Ding-dong!
I walk to the door to greet my best friend, Emma. She was coming over to do a project for school. I've never had a crush on her or anything, we've just been best friends since forever. I think even since preschool. Anyway, I get up from the floor, after doing push-ups, to unlock the door. Yeah, I was doing push-ups. I'm not really that into working out, but it just kinda makes me feel good. Also, I like the comfortable tracksuit I'm in. It's soft. But it's not like I need to work out. I'm really skinny. Like, underweight.
Okay, so, I unlock the door for Emma and she comes inside. She has her computer and everything. Before we get to work, I have a little snack while Emma gets herself situated. I know I just worked out, but again, I'm underweight, so I have a few marshmallows. They're old, but they've been lying around so I just have two or three.
A few hours later, after we've gotten a considerable amount of work done, we decide to relax and play a game. I don't have any fun games in my house besides Charades. Yeah, my mom's not that fun of a person. But we both agree on Charades and I think that maybe it might actually fun to play it.
Emma goes first.
One word. Two syllables. She's making circles with her hands, but pushing outwards. And her cheeks are all sucked in. A fish?
"Fish!"
She shakes her head no but she makes a "kind-of" hand gesture. Wow, I'm stupid. Two syllables! Idiot.
"Oh, swimming!"
"Yes!"
We laugh a bit and then it's my turn. Emma goes back over to the couch, but remains standing. She's so serious about the game that it's actually a bit funny. I stand up and pick a card. making a sandwich. Uh, wow. This is a hard one.
"Can I choose a different one?"
"No, you gotta do the one you get!"
Ugh. Okay. Let's try this. I lay my hands out in front of me, kind-of making a rectangle to show a table, and I pretend to gather ingredients from a fridge. Did I mention I'm awful at charades? Emma looks at me with a confused look, but still interested in whatever it looks like I'm doing.
"Ugh! I can't do this!"
"Yes, you can."
She's laughing. Not really at me, but I guess at my lack of enthusiasm. Anyway, I pretend to lay two loaves of bread out on my fake table. I take an invisible knife and start to spread something on the bread. My stomach starts to knot. Am I really nervous about a game of charades? My belly feels heavy, but I tell myself that this is ridiculous: it's just a game. Yes, I look like an idiot, but nothing to get butterflies about. I look up at Emma to see if she has any guesses yet, but it doesn't look like she does. In fact, she's not even looking at what I'm doing. I mean, she's looking at me, but not at my hands. She's looking at my stomach. Did I look at my stomach when I thought I was nervous? Why is she looking at my stomach? But she isn't really laughing anymore. She has a faded smile as if something else caught her attention.
"Emma? What's up?"
She snaps out of it, just to look back at me and say, "Nothing...Hey! No talking in Charades!"
"Yeah, I know. Okay.. I'll.. Do I have..? Fine."
She's looking at my face, but also her eyes keep wanting to go back to my stomach. I keep making my dumb sandwich, when I feel the heaviness again. And it's more noticeable this time. My stomach definitely feels heavy. Not queasy, like I'm sick. It actually feels like it weighs more. I stop again and look at Emma, who can't stop staring at my belly! Can she tell that my stomach is upset?
"Emma!" She doesn't even snap out of it this time. "Why do you keep looking at my stomach!?"
She keeps staring at it and doesn't say anything. Annoyed, I decide to look down at my stomach too. And I see it. What she's been staring at. My shirt is bulging out a bit. It isn't necessarily that noticeable, but for a skinny kid like me, it's a pretty big difference.
