Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
“I think it’s so brave of you to date him,” Cara’s friend, Elizabeth, stated.
“So, so brave,” Natalie echoed. “Like, so brave,” she swooned.
Brave?
What was so brave about me dating Aiden?
I knew I shouldn’t have, but I took the bait. “What do you mean?”
Cara kept smiling. “The article just came out this morning. You have to read what people are saying about you online.”
My heart rate picked up as chills ran up and down my spine. “What people are saying?”
Cara lightly gasped, but I was all but certain she wasn’t surprised. “You haven’t seen? Here, let me show you.” She pulled out her cell phone and tapped against it a few times before holding it in my face. There was an article on one of the biggest tabloid websites titled: Everything we know about Aiden Walters’s Plus-Sized Girlfriend.
Under the headline was a picture of Aiden and me holding hands, followed by even worse photographs of me in the most unflattering angles that someone took of me during the school day. I was slouched at a desk in one, picking up a dropped notebook in another, and getting my food in the lunch line.
People were taking candid photographs of me at school.
People were taking candid photographs of me at school and giving them to the paparazzi.
People were taking candid photographs of me at school and giving them to the paparazzi, and were all mocking me about it.
“I was nice enough to send them some pictures for their article. You’re better than me, honestly,” Cara said, picking up the spoon on my lunch tray. “Because if it were me, instead of using this spoon to put food into my mouth…” She turned the handle of the spoon to her mouth and opened it wide, “I’d be using it to get food out of me. But then again, I’m not so brave like you, Hailee.”
Tears sat at the back of my eyes, but I didn’t want them to fall in front of her and her followers.
I climbed out of the booth, grabbed my backpack, and took off running out of the cafeteria.
“Guys! Hurry! Get video of the hungry-hungry-hippo running,” Cara shouted as I made my exit.
Everyone was laughing at me. Not just everyone at school, but everyone online, too. I sat in the janitor’s closet in the complete dark as my cell phone shone in my face. I read every article about me, every comment, every trending post.
* * *
Aiden’s into Black girls? No fucking way.
If she spent half the time doing her hair that she did eating, she could be cute.
There’s no way that thing is dating Aiden Walters.
Dear God, I’ve seen what you’ve done for others…
How did she get the sexiest guy alive, and I’m still single? Clearly, looks don’t matter.
Someone doesn’t skip meals.
One burger away from a heart attack.
Mooooo!
This has to be photoshopped.
* * *
My phone began ringing as Aiden’s name flashed across the screen. Tears fell against the phone as my hands shook repeatedly. My stomach sat in knots as I rejected his call. He called again and again, and I rejected every single one.
Aiden: Answer, Hails.
Aiden: Please. Answer the phone. I saw the articles. They’re bullshit.
Aiden: You’re perfect. They’re idiots and haters and trolls.
Aiden: Please, answer. Hails. Please.
Aiden: I’m coming home on the first flight out. I’m coming.
* * *
I headed home that day to find my parents speaking with Laurie in our living room. The second they saw me, it was clear that they, too, had read the online articles.
Dad shot to his feet. “Cinderella,” he started.
I shook my head. “I’m fine. I’m going to study.”
“Baby girl,” Mama began, but I didn’t give them a chance to continue. I shot to my bedroom and locked the door behind me. I collapsed onto my bed and cried into my pillows. Every inch of me ached. My head was pounding from crying for so long and so hard.
“Cinderella, we’re going to give you the space to feel what you have to feel for a few hours, but then I promise you, I am going to kick this door down and hold you,” Dad said from outside my door.
He meant it, too.
I unlocked my door and had dinner with my parents. I could almost feel their concern as Mama made my plate for me. Why did she put so much food on my plate? I didn’t need that much food. I shouldn’t have been eating that much. My hands sat in my lap as I stared at the mountain of food Mama was giving me as the words of the strangers around the world echoed in my ears.
Fat ass.
Disgusting.
He’s cheating on her.
Did you see the size of her thighs?
The dinner conversation was fine, and I told them I was okay. I had to tell them that. Otherwise, they would’ve worried and felt bad. I didn’t want them to feel bad. It wasn’t their fault that my body looked the way it did.