More than Big Boned

10. Enjoy The Rest Of Your Make-Out Session

"Hi," I say. As with every encounter I have with Bailey, I'm slightly breathless.

"Hey," he smiles at me, his brown eyes sparkling.

"What's up?"

Bailey's eyes bore into mine, and my heart starts pumping three times faster than it should. Does this count as exercise?

"I just wanted to let you know that you should sit with me in Life Skills this afternoon," Bailey runs a hand through his hair. "Cause of the assignment."

"Yeah, sure," I smile.

We stand there staring deeply into each other's eyes. There are too many butterflies in my stomach and my knees feel weak. I take a shaky breath, trying to steady myself. If no one else were here, I swear I would've attacked his mouth with mine. Either way, before I can do that, Bailey speaks, letting me know he'll see me in class.

I walk into homeroom a little bit later than I usually do and spot Teddy and George sitting in the back corner. I walk over to them and take the spare seat next to Teddy. We have a good chat and I decide this might be my chance to find something out about Thomas and Samuel.

"Hey, boys?" I lean over Teddy's desk slightly so that George can hear me. "Can I ask you something about Thomas and Samuel?"

"Sure," says George. Teddy looks at me.

"So, him and Samuel. Are they, like, best friends now or something?" I ask.

Teddy opens his mouth, shuts it, then speaks. "They act like it. They've got pretty close now. They hung out this weekend with us. I'm assuming you knew that though, cause you guys are also best friends, right?"

They keep speaking but I can't hear them. All I can do now is stare ahead. My heart squeezes. My best friend is now ditching me for another person who they'll label as their new best friend. I need to have a serious chat with Thomas sometime today. Maybe I'll go to his house this afternoon. That's actually a good idea.

I spent most of the day thinking about Thomas replacing me with Samuel as his new best friend. I decided not to talk to him until after school. After afternoon tea, the bell rings to go to last class, and I take off, hoping Bailey can help distract me from thinking about Thomas. When I get to class, I see Bailey sitting up the back and I head straight for him. He gives me a smile and I return it. I feel my cheeks heating up as he watches me walk towards him.

"Hey," Bailey says.

"Hi," I drop my things on to my desk.

Miss Finch enters the classroom just ahead of some stragglers. She places her bag on her desk and sighs. She clears her throat and tells us to get on with our partner assignment. Bailey and I sit in the back corner of the room on the floor and we get out our laptops.

"Can you share the document you made with me?" I tap away at my computer, opening up my emails.

"Sure," Bailey says, and he gets to work.

I get the email after refreshing my inbox a few times, open it, and stare at the blank page. How are we going to do this?

"OK, so, I'm thinking that you can talk about the stigma against fit body types in boys and girls and I can talk about the stigma against fat body types in boys and girls. And then we'll talk about how society has influenced people's judgement towards body types and stuff like that." I start typing an introductory sentence.