Curvy Girls Can't Date Bad Boys - Kelsie Stelting Page 0,15
closed my screen, because I just didn’t want to cry right now. I needed time to accept that Rory’s story wasn’t mine. I wouldn’t have that type of romance, no matter how much I may have wanted it.
Wrappers crinkled from across the limo, and I looked to see Ryde snacking on something that almost resembled food. “Hungry?” he asked.
I was—getting ready after school hadn’t left me much time to eat. “What else do you have?”
He went to the mini fridge near the front and said, “We have some diet soda and some rice cakes.”
I frowned. “That’s all? Any protein?”
“Sorry,” he said, not sounding apologetic at all. “I didn't have them stock that.”
“You just had a hankering for rice cakes?” I teased.
He shrugged. “I figured you were trying to watch your weight, and I was trying to be supportive.”
My head jerked back. “What? Why would you think that?”
He rubbed his hands over his knees and looked me straight on. “Look, you've gotten some nasty comments on social media and in the press, and I know that those are hard to handle. Shedding a few pounds could probably help change that for you. Heck, you could probably get some positive PR with a good before and after photo.”
Was I correctly hearing the words coming out of his mouth? Because if I was, he was in for a world of hurt. “No one, not you or the media or your social media followers have any say over how I look. No one. My appearance is for me, my health is for me, and none of the things or people you mentioned have any say in what I eat or how I exercise or feel about myself. They're not in my doctor's appointments with me, they don’t fall asleep in my bed at night, and they don’t have to look in the mirror every day. They have absolutely no room for input in my life, and neither do you.” When I finished, my chest was heaving with the force of how I said those words, and my head still had that dizzy, hot feeling from being so angry.
Ryde simply raised his hands and said, “You don’t have to be such a rip about it.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I was just giving you some helpful advice, and you bit my head off because, for whatever reason, you think you're better than me.”
This conversation was getting more ridiculous by the second. “You have no idea what's going on in my mind, mostly because you're too selfish to look outside of yourself.”
“Oh really?” He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “We went to high school together, if you don't remember. I saw you walking the halls, thinking you were better than everyone else. You never went to any of the theater parties, you never tried out for any sports, and you never had any real friends because your nose was too far in the air to see anyone else.”
His words hit my chest like blow after blow. Maybe I didn’t want to get close to anyone because I’d lost the one person who had always been my best friend. Maybe I didn’t have time for “theater parties” because my dad was too busy dragging me to industry events. But none of that bothered me as much as the hypocrisy in his words.
“Have you looked in a mirror lately? You’re an Alexander, and being an Alexander means you think you're better than literally everyone else. Merritt ‘walks the halls’ like she owns them, even though I know for a fact that the Rushes donate way more money to the school. And all you care about is how many likes you get. It's vapid, and it won't last. Especially with that receding hairline.”
Okay, the last part was a low blow, I had to admit, but I was absolutely fuming from the words he said. I knew what other people thought about me; I just didn't think that the man my father had chosen for me to marry should agree with them.
Ryde lifted his hands like he wanted to touch his hair, but let them fall into his lap. “You’re just bitter because any success you'll have is going to be because of your father.”
“And any lasting success you have will be because of me.”
Ryde folded his arms over his chest, refusing to say another word.
That was absolutely fine by me. If I never heard another word out of his stupid mouth, it would be too soon.