KISS ME BETTER

Chapter 16: His Stupid Purple Eyes.

Amira Sinclair.

Present.

The boys were already here when we reached and so we greet one another and after the "almost hug" with my enemy
(shudder) the atmosphere turned a bit awkward so I diverted the attention by veering us inside.

The moment I enter the cool Air Conditioned air hits my face along with this pleasant smell that is ever present at The Arcade ever since I came here for the first time a few years ago.

"Let's play table tennis!"
Laura says dragging me toward the table tennis.

We start playing and I crush Laura at the game. I have always played several games since childhood from tennis to badminton to volleyball and football. Games that require a lot of running and movement.

After mom.....left, Father brought Samantha and Susan home one day and enrolled Susan at Ashford Prep School. That's when the comparison began. Even at a young age, Susan was taller than most girls in her class and was beautiful and skinny. I, on the other hand, was the fat girl in the class. My arms, my cheeks, and my thighs were all fat. Although, my arms and cheeks have lost some fat now my thighs, however, are still thick. I remember Susan came home one day and threw a tantrum about how the girls in her class think that I am a fat pig and it is affecting her "reputation" and that I should do something about it. From that day onwards, Samantha like an ideal step-mother took it upon herself to help me lose weight when all she did was starve me for days to the point I would often almost faint, and once when I snuck into the kitchen in the middle of the night to eat something when I couldn't handle my stomach churning out. She caught me red-handed and then onwards she started throwing the leftovers into the dustbin and kept all the packed food in the higher cabinets which I couldn't reach because I was small. The only place I could eat in peace was in school but Susan watched me like a hawk in the cafeteria so I used to gobble my food before she entered the cafeteria. The only place I could eat in peace away from everyone's eyes was under the bleachers on the basketball court. It was my hidden spot. Until one day, I heard the boys playing on the court. They were talking about me. Arnold and Arden were teasing Aslan saying that he had a crush on me which was stupid because for reasons unknown Aslan always behaved ignored me in front of everyone as if I were invisible but I never let it get to me and thought that I was just imagining it giving him the benefit of doubt. However, it seemed that I was, wrong, because when the boys teased him saying that he liked me, he refused it saying "no". But when the boys teased him some more,
"Guys, Stop!" He yelled at them but that wasn't all.
"Have you seen Amira? All she does is eat, eat and eat some more that too creating so much of a mess. No wonder she is so chubby. She thinks she is cute and everything but she is not. I wish she'd leave me alone. I don't like her. At all. Never will. Okay?"
He'd continued but before he could say more I ran out of the bleachers and through the back door because I didn't think I had it in me to hear what my friends had to say about it. I was scared that if Arden or Arnold agreed with him I wouldn't be able to handle it anymore. By the time I made it to the bathroom, I was breathing heavily and the lunch that I was eating hiding there was still in my hands. I laughed bitterly at the truth in his words. I did eat at every chance that I got in school because I was starved at my home. before I even knew it I had tears streaming down my face.

The first time I saw Aslan I was mesmerized by his purple eyes.
Purple had always been my favourite colour. My backpack, my clothes, my bedsheet and my walls. Everything in my room was purple. I was obsessed with the colour. But for the very first time in my life, I saw a human with purple eyes. At that age, I didn't even know humans had purple eyes! His pupils were dark black surrounded by light shades of red and blue around it giving rise to the loveliest shade of purple irises. His eyes were the most unbelievably gorgeous eyes I had ever seen. I wanted to be his friend.

In the beginning, he was nice to me when we used to be alone but the moment our friends came around he'd ignore me like I was invisible. I didn't think much about it but after mom wasn't... around anymore, Aunt Delilah would often pick me up from school and many times bring me to her home, I'd be so happy that I would get to her delicious food because that would be the only time I'd get to eat a home-cooked meal since Samantha threw the leftovers away and I got fed up of eating school's cafeteria's food that I didn't even like but had no choice to eat because that was my only option other than starving myself And that Aslan would play with me because we'd be alone but he started ignoring me at his home too even when it was just the two of us. I behaved extra nicely with him hoping he would stop ignoring me and would accept me as his friend.

But then after hearing him say all of that about me, it hurt. A little too much.

But it was the reality check I needed, that no matter what I did Aslan would never become friends with a fat and ugly girl like me so I stopped trying. I stopped eating hurriedly in the cafeteria I stopped eating in front of him altogether. Every time I did his words kept coming back to me.

I didn't talk his ear off like I always did when Aunt Delilah drove us home. I stopped banging at his door and urge him to play with me when he locked himself in his room. I didn't try to be in his team when we played games with our friends. I left him alone like he always wanted me to do.

I didn't like his stupid purple eyes anymore.

A few weeks after that, Aslan went from ignoring me in front of our friends to being mean to me and it continued ever since.