Basorexia - J.MAGUIRE

[4.66] quitting

Ciara woke with the distinct lack of warmth she had suspected next to her. After rubbing her eyes groggily, she slowly sat up in bed and looked around for James, given that she was currently in his room. Until she put her glasses back on, she could see his blurry figure sitting at his computer. She tugged on the nearest jumper, which happened to be his, and her pyjama bottoms before climbing out of the bed with a soft smile on her lips. James sat at his computer, blanket wrapped around his shoulders with headphones covering one of his ears as he worked on his film yet again.

She kissed his cheek, hand placed on his shoulder as she whispered, "You're adorable." His cheeks went pink and he cleared his throat, smiling softly as he watched her walk out of the room via the reflection on the computer.

Chip walked through the house, heading to the back door and the garden so she could smoke the secret cigarettes hidden in her pockets. "Ah Christ not again?" Chelle exclaimed, catching her just as she was about to light the white tube that hung from her lips.

"I can't quit," she shrugged, taking the unlit cigarette between her fingers. She rolled it about and sighed deeply, "I've tried like six times, it's obviously not sticking."

Michelle suddenly leapt through the backdoor from the kitchen, grabbed the cigarette from her fingers and the pack in her pocket. These were each then thrown into the pond at the very bottom of their garden, the splash shattering all hopes Chip had for nicotine relief. If she wasn't so vetted by the act, she would have recognised what an incredible throw it was. "Michelle!"

"You asked me to," Michelle shrugged. "And I told Dennis on the corner not to sell them to you anymore."

"Fuck you," Chip yelled after her as she disappeared back inside the house, going for the toast tht had just popped. It had been a yell of partial anger but mostly love, at least this way she couldn't buy anymore without having to put in tonnes of extra effort.

"Love you too!"

-

Chip sprant up the stairs the second she got in the front door to her home after school. She had dumped her bag on the way and hadn't even kicked off her boots. She and Clare had a scheduled phone call in a singular minute so she did not have time for organisation or her usual routine after getting in the door. As her bedroom door swung open, the phone hidden under a pile of clothes rang. She flung the clothes on top of the phone into various places around her room and picked up the phone, breath heavy from the run up the stairs, "Clare?"

"Chip, Jesus Christ did you sprint up the stairs?" Clare laughed, glad to hear her voice even if it was a more breathless version.

"Bus was incredibly late," Chip sighed as she sat on the floor, fingers tugging at her laces as the boots on her feet were starting to feel a little uncomfortable. "How was your first day?"

"I mean... It was grand," Clare responded, her phone crackling as she began to play with the phone cord.

Chip hesitated, not believing a word, "Aye?"

"Different, very different," she yawned as she flicked a page of a book, sighing at what was written on the next page. Chip assumed, knowing Clare's usual schedule, that it was probably a textbook.

Chip, finally managing to pry her feet from her boots, asked with a raised brow, "Good way or a bad way?"

"I-I'm not sure."

"Ach Clare," Ciara responded softly, feeling awful for her friend. It was one thing to have to deal with a parent dying but an entirely different thing to deal with moving on top of that, even if it was just twenty minutes down the road. "Did you make friends at least?" she wondered hopefully, holding the phone on her shoulder with her head as she began to remove her jewellery. She had planned to take a nap soon after the phone call ended, given that she had felt awfully lethargic all day and had an absolutely brutal stomach ache.

"A few."

"Better than me?" Chip asked jokingly, hoping that the joke would have some effect on Clare's bad mood from her school day.

Clare responded rapidly, "No course not!"

Ciara chuckled as she took the phone back in her hand, pressing it to her ear, "Could at least try and hide it there Clare!"

"I'm serious!"

"Right right," Chip smothered her laughter away this time but Clare could easily hear it in her voice, it did bring her a sense of comfort and home. Her mood lifted slowly as they continued to talk about their days and any random information that came up but Chip's stomach ache only progressed as time went on, getting to the point that she almost had to double over in order to soothe away the pain again.

-

That night, Chip was reading in bed as she got ready to go to sleep. Her stomach pain started to blossom yet again, this time spreading to her back, and making it rather hard to focus. She exchanged her book for some pain medication, wondering why such pain had been brought to her at such a random time. Then she felt it, a feeling that hadn't called her body home in years, suddenly had her running to the bathroom in her bedroom. "Holy fucking shit," she muttered, unbelievable and indescribable joy flooding through all her veins. She momentarily forgot the pain and just relished in the complete joy of finally getting her period back. One of the very last stages of recovery that she had been waiting for for so long,without it she had no hope of ever being fertile again. And Chip desperately wanted children. After sorting herself out, she ran out of her room and straight into her mothers bedroom, yelling "Mammy you'll never guess what!"

That night the two Byrne women celebrated with a rom-com and far too much ice cream coated in chocolate syrup.