Chapter 10

Amelia frowned. Daniela had ditched her to go for a run. Her sister had become obsessed with working out lately. The older girl went for a run almost every morning before breakfast and again at night before dinner, and that was when she was spending three hours after school at gymnastics practice.

Maybe she's just trying to lose a little weight, Amelia told herself. Though she wasn't sure from where. Daniela like herself was tall and skinny. Daniela might have slightly bigger arms and legs, but that was all muscle.

It's a gymnast diet, Amelia tried again to convince herself. That was why Daniela was skipping meals and working out more. She could hear the girl working out in her room in the middle of the night. She had even seen her a few times.

Amelia was still sitting outside the gym sulking as she watched her sister complete her seventh lap around the track when a hand tapped her gently on the shoulder.

Amelia turned around in time to see a pink and white bouquet of flowers being held by her boyfriend.

Eric handed the girl the flowers and sat down beside her. "I know, Daniela just turned you down from grabbing a bite to eat, but will you settle for smoothies with me?"

Amelia nodded smiling.

They went to the frozen yogurt shop down the street from the school. They sat talking and laughing for almost an hour at a corner table by the window, their special spot.

Eric was telling Amelia about something that had happened to him last week at football practice when her phone rang. Amelia glanced at the caller ID. It was her father. She held up her phone frowning as she showed Eric the blinking picture of her father, the words Dad dancing underneath.

"Just ignore it," Eric said calmly taking a sip of his smoothie. "He's just going to stress you out anyway."

Amelia nodded smiling as she placed the phone back down on the table. "You were telling me how your coach went from choking on Gatorade to mooning the entire football team."

Eric laughed. "Yeah, his pants-"

Amelia's phone rang again, and again she ignored it. She and Eric continued laughing and talking.

Amelia's phone buzzed on the table signaling that she had a text message. Eric frowned as he eyed her phone.

"I should probably check that." Amelia said reaching for her phone. "He did call twice."

Eric grabbed her wrist as she placed her hand on the top of the phone. "You always do this, you know that!" Eric hissed at her. "I'm trying to have a conversation with you and you're ignoring me. Why is it anytime I try to spend some quality time together with you, you have to treat me like crap? Like I barely exist?"

He was raising his voice as he spoke and making a scene. There were a few kids from school in the Fro-yo shop and they stopped and stared as Eric spoke in a loud tone.

"What am I not good enough for you?" Eric continued. "I do nothing but try to make you happy and this is how you treat me?"

Amelia glanced around the shop at the people pretending not to be staring. "Eric, you're hurting me." She whispered.

Eric looked down and realized he was gripping her wrist rather tightly. He released her, turning away and sighing.

"I'm sorry," Amelia tried. She rubbed at her wrist and looked down at the table more upset and embarrassed than physically hurt. "I didn't mean to make you feel like that."

Eric turned back to her and offered her a small smile. "No, I'm sorry to. I didn't mean to hurt you." He reached over and smoothed a strand of her long dark hair away from her face, before kissing her softly on the lips.

He glanced around the shop and noticed two guys and girl still watching them. The girl whispered something to the guy who snickered.

"What are you looking at huh?" Eric barked at them. The girl pulled on the arm of one of the guys moving to a different part of the shop.

"Eric please, can we just go?" Amelia asked almost on the verge of tears.

Eric nodded. "Yeah," he reached in his back pocket and pulled out his wallet dropping some cash on the table before reaching down and picking up his backpack.

Eric dropped Amelia off a block from her house. "I love you," he said as she got out of the car.

Amelia smiled and leaned in to kiss him. "I know, I love you too."

She adjusted the flowers in her arms and the strap of her book bag as she entered her home.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she took it out reading the text message from Eric. Hang Tomorrow?

She texted back Yeah 3

Bobby and Jerry were sitting at the kitchen table with Angel when she entered. They greeted her. Angel bounced his son on his knee as the toddler began babbling uncontrollably when he saw his cousin.

"Hey Aaron," Amelia greeted placing her book bag and the flowers on the counter as she picked up the toddler that was reaching for her. "How's my favorite little cousin?"

More babbling from Aaron as he played with Amelia's hair.

"Sorry about missing your call dad," Amelia said as she handed Aaron back to his father. "I forgot my phone was on silent."

Jeremiah nodded. "I understand." He nodded towards the flowers. "Who are those from?" he asked.

Amelia frowned. "Eric," she said picking them back up along with her backpack. "He left them in my lock locker to apologize."

The story wasn't too much of a stretch because Eric had done that once before, but it didn't seem to please Jeremiah or Bobby much. Even Angel looked annoyed by the mention of the boy's name.

"Never again, Amelia." Jeremiah said. "You and Eric are done."

Amelia took the flowers and her bag upstairs to her room collapsing on her bed in tears. Why couldn't they see that she really liked him? That she loved him. Why were they so hell bent on keeping them apart?

At practice, Daniela got onto the scale. The other gymnasts lined up behind her as the coach read the number. "137 pounds." Coach praised smiling. "Attagirl, Daniela. You've lost five pounds."

Daniela nodded as she got off the scale and let the coach reset it for the next person behind her.

Daniela smiled to herself. She had actually lost more, but had gained most of it back in muscle. She had been avoiding the scale more and more lately, too afraid that the number would have gone up. All those times waking up in the middle of the night to do sit ups, pushups, squats and lunges had paid off. She was getting smaller.

She listened as her coach prattled off the weight of the other gymnast after her. Daniela was tall. She knew that she would never be as small as them or weigh as less, but she could be just as skinny and athletic. The other girls weighed in around 105 and maxed out around 115 pounds.

Daniela had started out around 150. She had thought she was small then. It wasn't until she started coming to the gym last year that she had realized how wrong she was.

Daniela moved off to the side as the coach finished up with the rest of the students. She began her warm up preparing herself like any other day.

By the end of her practice she was exhausted. Bobby was already parked outside waiting for her at 8:30 when she walked out of the gym.

"How was practice?" he asked as Daniela opened the door and climbed in. She dropped her bag at her feet and Bobby waited until she was buckled up and her head was leaning against the door before he pulled off.

"Fine," Daniela yawned.

Bobby smiled as he glanced over at his niece. "Want to stop somewhere for dinner? My treat?" Bobby offered.

Daniela shook her head. "No thanks Uncle Bobby. I'm really tired. I just want to go home, take a shower and get some rest."

Bobby frowned, but agreed. The girl did look exhausted. A hot shower and some sleep would probably do her some good.

A/N: Review and let me know what you think :)