Mentos

Tania eyed the two-liter bottle of diet soda in her hands nervously. "Do I really have to do this?"

"'fraid so," Claire said, breaking open a fifth roll of Mentos. "New pledges have to be initiated.  Them's the rules." She dumped the contents into the blender before tossing the paper aside and opening another roll.  "Honestly, you're getting off easy."

The blonde glanced down at the second two-liter bottle by her feet. "Are you sure?"

"Listen, I've seen some o'the things they do to guys over in Kappa Delta Theta, and trust me."  The brunette paused for dramatic emphasis as she put the cap on the blender and tapped the button a few times. "This ain't nothin'."

Tania looked at Claire, who nodded reassuringly, before unscrewing the cap and raising the bottle to her lips.  She winced at the sudden burst of carbonation before beginning to drink in a steady series of mouthfuls, each swallow punctuated by a quiet "glug."

Claire returned her attention to the blender, emptying the Mentos chunks into a small bowl beside her. "If you're really worried, all you're going to do is belch for a bit." She scooped up several packages of Pop Rocks and began tearing them open, adding them to the mix.  Raising the bowl, she swirled it around a bit, more to kill time than anything else. "Nobody's going to see you, either; we're both in the basement and everyone else is out getting drunk."

A few moments later there was a loud gasp, and she turned to see Tania gently throw the empty bottle away.  The blonde was now sporting a small belly, poking out from beneath her sweater.  Tania reached down, undoing the button on her jeans before cradling her stomach with one hand, stooping to pick up the soda.  Standing, she undid the top and continued to drink in slow, steady draughts.

Claire couldn't help but marvel at how a girl Tania's size could have that much room in her.  Her eyes were drawn to her belly as it gently edged outward, pushing her sweater up she drank.  There was a strange softness to it, and she stood there wondering what it would be like to hold it in her hands, feeling it grow between her fingers.

The sound of the second bottle hitting the floor startled Claire out of her reverie, and she blushed and looked away, realizing that she had been staring at Tania the entire time. "Okay, um." She snatched up a one-liter bottle of diet cola and funnel with one hand, taking the bowl in the other and crossing the empty basement to Tania, who was staring queasily at the objects she was holding.

Claire held out the funnel. "Ready?"

Tania nodded weakly, taking the funnel, leaning her head back and putting it into her mouth.  Raising her arms, Claire emptied the bowl of Mentos and Pop Rocks into the funnel, washing it down into Tania's mouth with the soda as she forced the powdery, gritty mixture down her throat.

As the last of the soda and powder drained down, Claire stepped back, giving Tania room to breathe.  "Congratulations," Claire said, tossing the bottle of soda away. "You're in.  How you holdin' up?"

Tania forced a smile. "I feel... kind of gassy." She squeezed her stomach; were it not for the amount of give it had one could easily mistake her for being in the early months of pregnancy.

"You should be okay," Claire said. "A little burpy, but like I said-"

"Wait.  Do you hear that?"

Claire's head snapped up to the ceiling. "Is someone back already?" She strained to hear, listening for footsteps, but all that was there was a fizzing sound, barely audible but steadily increasing in volume. "All I hear is a fizzing..." She trailed off, looking back at Tania.

Tania whimpered, clutching her stomach as the fizzing grew louder.  As the noise reached a crescendo it began trembling beneath her fingers, and she let out a shriek as it rapidly blossomed outward to the size of a beach ball, still quivering and fizzing in her hands.

"The pressure," she groaned. "It's... it's too much..."

Claire's jaw worked uselessly for a few seconds before her mind caught up. "C'mon, we need to get you to... to a doctor or something."  She took one of Tania's hands, leading her towards the stairs as Tania waddled behind her.  No sooner did they take a few steps than Tania experienced another burst of explosive growth, doubling in size.  Ihe force of her stomach impacting Claire sent her stumbling forward as it pushed Tania onto her back.

The contents of her stomach sloshed and jostled from the fall, foaming within her as they fueled a third growth spurt, filling her at an almost frantic pace.  She grew to four feet, then five, then six, filling the space between floor and ceiling in seconds before spreading outward.

Pushing herself back up, Claire turned to see a fizzing, flesh-colored bubble growing larger and larger in the basement behind her, shoving chairs and tables aside in its quest for room.  Tania had quickly been buried beneath her own gas-filled body, crying desperately beneath it in a futile attempt at control.  There was no way of reaching her; all Claire could do now was run.

She scrambled up the steps as Tania's stomach ballooned towards her, slamming the door and locking it before pausing to collect her thoughts.  She paced the living room, trying to think of ways to stop the gassy, fizzing mass of a belly that the new pledge had become.  It couldn't go on forever, that much was certain; but she didn't know if Tania would keep growing until it stopped, or if she'd run out of space and just...

Suddenly the floorboards creaked and groaned, pushing upward.  There was a loud crack as they heaved beneath Claire and, startled, she sprinted for the door. Throwing it open, she ran outside as a dome of fizzing, inflated flesh topped with a shallow navel broke through the floor, bits of tile and plaster sliding off its surface.

In the basement Tania continued to struggle, her only clue to the goings-on above her the scratching and poking of random objects against her ballooning body.  All else was a constant, near-endless pressure from within, pushing against something around her, building bigger and bigger before finally finding release for a brief moment, stomach stretching and inflating until the process started anew.  It was a constant cycle of pressure, release and growth, and Tania could only wish for it to end.

Once more the pressure mounted and continued to mount as something resisted her from all sides, holding her in.  It was unlike anything Tania had experienced as it continued to build, her belly still fizzing as it groaned with pneumatic pressure.  Above her, the interior of the three-story sorority house had been broken apart and shoved aside, filled with a young woman impossibly bloated with gas.  Something had to give.

Tania strained, beads of sweat rolling down her face. "Just..."

The walls creaked.

"...a bit..."

Glass panes shattered.

"...more..."

Flesh bulged from the windows.

Tania let out a shriek, and with a deafening rumble, the sorority house blew apart in a shower of wood and masonry.  In its place was a building-sized blimp of a belly, marked with dust and dirt, swaying gently in the night breeze.

As the fizzing faded away Tania smiled wearily, eyes closing as she drifted off to sleep.  She didn't know what happened but, well, she could handle it in the morning.