Status: Complete

Food, Cats, and Being Lazy

Thirteen

Losing Laura as a friend wasn't that big of a deal after all. Sure, I was lonely during lunches, but that was really the only time we ever hung out aside from slipping letters to each other in class. Or when we'd meet up in the atrium sometimes in the mornings. It was easy enough to get over. It's not like I was unused to it.

But Vincent was always with my sister and their friends during school hours, and Paige didn't want me anywhere near them. So we didn't hang out. After school, he came by on occasion. But Paige made it her goal to always leave the house to go hang out instead of letting him come over to us. Just in case he decided to bring me along. But since Vincent wasn't really my friend, neither was Collin.

I kept up the fantasy that I might be the next girl he went out with, but he didn't speak to me again after that one day with the Gatorade. I saw him once in passing, and he nodded to me, but that was the extent of it. Then one day, he came to school holding hands with some other girl.

It hurt more than I wanted to admit. I'd been in love with the guy for going on three years. It's not like I really believed I had a chance with him. Maybe if I was like Laura and got cool and pretty overnight. But the difference is that she was always pretty. She just wasn't allowed to dress like she was cool. I'd been praying for a miracle since elementary school when the kids on the playground called me fat. And so far, no luck.

Collin wouldn't go out with a girl like me. That only ever happened in movies and to girls who were already pretty, even in makeover movies. You just get one eyebrow wax and outfit change, and boom, gorgeous. But I was still invisible. And when I wasn't, I was just dirt.

But then, one day in math class, a kid leaned over and tapped my desk. I looked up. His name was Anton, but I'd never talked to him. I was pretty sure he'd only been at school for less than a year.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Are you going to that party this weekend?" he asked. I shook my head slowly.

"What party?"

"At Collin Denver's place? His parents are out of town, I heard."

"Oh—I wasn't invited."

"Well, I'm inviting you. Do you want to come with me?" I didn't understand what he was asking me.

"I'm—not really sure my sister would want me there."

"That's not up for her to decide. I'll pick you up at seven on Saturday? You live with Paige Finnegan, right?" I nodded. "I'll see you then?"

"Yeah—okay."

I had no idea how he knew where Paige lived. Or if he was asking me on a date or just to hang out. I was completely baffled. And later, when I went to meet my mom after school, Paige was waiting too. She rode home with us and chatted with my mom in the front seat the entire ride.

"So I heard you have a date with Anton," she said when she followed me up the stairs.

"I don't think it's a date. He just asked me to go to Collin's party this weekend." She laughed.

"It's a date, genius. And I think it's about time too. I thought you'd be a virgin forever." I frowned as she passed me, trotting up the stairs like a delicate baby deer.

"For your information, celibacy is a choice." She laughed again.

"Not for you, it isn't."

"You're so mean. I'm not going to do anything with Anton. I don't even like him. I barely know him. He's just some guy from my math class." We reached the top of the stairs, and she turned around, walking backward to torment me.

"He's in the Mathletes, and he's a super huge nerd. The only reason he was invited at all is because he's Collin's cousin, and Collin doesn't want him to tell his parents he's throwing a party."

"Are you going to the party, Oh Glorious One?" She scoffed.

"Of course. I AM the party." I rolled my eyes and went into my room, where she couldn't bother me anymore.