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     "How are you feeling?" The nurse was asking Amada questions to try and get a response out of her, but she was just staring blankly at the wall. "Amada?" the nurse asked, with no response. She placed her hand on Amada’s shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. That loosened her up a little, so she turned to look at the nurse and gave her a small, but genuine, smile. "I'm not feeling too great, Ms. Dominique," Amada said, her smile slightly dropping. She looked to Ms. Dominique who was looking at her gently. "I just overheard my only two friends talking about me in the hall last week." Ms. Dominique looked at her with sad, sincere eyes. Ms. Dominique was Amada’s favorite faculty member in the entire school. She was incredibly sweet, caring, and compassionate. Amada felt that she could talk to her about anything and everything. "They were talking about how my weight could really impact my health and how it was changing my life. I know, that’s true, so that isn’t the problem." She looked down at her feet. "It was what happened next. Gillian said that I was making her look bad, so she didn't know how much longer she would be able to be around me. Bryce didn’t say anything. He just nodded." Her voice was breaking as she spoke, and a small tear ran down her cheek. "How could he agree with something like that? We’ve been best friends for nine years. I know that this is just something small to a lot of people, but to me, it's the worst feeling of betrayal." This was all true, for the record. She felt betrayed. But it wasn't just because of that unfortunate incident. She had been hit with something like that before, but much worse.
     She was in 8th grade and she had one great friend that she did everything with. Her name was Jessi. But Jessi was moving, and she wasn't going to the same high school as Amada was. So, on the last days of school, Amada decided to give her a parting gift. She included Jessi's favorite candies and sweets with a T-shirt that matched one of her own so they could still feel attached to each other when they wore the shirts. It took her a few days to design and plan the shirts. Let alone, make them. She and her mother spent a lot of money to make this small gift. They had to buy T-shirts, vinyl, candy, and a gift bag. It was roughly around $45 in total.
     At the last bell on the last day of school, she decided to meet Jessi at the lockers and give her the gift. Only, Jessi didn’t smile when she saw Amada like she normally did. Instead, she looked kind of disappointed to see her. But Amada kept her smile and handed her the gift. She grabbed the strings on the bag the same way you would a dirty tissue and set it on the ground. "Look, Amada. This has been… fun and all, but I’ve got to be honest with you since I'm probably never going to see you again." Amada’s face completely dropped into a look of curious sadness. "I don't like you. I've never liked you. The only reason I agreed to be your friend all year was because I felt sorry for you. But now that I've gotten to know you, I realized along the road, that the rumors were true." She chuckled. "You really are repulsive." It wasn't until a tear dripped on her clothes did Amada realize she was crying. "And now you’re crying? Seriously, the only thing you do is make me look bad." Then, she walked away. Everyone left in the hallway was staring at her with their mouths agape. She had never felt more hurt or betrayed in her life. She was also incredibly humiliated.
     Since then, that has always been in the back of her mind when choosing who to be friends with. She chose to be friends with Gillian and Bryce because she felt they were different than Jessi was. And although she was right about one of them, the other was just the same. Gillian felt bad for Amada, and so she stayed 'friends' with her throughout high school. But Bryce, however, he was indeed different. He looked at Amada in a completely different light. Saw past what others saw first. He saw her soul, not the size of her body. He saw her true beauty. Now, with that being said, there was something that Amada missed in that hallway conversation. Something that would make her regret everything.