I Lost 90 Pounds, Only To Find He Tried To Give Me Away Chapter 11

I Lost 90 Pounds, Only To Find He Tried To Give Me Away Chapter 11

Three years ago.

Back when the bullying was at its worst, I’d tried to lose weight too. I begged my mother all summer until she

finally signed me up for a weight-loss camp.

The coaches didn’t use our real names. Everyone had to pick a camp name.

The training was brutal. We worked out until we couldn’t stand, and meals were barely enough to keep us

conscious.

I spent every day so hungry my vision blurred. I was basically a walking zombie.

One night, the hunger woke me up and wouldn’t let me fall back asleep. I went downstairs to walk it off. That’s when I saw a dark shape crouched near the corner of the building.

I nearly screamed. The figure whipped around, mouth stuffed, eyes wide with panic. He tried to speak, but

choked so hard his eyes watered.

“I- cough”

I rushed over and pounded his back until he could finally breathe again.

His eyes were red and watery. He held a finger to his lips.

“Don’t yell. I… I was just so hungry I couldn’t take it anymore.” He was still crouching on the ground, clutching a pack of Oreos like his life depended on it.

I stared at the Oreos. My mouth started watering instantly.

“Where did you get those Oreos?”

He whispered, “I have a friend who lives nearby. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I begged him to toss them over

the back fence.”

“Please don’t tell on me.”

I didn’t move.

It took him a second. Then he got it.

He slowly held out the pack. “Um… do you want some?”

I grabbed his wrist. “You’re my new best friend.”

That night, I learned his camp name was Pudding. Mine was Pumpkin.

Pudding took our friendship seriously. Every time he snuck food at night, he came and got me first.

We spent two solid months sneaking food together in the dark.

Nothing bonds two people like shared trauma and contraband junk food.

The downside was that everyone else actually lost weight. We were the only two who didn’t.

I had to leave without warning. My grandmother was rushed to the hospital, and I left camp the same day.

There wasn’t time to say goodbye.

As I was heading out, Pudding came running after me, panting and dripping with sweat.

His eyes were red. He shoved a scrap of paper into my hand.

“My Instagram. Promise me you’ll add me when you get out.”

You’d think we were getting released from prison.

I laughed even though my throat was tight, and waved at him.

But I never did reach out.

My grandmother’s condition got worse fast. She passed away a few days later.

We’d been close, my grandmother and I. I barely left the hospital. Everything else stopped mattering.

By the time the funeral was over and I finally remembered the paper, my mother had already washed the

clothes it was in.

The paper was just a clump of mush. Completely unreadable.

I went back to the camp to find him. It had shut down. The staff was gone. No forwarding address, no trail to

follow.

After that, Pudding was just gone.

I thought about him sometimes.

He’d been the only person in my life who never once looked down on me.

I never would have guessed that after all this time, after everything, it would circle back to him.

“But how did you end up looking like this?”

A chubby little Oreo thief turning into a male model. It actually happened.

Theo rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. “After you left, you never reached out. And after that…

eating alone just wasn’t the same. I kind of lost my appetite.”

“I picked up basketball, and the weight just started melting off on its own.”

“Then one day I saw that post, the one about giving away an online girlfriend. He didn’t blur out your info.”

“Your name was Pumpkin. Your profile picture was that brown tabby with the white patch on its forehead, the

one you told me about back at camp. The age matched. I knew it was you.”

“I couldn’t just watch that happen to you. I didn’t even think. I just DM’d him.”

“And when we finally met, I didn’t recognize you either. I didn’t expect you to be so…” He trailed off. “…so

beautiful.”

He looked down. His jaw was tight.

“I’m sorry, Tessa. I shouldn’t have lied. I just didn’t know how to tell you.”

“If you want to walk away, I get it.”

I stood there for a long moment, not saying anything.

What were the odds?

I reached out through the rain and took his hand.

“Why would I walk away? Didn’t you promise you’d stick around?”

Theo was drenched. But his eyes were burning.

He pulled me into his arms.

And burying his face in my shoulder, half-laughing, half-crying, he whispered, “Okay.”