Balloon to Remember, A

Leighton risked detention by running in the halls after the last bell rang, but he needed to quickly reach the east exit of the high school, where he knew Aurelia Houghton would be departing. He hated to see her go, but loved watching her leave. The pretty, bespectacled, long-haired brunette always made a point of wearing tight blue jeans, and Leighton was not about to miss the scenery.

He stood around the corner of the exit, sighing wistfully as he thought of third-period algebra, where he’d look up at Aurelia, sitting three desks in front and to the left, allowing him to admire how her shapely ass caressed her desk chair. He could stare at her as long as he could stand it--until the teacher asked him a question or until his physical arousal became sheer torture--because he knew he was basically invisible to Aurelia. He’d be surprised if she even knew his name.

“You got it bad for her, huh?”

Leighton jumped several inches. He had not heard the speaker approach him from behind. It was as if she had come from nowhere, but he chalked that up to his imagination.

The girl was new to his school, and she was not unattractive: A cute blonde, with delicate, round facial features, dressed unpretentiously in a pink top and white jeans. But the pleasantness of her demeanor was in contrast to the contempt in her voice.

What was this chick’s name? Something foreign and weird, like--

“Melifera,” she said, as if reading his mind.

He chalked that up to coincidence. “Right,” he grumbled. “Got it bad for whom?”

She laughed bitterly. “Please. Aurelia Houghton. You’re crazy about her, and she doesn’t know you exist.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, somewhat annoyed that she had seen right through him. It was a cliche, but it was true: Aurelia wouldn’t notice if he blinked out of existence.

“I can help you with that, you know,” said Melifera, somewhat braggingly.

“Is that right?”

“If you want her to notice you, just say the word.”

“And then what?”

She smirked. “Is that a yes?”

He chuckled humourlessly. “Sure.”

He turned to look back at the exit door, but did a double-take when he noticed Melifera moving her lips. She wasn’t saying anything--at least, not out loud--but appeared to mouthing something silently.

And that’s when Leighton began to inflate.

It happened so quickly, he barely had time to register the shock. One second, he was an average teen of average size--the next moment, his chest and belly swelled out like a frog’s, his arms and legs plumped up, his sides rounded and expanded into massive curves.

“What the hell is--hoomph!” He gasped in surprise and discomfort, as his body swelled so much it bumped into the bottom of his chin. He felt himself get slightly taller, but it was only his plumping feet pushing him upward.

At first, he thought it was pure terror that made him feel hollow inside. But he finally focused on the sound he heard, a sound like a balloon attached to a pump, the sound of air filling out elastic material. The sound grew only louder as his skin stretched thinner and thinner, pushing his body outward.

His shirt split and tore, shredding as it spread over the horizon of his chest. His jeans button burst, tearing open the denim and exposing his briefs, which also began to exceed their elasticity. His shoelaces split as his shoes seemed to explode from his feet. He briefly, if quixotically, imagined that he was turning into The Incredible Hulk. But this clearly wasn’t muscle he was gaining: He was just fattening up with air, as if becoming a hot-air balloon version of himself.

He took his terrified eyes off his inflating form long enough to see Melifera’s reaction. He was about to scream at her for help, but his look stopped the words dead in his bloated cheeks.

She just smiled. A pretty, beaming smile. But one of vindictiveness and gloating.

“You! How are you--guhhhh!” His tone changed from anger to supplication as another surge of air poured into him from some invisible air hose. “Please! What are you doing?”

“Well, this ought to get Aurelia’s attention!” said Melifera cheerfully. “Who can ignore a human balloon?!”

“Oh, god, no! Stop! You wouldn’t!”

“I would, and I am,” Melifera taunted. “It’s not just Aurelia that’s going to notice you: In less than a minute, the entire school is going to see their schoolmate become a blimp! Unless, of course, you want to try to stop me.”

Leighton shifted his bulging body around, trying to move away, in any direction, but he his body was too bulky to move. He was rooted to the spot, and only getting bigger.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so,” said Melifera, and giggled.

“Please,” he repeated, “don’t let her see me like this! I’ll never live it down!”

“That’s the idea,” Melifera insisted. “I’ll give them a balloon to remember!”

“Wait! Don’t--!” Whatever command he was about to issue was cut off by another growth surge, one that expanded his rounded middle, spreading out his extremities across his rubbery surface, until he was almost entirely round. He squirmed, succeeding only in producing some embarrassing and noisy squeaks. And he still kept growing, his head rising higher and higher in the air, and he could see little past the horizon of his own blimping body.

Suddenly he felt something touching his middle. He felt so fragile, like a soap bubble, that the touch startled him. He saw the world tilt toward him as his body shifted its axis. Soon he was looking Melifera in her pretty, victorious face.

“How’s the weather up there?” she said, snickering. “I figured you would know, being a weather balloon and all.”

“What do you want from me?” he wheezed through puffy cheeks.

“Why, just to give you the attention you wanted!” Melifera said with mock hurt.

Just then, the school bell rang. Leighton felt a hollowness in the pit of his belly, which was correspondingly massive.

“Time for me to go,” said Melifera. “Oh, and I wouldn’t mention my name to any passer-by. I just might blow you up until, well,... Boom.”

“Boom would be bad,” Leighton admitted, and watched as Melifera headed for the cover of some nearby trees.

Students at first trickled out the exit, then flooded. Leighton had some small hope that no one would turn around...

But he was discovered in minutes. A couple of students turned around and gaped, then broke out laughing. Other students turned to see the commotion. It took only another minute before a fifth of the student body was now looking and laughing at the schoolyard blimp.

“What happened to you?” asked one student, between howling bouts of laughter.

Leighton swallowed, looking over at the trees and seeing Melifera giving him a “shhh” gesture.

“Um... I did this,” Leighton croaked, his face blazing red from both strain and humiliation.

“Why?” asked a female student, grinning ear to ear.

“Uh...” He bit his lip and forced it out: “I wanted to be a balloon.”

Laughter erupted amongst the students again, some whipping out their cell phones to take pictures for their websites. All the while, more and more students poured out of the building, and the crowd quickly snowballed in size.

Until, at last, his worst nightmare came to pass.

Aurelia Houghton, his dream girl, exited the school building. The lovely young brunette was immediately attracted to the crowd and followed the line up to her bloated schoolmate. She looked up at the human balloon, and after seconds of astonished gaping, began laughing with the rest of the students. “Oh my god! What’s up with THAT?!” she asked the crowd, pointing.

Another girl turned around. “He said he wanted to be a balloon!”

Aurelia laughed again. “Oh, that is hilarious!”

Leighton winced. He wanted so much to float away, or roll away, or even bounce away, but he was utterly helpless. He couldn’t respond to all of the taunts, and there were many:

“Let’s tie a string to him and turn him into a float!”

“No, let’s roll him in the gymnasium and bounce him around!”

“Force-feed him marshmallows and watch him burst!”

And even if he could respond, there was no way it would gain him an ounce of dignity. Besides, they were right: He looked ridiculous. He was nothing but a big, fat balloon. He had to simply endure--endure the pointing, the laughing, the taunting, the staring, and the endless fat jokes. Occasionally he had to endure a curious student poking him in the stomach to see if he’d giggle (he didn’t, despite their repeated attempts). Others would manhandle him just to feel the doughiness of his skin.

“Feel him!” said a female student, who ordinarily would’ve been accused of some very inappropriate touching. “He feels just like a giant beach ball!”

The students surged forth, pawing him, pushing their hands firmly into him, compressing the air inside him, making Leighton bulge dangerously in other places. One of the hands belonged to Aurelia, and she giggled as she watched her hand sink into his middle and push air further into his puffy face.

Although he knew he couldn’t change reality, Leighton prayed that Aurelia would just turn around, walk away, and forget the whole afternoon.

But that would never be, and he knew it. Everyday at school for the rest of his young life he knew he would be reminded of this day. The other kids would call him “Balloon-Boy,” or some such thing, and make humiliating jokes whenever he entered a room. That was his future.

At that moment, he wished he could just burst into nothingness.

But he wouldn’t get even that kind of relief. The kids still pummeled him with taunts, and some asked him questions that he had to answer without mentioning the cute new girl, Melifera, who looked balefully upon him from her arbourous hideout.

Does it hurt? No.

How long did he want to be a balloon? Always.

How did he do it? Just willed it, that’s all. It’s a gift.

The whole time, he tried to keep his eyes from locking with Aurelia’s, which was hard to do, because she had moved to the head of the pack--and she had such beautiful eyes behind her black, thick-rimmed glasses.

Finally, when the jokes and laughter began to wear down, Aurelia spoke up. “So,” she said, once again putting her hand--gently this time--on his rubbery body, “how big can you get?”

Leighton swallowed as he looked down at her. He was always nervous around pretty girls, and Aurelia terrified him. He paused momentarily to drink in the lovely vision of her young, gorgeous face, decorated with a sultry smile.

Was there something he saw in her smile? Maybe... just maybe... admiration?

He gazed over her head at Melifera, who, not surprisingly, just smiled back.

And then she winked at him.

Leighton looked around the expectant faces of the amused crowd, before settling back on Aurelia.

“Oh, I can get MUCH bigger!” he boasted.

“Really?” Aurelia asked. “Let’s see you do it.”

Leighton saw Melifera’s lips move in silent invocation yet again.

His body hissed like an inflating balloon, and he swelled in all directions. “I can get REALLY big, Aurelia! Huge! I can be as big as a house!”

Aurelia tilted her head. “Is that all?”

“No!” he insisted. “Bigger than a house! Bigger than the whole school! Bigger than a mountain!”

Aurelia giggled. “Cool.”

Leighton continued to swell, forcing the crowd to take several steps backward. Soon he looked as if he could’ve swallowed a schoolbus. “Look, Aurelia! I’m huge! And I can get even bigger than that!”

He continued expanding, until the students had to crane their necks to make out his red, puffy face. “Yes! Yes! I’m a giant balloon! An enormous blimp! Can you see me?!”

“Who couldn’t see you?” said Aurelia with another giggle.

“Can you believe it?!” Leighton cried down to her. “Everyone’s going to see me! Everyone’s going to see me because I’ll be as big as the sky!”

Now roughly the size of a house, Leighton continued to surge higher into space. Drowned out by his boasts, the squeaks and hissing from his body became increasingly higher pitched as his skin grew more and more taut.

“Pump me up more!” he shouted to Melifera, though to the students, he appeared to be cheering on his own body. “Yes, yes, yes! Make me bigger! Bigger! Bigger! Make me the biggest balloon Aurelia’s ever seen!”

He had almost reached the height of the school building when his last growth spurt ended. The foreboding, elastic squeaks were almost constant, his gossamer, bulbous form trembling slightly from the immense pressure inside him.

“No! Don’t stop!” Leighton cried. “Blow me up even bigger! Blow me up until I EXPLODE!”

Melifera mouthed one brief word, and Leighton surged bigger again.

“Watch this, Aurelia! I’m going to blow myself up till I POP! You’ll never forget this! You’ll remember this moment for the rest of your life: The time you saw a giant balloon POP! I’m going to make such a loud bang when I explode! Watch me burst, Aurelia! Watch me BURST! WATCH ME B--!!”

The students’ ribs shook as Leighton burst, sending a shockwave across the schoolyard and beyond.

The students giggled even as their ears rang. It was like watching a human firework display, and the students would reminisce about it for years.

Finally, the crowd began drifting away, along with Leighton’s scattered, airbourne remnants.

“Who was that kid, anyway?” asked a female student.

Aurelia shrugged. “Beats me.”