Dan got a break while everyone was out to breakfast. In fact, even after they returned, he was ignored while as they all worked together to put up Christmas decorations.
However, by mid-day, Dan felt a tingling sensation in the upper portion of his right front leg. He figured that must be what was thawing for burgers later. "Ok Dan, just prepare yourself," he thought to himself, "You can handle this... Well, I really have no choice, do I? I'm just going to have to deal with it. At least burgers cook pretty quickly, right?" He laughed to himself. He knew it was going to suck, but tried to get in the right frame of mind. "At least dinner's still a good 6 hours away" he told himself.
But Dan was forgetting one thing... There were still leftovers of last night's roast in the fridge. He figured he was off the hook when Sarah and Kat quickly walked by him into the kitchen, talking about fixing some sandwiches for everyone.
But he remembered it as soon as Sarah pulled a container out of the fridge and set it on the counter. As she set it down, Dan felt a little wiggle sensation in a small portion of his upper left thigh. "Oh, I'm gonna be sandwiches too... crap, forgot about the leftovers," he thought.
Sarah politely asked Kat, "Could you please slice that all up real thin? And I'll prepare the buns and all the fixins, ok?" Kat said "Sure! No problem! This decorating got us all working up an appetite!" She got out a nice sharp knife, and Dan felt her hand grab that small portion of his thigh. He felt when she set it down and held it tightly against the cutting board. He mentally braced himself as she started slicing. Dan felt sharp pain with every single slice, as the girls worked in the kitchen. He heard Kat humming Christmas tunes while she focused on making every slice as thin as possible, to insure delicious sandwiches. Only took a few minutes, but felt like an eternity to Dan. He felt every single slice.
By the time Kat finished slicing up the roast, Sarah had the buns opened up on plates and had the sandwich fixings ready to go. Kat quickly placed a quarter of the pile onto each bun, while Sarah added some kind of dressing, salt, pepper, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and popped the top half of the buns onto the sandwiches. Dan, still reeling from the slicing also now felt a bit of stinging from the dressing and seasonings.
Sarah put the plates on the table, with napkins, while Sarah poured drinks. "Hey guys!" Sarah called out into the living room, "Take a quick break, come join us for a quick lunch!" "Sounds good," said Steve. "Yeah, I'm starving!" added Jack.
Dan saw everyone come pull out their chairs and sit down, once again feeling the immense pressure, stretching and pulling over his entire skin as they adjusted themselves and settled into their seats again. In addition to that, he was still feeling quite a bit of the residual pain from the slicing of the leftover roast that was that small portion of his upper left thigh.
"Ok, Dan, you got this. It's just a quick lunch," he told himself, right before he heard Sarah say "Well, I know everybody's starving, so just go ahead and dig in..." He watched as all four sandwiches were picked up and everyone took a bite. He felt sharp pains, but it didn't add too much to the pain he was already in from the slicing. "Ok, everybody, I got this, enjoy your sandwiches..." he thought to himself.
Lunch barely lasted five or ten minutes, and everyone was up and working in the living room again. Dan was entirely ignored, but relieved. He heard everyone talk briefly about how delicious the sandwiches were.
However, that tingling in his upper right leg grew slightly stronger as the thawing continued.