~BBW, Eating, Romance, ~SWG - true love blossoms and important lessons are learned
Two peas in a pod. Joined at the hip. Two lovebirds. Head over heels for each other. All these clichés and more described Kristin and Chris’s budding romance. Their successful first date had been followed up by dates at the movies, dinner dates, study dates, stay at home dates, and even a double date with one of Chris’s friends from the soccer team.
They did as much as they possibly could with one another because they were so deeply smitten by one another. They couldn’t get enough of one another. In fact, the entire varsity water polo team (and all Kristin’s friends on the junior varsity team) thought they were just the cutest couple they’d ever seen. Even the extraordinarily happy pair of Liam O’Shea and Tara Kelly had to admit that the two were so perfect together.
Kristin herself couldn’t believe how happy she was with Chris. Having a boyfriend was something she’d only dreamed about just a month ago, and now she had one and it surpassed her wildest expectations. To simply be touched lovingly by a boy her own age was mind-blowing. To be kissed by a boy still thrilled her every time their lips touched. No one had ever looked at Kristin the way that Chris looked at her. No one had ever caressed her like he did.
Everything was still wonderful and new, even though they had gone out plenty of times together and now spent most of their free time outside of school (as well as quite a bit of free time in school) together. Most importantly, Kristin felt that Chris accepted her for who she was. Kristin had never had a problem with her size, but she was well aware she didn’t have a perfect physique. However, Chris had never even made an oblique reference to her weight. This tacit validation of herself gave her a feeling of self-confidence.
However, Kristin’s newfound confidence had not really been tested. no one had ever made fun of her for being a fat ass. This was due to the fact that since Kristin was a shy, soft-spoken girl, the oh-so-perfect popular girls didn’t even think of teasing her about her weight. They wanted someone juicy to sink their teeth into, someone who was loud and outspoken or highly prominent who could use being “put in their place”.
Of course, if it happened to help their social goals to tear a blooming porker—such as Jenna Shcherbatsky—down, all the better. Only a sadist would take the time to cut down a girl like Kristin Royal. Judging by history, RFK High School either lacked sadists or they took no notice of Kristin (the latter was probably truer than the former).
However, Kristin Royal, though she was still somewhat of a wallflower, was being drawn out of anonymity by her relationship with Chris. Chris Anderson was someone who hadn’t flown under the radar since third grade, and any girl dating him was sure to attract attention. He could easily be considered a popular guy, and being the star of the soccer team only added to his prestige.
The popular set of single girls salivated over him as he walked by. Several had blatantly tried hitting on him earlier in the year, but to no avail. The continued brush offs had failed to communicate Chris’s disinterest to any of the girls (which was probably more of a commentary on the intelligence of the girls rather than Chris), which meant when Chris began openly dating Kristin, all of his admirers were shocked by the turn of events.
“Kristin Royal? Kristin Royal? Why is Chris dating her?”
“She’s a nobody!”
“She’s not that good looking.”
“She probably wouldn’t even go all the way with him.” (This girl would have done that and more if given the chance).
“What’s she got we haven’t got?”
“This is unbelievable. Chris must be playing a practical joke.”
“Boys don’t kiss girls like that when they play practical jokes. He must be insane.”
“He’d have to be insane to date a pig like that.”
And that was how it began. One snide remark started a slew of comments that circulated in the upper crust of RFK High’s senior class. Bashing Kristin Royal for her weight became the new thing to do. Behind her back, she was branded with every fat insult imaginable. There was the mundane fat ass, jelly belly, thunder thighs, fatso, pig, cow, and other equally familiar names.
However, the glitterati also used their limited brain cells to come up with other names as well: tumble tub, blubber butt, the bottomless pit, roly-poly Royal, the polo porker (or, in the same vein, water polo whale), obese oinker, heavy heifer, lazy lard ass, stupid slob, and—in a burst of unrivaled imagination—hungry, hungry hippo. Perhaps they could have been more creative, but their powers of cruel creativity were still largely limited to the use of alliteration to come up with their scathing insults.
Needless to say, half these names, especially the nastier ones, weren’t even deserved by Kristin, who wasn’t nearly as big as Tara, Tina, or a number of other girls on the water polo team. However, none of those girls was dating anyone as prominent as Chris Anderson. Had they dated boys of greater social standing, they probably would have been subject to the same mockery as Kristin.
Though these insults remained whispered, Kristin soon became aware of the smug smiles and mocking eyes of the popular girls whenever she walked by. She didn’t know why she seemed to draw their ire all of a sudden, but made it a point to avoid them. To suddenly be looked at with such derision took Kristin completely off guard. Whenever she was with Chris and she drew these same looks, Kristin decided against saying anything to him since he seemed not to notice. She was probably just making it up.
Kristin gave herself less credit than she deserved, as you know. However, her detractors were very good at only being heard when they wanted to be. They were perfectly pleased with keeping their mockery to themselves for the first couple weeks after setting their sights on Kristin. They’d come up with so many good derogatory names for Kristin that they had ample time to savor them all amongst themselves.
Eventually that wasn’t enough for their bottomless desire for mockery. They soon began sharing their insults with the other girls who didn’t have a crush on Chris, and shortly thereafter with the guys they hung out with. They never revealed their reasons for belittling innocent Kristin Royal, but their shallow friends were just as amused with fat jokes as they were and never thought about any deeper reasons for the insults.
For one girl though, even this was not enough. That girl was Hayley Oxford. Her malice ran deeper than that of Chris’s other admirers. She truly believed she was in love with Chris—though infatuation was closer to the mark—and she resented Kristin for having taken her chance at happiness from her. Never mind the fact that if Chris didn’t like her it could never truly work. That was completely irrelevant. In fact, that had never even occurred to Hayley. Even if it had, it probably would have changed nothing of what was about to occur.
Hayley lay in wait for Kristin one day at lunch. She was rewarded by her prey walking down the hall alone, which was precisely how she’d planned it. Look at her, just waddling there, a true pig ready for the slaughter. Probably on her way to her next meal since she can still see her feet, no doubt, Hayley thought cruelly. Though an audience would have been gratifying, there was the off chance that things wouldn’t go as she expected and then the embarrassment would be all her’s. Besides, if it was just the two of them, Hayley could control the telling of the tale when she recounted the episode to all of her friends, magnifying herself and minimizing Kristin. The scenario was, in short, perfect.
Hayley smiled maliciously as she walked down the hall towards Kristin. She even licked her lips, sensing the kill. Kristin walked with her eyes in front of her, directed towards the ground. It was just how she had always walked, rather than stemming from any desire not to look at Hayley. Then again, Kristin had no interest in looking at Hayley either. She knew that the girl was simply bad news and stayed as far away from her as possible.
“Kristin, did you hear the news about Chris?” Hayley asked, wiping her grin off her face and putting on a mask of concern.
“No, what?” Kristin said, stopping suddenly, which caused her body to jiggle from its momentum. The thought that something could be wrong with Chris overrode her casual dislike of Hayley. Even if it meant talking to Hayley, she’d want to hear it.
“It’s a tragedy,” Hayley said, “I just heard that he’s dating a pig. Oh, wait, that’s right—it’s you.”
“Shut up,” Kristin said, less authoritatively than she felt. She tried not to let the petty insult get to her, but it still stung.
“Everybody’s been talking about it for weeks now,” Hayley said, “Which raises the question: why is that Chris likes you?”
Kristin remained silent, trying to keep a stiff upper lip. She even moved to keep walking, but Hayley stood in her way.
“Let’s see, your personality perhaps? Oh wait, that’s right I don’t think you’ve said above a dozen words in public this year. So it couldn’t be that…certainly not your looks, that’s for sure.” The words cut to the quick for Kristin. She was now biting her lower lip to keep herself composed.
Then Hayley feigned a sudden realization. “Oh I know, he must be expecting you to put out.”
Kristin was mortified at the thought.
“Leave me alone!” she cried. Though she wanted to run away, she couldn’t move.
“It makes perfect sense. He knows all the good looking girls wouldn’t ever debase themselves like that, so he decided to turn to someone with less morals than us. That’s the only way a cow like you could have landed a guy like Chris. Enjoy him while you’ve got him. He’ll have his way with you and then leave you in the dust without a second thought,” Hayley continued maliciously.
“That’s not true!” Kristin yelled through openly flowing tears. Hayley was lying, but at the same time the mere suggestion hurt Kristin so much. Now that someone was deriding her for her weight, Kristin’s self-confidence was falling to pieces. Kristin was afraid that Hayley was right. She wasn’t as good looking like other girls, she was a fat ass. She was a pig.
“Sure, you can tell yourself that so you don’t feel like a slut. But me, I call a spade a spade and I can tell that Chris is just looking for a night in the sack so he can have a good chuckle with his buddies on the team about how many chicks he’s bagged this semester,” Hayley said, taking obvious pleasure in her torture of the rounder girl.
“After all, what’s a little cushion for the pushin’ when you’re just another notch on the belt?”
Kristin couldn’t even mount a defense any more. She just stood there and cried.
“What are you going to do now piggy? Go sit in the corner and eat ice cream until you feel better? Go ahead, because after Chris nobody’s going to want that disgusting bloated body of yours. At this rate they’re going to have roll you down the aisle at graduation!” Hayley said with a laugh.
As Hayley went on, Kristin suddenly felt every ounce of fat on her body—the circumference of her hips all of a sudden became evident to her, and it felt like they took up the entire hallway. She could feel her thighs rubbing together as she nervously shifted her massive weight from one foot to the other. With that small movement, Kristin was aware of her expansive, ass jutting out inches behind her. She could almost picture small undulations flowing through it from even her minor movement. Kristin was even acutely aware of her chubby belly, which was nowhere near as large in proportion to her hips.
Hayley could see that her words were having the desired effect and continued her torture. “Oh, yes, it’ll be—”
“Excuse me,” someone said, tapping Hayley on the shoulder.
The vain pretender turned around and as she did so the right hook of Molly Creighton connected with Hayley’s nose, sending her sprawling. The Senior shook her hand a bit. “Damn, that hurt much more than I expected! You must be more thick headed than I thought. I suppose being lower down the evolutionary chain does that to you.”
Hayley got to her feet, one hand to her bleeding nose. “You little bitch! How dare you! I ought to get the vice principal!”
“Funny, that was my opening line too,” Molly said, “I don’t know why you’re tormenting this poor girl, but no one deserves the tirade you just unleashed on her. You’re obviously some insecure rich girl who isn’t getting her way and the only thing you know how to do is make other people’s lives miserable. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. People like you are what’s wrong with the world today whereas this girl is everything good about people.”
Molly drew Kristin, who was still crying, albeit not as much as before, close to her. “So you want to go tell a vice principal about this? Go ahead, I’d enjoy that because then you’d have to own up to everything that just happened here. So go scurry off to whatever hole you climbed out of and stay there.”
Very few people had ever spoken like that to Hayley Oxford and, unsure of what to do, she hurried off to a bathroom to see about stopping the bleeding of her nose, leaving Molly alone with Kristin, who was crying into Molly’s shirt. Molly gently stroked Kristin’s chestnut hair.
“Hey, it’s okay now,” Molly said quietly, resting her head on top of Kristin’s, “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that, but she got what was coming to her.”
“Th-thank you,” Kristin said between sobs.
“Shhh…” Molly said, “I heard everything and she’s wrong.”
The two simply stood there for another few minutes until the bell rung marking the end of lunch and that the next class would be starting soon. Kristin pulled apart from Molly.
“Thank you for everything. I need to go now,” Kristin said, still sniffling.
“You might want to clean up a little bit before class,” Molly said, “Just keep your head up, all right? You’ll be all right. Now, I think I need to go get some ice for my hand…”
***
Hayley Oxford discreetly left school early to have her broken nose attended to, declining to let the school nurse know about the situation. Though she had tried not to attract attention, there was no way she could escape without garnering some notice. It didn’t take long for RFK High to be abuzz about what had happened to Hayley.
When Molly heard the story she decided that Miss Oxford needed to be thoroughly humiliated for her crime, and casually let it slip that she’d seen Hayley verbally abusing a girl and she’d stepped in to teach Hayley a lesson, leaving Kristin’s name out of the affair. There was no reason to drag Kristin through anymore pain by becoming the center of the latest gossip.
Some of the girls on the water polo team upon could tell that something was wrong with Kristin that afternoon at practice, but weren’t sure what. It wasn’t until the next day when Kristin failed to show up for school that Chelsea Magyar suspected that the two incidents might somehow be connected. Seeking out Molly and presenting herself as a devoted friend of Kristin’s, she was given the full story, which she heard in utter shock, of Hayley’s callousness. After having thanked Molly, Chelsea immediately sought out Chris and related everything to him privately.
Kristin’s boyfriend was furious. Had Hayley also decided to not show up that day, she probably would have had her nose broken again and garnered a couple of black eyes as well. It took nearly five minutes for Chelsea to calm him down so he could listen to reason again.
“Look, I know you’re mad right now,” Chelsea said, “I’m mad too. I’d help you beat up Hayley, but that’s not what’s most important right now. Kristin was obviously hurt very badly by Hayley yesterday. She needs you right now. You need to see her today.”
So Chris tried calling Kristin, but she wouldn’t answer her cell phone. She wasn’t answering the house phone either. All he could get was Mrs. Royal who said that Kristin wasn’t feeling well and was sleeping right at the moment, but she thought that Kristin would appreciate it if he came by after school to check in on her.
It was with great difficulty that Chris was able to restrain himself from ditching his remaining classes for the day and racing over to Kristin’s house to see his girlfriend. However, he figured that Mrs. Royal might be somewhat suspicious if he showed up at her house in the middle of the day, and his own parents might not appreciate his truancy.
Though he was in class, his mind wasn’t on his studies at all. All he could think about was the fact that Kristin needed him and he wasn’t with her. Needless to say, Chris was the first one out the door at the end of the day, nearly running through the halls.
He hurried over to Kristin’s house and was cordially greeted by Mrs. Royal. “You can just head up there, I think I heard that Kristin was awake a while ago.”
Chris thanked her and headed upstairs. Upon reaching the closed door leading to Kristin’s room, Chris softly rapped on it.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Chris. I heard you weren’t feeling well,” he said.
“Please d-don’t come in. I just want to sleep right now,” Kristin said from the other side of the door, “I’m really tired.”
“I just want to make sure you’re doing okay,” Christ said, not wanting to state his real reason while Mrs. Royal could hear. He didn’t want to be the vehicle for informing Kristin’s mother of what had occurred the day before. He was pretty sure that Kristin wasn’t going to let him in if she knew that he was aware of her ordeal yesterday.
“I’m fine. I don’t want you to get sick too,” Kristin insisted.
Sensing that there was no other way around it, Chris tried the door and found it was unlocked. It might not be the most respectful thing to barge in on your girlfriend against her wishes, but he felt that he had to in this instance. Upon opening the door, he found Kristin underneath her covers wearing a sweatshirt and, though he couldn’t see it, sweatpants. The blubbery brunette had been so depressed about the preceding day’s events that she hadn’t even changed her out of the sweats that served as her pajamas.
Her hair was disheveled, her eyes red from crying, and all about the room there were empty bags and wrappers of chips, candy, and all sorts of other assorted snacks. Indeed, Kristin had drowned her grief in junk food. Hayley’s words had been so biting that she had lost all self-confidence and thought of herself as a fat waddling pig that had no business with anyone as good looking as Chris Anderson.
She’d spent all day thinking about what she must look like to other people, and every time saw herself as a gross, obese teenager who couldn’t control her appetite. She shuddered to think of what she must look like in her swimsuit for water polo—fat bulging out in every direction, her tree trunk sized thighs in plain view for everyone to see as they squished together with her every step, her butt bouncing wildly as she walked to the pool. Kristin was even blamed herself for not having recognized what she now saw were the signs of her massive size earlier.
She’d actually had to resort to wearing a bikini bottom underneath her swimsuit when she started playing water polo so as to make sure her ass was sufficiently covered. Granted, there were a number of girls who played water polo that did the same, but Kristin now saw it as a sign of her chunkiness that her butt cheeks would hang out in view of all the world in a regular swimsuit without this added measure.
Hayley had done greater damage than she might have ever hoped for in her merciless teasing of Kristin. She had brought Kristin’s portly size into stark relief for the tubby co-ed and the result was that Kristin could only think of herself in the hyperbolic terms that Hayley had described her in. Though food had only been a minor comfort to Kristin prior times of trouble, she now embraced all the fatty treats she could find in the family cupboards as her only solace.
With tears streaming down her face, Kristin accepted her newfound identity as a disgusting, obese butterball. Though she knew that all of these fattening snacks would only add further flab to her figure, she had thrown in the towel. She was a veritable hippo and she might as well act like one.
Upon seeing Chris, Kristin wailed, “Leave me alone!” and then hid herself under her covers. For a moment Chris thought that it was rather humorous that Kristin would hide like an ostrich under her comforter, creating a large lump in the middle of her bed. However, the severity of the situation caused him to put aside the laughable aspect of the situation.
Chris closed the door and gently sat down on the bed next to the breathing lump on the bed. He gently put his hand on the covered form of his girlfriend.
“Go away!” Kristin’s muffled voice came, accompanied by soft sobs.
“Kristin, I heard about what happened yesterday,” Chris said.
“Then leave me alone!” Kristin said, “I’m just a fat slob!”
“No you’re not Kristin. You’re a nice girl and you’re a lot better than Hayley Oxford,” Chris said.
“No I’m not! Go away!”
Chris pulled the covers down and revealed Kristin with tear stained cheeks. She tried to pull her comforter back over her head, but Chris wouldn’t let her. She struggled with him, but Chris would not be defeated. Instead, Kristin tried pounding her fists against Chris, exclaiming against him as she did so. Chris would not be moved and tried to suppress his girlfriend’s blows.
“Kristin, just stop and listen to me!” Chris exclaimed, “I love you!”
“No you don’t,” Kristin said through her sobs as she struggled with Chris, “Don’t try and make me feel better, it’s true! I’m just a fatty pig.”
“No you’re not. Kristin, you’re the greatest girl I’ve ever met. I wouldn’t have asked you out if I didn’t think so,” Chris said taking hold of Kristin by the shoulders, “I was never trying to lead you on so as to take advantage of you. Never in my life….You know what—”
And before Kristin knew it Chris kissed her hard and long like he’d never done before. When he pulled apart, the tear-eyed girl was stunned and her mouth moved without words coming out.
“If you don’t think that I love you for who you are after that, then I don’t know what else I can do to convince you,” Chris said.
“So you really like me even though I’m fat?” Kristin said through sniffles.
“Kristin, it doesn’t matter to me whether you’re fat or skinny. You light up my day like nobody else than I’ve ever met. That’s how much I love you,” Chris said.
“Really?” Kristin asked.
“Really.”
And the pair kissed and hugged one another tight. As they did, Kristin said, “You have no idea how horrible it felt to think that you were seeing me just because you thought I’d be easy to get in the sack.”
“You have no idea how mad I was when I found out about Hayley’s pack of lies. I wanted to beat the stuffing out of her,” Chris said.
“Well, she didn’t lie about one thing. I am fat,” Kristin said.
Chris pulled apart from her. “Are you really going to make a big deal about this?”
“Well it’s true. I mean, we can’t just pretend like it’s not,” Kristin said.
“Kristin, you’re no slimmer than when I first asked you out,” Chris said exasperatedly. He was going to tell her that it didn’t matter to him when he decided to take a different tack.
“Look, has it ever crossed your mind that perhaps girls who are chubby, plump, even fat are beautiful? That you don’t have to be thin to be beautiful?”
“No…” Kristin said, not exactly convinced.
“Well it’s true. I think you’re beautiful. You could be thin and I’d still think you’re beautiful. I’ve dated thin girls before. What their body looks like isn’t nearly as important as who they are on the inside. It took me a while to learn it, but I’ve still learned it much quicker than a lot of people. It’s something you ought to learn too because you’ll be happier in life that way.”
“So you’re saying be happy with who I am, no matter what my weight?”
“Exactly.”
“That’s nonsensical, really…but liberating too,” Kristin said, and then she smiled, “I think I’ll give it a try.”
“Atta girl,” Chris replied and pinched her cheek gently in a sign of affection.
“So, just to be clear, are you attracted to me? I mean, if it doesn’t matter whether I’m thin or fat…” Kristin asked.
“Kristi, trust me when I say you’re one of the hottest girls in school. Look at you and those killer hips,” Chris said.
“Excuse me?” Kristin said, “What about my hips?”
Chris’s face flushed. “Well, they were one of the reasons that I was first attracted to you.”
“Who would have guessed that sweet, innocent Chris Anderson would get worked up over a girl who has big, luscious, curvaceous hips,” Kristin said leaning closer to Chris.
“Let’s not even get me started on that fine rear of yours,” Chris said moving a bit closer to Kristin as well.
“So he likes big butts too, does he?” Kristin said.
“Allow me to demonstrate my passionate feelings on the subject, Miss Royal,” Chris said right before his lips locked with Kristin’s once more. Before he knew it Kristin was on top of him as they lay on her bed, making out with one another. As their tongues explored one another’s mouths, Chris’s hand found their way to Kristin’s hips.
As they made out, his hands explored her bodacious booty with all its curves. He let his hands run wild over her wonderful lower half, indulging his earliest fantasies about Kristin. Chris paused his exploration and squeezed various portions of her body every once in a while, here her butt, there her thigh, now the side of her hip, each time finding plenty of sweatpants-enclosed flesh to grab.
“I’ve—got to—say,” Chris said as he could between kisses, “I’ve—been—waiting—for this—for a—while.”
“Shut up and—kiss me,” Kristin said by way of reply, to which Chris willingly acceded.
Eventually they paused, Kristin’s head lying facedown next to Chris’s, panting. “I had no idea that making out could be so tiring,” Kristin said.
“You’re telling me,” Chris said, kissing Kristin’s ear gently while they rested. His arms were wrapped around his girlfriend’s waist and she was running her hands through his hair.
“I will say that I’m very glad I asked you out, Kristin Royal. To think I chickened out twice before.”
Kristin turned her head to gaze at Chris through a tangle of brown hair. “Really? How long have you liked me?”
“Since mid-last year,” Chris said.
“And you only asked me out now? Why, it’s been nearly a year since then!” Kristin said.
“It’s hard to ask a girl out, you know,” Chris replied.
“I don’t know if I can forgive you for denying me almost a year of happiness,” Kristin said crossly, though she didn’t stir from Chris’s arms and was obviously anything but cross with him.
“Well, I guess I’ll just have to try my hardest to get you to forgive me,” Chris said and with that their lips met again.
***
Chris really did mean what he told Kristin and during subsequent time he spent with her he expanded on his philosophy. To him, it didn’t matter whether a girl was thin or fat—he found beauty in both forms, albeit of different types. Someone like Morgan Berg was classically beautiful with her willowy form, while Kristin was just as beautiful, if not more so, with her curvy charms. What was most important, was the beauty that lay inside, and that was what Chris loved most of all about Kristin.
For her part, Kristin was in bliss that someone had finally seen past her shyness and found the wonderful person deep inside of her—and she felt the same way about Chris. But more than that, as her relationship with Chris developed, Kristin soon felt at ease in her own skin again, but not like she had before. Then she’d barely thought about her weight. Now Kristin felt confident, empowered even, because through Chris’s love of her, she was coming into more than acceptance of her size. She was beginning to love herself for who she was, and that meant loving herself as a fat girl.
It’s hard to say whether one couple’s happiness is greater than another, but it a case could easily be made that one girl on the RFK High varsity water polo team had found greater happiness than any of her teammates. True, their loves were tested in one way or another, but Kristin had gone through hell for her love of Chris and that love came out of the ordeal like gold refined by fire: pure and shining.
The popular girls still insulted and jeered at Kristin, always when she was alone and never when Chris was around (for his anger and threats had reached their ears and no one wanted to earn the direct ire of the boy who they still had a crush on). However, Kristin never felt the sting like she did when Hayley had first taunted her. In fact, Kristin pitied the girls as she walked by them while they flung their insults at her.
She now knew they would never be truly happy, flitting from one boy to the next, never looking deeper than someone’s appearance and always trying to secure the hottest guy they could. Maybe one day they’d learn what true beauty and real love was. Kristin already knew what that was, and she found it in the arms of Chris Anderson and his acceptance of her for the person she was, no matter what her size.
Two peas in a pod. Joined at the hip. Two lovebirds. Head over heels for each other. All these clichés and more described Kristin and Chris’s budding romance. Their successful first date had been followed up by dates at the movies, dinner dates, study dates, stay at home dates, and even a double date with one of Chris’s friends from the soccer team.
They did as much as they possibly could with one another because they were so deeply smitten by one another. They couldn’t get enough of one another. In fact, the entire varsity water polo team (and all Kristin’s friends on the junior varsity team) thought they were just the cutest couple they’d ever seen. Even the extraordinarily happy pair of Liam O’Shea and Tara Kelly had to admit that the two were so perfect together.
Kristin herself couldn’t believe how happy she was with Chris. Having a boyfriend was something she’d only dreamed about just a month ago, and now she had one and it surpassed her wildest expectations. To simply be touched lovingly by a boy her own age was mind-blowing. To be kissed by a boy still thrilled her every time their lips touched. No one had ever looked at Kristin the way that Chris looked at her. No one had ever caressed her like he did.
Everything was still wonderful and new, even though they had gone out plenty of times together and now spent most of their free time outside of school (as well as quite a bit of free time in school) together. Most importantly, Kristin felt that Chris accepted her for who she was. Kristin had never had a problem with her size, but she was well aware she didn’t have a perfect physique. However, Chris had never even made an oblique reference to her weight. This tacit validation of herself gave her a feeling of self-confidence.
However, Kristin’s newfound confidence had not really been tested. no one had ever made fun of her for being a fat ass. This was due to the fact that since Kristin was a shy, soft-spoken girl, the oh-so-perfect popular girls didn’t even think of teasing her about her weight. They wanted someone juicy to sink their teeth into, someone who was loud and outspoken or highly prominent who could use being “put in their place”.
Of course, if it happened to help their social goals to tear a blooming porker—such as Jenna Shcherbatsky—down, all the better. Only a sadist would take the time to cut down a girl like Kristin Royal. Judging by history, RFK High School either lacked sadists or they took no notice of Kristin (the latter was probably truer than the former).
However, Kristin Royal, though she was still somewhat of a wallflower, was being drawn out of anonymity by her relationship with Chris. Chris Anderson was someone who hadn’t flown under the radar since third grade, and any girl dating him was sure to attract attention. He could easily be considered a popular guy, and being the star of the soccer team only added to his prestige.
The popular set of single girls salivated over him as he walked by. Several had blatantly tried hitting on him earlier in the year, but to no avail. The continued brush offs had failed to communicate Chris’s disinterest to any of the girls (which was probably more of a commentary on the intelligence of the girls rather than Chris), which meant when Chris began openly dating Kristin, all of his admirers were shocked by the turn of events.
“Kristin Royal? Kristin Royal? Why is Chris dating her?”
“She’s a nobody!”
“She’s not that good looking.”
“She probably wouldn’t even go all the way with him.” (This girl would have done that and more if given the chance).
“What’s she got we haven’t got?”
“This is unbelievable. Chris must be playing a practical joke.”
“Boys don’t kiss girls like that when they play practical jokes. He must be insane.”
“He’d have to be insane to date a pig like that.”
And that was how it began. One snide remark started a slew of comments that circulated in the upper crust of RFK High’s senior class. Bashing Kristin Royal for her weight became the new thing to do. Behind her back, she was branded with every fat insult imaginable. There was the mundane fat ass, jelly belly, thunder thighs, fatso, pig, cow, and other equally familiar names.
However, the glitterati also used their limited brain cells to come up with other names as well: tumble tub, blubber butt, the bottomless pit, roly-poly Royal, the polo porker (or, in the same vein, water polo whale), obese oinker, heavy heifer, lazy lard ass, stupid slob, and—in a burst of unrivaled imagination—hungry, hungry hippo. Perhaps they could have been more creative, but their powers of cruel creativity were still largely limited to the use of alliteration to come up with their scathing insults.
Needless to say, half these names, especially the nastier ones, weren’t even deserved by Kristin, who wasn’t nearly as big as Tara, Tina, or a number of other girls on the water polo team. However, none of those girls was dating anyone as prominent as Chris Anderson. Had they dated boys of greater social standing, they probably would have been subject to the same mockery as Kristin.
Though these insults remained whispered, Kristin soon became aware of the smug smiles and mocking eyes of the popular girls whenever she walked by. She didn’t know why she seemed to draw their ire all of a sudden, but made it a point to avoid them. To suddenly be looked at with such derision took Kristin completely off guard. Whenever she was with Chris and she drew these same looks, Kristin decided against saying anything to him since he seemed not to notice. She was probably just making it up.
Kristin gave herself less credit than she deserved, as you know. However, her detractors were very good at only being heard when they wanted to be. They were perfectly pleased with keeping their mockery to themselves for the first couple weeks after setting their sights on Kristin. They’d come up with so many good derogatory names for Kristin that they had ample time to savor them all amongst themselves.
Eventually that wasn’t enough for their bottomless desire for mockery. They soon began sharing their insults with the other girls who didn’t have a crush on Chris, and shortly thereafter with the guys they hung out with. They never revealed their reasons for belittling innocent Kristin Royal, but their shallow friends were just as amused with fat jokes as they were and never thought about any deeper reasons for the insults.
For one girl though, even this was not enough. That girl was Hayley Oxford. Her malice ran deeper than that of Chris’s other admirers. She truly believed she was in love with Chris—though infatuation was closer to the mark—and she resented Kristin for having taken her chance at happiness from her. Never mind the fact that if Chris didn’t like her it could never truly work. That was completely irrelevant. In fact, that had never even occurred to Hayley. Even if it had, it probably would have changed nothing of what was about to occur.
Hayley lay in wait for Kristin one day at lunch. She was rewarded by her prey walking down the hall alone, which was precisely how she’d planned it. Look at her, just waddling there, a true pig ready for the slaughter. Probably on her way to her next meal since she can still see her feet, no doubt, Hayley thought cruelly. Though an audience would have been gratifying, there was the off chance that things wouldn’t go as she expected and then the embarrassment would be all her’s. Besides, if it was just the two of them, Hayley could control the telling of the tale when she recounted the episode to all of her friends, magnifying herself and minimizing Kristin. The scenario was, in short, perfect.
Hayley smiled maliciously as she walked down the hall towards Kristin. She even licked her lips, sensing the kill. Kristin walked with her eyes in front of her, directed towards the ground. It was just how she had always walked, rather than stemming from any desire not to look at Hayley. Then again, Kristin had no interest in looking at Hayley either. She knew that the girl was simply bad news and stayed as far away from her as possible.
“Kristin, did you hear the news about Chris?” Hayley asked, wiping her grin off her face and putting on a mask of concern.
“No, what?” Kristin said, stopping suddenly, which caused her body to jiggle from its momentum. The thought that something could be wrong with Chris overrode her casual dislike of Hayley. Even if it meant talking to Hayley, she’d want to hear it.
“It’s a tragedy,” Hayley said, “I just heard that he’s dating a pig. Oh, wait, that’s right—it’s you.”
“Shut up,” Kristin said, less authoritatively than she felt. She tried not to let the petty insult get to her, but it still stung.
“Everybody’s been talking about it for weeks now,” Hayley said, “Which raises the question: why is that Chris likes you?”
Kristin remained silent, trying to keep a stiff upper lip. She even moved to keep walking, but Hayley stood in her way.
“Let’s see, your personality perhaps? Oh wait, that’s right I don’t think you’ve said above a dozen words in public this year. So it couldn’t be that…certainly not your looks, that’s for sure.” The words cut to the quick for Kristin. She was now biting her lower lip to keep herself composed.
Then Hayley feigned a sudden realization. “Oh I know, he must be expecting you to put out.”
Kristin was mortified at the thought.
“Leave me alone!” she cried. Though she wanted to run away, she couldn’t move.
“It makes perfect sense. He knows all the good looking girls wouldn’t ever debase themselves like that, so he decided to turn to someone with less morals than us. That’s the only way a cow like you could have landed a guy like Chris. Enjoy him while you’ve got him. He’ll have his way with you and then leave you in the dust without a second thought,” Hayley continued maliciously.
“That’s not true!” Kristin yelled through openly flowing tears. Hayley was lying, but at the same time the mere suggestion hurt Kristin so much. Now that someone was deriding her for her weight, Kristin’s self-confidence was falling to pieces. Kristin was afraid that Hayley was right. She wasn’t as good looking like other girls, she was a fat ass. She was a pig.
“Sure, you can tell yourself that so you don’t feel like a slut. But me, I call a spade a spade and I can tell that Chris is just looking for a night in the sack so he can have a good chuckle with his buddies on the team about how many chicks he’s bagged this semester,” Hayley said, taking obvious pleasure in her torture of the rounder girl.
“After all, what’s a little cushion for the pushin’ when you’re just another notch on the belt?”
Kristin couldn’t even mount a defense any more. She just stood there and cried.
“What are you going to do now piggy? Go sit in the corner and eat ice cream until you feel better? Go ahead, because after Chris nobody’s going to want that disgusting bloated body of yours. At this rate they’re going to have roll you down the aisle at graduation!” Hayley said with a laugh.
As Hayley went on, Kristin suddenly felt every ounce of fat on her body—the circumference of her hips all of a sudden became evident to her, and it felt like they took up the entire hallway. She could feel her thighs rubbing together as she nervously shifted her massive weight from one foot to the other. With that small movement, Kristin was aware of her expansive, ass jutting out inches behind her. She could almost picture small undulations flowing through it from even her minor movement. Kristin was even acutely aware of her chubby belly, which was nowhere near as large in proportion to her hips.
Hayley could see that her words were having the desired effect and continued her torture. “Oh, yes, it’ll be—”
“Excuse me,” someone said, tapping Hayley on the shoulder.
The vain pretender turned around and as she did so the right hook of Molly Creighton connected with Hayley’s nose, sending her sprawling. The Senior shook her hand a bit. “Damn, that hurt much more than I expected! You must be more thick headed than I thought. I suppose being lower down the evolutionary chain does that to you.”
Hayley got to her feet, one hand to her bleeding nose. “You little bitch! How dare you! I ought to get the vice principal!”
“Funny, that was my opening line too,” Molly said, “I don’t know why you’re tormenting this poor girl, but no one deserves the tirade you just unleashed on her. You’re obviously some insecure rich girl who isn’t getting her way and the only thing you know how to do is make other people’s lives miserable. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. People like you are what’s wrong with the world today whereas this girl is everything good about people.”
Molly drew Kristin, who was still crying, albeit not as much as before, close to her. “So you want to go tell a vice principal about this? Go ahead, I’d enjoy that because then you’d have to own up to everything that just happened here. So go scurry off to whatever hole you climbed out of and stay there.”
Very few people had ever spoken like that to Hayley Oxford and, unsure of what to do, she hurried off to a bathroom to see about stopping the bleeding of her nose, leaving Molly alone with Kristin, who was crying into Molly’s shirt. Molly gently stroked Kristin’s chestnut hair.
“Hey, it’s okay now,” Molly said quietly, resting her head on top of Kristin’s, “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that, but she got what was coming to her.”
“Th-thank you,” Kristin said between sobs.
“Shhh…” Molly said, “I heard everything and she’s wrong.”
The two simply stood there for another few minutes until the bell rung marking the end of lunch and that the next class would be starting soon. Kristin pulled apart from Molly.
“Thank you for everything. I need to go now,” Kristin said, still sniffling.
“You might want to clean up a little bit before class,” Molly said, “Just keep your head up, all right? You’ll be all right. Now, I think I need to go get some ice for my hand…”
***
Hayley Oxford discreetly left school early to have her broken nose attended to, declining to let the school nurse know about the situation. Though she had tried not to attract attention, there was no way she could escape without garnering some notice. It didn’t take long for RFK High to be abuzz about what had happened to Hayley.
When Molly heard the story she decided that Miss Oxford needed to be thoroughly humiliated for her crime, and casually let it slip that she’d seen Hayley verbally abusing a girl and she’d stepped in to teach Hayley a lesson, leaving Kristin’s name out of the affair. There was no reason to drag Kristin through anymore pain by becoming the center of the latest gossip.
Some of the girls on the water polo team upon could tell that something was wrong with Kristin that afternoon at practice, but weren’t sure what. It wasn’t until the next day when Kristin failed to show up for school that Chelsea Magyar suspected that the two incidents might somehow be connected. Seeking out Molly and presenting herself as a devoted friend of Kristin’s, she was given the full story, which she heard in utter shock, of Hayley’s callousness. After having thanked Molly, Chelsea immediately sought out Chris and related everything to him privately.
Kristin’s boyfriend was furious. Had Hayley also decided to not show up that day, she probably would have had her nose broken again and garnered a couple of black eyes as well. It took nearly five minutes for Chelsea to calm him down so he could listen to reason again.
“Look, I know you’re mad right now,” Chelsea said, “I’m mad too. I’d help you beat up Hayley, but that’s not what’s most important right now. Kristin was obviously hurt very badly by Hayley yesterday. She needs you right now. You need to see her today.”
So Chris tried calling Kristin, but she wouldn’t answer her cell phone. She wasn’t answering the house phone either. All he could get was Mrs. Royal who said that Kristin wasn’t feeling well and was sleeping right at the moment, but she thought that Kristin would appreciate it if he came by after school to check in on her.
It was with great difficulty that Chris was able to restrain himself from ditching his remaining classes for the day and racing over to Kristin’s house to see his girlfriend. However, he figured that Mrs. Royal might be somewhat suspicious if he showed up at her house in the middle of the day, and his own parents might not appreciate his truancy.
Though he was in class, his mind wasn’t on his studies at all. All he could think about was the fact that Kristin needed him and he wasn’t with her. Needless to say, Chris was the first one out the door at the end of the day, nearly running through the halls.
He hurried over to Kristin’s house and was cordially greeted by Mrs. Royal. “You can just head up there, I think I heard that Kristin was awake a while ago.”
Chris thanked her and headed upstairs. Upon reaching the closed door leading to Kristin’s room, Chris softly rapped on it.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Chris. I heard you weren’t feeling well,” he said.
“Please d-don’t come in. I just want to sleep right now,” Kristin said from the other side of the door, “I’m really tired.”
“I just want to make sure you’re doing okay,” Christ said, not wanting to state his real reason while Mrs. Royal could hear. He didn’t want to be the vehicle for informing Kristin’s mother of what had occurred the day before. He was pretty sure that Kristin wasn’t going to let him in if she knew that he was aware of her ordeal yesterday.
“I’m fine. I don’t want you to get sick too,” Kristin insisted.
Sensing that there was no other way around it, Chris tried the door and found it was unlocked. It might not be the most respectful thing to barge in on your girlfriend against her wishes, but he felt that he had to in this instance. Upon opening the door, he found Kristin underneath her covers wearing a sweatshirt and, though he couldn’t see it, sweatpants. The blubbery brunette had been so depressed about the preceding day’s events that she hadn’t even changed her out of the sweats that served as her pajamas.
Her hair was disheveled, her eyes red from crying, and all about the room there were empty bags and wrappers of chips, candy, and all sorts of other assorted snacks. Indeed, Kristin had drowned her grief in junk food. Hayley’s words had been so biting that she had lost all self-confidence and thought of herself as a fat waddling pig that had no business with anyone as good looking as Chris Anderson.
She’d spent all day thinking about what she must look like to other people, and every time saw herself as a gross, obese teenager who couldn’t control her appetite. She shuddered to think of what she must look like in her swimsuit for water polo—fat bulging out in every direction, her tree trunk sized thighs in plain view for everyone to see as they squished together with her every step, her butt bouncing wildly as she walked to the pool. Kristin was even blamed herself for not having recognized what she now saw were the signs of her massive size earlier.
She’d actually had to resort to wearing a bikini bottom underneath her swimsuit when she started playing water polo so as to make sure her ass was sufficiently covered. Granted, there were a number of girls who played water polo that did the same, but Kristin now saw it as a sign of her chunkiness that her butt cheeks would hang out in view of all the world in a regular swimsuit without this added measure.
Hayley had done greater damage than she might have ever hoped for in her merciless teasing of Kristin. She had brought Kristin’s portly size into stark relief for the tubby co-ed and the result was that Kristin could only think of herself in the hyperbolic terms that Hayley had described her in. Though food had only been a minor comfort to Kristin prior times of trouble, she now embraced all the fatty treats she could find in the family cupboards as her only solace.
With tears streaming down her face, Kristin accepted her newfound identity as a disgusting, obese butterball. Though she knew that all of these fattening snacks would only add further flab to her figure, she had thrown in the towel. She was a veritable hippo and she might as well act like one.
Upon seeing Chris, Kristin wailed, “Leave me alone!” and then hid herself under her covers. For a moment Chris thought that it was rather humorous that Kristin would hide like an ostrich under her comforter, creating a large lump in the middle of her bed. However, the severity of the situation caused him to put aside the laughable aspect of the situation.
Chris closed the door and gently sat down on the bed next to the breathing lump on the bed. He gently put his hand on the covered form of his girlfriend.
“Go away!” Kristin’s muffled voice came, accompanied by soft sobs.
“Kristin, I heard about what happened yesterday,” Chris said.
“Then leave me alone!” Kristin said, “I’m just a fat slob!”
“No you’re not Kristin. You’re a nice girl and you’re a lot better than Hayley Oxford,” Chris said.
“No I’m not! Go away!”
Chris pulled the covers down and revealed Kristin with tear stained cheeks. She tried to pull her comforter back over her head, but Chris wouldn’t let her. She struggled with him, but Chris would not be defeated. Instead, Kristin tried pounding her fists against Chris, exclaiming against him as she did so. Chris would not be moved and tried to suppress his girlfriend’s blows.
“Kristin, just stop and listen to me!” Chris exclaimed, “I love you!”
“No you don’t,” Kristin said through her sobs as she struggled with Chris, “Don’t try and make me feel better, it’s true! I’m just a fatty pig.”
“No you’re not. Kristin, you’re the greatest girl I’ve ever met. I wouldn’t have asked you out if I didn’t think so,” Chris said taking hold of Kristin by the shoulders, “I was never trying to lead you on so as to take advantage of you. Never in my life….You know what—”
And before Kristin knew it Chris kissed her hard and long like he’d never done before. When he pulled apart, the tear-eyed girl was stunned and her mouth moved without words coming out.
“If you don’t think that I love you for who you are after that, then I don’t know what else I can do to convince you,” Chris said.
“So you really like me even though I’m fat?” Kristin said through sniffles.
“Kristin, it doesn’t matter to me whether you’re fat or skinny. You light up my day like nobody else than I’ve ever met. That’s how much I love you,” Chris said.
“Really?” Kristin asked.
“Really.”
And the pair kissed and hugged one another tight. As they did, Kristin said, “You have no idea how horrible it felt to think that you were seeing me just because you thought I’d be easy to get in the sack.”
“You have no idea how mad I was when I found out about Hayley’s pack of lies. I wanted to beat the stuffing out of her,” Chris said.
“Well, she didn’t lie about one thing. I am fat,” Kristin said.
Chris pulled apart from her. “Are you really going to make a big deal about this?”
“Well it’s true. I mean, we can’t just pretend like it’s not,” Kristin said.
“Kristin, you’re no slimmer than when I first asked you out,” Chris said exasperatedly. He was going to tell her that it didn’t matter to him when he decided to take a different tack.
“Look, has it ever crossed your mind that perhaps girls who are chubby, plump, even fat are beautiful? That you don’t have to be thin to be beautiful?”
“No…” Kristin said, not exactly convinced.
“Well it’s true. I think you’re beautiful. You could be thin and I’d still think you’re beautiful. I’ve dated thin girls before. What their body looks like isn’t nearly as important as who they are on the inside. It took me a while to learn it, but I’ve still learned it much quicker than a lot of people. It’s something you ought to learn too because you’ll be happier in life that way.”
“So you’re saying be happy with who I am, no matter what my weight?”
“Exactly.”
“That’s nonsensical, really…but liberating too,” Kristin said, and then she smiled, “I think I’ll give it a try.”
“Atta girl,” Chris replied and pinched her cheek gently in a sign of affection.
“So, just to be clear, are you attracted to me? I mean, if it doesn’t matter whether I’m thin or fat…” Kristin asked.
“Kristi, trust me when I say you’re one of the hottest girls in school. Look at you and those killer hips,” Chris said.
“Excuse me?” Kristin said, “What about my hips?”
Chris’s face flushed. “Well, they were one of the reasons that I was first attracted to you.”
“Who would have guessed that sweet, innocent Chris Anderson would get worked up over a girl who has big, luscious, curvaceous hips,” Kristin said leaning closer to Chris.
“Let’s not even get me started on that fine rear of yours,” Chris said moving a bit closer to Kristin as well.
“So he likes big butts too, does he?” Kristin said.
“Allow me to demonstrate my passionate feelings on the subject, Miss Royal,” Chris said right before his lips locked with Kristin’s once more. Before he knew it Kristin was on top of him as they lay on her bed, making out with one another. As their tongues explored one another’s mouths, Chris’s hand found their way to Kristin’s hips.
As they made out, his hands explored her bodacious booty with all its curves. He let his hands run wild over her wonderful lower half, indulging his earliest fantasies about Kristin. Chris paused his exploration and squeezed various portions of her body every once in a while, here her butt, there her thigh, now the side of her hip, each time finding plenty of sweatpants-enclosed flesh to grab.
“I’ve—got to—say,” Chris said as he could between kisses, “I’ve—been—waiting—for this—for a—while.”
“Shut up and—kiss me,” Kristin said by way of reply, to which Chris willingly acceded.
Eventually they paused, Kristin’s head lying facedown next to Chris’s, panting. “I had no idea that making out could be so tiring,” Kristin said.
“You’re telling me,” Chris said, kissing Kristin’s ear gently while they rested. His arms were wrapped around his girlfriend’s waist and she was running her hands through his hair.
“I will say that I’m very glad I asked you out, Kristin Royal. To think I chickened out twice before.”
Kristin turned her head to gaze at Chris through a tangle of brown hair. “Really? How long have you liked me?”
“Since mid-last year,” Chris said.
“And you only asked me out now? Why, it’s been nearly a year since then!” Kristin said.
“It’s hard to ask a girl out, you know,” Chris replied.
“I don’t know if I can forgive you for denying me almost a year of happiness,” Kristin said crossly, though she didn’t stir from Chris’s arms and was obviously anything but cross with him.
“Well, I guess I’ll just have to try my hardest to get you to forgive me,” Chris said and with that their lips met again.
***
Chris really did mean what he told Kristin and during subsequent time he spent with her he expanded on his philosophy. To him, it didn’t matter whether a girl was thin or fat—he found beauty in both forms, albeit of different types. Someone like Morgan Berg was classically beautiful with her willowy form, while Kristin was just as beautiful, if not more so, with her curvy charms. What was most important, was the beauty that lay inside, and that was what Chris loved most of all about Kristin.
For her part, Kristin was in bliss that someone had finally seen past her shyness and found the wonderful person deep inside of her—and she felt the same way about Chris. But more than that, as her relationship with Chris developed, Kristin soon felt at ease in her own skin again, but not like she had before. Then she’d barely thought about her weight. Now Kristin felt confident, empowered even, because through Chris’s love of her, she was coming into more than acceptance of her size. She was beginning to love herself for who she was, and that meant loving herself as a fat girl.
It’s hard to say whether one couple’s happiness is greater than another, but it a case could easily be made that one girl on the RFK High varsity water polo team had found greater happiness than any of her teammates. True, their loves were tested in one way or another, but Kristin had gone through hell for her love of Chris and that love came out of the ordeal like gold refined by fire: pure and shining.
The popular girls still insulted and jeered at Kristin, always when she was alone and never when Chris was around (for his anger and threats had reached their ears and no one wanted to earn the direct ire of the boy who they still had a crush on). However, Kristin never felt the sting like she did when Hayley had first taunted her. In fact, Kristin pitied the girls as she walked by them while they flung their insults at her.
She now knew they would never be truly happy, flitting from one boy to the next, never looking deeper than someone’s appearance and always trying to secure the hottest guy they could. Maybe one day they’d learn what true beauty and real love was. Kristin already knew what that was, and she found it in the arms of Chris Anderson and his acceptance of her for the person she was, no matter what her size.
