don't lie to me

Chapter X

I followed Angelo silently to his car. When he unlocked it I molmetarly considered sitting in the back, but I didn't want to seem weaker and more affected by what he did last night than I already was. I had kind of avoided the subject in my mind, too ashamed, embarrassed, and disappointed in myself to even think about it. I hadn't reacted the way someone like me should. I was meant to fight back and stay strong, yet I crumbled. Maybe it was the stress of the past few days or just sensory overload, but I knew I could and knew I had to do better if a situation like that ever arose again.

Once I sat down and got situated, all without looking toward my 'brother', Angelo started the car, switched the gear and drove out of the garage and through the gate onto the open road.

The ride was mostly silent, other than the rap music playing softly in the background, and it didn't take long to arrive. Although to me, since I was sitting next to my least favorite person, it felt like years.

Eventually Angelo pulled into a parking lot beside a large building made from white brick.

We soon stepped into the minimal and sterile office that looked like it was only for the elites. I looked around and saw a few signs with all the doctors with their titles and specialty. The one listed for nutrition was Dr. Annie Tao M.D.

I kind of zoned out when Angelo was checking me in but I heard the words 'priority' and 'best' multiple times, but not the context so it wasn't meaningful to me.

Eventually we were taken into a typical check up room but fancier and with more machines. Soon after that Dr. Tao introduced herself and took us to the back by the scales. I stepped on and my height was measured and then my weight.

When I stepped off Angelo looked behind me and shook and looked at the scale and then the doctor.

"Fix it." He looked angry now, not disappointed like he had a moment before when looking at the scale. I believed that he was talking about my weight, but I wouldn't put it past him to call me 'it'. I went to look at him again, instead of just at my shoes, only to realise that he was already halfway down the hall, presumably to go back to the room I was in.

A little after, we left and arrived back in the room that Angelo had, infact, returned to. He ran a couple more tests including taking my blood pressure and testing my reflexes. He also asked me questions about what I typically ate in a day, which Angelo shook his head at again even though I had overestimated, how much I exercised a week, and my sleep schedule.

Dr. Tao entered a few more things into her computer once she was finished before turning back to face us, mostly Angelo though.

"Her size is not entirely because of what she eats. I see here-" Dr. Tao gestured at the screen, "that Amalia was almost two full months premature. This explains why she is so small despite height running in your family." I nodded, finally satisfied with an explanation as to why I was so much smaller than them if we were related.

I looked over to Angelo to see his fists balled up but his eyes were sad. Odd.

"She may never get tall or extremely strong, but we can definitely make her healthier." I held back an eye roll. I saw no need for me to be 'healthier', I felt fine and looked fantastic. "She will look much the same, but the goal will be to change her body composition to consist of more muscle, so she can gain healthy weight."

"You're telling us things we already figured out. What we need is a plan to fix her." I guess I am a 'her'. He was more respectful in tone than word choice but his point was made.

"Yes of course, I have here a recommended diet that you can call me to adjust at any time and an exercise regime to do in addition to your usual activity."