Chapter 1 - the beginning of the end..

I met Stevie in middle school, and honestly, back then she wasn't the hottest. She was tall and stick thin, but not so cute. Which is why I opted for her best friend, a short and admittedly chunky girl named Diana.

By high school though, Vie was a fucking knockout. Giant boobs, tiny waist, perfectly sized ass. Everyone wanted her. She was totally strung out on drugs and oblivious to her surroundings most of the time, but she was so hot, any of us guys would have had her if she had let us.

Being a chubby emo kid myself, I didn't even dare approach her. People said she was nice but her friends were known for being horrible bitches. Who would risk the humiliation? She seemed happy to date this older guy who did a half ass job of selling drugs. We didn't speak for years.

Fast forward a decade, and we somehow both end up in our hometown. I had been on the music scene for most of it, but finally ran out of cash and had family matters to deal with. From what I heard, she was just out of rehab for the umpteeth time- heroin this time maybe? And had to move home. I didn't judge her for this though, I understood, and felt like maybe she would need a friend. Turns out she did, and we got to texting. She kept wanting to hang out, but one thing got in my way.

I shed the whole chubby thing after high school and was actually thin for a while. But retiring from touring and dealing with the stress of my crazy family somehow packed around 90 pounds of fat on my body. Sure, 125 for a grown ass, 5'9 man is too small. But 214 is obviously way too much. I was teetering on obesity, and a good portion of this blubber settled right onto my stomach, making it terribly obvious how fat I had gotten.

My guy friends even stared in shock when they first saw me, like "what the hell happened dude?" It was constant humiliation. I kept thinking I would get the balls to hang out with Vie, but every time we made plans, I kept imagining her face when she saw the expanse of my gut. It was too much, so i kept backing out. Maybe I could lose some poundage before I saw her? But in reality, it just kept climbing on.