Chapter 1

The day before the college fall formal, a new announcement was posted in the Discord channel for Sigma Alpha, the fraternity where my online boyfriend Tyler belonged.

[For tonight’s freshman dare challenge, whoever draws the King of Spades must bring Tyler’s 300-pound online girlfriend to the formal tomorrow night!]

Right after that, Tyler posted a photo of me from last Christmas into the channel.

In the photo, I was wearing an absurdly oversized reindeer sweater, my chin fat piled up in folds, looking so huge I seemed like a moving mountain.

The guys in the channel instantly exploded.

"Bro, are you serious? Whoever takes her to the dance is definitely going to die of embarrassment."

"Tyler, you actually brought her to Harbor City? Wouldn’t a girl that size need two plane seats?"

Tyler sent a laughing emoji.

"Relax, I already told her this was a romantic in-person meetup!"

"I’ll bet five hundred bucks that no matter who picks her up tomorrow night, she’ll break down crying because she can’t fit into a formal dress."

Julian, known as the fraternity’s "ice-cold chairman," never said a word.

But Luke, the guy who loved stirring up trouble the most, kept tagging my lurking alt account like crazy:

"Ms. Chloe, you have to come tomorrow night. Don’t bail at the last minute."

I looked at the insults scrolling across the screen and clenched my fingers.

For this cross-state meetup, I had spent a full year dropping from nearly 300 pounds to 130.

I looked at the clearly defined lines of my abs in the mirror, and at the tight, sultry red designer gown hanging in the fitting room.

Quietly, I placed a thousand-dollar bet in the pool that I would show up on time.