I Lost 90 Pounds, Only To Find He Tried To Give Me Away Chapter 02

I Lost 90 Pounds, Only To Find He Tried To Give Me Away Chapter 02

On the way home that night, some guy stopped me to ask for my Instagram. Again.

I turned him down and kept walking. Just me and the empty sidewalk.

The sky had gone gray for a summer evening, the air cool enough that rain felt close.

I caught my reflection in a storefront window.

Delicate features. Big eyes. The kind of features that made people look twice.

I could still hear my friend, her jealousy half joking, half real. “I dropped ten grand on a nose job in Bellmont Hills, and mine still doesn’t look as good as yours. Every time we go out, everyone’s staring at you.”

“Like, I get compliments too when I’m on my own! Is this what it’s like standing next to someone who’s actually hot? God, I hate you.”

I knew I was beautiful.

Strangers bought me drinks, paid for my coffee, held doors open just to talk to me. I’d lost count of how many people had asked for my number, and even a couple of talent scouts had approached me about modeling.

But before Nolan, none of this existed.

I’d always struggled with my appearance. By high school, I had become someone who hated seeing myself in photos.

Frumpy. Fat. Round.

Whale. Pig.

…

I’d heard them all.

The insecurity ate me alive. I stopped trying to look nice because what was the point? And the less I tried, the worse I looked. A cycle I couldn’t break.

I had crushes. Of course I did. But every time a boy found out I liked him, he acted like I’d personally offended him. Some of them told me so to my face.

Every time I tried to lose weight, my parents shut me down. I was cute the way I was, they said. No need to change.

They were heavy too. To them, it just wasn’t a big deal.

I spent my entire adolescence being laughed at.

Until I met Nolan in a game.

He heard my voice and wouldn’t stop bugging me until I added him.

We kept playing together after that, and somewhere along the way, we got close.

After a while, Nolan told me he liked me.

I lay awake the whole night, going back and forth.

I already knew Nolan came from money. He’d bought me tons of in-game skins and kept trying to send me real gifts too, but I turned them all down.

His Instagram had no photos of his face, but it was full of vacation photos from around the world, and every one of them showed him from behind.

Tall, with a fit build. Five-star hotels in every photo.

He liked my voice. But if he ever saw what I actually looked like, that would be the end of it.

But I really liked him.

Nolan was easy to talk to, with the kind of warmth that made you forget to be guarded. Whenever I was upset about something, he knew exactly what to say.

He’d even gift battle passes in the global chat just to get everyone hyping me up.

So I said yes.

I hid everything. My weight, my photos, anything that could give me away.

I even tested him once.

“What if I’m not pretty?”

He replied instantly. [Girl, with a voice like yours? There’s no way you’re not gorgeous. Stop playing with me lol.]

[When are we finally gonna meet? I miss you so bad.]

[Let’s apply to the same school. Then we’d get to see each other every single day.]

I didn’t answer for a long time. But that night, I made up my mind.

I was going to lose the weight. All of it.

I pushed myself through countless difficult nights. I ignored every moment of discomfort. I didn’t care that I worked out until my legs gave out.

My parents begged me to eat. Just one more bite. I wouldn’t.

I only wanted to be thin.

It went on for almost a year. No junk food, no fried food, no cheat meals. Not once. Some nights I cried myself to sleep from hunger, picturing his face just to hold on.

And finally, the weight came off.

Two hundred to one-seventy-five. One-seventy-five to one-thirty. One-thirty to one-ten.

I taught myself skin care, makeup, how to do my hair, how to dress.

Nolan kept asking to meet up during that time. I made excuses every single time.

No matter how much I changed, I never felt like it was enough.

Until the boys at school started looking at me differently. Until notes started showing up in my locker.

Strangers were stopping me on the street for my number, their faces going red as they told me I was gorgeous.

That was when it finally hit me. Somewhere along the way, I’d actually become pretty.

I finally felt ready to see him. I applied to the same school, and we agreed to meet on move-in day.

But…

None of it was real.

I believed every single thing he ever said to me.

But he’d never even told me his real name.

The only reason I even knew it was Nolan was because the guy my best friend had a situationship with happened to know him.

He never liked me. Not once. Not ever.