The Ballad of Katie: Somewhere Under Heaven Series

Bulimia

Casey's POV

I know something going on with my daughter. Ever since the rape, she's been pretty depressed and withdrawn. She's also been having issues with eating and I hear her throwing up all the time.

I'm worried of course but she assures me that she's okay. She's losing weight so quickly and it's really breaking my heart to see her like this.

A couple nights ago when my sister-in-law Victoria was visiting from London, we went to dinner since it's her birthday and that's when I noticed Katie didn't want to eat anything. We didn't push anything on her but a couple hours later, I found that she ate what we brought home from dinner and was okay. That is until I heard her vomiting.

I know what's going on since I dealt with eating disorders myself but I wish I knew how to approach her. I asked her if she's okay and she swears she's fine.

It doesn't stop me from worrying though. I tried talking to everyone I could about it and they told me I need to be honest with her about my own struggles. Of course I think I need to employ the help of someone and it's the same guy who helped me with my relapse before we got married.

It was a typical Saturday and Rob asked me if Katie was okay. "I don't know. She says she is but I'm seeing all the signs from what I endured."

"I'm worried, Case. You went through hell and she's very prone to this because of the family history. Also, if I recall, you did tell me once that post-traumatic stress can cause this sort of thing."

"It can. That's how mine was."

After I told Rob about the time I was raped at 14, I revealed to him that I started having an eating disorder around the same time. It was my way of controlling something at a time my life was spirling out of control. Also, I was ridiculed a lot for my weight in my pre-teen years. I was never really fat, it's just when I achieved puberty, I really grew into my body.

"Frankly, I'm worried because of what I endured."

"I know, Casey. We're going to have to keep an eye on her. Also, if she gets too bad, I'll be the first to deal with it. I almost lost you to an eating disorder which scared me so many times. I can't deal with that again." 

We keep asking Katie to open up but nothing is happening and then one day at work, I get the call I was dreading and I was finding myself heading to the ER because of my teenager daughter.

Katie's POV

Mom and Dad don't know it but I'm doing anything to lose weight. I tried out for cheerleading and didn't make it because Lina Mendoza and the other twits say I'm too fat. Dad keeps tell me that I'm like mom, I just have more of an athletic build but truth is I don't like it. I also know that I'm starting to get some of Mom's same exact curves and I don't like that either.

And considering that Stephen Malone raped me and told my dad that he and Mom raised a "fine piece of ass," I really don't like it. I wish I didn't look like this at all. I'm 5'7" and I look like I should be flying over The Linc with "Goodyear" on my side.

I've been eating very little around my parents and others and when I do eat, I'm in the bathroom forcing myself to throw up. I was also taking a diuretic but Dad caught on to that and kept telling me that if I'm using it to lose weight, I need to stop or else I'm going to have some serious damage.

I get home from school today and the first thing I do is go throw up. I ate too much at lunch today and I heard Lina and a few others calling me "Overweight Kate." I wish they would stop. Look, just because I'm not like Lina who is the captain of the squad, it doesn't mean that I'm nothing.