Bus Stop, The

“It was fucking garbage, Wayne.”

“Hey, cmon, I liked it.”

“Oh, you liked a mindless action movie with scantily clad Hollywood women and explosions every 5 minutes? Stop the presses!”

This argument between Wayne and Sylvia had been going on like this from the moment they walked out of the theatre right up until now, as a promising anniversary date was slowly turned sour by the Hollywood machine.

“It's not my fault if you can't appreciate the nuance and subtext of a movie like this.”

“Nuance? Nuance is not the issue here, Wayne. The issue is that you knew I hate these kinds of movies and yet you dragged me out to one anyway. How come we never do anything that I want to do?”

“Hey, I took you to see New Order that one time.”

“That was last February!”

The argument kept on like this before finally running out of steam as they reached the bus stop, both of them wordlessly realising that they were going in circles. Sylvia sat down with an aggravated sigh, with Wayne about to join her before he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket.

“Ah shit, I gotta take this. I'll try not to be too long.” He said, walking around to the other side of the shelter as Sylvia groaned out something that sounded vaguely like “whatever,” knowing full well that he probably would be too long. She tried to keep herself occupied, mostly by constantly checking the time with what little battery she had left on her phone to see when the bus was supposed to arrive, before her ears pricked up at a sound she didn't quite know how to describe. It was like a football hitting a wall, but slower and more… hollow? She wrote it off as just mysterious late evening ambiance, before finally turning around as she heard it a second time. When she did, she was met with a sight that, once again, she didn't quite know how to describe.

There, just above the top of the shelter, was what appeared to be a giant flesh-coloured balloon, roughly 7 feet wide. As she watched, it got caught on a breeze and bumped into the roof again, making that same hollow *bwoomph* sound as Sylvia had heard before. With that mystery solved, Sylvia was about to write off the admittedly strange sight as more than she was willing to deal with in her current mood before noticing something else even more strange. As she gave the balloon a closer look, she noticed odd protrusions around its circumference, whichshe quickly realised were hands, feet, and the upside-down head of a man. He looked to be in about his early-mid 20s, with puffy, swollen cheeks. Furthermore, she noticed one of the hands had a string tied around it, which she followed down with her eyes to a woman who, Sylvia thought, must have only just sat down while she was looking at her phone.

She wore striped black thigh highs with spiked black boots and a black skirt, along with a small purse slung over one shoulder and a simple white t-shirt and black cardigan. A simple, dark outfit that both contrasted with and matched her carefree yet mischievous smile.

“They're so much cuter like this, aren't they?”

Sylvia had been so absorbed by the spectacle that it had taken her a few seconds to even register that anyone was talking. “Wuh? O-oh, right, that... Uhhhhhhh, I guess?” She replied in confusion.

“Don't worry, I was confused at first too.” The mystery girl said, giggling a little at Sylvia’s bewilderment and extending a hand. “I'm Marie, by the way.”

“S-Sylvia.” She said, slowly regaining her composure as she accepted the handshake. “Soooooo, what's the deal with that?”

“Him? Oh, me and him had been dating for a few weeks. It wasn't really working out, so I decided to actually get some use out of him.” Marie explained, looking up and admiring her balloon.

“I know how THAT feels…” Sylvia muttered, glancing back at her still-deep-in-conversation boyfriend, before double taking. “wait, wait wait wait wait, you mean that's actually…?” She said in sudden realisation.

“Oh yeah, totally. Fantastic, isn't it~?” Marie stated rather matter-of-factly, her mischievous smile giving way to a beaming, enthusiastic one.

“You-... I mean-... You can just do that?”

“Of course, basically every girl I know deals with her dating problems like this.”

“What do you mean “every girl you know?” This isn’t just some weird thing you do? Is this some kind of fucked up gen-z trend that I’m too old to have caught when it was new?” Sylvia asked, her flurry of questions increasing in speed as she became more and more bewildered with each new piece of information.

“I mean I found out about it online but I’m pretty sure it’s been around for a good while. You’ve seriously never heard of girls blowing up guys?”

“Oh yeah, now that you mention it I think I saw it on an episode of Loose Women one ti-OBVIOUSLY not!”

“Did it never even occur to you to do it?” Marie asked, her playful attitude slowly changing to her own confusion.

Sylvia began to falter, slowly thinking to herself that maybe there is some kind of appeal to this, even if she couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was. After all, why else would something so abnormal seem so apparently normal?“No? I mean, not that I can remember at least… I don’t get it.”

Marie went to try and give an explanation before stopping herself as another idea suddenly came to her. With a quick tug on the string in her hand, she yanked down on her balloon’s wrist and brought him down to eye level with the two girls. The string slackened for a moment, before going taut once again as his position equalised. Smiling briefly at the display of his helplessness, she offered Sylvia the string. Sylvia looked at it in confusion for a moment, before tentatively reaching out and grabbing hold of it. She just stared at him for a moment, watching him slowly but noticeably drift around with the breeze in front of her. “Go on, do whatever you want with him. Not like he can do anything about it, at any rate.” Marie chimed in, causing Sylvia to giggle a bit at the balloon boy’s plight. She reached out and touched a surface, gasping a little as his taut skin squeaked in protest.

“Wow, he feels just like a real balloon… Even sounds like one too.” She said in amazement, idly running her hands over every surface she could reach before becoming even more amazed at the realisation that she could just turn him around to get to the bits she couldn’t reach.

“So, waddaya think~?” Marie asked, smiling at the other girl.

“You know, I think I’m starting to get it. He’s just so… full, and round… and helpless.”

“God, I know right? That’s the best part, He’s my toy now. Or, more accurately, he’s our toy~” Marie said, dragging a nail down the boy’s side and listening to his body squeal.

“This is so wild, I didn’t even know people could get this big.” Sylvia said, winding down and enjoying herself but still astounded that any of this was even possible.

“Oh, he can get even bigger than this~”

Sylvia turned her head and stared at Marie in amazement.

“No way.”

“Yes way. Just put your lips to his and start blowing, it’s that easy.”

“Wait, you mean I have to kiss him?” Sylvia said, returning her attention to the balloon boy she held in front of her. “Ah fuck it, he’s probably a better kisser than Wayne anyway.” She said, affixing her gaze into the balloon’s eyes. He looked anxious, yet defeated, like he’d accepted his fate. Then, as if it was the most, Sylvia closed her eyes, puckered her lips, pressed them to his and began to blow. It was difficult mustering up enough breath to get a good blow in at first, but eventually her eyes widened in surprise as she felt his skin begin to stretch under her fingers, and a hollow hissing sound ring out from within him. Despite how odd the situation was, she couldn’t help but find it all oddly relaxing. Just when she was starting to get into it, however, the tranquil of the constant hissing was rudely broken.

“Yeah, alright, we’ll catch the game tomorrow. Talk to you later ma-” Wayne said as he turned the corner, abruptly stopping as he saw his girlfriend holding a man in the air who was giant and completely spherical, but more importantly, she was kissing him. “Hang on, what the hell’s going on here?” He said in a strange mix of confusion and anger that was probably intended to sound threatening but in actuality was anything but. Sylvia broke the kiss and instantly spun her head around to the source of the noise, her eyes widening in shock at the sight of the boyfriend who, in the moment, she’d completely forgotten about.

“Oh, Wayne! Uh, I was just, I mean I was just uh-”

“She was just finding out how much more fun men are as giant, inflated toy balloons, weren’t you~?” Marie said, looking over Sylvia’s shoulder and waving at Wayne.

“Who the hell are you?” Wayne said in the same faux-threatening tone of voice.

“Someone with way better dress sense than you’ll ever have, by the looks of things, I mean good lord when was the last time you washed that shirt?”

“Hmmmm, I think I put a wash on last thursday… Wait, that’s not important! Who do you think you are, talking to me li-” He began before quickly faltering as the reality of the giant balloon-shaped man in front of him finally hit. “...and what’s up with him?”

“It’s a girl thing, you wouldn’t understand” Sylvia said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“What is? What the hell’s going on?”

“Why don’t you show him, hun~?” Marie said, giving Sylvia a knowing look. Sylvia seemed confused for a moment, before her eyes widened in realisation and excitement.

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Wayne said, a hint of worry creeping into his voice.

“This~” Sylvie stated before leaning forward and kissing him passionately on the lips. Wayne resisted for a split second before his brain processed what was happening, and he started to go along with it. Then, right as he was getting comfortable, he heard his girlfriend take a deep breath in through her nose, and suddenly felt a rush of air going down his throat. Sylvia grabbed onto the back of his head and held him tightly in place as, without so much as a second thought, she began to inflate her boyfriend like a balloon.

Wayne was initially bewildered, having no idea what was going on, until eventually he felt his tummy peek out from under his shirt and press against Sylvia. He finally put two and two together at this point and tried to resist, but Sylvia took these first signs of inflation as a renewed source of enthusiasm and increased the force of her blowing, quickly puffing out his torso and causing his limbs to go rigid with a loud *fwoomp*. Marie, for her part, watched in joy as the number of balloons slowly went up by one, Sylvia’s rhythmic inhaling and blowing quickly removing any physical capacity Wayne had to resist. The sound of popping seams and ripping fabric filled the air as his burgeoning body shredded all the clothing he had on.

As he filled up more and more, Wayne’s body slowly began to change from a cluster of puffy body parts to one giant inflated sphere, his back and sides rounding out and joining his torso to form a complete ball. And yet he got bigger and bigger, his clothes by now having fully been destroyed and laying in tatters on the pavement and his shiny, latex-like skin fully on show for all to see. With a few last mighty puffs, Sylvia stepped back and took in the sight of her former boyfriend now merely an inflatable toy. Wayne, for his part, attempted to complain, but by now even his cheeks were all puffy and inflated, so all that came out were a series of ineffectual muffled noises. Marie stepped forward and gently placed a hand on Sylvia’s shoulder, as the latter girl stood in a mixture of shock and excitement.

“What did I tell ya? They’re so much cuter like this, aren’t they~?”

“Holy fuck I cannot believe I just did that.” Sylvia replied, breathing heavily even without a balloon to dump all the air into. “Although… How come he’s not floating like yours?”

“Oh, right! Just gimme a sec, I’ll take care of that. Be a dear and hold this, will you?” Marie said, handing Sylvia her balloon boy as she took a piece of string and a small cylindrical object out of her purse. Sylvia looked up at the first balloon wistfully, thinking about how quickly she’d gone from thinking of him as a boy who happened to be inflated to a balloon who happened to be a boy. Her thoughts were interrupted, however, as she heard a quiet hissing noise coming from where Wayne was, looking over and gasping as she saw her boyfriend rise up into the sky like a balloon, which he was, come to think of it.

“Oh my god! How did you do that!?” Sylvia yelled in surprise and elation. Looking down, she saw that Marie now had a bright, sparkly purple colour to her lips.

“This stuff.” She said, gesturing to the lipstick tube she’d taken out of her purse earlier “makes any gas inside the recipient lighter than air. I just gave him a quick peck on the cheek and let gravity do the rest~”

“Wait, that’s a thing?”

“Wellllll, sorta. Just something between us girls~” Marie replied, the two of them giggling. “That’s not even the best part, have a look at where the string’s tied.” Marie said, stifling laughter.

Sylvia looked up, and noticed that it wasn’t his hands or legs, but instead somewhere rather more intimate.

“...oh, fuck you.” Sylvia said, before the two girls burst out laughing.