Lucas couldn’t believe it. They had to be joking—no one could be this cruel on purpose. Yet there he was, standing frozen on Ariel’s doorstep, humiliation burning through him as laughter rang out behind her. His head spun, thoughts racing faster than he could control.
Surely, this couldn’t be real. Ariel wouldn’t do this to him, not after everything they had once shared. But as the truth settled in, the hope in his chest shattered. What happened to Lucas that night was nothing short of a nightmare. His world crumbled along with his gentle heart, trampled by the girl he loved most. Why would she do it? The reason, he would later learn, was darker than he ever imagined.
Lucas wasn’t extraordinary. He was just a regular high school kid with two great loves: rock music and food. But food had a tighter hold on him than anything else. At seventeen, he weighed 190 pounds, and the school corridors were anything but kind. Snickers and whispered remarks followed him everywhere, turning him into an easy target for adolescent cruelty.