Wearing three layers of long sleeve shirts in the summer just to make myself look a little bit bigger.
Girls were always making comments about my tiny wrists, chicken legs… saying they wish they were as skinny as I was…
Some of my friends even made a game out of picking me up and seeing which one of them could carry me the furthest.
And whenever I’d see my uncle Mike at family parties, he’d squeeze my biceps between his fingers and tell me I need to bulk up.
But seeing the girl I liked over there… probably picturing this guy naked… made me feel lower than ever…
Like less of a man…
Like I should just walk out and save myself the embarrassment.
But I liked her too much.
So I waited for him to leave…
I shrunk when he walked past me…
And avoided making eye contact…
I was too afraid he’d stop and confront me if I did…
And the last thing I needed was for her to see how small I was compared to him.
Plus there were a few tears in my eyes…
It happens sometimes when I’m really angry but can’t do anything about it.
And if he saw that… he’d eat me for breakfast right there.
I took my moment and stepped up to the counter.
Trembling like a leaf because of all the adrenaline inside of me.
“Oh, hi, Will…”