Fragile Bones

Chapter Fourteen

Next thing I knew, I was waking up and it was Saturday morning. I blinked the tiredness out of my eyes and glanced at my phone onto bedside table, surprised to see it was eleven already. I hadn't been woken up to my parents fighting, which was a miracle. It must have meant one of them had left early this morning for some reason, or work. Thinking about my parents made me think of Asher's encounter with them yesterday. Of course the universe would doom me with having him meet them in that way. Needless to say, we probably both felt pretty awkward about it; he hadn't texted me to set up the last day to work on the project and I most certainly hadn't texted him.

I yawned, stretching my legs out of the bed and retreated into the bathroom. I paused when passing by the mirror, doing a small double take at my reflection. I lifted a hand up to my cheeks, which appeared a little hollower than the last time I had looked at myself. I tilted my head to the side and looked at my body. Still extremely pudgy, but I seemed to look a little smaller. I did a little jump in excitement, it was working. If I keep this up, soon enough I'll be able to outshine even Lindsay. My stomach growled at that very moment, reminding me of the cost it took to be able to look this way. I groaned, realizing that I would have to eat something if I didn't want to pass out when trying to walk up the stairs.

I quickly turned on my shower and laid out some clothes to put on afterwards. I turned on some music to listen to while showering and hopped in. Seeing myself looking lighter put me in an abnormally happy mood, although I knew it wouldn't last too long. After that was done with I changed into my usual baggy clothes and brushed my teeth. I ran a brush through my hair a few times and stared at the hairbrush. There were a lot more strands on there than usual and it slightly worried me but then again, I did tend to shed a little more in the winter time.

I walked down the stairs and my stomach growled again, making me try and push it out so it would just freaking shut up. The sound apparently didn't escape my mother's notice though, and I heard her speak from the living room. "Sounds like someone's hungry!" She wandered into the kitchen, holding her keys on her hands. "Nice to see you finally awake Madeline. I'm about to go to the grocery store, how about going with me and you can pick out some things that you want. Snack on this in the meantime," she said, tossing me a banana which I barely managed to catch.

"No, that's alright," I replied, peeling it open and taking a bite. How many calories were in a banana?

"I'm not having you stay holed up in this house anymore. All you do is sit in your room doing who knows what. You never even bring any friends over here. The only person you've ever brought over is that boy yesterday who was only here for a project. The least you can do is come to the store with me," she exclaimed, turning to look at my uncomfortable gaze.

"Fine, fine," I muttered, not wanting to get into a fight. She was right after all, I never did bring anyone over. This would be because I have no friends, which she probably already expects. I looked down to see I had eaten the whole banana and I grimaced. Great, I had been nervous eating from all the talking my mom was doing. "Let's just go." I tossed the peel in the trash and walked out the door with my mom tagging along behind me.

•••

"Oh shoot. Can you go grab some frozen carrots, I forgot to grab them on the way up here." I sighed and stepped away from my mother out of line to go search for the vegetable. I had turned down every offer of food she had offered me, which was tremendously hard to do. Being in a grocery store surrounded by food was not how I envisioned spending my Saturday, and each item just made me more and more hungry. The smell of the pastries, and the deli, and the bread was all too much to handle. I walked down the frozen food aisle and grabbed what I needed to before turning on me heel to return to the line. However, I saw Lindsay and Amanda across the way, laughing and talking to each other.