A short flash-fiction I wrote for the Scholastic Writing Awards.
“120 plus 280 is 400. And 400 plus 75 is 475.”
She pushes the Diet Coke towards me and I shake my head. “Not going over 500, remember?”
“How much do you want to lose, though?”
“Just 10.”
She lowers her voice, leaning in towards me. “You know what happened to Hanna, right?”
I nod. Everyone knows what happened to Hanna. The way she kept her hair in a ponytail so we couldn’t see how thin it was, how she bruised when someone bumped into her in gym class. How tired she always seemed. What she did in the bathroom after lunch. When she collapsed in the hallway last month, she was 93 pounds.
“But you’re smarter than that, right?”
I don’t tell her how cold I am despite my sweater and hat, or how I couldn’t sleep last night, although I felt so tired. Or the night before, when I broke 500 at dinner, and got rid of it like Hanna did, all those times in the school bathroom, running the water so my parents couldn’t hear.
Instead I smile and throw the Diet Coke in the trash. “Of course. Come on let's go.”
