Life in the Fat Lane by Cherie Bennett Read Free Book Online Page B

falsetto. “Uh-uh! ‘Beauty
queens
!’ ” he said, imitating Mom. “Gimme a major break!”
    “What’s wrong with being a beauty—”
    “I’ll tell you what’s wrong!” Scott exploded. “Everyone in this family cares more about how things look than how they really are!”
    “That is totally not true,” I said vehemently.
    “It is true,” Scott said bitterly.
    “That is so stupid—”
    “Just leave me alone. Leave me alone and get out of my room!”
    “Fine,” I replied, “just fine.” I tossed his Hacky Sack at him and walked out. He slammed his door behind me.
    What a brat. No wonder my parents fought.
    It was
his
fault.
    “ ‘I ’ve lost seventy-five pounds and have a new life,’ ” Molly read to me from a magazine.
    It was after lunch; we were back in my home gym. I had just finished forty-five minutes on the StairMaster, up from my usual thirty. It was weird—I was hardly sweating, though my face felt flushed from the exertion. Maybe I was just raising my fitness level. Molly, who had been on the treadmill at the slowest possible setting, had long since gotten off and plopped down on the floor.
    I stepped onto the treadmill and reprogrammed the setting to five miles per hour.
    “Who lost seventy-five pounds?” My legs moved steadily over the treadmill, and I leaned into the front handles.
    “Ms. F. P. Stevens,” Molly read. “F.P. must stand forFormer Pig, huh? She says here that the Skinny Strip changed her life.”
    I upped the speed controls. “What’s a Skinny Strip?” I asked, breathing harder.
    “ ‘You will see how the Skinny Strip makes you lose that weight, really lose that weight,’ ” Molly read. “ ‘With no dangerous medication and no tough exercise.’ ”
    I laughed. “Anything that eliminates exercise is for you, right, Mol?”
    She ignored me. “ ‘Skinny Strips are sold all over Europe, but now with this risk-free trial offer, you can try it right here in America.’ ”
    “It’s a scam,” I said, wiping a single bead of sweat from my forehead. “If it were for real, it would be on the front page of every newspaper in the country.”
    “How can it be a scam if it has a guarantee?”
    “I don’t know, but it is.”
    “But what if it isn’t?”
    “Mol-ly,” I groaned.
    “What? I’m a desperate woman!” She stood up and shoved the magazine in my face. “It says that some doctor saw weight loss of as much as thirty-eight pounds in a month. Do you realize that means I could be thin in a month?”
    “While you’re reading that, you could be working out.”
    I raised the speed setting again. I could feel my heart pounding. I felt strong, in control. After having nothing but black coffee for breakfast, I had eaten just half a bagel with the insides scooped out, and a dollop of fat-free cottage cheese for lunch. Molly couldn’t believe it.
    “I’m on a diet,” I’d told her primly.
    “Get out of here,” she’d guffawed.
    “I’m completely serious. I’ve gained ten pounds from the medicine I’m taking. So now I have to lose ten pounds.”
    “Well, color me shocked, boys and girls,” Molly had said. “I never thought I’d live to see the day.”
    “Dieting is just a matter of willpower.”
    “Uh-huh.” There was a smirk on her face.
    Well, let her smirk. I always accomplished everything I set my mind to. Losing ten pounds was nothing. I loved Molly to death, but frankly, she was lazy.
    I bumped up the speed setting on the treadmill yet again.
    “I’m sending for this strip thing,” Molly decided. She leaned on the handlebars of the treadmill. “I have one eensy little problem, though. I can’t have it delivered to my house.”
    “Why not? Your parents don’t read your mail.”
    “True,” Molly said. “But what if it says Skinny Strip on the return address and my mother picks up the mail? She’ll give birth. So can I have it sent here?”
    “Mol …”
    “Pretty please and I’ll be your best friend forever?” I