Don't Complain If You Can't Win

"Oh my gosh, are you feeding an army?" the snotty tone of the blonde sitting across from her applying multiple coats of luscious pink lip gloss asked; her sarcastic question caused the other two girls to snicker.

The last girl of the group of four to join them looked down at her tray of food with a frown as she sat down at their lunch table while ignoring the growl that sounded from her stomach. Even if she had eaten breakfast before school, she was hungry now and not ashamed to eat the cheeseburger, chili cheese fries, a bag of barbaque chips, and a Mountain Dew. With a shrug of her shoulders, she unwrapped her cheeseburger and took a bite; the other girls made noises of disgust and the girl sitting directly next to her pretended to gag.

"If you don't like it, don't look," she spat and took another bite before twisting the cap off her soda.

"Leighton, we're just trying to tell you that you probably should watch what you eat," the main girl of the group, Vivian, said. "I mean, do you know how many calories are in that alone?" she pointed to the greasy burger.

"Probably a whole week's worth!" Leighton looked at Brooke, the brunette next to her, and Courtney, the blonde girl sitting in front her agreed. "Maybe you should have half of a salad, like we do."

"We just want to help you out, Leighton," Vivian smiled, showing off her perfectly white teeth from her glossed lips stretching enough to reveal them and reaching over the red table outside the cafeteria to place her hand on Leighton's arm. "We figured your figure could use some help."

"Thanks you guys, but I think I can handle myself," Leighton returned the fake smile and popped a chili cheese covered fry in her mouth.

It was then that Leighton felt that her best friends were judging her every second of every day. She was happy with who she was even in her size sixteen frame and that's all that truly mattered to her. Never once had she cared what people thought of her until now; fifteen years later Leighton started to care but not enough to where she would fix the problem. Although in her eyes, she didn't even see one; she didn't see a problem that everyone else saw. Even still, she wasn't about to let her friends' comments ruin her day or even get to her one bit.

"So Leigh, I'll pick you up to go shopping later!" Vivian informed after they all threw their garbage away. "See you later!" she kissed her hand and waved it to Leighton and Courtney.

Waving her two friends off, she hoisted her tote bag higher on her shoulder as she and Courtney weaved through all the students in the hall to get to their lockers that were adjacent to each others. Catching her breath from speed walking, Leighton spun in her combination and pulled out her history book, checking to make sure her homework and notes were stuffed inside before closing it up and leaning against the locker while her friend checked herself in the mirror she conveniently hung on the door. Before closing her locker door, Courtney smack her lips with her newly applied lip gloss and smiled at Leighton.

"Oh, look Leigh, that junior is checking you out," Courtney bumped into her gently as they neared a group of three boys.

Leighton turned to see the boy with light brown hair and a nose ring staring in their direction and rolled her eyes. "Please, Courtney, he's looking right at you."

"No, you," she light hit Leighton's arm with a smirk along her overly glossy lips. "And look, he works out; you can tell even through his hoodie. Go talk to him!" Courtney insisted and gave her friend a small push forward.

"No!" she chuckled and stepped back. "Absolutely not! He's looking at you and so are his friends. Come on, we have to get to class." Leighton started walking forward but looked behind her when Courtney wasn't walking by her side. "Court, what are you doing?"

Putting her hands on her waist and jutting out her hip, she said, "I'm not going anywhere until you go up to him and say hello."

"Courtney," Leighton whined. "We can't be late because we have that test today! Mr. Kelly won't let us in if we're late and there are no retakes!"

"Do it," Courtney stated sternly; she only shook her head vigorously. "Do it!"

"Fine!" Leighton turned on her heel and took a deep breath, straightening out her red flannel shirt she got from Torrid.

Her heart began to race as she slowly walked to the three boys talking amongst themselves and laughing loudly. Holding her book tightly to her chest, Leighton inhaled deeply once more and let it out before beginning to take the first few steps towards the guys. She put on a nervous smile and got to the middle of the hall, feeling a little more at ease as she reached closer to them. When she least expected it, heavy pressure was forced upon her back sending Leighton flying forward and doing a Superman to the floor and throwing her book to the three boys' feet and her papers to scatter everywhere. Everyone who had been standing in the hall began to laugh hysterically with a select few pointing in her direction.

"Move, you fat fuck! You take up the whole damn hallway!" the pitcher on the Varsity baseball team yelled meanly while adjusting his collar on his Letterman jacket and continued to walk passed her while laughing with his friends.

"C'mon, Zack, let's get to class," the boy know as Vinny smacked his friends shoulder once their laughter turned into chuckles.

Just as the boys, Zack, Vinny, and Matt, walked into the classroom they were standing next to, the bell rang, echoing throughout the hall loudly just as all the students cleared out. Leighton slowly pushed herself torso from the floor to sit down, permitting her long brown hair to cover her face and hide her tearing eyes. She felt humiliated; a tear slipped from her brown eye when she took in what exactly happened. Being shoved roughly to the ground and being teased in front of half the school wasn't an ideal afternoon, especially when she somehow mustered up enough courage to go talk to a boy.

Courtney slowly walked around Leighton to gather her papers and book before kneeling down beside her friend carefully because of the mini skirt she had on. Placing her hand on her shoulder, she tried to say something that could possibly make Leighton feel better about herself. On the other hand, Leighton just wanted to disappear. As comfortable as she was with herself, she couldn't handle the humiliation and torture she had just endured. And as hard as she tried to stop herself from crying, it didn't seem to work out in her favor.

"Forget him, Leigh," Courtney tried to comfort. "You know Vivian won't settle for what happened; she'll get Justin back for you, you know." Leighton nodded her head, wiping under her eyes with her index fingers and sniffling. "C'mon, let's just get out of here and hit the mall early, okay?"

Agreeing with her friend, Leighton got to her feet and dusted off her clothes before taking her book from her friend and muttering a small "thank you". They went back to their lockers and got their bags out before exiting the through the corridor towards the student parking lot. Leighton was beyond upset and didn't know what to do with herself. No one had ever made her feel this low in her life; no one had ever made her want to curl up in a ball and cry her eyes out. At that point, she wanted to do something to change herself, but knew she shouldn't do anything just because of one idiotic person.