Basorexia - J.MAGUIRE

[1.21] confrontation

Ciara, after returning home from school, ran straight upstairs and grabbed her star covered box from underneath the bed. She pulled out the two meals that had been hidden there the two days before, both smelling majorly foul but she had covered them both in cling film to combat that. She knew that neither her Mammy or Cal would be home for hours (Cal was at work and Mammy was out with a friend) so this was her perfect opportunity to get rid of the things that, if they were discovered, would ruin the illusion completely.

She set one plate on the floor while she scraped the other plate into the compost. Once completed, she picked up the other plate and... "Chip..."

She jumped, the plate nearly slipping out of her grip as she turned and became face to face with Cal. She sighed, knowing she had been caught in the act. There was no explaining this. And even if there was, she hadn't the energy to concoct such thoughts. "I thought you were at work," she responded softly, doing everything possible to avoid Cal's angered gaze.

"They sent me home early, not feeling well. What are you doing?"

She picked her head up, concern furrowing her brow, "Not feeling well? Like what?"

"Don't avoid the question Chip," he sighed deeply, annoyance joining the anger scrawled deep on his face.

Chip paused as she dumped the food into the compost, shaking off the bits that were more stuck to the plate. "What does it look like Cal?" she whispered, not wanting the neighbor to overhear. They were rather nosy after all.

Cal made no attempt whatsoever to quieten his voice, the anger behind his eyes growing to such an extent that she could no longer bear to look in them while they talked. "It's happening again... For how long?"

She scoffed as she covered the discarded food with fresh leaves, wiping the mud on her hands on the cloth she had hidden outside months ago. "You think it ever stopped?" she asked genuinely, fully not believing that he had not suspected it. After all, he had spent all that time making sure she ate after Portnoo. "...I have it under control."

He almost laughed, the sound sending shards through Ciara's rather calm nature given the situation. "Do you?"

"Aye, I do," she shot back, pushing past him to go back inside. She walked rather quickly and, given that Cal stood at the compost for a moment trying to absorb all the information, she had already filled the sink with soapy water to wash the plates as her routine usually went.

 "You have it under control?" he questioned loudly as he stormed into the room, making no effort to shut the back door.

"I said I did and I do," Ciara replied absentmindedly as she scrubbed the plate in her hand, trying to remove a stain that did not want to budge.

"So I'm not going to find you passed out in your room from exhaustion again?" he yelled almost sarcastically, his vexation filling the room with such a tension that she knew would not dissipate easily. She just hoped that her Mammy did not make a random early appearance home and stumble across this, then inpatient would be unavoidable. She could rather easily convince Cal to let her work on it herself, after all she had done before. And he knew how awful that plae had been to her, how it had effected how she saw certain things now. So he wasn't likely to force her to go back unless it was completely unavoidable and even then, it would still be difficult to make such a decision. 

"No," she responded softly, setting the cleaned plate onto the drying board with the other.

"Bullshit!"

Ciara instantly turned, water from her hands splattering all over the floor. Her hold and control of her anger fell as she snapped, "Excuse me?"

"Does Dr W know?"