Alex
This was going to be hell. Alex didn’t want to go to Taysha’s house. She barely knew the girl! The thought of sitting at Taysha’s house with her and Bethany sounded more like torture, not a fun night. Who came up with this plan? She wouldn’t be surprised if it was Taysha’s idea the whole entire time; that girl was always trying to fix things - whether it be her job as play manager or getting in between her and Bethany in the beginning of the week.
Alex’s mom rolled up to Taysha’s house, which looked like something out of a movie. Who had time to trim the bushes and plant all those flowers? And was that a white picket fence. Alex’s nose scrunched in scorn. No wonder Taysha had such a perfection complex.
Taysha
Taysha was furious at her parents. She thought she could trust them, how could they go behind her back and invite these girls to her house? Alex and Bethany weren't her friends, and they sure as heck weren’t friends with each other! This was going to be a disaster of epic proportions.
Taysha ran up to her room, trying to find an outfit for the night. What would she wear to spend hours with people she didn’t like? She wanted to look casual and relaxed, but when she put her sweatpants on, she looked shapeless. She remembered the boys on the bus. Did she really look like a boy wearing this? Taysha was sure that Alex or Bethany would look better in the sweatpants and oversized shirt.
Taysha was standing in her room just wearing her underwear staring at the explosion of clothes around her room when she heard her mom call up, “Tay!! Alex is here! Come on down!”
Oh, God. Here we go.
Taysha threw on her first outfit, sweatpants, oversized shirt, and headband and went down. If Alex thought she looked like a boy, whatever. It’s not like they would be hanging out after tonight. They would all just go back to their usual cold shoulders and call it a night.
Taysha ran down the stairs, stopping at the kitchen counter that faced the hallway.
“Um..Hi Alex!”
Alex was wearing a floral shirt and grey skinny jeans. She didn’t look too dressed up, but also looked nice. Why hadn’t Taysha thought of that? The only silver lining was that Alex looked just as uncomfortable as Taysha. Alex just mumbled, “Hi” and gave her one of those tight-lipped smiles that was obviously fake.
The room was silent for a bit, and then Taysha’s mom went, “Okay! Well, we’ll be sure to give Alex a warm welcome with all the nutritious foods- popcorn, ice cream, and candy! Nice to meet you Celia!”
Taysha’s mom walked Alex’s to the front door. Alex went after her mom, and Taysha was pretty sure she heard Alex saying something along the lines of “Please just take me home” before Alex’s mom went to her car.
Taysha, her mother, and Alex were all awkwardly sitting in front of the kitchen as the doorbell rang.
I guess that’s Bethany, Alex thought. Let the games begin.
Taysha went and answered the door, seeing Bethany a huge burly man in the doorway.
“Hi Bethany, come on in.” Taysha reluctantly held open the door, knowing that there was no way the three girls were going to get out of this.
Bethany walked in, her father following her into the hallway, just as her dad entered from the kitchen announcing, “Just finished popping the popcorn, dig in girls!”
And with that, Taysha and the other girls were herded into the living room, popcorn surrounding them and Netflix cued up.
Bethany turned to her father, looking both scared and angry at the same time. Whatever she said to her father didn’t work though, because Taysha caught him leaving out of the corner of her eye as she scrolled through Netflix.
Awkward silence settled in, none of the girls making suggestions or comments about what was on Netflix. They all startled when Taysha’s parents entered the living room, her father exclaiming, “Woot woot! Girls night!” as her mom said they were going to go upstairs and watch some Netflix of their own. Taysha just hoped they weren’t Netflix and chilling. The thought made her internally shudder.
Taysha responded, “Dad, no one says ‘woot woot’ anymore, if they even did in the first place.”
Taysha’s dad just laughed it off, and then both her parents went upstairs.
And then the girls were left alone. And they were silent.
Bethany
The whole night, Bethany was freaking out. Did she look okay? She hated spending time with Alex and Taysha - they were basically strangers, and her insecurities were all coming to a head. Was her shirt bunching up her back as she sat down? Did her thighs look fat? Would it be okay if she ate popcorn, or would she look like a pig? Bethany was hungry, but she didn’t want to eat in front of Alex and Taysha. Both of which were so beautiful. Alex had that skinny pretty girl look down to a pat, and Taysha was so fit and strong. Bethany was trying not to look at her body and compare, but she couldn't help glancing at their collarbones and then feeling for hers. Alex and Taysha’s were out and prominent, but hers were hidden. Did they notice that? Wasn’t that a sure sign that her body was wrong?
Bethany snapped back and started paying attention to the movie. They eventually all picked Sierra Burgess is a Loser, a romantic comedy on Netflix, after Alex broke the silence joking, “Just not any musicals. I think we’ve all had enough of that for a change,”making all three of them chuckle, a rare moment of unity. While it was cool to see a plus sized actress as the lead, something about the movie made her feel uncomfortable. No one called Sierra beautiful or pretty, even when Sierra was insulting herself. And when Sierra enlisted the help of mean girl Veronica to woo Jamie, she felt even worse. Why couldn’t Sierra just talk to him? Why did a pretty girl, one that looked like Alex of all people,have to be the one to talk to the cute guy. Was this what Bethany would have to resort to in order to get someone’s attention?
Bethany sat stock still as the movie progressed. It wasn’t until Taysha said, “Are you okay, Bethany?” that Bethany realized that Alex and Taysha had paused the movie to get ice cream and Bethany was still just sitting in the couch.
Bethany just mumbled, “Um..yeah. I’m fine.” and got off the couch. If the other girls were going to eat ice cream, maybe she could too. Bethany’s eyes first landed on the cookie dough ice cream, but they decided on the low fat vanilla that was left untouched. She didn’t want the other girls to think she was a fatty, so she took the ice cream scoop and just gave herself one scoop, without any of the toppings Alex or Taysha were piling onto the ice cream.
Bethany went back to the couch, and Alex and Taysha followed. She couldn’t wait until the movie was done and she could just go home.
Alex
Alex thought the night was going better than she expected. It’s not like she was making best friends with these girls, but it wasn’t horrible either. They were just watching a sweet romantic comedy and soon enough, she’d be home again.
The movie was coming to an end, and Alex swooned when Jamey told Sierra, “You’re not exactly everyone’s type but you’re my type.” She loved how Jamey loved Sierra despite her weight.
She was shocked though, when at the same time she was going all googly-eyes over Noah Centineo that Bethany abruptly stood up from the couch and quickly walked to the bathroom. What was her deal?
Alex glanced over at Taysha, both of them reaching an unspoken agreement to follow Bethany.
Bethany
Bethany was mortified that she was crying in Taysha’s bathroom, but she really couldn’t handle that movie anymore. What the hell was that line, “You’re not exactly everyone’s type, but you’re my type?” Was that supposed to be romantic. Instead, Bethany just felt offended and ugly.
As if she needed the reminder that not everyone found her attractive. As if the only boys who would like her would like her in spite of her body, and say something like her “personality made up for it.”
Would anyone find Bethany attractive? Or would she just be the ugly best friend, always on the sidelines.
Bethany startled when she heard a knock on the door and Taysha’s cautious voice, “Hey, Bethany? Are you okay?”
Just hearing that made Bethany cry even more. She hated that they were there; there was no way for her to hide her insecurities; it was obvious that she was crying.
In a shaky voice, Bethany just responded “I-I’m fine.” She had to take another breath, her nose too clogged for her to breathe out of it. “Just l-leave me alone, please?” her voice breaking on the last word.
After a couple of seconds, Bethany didn’t get a response back and thought she was alone.
But then she heard Alex’s voice say, in her confident tone, “We’re not leaving until you tell us what’s up.”
Taysha
After a minute or two, the bathroom door opened, revealing Bethany sitting on the toilet seat, tears drying on her face.
Taysha immediately asked what was wrong, and Bethany just blurted it all out, as if this was the first time someone asked Bethany her opinion, or why she felt the way she did. All her insecurities about her body came out - if she looked ugly all the time, how she was anxious to eat in front of people, constantly worried about what others thought of her, and how shitty that movie had been.
And though Taysha looked nothing like Bethany, she understood.
Taysha didn’t know how to calm Bethany down, but she thought Bethany might be comforted by the fact that not just she had major insecurities about her body.
Taysha cleared her throat, and began to share about her athletic body type, and what she overheard the boys saying on the bus all those weeks back. She talked about how she wished she looked more like her mother, who was so beautiful and had the curves to back it up, how she stopped trying as hard in track because she was afraid she would start looking even more boyish.
Alex
Alex didn’t realize that the other girls were feeling just as self-conscious, if not more, than her. After listening to Taysha and Bethany talk, she felt like a total bitch, coming to snap decisions about the girls when she didn’t even know them. Alex also realized that she was pretty lucky; she didn’t especially mind the way her body looked. Yeah, she wished her boobs were a bit bigger and her arms were a little flabby, but Alex wasn’t constantly thinking about how her body looked. Her focus was all on her face.
After Taysha and Bethany stopped talking, they looked expectantly up at Alex.
Alex wasn’t fond of sharing, and didn’t really know how. The girls had just spilled their souls, and Alex was worried that if she did the same, Taysha and Bethany wouldn’t like what they saw.
But she changed her mind when she heard Bethany mutter, “Of course. Little miss perfect over here doesn’t understand.”
Classic Bethany, always provoking her. But this time, Alex realized it was because Bethany felt embarrassed, not because she was trying to be mean.
Alex opened her mouth and said, “Actually….” and began talking about her constant struggle with acne.
The girls sat for hours in the bathroom talking. After a while, they moved on to lighter subjects, like how cool and confident Ms. Cortez was and how they wished they could all be just like her, or how they were struggling in classes.
Alex was shocked to hear that Bethany, one of the smartest girls in their class, made a high C and low B on the last two math quizzes. Without thinking, she volunteered to help, telling Bethany about how Mr. Roberts offered her a spot on the mathlete team and how she could help Bethany with her homework between the end of classes and when rehearsals began, a thirty minute period where the girls used to sit on opposite sections of the auditorium.
When Alex noticed the time, and that her Mom would be leaving soon to pick her up, she didn’t want to leave. And it didn’t seem like Bethany did either.
She looked at Taysha, who was laughing at a joke Bethany had made, and asked her, “Do you think we could...have a sleepover tonight?”
Taysha looked surprised, but then smiled a little. But then something else crossed her face, and Alex couldn’t read it.
Taysha said, “Yeah, sure! I would go up and ask my parents but I don’t know if they’re having their own kinda special movie night, if you know what I mean…”
Bethany caught on first, exclaiming, “EW! That’s so gross! As if your parents still do that!” and Alex squealed in humor.
Taysha just called her mom, and they all sprang up, left the bathroom, and headed back to the couch to cue in a better movie after her parents said yes.
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