Skinny • Book 1 In The Reality Series

Calum

Sitting in the crowded lunch room I stared across the table at Katy who was eating the salad she'd packed for lunch and talking to Annie, Sierra and Michael.

Her face was scared, badly, and her arm was in a cast up to her elbow yet somehow in my eyes she looked the best I'd ever seen her.

She was noticeably thinner and looked somehow both younger and older at the same time. Her hair, which used to hit her mid back was cut to just below her shoulders and curled into perfect, loose ringlets.

There was something about the way she carried herself, the way her face lit up when she laughed, she was carefree and happy and it was infectious. 

I found myself being happy with just being near her. She didn't have to be talking to me or looking at me, as long as we were coexisting in the same general vicinity I felt whole.

At least I convinced myself I did. 

In truth I felt awful. 

My head constantly felt as if it were being ripped in two, my vision blurred when I attempted to do anything other then sit, and my stomach hurt so bad I skipped both math and science to attempt to nap it off in the back corner of the library.

I looked awful, even I could see it.

I had gone too far. I wasn't just thin, or small, skinny wasn't even an appropriate adjective, I was, in my own words, disgusting. My collar bones protruded angularly, covered only by the paper thin skin which lightly stretched across them. Each one of my ribs were visible, my hip bones jutted out sharp and angular, my knees and elbows were awkward balls of bone connecting otherwise curve-less sticks, I looked like a skeleton.

My skin was pale and yellowed, the only color coming from the deep purple bags which circled my eyes and my lips were chapped and peeling, the once smooth flaking away in scaly sheets like the skin of a snake.

I'd gotten worse in Katy's absence. Worry and stress had taken a toll on me resulting in me not only back tracking but sliding further down the mountain then I was before.

I knew it was visible, but layers of baggy clothes, and tubes of Anna's concealer hid it well.

My Dad had confronted me a week before, asking if I was doing okay and if I needed help. He'd also made me eat. I'd thrown it, and every single crumb I ate after it, up.

My throat felt raw, my tongue ached as if I'd pulled the muscle and my jaw refused to line up properly.

Moving my jaw from side to side I watched Katy's eyes locked with mine and I forced myself to smile, the simple effort of making my facial muscles obey me draining me.

"Are you okay Calum?" she questioned, when the others left the table in search of the cake which was being served as a treat for Principal Cooly's sixtieth birthday.

Surprised by her question, I nodded, "I'm fine. Great. Glad you're back."

"Are you sick?" she pressed.

I nodded, "I think I'm catching something."

"I think you should go home." she informed me, setting down her fork and reaching across the table to press the back of her hand against my forehead.

"I'm okay." I lied, forcing another smile.

"You're really cold." she fussed, rising from her seat across from me and moving to sit beside me.

Holding my breath, I sat still as she pressed her hands to my forehead again, then my cheeks, the back of my neck... she frowned.

"You're freezing." she worried.