Too heavy to fly

He calls when he can. She smiles when he does. But in the silence between messages, something else has started speaking-something that never leaves.
And Lorrie is no longer sure which voice she's listening to.

Lorrie knows what distance feels like. She knows how to wait for a message, how to hold onto love across time zones, how to smile at a phone screen and pretend it's enough.
Her boyfriend is busy, always moving, always briefly appearing in her life before disappearing again. He tells her she's beautiful. He tells her he loves her. And when he can, he comes back-just long enough to remind her he's still there.
But in the quiet between those moments, something else begins to grow.
A voice she thought she had outgrown returns with perfect timing and familiar comfort. It doesn't shout. It doesn't demand. It simply explains-gently, patiently-what her hunger means, what her silence means, what she is becoming.
As calls grow shorter and the spaces between them stretch wider, Lorrie begins to rely on the only presence that never leaves her alone.
And soon, she can no longer tell whether she is being guided toward clarity....

TW: Eating disorder, harmful thoughts, sh, unhealthy mindest, unhealthy habits