Love In All Sizes

Chapter Nineteen

***Ava's POV***

Monday.  If I didn't already hate them because they meant I had to go back to school, today they sucked that much more.

To say I felt drained would be an understatement. The only reason I even came to school today was because my GPA couldn't handle me missing school.

I spent Saturday and Sunday in bed. The tears had stopped at some point yesterday, but my body would continue to shake with sobs. The days seemed to blur together, I didn't really eat, hardly ever left my bed, I didn't want to see or do anything. The girls had stopped by somewhere in there. They had tried to talk to me to see if there was anything they could do. Needless to say Amber threw out a couple of threats towards parts of Jace's body.

I guess Charlie had told them what happened, I couldn't bring myself to even talk about it. After a while of countless unanswered questions from the girls, they gave up and just joined me in bed.   Each cuddling into one side of me and squeezing me tight. That brought on another wave of sobs.

Jace called and text constantly throughout the weekend. I never responded to any of them. At one point he even tried to come over. While my dad still had no clue as to why he was telling Jace that he couldn't come in, my mother was standing firm behind him. I had begged her not to say anything to my dad. I knew how he would react if someone hurt his princess, and while I was hurt beyond belief I didn't want anything to happen to Jace.

That was the worst part, I still loved him.

Do I forgive him for what he did? No. Do I in some sick and twisted way understand what he did? Yes. Even though he claimed to love me, why would he choose to be with a fat, ugly girl when he could be with the skinny, beautiful head cheerleader. And while I hated Tammy with every fiber of my being, she was the one that Jace was supposed to be with. They were cut from the same cloth. I was stupid to think that I fit into that world.

It was time to come down from cloud nine and come back to the real world. The real world where I am just a normal, overweight semi-nerdy girl just trying to make it to graduation. And thus I am staring into the abyss of my locker.

If I could make it through the first day, I figure the rest shouldn't be so bad. Was I fooling myself? You're damn right I was, but that was the thought that was keeping me going.

"Hey darlin'"

I was so lost in my own thoughts that I hadn't even noticed another person walk up. God Ava get it together!

"Derrick?" I looked up at him confused. His face had healed from his fight with Jace a while back, and he was back to looking like his handsome self. "What are you doing here?"

He smiled. "Well besides the fact that I go to school here, so my attendance is kinda mandatory. I wanted to see how you were doing" he leaned against the locker next to mine.

"I'm..." I didn't know how to finish that sentence. Broken? Numb? Exhausted? Hurt? Option E all of the above? I looked down at my feet not quite being able to meet his eyes. He was the one who told me that Jace would do this. I couldn't quite bear to see the I told you so that would be in his eyes. "So you heard about that did you?" I went for instead.

"Unfortunately yes. That bitch Tammy has a big ass mouth. Hey" He said reaching out under my chin and lifting my face to look at him. "I am only here because I care about you and want to make sure you are ok" And honestly he looked like he genuinely meant that. There wasn't a mocking or malicious glint in his eyes.

"I honestly don't know Derrick. I'm kind of just trying to put one foot in front of the other right now" And it was the truth. That was the only way I was even standing here.