“Hey, sweet boy,” she whispered. “I think you’re pretty great, too.” She pulled me gently forward and met me halfway. She pressed her lips against mine. My heart sped up, and I closed my eyes again. The lump of anxiety evaporated and was replaced with a warmth that felt like magic. I kissed Mel, and she kissed me back. Everything was perfect. I didn’t care if she was punk rock and I was hip-hop. The only thing I wanted to hear was her melody. I could hear it loud and clear; I could hear her melody at the centre of my universe.

Chapter 6 Bad Habit

Mel told me that she didn’t care how big I was. She said that she saw an honest heart and asked if I could make space in it for her. I said of course I could. It’s weird when you fall for someone. When I kissed Mel on the rooftop that night, something inside of me thought that everything would be okay. Something inside of me let me love myself for the first time in a long time. But when I walked her home that night, and after we said our goodbyes, I may have left my heart open for too long. Worry had crept in when I got home. I looked at myself in the mirror and was disgusted. Then I took off my clothes and I stepped on the scale. It didn’t help. It only made things more drastic. It said 275 pounds. I was losing weight, but not at the pace I wanted to. I was pissed off because of it. So I decided to take things into my own hands.

The next day I didn’t eat anything. The only thing I allowed in my body was water. I was running on empty when Ryan made us do laps around the gym.

“Five more laps!” he yelled.

“Watch out!” I heard as Scarlett passed me.

She had passed me three times at that point, and I felt a bit embarrassed. I was taking small breaths so I wouldn’t overwhelm my lungs. I was a bit surprised I had enough energy to run without food in my stomach, but that didn’t stop my hunger. I just wanted to eat, but I had to sacrifice something.

I finished the laps like Ryan told us. After that, I went straight to the corner and grabbed my water bottle, guzzling down every last drop that was in there.

“All right, everyone,” Ryan called again. “We’re hitting the pads. Find a partner.”

I wondered how much longer I could last. When your stomach is empty, everything else seems a lot heavier. Me being massively overweight didn’t help that equation. Before I even turned around to find a teammate, I heard Scarlett say, “Howdy, partner,” with a funny accent.

“Hi there.” I took in a wave of air.

I liked Scarlett a lot. She was like the big sister I never had.

She grabbed a pair of boxing pads and stood firmly on the ground. I put on some boxing gloves and threw a right, left, right, left.