He Dumped Me for My Weight, Now He's Begging For a Second Chance

The gravel dug into her knees, but Jasmine barely felt it. The cold had already numbed everything that mattered. She didn't remember deciding to sit down. One moment she was walking fast, furious, half blind with tears and the next she was just there, on the shoulder of the road that curved away from Crestwood's front gates, watching the taillights of Ryan's car shrink into nothing. Too much. That's what he'd said. Not in those exact words, but close enough that the meaning landed the same. Too much to be seen with. Too much for the photos his father wanted at the alumni gala. Too much, period. She laughed a short, ugly sound and took another pull from the bottle Chloe would have confiscated if she'd known. It burned going down. She wanted it to burn. She wanted to feel something sharp enough to cut through the humiliation still hot in her chest. He'll regret this, she thought, the words slurring even inside her own head. One day he'll see me and he'll regret every second of tonight. She didn't believe it. Not really. Belief required hope, and hope had walked away in a car with its taillights on. The night stretched dark and wide around her. Somewhere past the tree line, an owl called out, and the sound made her flinch, made her realize how alone she actually was. Sitting on the side of a road. Drunk. Crying. Sixteen years old and already convinced the worst thing anyone would ever believe about her was true. She didn't see him at first. He came quietly, the way he did most things not announcing himself, not making it about him. He simply lowered himself onto the curb a few feet away, close enough to matter, far enough not to crowd her, and waited. She never asked who he was. She was too far gone to wonder, too wrapped up in her own collapse to notice the boy who sat with her in silence until her shivering stopped, who made sure she didn't wander into the road, who watched over her like it was the easiest, most natural thing in the world. By the time the sun came up, he was gone. She woke alone, hungover and humiliated, and made herself a promise instead: Never again. She had no idea someone had already made her one first. ********************* "She was "too much" for him. So she became unforgettable. The night Ryan dumped her for being fat, she got drunk on the side of the road and swore he'd regret it. She never noticed the boy watching over her in the dark, making sure she got home safe. One summer. One best friend. One total transformation. She comes back to school unrecognizable, confident, glowing, and turning heads everywhere she goes. Including his. Now Ryan wants her back, showering her with apologies and promises. But there's someone else the school's untouchable heartthrob who's been quietly guarding her from the shadows all along, waiting for her to notice him first. She spent months becoming someone new. Now she has to decide who she's becoming it for. Will she give her ex the second chance he's begging for? Or choose the one who never left her side?