They Mocked My Fatness, I’m a Supermodel Now

Chapter 4

At 7:10, the car pulled up in front of the hotel entrance.

The driver hopped out and held the door open for me.

I stepped out of the vehicle, wrapped in a sleek black velvet gown, my luxury jewelry earrings glinting once under the lobby lights, when the lobby manager hurried over to greet me.

"Ms. Marlowe, Elite's celebration banquet is all set up and ready to go," the manager said. "Megan and the brand representatives are all waiting for you on the top floor."

I glanced at my watch. Fifty minutes left until the official announcement.

"I'm heading to the third floor first to meet some old classmates," I replied.

The manager froze for a second. He clearly hadn't expected this towering supermodel who oozed enough presence to command an entire room would be going to a regular class reunion on the third floor.

"Would you like me to send someone to go with you?" he asked.

"No need."

I walked into the elevator alone. Right before the doors slid shut, a group of young guys standing nearby kept craning their necks to stare at me. One of them even jogged a couple steps toward the elevator.

"Hey, beautiful, can I get your number?" he asked, having to tilt his head all the way up to look at me, since I stood a full half a head taller than him.

I gave him a polite shake of my head. The elevator doors slid shut with a soft chime.

My phone buzzed nonstop in my purse. Someone had posted a live video from the reunion in our class group chat.

Over twenty people were packed into the private room. My old high school gym shirt was hung up on the wall, a digital scale sat dead in the center of the room, and two chairs pushed side by side had a sticker on them:

Reserved for Lucy.

Someone pointed their phone camera straight at the door, their voice cutting through the live feed.

"It's 7:10 already. Where is she?"

"No way she's bailing and leaving five hundred bucks on the table, right?"

"Have you seen how big she is? She's probably still trudging from the hotel entrance to the lobby."

Helena was sitting in the host seat, wearing a sweet, innocent smile. "Guys, don't rush her," she said into the camera. "Lucy's always been prideful. She probably made it down to the lobby, but got too scared to come up."

As she spoke, she deliberately panned the camera over to Dominic.

"Dominic, why don't you go downstairs and get her?" Helena asked.

Sophie, who was sitting right next to Dominic, immediately clung tighter to his arm. "Why would my boyfriend go pick her up?" she chimed in, giggling. "It's not like she doesn't have legs of her own."

The whole room burst into raucous laughter.

Dominic frowned. "I already threw her a bone. She's the one who insisted on coming," he said, his tone dry. "If she's crying downstairs right now, that's not my problem."

His words were ice-cold. He had no idea I was already on the third floor.

The elevator doors slid open, and I stepped out in my stilettos, my height immediately shooting up to over six feet. The bellhop in the hallway did a total double-take when he spotted me. He'd probably never laid eyes on a woman this tall, decked out in couture, wandering the halls of a regular business hotel before.

"Ma'am, which private room are you heading to?" he asked, blinking fast.

I told him the name of the booking.

He blinked in obvious surprise again. "You're here for the class reunion tonight too?"

"Yes."

The bellhop's face twisted into a weird, confused look. Clearly, he'd already seen the old sweatshirt and bathroom scale set up inside the room. He pointed me down the hall, and couldn't help tossing out a quiet warning as I moved.

"The folks in that room are waiting for Ms. Marlowe, by the way."

I glanced toward the far end of the corridor. "They're waiting for me."

The bellhop just stood there rooted to the spot, too stunned to move for a solid few seconds.

I kept walking.

Back in the group chat, Helena was already pushing for everyone to settle the bet.

Helena: Time's just about up. If Lucy was actually coming, she'd be here by now.

Someone jumped in right away to agree.

Classmate A: Lock the bets already, no use hanging around waiting for her.

Classmate B: Helena bet a hundred bucks, she's gonna totally clean up tonight, huh?

Classmate C: And Dominic? Not only does he get free cash, he doesn't even have to carry her.

Sophie heard that, and piped up all of a sudden in the room. "Honestly, carrying her wouldn't even be that big a deal," she said, leaning into Dominic's shoulder, a sneer playing on her lips. "I'm not gonna get jealous over a 180-pound woman."

The whole room burst into even louder laughter.

Dominic laughed right along with them. "Hard pass," he chuckled. "I've got work tomorrow, I don't want to end up in the ER with a bad back tonight."

I came to a stop right outside the private room door. Their voices cut through the wood even clearer now.

Someone spoke up. "If Lucy doesn't show, didn't we waste time getting that sweatshirt and scale ready?"

Helena snickered. "Waste time? Pfft, please," she scoffed. "Once the bet's done, I'll edit together all her old videos and post them online. Title it something like, 180-pound Classmate Too Scared to Show Up to Reunion. Might even go viral, who knows."

Dominic hesitated for a second. "Isn't that gonna blow this whole thing out of proportion?"

Helena waved him off like it was nothing. "What's there to be scared of? She was fat in high school. A couple comments aren't gonna kill her," she countered. "Besides, if she actually tries to make a fuss, we'll just say it's old classmates messing around."

Anger simmered inside me, hearing that.

They threw away my lunch? Just a joke. They forced me onto a scale to humiliate me in front of everyone? Oh, just a joke. They locked me in the bathroom stall for hours? Yep, also just a joke. All they had to do was tack on a snarky, "God, why are you so sensitive?" at the end, and every last bit of their cruelty was instantly excused.

I pulled out my phone and tapped the record button. No sooner had I hit record than inside the room, Helena was already hyping everyone up for the final count.

"Last ten seconds!" Helena whooped. "If she doesn't show up, this five hundred bucks is all ours!"

The whole room erupted in rowdy cheers.

"Ten!"

"Nine!"

"Eight!"

Dominic's voice rose above the rest of the group. "Told you she wouldn't have the guts to come," he boasted loudly. "She brought me breakfast every single day for three years in high school, and she could barely even mumble two words standing right in front of me."

Sophie giggled and leaned further into his side. "Wait a second, if she does show up tonight, is she gonna try to confess to you again?" she teased.

"Like that'd do her any good," Dominic snorted, full of disdain. "I'm not some trash receptacle."

Outside the door, I lifted my hand slowly, perfectly calm.

"Three!"

"Two!"

Helena whooped, practically bouncing with excitement.

"One!"

The exact moment before the countdown hit zero, I turned the doorknob.