Just One More Chapter

Chapter 12

Elle

My head feels as heavy as I feel in my body everyday. My throat is drying up and I try opening my eyes. As soon as they're open, I tilt my face to protect my sight from the strong sun rays falling on me. Movements and sounds appear around me and it takes me some time to actually understand them. Opening my eyes again, there's no hard sun rays, only faces of my friends ogling on me with concern drawn on their faces. Never good, try, try, try but still not good.

I look around, my head is placed in Joe's lap and she is stroking my hair so gently it breaks my heart. Joe never shows concerns until something really stresses her out. I stressed her out. J is just beside her, his hands covering one of mine and on the right, Rune smiles softly when my eyes open.

"Car is working again. Come on, let's get Elle inside the car. She'll feel better in the air conditioning ." Cal shouts out from a little distance. I realise I'm laying on the roadside with my friends.

"She's awake!" Cal comes here with a bottle of water as soon as Rune shouts back.

I slowly try to sit up and drink the cold water. The sensation of coolness in my body feels odd but satisfying. As soon as I gulp down half the bottle, J speaks, tucking the strands of my hair behind my ear, "Are you okay?" Tears want to escape my eyes, so desperately.

"Better." I reply, weakly.

"Did you have light breakfast?" Joe asks with concern. Light breakfast? I don't remember the last time I had breakfast. Even the thought of breakfast makes me feel heavy.

"Just milk." I lie, not wanting to stress too much. They all have so much going on, I can't just rant about my issues. My eyes start stinging as I start thinking about how I'll miss today's gym class. Maybe I'll go home and do a workout? Or skip tomorrow's dinner too? Or maybe exercise twice as much as I do?

"Just milk isn't enough, Elizabeth." Rune scolds. Well, he tries to scold by the nickname he came me in middle school but he could never be angry at me. Can he? I don't want him to be disappointed in me. "We have some snacks in the car for now. We'll have a barbecue dinner at the beach because we're running late and we'll also see a doctor, requested by Jayce Graham, as soon as we reach home."

Snacks? Barbecue? Running late? Gym? Exercise? Workout? Food? Sixty-five! Sixty-five! Sixty-five! Doctor? Why?

I feel like throwing up.

"I don't feel like eating, Rune. I had a lot dinner, yesterday. I'm still full."

Rune frowns, "Doesn't matter. And you don't have to eat much. Just enough to make you shine again." He smiles sadly and continues, "You look so pale."

I stand up quickly and curse myself for standing up too fast, I stumble a little but not enough to make anyone notice, "You're right. I'll try to eat it but I'm really full so don't be mad if I don't eat much." I agree but my eyes start burning from the thought of snacks, the calories, oil, fats, fat.

"I promise." Rune replies and we all start walking towards the car.

Jayce and I, are the last ones, the one who are a little behind than the others. He comes a little closer, takes my hand and pauses. "Are you alright?"

I chuckle and shrug it off, "Yes, J. Just had a weak morning."

He looks me in my eyes and for a minute, I'm terrified. Terrified if he finds out my eyes are as boring as me, terrified if he notices how my stomach looks when I sit, terrified if he realises my smile isn't as nice as it should be. Terrified if everyone can see all these flaws, take pity on me and therefore, are a little kind to me. "You can't do one thing right? Someone with enough sense of a ten year old would understand. But you... you never would."
Stop.

"You look really beautiful in this yellow dress, Elle. Even more Beautiful, stronger and fiercer than the sun." Jayce says before nodding and opening the door of the car.

Pity.