Undeniable Love

The Parents

~The Next Day (Lunch at Lena's)~

Lena:

I look over at Stef who has hardly eaten anything.

"Okay. What's going on with you?"

She looks up at me.

"What do you mean?"

"At dinner the other night you hardly ate any of your food. Yesterday you had one pancake. Then I practically had to bribe you to eat a bit of fruit last night. You skipped breakfast this morning & now you aren't eating any of your lunch!"

I say that so fast and angrily that I have to sit back down.

"I'm sorry. This just isn't like you."

She gulps.

"Well, you know some people change."

I get up so fast I have to steady myself.

"Not you. Not the Stefanie I know. What happened to you? You used to tell me everything! Now I don't even know if I can believe anything you tell me."

I storm off to my bedroom and slam the door.

Stef:

I look at my plate.

Ugh. I don't want to eat it.

I mean I want to. But, I can't.

I get up & go to Lena's door.

I knock.

"Go away."

"If you let me in, I will explain."

I bribed Lena, but it worked.

She opens her door and goes to sit on her bed.

I stand at her windowsill.

I take a deep breath.

"I was diagnosed with Obesophobia about a year ago."

I hear Lena come towards me.

"Obesophobia? What's that?"

I sigh.

"Do you remember how I told you I lost all that weight?"

"Uh huh."

"Well. After I lost all that weight I got scared of becoming fat again."

"But you weren't fat."

"Okay. Maybe not but my brain thinks that. And so with me being obesophobic, I hardly eat anything to keep myself from getting fat."

"Well, how did you know?"

"About a year ago I went 3 days without eating & fainted. I woke up in the hospital and the doctors told me."

"So wait Obesophobia is the lack of eating?"

"The lack of eating for the fear of being fat. Your brain pictures you really fat & you basically starve yourself to be skinny. They haven't found any medicine yet so."

Lena throws her arms around me.

"I'm so sorry Stef."

I hug her and cry.

"Hey it's okay Stef. It's okay. I'm here. Shh."

She rubs my back.

I pull away and she wipes my tears.

"You know what me and you are gonna go on a diet together okay?"

"What?"

"Yeah. If we are eating unhealthy food we will eat small portions like pizza or cake or whatever. And if we are eating healthy we will have a normal serving like salad or fruit or whatever. And every morning we will go on a run. Except Sunday that's when we break. And every other night we will workout."