Bounce Back: Erin Part 2

            The next day, everyone resumed their usual routines, sitting next to friends and chatting things up before class, just like any other day. That is, until Erin walked in. Then things got quiet, and every eye locked onto her as she walked to her desk. Erin merely turned and gave the entire class a nasty, threatening glare. That seemed to do the trick; everyone stopped paying attention to her, though some students muttered quiet insults before returning to their regularly scheduled lives.

            Joshua knew he shouldn’t have expected anything different, but he felt a little disappointed. He’d seen a quieter, vulnerable side of her yesterday, and he was hoping that side was going to show through a little today.

            Guess I was wrong, he thought.

            “What?” Ryan asked after class. “Did you expect that angry little munchkin to get all sweet and cuddly just because you were stuck with her for an hour or two after school?” He laughed and shook his head. “You are one crazy little man. Buuuut, I guess I gotta admire your spirit.”

            “It’s not like that,” Joshua grumbled. “Well, not exactly. It’s just… when I was with her yesterday, she was kinda different. I don’t think she’s as bad as she wants everyone to think she is. And… well, I think she’s kind of cool.”

            “What?!” Ryan stopped dead in his tracks. “Wow, you really have it bad for her, huh?”

            “Eh?!” Joshua exclaimed floored by this sudden accusation. “No! It’s not like that!”

            “Hey, I understand, bro.” Ryan held up his hands apologetically. “You can’t help liking what you like. Just like how I can’t help loving me some boobies!”

            “Can’t you talk about something else for once?” Joshua was really getting sick of that word.

            “Would you prefer I talked about Erin’s tummy for a while?”

            Joshua’s face turned beet red. “AAAAHH!!” he cried, slapping a hand over his friend’s mouth. “You promised you’d never talk about that!” he hissed.

            “Hey, like I said, no biggie, right?”

            As Joshua contemplated strangling Ryan, who should walk by but Erin. Ryan wrestled out of his friend’s grasp and ran over to her, dancing a little circle around the two of them. “Well, I’ll just leave you two lovebirds alone to share some sweet honey time together,” he laughed, ignoring the fact that Erin was literally hissing at him. “Later!” And with that, he was off.

            “What was that about?” Erin asked.

            “Nothing. Just Ryan being Ryan,” Joshua explained. “But, you know, this works out just fine. I actually wanted to talk to you.”

            Erin merely arched an eyebrow.

            “ I kinda want it to be private though,” he continued. “The gym should be empty now. You mind following me there?”

            Erin just stared at him, an odd look on her face. She seemed… surprised, maybe? Either way, she gave him a nod.

            “Uh... yeah, sure,” she said. “Lead the way.”

            Joshua nodded back and walked her to the gym. As he had figured, there wasn’t a soul in sight. He motioned towards the bleachers. “Come on, sit down. Make yourself comfortable.”

            She frowned and gave him an unsteady look, but went ahead and did as she was told.

            “Well, what is it?” she asked. “What do you want?”

            “Well, actually,” Joshua replied, “I kinda want to talk to you about your, um, condition.” The truth was, their encounter the other day had left him with a burning sense of curiosity about her, and about elastic girls in general. He tried to find out more online, and had a little success. It turned out elastic girls are women with some sort of genetic mutation that makes their cells extremely malleable, allowing their bodies to stretch and squish far more than any normal human. No one understood why this happens, but some suspected a mutation  in the X chromosome, given how it only manifests in women. That was all he had been able to find on his initial search. Further details were scarce, but that was okay with him: he’d rather get the information straight from the horse’s mouth, anyway. Plus… there was one other thing he wanted to do here that he couldn’t online.

            He blushed a little and had trouble looking Erin in the eye for a moment. He knew this next part was going to be a little awkward. “And… um… well… I’d like to ask you a favor,” he said.

            “What’s that?” Erin asked, a note of suspicion in her voice.

            “Can I… hold your hand?”

            “Huh?!” Erin cried, quickly, almost instinctively hiding her hands behind her back. “Wh-why would you want to do that?!”

            “Oh, I’m sorry!” Joshua quickly apologized, waving his own hands apologetically. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. It’s just… well, I’ve never met an elastic girl before, and I kinda wanted to examine things first-hand.” Then he started blushing. “Oh, man, I sound like such a creep. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have….”

            But to his surprise, Erin held out her hand, though she refused to look him in the eye while doing so. “Go ahead,” she mumbled. “If that’s what will satisfy you.”

            “Um… thanks,” Joshua said quietly. For some reason, it felt like a bigger deal than it should have been, but he still accepted her gift, taking her hand in both of his. It felt so soft and squishy, almost as if she were made of putty or rubber, rather than flesh and bones. He squished the tip of one of her fingers between his, feeling it flatten out under the pressure. It was as if she had no bones at all. How crazy was that?  He pushed one of her fingers back, watching it bend backwards as easily as it would forward. In fact, just to test it out, he folded back her entire hand, pressing the back against her arm just above the wrist. It moved as easily as if it was meant to do that, and fluidly resumed its original position once released.

            “Wow! Erin, this is amazing! You’re amazing!” he cried. “Have you always been able to do this?”

            “Uh… Y-yeah,” she mumbled, avoiding eye contact. “Elastic Girl Syndrome is a genetic thing, so I was born with it. We didn’t really find out until our dog, Pachi, sat on me when I was one, squashing me just like you did yesterday. Apparently Dad panicked and inflated me with a bike pump before he tried taking me to a hospital, so they ended up bringing in a beach ball in footed pajamas.”

            Joshua tried to suppress a laugh at the thought of the literal bouncing baby girl, but a little snicker snuck out. “I-I’m sorry,” he apologized, blushing from ear to ear.

            “Whatever,” she huffed. “I don’t even know why I told you that – it’s none of your business, anyway.”

            “Can you stretch any way you want?”

            “Mostly. It’s easier for me to stretch my arms and legs than anything else. Though I got to the point where I was able to stretch my torso a bit, before….” Erin gasped and threw her free hand over her mouth.

            “Before?” Joshua asked. “Before what?”

            “N-nothing!” Erin snapped. “Anyway, if you’re done playing with my hand, I want to go home now.”

            “Oh, okay.” He released her hand, and Erin sprang from her seat and made a break for the hallway, but stopped just at the threshold. She looked back at him, a strange, confused look on her face, before she turned and ran out the door.

            “Erin…,” Joshua whispered to no one in particular. “What’s going on?”

***

            Joshua sat at his computer that night, trying to find more information on elastic girls, but all he could find was more sites repeating the same information he got the other day, and a lot of drawings on DeviousArt, neither of which helped him at all (though he had to admit, this ChronusChiq guy was really good). Maybe I’m just searching the wrong way, he thought. What if I try looking for videos?

            He changed over to YoTube and typed in “elastic girl.” As he scrolled through the videos, he saw something that nearly made him fall out of his seat.

            Erin.

            Joshua could only stare, jaw dropping to the floor. That was Erin, all right, staring back at him from the thumbnail of a video titled “Rubber Girl Balloons Herself”

            Wait, what? he thought. “Balloons herself?” What does that even mean? Is that something elastic girls do? His finger was poised to click, when a thought occurred to him. Maybe I should be a little more careful about this. He checked outside his room to make sure no one was coming, blocked the door with a box from his closet (just in case), slipped on a pair of headphones (again, just in case), and clicked the video.

            After an agonizingly long ad finished playing, the video opened up to… a public restroom? Well, that certainly made Joshua glad he’d taken those safety precautions. The camera shook – apparently this wasn’t a very professional video – and he heard girls giggling, even though no one was onscreen.

            “There. She’s in that one,” a girl’s voice whispered.

            “Okay, be quiet. Don’t let her hear you.”

            Joshua nearly leapt out of his seat when they threw open the door to one of the stalls. He was about to smash the back button as hard as he could, when he saw her.

            There was Erin, fully clothed, kneeling in front of the toilet, gagging and coughing.

            “Oh, there you are, Erin!”

            Erin gave a startled yelp and whirled around, and the sight of her nearly made Joshua’s eyes pop out of his head. Her belly was huge, too big for her shirt to cover, in fact. It was as if she was nine months pregnant, only instead of being taut and round, her belly seemed to sag just a bit, sloshing around as she moved, almost like a full water balloon.

            Huh? Joshua wondered. Wait… is this what it meant by “balloons?” So Erin can do something like this? He could feel his cheeks get a little hot when he realized he was staring at her tummy. No! Not now! he thought, shaking his head.

            As he tried to keep himself from fantasizing about Erin’s belly, another thought fought its way into his head. Wait, how did her stomach get like that? And… what’s this feeling I’m getting? Something’s not right at all here.

            “Wh-what are you doing here?!” Erin cried, shocked by the sudden intrusion. Her face was red, her eyes were watering, her nose was running, and spittle was leaking from her mouth. What had she been doing before these girls showed up?

            “We’re just checking up on you, Erin,” one of the voices cooed viciously.

            “S-stop it!” Erin cried, trying in vain to cover her enormous stomach. “Get out, now!”

            “Care to explain what this is, first?” another asked, as a slender finger poked into Erin’s bloated belly.

            “D-don’t do that!” Erin yelped. She turned and dropped to the floor, trying to wriggle out under the stall, but it was no use. Several pairs of hands immediately seized her.

            “Oh no you don’t!” one of the girls sneered. Erin’s tormentors immediately yanked her out of the stall and pinned her to a wall.

            Ho… ly… shit…, Joshua thought. They’re bullying her…. The idea that people would go out of their way to hurt a girl like Erin – and worse, that they would put it up online – made his mind go numb. He felt sick, but somehow he couldn’t turn away.

            “Go ahead, you little floozy,” a girl jeered. “Smile for everyone and tell us all how your belly got so big. Are you pregnant, Erin?”

            “Leave me alone!” Erin sobbed. The tears were running down her eyes full force again.

            “You mind answering the question, first? Come on, people are waiting.”

            “Why are you doing this?!” Erin whimpered. “You’re the ones who…!”

            “Oh, don’t go blaming this one on anyone but yourself, Erin.”

            “Is it true that you went out back and made out with a hose behind the gym?”

            “It must be true. Look at that big, pregnant belly she’s got.” One of the girls started poking Erin’s gut, and the poor girl could only whimper in response.

            “Stop it!” Erin sobbed, her voice cracking like an egg. “Please! Just stop!”

            “I mean, what kinda hussy do you have to be to do something like that? Who goes and gets knocked up by a hose? That’s pretty sick, Erin. You’re such a slut.”

            “Oh look, girls,” one of the voices said, as a hand pressed into Erin’s belly. “I think I can feel it kick.”

            “Oooh, let me feel it.”

            “What are you going to name it, Erin?”

            “Let me go! Please!” Erin cried, struggling against the added pressure as more hands pressed into her stomach. She looked like she was going to be sick.

            “You know, if Erin loves that hose so much, maybe we can help her get another date with it.”

            “I don’t know. Even a hose has to have standards, right?”

            “Stop it!” Erin screamed. “I’ll kill you! I’ll call the police! I’ll sue!”

            Joshua’s hand covered his mouth, trying to keep from puking at the horrible, evil thing in front of him. He could feel the tears flowing down his own cheeks. How could someone do this? How could you see someone in such a state and not feel even an ounce of pity for them? How could you just heap it on more and more?

            “Come on, girls! Let’s haul her out of here. Who do you think should see this first?”

            Joshua closed the window, deleted his browsing history, and slammed his computer shut.