Malory smiles as she walks into the house, "You can go now, Romeo. I can take it from here."
"Promise you be okay?" Romeo asks quietly.
I nod my head, "I'll call you if i need anything."
"I'll be home later tonight, i'll take the spare room. You can bring your other friends over if you want." He kisses my cheek, then my lips, then mutters words to Malory before leaving.
She hugs me right away, "How are you?"
"I'm getting better. Therapy's going well and so is... Romeo." I smile, sitting on the couch. "Should we call Anna and B and Hafsa?"
"Of course. Give me their numbers and I'll call them right now!" She takes her phone out of her pocket.
I give her their numbers and she tells me they'll all be here soon. So I give her a tour, she stops when she sees the bedroom, "Wow."
"Great, right?" I open the closet.
She walks in with wide eyes and takes one of my dresses down, "can I try this on?"
"Go right ahead." I laugh.
She strips right inf rot of me and I have to look away. Don't compare myself to other people, that's what my therapist is saying.
But I look back at her.
She's so beautiful.
I look at her long legs, the way her thighs don't touch and she doesn't have to shimmy into the dress, it just slides onto her effortlessly.
I smile when I see the dress, even though I wanted to cry. "You can keep it. It looks much better on you."
"Thank you." She looks in the mirror, "Wow, your closet is amazing."
"I'm just going to use the bathroom. Take what you want." I walk into the bathroom.
I pull my pants off, looking at the saran wrap and duct tape wrapped around my thighs.
When I was in Korea, there was a girl I met. She told me to do this. It's why I don't let Romeo touch my thighs.
I cut down the ones I did this morning and wrap so the saran wrap tighter, following by wrapping the duct tape around my thighs again, tighter.
I pull my pants back up, satisfied with the gap between my thighs. I wash my face a couple of times before walking back out. She had put something else on and was taking pictures. "Even the lighting in this closet is amazing!"
"Romeo's mom decorated it all." I smile. "I'm so happy to see you again."
"I missed you so much." She hugs me again. "I missed Romeo too. He was always paying a lot when he came to the strip club but he hasn't since... you left."
"Never?"
"Not when i've been working." She shakes her head. "Anyways, when the girls come. What should we do?"
"We can bake. I love baking, watch movies, I got Romeo to buy face masks and nails- we can just do girly stuff."
"I love that idea."
When the girls came, they were all normal with me; even B.
We bake cookies, I make them try it and then I pretend to eat. Then we make cupcakes. I laughed a lot, we made a big mess but at least we had fun.
After, Malory heads to the store to buy us all matching PJ's, the rest of us steal all the blankets and bring it downstairs.
When she returns, we change.
We get on the floor and put on a movie while eating cookies and cake.
Anna then gets hungry and starts making herself some food. We change from movie to music and end up screaming Lady Gaga from the top of our lungs.
Then we sit and let Malory do our nails, Anna does our hair and we just have fun. We make more stuff, sing more songs and then Malory puts karaoke on and we continue making as much noise as possible.
I go upstairs to use the bathroom and when I'm on the toilet, the door bursts open and B walks in. She looks right at my thighs and laughs.
I pull my pants up right away, embarrassed. I feel my heart start to race.
She closes the door and pulls my pants down again. "What the fuck, Delilah?" She shakes her head, though her tone seemed like mockery.
"Stop it, B." I push her away, pulling my pants back up.
"Does Romeo know? How about your new friends?" She rolls her eyes slightly.
"Shut up, B. It's none of your business."
"You're trying to make yourself skinnier, Delilah. It's some of my business." She looks in the mirror. "Just give up, ok. You don't have the right body type."
"Go away please B."
"No." She opens the drawers, pulling out condoms. She shakes her head. "I'm going to tell Romeo."
"Don't." I shake my head. "Please."
"Why shouldn't I?" She scoffs.
"Becaus it's not his business. I'm working on it myself-"
"You look at Malory every chance you get. Just admit, you're jealous of her and her stupid body and stupid laugh." She rolls her eyes. "Romeo probably finds her hotter than you. Is that why you're doing this?"
"Just go away, B." I snatch the condoms off her. "Go."
"You're so fucking annoying, Delilah. You just left us. Then you get your stupid friend to call us and tell us that you're home but to be weary because you tried killing yourself over a fucking guy." She shakes her head, laughing. "Seriously, Delilah "
"That's not what happened, B. Don't assume things."
She rolls my sleeves up, "so you didn't do this because of Romeo, no?"
"No." I pull my arms away. "No, if you're forgetting I literally got kidnapped, B. I had a miscarriage and all my childhood trauma." I frown. "Why are you so mad that I need time for myself?"
"Because you left me. You left me at school. You left me to hook your new model friends and your stupid boyfriend. You prioritised him over me and Hafsa all the time."
"Hafsa doesn't have a problem with it."
"She's stupid too." She opens the draw again. "I wish you killed yourself, Delilah. I wish you did. It would save me coming back into your life all the time so that I can just watch you relapse." She looks at my legs.
"You don't mean that." I mutter.
"Yes I do. Fucking hell you're wrapping your thighs in saran wrap because you're so insecure of your new supposed best friend." She pulls out the razors Romeo uses to shave, then throws them at me.
"What is wrong with you?" I wipe my eyes
The door opens and Malory stands there looking disgusted at B. She wraps B's hair around her first and pulls her out of the bathroom.
"Anna, come get this bitch!" She shouts, then I hear loud thuds and conclude Malory definitely pushed B down the stairs.
She walks back into the bathroom and hugs me. "Delilah, I know you probably don't want to hear it, but please... please stop comparing yourself to people who look like me." She pulls away. She closes the door, "Take your pants off."
"No."
"I won't force you. But take the saran wrap off, please."
"You don't understand." I raise my voice. "I... I try my hardest to look like girls like you and it never works." I shake my head.
"You don't need to look like us for Romeo to love you, Delilah!" She puts her hands on my shoulders, "God, no. He doesn't care. When he was doing what he did, he found girls that looked like you."
"Then why do i still feel so ugly?" I ask. "I feel so gross."
"I don't know but you need to stop doing stuff that could damage your health." She smiles softly. "Take your pants off."
I step out of my pants and she looked so upset as she cut down the tape and plastic. "Don't do this again. I won't tell Romeo unless I catch you doing it again." She looks at my thighs, "You have a beautiful body. I would die for a natural figure like yours."
"I hate it." I pull my pants back up.
"I don't. My mom..." She smiles. "My mom always said these are called love handles." She holds her hands on my hip dips. "Makes it easier for your partner to hold."
"How do you stay so skinny?"
"I have a thyroid issue." She rubs her lips together. "I can't gain weight no matter how hard I try but... but I'll help you control your weight if you want? Healthily. We can go to the gym... eat healthy meals... not compare ourself to other people."
"I would like that." I smile.
The bathroom door opens and Romeo walks in, "Hey, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
Malory smiles, "I'm gonna clean up downstairs." She kisses the top of my head and walks away.
I hug Romeo, "How was work?"
"Why are you crying?"
"B and I got into an argument... Don't think i'll be talkikg to her anytime soon." I hug him.
He holds me tightly, then I got curious. I pull away and guide his hands to my hips. He raises an eyebrow.
"Do you like my hips?"
"I do." He smiles.
I hug him again, "did you come home early?"
"It's 2AM, baby."
I pull away. "Oh."
"It's alright. Go have a good time with your girls." He wipes my cheeks for me.
When I go back downstairs, all the girls pretended nothing happened. Hafsa seemed distracted but didn't say anything.
We all curl up on the floor to sleep, Hafsa takes the couch and plays with my hair the entire time we watch another movie.
They all fell asleep at one point.
Romeo appears from the hallway and smiles as he leans against the doorframe.
I get out of the pile of blanket and walk to him. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead."
"Did you cheat on me with Kelly because she looked like me or because you wanted me to look like her?"
He sits on the stairs, "she looked like you. Same body type, that's all I cared about."
"I have the same body as Kelly?"
"Yeah. I don't know what you see when you look in the mirror, Delilah. But you're not fat. You're not extremely skinny. You had Kelly's body... exactly."
I do
"I always felt I was much bigger."
"You're not. You shouldn't either, most of the strippers at the club are sick... like Malory has throid issues, Karla has an abnormally fast metabolism, Janice has IBD..."
"I just thought that's what they were naturally."
"Usually not. Even the models you see on TV, they're on unnatural diets. But no matter what you weigh, I'll love you. Your weight doesn't determine your worth. I just want you to be healthy." He shrugs.
I never seen it like that.
I smile, "Thank you."
"Can I join you?"
"No... Hafsa is here." I kiss him slowly. "Goodnight."
"Night precious."
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i literally have no motivation to write i'm sorry this is so shit
word count: 1865