The Blind Date

Surviving | Ten

After that day, I went and stayed with Emily and Jen. They hated that my mom abused me once again, but were happy that I was going with Marcus this coming weekend. Never did I ever think I'd have friends—or a boyfriend. Now that I had them, I wasn't sure how I'd live without them.

Emily and Mike were a thing now too! It'd been two days since Marcus found out about my mom. They started dating yesterday. Scott, however, hadn't had the courage to make things official with Jen yet. The three of us were currently sitting on Emily's bed with a bunch of junk food.

"So I need details of how you and Mike became an item," I insisted.

"Okay," Emily laughed, blushing. "We were in teen leadership and did that snowball challenge where we had to write three secrets and guess whose they were. Well, one of Mike's was 'I have a crush on a girl in the room.' I immediately thought it wasn't me, because all the single girls in that class hit on him. So when I got mad and walked out, it was the big thing. He caught up to me, I told him I didn't want to hear it, and once he got me to shut up, he clarified it was me."

"That's so sweet!" Jen said, happy for her sister.

"Very," I agreed.

"How did you and Marcus become official?" Jen asked me.

As I untwisted the wrapper to the tootsie roll, I shrugged. "It just kind of happened. I mean, there was the date y'all set us up on, but..." I thought back on the time we've had so far. "There was no 'grand thing' like what Mike did for you," I looked at Emily. I then turned back to Jen. "I just think we both knew and we decided that this was a real thing."

"Does he know about your mom?" Emily asked.

I sighed. "Unfortunately."

"How'd he take it?" Jen asked, popping a skittle in her mouth.

"Better than I thought. We're still together."

"Wait. You thought he'd break up with you?" Emily asked.

"Well... yeah, I mean—"

"Erin, I swear, you need a therapist," she said seriously.

She'd been on me about this for months now. "Why?"

"You don't have any self worth!" She said.

"Emily, calm down," Jen looked to her.

"She needs to know she's worth something, Jen!" Emily looked to her, but gesturing to me.

"But that's not something she'll gain overnight. We got lucky with a mom and dad that love us. She didn't. We can tell her every day, but she has to believe it for herself. When you're in that situation... Self worth isn't something you have," she said.

As she spoke, I noticed something in Jen's eyes. She was relating to me on a different level. She understood my pain, but she didn't get abused by her parents. Something happened to her besides the eating disorder and bullying.

Emily voiced my thoughts. "What happened to you, Jen?"

"Nothing, I'm just saying it's probably hard for her. Her mom's told her for so long how 'terrible' she is," she said.

She was keeping something from us. And all of us knew it.

Emily sighed, frustrated and went to get more sodas for us.

I looked at Jen and she ate another skittle. "I'm seriously fine, Erin."

"Jen, you can tell me," I assured.

She looked to see if Emily was back and back to me. "I can't. I don't want her to know and you'll want to tell her."

"I won't. I'll let you tell her when you're ready."