intensified. Kevin Campbell, inside me. The thought was enough to make me jolt and quiver in my sleep. But before I reached a climax as the dream Kevin had instructed I awoke panting in my youth hostel bed, humping the sheets and about to wake up my roommates. Reflecting on the dream the next morning intrigued me as much as it worried me. Why was romantically lusting for Kevin again? Did I really miss him that much? I might have believed it was just a bizarre meaningless extrapolation of my subconscious, but when the dream started recurring twice a week I knew some part of myself was wrestling with my true emotions. I missed Paul after he left, but I certainly kept our tradition alive on my own. The food in that country is loaded with creamy richness that’s honestly unavoidable. The excess calories and carbs becomes permanently plastered onto your body by the alcohol you consume, which is just as prevalent as the food. For three months I ate as if it were without consequence and engorged myself as often as I could. Yeah, maybe I was mourning the sudden departure from Paul, and maybe I just felt like being my natural self at the same time. The day before my flight back to the states I looked in the mirror and let my new transformation sink in. My breasts had grown nearly a cup-size, and my waist was attached to twice as much ass and thighs.
The day I flew home I greeted my mother at the airport and acted as if nothing at all had changed. We laughed over dinner about my trip, and when she asked once at it’s conclusion if I still planned to go to Kevin’s photo shoot in the morning I lied and said he found someone else. I wanted to believe it enough to make it true. That night when I was home I tried putting on the same work out clothes I wore the day before I left, and I looked like a complete joke. My spare tire definitely hung out further than it ever had before, and my arms suddenly looked doughier than they had in years. I felt comfortable at this size, but I couldn’t believe myself as the model image for someone’s career reputation as a personal trainer. I would never accept curvaceous girl in the mirror as the real me. There was no hiding the damage I’d done. I can say now that I know that I’m weak. I refused to acknowledge my mistake and own up to it by calling Kevin to let him know he should hustle to find another student for his photo shoot. Or even just to let him know he should maybe cancel the photo shoot all together. That day I sat up in my room by myself. Suddenly completely crippled and immobile. I refused to own up to what I had done, which made me feel even worse for Paul, which was guilt I just couldn’t confront. It was too much for me to take, and it kept getting worse. Suddenly my phone buzzed from Kevin’s innocent, unassuming text. > Hey, haven’t heard from you in a while. It’s about an hour before the shoot, are you on your way? Hope you didn’t forget. Two missed calls and thirty minutes later my phone buzzed with yet another helpless plea. > Hey is everything alright, Melanie? The photographer’s ready to go, but there’s no sign of you. Are you going to make it? Please let me know. And at this point I actually broke into tears. What had I done? Why couldn’t I stop myself form hurting this person that had been nothing but kind and helpful to me for years? These were the thinking points of the evening as I sat in my room refusing to budge. Two hours after the photo shoot meeting was supposed to take place I heard a knock on my door from my mother. “ Mel? Kevin Campbell is on the phone. He wants to know if you’re ok. What’s this about? What should I tell him?” I sighed the type of sigh that only comes out from having realized you’re the worst human being on the planet. “ I’m fine. Tell him I’m fine,” I whimpered from my locked bedroom.
It took me about a week to finally come out of my awkward social paralysis and accept what I