Friction

Chapter 5

When Max asked Lexi to be his girlfriend on the first day of sophomore year, she turned bright pink and whispered "yes" as though he had handed her the moon. They didn't tell anyone about it, though. Lexi's parents were crazy strict, and Max's mom feared, more than anything, that he would get some poor girl pregnant before graduating high school. Much in the way his dad had done to her.

It wasn't easy for them to find alone time, but, eventually, Lexi convinced her parents to let her volunteer at the library a few times a week. She would then sneak over to Max's place on the days she was supposed to be "volunteering." They usually ended up making out on the couch.

When Lexi's parents went to visit her grandma in San Diego for the day, she pretended to be sick in order to stay behind. Max brought her to his friend Chase's pool party. Lexi knew that Chase was the same boy with dyslexia that Max used to help back in second grade. The boys had kept in touch even after Chase moved to a different district in sixth grade. Chase knew nothing about Ryan or the bullying that Max was experiencing at school, and Max often told Lexi how grateful he was to have Chase's friendship.

Lexi felt really excited to attend her very first party. Upon arrival, however, she turned into a nervous wreck. She had never hung around so many kids her age before. All the girls from Chase's school looked pretty and skinny, and Lexi felt intimidated right off the bat. She was the only one who kept a large T-shirt on over her one-piece suit. To make matters worse, Max went around introducing her to everyone as "his friend, Kayla, from Murrieta." It had been Lexi's idea—just in case they ran into someone from church who might know her parents—but it still sucked to watch other girls flirt with her boyfriend as though she wasn't standing right next to him.

After they finished meeting all of Chase's friends, Max pulled her into the bathroom to ask her what was wrong. It seemed he had sensed that she wasn't her usual talkative self. He cracked a few jokes. Lexi giggled and felt a little better. They started making out. It didn't take long for Max, Lexi, and their raging hormones to stumble out of the bathroom and into Chase's bedroom. They toppled onto a twin-sized mattress and almost handed their V-cards to each other right then and there, but, as their clothes started falling away one piece at a time, the stark contrast between their nakedness couldn't be more obvious. Max looked obnoxiously cut like an Abercrombie & Fitch model, and Lexi, well, poor Lexi felt a wave of shame wash over her. She couldn't stand the sight of her own body.

Lexi whimpered to Max, "I look like a potato next to you."

A stinging, watery sensation pricked Lexi's eyes. She began to cry. Her tears appeared to catch Max off guard. His beautiful blue-green eyes gleamed with worry.

More than anything, in that moment, Lexi wished she could be as beautiful and skinny as the other girls at the party.

Then, maybe, she would be good enough to be Max's girlfriend.

Then, maybe, she wouldn't feel so gross about having sex with him.

***

As Lexi stood before him in tears, Max began to panic.

One minute, they had been making out. The next minute, Lexi was having some sort of meltdown. Max didn't know what to do. He felt clueless about how to react.

Had Lexi said that she looked like a... potato?

In truth, Max had never focused too much on Lexi's weight even though he knew it bothered her from time to time. Her face was cute. When they were messing around, She possessed all the nice parts a girl was supposed to have—boobs, butt, vag—and that was more than enough to keep him happy. Simply put, she had always been Lexi to him. His sweet, silly Lex.