The Dare Game ✔️

Hospital Times.

COURTNEY'S POV:

I woke up to a knocking on the hospital room door.

'A visitor' announced a nurse - I lost track of who was who. She briskly walked out again, leaving me surprised to see non other than Duncan (or in other words, my 'husband' ) standing at my door. He dropped his backpack on he floor.

'I have something for you, Princess' he said, and started rooting through his bad. I eyed him with suspicion.

'If it's stolen Mr Criminal, I don't want it' I declared. He looked up at me and grinned.

'I feel mortally offended that you would think I would do such a thing' and he went back to his bag. 5 seconds later, he was sitting on the edge of my bed, not too close, and had pulled out a small container. I could see some sort of fruit. I tensed. I got ready to scream at him, thoughts racing through my mind. He wants to make you fat. He's pretending he doesn't know. He's gonna-

'Did I ever tell you how I got into Juvie?'

I looked up at him in surprise. 'Huh?' I asked. He rolled his eyes at me. I rolled mine back. 'I wasn't listening, I was thinking about something' I retorted. I didn't want to admit that I thought he was going to force feed me.

'I might or might have not gotten into a little trouble...'

He continued his story, with little intervals of me giggling, gasping, or saying 'no way'. By the end, I was in a laughing fit.

'To think, all because of that!' He finished. My laughter was cut short when my eyes caught on the container. It was empty.

I had eaten it. He had distracted me, and I had eaten it. I could still taste the remains of what I guess were peach slices in my mouth.

I could feel my heat ready quicken, the sweat beads form on my head. The words fat fat fat fat fat were penetrating my mind.

'Why?' I croaked. Duncan looked me dead in the eye.

'Your more than just your eating disorder Courtney.'

'Duncan, you don't understand, I can't, it's..' I was lost for words.

'What you just ate was half a peach. It was precisely 18.5 calories. Your not fat, you may think it, but your not. I won't make you eat anything else.' He paused. 'For now, but I need you to calm down. Courtney, I'm no therapist, I can't give you professional help, but I've done research, I've looked on websites, I've read books and contacted some experts. It's only 18.5 calories. Throughout the day your body burns hundred of thousands of calories. Courtney. Your gonna be alright. 18.5 calories. 18.5 calories, Courtney.' I could see the desperation in his eyes.

'You have to be strong' he said. I could feel my panting slow down, the sweat stopped running down my face. Since when did it get so bad?

He gave me 5 minutes to compose myself, and he sat though it patiently. I plastered the same fake smile I had managed to perfect over the years, and gave a subtle nod of my head to show I'm okay.

'One more thing, then we can watch another movie' he said. I cocked my head.

'What?'

'I've requested no food to be bought into your room, so I don't want you to panic, okay?' He said, and with no further ado, he pulled out his laptop from his bag and opened up Netflix. He turned to me and grinned.