This story contains male weight gain.)
"Excuse me!" Caleb blurted out as he was pushed away from the mall's sliding door by a group of 20-something women walking out in a pack. They took up nearly the entire width of the door, walking out with their Starbucks drinks and various paper bags hanging outward like floofy dresses. In spite of Caleb’s protestations, they walked right past him, paying him no mind as they continued into the parking lot. Shaking his head side to side, Caleb took the opportunity to slip inside.
This kind of thing was common for the short, slender fellow. With his generic features and insubstantial frame, he was used to being ignored and pushed to the side. It was worst when it happened literally, which was more often than he would have liked to admit.
After he'd moved through the mall's sliding doors, Caleb found himself face-to-face with a man who had at least a foot of height on him, and probably 300 pounds of weight, mostly stored in his imposing belly. The sleeves were ripped off of his denim vest, exposing some impressively bulky arms that made him look like he’d seen just as much time at the gym as the bar. What his face lacked in muscular definition, it made up for with his grumpy expression. "Move it, short stuff." he demanded, pushing Caleb aside like so many strings of beads hanging from a doorway, before he exited the mall.
Caleb stumbled to the side and had to catch himself on the wall. Even based on his experiences, that was egregious. Sure, he'd been called "short stuff" and pushed aside intentionally before, but that was something he expected to happen in high school. Not now, when he was a 28-year-old man with as much right to use the mall as that biker-looking jerk.
As Caleb collected himself and stood up, he noticed a strange contraption at the end of the hallway. In all his time visiting that mall, he'd never noticed it before. Truth be told, he'd never looked down that hallway, as he figured it would just lead to offices and other employee-only areas. But there were no such signs tell him him to keep out, so he wandered down to take a closer look.
The device seemed to be an old-fashioned scale, bronze in color with "Your Weight and a Wish" painted on top. Caleb could faintly make out a second, faded "and a Wish" below the first. Below that was a hand like an analog clock, in front of a circle that displayed numbers going up to 250. Next to that was a coin slot labeled "5¢". To the side, Caleb saw a pile of tiny slips of paper sitting next to the scale, indicating that no one at the mall had paid any attention to the scale for a very long time.
"Five cents, huh? Alright, why not?" Taking out his wallet, Caleb picked out a nickel and dropped it in the machine before stepping on the platform.
As soon as Caleb stepped on the scale, the hand moved away from zero, stopping just short of "125".
"No wonder people push me aside. I wish I had a bigger frame and weren't this scrawny and short. I bet people would move for me then."
As soon as Caleb had finished his sentence, the hand on the scale loudly snapped back to zero, surprising him enough that he stepped off. With a sigh, he muttered to himself, "Being less easily spooked might be a good start."
Caleb turned dejectedly to walk back into the mall, but the sound of gears moving in the scale stopped him. After he heard a bell ring, he looked back and saw a piece of paper shoot out of the scale, before gently falling to land among the others. Curious, he went over and picked it up, expecting his weight to be written on it. He certainly wasn't expecting to read the words, "BIGGER FRAME."
As Caleb looked confusedly at the piece of paper, he was even more surprised to see his sweatshirt stretching out into his view, as if he were leaning back and pushing his stomach out. But he was still standing upright. Dropping the piece of paper in surprise, he looked around and discovered that the impossible was happening: he was growing bigger and wider. Much wider.
Caleb had always had trouble putting on weight, so he had no idea how to process seeing so much of it come on so quickly. In an instant, he’d gone from being unbearably thin to having an actual belly. Not just a dad bod type paunch either, but a gut that made him look like he’d stuffed a pillow under his sweatshirt. At least, he would have if it weren't for the fact that his hands were plumping out too, his bony fingers finally wrapped in a noticeable amount of pudge.
Then Caleb heard a rip at the bottom of his sweatshirt. Looking down at his new belly, he saw that the zipper had been ripped apart at the bottom, and was coming undone as his belly pushed out from behind it. Strangely, the sweatshirt seemed to be changing color too, its grey turning darker as his gut kept expanding. His sleeves were getting shorter too, retracting up his arms to reveal that they too had grown wider. But there was a surprising amount of definition to his bulky arms, a firmness that indicated a lot of muscle underneath all the fat. And they seemed to be growing too, the sleeves retracting to reveal more girth and shapeliness.
As Caleb watched the sleeves retract, he realized the sweatshirt was taking on a rougher texture too, growing firmer as it shrunk. By the time the sleeves his disappeared completely, the sides had sprouted metal buttons and slots for them. His sweater had become a leather vest, hanging off his shoulders unbuttoned to reveal the white shirt underneath.
It was when he looked at his shirt that Caleb realized his gut had continued growing, a lot. He nearly jumped back in surprise from how big it was, though all his new weight ensured that he didn’t leave the ground. Somehow, his shirt had grown from the baggy size small he’d worn into the mall to a gargantuan top that wrapped tightly around his bulging gut, but still managed to cover his whole belly. The newly emerged ribbed texture indicated that it had become a tank top. Indeed, using one of his bulky arms to lift the vest up revealed that the sleeves were gone, and what remained of the upper part was shrinking into straps.
But Caleb was barely captivated by his morphing clothes. What astounded him was just how big his belly had grown. He wasn't sure he’d ever seen a man with belly as big as his was now, except maybe on TV shows about people who were so fat that they could barely leave the house. It made him wonder how big he was going to get, as his already giant belly seemed like it was only getting wider. And yet, it seemed to be maintaining its rotund shape, not growing saggy like those heavyweights on TV. Touching it hesitantly, he found that it was quite firm to the touch, pushing back as he tried to poke a finger into it. And as long as it was still growing, it only pushed back more.
As he looked down at his growing gut, Caleb realized he was growing a thick beard too. He’d never been able to grow anything more impressive than some scattered facial scruff, so he always kept himself clean shaven. But now, his beard was growing in density and lengthy, the black hair a stark contrast to his white undershirt. He watched it grow longer and longer, losing some length to its curl, until it finally settled in place. Once it did, it was long enough to cover most of what part of his chest was exposed by the shirt.
Looking beyond his beard, Caleb saw that his belly had finally stopped growing as well, and was astounded as how gargantuan it had become. It was over three feet across and stuck out over two feet from his surprisingly muscular chest. It was still bulbous and round, drawing him to rub it curiously. As he reached out to touch it, he saw that his arms were now wider than his legs had been before he stepped on the scale. And yet, all the girth on them was given definition by a surprising amount of muscle. Once the surprise of seeing his burly arms had passed, he let his hands fall on his belly, surprised by how firm it still felt. Reaching underneath the bottom, he tried following it around to the front, only to find it was too big. When he lifted it, he found it quite resistant to being moved, its weight making it remarkably stubborn. And yet, with his new arm strength, he could still get it to bounce a few times.
As he let his belly go and stood up straight, finding he had to arch his back to keep himself from falling forward, Caleb could barely process everything that had happened. With only his own eyes’ view, he knew he wasn't getting the whole picture. There was only one solution: he had to see himself in the bathroom mirror.
Caleb turned away from the scale and started marching down the hallway. He was expecting his new weight to give him a lot of trouble as he moved, but it seemed his legs had grown as muscular as his arms. For though it took him a while to get moving, he was soon power walking as quickly as he always could, his feet hitting the ground with a thud that suggested his sneakers had turned into boots. It was yet another thing that he’d have to confirm in the mirror, as his feet had disappeared completely out of sight on the other side of his gut.
As Caleb got closer to the mall’s main hallway, he could see that he had grown a great deal taller as well, for now most of the shoppers’ eyes were below his eye level. This only made him even more eager to see what he looked like now, so he picked up the pace and bounded to the nearest men’s room.
Behind Caleb, the gears is in the scale started whirring again. Once the bell rang, another little slip of paper shot out, before settling slowly onto the floor. The text on it read “MOVE FOR ME”.
Caleb felt too self-conscious to run to the bathroom, knowing that would draw attention to himself. So instead he powerwalked past all the stores and kiosks, paying them no mind as he strode toward his destination. He didn't pay his fellow mall goers any mind either, as he was lucky enough that none of them were pushing him out of the way like he was so used to. It wasn't until he was halfway to the bathroom that he noticed there was anything strange about that.
Only then did Caleb notice that people were moving out of his way. He thought it was a fluke at first, albeit an unlikely one. But as he kept walking, it happened again and again and again. Groups would separate on either side of him before reforming behind him. Tough-looking guys whom he would've been afraid of when he first walked into the mall now moved to the side as he approached. Even people who were too engrossed in their phones to look up as he approached them moved to the side. The crowds of the mall were like a sea parting for him, granting him passage without a second thought.
Between the time he saved by not having to dodge people and the extra leg length his new height gave his stride, Caleb arrived at the men's room much faster than he expected. He walked in to find it moderately crowded, but thankfully there was a free sink, and a mirror that extended from the countertop to the ceiling, giving Caleb a very good look at himself.
He was not entirely ready for what he saw. The man in the mirror looked like a complete stranger, exactly the kind of stranger who would've forced him to step aside before. His shocked expression was flanked by plump cheeks and a meaty double chin, and yet somehow his face still looked imposing. His arms were much bulkier than he thought possible, making it clear that he had the strength to carry around his gargantuan frame, as well as anything he might've felt like picking up. His legs were even wider, like telephone poles holding him up. Somehow his jeans had also expanded to fit his new size, and a glance down confirmed that he was now wearing chunky black boots.
In the center of it all was his mammoth gut. Though he knew it was big when he looked down, looking in the mirror, he felt absolutely planetary. Luckily, his new tank top was big enough to cover the whole thing. He could only imagine what size it was now. And yet, the way it hung tightly to his body left nothing to the imagination about the size or shape of his gut. He was amazed he could move as quickly as he did given how big around he was. His belly was like a massive boulder, at least a yard wide like he had observed, and nearly that tall too.
"You alright, stranger?” Caleb heard someone ask. Looking to the side, he saw a man about his former height, though looking closer to 200 pounds, staring at him curiously as he washed his hands. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Heh, uh, yeah,” Caleb replied, trying to not reveal his surprise at his new deep voice. “Yeah, I’m alright.”
“Can’t imagine what could shake up a big guy like you that much,” he said, before he wiped his hands on the back of his shirt and walked out.
Looking in the mirror, Caleb knew that his new body would take some getting used to. But it was growing on him. The way his new front-heaviness forced him to arch his back made him look stately and composed, very in control of himself, which only made him more intimidating. And yet, his new beard gave him a certain amount of approachability, and he liked the way it moved when he smiled. He even liked his belly, and how much weight he commanded now. If he had any negative feelings about his new size, it was envy for the people he'd be hugging with those big ol’ arms.