Underlying Hunger ✓

Chapter 22.5

BLAKE: 11:56 pm

It's been five hours since I brought her here. I've been sitting in the waiting room ever since. Genna still hasn't woken up and my stress has yet to go down. The bare, hospital walls bring me anything but comfort; in fact, they only make it worse. They're a constant reminder that the girl that I love could be (is) dying.

After calling her mom, she immediately came to see her daughter. Her tears were the only thing that were stopping mine; I needed to stay strong.

The doctor came into the waiting room to inform us of what had happened to Genna. Apparently, she hasn't eaten anything in two days. She had already been underweight (108 pounds) and starving herself for that long was the last straw. The doctor had said that her body gave out on itself and that's why she passed out. He doesn't know when she might wake up and that worries us even more.

The same question stays in my head for what feels like forever: why? Why does she feel the need to do this to herself? To me, she was as close to perfect as you can get. I don't understand how and why she felt so low of herself to the point of not eating. She means so much to me, but I didn't know she meant more to me than she does to herself.

Genna's mom broke down in wretched sobs the moment the doctor told her. The guilt and regret in her eyes was mirrored in mine. Every damn time she has excused herself from the lunch table or said some bullshit reason why she didn't have any food on her plate was eating away at me.

I don't know what's worse: the fact that I didn't do anything, Grayson, her boyfriend at the time didn't do anything, or that no one did anything.

What sucks even more is that I knew there was something wrong. Deep down, I felt that her smile wasn't genuine and the jokes were all cover ups. But I didn't stop her.