Chapter Two

Lucas looks across the food court table at me. He smiles and I think his eyes may have sparkled.

"What do you think, Riley?" He asks me.

I look down at the food in front of me. Chicken nuggets, chili cheese fries, and honey mustard to dip the nuggets in, altogether too many calories for me. I look back at Lucas.

"I liked the movie but the ending was kind of predictable. Don't you think?" I ask while I cut my nugget in half and dip it in the sauce.

Farkle begins nodding enthusiastically. "Yes, I agree." He continues on with telling us the holes in the movie's plot.

Farkle is eating a burrito. Not just a regular burrito, a huge burrito. So instead of picking it up and eating it, he is eating it with a fork. He doesn't have a side but the burrito is going to fill him up. I think he might puke later.

Lucas is eating sliders. He ordered three chicken sliders and he ordered two regular beef sliders. He has an order of fries. He doesn't eat them with ketchup.

Maya is eating a piece of pizza. She is dipping the pizza in ranch dressing.

We all have Coke as a beverage.

The nugget I cut up has found its way into my stomach. I already feel sick. And I don't want to eat. But they will notice and ask me questions. They will tell Dad because they can't keep secrets like normal humans.

I don't want the food.

I need the food because I need energy and I need energy to walk.

I can walk fine. I don't need this food. I can go on for days.

My body has been feeling weird lately. It feels like there is a bomb in my stomach. But that's impossible because I don't put things in my mouth anymore. I've also been arguing with myself. But it's also not myself. There's someone else. I don't know who she is yet, but she's there. I can feel her.

"Riley, hello," Maya is waving her hand in my face. Lucas is staring at me with concern and Farkle is too. "Earth to Riley. Please speak to us humans."

I blink. I can feel myself blush from embarrassment. I smile. "I'm sorry. I was completely lost in thought. What happened?"

"Farkle asked you a question." Lucas says. My sentence didn't seem to calm him.

I turn my attention to Farkle. "Yes,"

Turns out the question wasn't important. He was just going to ask about my other thoughts on the film. You know normal friend-talk. But I have forgotten normal friend-talk. I am not accustom to it anymore.


"Riley, are you okay?" Maya asks me.

We are in my bedroom. We just got back from our outing with Lucas and Farkle.

Maya is looking in the bag she brought. She is staying about a week with us. Her mother is going to somewhere; I wasn't paying attention when Maya told me, to see family members. Maya was going to go but she realized she hated her family and she'd rather be with me.

I know I should be excited but I need to be alone. I need to be alone with the girl inside my mind. It's rather odd she hasn't introduced herself to me yet. Apparently she's going to live with me for a while. We should know each other's names. Right?

"Yeah, I'm good." I say dropping my purse on my desk near the door. "Why?"

Maya shrugs. "You've been acting weird all day, like you are out of your body or something."

I force out a laugh. "You're crazy, Maya."

She looks up and smiles at me. "Maybe,"

I grab a pair of pajama pants, a regular plain tshirt, and clean underwear. "I'm going to take shower. You can after me. Okay?"

Maya nods. "Good. I'll give me enough time to actually find what I'm looking for."

I exit my room and cross the hall to the bathroom.


My shower took probably fifteen minutes at the most. I get out and dry myself. I put on my under clothes and weigh myself again.

105.5

No, no! I gained weight. I shouldn't have eaten five chicken nuggets and all of the chili cheese fries. This is completely awful. And now I'm going to have to eat even more food with Maya. This is so awful I want to scream but instead I just stare at the mirror while I scream and kick and crying inside my head.

I put the scale back. I quickly dress. I grab a brush and walk out of the bathroom.

I walk into my room. Maya looks up from her phone that my father gave her. She sees me and grabs the clothes beside her. She passes me and goes to the bathroom.

I sit in front of my mirror and begin to brush my hair. A lot of it falls out but I'm used to it. I thought I'd be hard to hide the fact that my hair is falling out from my family. I just put my hair back in a ponytail and fluff it up. It looks fuller.


Maya and I are sitting on my couch. It's around two in the morning. Normally if one of my parents found us like this they'd yell and tells us to go to sleep. But since it's summer all of those rules do not exist.

There is a bowl of popcorn between us. One the table there is a bag of twislers, a plate of chocolate chip cookies, and soda drinks.

My hand has been in the popcorn bowl for the past five minutes. I have no idea what we are watching. My mind is too caught up on all the food. It's not like I want it. I'm just scared of what Maya will say if I don't anything. She might not say anything, she might just think, and keep it inside her head. But that would probably bubble up and she'd ask out loud, instead of just inside her head where she will not get an answer.

I grab a cookie and bite into it. Sure, it tastes good but I don't need it nor do I want it. I force the rest of the cookie down my throat.


It's four in the morning and I'm in the bathroom. I'm pacing the room, back and forth. My hands are in my hair and I think I might cry. Never mind, I am crying.

Maya is asleep so she won't hear me.

I ate too much. TOO MUCH. I ate three cookies, six handfuls of popcorn, and ate at least ten twislers. I drank four cups of Dr. Pepper. This is disgusting. I can feel all the food in my stomach and it's sickening.

I look at the mirror. My face is red and my eyes are too. My face is also wet. What should I do?

"Vomit," A voice says. It's the girl in my mind.

"What?" I ask aloud.

"Stick your finger in your mouth, far down your throat." She says. "The food will come up and you'll feel better."

"Won't it hurt?"

She nods. I don't see it but I know she does. "Yes. But you see, darling, beauty is pain."

I nod. I make sure all of my hair is in the ponytail. I roll up my sleeves too.

I put the seat of the toilet up and get on my knees.

"Stand up, more will come out." The girl says.

I take the advice and stand up. I take a deep breath. I'm too scared, I'm too scared. I don't care!

I put my finger in my mouth and when nothing happens I push it farther. I put my middle finger in there too. Soon everything comes up.

I push my finger in my mouth once more, a little comes up. I put it in there a third time. This time nothing appears. I guess I finished.

"It worked." I say.

The girl smiles, "I told you."

"Thanks. What's your name?"

"Ana," She says.

"I'm Riley." I tell her.

"Well Riley, we are going to become best friends."


Chapter Two!

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