gets any closer,” Tom said.

By this point Jenna the dog had returned with the ball and was impatiently waiting for someone to throw it. As Tom did so, Jenna the blonde figured she might as well get it over with. She peeled her tank top off, exposing her large belly and its deep bellybutton. Jenna had privately worked on her tan in her backyard, so she was still a beautiful soft golden color (though not so tan as to be disgusting as some women were) to rival any other maiden on the beach. The back strap of Jenna’s bikini top dug into her fleshy sides, only further emphasizing her size. Her large knockers bounced as she moved, supported by the bikini top. Her cleavage was more than impressive. It almost qualified for status as a natural wonder. Jenna shimmied out of her shorts, her hips jiggling from side to side as she did so. Her ass was just barely covered by the blue bikini which stretched across her cheeks, but it did indeed cover it. The monochrome blue did little to diminish the appearance of her derrière. Jenna now definitely had an hourglass figure as her breasts had been joined by her hips as the largest parts of her physique. Her thighs were completely bare and shook with every step, any space between them a distant memory.

Now unveiled and half naked (if not a little more), Jenna turned to Tom, waiting for his approval. She smiled nervously and brushed her blonde hair back, one of her forms of fidgeting. For a moment, which felt like longer to Jenna, there was silence as Tom got his first look at the girl he had idolized for years in her swimsuit.

“You look great,” Tom said.

Jenna didn’t need anything more. “Thanks.” At this point, Jenna the dog, who was still as eager as when they’d arrived at the beach, returned with the ball. “Come on, let’s go!”

Jenna the girl took off running and the golden retriever dropped the ball and bounded after the human with Tom following close behind. The trio ran through the waves (which felt colder than the 70 degrees if you asked Jenna) and waded out to their waists in the water, laughing and splashing about. Afterwards all three sat underneath the umbrella in the shade. The dog lay in the sand and panted, now thoroughly tired from all the exercise. Jenna and Tom sat on a towel with their arms around each other. Tom had brought a few sodas and snacks and the pair munched a bit.

“Have a fun time?” Tom asked.

“Yes,” Jenna responded.

“And the water wasn’t too cold once you got in, right?”

“Right.”

“And aren’t you glad I got you to come?”

“Yes.”

“And who’s a good girl?”

“Me.”

“I was talking to the other Jenna for that one,” Tom said, “but you’re still a good girl in my book.”

“That’s only because I haven’t shown you my naughty side,” Jenna replied and she and Tom kissed.

After a while they packed up and headed back because they both had to do schoolwork for Monday. Jenna was as happy as a clam, however. Tom still thought she looked beautiful and nothing else really mattered. This had been a great afternoon.

***

Tom didn’t have the same view as his girlfriend. Today had not been what he had expected at all. It had started off well enough with Jenna complimenting him on his appearance. Tom wasn’t overly self-confident about his body (though he certainly wasn’t insecure), so Jenna’s praise had a very tangible effect on him.

Everything from that point forward had just gone downhill.

When Jenna disrobed, in a flash Tom became aware of what the rest of Robert F. Kennedy High School had known for months: that Jenna Shcherbatsky was fat. However, the rest of the school had been able to get used to this circumstance over time as Jenna transitioned from chubby to plump to fat. The whole weight gain of 40 pounds hit Tom like…well…40 pounds of bricks to be perfectly honest. All of a sudden now that Jenna was clad only in a bikini, Tom saw every roll on her flabby frame, all the many bulges, every ripple of her jiggling frame in stark detail. The sight was absolutely shocking for Tom, if not horrifying. Just as it is hard, if not impossible, to understand why Tom hadn’t seen Jenna fattening up before his eyes like a pig at the trough, so too it is hard to fully appreciate what Tom felt at that moment. If he had been gone for the last few months and returned to find the girl of his dreams had porked up, that would have been somewhat akin to what Tom felt. Still, that would only have been surprising—far from shocking as Tom actually felt. It was as if some evil witch hit Jenna with a spell and in an instant she went from svelte to zaftig. Granted, it wasn’t all bad. Jenna’s breasts were a sight to behold. Tom was fairly confident they had no equal, especially at RFK High. However, that was only a feeble attempt to find the bright side of the situation.

Tom’s moment of silence after Jenna turned to look at him was all the time he was able to have for shock and surprise. Tom was observant enough to see the plea in Jenna’s crystal clear blue eyes for approval. In that instant Tom understood that Jenna knew she was fat and that she desperately needed validation. Without a second thought Tom told her she looked good—all while trying to keep his face from betraying his real thoughts.

When Jenna took off running down the beach, Tom cringed slightly at how she jiggled wildly in every area as she ran. Her entire body bounced uncontrollably and Tom was struck by the fact that though he’d long fantasized about this experience, never had it been like this. As Tom followed after the two Jennas, he was acutely aware of the eyes of the other beachgoers on him and Jenna. He could almost hear their hushed whispers. Tom needed to use little imagination to guess what they must be saying. For the first time since that first day Jenna took him as her lab partner, Tom was embarrassed. Granted, he’d been awkward, unsure, nervous, confused, and flustered at various points before, but never embarrassed. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps this is what he deserved for obsessing over a girl for so long.

Once Tom got out in the ocean, things were a bit better since there were less people around. Tom was able to relax and enjoy himself more, even though his was still somewhat undone after his sudden epiphany. When they got back to the beach and sat under the umbrella, Tom put his arm around Jenna because he thought he was supposed to, not out of any actual romantic desire. As he held Jenna, he felt her fleshiness for the first time. Her skin felt foreign in the way it gave beneath his fingers and then sloshed back. As they nestled together, Tom was acutely aware of every curve of Jenna’s body against his, especially her gut. As they snacked, Tom got a relatively good idea of how Jenna had gotten as big as she had. However, through the entire afternoon Tom had been able to keep his unease from showing and it didn’t seem that Jenna had noticed anything out of the ordinary with him, and Tom was highly thankful for that. Tom wasn’t sure what any of this meant, but he didn’t want to upset Jenna at all.

Once they’d both gone home, Tom locked himself in his room to run through his thoughts, which were jumbled so much that Tom needed to lie down just to begin sorting them out.

All right, so Jenna’s fat. That’s probably the reason she started going out with me in the first place. Nobody else would go out with a fat girl so she settled for me, Tom thought bitterly, How could I have fallen for that?…And yet…Jenna wasn’t just pretending, she really does like me. But that doesn’t change the fact that seeing Jenna today that big was a huge shock. Everyone was looking at us, it was so embarrassing. I mean, who’d want to date a fat girl? But I suppose Jenna’s been that fat all the time and I haven’t noticed. Nobody made fun of us at school and half the people at the beach were probably drunk anyways so they were probably less tactful than they might have liked to be. But still, Jenna’s not just put on five pounds and gotten a little chubby. She’s gotten out and out fat. I mean, she’s a different girl now. The way she looked at me, begging for my approval…the old Jenna had self-confidence. She was sure of herself.

But the old Jenna never gave me the time of day. She wasn’t self-confident, she thought she was the center of the universe. She wasn’t sure of herself, she was smug. The old Jenna didn’t care a whit about you, and you knew it Tom. You never wanted to admit it, but it was true. And now you are dating Jenna, what you always wanted, and part of the bargain is that she’s fat and has some issues as a result. Is it worth it?

Let’s not forget, you have a few issues yourself. After all, you felt better after Jenna told you that you looked good. And she meant it, unlike you. She really likes you…and today we did have fun…it’s not all bad, but it’s not perfect. Maybe I should just give things a try, see how they go. Maybe it won’t be so bad. I hope not anyways.

All the same, Tom had a feeling that the coming days would be very important for his relationship with Jenna. He just hoped it wouldn’t be in a bad way.