Chapter I
On a bright spring day, when the grass and trees were green, and the breeze from a coast just over the horizon carried a hint of salt, a crowd of people mingled near some soccer fields in the shadow of elegant old-stone university buildings and a less-old brick gymnasium. A woman of medium height, dishwater blonde hair just resting on her shoulders, scanned her surroundings. She wore the “cap and gown” of traditional graduation attire, with the gold stole of her honors society. The drape of the shapeless black gown belied a slim figure, with shapely calves exposed, the suggestion of moderate hips, and a bust that was D-cup at best.
Grace continued to scan the crowds; it had been four years since she’d seen her mother and sister. Their father had passed away before Grace finished high school, her mom had been too busy with work to visit, and the ever-practical Grace stayed in town every summer and holiday to work or catch up on her studies. At last, she saw the faces she had been seeking: a middle-aged woman about Grace’s same height, with salt-and-pepper brown hair and a build that, while not necessarily “heavy,” clearly belonged to a woman who spent more time working than working out. She wore a light grey suit with a green top, which could not disguise the fact that she definitely wore a heavy-duty bra.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Grace‘s mom said, pulling her in for a long hug. “Congratulations, I’m so proud of you.”
“Thanks, Mom, I-” Grace was caught off guard by a faint commotion as a gawking crowd parted for another young woman with wavy brown hair wearing a pink sundress. It was Grace’s baby sister, Madison.
“Grace!!” the younger girl called, rushing forward and wrapping her sister in a tackle-hug.
If one had watched this scene in slow-motion, one might have heard a sound like the bong of timpani as a pair of prodigious breasts, each nearly the size of her head, jostled and wobbled with every bounding step, trying desperately to escape the bonds of their cotton and polyester prison.
Grace‘s breath went out of her in a rush as she was crushed by Madison’s hug, the younger girl‘s bosom pressing against her sister and spreading out in all directions, cresting above her collarbone. When she finally stepped back, Madison produced a lei of pink flowers and draped it over Grace’s neck. “Good work, sis; I never doubted you!”
Grace shook herself from the daze she’d been in since catching sight of her sister and said, “Hey, Maddie, thanks.” She paused before adding, “You’ve really uh… grown—in the last four years.”
Their mother gave a soft chuckle. “Yeah, it looks like our little—well, not-so-little—Madison must have gotten most of her genes from my side of the family…”
“Are you ready to go get lunch, Grace? I’m starving.” Madison said, rubbing her flat stomach like a cartoon character. The younger girl had a similar build to her sister albeit—aside from her prodigious bosom—slightly more slim.
“Yeah, I‘m good. Let’s go.”
Sometime later, the trio were shown to a table at a Chinese buffet, their mother remarking that on the rare occasions that they ate out, they almost always went to buffets, being “the most economical way to satisfy my little human garbage disposal.”
Over the next hour, Grace could hardly manage to eat her own single plate of fried rice and various styles of sugar chicken; she was so distracted by Madison‘s eating. The younger girl started with two plates, each stacked twice as high as Grace’s, then went back two more times before starting on dessert. Grace could have sworn she heard the seams on the poor sundress creak as her sister’s stomach domed out larger and larger with every trip to the buffet tables.
While their mother visited the ladies‘ room, Grace took her chance to interrupt Madison’s feasting. “Maddie! What are you doing? What have you been doing for the past four years??” She hissed.
“What? I‘ve just been eating—like you said I should,” The brunette replied through a mouthful of General Tso’s.
“I told you about the family secret so you could, I don’t know, not let mom force you into a strict diet and sign you up for every imaginable sport like me. Not so you could gorge yourself at every meal until you have to wear custom-made bras the rest of your life!”
–– Four Years Ago ––
Grace and Madison had stayed up late watching scary movies. A friend’s older cousin had gotten them a bottle of three-dollar wine, and they’d alternated between telling giggly ghost stories, sipping the stuff, and attempting to hide disgusted faces.
“Maddie, Maddie, hang on a second,” Grace began, with a hand on her sister’s shoulder to stop her giggling, to little avail.
“I have to tell you something. And I‘m not supposed to, but I’m going to anyway—because it’s bullshit that nobody told me before now.”
Grace’s use of profanity broke Madison out of her giggling fit, and her mouth dropped open. “What are you talking about?”
“Okay, listen. This is going to sound super weird, and you probably won’t believe me, but here goes.”
Grace took a deep breath.
“Our family has a secret. No one outside the family has ever known; most of the men in the family never find out, and the girls aren’t told unless they become mothers, particularly mothers of girls.”
“What the?”
“Just… let me finish. According to our Great Aunt Edith, the women in our family have this… condition. From the time we hit puberty until the changes wind down in our late teens or early twenties, we gain weight in our breasts.”
“What? Our Boobs?! Come on, Grace, I thought you were being serious!”
“I am being serious! Aunt Edith said during that age, the women in our family gain weight in our breasts.”
“Don’t all the women in every family do that??”
“No, you‘re not hearing me, Maddie. It’s not that our breasts grow; it‘s that all, or at least most of any weight we gain during those years goes to our breasts. It’s why all the women in our family are so stacked.”
“But what,” Madison began with a smirk. “What about you?” She pointed to Grace’s pajama top, which was tented by moderate B-cups.
“That‘s why I’m telling you now! Aunt Edith wasn‘t supposed to tell me; the only women ever told are mothers of girls, so they can put their daughters on diets to keep them from getting impractically big and having to get reduction surgery or something. That’s why mom is always so hard on us about what we eat, and it’s probably why she made me play so many sports.”
“I thought you liked sports…”
“I mean, I do, but that‘s not my point. I just wanted you to know now. I only have a couple years left, so I plan on relaxing my diet a little bit once I leave for college next week. I wanted you to know early enough so that you can choose for yourself. You’ve heard Mom complain about what a pain it was for her to have such big boobs, and I think that’s why she’s so strict with us. But if you want to have bigger boobs, you can; it’s up to you.”
–– Present Day ––
“It‘s mah choice, Gwace,” Madison said through another mouthful of food. “An’ ah –gulp– I choose to get as big as I can before my time runs out and food just makes me fat like any normal girl.
“Well, I just hope you don’t regret it later…”