With You (Fransykes)

Chapter 10

Heads up, this could be triggering to people with disordered eating patterns. Stay safe xx

Chapter 10- Oli

Oli stared at the bowl of spaghetti in front of him. Steam spiralled from it, and the thick tomato sauce trickled down the strands to soak the pasta beneath its red hue. It looked good, and Oli was hungry.

"Please eat it, Oli," his mum sighed.

Tom stared at him from across the table. His dad, Ian, was obviously avoiding looking at Oli, perhaps thinking that the lack of attention would help Oli to overcome the challenge of lifting a fork to his mouth.

"Oli, I don't want to have to take you to the hospital," Carol warned. "Eat it. You haven't eaten all day. Please eat it."

Her tone was threatening, but the glisten in her eye gave her away.

Oli didn't want to make his mum cry, and he felt guilty, but at the same time angry that she didn't understand. She didn't realise that Oli was saving her life by not ingesting the germs crawling all over the spaghetti strands.

"Oli," Ian intervened, "Oli, your mother's gone to all this effort, cooking for you. The least you could do would be to eat it. It's very rude."

All the guilt turned to anger.

"I didn't ask for mum to cook," Oli scowled, getting up from the table. "I'm going to bed."

"It's only seven," Tom frowned. "Can we play Fifa or something later? I'm not hungry, we can go up now-"

"No!" Oli snapped. "Eat your fucking food. I'm leaving, though. We can play tomorrow, I promise."

"Oli, you have a meeting with Kellin tomorrow morning-"

"What?" Oli cut off his mum, horror-stricken. "You said I could stay at home for the whole week. I can't- I can't go-"

"Yes, I know, shhhh, it's okay," Carol hushed him, rising too and reaching out to touch him, before thinking better of it and letting her arms hang loose. "It's a virtual session. You can do it from your bedroom. Just I have to be there, for child safety reasons."

"Fine," Oli mumbled. "But I'm going to bed."

His mum nodded in defeat, sighing before sitting down again.

Oli turned to leave, but stopped upon hearing the doorbell ring.

"Did someone order something?" Ian asked, confused.

"No," Tom shrugged, still looking sullen after Oli rejected him.

Oli's mum got up again. "It's probably just Josh again," she said, "I'll get it."

"Wait- Josh?" Oli questioned as his mum walked past him towards the front door. "Josh, like my Josh?"

"Yes, your Josh," Carol tutted, "We don't know any others, do we? He was here Friday night, Saturday morning, Sunday evening. The boys are probably worried as to why you weren't in school."

"Quite inconsiderate of them to call while we're eating," Ian commented.

"How are they supposed to know when we're eating?" Tom pointed out, in defense of Josh, Oli suspected, who Tom seemed to like almost as much as Oli did.

Oli followed his mum at a healthy distance to the door, and, sure enough, Josh and Mat Nicholls were standing together outside.

While Mat had gotten changed, Josh still wore school uniform, tie loose and shirt untucked at the front. Oli tried not to fantasise about tearing off the shirt, tugging on the tie, flinging the ugly blazer as far away from Josh's broad shoulders as possible. (It had been a long time alone in his room with only his family for company.)