Castles crumbling (Taylor Swift's little sister)

Chapter 44

Five days had gone by since you were home, and your eating disorder was taking a hold on you. Your exercise compulsion had gotten worse, and you were hiding food in every meal. You were losing weight again, but neither Taylor nor your mom noticed, they were calm with the fact that you were eating "everything" in the end. However, they were both worried about your behavior: you were arguing heavily about food, getting irritated easier and isolating yourself. They were eager to get you into treatment again, they felt like no matter how hard they tried to support you at home it wasn't enough. Every day you went off to sleep promising yourself you were going to try harder the next day, but once you had the opportunity to get away with hiding food or exercising, you did it. It was exhausting to fight that voice in your head and fighting it made you feel way guiltier than listening to it.

It was Friday afternoon and Tree was invited over to arrange some work stuff with Taylor. She was supposed to come for lunch, but something came up and she couldn't make it on time. When she got there you were sitting in the couch trying to read your new book wiggling your legs compulsively and Andrea by your side reading too, but every now and then putting her hand on your knee to calm you down. Taylor was upstairs organizing her bathroom but came down to let Tree in.

They sat down in the living room to work, and you excused yourself to go to your room, but your mom stopped you right away:

- "It's almost time for your afternoon snack. So, you should just stay here"

- "I'm still full from lunch, mom" you replied.

- "Doesn't matter. You know you need to eat. Sit here and read a bit, I'll finish this chapter and I'll go to the kitchen to make your afternoon snack, coffee for us and something to eat too" your mom said.

You groaned and sat down again crossing your arms and Taylor laughed at your reaction. Tree could tell you were losing weight the second she saw you, but decided to wait and see how you were doing to determine if she was talking Taylor about it or not.

After about 10 minutes Andrea stood up and walked to the kitchen. She made some coffee and brought nuts and dried cranberries for Tree, Taylor and herself and made you a bowl of Greek yogurt topped with nuts and a banana. In that moment, Tree got a call and went to the garden to receive it and you complained about being too cold, so Andrea went to the basement to check the temperature unit and left you with Taylor. You ate two little spoonfuls of yogurt and a small bite of banana in about 10 minutes when your mom screamed calling Taylor to help her with something downstairs. You took the opportunity to stand up and throw away more than half of your snack and do some push-ups but to your surprise Tree has finished her call some minutes ago, quietly walked in and saw everything.

- "What are you doing?" Tree asked.

You looked down at the floor defeated. For a few seconds you thought about how getting out of this. You knew you couldn't lie about the push-ups; it was obvious you were working out, but you could try to fool her with the food.

- "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't be exercising" you replied quickly standing up.

- "You shouldn't be throwing away your snack either" Tree said.

- "I... I wasn't throwing away anything" you said grabbing your plate and eating a spoonful of what was left.

- "I saw you, Lizzie. You did. There's no point in lying" Tree said looking at you sadly. She figured out you must've been doing this for some time now, at least for the days you had been home.

You didn't even try to lie anymore and started to cry. - "Please don't tell mom or Taylor. Please. I just can't do this anymore. They're giving me too much food"