After I Lost Weight They Knelt And Begged For Forgiveness Chapter 02
The next morning, I was jolted awake by the group chat.
Someone had turned the screenshot of the betting pool into a meme.
【Sienna Reed bets she can fit through the hotel doors.】
Underneath, the chat was in hysterics.
【If she’s 400 pounds now, does the hotel even have a weight limit?】
【Does The Sterling have a service elevator? Don’t want her to break the regular one.】
【Ryan, don’t forget your promise. Write your will before you hug her.】
Ryan finally chimed in.
【Cut it out. All I promised was a polite hug.】
【And my girlfriend’s going to be there. Sienna should know better.】
Jenna tagged me immediately.
【Sienna, please don’t overthink this.】
【Ryan just feels bad that you had a crush on him back then. He’s trying to make it up to you.】
One line, and she’d ripped my old crush on Ryan wide open again, tossing it right into the middle of the crowd for everyone to laugh at.
Then she sent a photo.
It was that varsity T-shirt I’d worn in high school.
Baggy as a burlap sack, with that same paper still taped to the back.
【NO FEEDING THE PIG.】
Next to it sat a digital scale.
Jenna’s caption:
【Brought some souvenirs from the good old days.】
【Sienna, why don’t you put it on again tonight? For old times’ sake.】
【While you’re at it, we can weigh you and see just how much you’ve packed on.】
The chat filled instantly with 【+1】.
Someone dropped in a GIF of a cartoon pig hopping onto a scale.
I stared at that shirt. My fingertips went cold.
Five years ago, they’d made me wear it while standing on the stage in the school gym.
Jenna had a megaphone in her hand and led the entire student body in a chant.
【Two twenty. New record.】
I ran out crying.
Ryan stuck his foot out and tripped me.
“Slow down, or the floor’s gonna cave in.”
Now they wanted me to put it on again.
Jenna’s call came through a moment later.
“You’re really coming?”
Gone was the syrupy sweetness from the group chat. Nothing was left but pure, undisguised contempt.
“Sienna, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Ryan’s girlfriend is a dance instructor. Her waist is thinner than your thigh used to be.”
I asked her calmly, “The shirt. You set that up?”
“Of course.” She laughed.
“A reunion needs some entertainment, doesn’t it?”
“Back in the day, wasn’t the whole reason anyone hung out with you because you were fat enough and funny enough to keep everyone laughing?”
I laughed too.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be there.”
There was a pause on the other end.
“All right, then.”
“Just wear something loose. Wouldn’t want you to break the hotel chair and end up paying for it.”
The call ended.
I saved the recording to the cloud.
Just then, Lauren pushed the door open and tossed the black velvet gown into my arms.
She handed me her iPad.
On the screen was Stellar Entertainment’s announcement page for tonight.
【Welcome Sienna Reed. Officially signed to Stellar Entertainment.】
In the photo, I was in couture, my features sharp and cool.
Post time: eight sharp tonight.
The reunion started at seven-thirty.
Lauren glanced at the shirt photo in the group chat and let out a cold laugh.
“They’re still waiting for the 220-pound version of you?”
I closed the phone and picked up the gown.
“Let them wait.”
Thirty minutes.
Just enough time for them to say every disgusting thing they had left in them.