Chapter Three

             I woke up to Jason on my bed in the morning. He had turned the T.V. on, and was watching some show on MTV.

            “Hey, sleepy head.”

            “Hey.” I said, laughing. “What time is it?”

            “It’s almost eleven.”

            “Jeez.”

            “You want breakfast? I took a bagel down for you.”

            “Uh. No, thanks.”

            “You sure?”

            “Yeah. Give me a second to get dressed. We’ll go down to the game room or something.”

            “Okay, I’ll meet you down there.”

            I threw on jeans and a big t-shirt and took a sweatshirt with me, then washed my face and brushed my teeth. I went down ten minutes later and saw Jason with a beer in his hand.

            “Want one?” he asked, holding it up. I thought about it. God knows I needed a beer, but I couldn’t have any calories. I didn’t even know how many calories were in a beer.

            “No, I’m good.”

All of a sudden I felt dizzy and I needed to go somewhere so Jason didn’t see me faint again.

            “I’m going to go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back.”

I walked behind the couch to the bathroom but I was a few feet away when my vision started to tunnel in, everything starting to go dark. I reached for something, anything, to hold myself up. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor, a warm hand holding mine. I was shivering and clammy.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“What’s going on, Hailey?” he said, squeezing my hand harder, putting a pillow under my head.

“Nothing, Jay. I’m alright.” I said, but he raised his eyebrows at me. “I’m fine.”

“That’s bull, Hailey, and you know it.” he said, and looked at me for a minute. I felt awkward with him staring at me and I felt my cheeks turn red, and I folded my arms over my stomach again, then pulled my knees up to my chest. “What’s the matter?”

“Stop staring at me…” I said, laughing nervously.

“You don’t look good.” He was quiet for a minute, then he said, “How much weight have you lost, Hailey?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You look…sick.”

“I said I’m fine…I’m fine.” As I said this, I felt my eyes well up with tears and before I knew it, I was hysterically crying, with Jason’s arm around my shoulder.

“Hailey. Please, tell me what’s going on.” He looked at me for a moment, and then said, “You can trust me.”

I don’t know what made me believe him, maybe it was the sincerity in his voice, or the way he looked me straight in the eye as he said it, but I knew that I could tell him.

“I… I can’t eat. I haven’t in over a week…I’m…-”

“Anorexic.” He finished for me.

“I’m not anorexic.”

“That’s anorexic. You look anorexic.” I felt a leap in my chest as he said it. It made me happy to hear him say it.

“Please don’t say anything to them.”

“Hailey, they’re going to know. I knew something must be wrong just by how different you looked when I first saw you. You look sick, pale…You look emaciated. You have to see that.” He said. A laugh slipped out and the look on his face suddenly changed. “Are you kidding? You don’t see that you look sick?”

“Jason, you have to be kidding. I’m anything but emaciated. Everyone is self conscious; I just want to be happy with myself, so I’m doing something about it. There’s nothing wrong with that. It isn’t a big deal.”

For a minute, he just stared at me and I started to get uncomfortable. I pulled a blanket on myself trying to cover everything I hated

 “Why are you staring at me?” I asked.

“I’m just trying to see what you see. I’m trying to find what you think is wrong.”

“Everything.”

 

Reviews

[Kiynteyh]

I empathize with Jason.....
This story is very informative as far as insight into the mind of someone anorexic goes. Again, no grammar issues that I've seen, and well written. Lots of emotion. Great job, once again. :)