weak ➸ camren

chapter 1 ➸ breaking the silence

Once she noticed her weight start to drop, she was hooked. Every night, she'd silently slip out of her bunk and into the bathroom, stripping down to the bare minimum so she could weigh herself. She found herself becoming disappointed each time, wishing that she could lose just a few more pounds at a time. Standing in front of the mirror, the small brunette would spend over an hour pinching and prodding at the extra skin on her thighs, or her stomach, or her arms. No one else considered it much of anything, but to Camila any part of her body that wasn't hugging her tight enough to expose her bones, was something she needed to get rid of.

None of the girls knew what was really going on with Camila. She knew how to keep them from getting suspicious. It was a harder thing to hide from her family.

Sofi wanted to go ice skating for her birthday and Camila had flown home just to surprise the youngest Cabello. The small girl was ecstatic to have her big sister there to celebrate her special day, and as soon as they got to the ice skating rink, she was pulled out onto the ice.

Less than an hour later, Camila's muscles were stiff and her lungs could barley draw in enough air. She excused herself from the rink, hobbling over to the bleachers in her skates and sitting down.

They found her a little while later, still sitting in the same spot on the bleachers. She was almost unresponsive. When her mother spoke her name, Camila stared up at her groggily, her face blank and devoid of any emotion. Her skin was cold to the touch and just starting to develop a tint of blue. Sofi's party was cut short as Camila was rushed to the hospital.

She doesn't remember the few days following that. She just remembers saying goodbye to her parents and being taken to her new bedroom for the next week. Her meals were monitored, and she was surprised how some of the other patients could get away with not eating as much as they were supposed to. She learned a few skills from them, stuffing peas in her socks at the table and then emptying them out the window when she got back to her bedroom.

It wasn't exactly the easiest thing being famous in a place like this. Camila wasn't accepted. The other girls didn't understand why someone who had the 'perfect life' would end up there. They told her to stop asking for attention. Camila just hung her head low and kept to herself.

Once her weight started to reappear at a steady rate, she was sent back home. Immediately she was thrown back into the fast paced world of fame, being forced to perform her first show of the tour after only one day of rehearsal. Performing was her life, though, and she gladly fell into the routine.

And then she stopped taking her medicine. Her weight started dropping once more, and the color slowly drained from her skin. The other girls noticed and started monitoring her closely, but she grew so distant that it was impossible for them to help her without overstepping their boundaries. Camila pushed everyone away and put all her attention into performing and losing weight. She was sent back to rehab a few times after, but once she was sent home, things bounced right back to how they'd been before.

Lauren confronted her about her disappearances one day. Camila had been sitting alone in her bunk when Lauren came to check if she was coming to dinner. When Camila denied, Lauren tried to push some sort of answer out of her. Camila grew so defensive that she snapped, surprising both herself and Lauren. Their screams could be heard from outside the bus and eventually Dinah and Ally had to pull Lauren out of the bus to calm her down. Camila knew they all blamed her for the tension in the group. She wished she could fix it, she really did, but she couldn't tell them where she'd been.

And now here she was, hiding in the corner of the dining hall at their latest venue. Once she pushed her food around enough, her plate flew into the trash and she was out of the room before anyone realized she was gone.