Fix You

Chapter Two

TWO 

   Depression? There were a billion and one ways for Darcy to describe Ryan and not one of them was even remotely depressing. In fact, Ryan closely resembled a kid one would find at a candy store - happy, deliriously so. And content. Darcy had never encountered quite a bundle of joy and curiosity in her life before and to think that he was in fact battling depression, Darcy found it immensely hard to believe.  

   Ryan was funny, adorable, sweet. Adorable. Darcy racked her brains to think back on their earlier conversations, trying her best to pick up on any signs that could've said, "HEY DARCE! Ryan here's DE-PRESSED", but there were none. If he did have a big fat red arrow pointing toward him, the words emblazoned round the front would simply read, HAPPY or NICE or ADORABLE-SWEET-CHIVALROUS-AND-DOWNRIGHT-FUNNY-WITH-THOSE-GORGEOUS-ENDLESS-DIMPLES. Hmm. Maybe even all 3. 

   Darcy plopped down onto her bed, exhausted. She felt the tensions in her muscle start to ease up and relax as it soaked in the bed, in its entirety. Till now, Darcy realized that her roommate had yet to reveal herself and all Ryan had said about her was that she was really nice and friendly and that her name was Abby. 

   As Darcy was beginning to wonder how her roommate might look like, she felt something wiggling up her feet. Her eyes shot wide like saucer plates and an ear-splitting scream escaped from her mouth when she realized what it was. Kicking her feet wildly in the air, trying desperately to get the creature off of her feet, she eventually did, and her kicks made the creature fly through the air, almost as if in slow motion. 

   The door opened and in walked a pretty blonde about Darcy's age. "Hi" she smiled, dropping her toiletries onto her bed and then turning to close the door behind her. Just then, a slimy, green worm hit the back of her head and remained there, stuck in the girl's long curls. Darcy's mouth was open wide in shock but she quickly closed it shut again, making her look every bit like a goldfish, an amused one at that. 

   The girl walked over to where Darcy was seated now, unaware of her current predicament. "I'm Abby Dawson. And you must be Darcy!" she said cheerily. Abby's a cheerleader, five foot four, has a jock boyfriend and is the most popular girl in her high school. Darcy couldn't help giving Abby a quick once over; it was one of those things that was inevitable. 

   Darcy felt the need to tell her new friend about the green, slimy worm wiggling around in her hair but then Abby started strutting back to her bed and turned around at the end, for full measure. "So you're the new girl who throws up all her food eh? Classy. So how fat were you before this?" Abby grinned wickedly. And all her niceness just flew out the window. So did Darcy's. The slimy green worm can crawl all over Abby's long blonde curls for tonight, Darcy decided. 

   "Well. I've decided to look past it. To start over. I'm getting better and I'm looking to stay there" Darcy said as confidently as she could. She knew she looked the part and sounded the part, but the part where she was to believe in every word she had just uttered, Darcy was just starting on that.

   Abby sat down her bed and started painting her nails blood red. The slimy green worm appeared at the back of her ear and dangled there like an earring, inducing a hyena-like laugh from Darcy who quickly pretended it was because she was just feeling really happy about her recent recovery from bulimia. 

   Abby shot Darcy a weird look but Darcy didn't mind. After all, she wasn't Resident Weirdo - Aidan was. "I used to be really, really fat too" Abby said, and Darcy tried to hide her annoyance at Abby's nonchalant mindset towards her biggest insecurity. "And then I got a boyfriend and we were so happy I guess, because the pounds just sort of melted off of me or something. It was like I literally became hot, you know what I mean?" Abby laughed, smudging her nail polish as she did so.