"Jess, are you sure you really want to go to this thing tonight?" Cameron hollered loudly from the living room.

Normal people had conversations in the same room. Cameron and I just seemed to scream them out no matter where we were, like complete uncivilized heathens.

"It's for charity. We should go. Plus, you already told Ron we would go with him." I yelled back from the bathroom in the bedroom as I was rushing around to get ready.

Cam's work was having one of its many fundraiser events tonight and he had been trying to get me to change my mind about going for the last two days. Tonight was Halloween and he said he wanted to spend his only day off this week snuggled up on the couch with me, watching scary movies, and giving candy to little kids in costumes.

"I know, but I heard these things can get scary. Last year, one of the guy's wives fainted when a guy jumped out at her in the corn maze." He called back.

"It's a haunted farm attraction. I know it's not real. Besides, I'm a big girl. I think I can handle a jump scare or two." Cameron was always way too overprotective of me.

I looked into the mirror one last time to make sure my hair and make-up were decent enough before I got dressed. I felt like rotting garbage today and if Cameron was going to parade me around on his arm, I didn't want to disappoint him by looking how I felt. I wanted to look like I belonged with him.

After fiddling with my hair again, I gave up on taming the unmanageable frizz and walked out of the bathroom to get dressed. Before going in there, I had laid the outfit I was going to wear tonight out on the bed. It took me almost an hour of going through my limited wardrobe to find something. I settled on jeans and a tight, long dark charcoal sweater. I figured it would be chilly out tonight and it couldn't hurt to dress warmly. Additionally, the sweater sat high on my neck and covered my scar. There was no need to wear a choker to cover it, which was the best part. I had been growing more comfortable with Cam seeing me without one, but I was still self-conscious about it in public.

I grabbed the jeans and started wiggling them up over my legs.

They felt a snug. It didn't surprise me that they felt a little restrictive. I hadn't been wearing jeans very much lately. Since the Nathan run-ins, I hadn't changed out of my sweat pants or left Cameron's house for the last few days. I kept making excuses to get out of doing things with my family and Cameron in case Nathan was still following me.

Tonight was going to be different. I wasn't going to let my fear of him ruin it for Cameron and me.

When I finally got the jeans up far enough and squeezed my butt in them, I tried to button them. It didn't work. No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't get the two sides close enough to try.

I went over to the bed and laid down and sucked in my lower stomach as tight as I could. I tried to button them again as I held my breath.

Still nothing.

"Fuck!" I screamed and kicked my feet against the bed. I repeatedly swore as I rolled around fighting with the damn pants. They were going to button whether they wanted to or not. I went back on the attack and tried to sneak the button closed before it had time to catch on to what I was doing. The pants outsmarted me again.

They were fucking vile evil things.

"Having problems?" Cameron's sexy blond head poked in the room. He looked handsome tonight in his dark green pullover. The dark hue reflected back in his eyes which made them this gorgeous gray, green combination.

Damnit, I hated the fact he was so effortlessly attractive. Why couldn't he ever just have an ugly day like the rest of the world? It wasn't fair.

I flopped my back onto the bed, panting. I was out of breath from the workout I had gotten from just trying to put on my pants. It was time for me to go on a diet.

"Cami, you should have told me I was getting fat." I decided it was his fault I had put on a few pounds since I came back to Ohio. Since he worked out a lot for work, he constantly ate. That meant I was eating all the time too since I was always trying to keep up with him.

"Jess, you are not even close to fat. Why do you think that?" Cameron looked amused.

"Look at my ass," I whined and turned my butt towards him.

"That is one fabulous backside you have, Miss Miller." He teased.

"I am not joking right now. I can't button my pants." I was close to crying again. Now on top of feeling like garbage, I was going to have to settle on wearing a garbage bag out for the event tonight.

"Wear something else then. You have other clothes." He suggested.

"That's not how it works. I planned on wearing this tonight. I don't want to wear anything else."

"Then we should just stay home." He rocked back and forth on his heels triumphantly. He was prematurely placing his tally mark in the win column.

"He probably shrunk our pants just so we had to stay home tonight." Bad Jessa added. "He's a sneaky little shit."

I couldn't agree with her more.

"We are going out tonight. I have been in the house all week." I climbed off the bed and ripped the pants off my legs.

"Well, I want to stay home and play with your tight little...." Cameron began.

"It will be here when we get back. You can play with it when we get home." I rolled my eyes at him. He was an insane, sex-crazed lunatic. I had been a terrible influence on him over the years.

The doorbell rang out, putting an immediate end to our conversation about my chunky derriere.

"Last chance. We can turn the lights off and pretend we aren't here." Cameron sang out.

"Get the door." I huffed and walked over to the drawer I had taken over. I opened it and pulled out a pair of stretchy, black leggings. At least I would be comfortable in these and not be worried about a muffin top all night since they were high-waisted.

Cameron threw up his hands in frustration and left the room and to go answer the door. I heard Ron's muffled voice in the living room a few seconds later, followed by a little chirpy giggle. That must be Ron's date. According to Cameron, Ron had been dating this girl for a few weeks now. He said that they were starting to get a little more serious. For Ron's sake, I hoped this one turned out better than the last one.

I hurried to finish getting ready. I despised those girls who made other people wait while they primped and prepped for a night out. I never wanted to be like that. They would all just have to deal with my hideous presence at this point because I was giving up. Nothing I could do could salvage my appearance tonight.

"Darling, are you ready?" Cameron called from the living room.

"Coming," I called back.

I walked out into the living room and saw Cameron standing across from Ron, who was holding hands with a waifish, sandy brunette-haired girl with the most beautiful little freckles on her nose. She looked nervous as she clutched onto his hand tightly.

"There she is." Ron smiled when he saw me. He let go of his date's hand and walked over to wrap me in a huge hug.

"Hey, Ron." I hugged him back. When I looked up, I caught his date eyeing me anxiously. I smiled at her and let Ron go.

"Hi, I'm Jessa," I said to her and waved.

"Hey, I'm D-D-Daisy." She stuttered a bit and looked down at her feet.

Could this girl be any more adorable? Ron clearly had won the lottery with her. She was way out of his horndog league.

"You ready to go?" Cameron asked me. He held my leather jacket up and I slid my arms into it. He kissed me on the temple and rubbed my arms tenderly.

"I'm ready. Let's go get scared." I smiled back at him.