Geoff hadn't been kidding when he said it could take them a while to get there. His formerly trim self could have made the walk in 10 minutes. As he was now, it took them nearly half an hour. He'd take breaks every block or so, and sit to catch his breath. He'd get red faced and sweaty, and fan himself a bit while he sat on a nearby bench or empty step, usually able to take the space on either up entirely by himself. Aidan felt a giddy thrill with every wobbling and quaking footstep Geoff took. In his opinion, his blonde neighbor looked fantastic like this.
"You weren't kidding when you said it takes you a lot longer to get around these days." Aidan said as he helped Geoff lower himself into a booth after they finally got to the pub. Geoff nodded, second chin shaking when he did. "Yeah. I mean... That guy put like 450-ish pounds on me in something like 3 months. Hard for a body to adjust to that kind of change, right? Plus, I still think he was slipping me something that turned my muscles to flab too..." He said as he raised an arm, trying to flex a bicep, but seeing only a jiggly, doughy form before him.
He was quiet for a moment before looking at Aidan with slight embarrassment. "I'm kinda hungry. The guys won't mind if we eat before they get here."
So Aidan waved down a waitress and let Geoff order. They sat there making small talk while Geoff pecked slowly at some brownie and ice cream concoction he'd ordered, trying not to look like a pig in front of Aidan, Aidan had to guess.
They waited at the pub for a solid hour, Geoff eyeing the door whenever he heard the bell chime when it opened, but the guys never came. Eventually Geoff's mobile buzzed, he grimaced when he read the text. "They're not coming." He said with a sigh.
"Really? They say why?" Aidan asked, curiously.
Geoff shook his head no. "Just that something came up. It's okay. They bail on me a bit more now. I think they're wondering what really happened to me." He said as he shook his belly. "They probably think I went mental and did this to myself, so they're not sure how to talk to me anymore. It's no big deal though. I've got friends who don't mind, like you." He said with a slight grin.
Aidan felt a twinge of guilt when he heard it. It was his fault after all... though, the twinge quickly faded after he realized he had the chronivac on him. He could fix this scenario in any number of ways. He didn't need to though, since he could change Geoff back to normal whenever he felt like it, and take all these unfortunate social side effects away with the chub. Still, he should probably do SOMETHING...
"Oh, I've got to write something real quick." Aidan said as he fished out his laptop.
"Forgot I had a paper due monday. You don't mind do you? We can still talk, it's dead simple essay stuff."
Geoff nodded "Sure, don't worry about it. Write all you want." he said, sounding relieved that Aidan wasn't going to leave him alone at the table, chowing down on a second brownie treat.