AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I chuckled and shook my head. “After leg day? No way.”
“Come on, don’t be a wimp. Ten minutes tops,” she said, breathing heavily as she held the side of the treadmill.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Hailee, let’s go.”
She hopped onto the treadmill and waved me off. “It’s fine. You go ahead. I’ll catch up with you on the way home. I’ll…” She paused and gripped the sides of the treadmill. She placed her head down and took a few breaths.
I rushed to her side. “You’re seconds away from passing out. Did you eat this morning?”
“Yeah, I did. Big breakfast. I just feel a bit faint.”
I hopped on the treadmill in front of her and took her hands into mine. “Time to sit down for a minute.”
“But the run—”
“Hailee. Sit.”
She sat down on the treadmill. I grabbed her water and handed it over to her. “You’ve been working out a lot more lately. Are you sure you’re eating enough?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just tired.”
I wanted to believe her, but I struggled to do so. As an actor, part of my job was studying characters. Understanding how they moved, how they interacted, how they existed, and how they lived.
Something was off with Hailee, and that terrified me because after I collected all the pieces, I knew exactly what I had to do. Each year, our families celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas together. We went back and forth between the houses. My family oversaw the main meal, and the Joneses handled dessert and cocktails.
When Thanksgiving came, my eyes were glued on Hailee. She hadn’t been eating a lot. If anything, she’d become a professional at pushing food around on her plate. She also wouldn’t use the bathroom at my parents’ house. She’d go over to her private bathroom attached to her bedroom, then she’d come back. It was suspicious as fuck, and she went every single time we ate anything throughout the day. So after dinner, I made the choice to follow her.
I snuck into her bedroom window without her knowing and listened to her from outside the bathroom. My chest ached as I stood and listened to her throwing up. She washed her hands, and when she came out of the bathroom, she was wiping at her mouth, and she gasped when she saw me.
“Aiden, what are you doing?”
“What are you doing, Hails?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Using the bathroom?”
“Hailee.”
“What?” She laughed nervously. “You’re acting weird.”
“I heard you.”
“You heard what?”
“You in the bathroom.”
She pushed past me and shook her head. “You’re being super weird. Let’s just go back to our parents’ and—”
“Are you forcing yourself to throw up?” I blurted out.
“Excuse me?”
“Are you—”
“I heard you the first time, Aiden!” she snapped at me. She snapped. Hailee never snapped at me. She grew irritated from time to time, but she never yelled. “Listen, I’m not going to sit here and have you lecture me. Okay? I’m fine.”
“Hails…”
“No,” she ordered, holding a hand up to me. Her eyes glassed over. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to look at me like I’m broken.”
