To Become Comfortable In My Skin

What Luck

This past summer truly was a life changing experience. While I changed my diet and started exercising I also caught up on my makeup skills. By the end of the summer I mastered all the basics. When I hopped on the scale I was amazed. I lost another fifty pounds, making my total weight loss sixty pounds. I officially dropped down to a size sixteen and with dropping three sizes came an all new wardrobe. So i dropped the t-shirts and yoga pants and picked up the jeans and cute tops including multiple pairs of wedges some sneakers other's not. Feeling good about my new clothes caused me to want to change my hair. I was tired of having to deal with my tightly coiled afro that you couldn't do anything with. I relaxed it and chopped off the split ends. Even after that my hair was still down past my shoulders. Who knew that all that time with a tight, short afro, my hair was so long. Looking at it, I made the decision to add layers and dye it in shades of wines and reds.

When school finally started I looked like an entirely new person. My makeup was minimal the first day back, burgundy lipstick matching the hair I had curled, a natural smokey eye bringing out the shades of browns in my eyes. The outfit I chose to wear was simple. I had  little trouble finding shirts that fit me, I never lost any of my bust. I managed to work around it though. I pulled a pair of my skinny jeans, a navy blue button up shirt. I decided against wearing anything under it but I packed a peach cami incase I wanted to wear it later. I grabbed a pair of my high top converse, in black. Once I was ready to go I looked myself over in the mirror, I looked hot. I was out the door and down to school as fast as I could go. I had friends to meet and classes to get to.

The first friend I ran into was my friend Waylan. He's my best male friend and I wouldn't trade him for anything. "OMG! Girl look at you! You look stunning man!" He smiled at me as I twirled in front of him.

"I made a life change man! It's all working out for me." I couldn't help but grin. Soon enough we parted for school to start.

My first class was simply band that morning. However, the next class I had was my Calculus class. I  headed to the other building. On the way there I ran into Tyler. We were heading the same direction. He was wearing a blue v-neck and black jeans. He had his usual varsity letterman on over it all. Since I was so confident in my new look, I decided to talk to him first.

"Hey Tyler! How was your summer? Did football and soccer practices go well for you?" He looked at me confused, like he didn't know who I was, it took him a moment before he recognized me, with a lookover of my body.

"Oh! It's you AJ. Yeah my summer was alright. I broke up with my cheating girlfriend so that made it even better. Well soccer is easy, as always. Football was alright, Coach ran us pretty hard but I think we're good enough to make playoffs this year." Tyler glanced at me throughout his summer rundown and that couldn't have made me happier. "Enough about my summer, how was band? I saw you guys every once in awhile." 

"Band? Yeah it was pretty tough. Mr. Short didn't give us any breaks." I laughed a little and smiled to myself when Tyler chuckled a little himself.

"Well I'm gonna talk to my friends over here. See you around I guess." I watched as Tyler made his way over to a group of his football friends and stopped to talk to them.

Internally, I sighed with relief since I didn't have to keep my cool around him any longer. I hurried to my class and was greeted my two close friends, Kelsey and Emilie. Kelsey was your typical punk rocker and Emilie, despite her name, was a total tomboy who had as much fashion sense as a moldy potato. 

"My god, AJ! Look at you! You look so good!" I was surprised that of all people Emilie was able to pick up on all the changes I was able to make. 

"I'm so glad we're all in the same class again! But you'll never believe who I ran into on my way here. I ran into Tyler! He looked so good in his varsity jacket. He had some good five o'clock shadow happen. I was like damn. I can't wait to see him on the football field this year. Not to mention, we held a conversation in the hall!" I was so excited that I started dancing and jumping around. 

I wish someone would have told me my shoe was untied before I continued to dance around because next thing I knew I was falling backwards. I had myself prepared to fall flat on the floor, I even had my eyes closed, but that wasn't what happened. I was caught by none other than Tyler himself. His hands were on my waist and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Until I came back to reality and quickly stood back up on my own two feet. Still, Tyler's hands didn't leave my waist until I looked back at him with my face flushed. "Um...Thanks." I mumbled and went over to my friends talking for a bit more until the teacher made an announcement that we didn't have assigned seating. I took the opportunity to sit right next to Kelsey and Emilie. 

At our table we had one open seat and we were prepared to welcome whoever came as a new friend. The seat was next to me and I was cool with becoming new friends with whoever took the seat. The three of us continued our endless whisper until we heard the seat move out. We all looked and watched in shock as Tyler took that empty seat. The girls looked at me knowingly and teased me with their stare. I shrunk back into my seat and our group went silent. I looked around the class and everyone was still talking and what not. My brain simply froze, why did he sit next to me, me of all people. I turned to him and cleared my throat. 

"Um...Not to be rude, but why did you decide to sit here when your friends have an empty seat over there." I looked over and pointed to where his football and soccer friends all sat together. There was an unclaimed open seat over there.

"I figured I could get to know some new people if I sat with you. I hope you don't mind AJ." He smiled his gorgeous smile that always made me swoon. I nodded and went back to talking to Emilie, too confused to press on with my investigation.

The class simply flew by after that and so did the rest of the day. I knew after school was going to be stressful. It's not everyday that I tryout for the volleyball team. But luckily for me, I'll be with Kelsey, Emilie and Ana.