Chapter Two: Ravenous
She lied awake in bed that night, her knees clutched to her stomach as she was curled up in the fetal position. The sheer hunger pains alone were so painful they bordered on crippling. The young Israeli felt nothing but ravenous. Ziva was on the verge of tears, it having been six days since that night at dinner. No one had noticed that she was not eating. No one noticed she had begun to lose just a little bit of weight. She had never before gone this long without food and it was driving her absolutely mad. Yet again her stomach growled at her, screaming and begging for food. Ziva, no longer able to ignore this pain, sat up in bed. With one hand gripping at her deprived stomach, she walked the short distance to the restroom. Shutting the door, she turned the water on and began drinking handful after handful of water, until her stomach was so full it hurt to stand. She did this to feel relief from that pain, but she found it only brought on another. A few moments of gripping onto the sink counter had passed before she was able to find her way back to her bed.
The next morning Ziva awoke, not even remotely hungry. She actually felt good. Usually this was how her days went. In the morning she felt so strong, so good, so happy… but by evening she would be in hell. She got herself ready for school and looked at herself in the mirror. Pale faced, Ziva wondered if anyone would notice, or realize that she had not eaten in a week. She practically painted her face in makeup to distract from the true paleness beneath it and it seemed to work. Instead of getting a ride from Ari, she decided to walk to school. She was surprised she had actually summoned the energy to perform this act.
When she arrived at school, Ziva sat by herself in the quad, hoping the sun would keep her from being so cold. Seven days without eating was proving to have even more of an effect on her than she previously thought it would. Shivering, Ziva kept her face to the morning sun. Heat radiated across her flesh, warming her just a bit. Her hands trembled, and her teeth chattered as an indescribable amount of cold festered throughout her. It was then when she saw her.
"Hi!" The female's voice greeted.
Ziva looked up from her lap to see a gothic girl, a perky expression on her face despite her manner of dress. She waved at me as she smiled.
"Hello." Ziva replied emotionlessly.
"I've seen you around campus before. My name is Abby. You're Ziva right?"
Ziva simply nodded, shivering even more as the wind picked up. Abby furrowed her brows, herself thinking it was hot for being so early in the day. It confused her to see that Ziva was cold.
"You okay?" Abby asked.
"Yes."
Abby pursed her lips in thought before sitting beside the foreign girl.
"We have a café here in the cafeteria. Would you like me to buy you some coffee? It may warm you up a bit." Abby offered.
Ziva nodded again, not talking. Abby noticed her teeth chattering a bit, the wind gusting again. Even with this going on, Ziva would have rather been outside than inside. The interior of the building was even more frigid. Abby patted Ziva's thigh.
"I will be right back." She informed before going to get Ziva the coffee.
When Abby returned Ziva seemed to be even colder, shivering harder.
"You oughta get yourself a school hoodie or something. They make them big and thick." Abby explained. "I take it you are used to much hotter weather, hmm?"
"Yeah, that is it." Ziva lied, taking the coffee.
She sipped it, her stomach instantly filling with the warm fluid. Her entire body swarmed with warmth yet it was not enough, so she took one more sip.
"I see." Abby responded, she herself sipping a cold drink within a large cup which read caf-pow.
Ziva furrowed her brows upon noticing this.
"What is caf-pow?" Ziva questioned, gesturing towards Abby's obscenely large cup.
"Oh! It's an energy drink. Want some?" Abby offered.
"God no, but thank you!" Ziva responded, knowing one sip of something that cold could potentially send her into some sort of cold shock.
She took a large gulp of her coffee, warming up a bit more.
"Alright." Abby said with a shrug, biting onto the red straw which poked out from the drink. "You know, it's been nice meeting you. I, uh, I hope we get to talk more. My boyfriend's here now, so I'll talk to you later sometime."
Ziva watched as Abby scurried off towards a nerdy looking fellow and let out a breath. She would by eternally grateful for Abby's abrupt arrival. She continued to drink more of the coffee, savoring each drop for she felt as though she was the only one who understood how precious the fluid was. And when the bell for first period rang, she went to her class, starting another day of deceit, lies, and keeping up false appearances.
Taking Abby's advice, Ziva, instead of eating lunch that day, took all the money she had saved from not eating and went to the main office to purchase one of the hoodies. She got a medium and pulled it onto her slowly shrinking frame. Just within those seven days she had lost three pounds. Now one-hundred thirty two pounds, Ziva convinced herself she would stop her "crash diet" once she got to one-hundred twenty five pounds. This was the goal she had set for herself. She had no idea just how difficult it would become to stop once she did reach her goal.