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Plump and Pretty

Sunayna Prasad

Senior prom drew nearer. There was a boy in my class named Trevor who loved me. He always told me how beautiful I was and how much he adored me.

I considered it a compliment as I had more weight than many of my classmates. I wore huge round glasses and curly dark hair. I have had crushes on a boy in middle school, who’d left in ninth grade. He didn’t like me. He’d thought I was too chubby.

How could he? I loved my body. Girls needed to accept who they are and not compare themselves to the ideal skinny ladies they saw on the media. Not to mentioned how heavily photo-shopped they’d been. Many probably looked like me.

Anyway, Trevor and I had dated for a few months now. Today was June sixth. Prom would take place tomorrow. I’d already bought my dress. It was navy with thick shear straps.

I went on Facebook and browsed through my feed. Trevor had announced that he’d entered a relationship. Wait, what? Why hadn’t he done that earlier?

I scrolled down and saw a picture of him with this thin, redheaded girl, Leila Cronin. I gasped. No—no! He couldn’t have. Leila had bullied me in eighth grade for my looks.

This couldn’t have happened. Not in a billion years. Unless he’d tricked me to trust him.

I felt tears in my eyes. I called Trevor and continued to breathed through a narrowed throat.

Trevor answered.

“Trevor, what is wrong with you?”

“I’m sorry, Chloe. But I just take you to prom.”

“Why? Because I’m not—”

“I just like Leila more.”

“She’s a jerk!”

“Don’t talk about my girlfriend like that!”

“Girlfriend?”

Trevor hung up.

I burst into tears and threw myself onto my bed. I couldn’t go to prom anymore—not even with a group of friends. They all had dates. And who would I go with? No one.

There was a knock on my door. “Chloe?”

“What is it, Dad?”

My dad entered. “Hi, honey. Are you okay?”

“Trevor dumped me for that Leila girl!”

“What?”

“He likes her better!”

“Oh, that’s not right.” My dad sat on my bed. “You know what? My friend, Horace’s son, Dexter, is also looking for someone.”

“Is Dexter nice?”

“Yes. I’ll take you to meet him tomorrow.”

“But the prom’s tomorrow.”

“We can meet him during the day. Sound good?”

I nodded.

The next day, my dad took me to see this boy, Dexter. We parked outside a diner. I figured my dad didn’t want me to go to Dexter’s house since I hadn’t met him before.

We went inside and got seated. A man and his son joined us. The boy wore glasses, stood tall and broad. He also had some plumpness. “Hi, I’m Dexter.”

“Chloe.” I shook his head.

“I can’t wait to be your friend.”

I tilted my head.

Dexter’s father whispered, “He has autism.”

“Oh,” I said.

“I’m graduating high school like you, Chloe,” said Dexter. “But I don’t have anyone to go with.”

I considered inviting him, except that I just met him.

“You should take each other to your proms,” my dad said.

I stared. Then I smiled. “Okay.”

“Yay,” said Dexter. “You’re going be date. I can’t wait.”

“Neither can I.”

And so, Dexter and I talked the whole time. I left the diner grinning. What else could ruin this day?


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© 2023 by Sunayna Prasad

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