Four

17.7K 540 49
                                        

Nobody really noticed me. 

I was grateful for that.

The halls were jammed with students and chatter everytime I walked out of a classroom so no one had time to notice me and my scars, but the first week was killer. Not because the people were mean, but because I was mean. To myself. I couldn't stop the circulation of thoughts that whipped through my mind like a constant tornado every time I bothered to wonder. I curled my hair, and bought new shoes and kept my head low. And that's when the second week came. I binged for a few days, but I mostly shoved my lunch away. I couldn't eat, I didn't want to eat, guys were starting to talk to me and if only I could get a little skinnier.. I would feel full somehow. 

I could only feel whole when a piece is missing, I've learned. A piece has been missing so long that the empty feeling is all I've ever known, and I don't want that piece to return. It would be too much. I'm okay with being a half, because this half is prettier. 

This half is much prettier and Clint seems to think so too, whenever he smiles at me. I met him on the first day and he thinks skinny is better, that's why I pick at my salad and drink my water and don't make it too obvious. I flick at a piece of tomato at the ground.

"So you moved here from New York?" One of the boys asks, I nod and smile and place my fork back onto the table. If I hold it for too long it makes me feel uneasy. Like I'm committing a crime. 

"It's cold up ther - Hey guys, is that Foster?" 

Everyone and I mean, more than just the people at my table, like half of the lunchroom's heads snap to the red double doors of the entrance and only for a few mumbled and surpressed bits of conversation, it goes quiet. I look along with the crowd, you know, so I can fit in. Not because I'm in any way curious - wow. He's really bruised up. 

He has hair as dark as the night sky and pink cheeks and not the hint of a smile, but I think he's the most beautiful and broken thing that I've ever seen.. and - and I turn back to my salad and try not too blush for some odd reason. He's just a guy, I tell myself, and some are more attractive than others. I laugh it off. 

But Clint doesn't laugh, he stares straight at the sky and squeezes his eyes shut and utters a small, "I thought he was dead." 

That made my stomach turn over. And this time, it wasn't the hunger that did it. 


Darling & FosterWhere stories live. Discover now