AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah.” Maybe sounding confident would make me feel confident.
He held up the phone. “Little sexy smile, beautiful?”
Candace added, “Better hurry before he and Tobias melt from the heat.”
I felt awkward, but her comment and the dopey grin plastered across Aithan’s face made me giggle.
He snapped a pic and his grin widened. “This is perfect.” He held up the phone for me to see.
I had to admit the photo looked pretty fucking sexy. “That’sme?”
They all laughed, but not in a mean way.
“Yeah, Zel.” Aithan wrapped his arms around me. “Now do you see what Drew and I see?”
“Maybe?” I stared at the photo, trying to justify my mental self-image with the real deal.
He turned the phone to show Tobias. “She’s hot, right?”
“Oh, hell yes.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and peered at me from beneath his brows.
“Why’s it so hard for you to see how beautiful you are?” Candace asked.
“I guess because I heard how ugly and weird I was from all the kids around me growing up. Like I told Aithan upstairs, I was the tall, fat girl with braces and zits. I grew up in a wealthy neighborhood. A lot of the girls were beautiful, like you and my sister. I was a bull in a china shop and a lot of kids reminded me daily that I wasn’t petite or pretty.”
“Forget that,” Aithan said. “You can’t let your childhood bullies mess up your whole life.”
I shrugged. “They generally don’t. Hell, I’m more successful than any of them. I guess I just can’t get past this whole fucked up body image thing. Having a thyroid disorder doesn’t help.”
“Why?” Tobias asked.
“It messes with my head.” I tapped my temple. “Graves’ disease and mood disorders go hand-in-hand.”
Aithan fetched my robe from the back of a dining chair. “What do you see when you look in the mirror?” He held it open for me.
I slipped into it. “Seventeen-year-old obese Zel, the girl whose thyroid was a disaster, whose boyfriend dumped her for getting too fat, the girl on the verge of being a shut-in.”
“That’s not what any of us see.” He hugged me from behind. “You have body dysmorphia, Zel.”
“Ever thought about counseling?” Tobias added.
I shook my head. “It’s not stopping me from living my life and running my business, so no. I used all those negative comments to drive me. Maybe that’s not emotionally healthy, but success does taste pretty fucking sweet.”
Aithan nodded. “We all have history that’s made us miserable, but it also made us who we are.” He tied my robe’s belt. “The thing is some people want to be unhappy and drag you into the gutter with them. It’s the only way they can feel good about themselves.”
“When they’re pulling other people down?” Candace asked.
“Yeah.” Tobias nodded. “That’s Maeve.”
“And Tristan,” I added.
Candace glanced at her watch then grabbed Tobias’s arm. “Come on, little brother. I gotta get to Scumwater.”
“True dat.” There was hunger in his dark eyes when he met my gaze. “Thanks for the awesome lunch, Zel.”
“My pleasure. You’re welcome back anytime. Both of you.”
Candace elbowed her brother. “She means you.”
