Someone Else's Secret

by Julia Spiro

Mary had told her she was a 32-B, and Georgie wasn’t sure why, but this information made her want to cry. She didn’t think it was fair that her body could change all on its own without any input from her.

She already felt too big for the space.

Georgie sat, trying to squeeze her legs tightly together so as not to take up so much room.

Why are even thin women and girls afraid of taking up "too much room?" Also, if you're reading this and you're a thin woman felt has felt this way, imagine how your fat friends must feel. PS. It's okay to take up as much space as you need to be comfortable!

Thankfully, Lindsey had a high metabolism and burned most everything off through sports that she kept up through college. Weight wasn’t an issue for her, but the curves of her body were. That was a different thing, she’d come to realize after trying crash diets and juice cleanses, which left her ten pounds lighter but no less voluptuous. She wasn’t overweight, but her body, since high school, was shapely in a way that always made her feel older than she was and out of place, noticeable. During her freshman year of high school, Lindsey went from wearing a C cup to a double-D cup. Sometimes she had to wear two sports bras when she played field hockey. The pressure of the two bras often hurt her ribs, but she liked the way it flattened her out. She felt like it was armor against being perceived as slutty or ridiculous or obscene. She hated the way her body made her feel vulgar, no matter what she wore. She grew tired of constantly feeling men’s eyes bulge and hover around her chest.

This all just feels so awkward. Like too contrived.

fat couples smiling at expensive steakhouses,

Yeah, in this list of lives Lindsay doesn't want it has to be fat people eating. Oy vey.

Georgie couldn’t remember much about her grandmother, Carol’s mom. She’d died when Georgie was six. But Georgie remembered the way her grandmother smelled like menthol cigarettes and how it sounded funny when she said Carol, putting a strong emphasis on the first syllable of the name, exhaling it in a nasal huff. She seemed to be a different species altogether from Carol. Georgie could tell, even as a child, that Carol never wanted to take her and Berty to the nursing home for their twice-yearly visits.

Wait, this doesn't make sense. Berty is five. Which means Georgie is almost ten years older. If her grandmother died when she was six, Berty wouldn't have been born yet.

It had become important to her, so her first instinct was to panic about losing it.

Welcome to my life

She examined Lindsey’s inner thighs, noticing how they didn’t touch when she stood up.

So much body obsessing BS with both of these characters. Gets irritating.