Matenapped |✓

|/14\|

|/Regan\|

I was shutting them out again, but I couldn't help my natural instincts. I wasn't good enough for Grayson. I wasn't pretty enough, I wasn't skinny enough, I wasn't charismatic enough. I would never be enough exactly.

They tried to give me food. I stayed quiet. They tried to cheer me up. I kept the door closed. They tried to convince me to do things, but I plugged their words out with the earphones of my music.

Instead of leaving the room I pushed back furniture, which opened the floors more and danced. Sometimes I would overwork myself, creating multiple dance videos at once and posting them every hour it seemed. When I caved into eating the apple I had already in my room I forced myself to 'undo' that. Every night this week I had checked my weight progress in the grand mirror my bathroom had just before a shower. I would be a lot happier when I saw the results.

I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and opened Instagram. I went through some comments, and my heart sank.

She looks dead

Finally loosing weight!

Leave her personal life alone, it isn't our business to know what's going on...

A lot more attractive when she was wearing makeup, just saying.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Just annoying jabs, that's all they were. But it was all true.

I turned my phone off and walked into my bathroom. I looked at the mirror and frowned. I grabbed a makeup wipe and took off half of the makeup from one half of my face and examined myself. My freckles became noticeable along with my round eyes. I hated it. I despised it. I couldn't even look.

Tears sprang to my eyes as I quickly looked away and ran out of the bathroom. I closed the door in an instant and sobbed, my body sliding down to the floor. I couldn't even muffle my cries, I was so afraid. It was like the mirror was taunting me.

Three knocks rapped on the door and I sniffed.

"Regan! Open up!"

"Why?" My groggy voice asked, trying to cover up.

"Please, I want to know what's wrong!" Gael pleaded, but I blinked the tears down my cheeks.

"I'm fine. I'm watching a sad movie."

"Regan-" she started in a warning voice, but I interrupted her.

"I'm fine!" I yelled. The shadow of her feet under the door lingered before they disappeared silently. When I knew for sure she was gone I continued to sob.

•

|/Charity \|

Gael returned from the upstairs hallway to all of us in the living room. She sat down in Aaren's lap, sighing in frustration. We all looked away disappointed from her attempt in silence, understanding what happened. Regan refused our desperate pleas again.

"I'm going to knock the door down." Grayson announced nonchalantly, standing up.

"Don't. She needs her time." Amara said. He shot her an angry look.

"Time with what? Sometimes you need other people to help you get through things, and we haven't even figured out what her problem is yet!" He erupted. My heart pace picked up, but I didn't do much more than flinch at his Alpha tone. I've never experienced it yet. Because of that Caiden glared at Grayson who just rolled his eyes and ran his hands through his hair furiously.

"I need to see her." He mumbled.

"Why? She needs personal time-"

"I can feel her pain!" He yelled, causing us all to widen our eyes in shock. He paused before continuing in a calmer and quiet voice, almost as if he was trying to spook us.

"She's suffering a pain physically, and emotionally. I can feel it in my veins." He groaned, not liking recalling her pain.

"Then we need to see what's wrong." Levi announced. Grayson nodded.

"She denied to let us see willingly, so we need to imply force." Caiden added. The boys nodded their heads in agreement, and I scoffed before whacking his head. He whined an "ow" and everyone looked at my disgusted face.

"You're talking like this is a war we're fighting. She has feelings you know, and barging in on her isn't exactly a great feeling. She won't willingly announce to us her problem." Grayson scoffed at my words.

"Waiting around won't do shit." He hissed.

"It's better than forcefully getting her to admit it." I snapped.

"Oh, and you know everything." He rolled his eyes mockingly, but I just narrowed my eyes.

"I do." I replied. His eyes snapped back to mine in a curious manner.

"How so?"

"I was and still am her best friend. Friends share secrets, and I happen to know what is conflicting her pretty little mind."

"What is it?" He rushed, worried. I didn't answer, I just grabbed my phone from the coffee table in silence and pulled Instagram up.

"Okay, you know it's not fair to say you know her problem and just ignore telling us." Grayson hissed and I mentally rolled my eyes.

"Why tell when I can show?" I cocked an eyebrow, silencing him. I went to her page and motioned for them to come look. They all huddled around me, and Caiden shifted his position under me so he could see. I clicked on her most recent video she posted not even an hour ago.

I clicked play and added sound, letting everyone watch curious to my point. It ended and everyone looked at me confused.

"What does that show us?" Levi asked and I sighed, annoyed I had to explain. I motioned my fingers for them to gather again, and they did. I went to the video from last week she posted and played. They watched it through and looked even more confused.

"What-" I interrupted Amara and started explaining.

"Notice anything?"

"No-"

"Her skin." I started.

"Bright in the second video, dull in the first."

"Eyes." I pressed on.

"Normal in second video, red and blue in first."

"Body."

"She's drastically thinner." Grayson's voice slowed down as he was connecting the dots. "She's starving herself?"

"And overworking her body with dancing. In most of these videos lately she's wearing the same thing, showing it's the same day she danced in the other videos. That isn't healthy." I pointed out.

"Why is she doing that?" Aaren asked.

"She's insecure. Always has been. I bet what your dad told her last week pressed on her feelings about her body and her looks." I felt bad telling them this without her consent, but I was concerned with her health, and that was more important.

"She doesn't like what she sees every time she looks in the mirror." I finished.

"That's it, I'm knocking her door down and forcing food down her throat!" Grayson started storming up the stairs, but I yelled to him to stop.

"She'll just throw it up later. You need a more therapeutic approach."

"So talk to her first and then force food down her throat?" He asked and I rolled my eyes.

"Boys are so stupid." I stood, ignoring the cold that replaced Caiden's heat, and passed Grayson standing cluelessly on the stairs.

"I know how to help this. You can talk to her after I do."

•••

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