Reckless and Relentless

A Fight Worth Having

James
I left the bus and I had forgotten the new sticks Riley had bought specially for me so I took off toward the bus to find them, but when I got there I found something totally different. When I got back to the bus I heard the muffled cries of my sister, I slowly walked to her bunk and opened her curtain. She was laying there holding a pillow on her chest as tears streamed from her eyes.

"Riley what happened?" I said calmly. She got down out the bed and hugged me then collapsing onto the floor, "James, how does he know?" She whispered. I looked down at her and I was so confused, "What are you talking about? How does who know what?" She scratched at the palms of her hands so I grabbed them and held onto her hands, calming her a little bit, "relax and tell me what happened." I could tell she was trying so hard enough to bring the words out, "Ben took me to go see BVB play and on the way back to the Main Stage he asked me why I don't like food and that I'm so skinny that he's afraid to hug me because he might break me because he thinks I'm fragile. And he thinks that I'm trying to deny the fact that I have an eating disorder so I eat fruit to make it seem like I'm okay." I tried to hold it together but she started crying again I hugged her and stood up. "Go lay in your bunk, put your headphones in, and take a nap. I'll be back to check on you a little later okay?" I said squeezing her a little tighter than the first time.

She nodded and went to her bunk as I ran back to the stage. I started pushing my way through the crowds and got back stage and stormed past everyone, grabbing a monster and running on stage and to my drums. I stood there on the seat looking out over the crowd and tried to focus on what I was playing as flash backs of Riley started to play out in my mind. I was able to get through the entire set and not mess up. Danny thanked them and we left the stage and walked over to Ben who had a bottle of beer in his hand, "hey mate we killed it today." He said cheekily.

I wanted so bad to hit him but this wasn't the time nor the place but I was fuming. "Ben what the fuck did you do!" He set his beer down and looked at me, "What the fuck are you talking about?" I took a deep breath, "I'm talking about Riley. You had to point out that she doesn't eat a whole lot. Yes, I'm completely aware that she's skinny and so is she. Do you have any idea how hard we had to work to even get her to eat a single cracker or a piece of fruit? Do you?" I said screaming at him. "Riley has been this way for longer than I'd care to think about and she has come a long fucking way since that night."

Sam, Cameron, and Danny had all circled around and gave me a confusing look and I just didn't want to yell anymore. I took a cig out of the bag on the amp box and lit it up and blew the smoke out, "So I guess I'll take now as the opportunity to tell you all that my little sister Riley is fighting and doing her best to recover from an eating disorder. She is anorexic and we almost lost her last year because she lost so much weight her blood pressure had gone down too much to help her body function. Riley, myself and my family are all very aware of how skinny she is and how little she eats but that's a lot more than she used to. She wasn't always like this, but that's not something I want to talk about right now. We encourage her to eat something that is good for her at least once a day, we'd like her to eat more than once a day but we can't force her to. We have to show her that we support her, so please never point out that she isn't eating much. You can offer her more but don't push." I wiped my eyes and looked at all the guys. They all looked at each other and looked back at me.

Ben walked away and I wasn't sure where he was going but I hoped not to see Riley.