Calories

Chapter One

I met Frank in third grade when he moved to New Jersey. The teacher picked me to show him around the school and since then we've been best friends.

Now we're in eleventh grade. Today's Monday, and last night my parents left to go on a vacation without me and my brother. They wanted a break from us. I'm not complaining. I need a break from them constantly bothering me about homework and being more social and shit. I just wish they would have taken my brother with them.

I'm sixteen and Mikey's thirteen. Like any younger sibling he annoys the shit out of me. We get along well a lot of the time, but sometimes something just gets in the way of that.

"Mikey!" I yell trying to wake him up without going into his room. His room is a disaster, and I'd rather not find out what my brother wore to bed last night. Since he always sleeps through his alarms, it has always been my job to wake him up.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm awake now. Stop harassing me," Mikey calls back. Good. Now I can actually get ready. I run downstairs and start making coffee before going back upstairs to find clothes.

I find a pair of skinny jeans and throw them on. I scavenge my room for a shirt that will look at least half decent with the jeans. I don't want to look like a total slob. I grab a loose fitting band shirt and put it on and go into my bathroom to brush my teeth and fix my hair.

After that I go back downstairs. By now my coffee is ready and I pour it into my black travel mug. Mikey enters the kitchen, thankfully ready.

"Okay, let's go. We're going to be late," I say, practically dragging Mikey out of the house. We get in my car and I drive us to school. The middle school and high school are in the same building, so that makes bringing Mikey to school a hell of a lot easier.

"I turn off and lock the car before walking away and entering the school building, leaving Mikey behind. I go to my locker and see Frank opening the locker. We're locker partners.

"Good morning," Frank says to me.

"Good morning," I say back, taking a sip of my coffee. He opens the locker and I reach around him to grab my binder for my first class.

Before I can have an actual conversation with my short friend, the bell rings and I go to class. Class is boring so I don't pay much attention. I start doodling on my paper when I think of an idea.

Since my parents are out of the house until next Sunday night, I might as well do something fun. Friday night I could have the biggest and best party anyone at Belleville High have ever seen.

I start going through my ideas until the bell rings. I go to my locker and beat Frank there. He arrives at the locker and I tell him my plan.

"That's a great idea! I'll start telling people about it," Frank offers.

"Sure," I say, before heading off to my next class. My parents never specifically told me not to have a party. I'm technically not even going to break any rules with the party. Not that I want them to find out. They'd probably kill me. I'll have to bribe Mikey to make sure he won't tell.

Eventually it's time for lunch and I head down to the cafeteria. I hate the cafeteria. It's crowded and loud and there's food everywhere. Food is basically my worst enemy. It's so good but so bad at the same time.

It tastes great. Once you start eating you can't get enough. Consuming it consumes you and there's consequences. Major consequences. Just one session of binging can make you gain more weight than you bargained for. Especially when you want to be losing weight.

If I start eating, I can't stop. So what's the point in starting? Of course there are situations where I'm forced to eat. Sometimes family and friends notice I'm not eating and they'll make me eat at least a few bites.

Those few bites usually make me feel sick. Just thinking about what that food will do to my body makes me want to puke. But I put on an act. Pretend to enjoy the little food I'm forced to eat.

But there are the times I binge. I binge more often than I'd like to admit. I always feel so terrible about it after.

I sit down at a table and wait for my friends to show up. Frank gets to the cafeteria and sits down next to me. Afterwards a few more people sit down, but I don't pay much attention to them. Frank is really my only close friend.

Thankfully everyone else focuses on eating and their own conversations that they don't notice that I don't have any food in front of me.

The rest of the day is a slight blur since I just want to go home and lay down. I didn't have enough coffee today, and I keep thinking about the party I'm going to have Friday night.

Eventually the school day ends and I walk out to my car. I have to wait for Mikey. I'd much rather make him take the bus, but my parents won't let me do that.

It takes what seems like ages for Mikey to get to the car.

"What the hell took you so long," I ask as he climbs in the passenger seat.

"I didn't take a long time," he says.

"Obviously. Friday night I'm having a huge party. Find something to do that night," I demand. I can't let him witness what happens at the party since he'll just tell mom and dad. I also can't let him be horrifyingly embarrassing the whole time either.

"Oh come on. Let me invite a few people," Mikey said, practically begging.

"No. It's my party. Have your own."

"Well, mom and dad might have to find out about this..." Mikey said drifting off towards the end. Of course he wants to be at the party.

"Fine. You can invite three people. But you don't tell mom and dad," I decide.

"Five people."

"Since when do you have five friends?" I ask.

"Just because you're a loser doesn't mean I have to be." The rest of the ride is silent. We get home and I go upstairs to my room to do at least a little homework. I don't want to devote my life to school, but I also don't want to fail any of my classes. Also, school work helps me take my mind off of food.

I finish my English homework and then move on to my Chemistry homework. Finish those subjects by 5, and decide to save my math homework for later. I can't really focus much longer.

I go downstairs and see Mikey using the home phone to call his friends, probably to invite him to my party. At least his friends will think I'm the cool older brother who does fun stuff.

When he sees me he hangs up the phone to talk to me.

"Which one of us is making dinner?" he asks. Well shit. I was trying to ignore the fact that dinner was a thing. I was hoping that I could avoid dinner every night this week with my parents out of the house. Again I wish they would have taken Mikey with them.

"Um. How good are you at cooking?" I ask. Usually my mom would cook for everyone, and I realised that neither of us really knew how to cook.

"I've never tried."
"Me either." We end up deciding to try to work together. If I'm going to have to eat this I might as well make it healthy and low in calories. Mikey is really thin so he doesn't really have to worry about calories and stuff, but a healthy meal is a healthy meal.

Mikey looks through the fridge and get my laptop and search for low calorie meals. We decide to make some sort of pasta. We take out a box of noodles and a pot to cook them in, but after that we're both clueless.

"So the box says to boil them. So I guess we just put water in the pot and turn on the stove," I assume as I bring the pot over to the sink.

~~~
Basically, cooking dinner turned out to be a disaster. We ended up cooking the noodles wrong and they were a little bit soggy. The sauce that we made came out too thick and the food didn't even taste very good. Thank God I took a small amount at first anyways. At least this is an excuse to not eat very much.

I go to bed at 8:30. I'm exhausted after the dinner incident. I fall asleep before I can really think about anything.