When Corey had said he would be seeing me later, I thought he was joking, or just saying it for the hell of it.
I wasn't used to people being genuinely nice to me. It wasn't a very common occurence; so needless to say, I was never expecting it when it happened.
My only "friend", Kennedy, only talked to me because her mom forced her to. She and my mother had been best friends in high school, and now we were next door neighbors.
Growing up, before kids cared about being fat, our friendship was fine. Easy in fact. After she started getting made fun of for associating with "fatass" though, our public appearances together became less and less frequent.
So when Corey startled me for the secod time that day, I was at my lunch table, alone.
"Do you want to hand out today?"
His voice came out of nowhere.
I swear I jumped ten feet in the air the second his voice rang through my ears, shooting him a glare once it registered who was speaking to me.
Not because I was mad or anything, mostly because he had genuinely startled me.
"Wait, you want to hang out with me...?" I asked slowly, making sure I had heard right.
Corey's cheshire cat grin spread across his face.
"Well, duh. You're the only other person here. Soooooo what do you say? We could go to the mall or something."
The mall. It was Friday afternoon, so the place would be packed. Did I really want to try to brave the crowds, and face the bitchiness of my schoolmates with some strange kid I had only just met?
Yes. Yes I did.
"That sounds like fun." I admitted shyly, reaching up and self consciously playing with my hair, something I did when I was nervous.
Coreys grin spread wider, if that was even possible.
I could tell that he was younger than me, but he had this self confidence and this happiness that was quite apparent about himself, that I was actually envious of. You could tell he was pleased with himself, but he wasn't overly cocky about it or anything. It was a nice change from the people I saw on a daily basis.
"You have a nice smile." I found myself saying.
He laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
"Why thank you, I've put a few thousand dollars into it, so I would certainly hope that it would pass for decent."
His eyes made their way down to my "lunch" as he spoke, and his lips tipped down in a slight frown as he took it in.
"Is that all you're eating?" he asked.
In front of me I had a small travel cup with a "lunch smoothie" [which consisted of spinach, kale, and some other questionable ingredients I couldn't remember] and a small baggie of saltine crackers.
"Uhm yeah." I said quietly, fiddling with the plastic baggie containing my saltines.
They weren't even the good crackers. They were sodium free.
Gag.
"Aren't you HUNGRY?" he asked, over-emphasizing the word hungry.
"No." I answered firmly, taking a long slurp of my smoothie, hoping to god I didn't throw it up all over him.
That would be embarassing, but this thing tasted so awful.
For the umpteenth time this year, I was trying some new diet that I had found on pinterest; keeping my calorie intake under 600 a day, in hopes of shedding a few pounds off of my 220 pound frame.
I used to work out like crazy. I was lucky to lose a few pounds that way.
I starved myself to no avail.
Diet pills.
Joined a gym.
Nothing worked.
Then, I took to wallowing in my self-pity, eating whatever I could get my hands on.
Corey's eyebrows furrowed in response.
"Well, I am absolutely starving, so I'll be right back with something of substance. You want anything?" he offered.
My gaze instinctively flew over to the lunch line, where my all time favourite lunch in the world was waiting for me; those hot ham and cheese sandwiches that are toasted on a pretzel bun. Honestly, they were the most delicious things ever. My mouth was watering just thinking about it.
"No thanks." I replied wistfully, tearing my gaze away from the line.
Corey hadn't been out of my eyesight for 2.5 seconds before an absolutely livid Kennedy appeared in front of me.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she hissed, her eyes shooting daggers at me.
I shrank back from her, looking at my pathetic excuse for a meal instead.
Normally, Kennedy wasn't that intimidating, but right now, she was pretty scary.
We were opposites; Kennedy and I.
While I was short and fat; she was 5'7" and skinny as a twig with killer curves.
I had limp mousy hair the hung at my shoulders, while Kendra's was long, bouncy strawberry blonde.
She was pretty, I was not.
She was intimidating and forceful, I was easy to trample.
She was popular, I was not.
She was everything that I wished I could be.
"What are you talking about Kennedy?" I asked softly.
As far as I knew, I hadn't done anything wrong.
I hadn't gotten some huge meal for lunch, and I wasn't sitting at/near her table. I also wasn't sitting with "the other fat loser rejects" to make my reputatio worse. I was even wearing clothes that she had deemed as "school appropriate".
I thought I had done everything right so far.
"I have worked my ASS off, trying to keep you from falling COMPLETELY into the gutter reputation-wise, and you decide to pay me back by having lunch with the biggest queer in school!?" she yelled, drawing the attention of most of the table surrounding us.
I shrank away from her again, my throat tightening up.
It was always like this with her. There's always something wrong with anybody who could potentially be a friend to me.
"We were just talking Ken.." I told her gently looking up to meet her gaze.
Her green eyes were narrowed at me, obviously angry.
"Get rid of him." she ordered before walking off, ending the conversation.
A sigh escaped my lips, shoulders slumping.
I had no choice but to listen to her.
Kennedy was populer, and since we were "friends", she made sure most of her friends didn't bother me. Of course, they still did from time to time, people still made fun of me, but when Kennedy snapped at them, they left me alone for a few days.
If I purposely defied her "rules" for me though, she set them loose on me.
I was packing up my saltines when Corey came back, a smile on his face.
"Hey, so I uh, got you something while I was up there." he said shyly, before pushing over an aluminum foil wrapped sandwich.
As soon as he put it in front of me, I was overwhelmed with guilt.
It was just a sandwich, really, but the fact he had noticed I wanted one, and actually PURCHASED one for me was a super sweet gesture.
"I totally forgot that I have to go make up a quiz, and if I stay to eat that I won't have time to take it." I lied, dropping my books into my backpack.
Corey's face fell but he recovered quickly, a small smile lifting the corners of his mouth.
"It's all good. Take it with you. Don't fail." he encouraged, pushing the sandwich towards me again.
I thanked him, dropping it into my purse, the guilt eating away inside of me.
As I made my way out of hte cafeteria, my eyes locked with Kennedy's, who had watched our entire exchange.
She had a smug look on her face, and looked away from me right after she knew I saw her.
One thing was for sure.
My life sure sucked with Kennedy around.
**************
(A/N) Hey guys! Here's Chapter One! I really hope that you liked it! Please vote and comment and let me know! It means so much to me<3 xxxx