CHAPTER 20

 

 

 

 

 

Unknown: Fireball, is it you?

 

 

Annabelle: Tiger?

 

 

Unknown: Yeah, it’s me.

 

 

Annabelle: Do you have me as Fireball in your contacts?

 

 

Tiger: You’re cute you know that. Yes. You happy with that?

 

 

Annabelle: It kinda grew on me.

 

 

Tiger: So what are you doing now?

 

 

Annabelle: Nothing, relaxing. Yourself?

 

 

Tiger: Me, I’m thinking about somebody I met today.

 

 

Annabelle: Oh yeah?

 

 

Tiger: Yeah.

 

 

Annabelle: So…. I was thinking about somebody I met today too.

 

 

Tiger: It better have been me. Baby, I know it was me.

 

 

Annabelle: I’m not telling.

 

 

Tiger: Well I was thinking about you.

 

 

Annabelle: I was thinking about you too.

 

 

Tiger: how old are you?

 

 

Annabelle: Seventeen, turning eighteen in April. Yourself?

 

 

Tiger: I’m seventeen too. I turn eighteen in February.

 

 

Annabelle: Are you going to Royal Heights High?

 

 

Tiger: Why?

 

 

Annabelle: Why?

 

 

Tiger: Would you miss me if I went somewhere else?

 

 

Annabelle: I barely know you…. but maybe a little bit.

 

 

Tiger: Just a little bit? I’m going to RHHS in September. Senior.

 

 

Annabelle: I’m going to be a senior too.

 

 

Tiger: When do u work next?

 

 

Annabelle: Tomorrow. Same time, same place.

 

 

Tiger: Cool. See u tomorrow.

 

 

Annabelle: Cool.

 

 

Later that evening, following the scent of tomato sauce and garlic bread, I entered the kitchen. Katherine my eleven-year-old sister and Charles my thirteen-year-old brother, plus Mom and Dad were sitting at the table with a plate of pasta and garlic bread in front of them.

Mine was the only plate with just salad on it.

Gee, thanks Mom, I know I can always count on you.

I quietly sat in my chair and stabbed a piece of lettuce with my fork.

“Yum.” I muttered, tasting balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

If I went to bed with a stomach full of salad, my parents would have been happy.

But salad wasn’t enough.

So it was the usual routine. Wait for everyone to go to sleep, then take out my secret stash of candy bars and chips from beneath my bed frame. It was an extra three hundred calories that my stomach needed to push away hunger pains until morning.

A few months ago at a 173lbs….

Mom guilt tripped me into doing the whole diet thing by saying I was setting a horrible example for Katherine. Katherine who was a petite ballet dancer now, but who knew what bad habits she might be learning from me. She could begin to gain weight in high school like I did, her dancing career ruined, and it would be my fault for waiting to lose the weight. So for my sister’s sake and for the sake of senior year, the pounds needed to be shredded.

However, for my sake…. was yet to be determined.