The Boy Behind Hero

4. Anorexic Pt. 1

1845

"Lard ass."

"Fatty."

"Pig."

"Fatty."

"Fatso."

"Chubby."

"Tubby."

"Tub of lard."

"Obese."

"Overweight."

Those were the words and phrases which were flung at Alfred every meeting from everyone from his worst enemy to his family.

It had Alfred wondering if it was all true but it was still pretty early in his life as a nation so he shrugged it all off. He naturally had a pretty tough skin and it was nothing more than water off a ducks back. Besides he had better things to do with his time like morn the deaths of both some of his beloved citizens. Plus Texas was trying to seceed from Mexico which had captured his attention considering it was on their border and it was always in a nation's interest to expand as much as possible, it was his Manifest Destiny.

1862

Alfred had always been very body conscious, even as a child. He was always deemed the the chubby twin and that always stuck with him. His first few world meetings, had probably been the only ones where he hadn't been called a fat pig to his face. Being called fat and useless was as normal to him as the waking up or doing paperwork. It was a mantra that played in his head every day; fat, useless, stupid, pig.

If anyone were to see him without his jacket and look at his inner arms they would see the word Useless written in a curly font as to always remind the blond boy of his worth. It was only but one word engraved somewhere on his body. However, the others had been cut into his body with blade. Each word was added after he had done something stupid, mostly eating out of a proper meal time or speaking out during a meeting when it wasn't his turn. It helped to remind him that he wasn't supposed to eat too much, that was for slim and fit people

1930

The Great Depression had been very aptly named, not only was the country itself on a low point it's personification was as well. Alfred knew that the depression was his fault and he was working hard to fix it. It was something that affected everyone in the world and from his next door neighbours like Canada to England and to China.

"I'm so stupid! How could I let that stock market crash in 1929?" Alfred thought as he walked to the meeting area. "Idiot! Idiot! Because of you your own people are suffering."

The streets were crowded with gaunt citizens with hopeless and desperate looks in their eyes begging their fellow Americans for a bite or two to eat. They wanted food for themselves, their families and each other. It has a hard and dark time in American history, one Alfred could hardly bear to witness. 4/5 of all good delivered to Alfred from the president was in turn handed out to his citizens which resulted in him loosing quite a bit of weight, but to him it was more than worth it. Even if he did want to eat more. he couldn't bring himself to look at food without getting sick and thinking about how fat he would get.

Even then he had still gotten called fat, piggy and obese. No one had bothered to look beneath the surface and see that his face had gotten a little thinner, that his clothes had gotten a big looser and that his wrists looked even bonier than usual. However, perhaps the few people that had noticed it had attributed it to the depression and had ignored it.

Present Day

"It's that time of month again, Alfred thought bitterly. "Time to step on a scale and see how much fatter I've gotten."

Alfred stepped on the scale and squeezed his eyes shut terrified to see if the numbers had gone up. The scale quickly turned and stopped on the number 104.5. Tears quickly welled in the young nation's beautiful blue eyes as he started breathing more shallowly. He felt unable to breath, choked by his own raw emotion as he tried scrubbing away the tears.

"Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid stupid," the American ranted to himself. "I got fatter, I gained weight, I was supposed to loose it. Now the other nations are gonna pick on me more. I'm already a horrible, fat nation full of fast food mostly and they're gonna yell at me more."

Alfred curled into a tiny ball on his bathroom floor shaking terrified of the thought of the mental abuse from the other nations. Americat strolled into the room, looking for his owner so he could feed him, only to once again find him crying on the floor. The large, fluffy, white cat crawled into Alfred's bony lap doing his best to comfort him.

Americat purred loudly as he placed his front paws on Alfred's bony chest and rubbed his head gently against Alfred. The young nation wrapped his arms around the cat bending his head to cry onto Americat's fur.

"I- I'm so f-f-fat! No one's gonna ever love me," Alfred sobbed. "Not M-mattie, not P-papa, not I-iggy and especially not K-k-keeks."

The phone that sat on the bathroom sink, forgotten till then buzzed gently. Alfred got to his feet shakily, still clutching Americat for support and wrapped his bony fingers around his phone to read the messages.

Iggy🇬🇧: Where are you fatass?

Iggy🇬🇧: We have a dinner reservation, along with the frog and another one.

French Fry 🇫🇷🍟: Where are you Alfred?

Iggy🇬🇧 : Not like you need anymore food at your size.

Maple Man 🇨🇦: Alfie? Are you okay? It's not like you to be late.

Alfred's hands trembled a little at the thought of going to not only eat but to going to eat with his family. He slowly texted a message to Mattie, shut off his phone and dragged himself off to bed all the while balancing Americat on his other arm.

At Restaurant

Arthur, Francis and Mattie sat at a table in a nice, posh restaurant waiting for the fourth member of their family. Matthew's phone vibrated and he went to look at the message he received from his brother.

Baby Bro🇺🇸: Sorry bro, I'm not feeling very well so I won't be able to make it😞. Must've eaten a bad burger or two. Tell Iggy and Francey Pants sorry for me.

"I hope he isn't too ill," Matthew thought worriedly. "I'll swing by either tomorrow or after the dinner."

"Oh um Alfi- America is sick," Matthew said quielty. "He can't come."

"It's just like that wanker to do something like that," Arthur grumbled as he rolled his eyes. "So irresponsible."

"Ohonohon, more alone time for us." Francis said with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Matthew sighed when he realized that he had already been forgotten, gathered his things, whispered a goodbye and left to his car.

"Might as well just go see Alfie now," Matthew said out loud. "Maybe I should stop by McDonalds to get him something? Or maybe pizza? Pizza is good."