Maya is supposed to come over since I'm back. But she's not here and she's not answering her phone. I ring the doorbell. She opens quickly.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I overslept and I was just leaving." She looks different. She had a huge black zip up sweater on and skinny jeans bit I can't see her thighs because the sweater covers them. She, she's really skinny. I mean, I can't even see her body, but her neck is small and she carries little to no weight in her face, which kinda upsets me because I always loved her cheeks. She looks confused. "What?"
"You look different. Like, tiny."
"I would hardly say anything near tiny but I have lost a few pounds."
"A few? I can't even tell, you're covering your body." Maya's smart. And she loves food. I guess I should be proud of her. "But you look great." I lie. I liked her better before.
"Thanks." She says like she herself doesn't believe it.
"Come on. I'm gonna help you pick out you outfit. It's going to be warm so you can't wear this." She lets me in but she doesn't let me go through her drawers. She takes one draw off and puts it on her bed.
"My cousin grew out of these. And I grew out if mine." Okay, now that's a lie. She's probably too small. I pick up a shirt.
"How old is your cousin?"
"Twelve." She says, nonchalantly folding a shirt.
"Maya, you're fifteen. You shouldn't get hand me downs from a twelve year old." She shrugs.
"They fit." That's when I notice her bony fingers sticking out from her sweater. She's so tiny. I know she's not starving. I learned a lot about it in school. Maya did too. And she said they made her want to throw up. I just don't get it. And I have barely even seen her because of her clothes. Oh boy.
"Oh. This one looks fairly bew. There's even a tag on it." She says, placing it in the bed. It was a black sweater, against the skin on maybe a ten year only. It had a boat neck and looked really comfortable, but no one could fit it that. Not at fifteen. I pulled out the shorts and put them down. They were also tiny.
"If you can fit in this, then wow."
"Watch me." I laughed, but secretly, I just didn't understand how. For the rest if the day, she bombarded me with more questions then I could answer, and never let me turn the conversation on her summer. Maybe it was really bad, but she says she had fun, but just missed us. I told her that Lucas would be starting school a few days later because of his flight, and then we looked at some magazines, since Maya had no cable.
"I wish my hair was like that." I said.
"I wish my everything was like that." I laughed. "Especially my body." My face fell.
"Maya, you're scaring me. You're eating, right?"
"Riley, you know me. Remember health class and how much I talked about them being dumb."
"But I always reminded you that their were other reasons and sometimes they lost control."
"I think they have more control. Either way, It doesn't matter because I'm not one of them."
"Okay. Well, It's getting late. See you in the morning." I stood up.
"Oh, ya. I'm making my mom breakfast for landing an audition. So I'll see you at school."
"Okay. Tell her I said good luck."
"I will. Bye."
"Bye." She turns back to the magazine while I leave. She's the same Maya. Just a little more self conscious.
