Chapter five

The three guys broke their conversation and looked toward the bedroom door as it opened. They watched Davy leave the bedroom and walk straight into the kitchen. A small amount of relief arose when they saw that he was throwing away empty food wrappers and boxes. Their relief, though, was on edge because they knew this didn't mean anything positive. Instead, they watched in dismay as Day loaded his arms full of food before heading back into the bedroom.

Due to his constant emotional eating, Davy had grown quite large. As far as the other guys were aware by his actions, Davy didn't seem to care about the weight he had gained. Despite the fact that he was so emotional all the time, his actions led the other to believe that his weight was the farthest thing on his mind, right next to his ability to care or his thoughts of trying to get better. They came to the collective conclusion that if they didn't step in soon, Davy would go on this way forever.

"We have to do something." Mike said with a stern tone.

Micky kept his gaze on the closed bedroom door. "Davy has gotten really big. I never thought I'd be saying something like that about him."

Peter shook his head sadly. "I feel so bad for him. He cries in there all the time. You should hear some of the things he says to himself. He's so terrible on himself. He's never going to come out of this depression unless we help him. He needs us."

"Peter's right." Mike said. "He's struggling."

"He's told me before he feels trapped. He's trapped, Mike." Peter said, tears forming in his eyes. "What do we do? How do we help him?"

"We'll have to push him. For starters we have to get him to stop eating."

"How do we do that?" Micky asked with a little bit of a whine. "We've already tried talking to him but that only upset him more!"

"Well Mick, we'll just have to be a bit more, a bit more forceful. Stern. We have to break him. Don't back down when he gets emotional."

"But that seems so mean!" Peter exclaimed.

"Not mean, Peter. We have to push him to his breaking point. Show him tough love."

"Tough love." Peter sighed. "Right. It still feels mean though."

Mike placed a hand on Peter's shoulder and looked into his eyes. "Trust me, Peter. It's not mean. It's what he needs."

Peter nodded and whispered. "Okay."

"Good. Okay guys, let's go in there."

Davy jumped when they entered the room. He looked at them, startled and he shoved the uneaten food aside, along with empty wrappers.

"What are you guys doing here?" He asked, agitated. "What's going on?"

Mike was the first one to approach Davy's bed. He looked at the food and the wrappers in disgust before looking at Davy.

"I think you know what it's about." Davy looked at him bewildered. "Davy you need to stop eating. Look at yourself. Constantly stuffing your face. Your weight… Davy you've had to of gained at least 100 pounds!"

"You're huge Davy. Have you seen yourself?" Micky chimed in.

"I uh…" Davy stammered, shocked by the sudden approach. His eyes moved swiftly from side to side and he trembled through his rising fear amongst other emotions. He swallowed and tried to get words to come out. "Well I um… I… Wh-why are you doing this?"

Peter gazed upon him, sadness full in his eyes. He turned his head down and played uncomfortably with his hands. In that moment he wasn't sure if he was more upset over Davy's current state or if he was more troubled by the blunt approach the other two guys had made.

"Davy… please. We're worried about you. This eating is way out of control. Food is all you care about now. You don't even talk to any of us." Tears came to his eyes. "All you do is hold yourself up in here eating all day. You cry all the time too. Davy, you might think I don't hear the things you say to yourself but I do."

Davy stared at them, unable to do anything else. Panic rose inside him and his eyes filled with tears. "You guys don't understand." His voice was quiet, squeaking a little as he spoke. Tears began to rush down his face. "You don't understand. I need this food."

"No you don't!" Mike snapped. He scooped up some of the food, yanking it away fast as Davy tried to grab it. "You don't need it, Davy. Like Peter said, we're all worried about you. All this eating and crying, throwing yourself all these pathetic pity parties while you stuff yourself full of food is getting you nowhere! All it's done was make you a fat emotional heap! Davy this needs to stop and it needs to stop now."

Davy closed his eyes tight and more tears fell. He let out a pained sob and brought his hands to his face. "Stop yelling at me! Please! I can't take this!"

"Well we can't take you being like this, Davy!" Micky exclaimed. "You're going to wind up over 800 pounds and unable to move if you keep this up!"

"No! Stop it!" Davy sobbed, sounding even more pained and frightened.

Peter frowned and stepped between the bed and the other two guys. "This is enough. Please you're only hurting him. He doesn't need this." He sat beside Davy and wrapped his arms around him, comforting him while he continued to cry.

"Why are they being so mean?" Davy whispered with his face buried in Peter's chest. He sniffed.

Peter rubbed Davy's back. "I didn't want us to do it this way. I didn't. They thought you needed tough love so you could break."

"But why?" Davy's voice was so pained and full of tears. "Why? I never did anything to them!"

"You… kinda did though. To all of us. By suffering so much getting worse and worse in your depression. You made us worry so much about you."

Hearing this, Davy continued to sob in Peter's arms. Knowing it was best, Peter kept quiet and held him. Davy cried for a little bit before pulling away. Still with tears in his eyes, he stood and looked at everyone. He trembled for a moment and appeared as though he was going to speak to them; like he was about to explode all his emotional grievances all over them. Letting out a short, and staggered breath, he hurried past them, giving them a shove as he moved out the door.

Assuming that Davy was headed straight for the kitchen to grab more food, they were stunned when he entered the bathroom instead. Before they could say anything, Davy had slammed the door closed. For a moment they wondered if they should try to get him to come out and talk to them. Instead, they decided that I was a better idea to let Davy stay in there and cool down.

In the bathroom, Davy stood there and shook. He tried to block out everything they had said to him. But he knew that they were right. He knew his eating had gotten way out of control. He knew that he had gained a lot of weight, and would just continue gaining weight if he kept eating. At the same time he felt as though he had to keep eating. In his mind, it was the only way that he was going to feel better, even though it only ever made him feel worse. He simply wasn't ready to give it up. As much as he knew he needed to stop, as much as he knew he needed to get better, he felt that he needed more time. He needed to keep eating.

Closing his eyes, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Once calm, he looked at himself and thought about what Mike said about his weight. He had gained a lot, but 100 pounds? He couldn't fathom himself being that heavy even though he knew it was quite possible. Looking into the mirror, he was a bit surprised at what he saw. He turned from side to side and even turned to get a good look behind him. He was big. Much bigger than he thought he was. A hundred pound gain no longer seemed like such a far stretch. Still, he had to find out for sure.

Looking across the room, he saw a scale tucked in the corner. He bit his lip and walked over to the scale. Moving the scale away from the corner, he stared at it anxiously. He took a deep breath and stepped on the scale, ready to accept anything. When the needle stopped he was stunned for a second. He frowned at the number, upset over the truth. He certainly had gained 100 pounds, give or take a few.

"Wouldya look at that?" Davy grumbled, staring at the scale. He placed his hands on either side of his rounded, protruding belly. "I've got right tubby, haven't I?" he grunted, grabbing at his fat. "My belly doesn't even stay in my shirt anymore."

Davy let out a heavy sigh and stepped off the scale. He poked and grabbed at his body, grumbling over the amount of fat on it.

"Good lord am I fat. It'll take me forever to lose this weight."

He looked up and stared at his reflection in the mirror. His breath gasped out quietly and a tremble ran through his body. Tears moved into his eyes. He clutched and relaxed his fists, unsure of what to do with them. All his misery all the suffering he had endured over the many months quickly filled him as he continued to stare at his reflection. Thoughts of Nurse Cheryl expressing her deep disappointment towards him, for everything he had done to himself, rushed to him. This made him hate himself even more than he ever had.

As much as he hated himself, and as much as he wanted to look away, he made himself take it. He made himself see what he had done to himself. He made himself see how incredibly miserable he was.

Tears burned his eyes even more. He swallowed a hard lump and winced as the tears began to fall. Dropping down to sit on the edge of the tub, he released a yell. He pounded his fists onto the tub and cried out again as tears started rushing out. All his pain and pure anguish came out through those tears. As he released everything he had, he knew the others could hear him. He knew they heard every yell, every sob, but he didn't care. He needed to let out; he needed to explode.

Davy shook and sobbed, feeling all his demons beating on him from the inside. At this point, he had no strength to fight those demons. Realizing this made him cry harder and curse everything about himself. He cried so hard that he didn't realize his friends had rushed into the room until they took to his side.

At first Davy pushed them away, since he initially felt smothered by their attempts to comfort him. He heard them say something to him, or perhaps to each other about him but he was too involved in his emotions to know what it was. The next thing he knew, he was alone with Peter. With tear-blurred vision, he looked at Peter and sobbed helplessly. He closed his eyes tight and felt Peter pull him into a hug. It only took him a few seconds to realize that this hug was all he needed.

Once Peter had him calm, Davy pulled away with a sniff and looked at him. He quietly thanked him for helping him calm down. After that, he started talking, though through a strained voice, and he expressed everything on his mind. But out of everything he said, nothing was harder or more important than the simple three small words.

"I need help."

Peter nodded sympathetically. "We're all here for you, Davy. We'll help you any way we can."

"Thank you." Davy sniffed "I'm such a fucking mess. But I did it to myself." He looked at him. "I'm scared, Peter."

"It's okay to be scared, Davy. But you admitted you need help. That's a really big step."

"I know. He whimpered "But it's hard."

"Well this won't be easy you know that."

Davy nodded slowly. "I… I'm going to try. I want to get better. I can't live this way anymore. Peter I mean it. I can't… I can't keep eating like I have. I… I have to find another way to comfort myself than through food."

"Yeah but Davy… have you even really been comforted by the food?"

Davy closed his eyes and felt the lump in his throat begin to swell up again. "No." he squeaked out. "No I haven't. That's what scares me. Because even though I knew it wasn't comforting, I kept eating anyway. Now look at me."

"You're going to get better, though. We'll help you pull through this. You're going to beat this depression. We won't let it beat you."

"I'm going to try. I'm going to try so hard." He hugged Peter. "Thank you Peter. I needed this."

"You're welcome Davy. Just remember, you're not alone in this. We're all here for you."

Davy nodded and hugged him a little tighter. He knew it was going to be a tough fight to get out of his depression once and for all. He knew it was going to be hard to break away from all the eating he had been doing. But he also knew he had to try. He had to get better.