Should have listened

Casey flopped onto the pool lounger like it had personally wronged her. Finals were done. Her brain was fried. She had exactly one week to recalibrate before fall semester slammed back in.

"One week," she had told her younger brother, Tyler. "Silence. That’s all I want. No friends. No chaos. No noise. Just sun, still water, and sleep."

Tyler, being Tyler, nodded like a bobblehead and said, “Totally,” while already texting the group chat.

Now, Casey was out cold in the backyard, draped in a towel, the sun tracing slow lines across her arms. She didn’t stir when the gate creaked open, or when the bass from someone’s portable speaker dropped hard enough to rattle the pool lights. People cannonballed, shouted, laughed.

Casey kept snoring softly, sunglasses slipping down her nose.

Inside, Tyler heard the doorbell. He jogged to the front, giving the driver a thumbs-up through the window. “Yo, pizza’s here!”

The delivery guy held out the card reader like it was cursed. "It's been acting weird all day, sorry."

Minutes ticked by. Tap. Error. Tap. Decline. Tap. “Try again.”

Behind the house, something changed. Screaming—brief, sharp—then nothing.

Tyler finally got the transaction to go through, stacked the greasy boxes in his arms, and made his way back, grinning. “Hope you guys like peppero—”

He froze.

The pool was still. Empty. No music. No splashing. Just Casey, floating oddly.

Correction: Casey, perched on top of her stomach like a human beanbag chair. Her belly was colossal—bloated, spherical, sinking deep into the water like a grounded yacht. It was easily wide enough to seat a dinner party. Maybe two. Her gut looked like it had its own gravity.

Tyler blinked. His brain refused to compute.

“Heyyyy little bro,” Casey said, eyes half-lidded, voice syrupy. She stretched, belly wobbling gently beneath her. “I told you I wanted quiet.”

“You... you ate them?” Tyler whispered, stunned.

She stuck her tongue out at him, then smirked. “They were loud. I fixed it. You should have listened.”

She rolled slightly, enough to make the pool slosh. “Oooh... is that pizza?”