When Max asked Lexi to be his girlfriend on the first day of sophomore year, she turned bright pink and whispered "yes" as though he had handed her the moon. They didn't tell anyone about it, though. Lexi's parents were crazy strict, and Max's mom feared, more than anything, that he would get some poor girl pregnant before graduating high school. Much in the way his dad had done to her.

It wasn't easy for them to find alone time, but, eventually, Lexi convinced her parents to let her volunteer at the library a few times a week. She would then sneak over to Max's place on the days she was supposed to be "volunteering." They usually ended up making out on the couch.

When Lexi's parents went to visit her grandma in San Diego for the day, she pretended to be sick in order to stay behind. Max brought her to his friend Chase's pool party. Lexi knew that Chase was the same boy with dyslexia that Max used to help back in second grade. The boys had kept in touch even after Chase moved to a different district in sixth grade. Chase knew nothing about Ryan or the bullying that Max was experiencing at school, and Max often told Lexi how grateful he was to have Chase's friendship.

Lexi felt really excited to attend her very first party. Upon arrival, however, she turned into a nervous wreck. She had never hung around so many kids her age before. All the girls from Chase's school looked pretty and skinny, and Lexi felt intimidated right off the bat. She was the only one who kept a large T-shirt on over her one-piece suit. To make matters worse, Max went around introducing her to everyone as "his friend, Kayla, from Murrieta." It had been Lexi's idea—just in case they ran into someone from church who might know her parents—but it still sucked to watch other girls flirt with her boyfriend as though she wasn't standing right next to him.

After they finished meeting all of Chase's friends, Max pulled her into the bathroom to ask her what was wrong. It seemed he had sensed that she wasn't her usual talkative self. He cracked a few jokes. Lexi giggled and felt a little better. They started making out. It didn't take long for Max, Lexi, and their raging hormones to stumble out of the bathroom and into Chase's bedroom. They toppled onto a twin-sized mattress and almost handed their V-cards to each other right then and there, but, as their clothes started falling away one piece at a time, the stark contrast between their nakedness couldn't be more obvious. Max looked obnoxiously cut like an Abercrombie & Fitch model, and Lexi, well, poor Lexi felt a wave of shame wash over her. She couldn't stand the sight of her own body.

Lexi whimpered to Max, "I look like a potato next to you."

A stinging, watery sensation pricked Lexi's eyes. She began to cry. Her tears appeared to catch Max off guard. His beautiful blue-green eyes gleamed with worry.

More than anything, in that moment, Lexi wished she could be as beautiful and skinny as the other girls at the party.

Then, maybe, she would be good enough to be Max's girlfriend.

Then, maybe, she wouldn't feel so gross about having sex with him.

***

As Lexi stood before him in tears, Max began to panic.

One minute, they had been making out. The next minute, Lexi was having some sort of meltdown. Max didn't know what to do. He felt clueless about how to react.

Had Lexi said that she looked like a... potato?

In truth, Max had never focused too much on Lexi's weight even though he knew it bothered her from time to time. Her face was cute. When they were messing around, She possessed all the nice parts a girl was supposed to have—boobs, butt, vag—and that was more than enough to keep him happy. Simply put, she had always been Lexi to him. His sweet, silly Lex.

Max began to panic.

What was he supposed to do now?

It was hard to think straight when most of the blood had left his brain, pooling between his legs, but he tried his best to say the right thing.

"What are you talking about, Lex? You look great."

She seemed unconvinced. "You should be dating one of those girls out there. Pretty girls like Hailey or Jenna. Why are you with a loser like me?"

He grinned and gave her a kiss on the nose. "Because you're the cutest little loser I've ever seen."

Lexi sniffled. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Yes?"

Lexi looked away uncomfortably. "Would you... be mad if we stopped... today? I wanna try to lose, like, maybe five or ten pounds before we, you know, do anything."

Max's heart sank, but he forced himself to smile through the disappointment as he tried to calm his now unwelcome boner.

"Of course, Lex."

The air between them shifted. It felt noticeably awkward while Max helped Lexi get dressed. He wanted to break the tension. To make her feel better. The moment they were fully clothed, he scooped her up and ran out of the room with her kicking and squealing over his shoulder.

Once they were back outside with everyone else, Max launched both of them into the pool with a big splash as Lexi shrieked like a delighted banshee.

***

The moment the two of them catapulted into the cold water, giggling and screaming, was the moment Lexi literally fell head over heels for Max. He was such a freaking sweetheart. Max always knew how to make her feel better when she was being too hard on herself. Her teenage heart wished for nothing more than to make him love her back. She knew they were meant to be. From childhood sweethearts to high school sweethearts, Lexi knew she was going to marry Max someday. Love made her blind, though. Sadly, Lexi had no idea that Max's life was about to take a very dark turn, spiraling to a place she wouldn't be able to follow.

What Lexi didn't know was that she would soon have demons of her own to battle.

***

After they came back from the pool party, Max didn't talk to Lexi about what happened, or nearly happened, in Chase's bedroom. The fact that they were still pure as driven snow, despite having seen each other butt naked, was kind of embarrassing, and Lexi's weight remained a sensitive, almost taboo, subject. Neither of them knew how to tackle these elephants in the room, so they simply stopped kissing and touching for a while and reverted back to the way things were before they became boyfriend and girlfriend.

A few days later, they were lounging around Max's house when Lexi asked him to download an app called Instagram. It had just come out about a year or two ago. Lexi's mom refused to buy her any digital devices, so she often borrowed Max's phone to browse through trends and viral videos. After Lexi went home, Max started playing around with the app. He was immediately hooked.

Within minutes, he began posting. Selfies with sunglasses. Selfies without sunglasses. Pictures of him on his skateboard. Max's phone rarely left his hands. With the right filter and a well-worded caption, even the most pointless shit now had potential to become something people wanted to see. Satisfaction coursed through him every time someone liked his posts or, better yet, decided to follow him.

***

Lexi made it known that she hated Max's new "hobby." The attention Max was suddenly receiving from random people online, mostly other teenage girls, drove her nuts. Lexi started keeping tabs on outgoing texts and messages whenever she borrowed his phone, and even though he hadn't done anything to cross the line, yet, she dreaded the day she might catch him breaking her heart.

Toward the end of sophomore year, Lexi and Max got into the worst argument they had ever experienced in their friendship. She wanted him to stop wasting so much time on Instagram and, instead, get a summer job with her at the mall. In the heat of the moment, Lexi handed him an ultimatum. When he refused to give in, she ended things right then and there.

***

Surprisingly, their break-up didn't faze Max too much. He felt upset about it, for sure, but he figured they would make up in a few days. Lexi always had a soft spot for him. Not to mention, Max just hit 1,000 followers on his account. Girls from other schools weren't shy about leaving comments for him, and some of them were pretty fucking dope.

prettyblueeyes95 wrote: I'll show u mine if u show me urs.

sunsealuver flirted: Ur hawt. Im hawt. Lets be hawt together.

Max spent the rest of summer vacation "getting to know" his fans and perfecting his feed to gain more followers. He was already pretty fit because of football, but he started working out even more. He followed popular accounts to copy the clothes they wore, the poses they used, and the types of posts that attracted the most comments and likes.

Max found the best angles to define his jawline. He discovered the perfect time of day to take photos. He spent another week teaching himself the basics of Photoshop. He used special effects to make his blue-green eyes look as vibrantly blue and brilliantly green as a peacock feather. The hard work paid off. Fans became obsessed with his eyes. It took a lot of fucking effort to look so effortlessly amazing, but his growing fanbase kept him motivated. Girls wanted to have his babies, guys were asking him about where he shopped and begging for details about his workout routine. Even the haters and trolls were easier to ignore than Ryan and the Shanes. Sometimes their comments were even kind of funny.

badassmofo44 commented: It's a shame you can't photoshop a personality.

henryd taunted: dis clown probably jerks off to pics of himself.

basiqbish added: Don't worry kids, it's ok to be a narcissistic douche guzzling famewhore as long as ur hot.

Some of the Instagrammers that Max followed became his friends. Their conversations through messenger and texts kept him sane, especially now that Lexi was no longer speaking to him. From them, Max learned about the possibility of acquiring sponsorships and modeling contracts through the app, and he became more than a little obsessed with understanding how everything worked behind the scenes. Deep down, Max missed Lexi, but she didn't seem to want him back. Despite being neighbors, the girl continued to avoid him like the plague.