Fat

“Come on, Elsa, let’s go and dance.”

The rest of the night, Noah romanced Elsa, dancing with her. They had a lovely dinner, and he hoped that he gave her a night to remember. It was what he wanted to do.

****

Christmas came and went with Noah and Elsa still together. They had defied the odds of their relationship. They were both accepted into the same college. Kurt and Kim had gotten into separate colleges. Elsa was right about them. Kim was friends with Kurt, but they hadn’t gotten further. He never gave up though, which was kind of sweet to watch.

Jessica and her friends left them alone. Sienna came to talk to them though. She was still dating Adam, so she’d made it work.

For Elsa it was still kind of surreal to be dating one of the most popular guys in school.

Her mother had backed off with her losing weight demands. Elsa still exercised with Noah. They’d done the before and after shot of her. Even though she hadn’t lost much weight, she had toned up her body, and she had lost a little weight, which was fun.

He’d kept to his promise about her identity remaining a secret.

Tomorrow was graduation, and soon their futures away from high school would start.

They both spent time at each other’s houses. They’d become one of those close couples that actually enjoyed spending time with each other. Now she stood in his room, talking with him.

“Can you believe at the start of the school year I didn’t know you at all, and now I know that you like the color green? It’s crazy.”

He laughed. “Yeah, you like the color blue, love chocolate ice-cream, and hate having your picture taken.”

“You still keep taking it, which drives me crazy.”

Noah was tapping away at the keyboard, and she walked over to him, tucking her hair behind her ear as she did.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I have worked on a little high school memory board, photography, thingy,” he said.

“Show me.”

He leaned out and tapped his thigh. “Take a seat.”

She lowered herself to his knee, and he clicked a button. Elsa frowned as the first picture was a group photo of them all in kindergarten.

“Oh my God, you still had that?”

“Yep, and I’ve got a lot more.”

Elsa watched as the photographs showed them growing up, different pictures of each of them, until after a few minutes they came to the shots they took together. The first were of her as he made her turn from side to side so he could get the shots for his paper.

“You must hate me,” she said.

“Not at all. I found it really hard to just take pictures of your body. I wanted the whole package.”

She kept on watching, and she saw as they’d changed it up, pulling funny faces at each other. Even now, she was so happy.

Noah wrapped his arms around her, kissing her shoulder.

“You’re so beautiful. Going to Bruce’s and seeing you was the best thing that had ever happened to me.”

“I was so scared to even enter that gym. I wished there was a magical cure to lose weight.”

“I’m pleased there wasn’t.”

There were more pictures of the two of them together, one at the Christmas country club prom and several at school while they’d been studying.

“Elsa, there’s something I want to ask you, and I don’t want you to freak out, or start panicking, okay?”

“Why start off with saying something like that?” she asked. “Now I’m nervous as hell.”

He chuckled. “I’m sorry. Try to forget all that I’ve just said.”

“That’s even harder to do.” She smiled. “What is it?”

“We’re going away to college, and I want to do something that will guarantee you stay mine. It’s also completely crazy, and I don’t even know if you’ll accept.” He held a small velvet box in front of her. “Elsa, will you marry me?”

She gasped. Not once had she even considered for a second that he’d propose marriage.

“You want to marry me?”

“I was going to ask you tomorrow at graduation, get down on one knee in front of the whole crowd, and then I realized you hated scenes, and people staring. This is it, me, here, putting my heart and my future on the line for you.”

“It’s not on the line.”

“I love you, Elsa. I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want us to be the crazy teens that get married young, but I want to be the ones that prove everyone wrong. We are right together, we are good together.”

Elsa silenced him with a kiss. “Shut up, Noah. Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes, put the ring on.”

He pulled the ring out and slid it onto her finger. “Holy shit, we just got engaged.”

“We’re going to have to tell our parents.”

“They already know. I asked your father for your hand in marriage.”