"Can you go first?" he asks, his vulnerable tone pricking me in the heart.
"Yeah," I agree reluctantly, looking down at my lap.
He waits patiently as the silence thickens between us. Once it reaches the unpleasant consistency of cottage cheese, I open my mouth to speak.
"I'm... nervous to start with gaining the weight and lessening the workload like you want me to. Even though I know I'm not healthy and I want to be healthy again, I'm just... I just... don't want to become pathetic again. I've been really proud of what I've accomplished with my grades and everything. I feel like... like it's just going to go to waste if I return to how I was before. I don't want to be unhappy again."
I make sure to leave out the kiss we shared and the instability wreaking havoc on my emotions.
I take a breath and keep my gaze cast downward, starting to regret saying anything as Slater doesn't reply.
"Quorra," he addresses, and for a second, the heavy weight in my chest is lifted simply by my name leaving his full lips, "You can be just as academically successful as you are now at a healthier weight. It just takes time, motivation, and control. You don't have to be scared."
The car rumbles under my feet as I let a lock of hair fall to form a barrier between us. I don't know what to reply. Why does he have to be so freaking sweet?
"Your turn," I push, biting my tongue to stop my alter ego spilling the beans of what else is looming over the back - okay, the front - of my mind.
"I can tell you're hiding something else but I won't coerce you into confession. As for me... I'll tell you some more about Addy."
I can't help the sad smile that shapes my lips at his affectionate nickname for his sister. He must have really loved her, and still does.
His Adam's apple moves as he swallows and prepares to tell me.
"We were the only two children in the family and inseparable as soon as I was born. She was two years older than me and it irked me to no end. I always wanted to be the elder sibling and often complained to her, but she always laughed, shook her head, and told me that eventually I'd be taller and look older than her anyway."
A nostalgic look glazes over his eyes. His story pauses as we arrive at a traffic light and he wipes his palms against his trousers with a sigh. Guilt clouds my mind as I realise that I reopened a scar that wasn't healed yet.
"I'm sorry, you don't have to continue," I comfort, raising a hand to place it on his shoulder.
He tenses up at my touch and gently uses his other hand to place my arm back in my lap, "It's alright."
The traffic lights switch to an emerald green and the car starts moving again. I numbly look at the hand he moved and try to brush it off as he continues.
"Even as Addy and I grew older, we remained very close. Her suicide really threw our family off balance, me especially. There was no warning or indication that she was unhappy at all. Maybe that's just because I was a naive preteen who didn't know his addition from his subtraction, but she still felt like the same Addy to me - always equipped with her unbreakable smile."
(A/N TORI KELLY REFERENCE ANYONE?! Tori Kelly rant:
Ugh she's literally such a perfect human being. She is drop-dead gorgeous, her hair is beautiful, her personality is dorky, her little nerdy laugh is adorable, and she could not have a more flawless voice and musical skill with her instruments. She slays my existence and I just wish I grew up being her friend, because firstly she is just an incredible person that I wish I could get to know, and second, now she's gaining popularity, idek if I'll ever meet her. THIS IS SO DEPRESSING, SORRY I just have the biggest girl crush on her and she makes me question my sexuality, okay keep reading)

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Teen Fiction#1 enough #1 notenough #3 in lifelessons #15 relatable "They say you regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did do in life," I whisper, glad that I can still form a coherent sentence with him so abnormally close to me. I would bare...