Chapter 2: Miss Prissy

Let me tell you about the man who destroyed my life.

My older sister Caroline met Lily, and they became best friends forever. My mom used to take me on her play dates, so she would get rid of me, and there I met Ethan, who was a few years older than Lily.

He always protected me and took care of me. I guess I was like a pet. But Ethan...he was always special to me. He was patient, he explained things carefully, and he even participated in my games.

"You're so creative! You have to be an artist when you grow up!" he used to tell me.

It must have been silly and boring for a kid like him to play doctor with my stuffed animals, do puzzles, or just talk about my fantasies.

The Fairfax's were really, really rich, so they had a beach house...those were the best days of my life. We played in the sand and Ethan helped me build forts and collect seashells.

Sometimes during the summer their cousin Tom, who was the same age as Lily and my sister, would come over. He was funny, and I adored him, but nothing like Ethan. He was...my hero.

His parents treated me better than my own mom, and they adored me. In time... I realized that Ethan was a good boy, my friend, but also... very popular at school.

I was his friend, but I didn't belong to his world: rich, beautiful and intelligent. It seemed that when he grew up, he would have everything he wanted.

On the other hand, I was an introverted girl. Ethan helped me, took care of me, accompanied me, we played together.... I naively thought it would always be like that.

Oh boy... but time changes, people change. I should have known.

"Here comes the Fairfax...OMG, Ethan is so gorgeous!"

"Lily couldn't be more beautiful!!! I wish I could be like them…” I heard the kids say at school.

Shortly after that, they moved to Europe for a few years and when they came back, my God, it was even worse.

Fast-forward to adolescence, and Lily and Ethan returned to fulfill the high school dream. Ethan's blond hair was perfect, his clothes were fantastic, he had grown several inches, and his muscles had grown, he was super hot.

He was the best student in his class and well liked by everyone... he was the ideal boy. Lily was beautiful with her long hair and designer clothes, just perfect.

While my sister usually told me, "Don't tell anyone, we are sisters. I don't want anyone to associate me with a girl like... you."

And I was... well... me.

From being a chubby girl, my curves began to show, and I drew all kinds of looks, but I was an overweight, fat woman, at least by the standards of that stupid school.

I was a girl who had grown up, and my body was different. He looked me up and down with a look I couldn't decipher.

He told me that I had to keep studying, that I was very bright. I liked to study, I was a good student, so it was easy. I was kind of nerdy, but no one paid attention to the chubby silly who never spoke.

Now we saw less of each other, once in a while for a birthday or a party, and he was far away from me, he rarely spoke to me. Lily and Caroline would go to parties, wearing beautiful dresses that I would never fit into.

"You're not invited, sister, please don't even dream of going with us," Caroline would yell at me.

Sometimes Ethan would go with them, other times he would go to his own parties. Tom would come in the summer, and we would play video games like nothing happened.

And the worst thing that could happen did happen, maybe it was inevitable.

After a while I realized that my feelings for Ethan had turned into a crush, my first crush. I thought about him all the time, I felt that I would never get over this crush.

But it all fell apart his senior year. Ethan got into the best college in another city and was leaving town. I lived in my world, watching him from a distance.

The prom was approaching, I was not invited, and I... secretly dreamed that he would ask me to go with him, of course it was a Platonic dream that would never happen, ever.

What a silly girl!

And yet, I had seen a beautiful dress that I had already tried on and that I thought fit me very well, and I dreamed of buying it. Until one day, my world changed.

I was alone in a classroom and when I heard voices, I don't know why, but I hid, I wanted to leave quickly, but as soon as I saw Ethan, I stayed there, behind a desk.

Big mistake. Ethan was with some of his classmates, and they were talking.

"You know... I think I'd like to invite your little friend" Frank says... a goofy dark-haired boy who likes to bully other students, I think my sister hung up with him a couple of times.

They laughed, but when Frank mentioned that they were all silent.

"Who?"

"You know... the curvy one... or as you call her... Prissy," he says in a high voice, no doubt laughing at Ethan. I felt my heart skip a beat.

"What do you want with her?" Ethan asked.

"Um, I don't know, maybe go out with her? It's not that bad... and it looks like she's never been out with anyone before. Unless she's your girlfriend" Frank hinted.

"She's not my girlfriend," he quickly blurts out.

Of course, I'm not ... and yet I can't help but feel pain when I hear it from his lips. We are nothing, not even friends, I think.

"Then... you wouldn't mind if I asked her to go to the prom with me, would you?" Ethan stares at Frank and says every word with a lot of hate, words that I remember perfectly and will remember for the rest of my life.

"Are you kidding?"

"I'm not... you look nervous, man..." Frank adds maliciously.

"Why would you want to go out with that... girl? You want to be a joke? Unless you like girls... way overweight... like a little pig," he says and laughter explodes. Even Frank laughs.

"Miss Piggy or rather Miss Prissy," says another and the laughter deepens. I feel my heart break right there.

"A little whale, you mean!" Another says, gesturing, walking as if he were very heavy, dragging his feet.

"Maybe not so little!" adds another, and they laugh again.

"Who would want an ugly girl?" says another, still laughing. Ethan doesn't laugh, but I see him smiling and looking at the others seriously.

I wish it could have ended there, but obviously not. As you can imagine, I didn't go to their prom, but I stayed up all night crying, I don't think I've ever cried so much in my life.

The next day at school, I was the butt of the joke: the other students, who never noticed me, started calling me all kinds of animal jokes, and they made pig noises when I walked by.

They would make me fall in the hallways, throw trash at me, and have fun watching me suffer.

Ethan went off to college and I endured the mockery for years. All through high school I was Miss Prissy, Miss Piggy, whale, elephant, and any other hilarious nickname they could come up with.

No one wanted to go out with me or be my friend. Lily tried to defend me and go with me, but my sister pulled her to the popular side.

I cried every day before school and my grades suffered, because most of the time I said I was sick.

I hated myself and my self-esteem suffered, all because of the words of a boy who was supposed to be my friend. Why did he do this to me?

I graduated, but I didn't get into college, and my life changed forever at that moment. I lost my way.

I always avoided going to the Fairfax house, their parents called me and asked for me. I avoided even leaving the house for fear of seeing him.

Tom visited me, and we remained friends, at a distance. He even confessed to me that he was gay, which the rest of his family didn't know. He was my only friend for a long time.

When Lily and Caroline graduated, I went to the event early, watched him from a distance, congratulated Lily, and then ran away. I haven't seen him since.

I know that he had gone to Europe to finish his studies and that he was a successful man. I worked and struggled to recover and finally, after years...high school was nothing more than a horrible memory.

But to this day, I don't even have a pink dress, so people won't call me pig, I walk everywhere in fear, praying that no one remembers my nicknames.

All because of that stupid comment from the popular kid. All because of Ethan, sitting across from me in that conference room, smiling at me, calling me Prissy as if nothing had ever happened, as I crashed to the floor of the conference room.