<Content Warning: This chapter contains scenes of verbal bullying, partial nudity, and force feeding>

I could feel the rivulets of sweat sliding down my butt crack as I stepped into the lunch line. The girls in front of me crinkled up their noses. I kept my distance, not only to safeguard their olfactory bulbs from my stench but to save my feelings from the complaints they were blatantly “whispering.”

“This is why you should ALWAYS shower,” I muttered under my breath, scolding myself.

I had been so excited about the pecan pie on the lunch menu today, that I had skipped the showers to get off weightlifting class early. I glanced over at the girls, who were giggling now. Wasn’t an athletic man working up a sweat supposed to be a turn-on? I looked down at where the stretch material of my sports tank top bulged with fleshy lumps. I suppose no matter how fast I could run, or how much weight I could bench press, I was still just a chubby dude with moobs. The thought reminded me of my greatest fear. I gave myself a small sniff. Good, no cheese smell. A slight Camembert odor a natural occurrence for a body with so many glorious creases and folds that sweat could slip into and molder in. Still, I was sensitive about it after getting hell from so many twiggy boys on power trips in middle school.

“If I eat lunch quickly, I can shower before chemistry,” I started planning mentally to distract myself from internal body shaming.

Just then, half of the boys’ basketball team loped in from the outside door. Even worse, it was the ones who were taller than me. Luckily, they seemed to be too absorbed in their conversation to notice me sweating balls in my skintight track uniform.

“You’re gonna ask Hailey to prom? Isn’t she only interested in the football boys?”

“I feel like she’ll say yes, I’ve been rizzing her up during Spanish. She told me the way I rolled my r’s was really ‘authentic.’”

The sandy blonde who’d been speaking started to purr suggestively. The girls in front of us rolled their eyes. I couldn’t help but concur. What a bunch of dicks.

An involuntary sigh escaped my lips. I froze.

“What about you chubster? Gonna ask anyone to prom?” one of the irritating pencils spoke to my back in a mincing feminine falsetto. I ignored his provocation.

Another gutsy cotton swab cackled as he took it a step further, “Faletau doesn’t need a date, he already has a premium rack all to himself!”

I recalled the fact that I had a meet in three days, a qualifier for the state finals. A suspension for snapping these cackling stickmen in two would prevent me from competing.

“Come on Fattytau, let us feel your tiddies!” a long arm reached towards me.

I balled my hand into a fist.

“Oof,” my face bumped against a broad set of shoulders as I turned.

I looked over them to see a pale expression on the basketball knitting needle who’d tried to feel me up. His hand was placed squarely on the pectoral of Kai Allred.

Kai was one of the only boys in the school who could match me for strength, only he was 6’7 and ridiculously popular. Messing with him was social suicide.

“Oh, sorry Kai. We didn’t notice you’d cut in,” one of the basketball toothpicks apologized anxiously.

Kai was clearly unimpressed.

“Hey, can you stop fondling my chest?” Kai’s deep bass voice seemed almost stormy. He glared at the towhead who still had his paw on his pec. The towhead snatched it away, almost shaking. Kai gifted the basketball boys with another reprimanding frown before turning my way.

“Thanks for saving me a spot in line Wesley,” I was confronted by Kai’s gorgeously lashed hazel eyes.

“No problem,” I intoned on reflex, confused by his lie. The corner of Kai’s mouth wriggled slightly before he drew his gaze away, choosing to look straight ahead. I turned away as well. We commenced awkwardly waiting in line for five minutes. At least the basketball horde of hyenas had finally been silenced. Finally, a lunch lady stepped out and began to prop the cafeteria door open with a doorstop. Just as she was moving out of the way to let us in, I felt the slight brush of hair against my neck. A loud sniff echoed in my ear.

Did the Kai Allred just sniff me?!

Before I could think any further, the line started moving. My hungry brain switched on and I started stacking slightly burnt steak onto my lunch tray. Finally, at long last we reached the pecan pie. Pecan pie!! I snatched the heftiest piece I could. I would’ve taken two pieces if there wasn’t a strict only-one-piece-of-dessert rule in place. I quieted an internal sob as I moved away from the glorious dessert plate and bashed in my lunch number into a keypad to pay. I turned to hustle towards the quiet corner of the cafeteria where I could scoff everything down in peace.

“Hey, Wesley,” a sultry bass whisper tickled my earlobe. I paused and looked up. Kai stood there with a strange look on his face. Why was he talking to me? We weren’t friends. We were hardly acquaintances. How did he even know my name? Shocked, I simply stared in response.

“Um…” Kai mumbled.

Maybe this was about earlier?

“Thanks,” I smiled politely, “I was trying to ignore them, but those guys can be a bit much at times.”

“Oh,” Kai looked slightly stunned, “Um. Yeah. No problem.”

“Well then,” I nodded, eager to turn tail and run back to the world of regular mortals.

“Wait, um, if you’re not,” Kai stopped me again, still stumbling over his words.

Was he always this linguistically challenged?

“KAI!” delicate arms snaked around Kai’s neck nearly throttling him. The culprit was Pris, short for Priscilla Cardoso. Pris and Kai were the IT couple of our school. They were somewhat of an American high school stereotype with Kai as the tall, muscled quarterback and Pris as the domineering head cheerleader. Although, they weren’t exactly your typical blonde popular kids. Kai came from a mixed Polynesian family: his mom was Native Hawaiian, and his dad was hafekasi (a half-white Tongan, like me). He looked like the Gen Z version of Duke Kahanamoku. His god-like body was bronzed in light brown skin, topped with a fashionable surfer’s shag. Pris had roots in South America. She was like a Brazilian Miss Universe, with olive-toned skin and waist-length black hair she either wore straight in a Kim K wannabe way or perfectly curled like some Disney actress.

It wasn’t exactly a good thing to be ethnic at our extremely conservative, painfully white suburban high school. However, Pris and Kai were the exception. While the regular brown kids at our school got mocked or told to go back to their own country, Pris and Kai were labeled as “exotic.” They were the kind of attractive that made white kids want a spray tan. It only made sense for them to date each other, although it wasn’t officially confirmed.  

Still, they were always together.

“Pris, that’s dangerous,” Kai gurgled as Pris hung, suspended against his back. Pris released her grip and dropped to the ground. I made use of the distraction to leave quietly. Oddly, I could feel Kai’s eyes on me as I retreated.

I looked around the cafeteria briefly to see if any of my friends were there yet. I didn’t see anyone, which figured since AP Physics usually got out late. It was more important to get back to the locker rooms, so I rushed my way through lunch, only taking time to savor the pecan pie.

By the time I finished, there was only half an hour of lunch left. Just enough time to get clean, change clothes, and spray deodorant everywhere I could. I sprinted through school towards the locker rooms. There were a few sniggers as I passed. I chose to believe they were laughing at my downstairs package flopping about versus my chest.

All the mockery was washed away as hot water rolled down my back. I really did love being clean. Feeling refreshed after a good scrub down, I headed to my locker to grab a change of clothes. Just at that moment, Kai walked in. I froze, suddenly very conscious that my very large, very pale, very freckled body was out for complete display. Thank God I had at least wrapped a towel around my waist. Usually, I was a no-shame-moobs-out kinda guy—something any boy on our track team can corroborate. But being alone in the locker room with a fully clothed Kai Allred while partially naked just felt uncomfortable. Kai wasn’t making it any easier, choosing to shamelessly stare at my unintentional peep show.

“Um, are you looking for something?” I asked, avoiding eye contact.

“Oh, um. I, uh,” Kai scratched his neck in that hunkish kinda way, “I was looking for you actually.”

We stood there for a moment, not quite sure how to proceed.

“I wanted to give you this,” Kai produced a pecan pie on a paper plate.

“Uh…sorry, I don’t have a fork or anything,” my mind short-circuited.

“Oh, then, we can do this,” Kai gingerly grasped the pie by its crust and held it up to my mouth. I didn’t even have any clothes on, and this man expected me to eat pecan pie out of his hand? That was a little too dumb jock even for a football quarterback. What the hell was wrong with him? I had a feeling the fastest way to end this strange interaction would be to eat just eat the damn pie. I opened my mouth and started to chew.

I kept my eyes down, but I could feel Kai watching me. Was this some kind of sick sadistic bullying? I couldn’t sense anyone but us, so he wasn’t doing it to look cool or pick on the fat kid in front of his friends. Was this his way of exerting his superiority over me as one of the only guys who could take him on? I wasn’t sure. I just wanted it to end so I could get dressed.

As I was taking a bite, my teeth grazed one of Kai’s fingers. He shuddered slightly, which confused me. Suddenly, Kai was firmly grasping my head, his torso against mine. He began to shove the rest of the pie in my mouth. I started to choke as the wide edge of the crust cut against my too-small mouth. I couldn’t tell him to stop. Finally, the pie slid in. Kai put his fingers on my lips to close them as the scratchy crust lurched down my throat. Kai’s eyes burned with a feverish intensity. I swallowed in fear and then started to cough. I couldn’t breathe.

“Shit, sorry,” Kai quickly guided me to the water fountain and turned it on, hand still on my nape.

I gulped down water in a panic, coughing violently. Kai pounded my back with the heel of his hand until I started to breathe normally. I gave Kai a death glare. I felt like cussing him out or maybe punching him. However, Kai looked pale.

“I’m sorry, I…I…” Kai scrambled back a step back, and then another.

“I’m so sorry!” He nearly tripped over as he dashed out of the room.

What in the psychopathic fuck?

I wiped the water off my mouth and looked down at my chest. There were pie crumbs everywhere. I was going to have to rinse off again.