Glowing Up with Vignesh

Vignesh rolls up to the hall lounge looking as he usually does: wearing a shirt that’s much too big for him, his hair greasy and unwashed (actually, as he gets closer, you realise he just might not have showered at all in some time…), his posture slouched, and a dozen other things that would, were you a girl, give you pause before going out with him.

“What’d you think of the math quiz yesterday?” he asks you.

“I think I did alright,” you reply. “The questions were a bit tricky, but we got there eventually.”

“That’s nice,” Vignesh says with a bob of his head. “I’d be surprised if we didn’t get a perfect score. Pity it doesn’t matter, seeing as I’m transferring out of the class and all. But anyways, I came to get some tips from you. A glow up, I think you called it?”

“That’s right,” you chuckle. “Here’s tip number one: don’t make every conversation about math.”

“Do I do that?” he asks, sounding genuinely unsure.

“It was the first thing you asked me about today,” you say with a smile. “But think back, too. What else have we talked about, other than girls and math? And assuming you don’t want to talk about other girls with Ruby…”

“No, no, no, that would be very bad,” Vignesh says with some serious shakes of his head. At least he recognises that much.

“Exactly,” you nod. “So find something else to talk about! TV, music, movies, there’s so much—”

“Ruby’s a big foodie,” Vignesh offers.

“Great! Talk about food with her,” you say.

“Okay,” he says, scrunching his face up. “Give me one second. I need to remember this.” A couple seconds later, he gives you a firm nod. “Okay. Remembered. I’ll talk to her about food tomorrow. Man. I feel good about this—I’m going to go home and read up about those food blogs she likes, instead of reading ahead on the grad analysis lectures.”

You give him a curious smile, wondering internally as to what’s really going on in that brilliant mind of his, and then you say: “Yeah. That’s a good idea. But that was only tip one. Even if you say all the right things, none of that matters if Ruby doesn’t find you attractive.”

“Oh… yeah,” he grimaces. “I’m not very hot, am I?”

“You’re a bit off the perfect ten,” you admit, knowing that Vignesh’s ego is going to have to take the hit at some point. “That’s going to take a lot of work to get right. But there are a couple things that we can do today to bring you up a couple points.”

“That quick?” Vignesh says, sounding surprised. “I thought it would be stuff like, I don’t know, working out and getting really buff and I’ve heard that takes years.”

“That’s overrated,” you say with a dismissive wave of your hand. “Not to say that it doesn’t matter, because it does, but it’s far more important to look good in the body that you’ve got than to spend a ton of time manufacturing a body that you may not ever attain. First things first. When’s the last time you showered?”

“Well, I’ve been busy these last couple days, with the extra classes I’ve been auditing and then talking to professors,” Vignesh says, tilting his head as he thinks. “And that paper that I’ve been working on, yeah, last week was basically that, so uh… maybe… last Wednesday?”

“Over a week ago?” you say, sounding aghast. “That… that will not do. You’ve got to start washing up on the daily, man.”

“I forget,” Vignesh shrugs apologetically. “You know, I get caught up with work, all of a sudden it’s really late, and I can’t be bothered to shower.”

“Do it first thing in the morning then,” you say, trying to sound sage as you impart this basic life advice. “Shower right after you wake up. It doesn’t have to be a long, luxurious thing—just five minutes, scrub your hair, scrub your body, towel yourself off, and bam. Fresh start to the day.”

“Shower tomorrow morning,” Vignesh says, nodding to himself. “Okay. I’ll do that.”

“Actually, why don’t you do it now?” you say. “You can—should—do it tomorrow as well, before class, but let’s just make sure that it doesn’t get forgotten.”

“Uh… I have to go back to my dorm for that,” he says. “My stuff’s all there… clothes, towel, shampoo…”

“Alright, then we’ll head to your dorm!”

Twenty-five minutes later, Vignesh steps out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist, looking much cleaner, and smelling almost odourless—a certain improvement, in your opinion.

“Well done,” you say, looking over him. “You’re not too out of shape, either,” you mention, gesturing at him. “Now, let’s get some clothes on you.”

But as you look through Vignesh’s wardrobe (which is really just a jumbled pile of shirts and shorts), you start to slightly despair.

“Look, the comic book tees are obviously out,” you say. “But this one’s nice. White, with light blue dots, could be a good look on you.”

You pass him the shirt, gesturing for him to try it on. And then he does, and once again, it’s much too big for him.

“How does it look?” he asks.

“How are all your shirts at least a size too big?” you ask him, digging deeper into his pile of clothes and failing to find one that’s his size.

“Uh… my mom bought all of these clothes for me,” he says, looking embarrassed. “She said I’d grow into them. And then I stopped growing.”

You groan, and then shake your head as you go through the remainder of the clothes.

“We need to get you clothes that fit,” you say. “Do you have some spare cash on hand?”

Another twenty minutes later, and you’re shopping at the mini-mall by campus. Cheery generic pop music blares from the speakers, while Vignesh frowns at racks of clothes, trying to figure out what he wants.

“This one’s nice,” you say, pulling a fresh looking fitted short sleeve shirt with a pointed collar off the rack.

Vignesh takes a look at it, considering it for a second.

“I think that would look good on you,” he says. “But not for me.”

You take a look at a mirror holding the shirt up to yourself, and to your surprise, he does seem right. The shirt’s a good fit for you with your slightly more built figure, but it would likely be too ambitious for Vignesh to pull off.

“You’ve got a good eye,” you say. “I’m going to snag this one for myself. But we still need to find something for you to wear tomorrow!”

And so, the quest to find a suitable shirt continues. You end up visiting two more stores before Vignesh finally finds something that suits him well. But when he comes out of the dressing room with a slim patterned polo, you know you’ve struck gold. You snap a couple photos and show Vignesh the results, and he nods appreciatively.

“I didn’t know I could look so good,” he says, self-consciously running his hand through his hair.

“That’s how you’re going to look tomorrow,” you say, giving him a pat on the back.

“Oh, I hope so,” he says, the hopeful smile on his face telling you that this outing was time well spent.

Vignesh +50