Protection

The recovery begins

"Let me out." I want to leave but I can't. Erin walks over to me to try and talk too me but I back away. She stops, respecting my space but she still tries to talk to me. "Amber? Honey? Can you come sit and talk to us please. It's nothing bad. We just need to talk. Remember earlier when I asked about if you'd been tested for ADHD? That's all we want to talk about." I shake my head at her. "You said you would both talk to me about eating. I won't do it. I'm perfectly fine eating one meal every other day. I've lived like that since I was 2. I can continue like that. You have too many rules and I need to go because I can't ruin everything. I've finally lost weight. Just like everybody wanted. I can't put more weight back on. You can't make me. I won't do it. I'll just throw it all back up again just like last time when school had me eat with a teacher three times a day. I will just throw it all back up." I start to hyperventilate and I grab onto the door to steady myself. "Let me out of the door please. Voight please just open the door. Please." He walks towards me and I press myself up against the door. "I can't let you out because it's not safe kiddo. I would like you to come sit at the table please." I start struggling to breathe as Voight comes closer to me. After a minute of not being able to breathe everything goes black.

ERINS POV

Ambers breathing got worse and worse until she collapsed. I run forwards and catch her before she hits her head and I lay her down. Voight picks her up and carries her through the house into my room and lays her down on my bed. Voight goes and sits on the small couch in my room whilst I sit on the chair next to my bed. A few minutes later Amber wakes up again. "I want to go." I push the hair out of her face as she sits up. "Why don't we go out to the diner? Then you can go outside and we can make sure you eat something. Even if it's just something small." She looks at me with a sad look. She looks... broken. "Do you promise I only need to eat something small?" I nod at her. "I promise. I just need you to eat something." With that we all stand up and go put our shoes on. Before we leave, I hand Amber a glass of water for her to drink so that she is hydrated and we head out. Voight drives whilst I'm in the passenger seat and Amber in the back. We sit in a comfortable silence until Amber speaks up. "What am I gonna do about school? All of my contact info is Matthews info. How am I supposed to tell them that I don't live with him anymore?" I swivel in my seat to look at her. "It's okay honey. I'm gonna come in with you tomorrow to talk to your head teacher and get it all changed to mine." She smiles at me. The first real smile I've seen from her.

AMBERS POV

Voight pulls into the car park outside the diner and we all climb out. Erin takes my hand and leads me inside with Voight following behind. We sit in a booth together and a waiter comes over with dinner menu.  "What are you guys gonna get?" I look down the menu trying to decide what I would eat. I tug at Erin's sleeve a little bit. "E-erin?" She looks at me with a concerned look. "What's up hon?" I look down a little bit embarrassed. "I-I don't really like anything on here..." She looks down at her menu to see if there is anything she could suggest. "Do you like pasta?" I think for a second before I answer. "I. Um. It kind of depends on the type..." She smiles at me. "How about we get you a bowl of spaghetti bolognaise to eat and you can eat as much of that as you can and if you don't finish it then that's okay. Yea?" I nod and say thank you and just like the previous time we were here, I turn to look out of the window. Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought it would. I'm guessing I zoned out because a few minutes later I feel Erin's hand on my leg to stop it bouncing. Voight notices this and speaks up. "Erin mentioned that she thinks might have ADHD earlier." Erin nods at me. "Y-yea. I don't know though. Matthew never had me tested for anything like that. He never really noticed me unless he was angry..." Erin gives me a side hug and Voight continues talking. "If you're up for it we could get you tested. Do you remember Jay?" I nod flashing a grin up at Erin. "His brother is a doctor and I'm sure he could test you for it." I nod again. I send an evil grin up at Erin and look towards Voight. "Hey Voight?" He nods to acknowledge me. "Did you know that Erin-" Erin covers my mouth laughing so I lick her hand to get her to move it. She quickly wipes it on my shirt whilst I sit laughing. "Erin what?" Erin looks at him panicked. "N-nothing Voight!" Whilst Erin's looking away I mouth that I will tell him later. Our food arrives and we all start eating. I eat about half of my plate before I push it away from me. Erin smiles at me then swallows the food she has in her mouth. "Is that you done now honey?" I nod. I feel disgusting. Why did I have to eat. I'm going to gain so much of the weight I struggled to loose. "I'm proud of you. You did a great job honey." I ignore her praise and look out of the window, trapped in my thoughts. I get pulled away from them when I hear Voight speak up. "I think we should call it a night and head back. Erin are you just going to stay back at my place tonight?" "Yea I'll come back and stay there. I'll work on the room tomorrow."