Chapter 3

It was a very different Chelsea that went to school in September as a junior, accompanied by a much more confident Matt. The very pretty girl that Mel had known was there had been revealed as the pounds dropped away. She was not yet a hard-body and might never be, but the soft spots were only where they looked the most appealing. She was proud of her new look and Matt was proud of her.

Chelsea's parents' strange reaction to their daughter's makeover extended to a refusal to allow her to buy more stylish, sexier clothes. At her former size, she had dressed mainly for comfort and concealment, with no apparent concern for style. That changed with her weight loss, and became a source of great frustration and embarrassment to her. She had earned some money during the summer, and was forced to spend every nickel trying to fit in.

That fall of her junior year was a time of tremendous change for Chelsea. Highly intelligent, musically gifted, with a naturally upbeat personality, she had nevertheless spent her teen years until then in hiding. Not hiding from people, as she was naturally gregarious, but hiding her body. She had purposely dressed down for so long that she was starting from zero as far as fashion and style. Before, that had not mattered, but now, it seemed very important.

Of course, a girl who has always been an overweight geek does not just jump right onto the 'A' list, no matter how dramatic her physical metamorphosis. Her contemporaries saw the changes in Chelsea, but continued to think of her as the Chelsea of before, at least at first.

Throughout the fall, though, things started to change. One of the biggest signs was that Chelsea was not always the one doing the asking at dances. As much as they loved each other, they had decided that it was best to circulate and dance with others as they had before. Once one boy asked Chelsea, it seemed to open the door for all the others, and soon she was in demand.

Matt was happy for her enhanced popularity because of the ego boost he could see in her. There was no more of the holding back and never a hint of reluctance for him to touch her anywhere. He had always loved her body, but now she felt incredible.

Just after Mel got home for Christmas, Chelsea was invited for dinner and the two girls had a chance to talk for quite a while. When Matt drove Chelsea home, Mel grabbed her parents and almost hauled them up to the master bedroom. To their questions, she blurted out "Matt is going to get hurt, and I don't know what to do about it!" She was fighting back tears as she said it.

"What? Do you think Chelsea wants to break up with him?" Joyce asked, her disbelief apparent.

"Chelsea is like a new butterfly right now," Mel explained. "A whole new world has opened to her, with lots of hunky guys starting to notice her. She is going to want to experiment."

"I really don't think she would do that to Matt," Emmett opined.

"Well, she may not break things off with him. She may just want to date other guys, too," Mel told him. "And I don't think Matt is built that way."

"But does he expect to marry her?" Joyce asked.

"You know Matt. What do you think?" Mel shot back.

"Ohhhhh!" Joyce groaned. "He thinks he's found the love of his life, doesn't he? How can you be so sure of what she's going to do?"

"I can't be sure, of course, but I would bet anything she will go to the Prom with someone else."

There followed a vigorous discussion on what they could do to help Matt and protect him from being hurt. It was Emmett who finally stepped in and insisted that Matt needed to handle the situation on his own, no matter what happened. It was fortunate that all three were in bed when Matt got home, as they would not have been able to hide their concern from him. Even by morning, it was difficult.

Every school grade seems to have a guy or girl who has everything. In Matt's grade, it was Rod Turner. Good looking, brilliant, lettering in three sports, and from an old money family, he was every girl's dream date. Rod was in all the honors classes with Matt and Chelsea, and when school resumed after the holidays, it was clear that Rod had eyes for Chelsea.

Chelsea was not some fickle bimbo type, and she sincerely loved Matt. The problem was that she was totally unprepared for the kind of ego stroking she was about to experience. Her parents had simply expected top marks and professional musical performance. They did not consider any achievements in those areas exceptional enough for praise. Her mother was almost rabidly against clothing that was at all provocative, and any comments about Chelsea's appearance had always been negative.

As soon as Rod started to notice Chelsea, talk to her, and walk with her, it was a signal to the top social set that she was now a legitimate person. Girls who previously would not make eye contact with her were now greeting her and sometimes even conversing briefly. This was heady stuff for the former outcast, and it started to work on her.

Matt, clueless as he was, eventually noticed the attention Rod was laying on his girlfriend and became concerned. He never said anything to her, and finally, she was the one who had to broach the subject. Rod had asked for several times for a date, and she had refused. Eventually, she gave in, but was dying inside at the thought of telling Matt. She knew she had to. She was not shallow enough to just go out on him. They had made no explicit vows of monogamy, but their personal commitments to each other were very strong - or at least hers had been.

Chelsea was actually shaking and was unable to look Matt in the eye when she could no longer put it off. Haltingly, she told him "Matt, Rod has asked me to go to the concert with him Saturday. It's my favorite group and he has backstage passes. I said I would go."

"O... Okay. Does, uh, that mean you don't want to go out with me any more?"

"Oh, no! It's just this one special time. I don't want anything to change between us," she pled.

Of course, things did change. The Sunday after the concert, Chelsea came over and almost raped him, she seemed so frantic. Both of them could tell it was not the same. Over the next few weeks, they made love a few times, but with neither the frequency nor the intensity from before.

Over that same period, Rod went about 'claiming' Chelsea as his own. He invited her out several more times, and she accepted a few of them. Finally, by the end April, Rod cornered Matt after class and gave him the ultimatum. "Look, Matt, Chelsea is my girl now. She's not fat any more and she doesn't need you. She's moved up to a real man, and I want you to stay away from her. She's ready for a man's dick and some man's loving. Maybe you should find yourself another ugly duckling." Neither of them saw a girl from class hovering around the corner and listening.

Up until that time, Chelsea and Matt had been able to act quite normally around each other at school. Apparently, Rod gave Chelsea the same message and she was too far gone to stand up for her lover.

Because of their discussion at Christmas, Joyce knew exactly what had happened. She decided Mel was the best one to deal with and called her.

"Hey, 'Bro," Mel said when Matt picked up the phone late one night, "It sounds like things aren't the best for you. Is it something with Chelsea?"

Matt just let out a long sigh, then said "Yeah, she's going with another guy, now?"

"Shit!" Mel could not resist saying. "What did she say when she broke if off?"

"Well, she didn't really break it off. He did. I mean, she told me before she went out with him the first time, but he told me she was his now and to stay away."

"And you're just going to do what he says?"

"Don't have much choice. It's Rod Turner. I can't compete with him."

There were a dozen lectures Mel wanted to deliver, but she knew they would be of no help to him. Instead, she went for the personal touch. "God, Matt, I can't even say I know how you feel, 'cause I don't. May heart aches for you."

"Will you do something for me?" Mel asked, not waiting for an answer. "Will you do everything you can to act like you're OK? What I mean is: don't let Rod know that he's hurt you. Or Chelsea, either."

"B... but they have hurt me. Big time!"

"I know, I know, and if I was there I would probably kill someone. What I'm saying is you don't want to let it show. Don't walk around looking like a puppy that's been kicked. Don't stop doing the things you normally would."

"Ohhhh! I don't think I can do that."

"Dammit, yes you can!" Mel spat out, surprising him with her vehemence. "Do I have to get on a plane and come out there and straighten you out? If I do, it won't be pretty!" Despite his heartache, when he finished gasping at her cheekiness, he had to chuckle. "Now here's what you're going to do. You're going to go to every dance, just like before. You're going dance every dance with as many girls as you can, just like before. When someone asks about Chelsea, you're going to say you're really sad about it but you hope she is happy. Got that!"

"Th... that's asking a lot," he protested.

"Well, I'm not done yet," she said sternly. "You need to talk to Chelsea, face to face, and ask her where the two of you stand." That elicited a long groan from him. "Look, Matt, I believe in you and your future. There will be more tough shots ahead. Learn to tackle them head on right now, and nothing will stop you. Can you do it?"

After a protracted silence, he was actually able to inject a little humor. "Well, I sure as hell don't want you coming out here and beating on me, so I guess I'd better."

"Oh, one more thing," she said. "If she verifies that she is now Rod's girl, you invite someone else to the Prom right away."

"But... but what if she changes her mind?"

"Matt, what you're doing is showing everyone that you are your own person. It doesn't mean that you don't love Chelsea and that you aren't hurt if she breaks up with you. Believe me, it will make her respect you more, and maybe make her sorry she did this."

"I'm not trying to hurt her," her protested.

"No, and that's not why you're doing it. If she changes her mind and you're already committed for the Prom, it will be a valuable life lesson for her. Look, if you two get back together some day, it will be a much better relationship if she knows your strength."

"I thought you were working on a business degree, not psychology," Matt quipped.

Having learned from experience to trust his big sister's judgment, Matt did just as she had said. The very next day, he caught Chelsea in class and asked if he could give her a ride home. She demurred, and he assumed it was because of Rod. He then asked if he could stop over after supper for a few minutes, and she agreed.

"Chelsea, are you Rod's girl, now?" he asked flat out as soon as they were alone in her living room.

She gasped, then stammered "I... I didn't want to change things between us."

At that point, he had an inspiration, and asked "Then will you be my date for the Prom?"

She could not look at him, and could barely speak. "N... no... I... I can't."

Following his inspiration and Mel's comments, he pushed on, finding strength to maintain his composure somewhere. "Oh, that's too bad. I have been looking forward to that for a long time. Um, do you have any suggestions about who I should ask?"

He knew when he said it that it was a bit cruel, but he was fighting the hurt for all he was worth, and perversely, it made him feel just a little better to get in a dig at her. He was not proud of himself, but he could not help it. She was devastated. That simple question brought what she had done into sharp focus, and the tears started instantly. Unable to control herself, she ran sobbing from the room and he let himself out.

Neither one had said that they were breaking up, but both of them knew it. Finding control he did not know he had, Matt managed to drive out of sight of her house before he pulled over and cried as he had not since his childhood years. He sat there so long that a neighbor complained and a patrol car stopped to see why he was there. When he explained that he'd just had some very bad news, the officer insisted on following him home. The little shot of adrenalin helped him recover enough to drive.

Matt took Mel's advice and interacted with Chelsea at school as he would with a long-time friend but not a lover. Outside of school, they had nothing to do with each other, studying or dating. Rod seemed to get irritated when they even talked at school, and that give him a little perverse pleasure.

One of Matt's honors classmates all the way up had been Tracy. She was a lot like Chelsea had been, except that her problem was debilitating shyness, not weight. In the same league mentally, she was fairly attractive but took absolutely no advantage of her looks. Just answering the teacher in class seemed to take all of the courage she possessed.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Tracy had had a crush on Matt since puberty. She was so nondescript and unobtrusive that he never noticed her hanging a short distance away from him whenever possible. It was probably not a healthy thing, maybe a bit obsessive, but it was her life.

Tracy had been the one hovering around the corner when Rod had confronted Matt and 'claimed' Chelsea. To her, it had represented a golden opportunity to fulfill her fantasy of so many years. The problem was that she was just another classmate as far as Matt was concerned. He was friendly enough to her, but due to her shyness, she could barely respond to his greetings.

As intelligent as she was, Tracy knew what she was doing to herself, but could not muster the courage to correct the problem. Except for once. About a week after overhearing Rod and Matt, Tracy came up to Matt after math class and asked if he could help her understand a couple of the problems that were giving her trouble.

The request startled Matt, especially since it was the most consecutive words he had heard from her. He also saw how hard it had been for her to ask, especially since she almost fainted after asking. His natural compassion forbad anything but a helpful response, and he told her he would meet her in the library after school.

During the little tutoring session, it became clear to Matt that Tracy knew the material at least as well as he did. Unversed as he was in the ways of women, he still figured out that she just wanted his attention. As they were ready to leave the library, Tracy started non-stop blushing and could hardly speak. Inspired again, he understood that she wanted to see him again but did not know how to let him know. The nice guy in him took over and he suggested they meet again two nights later. She almost fainted with relief.

Matt tried four times to call Mel that night before he reached her. He told her the whole story about Chelsea and then about Tracy, asking her what he should do.

"I think you handled Chelsea perfectly," she assured him, "I'm proud of you. I think you should take Tracy on as your new study partner."

"Huh?"

"She's a girl who obviously needs some help coming out of her shell. It would be good for you to have a project like her to work on. You probably should ask her to the Prom, too." Matt had to sit down after that exchange, but what his sister had said made a lot of sense.

"So I'm in the business of rescuing lonely girls, huh?"

"Oh, come on, 'Bro. It's not like that. Tracy sounds like she's a nice girl. It won't be so hard, will it?"

"No, but I'm not going to let anything like Chelsea happen again."

"I hear what you're saying, and I can see why you feel that way. Just don't say never. It has a way of coming back on you. Just make a new friend and have some fun, OK?"

If it had not been for his new study partner Tracy, Matt would not have been able to handle himself as well as he did around Chelsea. He made it a point to talk to Chelsea at least a little bit every day, usually about something very mundane. Watching Rod's reaction was a good incentive. Her reaction made him feel bad, but he knew Mel had been right: he could not let them know how much he was hurt. It was obvious that she felt bad about the whole situation, but she was the one who had made the decision. He had no contact with Chelsea outside of school.

Unfortunately, teens are often reluctant to pass up a chance to put someone down. Rod, his jock friends, and the girls that hung around them enjoyed throwing little barbs at Matt whenever they had the chance. The guys usually were very direct about his lack of manhood. The girls were more subtle but the impact on him was just as painful. Tracy was often close enough to hear what was going on.

It was hard for Matt to believe that Chelsea knew about the things they were saying to him. He could not see how she could change enough to be a part of the ridicule. Yet, she was spending all of her time with Rod and his group, seeming to fit in perfectly.

Matt did not consider taking Tracy to the Prom an act of charity. With every study session, she loosened up a little, and he had discovered a fetching wit suppressed by her timidity. He genuinely enjoyed being with her. There was none of the sexual spark he had felt for Chelsea, but that was probably not Tracy's fault.

Tracy's parents treated Matt as some kind of a savior. They had been concerned that she would never come out of her shell, and Matt was triggering changes they feared they would never see. They went all out on her Prom outfit, and the results surprised Matt completely. The real surprise had come two weeks earlier when Tracy's father had offered to pay for a hotel suite. Matt could hardly believe that he had to tell her father he was not interested in Tracy that way - they were just good friends.

Tracy had gone to two dances before the Prom, the first she had ever attended. For the second one, Matt had persuaded two of his friends to ask her to dance. She left the gym that night hardly touching the ground. At the Prom, she looked so striking that several boys asked her for dances, without any prompting from Matt.

Chelsea also looked spectacular at the Prom, although Matt thought he detected a strange tension when he greeted her. Monday morning in their first class, she would not look him in the eye. At first he was puzzled, but when he caught a glimpse of Rod's face, the reason hit him, and he had to run to the boys' room. Chelsea had slept with Rod after the Prom.

Matt had been exerting all of the self-control he possessed to maintain his composure since the breakup. Because of Rod's reputation, Mat had known intellectually that Chelsea would end up having sex with Rod. Perhaps he had gotten over-confident in his ability to cope, because when faced with the actuality, he was defenseless.

Fortunately, all of the parties involved had been several minutes early to class, otherwise there would have been massive disruption. Tracy was right on Matt's heels as he raced to the bathroom and she stood outside waiting for him to reappear. After the bell rang, repeated threats from the hall monitor did not budge her at all.

Chelsea stood with a puzzled look after Matt and Tracy had dashed from the room, but the reason soon became clear to her. She was unable to stop the tears as she also raced from the room, not to return to school until Wednesday. Rod spent the hour alternating between gloating and looking angry.

If Matt had endured some hazing before, what he got that day was downright vicious. Rod's triumph alone would have been bad enough, but Matt's display of 'weakness' brought down an unbelievable load of ridicule. Tracy stayed right with him the whole day, demanding that they skip out for the one period they were not in the same class. She insisted on going home with him and stayed until late in the evening, calling her father to come and pick her up. They lived as far apart in the school district as was possible.

Tuesday evening, Matt and Tracy were studying in the dining room when the doorbell rang. Upon answering the door, Joyce saw Chelsea's parents. Wisely, she let them in, then made sure that she and Emmett disappeared.

"What did you do to Chelsea?" her mother almost screamed at him. "Is this the little slut you dumped her for?"

Shy little Tracy was instantly on her feet. Her face was bright red, but not from her usual blush. Luckily distracted from the irate woman, Matt was able to grab Tracy's arm and get her to sit down without saying anything.

"I'm not saying another word until you apologize to Tracy," Matt said with surprising composure.

"Apologize!?" the woman shrieked and was about to say more when Chelsea's father managed to restrain her.