SOLVED. YA Romance read around 2005. Overweight male main character, falls for the new alternative girl who refashions her clothes. [s]

[Liz]

This is a book I read around 2005. It was probably a newish release at the time.

The main character was a teen body who was self-conscience about his weight. I new girl moves to town and they hit it off. They spend time together, probably at the mall. The girl gets a new outfit then does some cutting and refashioning to it to make it unique. Their hormones quickly lead to them getting carried away in a car.

I remember a comedic moment where the boy is like "semen, is tricky, but I don't think it can walk across the carpet. Then there was a whole segment of shopping for safe sex paraphernalia. They meet up at his house to "study". He thinks it would be sexy to wear a robe, but when he puts it on it just looks silly. He winds up blurting out "I don't want to study!", and they have sex instead.

He bought condoms and she bought spermicidal foam. There's another humorous bit where he's like, "my stomach is smaller when I lay down. I wish we could go through life laying down" and she's like "I don't, my breasts are smaller when I lay down".

There are also two other side characters. The main male characters best friend and their female alternative type friend. Those two wind up hooking up as well off screen. There was the conversation between the MC and the best friend about what they used for protection and the best friend was like, "I just assumed she had taken care of it" (I eyerolled even back then when I read this).

That's all I can remember. I can't say it was an excellent book, but it was sex positive YA with plenty of information about safe sex.

[Rainbowheart]

Does anything on the Young Adult Fiction With Sex list look familiar?

[Liz]

Bump

[Brittany]

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes?

[Liz]

Brittany wrote: "Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes?"

I really don't think that's it. Being overweight wasn't really much of the plot other than character development when he's talking about his insecurities.

I'm hoping that anyone else who has read this book is also going to remember that robe scene, because it was so funny.

The MC was waiting in his house for his girlfriend to come over thinking how cool he would look if he had a fancy robe to wear. Like a sultry velvet situation with a pipe to smoke and a glass of bourbon. But all he has is an old bathrobe from when he was younger and it looks so silly that he takes it off.

[Becca]

Where the Kissing Never Stops by Ronald Koertge looks like a match! I found it by searching "I don't want to study" + "robe" on archive.org and found these quotes:

Then I didn't know what to wear. Men in movies usually had silk dressing gowns; I had a robe I hadn't worn in years, with Pluto on the back.
[...]
"I don't want to study," I shouted.
"God, Walker." She put her hand to her throat. "You scared me."
"I got you here under false pretenses."
"I know," she said, smiling.
"I bought prophylactics and everything."
"I bought something, too. Some kind of foam."

https://archive.org/details/wherekiss...

[Liz]

Becca wrote: "Where the Kissing Never Stops by Ronald Koertge looks like a match! I found it by searching "I don't want to study" + "robe" on archive.org and found these quotes:
Then I didn't know ..."
Yes! That sounds just like what I remember. I read the summary and some reviews and I feel confident that this is the book.

Thank you so much.