Chapter 21

"After Mason Greyback's death sentence was official, he seemed to have escaped. Yesterday morning, a police officer reported that Mason's jail cell had been empty when inmates were still in lockdown. One inmate reported that the night before, Mason had been obsessing over Alexandra Russo, who he allegedly raped, assaulted, and committed murder to her unborn baby. Police officers on a search for him. If anyone sees him, please report him to 911 immediately. Back to you Lisa."

Justin turned the TV off as Alex made her way into the living room. He watched her slip on her shoes and pull her jacket on. But he stopped her just as her hand collided with the doorknob. "Where are you going?"

"The mall." She raised her eyebrows, waiting for the lecture.

"By yourself? You know you're not allowed..."

"Dean's going with me. In fact Dean's here to pick me up right now. Goodbye." Alex opened the door, quickly closing it behind her. She ran down to the car, quickly sliding inside. She took a deep breath as she rested her hands on the steering wheel. "Finally, some freedom." She pulled out of the driveway, heading to the mall. She pulled into the farthest space, trying to squeeze in as much exercise as possible. She walked into the mall, feeling everyone's eyes on her. Her eyes wandered, before she glued them to the floor, bowing her head. Her self confidence had already disappeared and this made it even further out of reach.

She quickly made her way into Forever 21, struggling to ignore the various pairs of eyes staring at her. She lifted her head, sighing at the many skimpy bathing suits surrounding her. It was only March, but bathing suits always came out early. Maybe coming to the mall wasn't a good idea. But where else was she supposed to go? She couldn't go to the gym, where she wanted to go, because her family had forbidden her from going their. And she couldn't sneak there, because one of her Mother's friends worked there and was always there.

Going some place to eat was a definite no, because she was trying to eat as little as possible-which meant only eating when her family forced her to at dinner. Dinner was the only thing she ate, except for the days when Dean would force her to eat lunch and she didn't have time to get away from him to throw it out and say she ate it. But then she'd usually throw it up anyway. And at dinner time she'd eat until her parents told her she could be full and then she secretly go burn all of the calories off.

But finding time to exercise was hard. Her family was trying to keep her away from exercising, because she apparently go too into it. And her family was almost always with her, because it was "dangerous" to leave her alone. She was being suffocated from the protection. And today she had to get away from it. So the mall it was. She'd get some exercise in with walking and she knew she wouldn't see Harper or Dean here. Harper was babysitting and Dean would never be at the mall, unless he was with her or he was buying a gift for her.

"Do you need any help, ma'am?" The employee asked, watching Alex stare off into a daze.

"I'm just looking, thanks." Alex forced a slight smile, spotting a cute bathing suit. She picked it up, stared at it, and put it back down. She didn't want to see herself in a bathing suit. She walked out of the store, colliding with Harper. "Harper? I thought you were babysitting."

"Turns out the kid has the stomach virus so I got off the hook. I called your house to see if you wanted to go to the mall and Justin told me you were here with Dean. Where is he?" She dodged back in forth for the search of Dean.

"Um...he...went to the bathroom."

"Oh I'm surprised usually he doesn't leave you alone anywhere, not even for the bathroom. Well let's...wait a second...he's not here is he? Isn't he supposed to be helping fix his friends car?"

"Crap." Alex mumbled. She knew there was no way of getting out of this. "Okay you caught me, I'm not with him."

"Alex you know you're not suppose to go anywhere without anyone unless you're at home or at someone's house."

"But I can't stand it anymore! You're all suffocating me! Don't you get that I need to be alone!"

"But it's dangerous." Harper started, watching everyone stare at Alex as they passed.

"He's in jail Harper." Alex rolled her eyes, sighing.

"Well..." Harper started, but decided not to continue. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to tell Alex. Especially not here. "It's not just because of him. You're still not eating enough and suppose you just pass out on the floor."

"Well I'm sure someone will call for help. People aren't just going to walk over an unconscious person. And I'm not going to pass out because I am eating enough." Her voice grew tense, with a hint of annoyance.

"You're not eating enough and if you keep it up you're going to end up in the hospital again." Harper warned. "I miss the old Alex. What happened to her?"

"She got fat."

"Alex what happened the girl who didn't care what other people thought about her? Or who always pulled crazy pranks on people and was always laughing? I miss that girl." Harper took her hand, giving it a tight squeeze.

"You try being the fat one."

"But you're not fat. Why don't you understand this?"

"Because I am." Alex let a tear slip from her eye.

"Alex you're sick. And you need to gain weight. It's not normal to be able to see every bone in your body. I'm not a therapist and I don't how to fix the image you're seeing in the mirror, but you're not fat. Look at you're arms. You can see almost every bone in it. Please stop saying you're fat." Harper couldn't only the tears back any longer. They all came down one by one.

"You don't know what I've been through."

"Alex I know you've been through a lot of awful stuff, but you're ruining you're life. Do you want to grow up and have children?"

"Yeah, I guess." Alex burrowed her eyebrows, trying to figure out Harper's point.

"Well if you keep this up, you're not going to live to grow up and Anorexic people usually have a hard time conceiving."

"So do obese people. And I already conceived, but she was murdered!" Alex started to leave, but Harper grabbed her.

"Alex, wait!"

"No, please just leave me alone." Alex said between sobs.

"Let me take you home."

"But my car..."

"Somebody will get it later. I'm driving you home." She looped her arm with Alex's quickly moving out of the mall. She was trying to avoid people staring but everyone saw Alex sobbing and everyone most likely knew why. But right now, Alex had other things on her mind.

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