VOTE ON MY POLL PLEASE :-p
Over the next few weeks, Kuki continued to eat and force herself to throw up. She no longer ate at lunchtimes, instead she sat with Ruth and Hattie, conversing.
Any time they hung out, Wally had noticed that Kuki no longer seemed to be herself, her skin looked a lot more dry than usual, she seemed to have no energy left and just seemed a lot less happy. Obviously she had started to go fairly thin.
After school one Friday, the old team decided to meet up in the tree house again for a movie night. Nigel had noticed how far apart the team were falling and wanted to try and start doing something as a group at least every fortnight.
"You know what I want?" Hoagie exclaimed as they were halfway through Abby's chosen movie The Bounty Hunter. "Pizza. Anyone else want me to order something?"
"Pepperoni." Wally muttered, not taking his eyes from the screen.
Abby did the same. "BBQ chicken."
"Cheese and tomato please." Nigel said, sitting up and looking up at him.
Wally looked over at Kuki who said nothing, just kept her gaze on the television.
Hoagie also waited for Kuki's order.
"Numbuh 3, what do you want?" He asked.
Kuki looked at him and shook her head. "I already ate. I'm not hungry thanks."
"You wouldn't have eaten since lunchtime at school cause you came straight here." Wally pointed out. "She'll have a Hawaiian."
Kuki glared at him. "You can't just order for me! I said I'm not hungry!"
"Well share mine then." Wally compromised.
Kuki shook her head, repeating herself. "I said that I'm...not...hungry!"
Abby sat up. "Guys chill out. We'll get the pizza and we'll eat it if Numbuh 3 ain't hungry."
Kuki and Wally didn't shift their glares on one another. Hoagie went into the kitchen and picked up the phone, Nigel and Abby turned their attention back to the screen but Wally and Kuki continued to stare one another down.
Kuki then gave up and decided to go to her room. Wally followed her and caught her up, blocking her door before she could walk in.
"Why don't you want anything to eat?" He asked.
Kuki shrugged. "I guess I just had a big lunch...I'm not hungry at all."
"You're not on some crazy diet are ya?" Wally asked in concern.
Kuki shook her head. "No, I just don't want anything to eat okay?"
Wally narrowed his eyes at her. "Well will you just have a slice?"
Kuki sighed and stared at him. He wasn't going to let this go. "Okay."
"You coming to watch the rest of the film?" Wally asked.
"Yeah, sure." Kuki sighed. She followed him out of the hall and back into the main room.
She back back down next to him and continued to watch the movie.
When the pizza arrived about half hour after they all grabbed their boxes and sat in front of the television and tucked in.
Wally looked over and Kuki and noticed that she wasn't eating any of hers, she'd opened the box and was just looking at the food with terror. She looked up at him and glared stubbornly before picking up a slice and taking a bite. She stared at Wally as she ate her whole pizza.
She waited a few minutes while Hoagie put a new DVD in, she then chose to excuse herself.
"I've got to go bathroom." She sighed, standing up ans walking out of the room.
She walked into the bathroom and did as she'd done so many times recently, leant over the basin and pushed her fingers to the back of her throat. She gagged. She once again pushed her fingers to the back of her throat, forcing herself to puke. She panted as she held her hair back, spitting excess vomit into the basin.
She then stood up and went to the door, opening it to see Wally.
"Were you just throwing up?" He asked.
Kuki blinked, not sure what to say. "Uh, yeah, I told you I wasn't hungry, I just suddenly felt really ill."
Wally raised an eyebrow. "The pizza wouldn't make it come up that quick. Did you do that to yourself?"
"Of course not!" Kuki chuckled nervously. "Why would I do that?"
Wally took Kuki's hand in his and examined it.
"What's this?" He asked, showing Kuki a small scrape on her hand, there had been no blood drawn but her skin had been pulled up.
Kuki pulled away and shrugged. "You can't question how I got a graze on my finger, I think I just caught it on something."
She walked into her room, to her disamusement Wally followed her in. She accepted that he wasn't going to drop the conversation so sat down on her bed and glared up at him.
"Did you catch it on your teeth when you shoved it down your throat?" Wally accused.
Kuki gasped. She'd been rumbled.
"How did you know that...?"
"I noticed that you've been acting really weirdly and you obviously haven't been starving yourself but you've got stupidly thin so you had to be doing something. So I looked up on the web symptoms of making yourself throw up, which you show a lot of. Why are you doing this Kuki?"
Kuki blinked, Wally now knew, she couldn't get out of it. She just had to tell him the truth.
She took in a deep breath and looked to the floor sadly. "Because I'm not pretty."
Wally blinked. "What?"
"I'm not pretty!...Wally I hate walking around with Hattie and Ruth because they're so thin and pretty and...Then there's just me! I'm chubby and plain!" Kuki shouted, not mad at him, more at herself for not being attracted.
Wally scratched the back of his neck thinking of what to say next to her. He heaved a sigh and sat down next to her.
"Kuki, you're not plain, you're...you're actually pretty...real pretty. Okay? You're not chubby...you weren't even before you lost all of that weight...I'm just worried about you cause you don't have any weight to lose." He said calmly.
Kuki furrowed her eyebrows. This wasn't a normal Wally reaction, he was being open and...sweet.
Still, she didn't believe him.
"I'm not pretty. Hattie and Ruth are just...gorgeous, I look like a goblin walking around with them. A little fat one." She groaned.
Wally breathed slowly. He was beginning to lose his rag.
Kuki sniffed a few tears. "I have to lose weight to fit in Wally!"
Wally snarled. He grabbed Kuki's wrist and dragged her back into the bathroom firmly. The Wally she knew was back, and his rage was scaring her a little. The grip he had on her wrist was like a Chinese burn.
He stopped in front of the full length mirror and forcibly stood her in front of it.
"That's it! Take a look at yourself Numbuh 3! Can't you see what everyone else sees?" He growled. "If you want to look plastic like sluts like Hattie go ahead! Plaster that orange stuff all over your face and stick on a load of other makeup! You know why!"
He grabbed her head and forced her to look at her reflection.
"Like it or not, you're stuck with how you look for the rest of your life!"
Kuki's lip quivered. Not so much because what Wally had said upset her, she'd understood that and actually, it had made sense. He'd just scared her with his outburst.
Wally sighed, he'd calmed down and realised what he'd done and said to her, he suddenly felt really guilty. She jumped as he stood behind her and touched her shoulders, a lot less firmly than he'd just been. This time his touch was gentle and caring.
"You're not ugly, you're not fat, Okay? You're...pretty and thin. Everyone who meets you loves you, you should cut yourself some slack and quit comparing yourself to others. Love yourself." He said softly. "Just please don't do this to yourself, it's not good for you and it kills me to see you looking so ill."
"Why do you care?" Kuki muttered.
Wally blinked and caught her eye in their reflection. "Why shouldn't I. You're my...best friend...Yeah, that's it."
Kuki looked down to the floor, then up at her reflection. She then gave a small smile and turned to face Wally.
"Thanks Wally." She smiled, pulling him into a hug. He sighed and hugged her back.
She pulled away. "Oh, we'll be missing Hoagie's film!" She exclaimed, rushing out of the bathroom.
Wally watched her walk out. He sighed.
How could a girl so beautiful and happy suddenly lose so much confidence and suddenly get such low self esteem?
He walked out and joined his friends in the main room.
"Hey we were wondering where you guys went to, we thought you'd gone to bed!" Hoagie laughed. "We nearly started without you Numbuh 4."
Wally smiled and sat down next to Kuki, meeting eyes with her as he did so.
She diverted her eye contact to the TV screen. Glancing at the clock she realised that it was late, she was tired. She gave a small yawn and stood up.
"I'm going to bed guys. Night." She looked at Numbuh 4, who was staring at her quizzically. She smiled and whispered. "Thanks."
He smiled back and gave a small nod. "Night Numbuh 3."
She walked into the bathroom and took her toothbrush from the pot. Kuki brushed her teeth casually, she spat out the minty excess and used the empty cup on the side to get some water and swill out her mouth. She then looked into the mirror/cabinet and stared at her face.
'Cut yourself some slack and quit comparing yourself to others' Wally's voice echoed in her head.
He was right, but what was so pretty about her? She walked to the full length mirror by the door and lifted up her shirt to stare at her stomach. Maybe Wally was right, maybe she had got pretty thin, and it didn't look overly nice either. Sure, it was nice thinking that she had a flat stomach but thinking back, Kuki remembered looking in magazines at really thin people who'd gone anorexic, bulimic or tried stupid diets, some of the photos made her want to puke when you could see their bones. And thinking about it, Kuki was getting pretty close to that.
Wally was definitely right about that.