chapter 21- beneath the beauty (p2)

After Mia won the fourth set in dominant fashion, Kate was unable to score a single point against the bottom-heavy brat in the fifth and final set. It was a full reversal of the first set they’d played. Heartbroken and engrossed in discomfort, Kate lumbered to the fence that had been at her back all game and turned away from Mia before she could watch the dark-haired devil start celebrating.

Kate leaned on the fence in misery. She tried not to cry, the last thing she wanted was for Mia to see her cry. She’d pinned all her hopes on these stupid challenges today, and now she was worse off than when she’d started!

Closing her eyes, Kate could hear footsteps approach her from behind. She hoped Mia would congratulate her on a hard-fought battle, but of course that wasn’t what Mia had in mind.

Getting within range of Kate’s enlarged rear end, Mia gave her defeated rival an overly sporting pat on the butt. While Mia watched the flesh jiggle in response to her touch, she laughed in triumph unable to contain herself, “Haha, I thought tennis was your sport?? What happened lardo!?”

“You know what happened…” Kate growled. She was fatigued, but the anger she was feeling was enough to give her voice some strength, “I got tired.”

“That’s what you get you fatty!” Mia teased, as she put one arm around Kate’s shoulders and used her other to pinch Kate’s exposed fleshy underbelly. Before Kate had a chance to respond, Mia was already bragging, “Haha! Face it! I’ll always be a better than you chunky!”

“You didn’t win because you were better than me at anything, you won because I got too heavy this semester! If you weighed as much as I do, I would have swept every contest! And YOU know it!” Kate angrily retorted, while she shoved Mia off of her and tried to force her posture upright against the protests of her aching upper back.

“Weight had nothing to do with it.” Mia scoffed. She was clearly annoyed Kate had shoved her like that. Grunting in an offensive tone, Mia countered, “If I weighed the same as you, I’d still smoke you at sprints AND tennis, but I would have absolutely demolished you in our little ice cream eating contest!”

“Weight had everything to do with it!” Kate barked unable to believe that Mia was going to challenge her on this! I mean, was she delusional?? Did she actually believe the obvious difference in size between them wasn’t the deciding factor? Size made a huge difference! And not just in sports! Unable to sensor her thoughts, Kate proclaimed, “In fact, you’re lucky! If you weighed the same as me, your precious boyfriend would dump you faster than a speeding bullet!”

“Not true!” Mia spat. Her face flushed with anger. She’d clearly taken offense to that.

“You know it’s true! Trent’s as superficial as you!” Kate snarled like a wild animal. She didn’t know what force was possessing her like this, but she let the anger speak for her anyway, “And you know what else?! I think deep down you’re jealous I have a boyfriend who likes me for me, not just for how skinny my waistline is!”

“Your waist is not skinny!” Mia argued meanly pinching Kate’s roll of stubborn lower belly fat.

“That’s my point. I let myself go and he is still crazy about me!” Kate burst, as she decided against slapping Mia’s hand away. Instead, Kate sucked in as much air as she could and inflated her belly as far as it would go. The sudden expansion in size forced Mia’s fingers to lose their grip. As Mia’s face reflected her disgust, Kate fired her silver bullet, “Trent only puts up with you because of what you look like! You know Trent would dump you in a heartbeat if you weighted the same as I do now!”

Mia only paused for an instant to process what Kate had just dared to say, but in that instant something about what Kate said shook her to her core.

In her deepest darkest thoughts, Mia had wondered the same thing, if Trent was only dating her for her body. The revelation of this morning hung heavily in Mia’s head. It pained her to admit that Kate could have a point, but her stubborn pride refused to allow her to show any weakness. If Trent was dating her, he had to love her completely. Why wouldn’t he? What was there not to love? It was okay that Trent loved her body. Her body was perfect. Why wouldn’t he love her body? But that didn’t mean he didn’t also love her personality, the person she truly was on the inside! The person she was beneath the beauty!

“You are SO wrong! About everything! Trent loves me for who I am! I could gain 300 pounds and he would still be crazy about me!” Mia emotionally burst defensively, while her pride took over, “And I would cream you just as bad in our competitions if I weighed as much as you! I’m just better than you! In every way! Always have been, always will be!”

With that, Kate’s restraint broke.

She’d taken all she could from Mia! She would give anything in the world to see her demon of a friend humbled to the extreme! The blonde knew she could be digging her own grave, but she didn’t hold back. Posing her next statement in the challenging tone she knew Mia couldn’t shy away from, Kate confidently spoke, “Then prove me wrong. Let yourself go for the rest of the semester. Match me pound for pound and then let’s settle everything once and for all in a rematch of today’s contests! You talk the talk, but can walk the waddle?”

“What?? I’m not going to get fat just so I can prove you wrong!” Mia gasped, as her hands defensively consoled her own bulging tummy, “Besides, Trent’s never given me a reason to doubt him.”

It didn’t even take Kate an ounce of thought to know how to respond, “What about his sorority bingo board?”

The look on Mia’s face said it all. She knew Kate was right. She just didn’t want to admit it.

Not letting Mia get a word in edgewise, Kate concluded her point with a clear disregard for Mia’s impressive social authority, “Maybe you don’t know your boyfriend as well as you think you do. Then again, there is one sure-fire way to prove me wrong on both fronts. If you are up to the… challenge.”