like they did. It was meeting Lou in my freshman year of high school that put everything into perspective for me.
I had seen Louisa Phillips around school for a year prior to meeting her, marvelling at her ability to shrug off the cruelty of the girls that always found things to tease her about. Whether it was that her hair was too short, her ass was too big, or her boobs were too small nothing seemed to rattle her cage. One afternoon just before cheerleading practice I was changing in the gyms locker rooms. The last gym period of the day had been let out ten minutes earlier, so only the stragglers were left changing. When I was almost finished dressing in my uniform that consisted of a tiny yellow pleated skirt, and traditional sleeveless cheerleading shirt with purple accents and deep V in the front, Brenda the head cheerleader of our squad, poked her head around the corner glaring at me. This wasn’t uncommon, the girl had a major chip on her shoulder loving nothing more than to make the other girls’ cry. It was like she tried to make a sport of it.
Sneering at me she said,
“You know the fatter your ass gets the shorter you skirt gets?” Seriously? I was confused by what she was saying because I’d actually lost five pounds in the last month. As usual I kept my mouth shut and went about shoving stuff back in my locker. I didn’t fight back. It didn’t matter how nasty she got I kept my mouth shut. There was no point saying anything, if she knew she was getting to me it would only get a thousand times worse.
Around the corner I heard a locker slam and the sound of footfalls coming closer. Turning toward the sound I came face-to-face with a seething Louisa Phillips. She didn’t wait for Brenda to launch barbs her way she simply said,
“Well then, in my case I’d hope I’m wearing sexy as shit underwear under my skirt, because let’s face it, we all know guys like the booty framed nicely. It gives them something to stare at, and if you’ve got it flaunt it I say.”
It took Lou three sentences to have Brenda pissed off enough to stomping back to wherever she came from. And after that day Brenda never bothered me again. From then until I graduated Brenda was nothing other than silently hateful towards me, and I could totally handle that. That was the day Lou and I became friends and it hasn’t changed since. She’s still outspoken and I wouldn’t have her any other way.
Lou introduced me to Kendall in the end it took less than five minutes in Kendall’s presence to come to the realisation everything I’d thought about her was bullshit. With her came, Declan and Billy. Even back then it was evident Kendall and Declan, followed by Lou and Billy would end up together. Their tight knit group had only consisted of the four of them until I came along, when they included me, meaning I spent a lot of high school feeling like a third wheel. Better yet, a fifth wheel.
I had a few boyfriends my junior and senior years, none of them ever stuck, not that I expected them to. I wasn’t like I was like Kendall, predestined for someone. Kendall was lucky, Lou too, they found the men they would love and live happily ever after with early on. For me it was just the right guy never came along. What I didn’t know was that he was out there, he just hadn’t found me yet .
None of my boyfriends were interested in anything other than hooking up, not surprising seeing as they were horny teenage boys worried about their dicks and not a lot else. But it wasn’t until just before I turned eighteen that I gave my virginity to my third boyfriend Matt, finally caving to one of his many requests. It was uncomfortable, messy, and left me feeling cheap. After my first time I didn’t intend to do that again any time soon regardless of Matt’s insistence that now we’d broken the seal we should be having sex all the time. Honestly I couldn’t think of anything worse. He was awkward, didn’t believe