Paper Thin

• 123 : Worried •

Carson

My mother picked me up from the hospital after Melody was admitted. It was about midnight by the time I got into the car. The drive home was fairly quiet at first, but of course my mom wanted to know how Melody was doing.

"She's alive... she got a concussion when she fainted and she was steps away from organ failure, but she was lucky to get there when she did," I sighed.

"Oh my God, organ failure?" My mom exclaimed.

"Yeah everything was low in her system... blood sugar, electrolytes, blood pressure..." I explained. "She'll be there for a month to recover, but hopefully she'll be okay. I don't really want to talk about it right now. I'm tired."

"Okay sweetheart," my mom replied softly, as she turned the wheel.

***

The next day, I slept in until about noon, when my mom finally burst through my room door and told me to wake up. I was surprised she let me sleep long enough to miss school, but maybe by some mother's intuition she knew I didn't get to sleep until well past three in the morning, worrying about Melody. I kept replaying over and over how scary it was to see her faint in the hallway, how tiny and frail she looked in the hospital bed, all the times she pushed food away and I missed why.

After dragging on my clothes for the day, jeans and a knit sweater, I headed downstairs. Smells both salty and sweet greeted me at the foot of the steps, and I followed my nose into the kitchen. Waiting for me was a plate of bacon and chocolate chip pancakes.

"Thank you," I said sitting down at the table. My mom smiled at me from by the counter. She poured herself a cup of tea as I poured maple syrup on my pancakes. I knew she was buttering me up, waiting for me to talk, but I decided to eat quietly as she watched from afar.

Halfway through my plate, she wandered over and sat across from me.

"How are you this morning?" she asked.

"Mom, you're not even trying to be slick," I laughed. She laughed in response.

"I'm sorry! You're not saying anything! I was trying to wait," she replied. I shook my head and bit into a piece of bacon. After swallowing I sighed.

"I'm okay; just worried about her," I explained.

"Do they know why everything was so low in her system?" my mom asked. I nodded, pushing around a piece of pancake in syrup with my fork.

"Yeah, she wasn't really eating or sleeping," I replied.

"Because of the Diesel situation?" My mom asked.

"That was part of it... it was why she wasn't sleeping, but then she found out her stepmother was responsible for the car accident that killed her mom," I sighed.

"Oh my God," my mom's eyes widened.

"I mean, she wasn't eating very much before, but those two things certainly made it worse," I added. I ate a little bit more before deciding to speak again. "She has an eating disorder... anorexia. That's why she's going to be in the hospital for a month. I wish I had put the pieces together so she could have gotten help earlier."

"You can't beat yourself up about it. I missed it too, and there were plenty of signs. She never ate much here. I just chalked it up to modelling at first, and then the Diesel situation later on," my mom nodded.

"But I was so much closer. There were days she would skip a meal and say she wasn't hungry or already ate. Or when she'd only eat a few vegetables at lunch. I always assumed she went home and ate, or was just shy... There were even diet pills at one point, but she told me it was a one-time thing for modelling. I-I didn't think she needed help."