𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍, 𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐬

six.

       IT WAS during the week that follows, during Ms. Ramirez's class, that Mae started to have a headache. She was feeling a little dizzy and her stomach felt like it was twisting in every direction. She was feeling nauseous.

       "Hey, are you okay?" Madison leaned over.

       "My head hurts. I feel a little weird." she whispered.

       Madison raised her hand. "Miss, I think Mae's not feeling very well."

       The teacher walked over her with a worried expression. "Do you need to go to the nurse?"

       Mae couldn't answer. The pain was growing. She nodded. Miss Ramirez asked Madison to walk her to the infirmary but when she stood up, her knees gave out. Her head was spinning and she was feeling more and more dizzy. She fell to the ground and everything went black.

★

       When Mae woke up, she was lying on the bed in the infirmary. The nurse was taking her temperature.

       "How are you feeling?" the woman asked.

       "A bit tired, I guess." the girl struggled to sit in the bed. "What happened?"

       "You passed out. Did you eat this morning?"

       "No."

       "When was your last meal?"

       "Last night. I had a salad and some potatoes."

       The nurse frowned. "Nothing else?"

       "I'm on a diet. I'm on the track team, I have to stay in shape."

       "Do you feel like you're in shape right now?" the nurse asked.

       "No, but... I'm just a little tired. That has nothing to do with the diet." Mae shrugged.

       "I think it does. I was told you never eat in the morning. If you just eat a salad for lunch and dinner, that's not enough. Your body needs lots of different foods to stay in shape and build itself properly."

       "No, I know, but I'm just trying to lose a little weight. The other girls on the team are so perfect, I have to be a little more like them. But then I will start eating normally again. It's just time for my body to get used to it."

       The nurse thought about she was supposed to tell her that. "Listen, Mae." she said softly. "Your body will never get used to it. Your body needs to be nourished. Every girl on your team has a different morphology. That doesn't mean they're better than you. You're just hurting yourself. What you are doing is not normal. It's an eating disorder."

       Mae felt an astonishing mix of emotions. Guilt, surprise, but above all she felt stupid. How could she not have realized it before?

       "The lack of food has weakened your body, which is why you feel tired and dizzy." the nurse explained. "I'll give you something to eat. You understand that I'm going to have to tell your parents about this. You're going to start eating again at your own pace and what we're going to do is see each other every week to talk about it until you start eating normally again. Okay, can you do this?"

       "Okay." she softly nodded.

       The nurse went to get her a chocolate bar and some cookies before closing the bedroom door to let her rest. Mae slowly ate the chocolate bar but she couldn't eat the cookies. She pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her forehead on her knees. She felt so stupid. Deep down, she had always known that it wasn't normal to eat so little, so why hadn't she done anything to change that?

       She heard the bedroom door open and she looked up to see Henry. "Hey. Can I come in?"

       "Sure." she nodded.

       He entered the room and closed the door behind him. He approached the bed and handed her a cup. "I brought you a hibiscus tea. I noticed this is what you usually take."

       She smiled softly. "Thank you."

       He grabbed a chair and sat down in front of her. "How are you feeling?"

       "I'm fine, just a little tired."

       "You scared the shit out of us when you fell, you know." he said.

       "Sorry."

       "As long as you're okay, it's fine. Do you know what happened?" he asked.

       "The nurse thinks I have a eating disorder. That's why I was feeling dizzy and I passed out. Sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you that." she chuckled as she drank a bit of her tea.

       "No, it's cool you're telling someone." Henry shook his head before staying silent for a while. "I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm supposed to say."

       "You don't have to say anything." she shrugged. "She's calling my parents. They're going to be mad."

       "Aren't they supposed to be worried?"

       "Supposed, yeah, but they won't be. My mom's the one who insists that I skip meals. I've been on a diet since I was twelve so it's just going to piss her off that I got busted."

       "She stops you from eating?" Henry frowned.

       "I don't think she stops me but she's always telling me I have to be thin, or to look like this girl or that girl. She always wants me to be more, she wants me to be perfect, it's exhausting."

       "But you're already perfect." the ginger boy replied.

       Here they were again. Red cheeks. This time she didn't look down. Her eyes kept staring into his and she felt her heart racing. She knew he had blue eyes but before the party she never noticed his gaze was so intense and now that was the only thing she was seeing.

       The nurse opened the door. "It's time to go back in class, Henry. Mae is excused for the day."

       "Okay. I'll talk to you later. Take some rest." he kindly told her before exiting the room.

       The woman smiled after he walked away and turned to Mae. "Boyfriend?"

       "No, just friends." she shook her head in surprise.

       But that made her think. What she was feeling when Henry was near, she never felt it before. When they danced at the party, she just felt things she never felt before. Just the way he looked at her was enough to make her feverish. That wasn't the way you were supposed to feel about your friend, right?

— this fanfic is now entirely written so i'll start posting more often! i was thinking something like every wednesday and sunday or something like that