LOVE and SECRETS

⚠️💖SAY GOODBYE💖⚠️

(This chapter references eating disorders and sexual situations.)

Persephone slowly stripped out of her wet suit. She looked at herself in the mirror. Anorexia is a confusing illness. When she looks at herself, she knows she is thin, too thin. She had fallen back into her depression. She had lost her appetite, and within a couple of weeks, she had lost a few pounds, and she liked the way she looked. So, she started with hardcore workouts. She ran, and she lifted weights. She realized that when you go for a long time with minimal food, the feeling of hunger subsides. When she did feel hunger pains, she enjoyed the feeling. More weight came off, and one day, she was smaller than Annie. She was eating maybe three hundred calories a day. She drank water and took vitamins. Until she saw the vitamins had fifteen calories each. Ashley voiced many times how worried she was about her. Ashley, Holden, and his parents sat her down and had an intervention. It wasn't until she had the heart attack that she agreed to go to treatment. 

She pulled an oversized t-shirt from her dresser. Then again everything she owned now was oversized. She slid into bed under the covers. She put her earbuds in and started listening to her Bodhizafa playlist. By the third song, she was in full-blown tears. 

She sat down at the foot of the bed. He's moving to fucking England! I am trying so hard to be happy for him, but I don't want to lose him. I imagined us finally being together. We wouldn't have been that far from each other when we were both in school. He deserves this. He has worked so hard. And he is a great player. 

He stood outside her door. He could hear her crying. He thought about it, and he decided to try to talk to her. He wasn't going to leave it like this. This was his chance to tell her how he felt, and hell or high water. He was going to kiss her. Even if the house was on fire, he was going to let anything stop him. 

He knocked. "Periwinkle? Can I please come in? I really want to talk to you. I know you said I was never allowed back in your room, but I was hoping you could make an exception just this one time."

She took the buds out of her ears. "I'm r-really t-tired," said between sniffles.

"I know. I promise this won't take long. It will take only three minutes and fifty-eight seconds."

"Umm. That's oddly specific." She walked to the door and opened it slowly. 

"That's how long our song is. I want to have a dance before I am forty-two hundred miles from you, which is forth thousand one hundred and ninety-nine miles too many."

The ends of her lips curled up slightly. "Okay." She stepped aside and let him in, closing the door behind him. She handed him an earbud and started their song over again.

"You were listening to it?" he asked her softly. 

"I told you, I listened to it every day."

He took her into his arms, and she put her head on his chest. There was that beautiful heartbeat.

"I'm going to really miss you. I am so stupid for wasting so much time I could have spent with you." She looked up. "I'm sorry, Bodhizafa."

He cradled her face, his hand so large that his fingers rested on the nape of her neck. "You have nothing to be sorry about. Periwinkle, can I kiss you?" 

"Bodhi, you finally got to finish your sentence." She smiled.

"So, is that a yes or no?"

She nodded. "My answer will always be yes."

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💖He bent his neck down, and their lips finally touched. It was romantic. The feeling made her knees weak, and he felt her slip. He supported her weight. He couldn't believe it. She was so light it felt like she weighed nothing. Her lips felt like velvet. She parted them and let his tongue find hers. When the tips touched, he felt himself growing hard. It had finally happened. After years of wanting, waiting, and close calls, he finally kissed his Periwinkle. It was more perfect than he could have imagined. His hand slid down her back, and he pressed her closer. For a moment, he thought that he might break her. He eased up, but she pulled him into her and closed the gap.