Overweight

As I continued to ponder what's next, my smartphone suddenly rang on the table. Upon looking at the phone, I realized it was Ella who was on the call.

What followed next was an important phone conversation between two longtime friends.

Ella: "Hello? Are you available tonight?"

Christine: "Well, I have nothing else to do today so okay."

Ella: "We should promptly meet at the mall at around 7:00 p.m. Is it all right for you."

Christine: "Sure thing. I'll be there later. But I must wait for my mother to come home first."

Ella: "That's okay. I'll be willing to wait. See you later."

After hanging up the phone, I decided to carefully check on my weight. Unfortunately, some grim news welcomed me.

I tilted the scales at 195 pounds. For someone who had been mocked for being so fat all those years ago, this was indeed harsh reality staring grimly at my face. I am definitely overweight.

The bullies were right about me after all. I was never the ideal woman to begin with.

And so I cried uncontrollably on the bed contemplating my fate. All the cruel shame, the humiliation, the disrespect, they came back to haunt me.

A flashback of younger days began showing up on my thoughts. The first picture showed me as a healthy baby girl before it progressed into five-year intervals.

My weight gradually increased to the point that I started to wear extra-large uniforms in school.

There were also scenes of me getting mocked, teased and berated by some of the other classmates for my pudgy figure. One still shouted 'piggy' at me.

Even a few girls picked on me, boasting I would never become a supermodel with that body. They even went as far as saying that these girls were more attractive than me.

As depression permeated my thoughts, killing myself in front of these people became a last resort. And so one day, I got a pair of scissors, went to the girls' comfort room and tried to slice my wrist.

If not for Michelle and Ella's intervention, they would have seen me die. Instead, they restrained me.

"Why are you doing this?" Michelle shouted with concern as I prepared to end my life. "Don't you want to live?"

"Sorry but enough is enough," I told Michelle. "I can't take it anymore. All the abuse and the mockery are too much to take. I feel miserable and unwanted. Ending my life would be satisfying."

"All my life I wanted to be happy and at peace, but with the turmoil and the terror staring at me every day, these are too much to overcome. That's why I'd rather die than to face these morons in front. Sorry Michelle and Ella, but it's time for me to."

Just as I began to slice my wrist, Ella hurriedly snatched the scissors away.

"Christine, stop!!" she cried in horror. "I don't want to see you die tragically, not when we're still together."

"Leave me alone!!!" I shouted back to Michelle and Ella. "I desperately want to die, period!"

"Stop it, Christine!!" Michelle talked as her face shed buckets of tears. "Don't you remember us?

"All this time we sincerely cared for you. It doesn't matter if our beloved classmate was fat, ugly or myopic. We always loved your intelligence, humility and kindness, and that's a fact."

"Michelle is right," Ella responded appropriately with an assured look on her face. "Don't you want to see us again? And besides, you are undoubtedly a very smart and talented student so try to use these qualities as motivation instead of living in your imperfections. Please, Christine, don't kill yourself in front of us. Please!"

After thinking about it for a few minutes, I opted to do the right thing and embraced Michelle and Ella, my tears still falling like buckets. It was at that point when I realize how much Michelle and Ella truly cared for me.

They may dress and act like models. But they chose to befriend a pudgy, myopic and ugly lady like me.

Michelle and Ella always saw me as an intelligent and hardworking woman, qualities that endear to this day. And they never felt so joyful.

Back in the present, all that thinking and pondering made me fall to sleep. Then with darkness creeping into the window, a ring on my phone aroused my senses. It was Ella who was calling.

Ella: "Hello? Christine, are you ready to go?"

Christine: "Sorry Ella, I experienced a bleak day. Don't worry I'll be coming out in a few. But first you should see if my dear mother is coming home."

Ella: "Ok then, I'll wait."

Ella stood comfortably in front of the condominium lobby for several minutes while I dressed leisurely. Moments later, she called on the phone to inform me that Charissa had arrived.

"Christine, I saw you mother," Ella spoke glowingly. "I told her we would meet outside tonight, and she graciously agreed."

Just then, Charissa arrived at the unit only to see me teary-eyed.

"Christine, what's wrong?" Charissa said with a distressed look on her face.

"Sorry mother, not now," I responded harshly. "I have an urgent meeting."

Charissa then sat down on the sofa, still thinking about what happened to me.

Leaving the elevator in uncontrollable tears, Ella promptly gave me an embrace.

"Ella, I feel horribly ashamed and miserable right now," my gloomy voice emanating through her ears.

"Christine, you're welcome to talk to me anytime," Ella responded sympathetically. "I'll aid you with all your personal problems."

My eyes still wet from all that crying, I walked nervously along with Ella to have a heart-to-heart talk with her.

"Are you okay?" Ella inquired me.

"I'm still not," I tearfully told Ella back.

She then hugged me again while we walked to an undisclosed location.