ANA

two

I met this girl named Ana

She introduced herself today

She seemed so very nice at first

and says she wants to stay

chapter two:

When I was in middle school, nobody cared if you were thin or not so changing in the locker room was not something embarassing. But once I reached high school I started noticing how skinny the other girls were and started feeling ashamed of my own body so after gym class, I would always wait until almost everybody left so I could change without feeling like I was being observed and judged. 

That was one of those days. There were only two girls left when I started taking my sweatshirt off. I quickly put my t-shirt on and started taking my sweatpants so I could put my overalls on. But before I could get dressed I looked at my thighs and started poking them. They looked huge. I was almost sure I had already seen hippos who weren't as fat as I was. 

I took a glance at the other two girls while they were combing their hair and realized they both had that famous space between their thighs. 

Everybody had a thigh gap but me.

I quickly finished getting dressed and grabbed my comb to fix my hair. The thoughts of being too fat wouldn't leave my mind.

"You're Maya, right?" Someone spoke and I turned around. Ana was standing in front of me with a huge smile on her face. She held her hand out for me to shake and I carefully shook it. "I'm Ana."

"I know." 

She stayed quiet for a while so I continued combing my hair. I was still confused. Why did she know my name? Why was she talking to me? What did she want?

"I could help you, you know." She said with a friendly smile on her face.

"With what?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Maya."

It was true, I knew what she was talking about. But how had she found out I wanted to lose weight? Was it really that obvious? Did other people see how disgusted my expression was every time I saw my reflection in the mirror? 

A tear rolled down my cheek but I quickly wiped it. I didn't want her to see me cry. Suddenly she took a step closer to me and hugged me tightly. Her actions made me change my opinion about her. She seemed nice and friendly. Plus she wanted to help me. How could I say no?

"We're going to be great friends" She smiled and I smiled too. She squeazed my hand in an affective way. "Now, come. Let's go take a walk."

"But it's lunch time."

Her smile grew wider. "I know."

(dedicated to backseatmuke because her story How To Be Skinny was one of the reasons why I started writing about anorexia)