APH America x Reader

Chapter 4

I sat on my bed, flipping through the book excitedly. I couldn't wait to pore over the thick glossy pages. It was hundred of pages thick and almost reminded me of a college textbook. It was a hard cover.

I got this for such a deal. It should have cost thirty dollars more.

I looked at the contents. Depression, schizophrenia, OCD, ADHD, multiple personality disorder, anorexia-

I flipped to page 63. The scientific looking title and layout of the page made me shudder inside. God, I'm such a nerd.

Anorexia nervosa is a complex eating disorder with three key features:

-Refusal to maintain a healthy body weight

-An intense fear of gaining weight

-A distorted body image

Because of your dread of becoming fat or disgusted with how your body looks, eating and mealtimes may be very stressful. And yet, what you can and can't eat is practically all you can think about.

Thoughts about dieting, food, and your body may take up most of your day-leaving little time for friends, family, and other activities you used to enjoy. Life becomes a relentless pursuit of thinness and going to extremes to lose weight.

But no matter how skinny you become, it's never enough.

While people with anorexia often deny having a problem, the truth is that anorexia is a serious and potentially deadly eating disorder. Fortunately, recovery is possible. With proper treatment and support, you or someone you care about can break anorexia's self-destructive pattern and regain health and self-confidence.

Hmm. Anorexia seems pretty bad. It says it's the disorder that causes the most deaths. That doesn't sound good.

I kept reading for a while until my I succumbed to my tiredness and set the book down on my nightstand, and falling asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few weeks into school and I'm already behind on homework. It's awful.

"Hey, dudette! How's it going, bro!" Alfred came up from behind me. I turned around, taking my nose out of my book.

"Just reading a book. Hey, wanna come over after school? We can play some Mariokart or Call of Duty! How about it?" I asked.

"Oh jeez, Y/N, I don't think I can today. I've got homework and... I'm grounded. Yeah," He added.

"Really? Arthur never grounds you!" I pointed out. He shook his head.

"Sorry, maybe Wednesday or something," Alfred said, scratching the back of his neck and looking away. "Oh gotta go, bro! Stay frosty, Y/N!" He ran off, far away from sight.

"Hmm, that was weird. Arthur has never grounded him before. Could he possibly be lying?" I thought to myself.

"Nah, I trust Alfred." I went back to my book. Alfie wasn't one to lie.

Later, I sat at my desk in my room, trying to complete homework, but really only writing my name down on the assignment. I waited for the words to appear on the page. I received a knock on my door.

"Hey, Y/N, can I come in?" A soft and gentle voice came from the other side.

"Yeah, okay!" I said, wondering who it was. The door cracked open.

It was Matthew. He wore a red and white maple leaf sweatshirt and somewhat baggy jeans. He stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Hey, Matthew! What's up?"

"Nothing, nothing at all. I was so bored, I decided to come visit you." He said, accepting my invite to sit on my bean bag chair.

Matthew and I are good friends, mostly because we're so alike. We're both extremely quiet, so we find good company in each other.

"Sorry for just bursting in like this, it's just that I want to watch the hockey game with Alfred and he won't come out of his room, so-" Matthew started to apologize.

"No, don't apologize, but you said Alfie won't come out of his room? Is he on Xbox or something?" I asked.

"Probably. It makes me upset, he always watches the game with me, no matter what." He looked away.

"Maybe it's because he's grounded." I offered.

"What? He's not grounded." Matthew looked at me oddly.

"Really? Hmm, cause it seemed that way." I said, slightly moody.

So Alfred really did lie to me. Did he really just not want to hang out with me? He could have just said so. My feelings... I've never had Alfie just abandon me like that. It felt awful inside.

"I'll watch the hockey game with you, Matt." I said, smiling, although I was crying on the inside.

"Really? All right! Sweet, let's head over to my house!" Matthew jumped up and ran out of my room, humming 'O Canada'. I followed, sliding on my sandals and walking down the road with Matt.

I guess Matt is there when his twin brother isn't. He's a pretty okay guy, huh?

The game had just started when Matthew sat down on the couch next to me with a big bowl of popcorn. I took a piece out and popped it into my mouth. Matt watched me, amused.

"Matt, did you put maple syrup in this?" I swallowed, smiling at him mischievously.

"How'd you guess?" He said.

"It's really good! Oh my god, more!" I said, taking more out.

"Hey, I made this for me too!" He said, dipping his hand into the bowl. I laughed.

Suddenly a burning smell erupted from the kitchen area. Matthew jumped up and ran in there.

"Dad, what did you try to make?" He said, me following in.

"Oh... just some tea, it's okay." He said.

"Hello Y/N." Arthur welcomed me. I waved.

"Dad, how could you burn iced tea?" Matt covered his nose at the smell.

"Don't ask me, ask Flying Mint Bunny!" Arthur said, taking some febreze out and spraying it around.

"Dad, that was funny when Alfred and I were kids, now it's just annoying." Matthew rolled his eyes.

"Well Y/N, let's continue our hockey game." Matthew led me back to the couch, where the hockey players were entering the arena.

We watched the entire game, from beginning to end. It had darkened outside, and gotten cold, so Matt had taken out one of his blankets and we had gotten under it.

And well, we were really close to each other. We didn't even notice till the end of the game.

"Oh, sorry, sorry! I'm too close, aren't I?" Matt scooched over a bit. I laughed, blushing.

"That was really fun! You seem to know the players well, Matthew." I said, getting back up.

"I'll walk you home," Matt offered. "If you want."

"Sure, if that's okay!" I said, putting my shoes back on and walking home with the friendly Canadian.

Really, he makes friends ten times easier than Alfred. Not that Alfred doesn't have friends, he has a lot, but I forget how much of a gentleman he is sometimes. Arthur has taught him well, along with his uncle Francis.

"Thanks, and bye, see you tomorrow!" I said, closing my door and walking inside. My dad was already asleep. Dinner sat on the stove.

I ate quickly and fell asleep, kinda worried about Alfred.

No, I'm mad at him. It's totally not okay to lie to me like that.

In fact, I was furious. How did I even get to sleep?

A/N: it's been sooooooo long, like really! There's so many things to update, I don't have much time! But here you go, K?

K.