Don't Complain If You Can't Win

She fingered the fabric of the colorful dresses neatly placed on a tall rack and sighed heavily at the variety to choose from. Short dresses, long dresses, strapless and with sleeves; it seemed merely impossible to choose a favorite. A white chocolate colored strapless dress caught her eye; she smile inwardly and pulled it from the rack. The lightly beaded bust print and the thigh length soft material flowed loosely looked gorgeous to the eye and made Leighton nearly fall in love with it. As she examined the dress, she didn't notice Vivian watching her with a smirk until she walked over and took it from her hands.

"This is absolutely flawless!" she gushed as she pressed it up to herself and gained the attention of Courtney and Brooke standing just a few feet away.

"Yeah, I know," Leighton rolled her eyes and continued looking through the rack that was in front of her.

"You should try it on," Vivian told her, pushing the dress up to Leighton's frame after checking the size. "With you're hair and make-up, it'd look perfect."

Brooke gasped. "That's a great idea, Viv. Try it on, Leigh! I wanna see how you look in that. It's beautiful!"

Leighton took the dress from her friend's hands and checked the tag. "Guys, this is a size twelve, it won't fit me. Here, you try it on," she replied dully and gave it back to Vivian who smiled widely when she had it back in her hands. After muttering something about the dress being too big, she took it to the fitting room to try it on anyway.

A heavy sigh slipped through her lips while the three girls chattered loudly in the fitting rooms when taking armful of dresses with them to try on. Slouching down in her seat, Leighton blew her hair from her face because she was bored waiting for her friends to finish up. In all the racks, not one was bigger than a twelve; it was disappointing to her but she didn't mind. Trying on dresses with no intention to even buy one wasn't ideally fun in her mind. But to the other girls, it was the best thing they could possibly do, even if they did it weekly at different stores with or without Leighton.

Her thumbs flew over the keyboard of her phone, typing in a URL to look through. Her boredom caused her to Google random things and people since there was nothing better to do and listening to her friends gawk over how beautiful and gorgeous the other looked in a dress wasn't Leighton's cup of tea at the moment. Sighing once more and shoving her phone back in her jeans, she sat up straight and rested her elbows on her knees.

"Leighton!" Vivian screeched as she walked out of the dressing room she had been in; Brooke and Courtney followed suit. "You need to try on something! Like, really. Let's go find a shop for you."

Leighton's eyebrows furrowed and she had to hold back a scowl when she replayed Vivian's words over and over in her head. "A shop for you." Sighing for what seemed like the hundredth time and shaking her head she replied, "I really don't feel like trying clothes on that I don't intend to buy. Sorry."

"Don't be such a Debbie Downer, gosh," she flipped her golden blonde hair behind her ear. "It can't be that hard to find a place that carries clothes that would fit you. Oh! There's a Lane Bryant here, come on girls!" Vivian started walking towards the front of the store.

"Who does she think she is?" Courtney whispered harshly to Leighton, leaning down because she was much taller. Leighton only shrugged and followed five feet behind. "You're not actually going there, are you?"

"No! Are you kidding?" Leighton chuckled roughly, getting increasingly angry at her friend walking next to Brooke in front of them. "I'm going to Torrid to see if they have any new shirts."

Turning to the left, Leighton walked in the opposite direction of Vivian and Brooke with Courtney by her side and the girls chuckled when they heard Vivian groaned. Her pumps could be heard as she and Brooke quickly walked to catch up to them and slowed down when they got to Courtney's side. Leighton ignored her friend's complaints and bickering until she entered the store where she parted ways. She walked to the right to check out some shirts on display, eyeing a cute white v-neck with a black vest neatly placed over. After checking the prices, she rolled her eyes and moved on, passing the shoes towards the jeans.

"I wish this place wasn't so expensive," she muttered to herself after checking out the jeans and heading toward the rack with the flannel button ups.

"I wish this place had something that fit me," Vivian announced with a disgusted tone to her voice with Brooke verbally agreeing and took a few steps closer to Leighton. "Ugh, Leigh, can we go? There's no point in being here when everything in this store is for fat people."

Her mouth nearly fell to the floor and she was too shocked to even say anything. And by the time Leighton found a comeback, it was too late; Vivian and Brooke were already out of the store and walking towards the eatery. Courtney stayed behind and put her hand on Leighton's shoulder, giving it a light little squeeze and pulling her along towards the entrance of the store.

"You know Viv can be a bitch at times; I'm sure she didn't mean it like that," Courtney fumbled, trying to make her friend feel better about herself.

As much as those words had shocked her, she didn't feel angry or anything. Leighton knew Vivian wasn't so accepting when it came to people who didn't look like her; she honestly didn't know why Vivian even talked to her. But she really didn't care; Leighton was her own person and as long as she was happy with who she was, that's all that really mattered.

She tried to keep a smile on her face while heading toward the eatery with the girls. In all honesty, Leighton didn't feel like she had anything to frown upon. In her mind, she knew Vivian was so closed minded and it wasn't her own problem, therefore Leighton shouldn't care. Even if her friend didn't always think before she'd speak and if her words bothered Leighton for a second, it wasn't anything she could change. All Leighton knew was that she was happy, truly happy with who she was, and she knew that her personality made up for any "flaws" shallow people looked down upon.

Vivian and Brooke halted when they came to the line at Orange Julius, immediately beginning to talk about the head cheerleader sleeping with some guy from another school. Leighton rolled her eyes when she and Courtney stood in line behind them; all those two girls knew how to do was try on clothes they didn't intend on buying and gossiping about the latest hook-up they had heard about whether it was in fact true or rumor.

Loud voices followed by hysteric laughter got louder by the second until it was right behind the girls, and it slowly died down and turned into a whisper. Courtney turned to look at the boys and quickly turned back facing forward, nudging Leighton in her ribs.

"Leigh!" she whispered, somehow catching Viv's attention. "You won't guess who's behind us."

Furrowing her brow, Leighton looked back and turned back quickly like her friend previously did because Zack, the boy from school, and three other boys she's never seen before were right there. "Oh my God, I'm so embarrassed!" she murmured while covering her face. "He was there when Justin made me fall."

"Oh my God!" Vivian said loudly, subtly smirking. "You fell? When?" she pretended to sound interested, gaining the attention of the boys; a light chuckle was heard.

"Nevermind, Viv," Leighton tried to drop the subject; her cheeks were turning bright red.

"No, when? Where? Courtney, were you there?" she pushed.

"Oh, dude, is that the girl you said did a Superman across the floor?" the boy with brown hair peeking out of his beanie asked as he tried to hold back his laughter. Zack nodded with a humorous smile.

Vivian started laughing. "You saw it?" she peeked behind Courtney to look at Zack; when he answered yes, she burst into laughter. "Oh, Leighton, you didn't tell me! I would have loved to see that!"

"Vivian!" Courtney hissed, beginning to feel sympathetic for her friend who was trying to look anywhere but the people surrounding her who were laughing.

Leighton didn't say anything and she bit down on her lip and continued to look away while crossing her arms over her chest. She tapped her foot on the marbled floor to keep her calm and slowly stopped when their laughter and comments died down. After a moment, they took a few steps forwards in line; Vivian and Brooke were next after one more person and Leighton couldn't wait to get out of there.

"Hey guys, do you think there will be anything left up there by the time we get to order?" the tall, lanky boy with dark hair asked seriously.

It took a moment before the boy with the beanie started to crack up laughing. "Dude, that's fucked up."

"No, I'm serious!" he said; Leighton closed her eyes, trying to ignore them talking about her. "I mean, look who's in front of us? She might order everything!"

Courtney gasped and looked at Leighton who's eyes began to tear up; Vivian and Brooke were giggling in front of her. "Dude, Jack, you really have me thinking now. I really want a smoothie too," Zack said and made all the boys, minus the one with a buzz cut laugh.

"Guys," he trailed off, hoping they'd stop.

"Are you okay?" Courtney whispered, placing her hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

Blinking her eyes quickly, Leighton turned to look at her friend and gave her a forced smile. "Of course," she replied, taking another step forward as the two girls in front of her began to order. As hard as it was to ignore the boys' cruel comments they were still making, she couldn't. Her eyes wouldn't stop watering even if she kept blinking them back and attempting to wipe under her eyes without anyone noticing. When it was her turn, she wasn't able to get a word about before the guys made another comment.

"Ah shit!" the boy known as Jack threw his arms in the air, catching all of their attention, even the girl behind the counter. "Now we're fucked! She's ordering everything off the menu. C'mon, I'm skinny; I need some fucking food!" he yelled and people walking by and sitting in nearby tables looked in his direction.

"Jack!" the buzzed cut kid, Rian, yelled and punched his friend's shoulder while he, Zack, Alex, Brooke, and Vivian laughed hysterically.

At that point, Leighton couldn't take it anymore; her tears that were threatening to fall slipped from her brown eyes and ran down her rosy cheeks. She was beyond embarrassed, more like humiliated once again that day and it took a toll on her. All she was able to do was run away and leave; Leighton didn't want to cry in front of them but it just so happened that she did. She was comfortable in her own skin but those cruel comments had taken its toll on her; Leighton couldn't do it anymore.

She had to get out of there; she had to get away. She didn't have a problem, they did. But she could no longer handle the torture she was getting; it was getting to be too much. Leighton knew she had to stand up for herself somehow, and she promised herself she'd do just that.