Always

38| Okay

⚠️Some content is this chapter may trigger some of you. Read with caution. ⚠️

Greyson

I watch her cheeks redden as she takes a sip of water to cool herself down. She shuffles her feet again and starts to bite her lip indicating she's nervous under my gaze.

"I hear two heads are better than one," Lydia rebuttals and I subtly roll my eyes.

Can't she take a hint?

"Yeah, hers and mine." I say glancing at Allison's lips.

In my peripheral vision, I see Lydia follow my line of sight, probably realizing I'm paying her no mind at all and looking elsewhere.

"Wait," she says with a humorless laugh. "You don't mean Allison do you?"

I hear nothing but malice in her voice and my gut is telling me that things are going to go very south, very fast.

"Lydia." Sylvia warns.

"Lilith. Upstairs. Now." Mel orders, and she wastes no time at all heading to her room this time.

Oh shit.

"Why are you all being so jumpy?" Lydia asks sweetly. "I just wanted to know how little miss eating disorder here can be a taste tester. I mean, look at her plate."

I look down at her plate to see a mostly eaten serving of mash potatoes but everything else is sitting there untouched. I've noticed for a while now that she's only eating my mash potatoes, which is weird I'll admit, but what does that have to do with anything?

"Alright that's enough Lydia." David warns.

"Is it really though? I mean the poor girl's such an anorexic freak that she can't even eat Thanksgiving dinner with her family. So it's really hard to believe that she actually tastes his food."

Anorexic? What the hell is this girl on about?

"Shut up. You know nothing about me," Allison seethes.

The look in her eye is the same as the one she gave me that night she collapsed in my bathroom over a stomach joke—

Wait.

"You're anorexic?" I ask her myself. She just looks at me her eyes already watering. "Why didn't you tell me?" I ask without thinking.

Jackass. Why would she tell you?

"What did you expect me to say? 'Hey now that we're friends I think you should know I almost died trying to be skinny?'" she blurts and I'm completely taken aback.

"You almost died!?!"

What the fuck does she mean?

"Wait you didn't know?" Lana asks. I don't even answer because of course I didn't fucking know.

"Does it look like he knew dipshit?" Lydia questions sarcastically.

"All this time?" I whisper to her. She stays quiet, responding with a simple nod letting the tears finally fall.

The signs were there. They were there the whole time and I never noticed. How can I not notice? I notice everything about her.

It makes sense now.

That night we had dinner at my place, I thought she struggled to take a bite of her pasta because she was nervous and didn't like to eat in front of people. She never did at school.

On Halloween even though she was so excited to get ice cream she still ordered the absolutely smallest size when I could tell she wanted more.

The entire month she pushed me away she's been wearing nothing but baggier clothes, even at this very moment. Just earlier today she was so intent on hiding herself away from me and she made such a big deal about me seeing her. The real her.

The signs were all there yet I was blind to it all. God, she's been struggling by herself this whole time. What the fuck was I doing?

"You've been a bitch all day you know that?" Lana says snapping me out of my thoughts.

"And you've been an annoying little shit all day."

"I think you and your daughters need to leave Sylvia," David says angrily.

"I don't see why. They've done absolutely nothing wrong." she says proudly.

"Nothing wrong?" Mel scoffs.

"Honey let's all"—

"SHUT UP DAVID." Both Sylvia and Melanie shout.

Oh shit.

"Are you three that narcissistic and delusional that you can't see how repulsive you are"—

—"As if you, and your perfect little family can call anyone repulsive."— Sylvia cuts her off by saying.

—"How DARE you call my wife and family repuls"—

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP," Allison shouts grabbing everyone's attention.

She has her hands over her ears, violently shaking her head no. Her whole body's practically vibrating and even though we've all in fact shut up, she's still murmuring it like she can still hear our voices.

Everyone is frozen with fear, even her parents so I walk over to her slowly removing her hands from her ears and she lets me. Her head is still shaking rapidly and her body is shuddering like she's cold. I can hear her heartbeat from where I'm standing and my heart breaks at how distressed she looks.

"Shut up shut up shut up shut up." is all she can mutter.

I cup her face and use my thumbs to wipe her tears that are falling profusely from her wide sad eyes.

"Hey, you're okay." I say my voice steadier than I expected it to be.

I'm fucking scared as shit right now, but I need to be strong for her. Her head stops shaking and she's stopped murmuring but her body's still trembling as it slowly leans into mine.

"You're okay." I say again against her hair while stroking it delicately. She's hugging me like her life depends on it and I let her.

She holds on tightly for a few more seconds before collapsing against my chest. I cradle her in my arms as I kneel to the ground.

She's not okay.