CHUBBY HONEY: ACT TWO

His face melted before her eyes and Mandi screamed as awakened, cold sweat pooled between her neck and plastered on her forehead. In her dream, she had seen Ting's face melting away into a peachy colored foam puddle that bubbled. Really gruesome. Mandi almost puked.

I guess I really dread seeing him again, Mandi thought, being her own psychologist. Still she had no excuse to prevent herself from attending Sara's party this evening. Her six month anniversary with her podiatrist husband deserved celebration. Oh joy, they haven't cheated on each other yet. Mandi rolled her eyes. Perhaps there was bigger news. Perhaps Sara was pregnant. Her life just couldn't get any better.

Mandi couldn't complain much about her own life, despite being overweight, single, and sweaty. Yuki's success brought Rexi and Mandi a great amount of ad revenue from Yuki's site. Enough to buy Mandi a hundred pairs of shoes, nice shoes, if shoes were her thing. Too bad they weren't-- heels weren't meant for her feet. She'd literally strike oil in them. But anyway, Mandi had made enough money to attend four years of college without worrying about loans and debt. Enough money to keep Dad happy with new sets of brand name outfits every week. Since Mom left, Dad had been playing a motherly role with expertise-- his taste in fashion had also gone a bit… effeminate. Then again, nothing was really normal about her family to begin with, so no complaints here.

I'll face Ting tonight with my double chins up high. Mandi smiled to herself and hummed Yuki's latest song as she got ready. Pink outfit or black and white? Black and white would do best. Mandi winked to herself in the mirror and garbed herself with her favorite black and white outfit, one that did not make her look and feel like a tent.

A cake. Sara deserved a cake and Mandi wasn't about to bake one even though Dad had offered his masterful baking skills at her service-- he sometimes just had too much time on his hands. Mandi shook her head as she thought about her dad, the strange lonely fellow who had to watch his only daughter bubble up into a living pumpkin and deal with it. Sometimes, this really impressed Mandi. Dad was really the best dad in the world, at least to her. So instead of having him make the cake for Sara and her hubby of six months, Mandi decided to set off early to buy a cake expensive enough to feed a poor family for a week.

One thing that slowed Mandi's metabolism was her undying love for all things sweet and caloriffically-horrific. Carrot cake, mouse cake, chocolate, ginger snaps-- just anything with processed sugar brought lust to Mandi's tongue and ice to her heart-- mainly from her own lack of self-control. Being superficial was but one factor-- if she were to keep her feet from collapsing and her heart from exploding, she would need to lose all her weight.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll stop. Mandi's eyes twinkled as she walked into the Lum Lum Bakery. Tiramisu their creamy invisible hands at her. The aromatic scent of coffee heightened her senses. She walked toward the cute bakery girl in a pink outfit. Size three, Mandi thought. Four times smaller than me. The boys must be all over her.

"Hi Miss." The bakery girl smiled and tilted her head, her brown pigtails danced.
"How may I help you?"

"I would like to buy a cake. A strawberry chocolate mousse cake, with a mountain of frosting and mascarpone flowers. And a message. Congratulations Sara and Husband. May you have mountains of children like the mountain of flowers on this cake-- yes, Mandi literally had the poor bakery girl write all that on the cake. Mandi left the bakery with the cake in hand and wanted to sample the cream before she would arrive at Sara's house. She turned a corner and spotted a penny on the floor.

Lucky penny! Oof. Mandi dropped to the ground with ease, seemingly uncommon for one with her mounds of flab, and picked up the penny with ease. She raised the penny toward the sun and watched it shimmer. Mandi then turned the corner again and rammed herself straight into another person.

"So sorry! My cake!" she blurted. The cake had fallen to the ground and Mandi knew it was no more. From staring at the cake with pity for it in her eyes, Mandi looked up and stared into the face of a handsome young man. He cocked his head and anything but amusement or sympathy on his face. His dark eyes glinted with a hint of mischief. His dark black hair waved in the wind and fell to his collarbones. His full lips curled into a smile that became a smirk.

"So sorry about that." Mandi cleared her throat and felt her cheeks burn. She bent down to pick up the cake and the young man sighed.

"You clumsy fat pig," he said slowly and softly. Mandi looked up and saw a mark on the young man's chin. A small scar shaped like a mushroom rested on the left side of his chin. Ting had the same scar but Mandi didn't have to look at the scar to know the young beautiful man before her eyes was Ting.

Karma really is a bitch with slap and bite, Mandi thought. She squinted. Ting laughed. "See you later Mandi," he added before he walked away. Mandi shuddered. Meeting Ting again was far more dreadful than she had anticipated. The sweet boy who would never crush a mosquito transformed into a young man who could break any girl's heart. Mandi had a feeling he would enjoy doing so too, having been rejected by every girl on the planet in the past, including Miss Mountain Fat Clumsy Pig Mandi.

Mandi rose from her kneeling position and shook her head. It was too late now to cry over spilt milk, or in this case, crushed cake. To Ting, she would apologize and if he had to hate her for life, then so be it.

Ting didn't see tears in Mandi's eyes but tears weren't what he wished to see. He wanted to see sudden recognition, sudden shock, and a pile of regret. For days after her verbal attack, he had experienced the pains of heartbreak, betrayal, and the slap of reality. Even Mandi couldn't stand who he was and how he looked. Since then, he vowed never to swallow another stick of French fry or eat another cheeseburger. Since then, he frequented the gym, swam laps, and jogged for miles. Lean muscles replaced his pounds of fat. His heart condition vastly improved. His risk of diabetes became nil. So maybe he should thank Mandi for her wake up call. How ironic it was that since their last meeting, she had not changed one bit.

Ting felt the caress of victory. Yet why didn't it feel as sweet as he had anticipated?

The guests of Sara's party consisted of the usual people, her friends, her husband's friends, her family, his family, Mandi and her father. Upon request from Sara, Mandi took center stage in the middle of Sara's living room and retrieved a karaoke mic. If there was one thing that made her visible in these people's eyes, it was her mellifluous voice, especially when she sang A Capella. Sara lowered the volume on her TV set and everyone hushed to hear Mandi sing for them. Mandi deliberately lowered her voice so that if there were any fans of Yuki in the room, they wouldn't be able to tell Mandi and Yuki were one and the same.

After karaoke, Sara served everyone dinner and this was when Marx, Wendy, and Ting arrived fashionably late. The dining room filled with silence. The young single girls in the room quickly sat up straight to arch their spines and press out their chests. Mandi did not of that, she seemed to not even acknowledge their presence as she stabbed her fork into a slice of turkey breast.

"Sit sit. We just started eating. Come Ting, sit next to Mandi. You always used to sit next to Mandi! But look at the difference now!"

Instead of two mountains, we would look like a mountain and a normal person, Mandi thought as her heartbeats quickened and her nerves became a chaotic mess.

"Sure."

Ting took a seat right next to Mandi. He smelled like the ocean and he wore a polo shirt unbuttoned by the chest area. He stretched his long neck and turned to Mandi. "Leave some food for the rest of us," he said with a grin.

Mandi narrowed her eyes and they became slits. His physical transformation was nothing compared to his complete 360 personality change. Still Mandi couldn't find her voice to berate him. She was at fault first after all.

"Look Ting. I apologize for what I said that time. I'm really sorry." Mandi looked at Ting and inhaled deeply. Her eyes remained unblinking as they stared at Ting's expressionless face.

Ting shrugged. "Fine. Apology accepted."

For the rest of dinner, however, the two remained silent as the others chattered. Mandi had a feeling this would be like so between them for a long while to come. Splinters through hearts took longer than six months and an apology to heal. After dinner, Mandi returned to the living room to blow people away with her voice, belting out her soul and her hidden unhappiness. Ting stood by the doorway of the living room with a drink in his hands. He listened to her voice and closed his eyes.

Yuki? When he opened his eyes and looked at Mandi, the truth was apparent.

Girls like Mandi could sing like angels but get no where in life. Girls like Yuki can't even sing as well as Mandi and have millions of Internet fan boys and adoring, envious females loving her every move.

a/n: I deliberately spelled Barbie Barbee and Google Hoogle. Please review and comment! If you like this story, I will continue to update!! Maid for Me Jaiden Story will be online sometime this week. Sorry for the wait, had been terribly busy! I love y'all