Loving the fat girl [Book 1]

5 - To the moon and back

5. Seth

I clench my jaw, keeping my mouth shut and my body completely still. Arya stares up at me with her big brown eyes, stunned. Her eyes glisten with previous tears and my hands form to fists as I realize what I have just said. I have admitted something that absolutely and utterly confuses me... something that I'm not even sure exists! A feeling that has been putting me on edge all day.

"W-what did you just say?" Slowly she gets off the ground, stuttering and blushes like she did on the first day of school, yesterday. Had it really been yesterday? I feel like it's been weeks...

"I... nothing." I take a deep breath and am suddenly overwhelmed with an indescribable fear.

"Forget I ever said anything, okay?! I'll leave you alone from now on. You don't deserve to be anywhere near me anyway, fatty." The words leave my mouth at high speed and my feet start marching before any of this processes in my brain.

The pictures of Arya stumbling back in shock, pain washing over her face replay in my head over and over and over again as I run back into the school building. Everyone is in class by now and I will definitely be in trouble but I couldn't care less right now. My whole body is on edge and I can feel my heartbeat in the back of my throat.

As I stumble towards my locker to grab my things, I realize that this is how it is supposed to be. This is how high school works. This is how it's always been and this is how I got to the top of the food chain.

No girl will get in the way of that. I must have just been confused or delusional... maybe both. But I see clearly now. She is right. I need to stay away from her in order to make sure my reputation is safe. I need to keep my head in the game.

Literally.

Not only am I forgetting about my real friends, I also forgot that there would be a game tomorrow. It's just a friendly thing to kick off the new school year but we can't risk losing this game. Because this game will be against North Western. The one and only. Our rivals.

"SEFF! You're home!" Paulina jumps into my arms, snuggling herself into my chest and my body immediately relaxes. "I waited for you. I wanna go to the park now!"

"Poppy, I just got home." I sigh and set her down on the ground. "Let me just go put my things down and I'll take you to the park. Don't forget your sand toys this time, though! I don't want to have to listen to your crying again!"

"Okay." She giggles and runs off to collect her toys.

Before I can follow her upstairs to get to my room, I hear my name being called by... my mother?

I furrow my brow and a shiver goes down my spine. Whenever my mother comes home early that either means something really bad happened or something really good happened. Let's hope for the second option!

"Why are you home early?" I ask carefully as I enter the kitchen.

There she is sat at the kitchen table, a glass of wine in her hand. That can't be good.

My mother is a beautiful woman. She has long, dark hair that is pulled back into a strict pony tail, complimenting her gorgeous features. But the one thing that I have always loved most about her are her green eyes. Never have I seen eyes like hers before.

"Take a seat, son." Her voice is all business.

"What's going on? Seriously." I inquire but she just shakes her head at me and points at the chair across from her. "Mom, you're scaring me. Can't you just tell me what's going on?!"

"I don't know how to tell you this exactly but I want to ask you to hear me out. Well, first of all, your school has called and apparently you've missed too many classes already. You've also been late repeatedly and your behavior is absolutely unacceptable. Tell me, Seth, what's kept you from getting to class in time? It really can't be that hard." Her voice is stern now, she takes a breath, trying to calm herself down. "This is not how I raised you..."