From 280 Pounds To The Red Carpet Chapter 06
The Weight
Three words and the whole room went on mute.
Matt’s glass wobbled in his hand.
“You said what?”
“Sera?”
“No way.”
He grabbed his phone and pulled up the video from the group chat. The girl on screen was nearly two hundred and eighty pounds, face so swollen you could barely tell what she looked like.
The woman standing in front of him had curves that could stop traffic.
He looked at the screen. Looked at me. Back and forth, over and over.
“The eyes might actually match…”
A girl in the corner spoke up quietly. “The mole next to her nose. It’s the same.”
That one sentence sealed it.
The loudest ones suddenly had nothing to say.
The freight elevator guy was staring into his water glass.
The one who’d joked about the elevator breaking was suddenly very interested in the tablecloth. A few people were quietly deleting messages from the group chat.
Too bad. I’d already screenshotted every single one.
Tyler stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time.
“That’s really you?”
“When did you lose the weight?”
There was almost an accusation in his voice. Like I owed him a warning or something.
I looked at him.
“Why, is that any of your business?”
Tyler flinched. He never thought the girl who couldn’t even look him in the eye would talk to him like that.
Kayla caught up a second later. She instinctively let go of Tyler’s arm, then grabbed it right back.
“So she lost weight. Big deal.”
“Who knows if it’s all surgery and fillers.”
Nobody backed her up. A few of the guys were still staring at me, not even trying to hide it.
Jessica’s expression was falling apart. She forced a smile.
“Sera, wow, you look so different.”
“No wonder we didn’t recognize you.”
“But seriously, why didn’t you say something in the chat? You could’ve told us you lost weight.”
I looked right at her.
“If I’d told you, how would I have gotten to see tonight’s little show?”
Jessica’s smile froze on her face.
Someone tried to smooth things over.
“Come on, we’re all old friends. Just having some fun.”
“Sera, you look amazing now. You’re not gonna hold this against us, right?”
“Yeah, it was all just for laughs.”
I looked at the gym shirt on the wall. Then the scale.
“Posting the bullying video again. That’s just for laughs.”
“Setting up a scale. That’s just for laughs.”
“Betting on my pain. That’s just for laughs too?”
Nobody said a word.
If I’d walked in tonight still weighing two hundred and eighty pounds, none of them would feel an ounce of shame.
They weren’t quiet because they knew they were wrong. They were quiet because I got hot.
Jessica’s eyes went red. She put on her victim voice.
“Sera, that’s really hurtful.”
“I just wanted everyone to remember the good old days.”
“If you don’t like it, I’ll take it all down. Okay?”
She reached for the gym shirt on the wall. In her rush, the sign fell off.
DO NOT FEED THE PIG.
Landed right at her feet.
I looked down at it.
“Leave it.”
“Wasn’t there a weigh-in planned too?”
Jessica froze.
“That was just a joke.”
“I’m taking it seriously.”
I walked over to the scale in my heels. Everyone crowded around without thinking.
I slipped off my shoes and stepped on.
The number blinked a few times. Then it settled.
One hundred and fifteen pounds.
The whole room gasped.
I put my shoes back on and looked at Tyler.
“One fifteen.”
“That’s not gonna send you to the ER, right?”
Tyler swallowed hard.
Kayla’s face went dark.
I tilted my chin up at him.
“Didn’t you say if I showed up, you’d hug me in front of everyone?”
“Go ahead.”
“A bet’s a bet.”