Paper Snowflakes - Chapter 2.5

The five of us were able to enjoy the remainder of our meal in peace, save for the unnecessary amount of noise made by the boys a few tables over, but even that didn’t pose too great of an annoyance. I guess you can only get so much of what you ask for. Regardless of that, I was immensely grateful for the peace that we had. It was a relief to sit and chat with my friends over a meal without worrying about anything else.

Victor, who was almost always composed and aloof became animated and cordial. Even Eve gradually became less defensive as we fell into comfortable camaraderie. It was a nice change to see them let down their guards. Moments like this were few and far to come by, but all good things had to come to an end, no matter how long I wanted them to last.

“I should probably get going. Are you ready, Hartley?” He nodded. I rifled through my purse and left enough money to cover at least half of everyone’s orders. “See you guys later,” I said as Hartley and I pushed in our chairs and headed to the door.

The little bell above the door jingled again as the door opened and Vanna stepped through. Just the sight of her made my whole body become tense.

“What are you doing here, Vanna?” I growled.

“I can go wherever I damn well please. Just because your daddy is rich doesn’t mean you can tell me where to go.” She stepped closer to me and placed her hands on her hips.

“You know this is our place.” I stood my ground.

“And you know that Lobelia’s has the best gingerbread rolls in town. Hopefully lardass didn’t eat them all. He looks like he ate the whole fucking restaurant.”

“Please just let us leave,” said Hartley from beside me.

“I would, but are you sure you can fit your massive gut through the door? God, how can you live with yourself looking like that? It’s pathetic.”

“Look Vanna—” I began, only to be cut off as she continued to attack Hartley.

“Don’t you want to live past thirty? What can you possibly do with your pitiful life?”

By this point, my anger was starting to boil over. All I wanted was for her to move away from the damn door so we could leave. I had experienced enough crap in the last few days. I didn’t need this extra stress.

“I know! You could be on My 600 Pound Life.”

And that was when I lost it. Before I could even think to stop myself, I swung my fist at her as hard as I could. Everything that happened next passed in a blur. The next thing I remembered was Vanna lying on the floor clutching her face with both hands. I looked at Hartley in shock. Sure, I had wanted to punch Vanna more times than I could count but I had never actually done it. Hell, I’d never actually punched anyone before.

“I—I-” Say something, I thought, but I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even move.

“Come on, Kat.” Hartley grabbed my arm and quickly pulled me out of the restaurant and back to his SUV. As he drove home, the initial shock of actually punching Vanna had worn off, but I remained at a loss for words even when he parked in my driveway.

“Do you want to talk about what happened?” he asked.

I sighed. I didn’t really want to talk about it but I figured now was as good a time as any to get it over with, and talking to Hartley was better than talking to anyone else. He just had a calmness about him that made everything easier to say.

“I don’t know why I punched her. I didn’t mean to. It just happened. I got angry and I couldn’t control it anymore.”

“You don’t think she’ll press charges, do you?”

“No, she wouldn’t. She’d have to admit defeat in order to do that, and I can’t ever imagine her saying someone else won.”

After a few moments of silence, Hartley spoke up again. “You know, things would be different if I wasn’t fat.”

I felt anger surge through me again. At first, it was because of all the hardships Hartley had to endure throughout his life because of his weight. He had been ridiculed his whole life about his size, be it something as petty as snide remarks or as significant as his locker being vandalized. Those things alone made me angry, but what made me angrier was that I knew he was right. Hartley was intelligent, creative, and expressive, but all of those traits were overlooked because of his weight. If that suddenly disappeared, all the people who focused on his weight would suddenly see all these other things about him.

In spite of that, it still angered me to no end that so many people couldn’t treat him right regardless of what he looked like. “That’s still a really fucking stupid reason to pick on someone.” I grumbled.

“Yeah, it is, but it’s the way things are. Society wants guys to be lean or muscular but that’s not what I look like.”

“So what?

“It’s just the way things are, Kat. If I was thin, I would be treated differently.”

“You’d look weird if you were thin.” I blurted out. I saw the hurt flash in Hartley’s eyes. Great. As if he hadn’t been hurt enough already today. “That came out wrong.”

“It’s alright, Kat.”

I sighed, feeling defeated. Maybe there wasn’t anything I could do. “I should get inside. I told my mom I’d be in by three.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said a little quietly.
I began to open the car door to leave and cast a glance to him one final time. I saw how dejected he looked sitting there with his eyes downcast and I knew I couldn’t leave him just yet. I reached across the median and hugged him as best as I could. I rested my head on his pillowy stomach and sunk my fingers into his soft sides as I searched for the right words to comfort him.

“About what I said earlier – I didn’t mean it like that. What I meant was that I can’t imagine you being any other way. Besides, I think you’re wonderful the way you are.”

“Thanks, Kat,” he said and squeezed me tighter in his arms. I couldn’t help but smile. There wasn’t much that was better in this world than Hartley’s hugs.