Chapter 3

I went back to pack my things, and the apartment was in the middle of a party.

The moment I pushed the door open, laughter spilled out from the living room.

"He actually thought Juliana liked him?"

"A sickly weakling who won't even eat. If it weren't for the bet, who'd waste three years playing along with him?"

My steps stopped dead.

"When Juliana first met him, she said he looked clean. Like a flower that had never touched dirt."

"So I made a bet with her. That I'd wreck him."

"So I paid people at school to spread it around that he was fat, that he was ugly, that he was disgusting."

"He was so easy to fool back then. A few people cursing at him, freezing him out, and he really did stop eating."

"What was our group chat called again? The Fattening Project? Juliana posted his weight in there every day. Watching him drop from one-twenty to seventy pounds, that was hilarious."

Every word out of Bob's mouth was a knife going into me.

Three years ago, the bullying at school gave me anorexia.

Back then everyone said I was fat, said I was ugly, said I didn't deserve to wear nice clothes.

Juliana was the only one who was willing to come near me.

She ate with me every day, went to the hospital with me, stood between me and all those vicious stares.

I treated her like the thing keeping me alive.

I never knew the rumors had started with Bob.

And Juliana was the one standing beside him, watching me sink.

Bob laughed and patted her on the chest.

"He's already getting torn apart by the whole internet, his anorexia's back too. Really rotted all the way down into the mud."

Juliana was quiet for a second, then said flatly,

"All right. It's your birthday. Stop talking about him."

Bob looked up and saw me standing in the doorway.

"Mr. Vance?"

The instant she saw me, Juliana's face shifted.

I didn't demand anything, didn't scream or cry. I just said quietly,

"So you really never loved me."

Something irritated surfaced in her eyes.

"Austin, these three years, don't you know in your own heart how you got through them?"

"I'm the one who fed you back to health. I'm the one who walked you out of the anorexia."

"Without me, you'd have—"

"So I'm supposed to thank you?"

I cut her off, laughing until the tears came.

"Thank you for driving me into a sickbed, then playing my savior?"

Bob sneered from the side.

"What's the big deal? Aren't you cured now?"

"Since you're cured, that proves we didn't do anything wrong."

I looked at him, and my chest closed up.

"You forced a living person into being too afraid to eat, and you think you did nothing wrong?"

The smile on Bob's face went cold.

"So what do you want?"

Then he smiled again.

"Tell you what. You're the one so scared of food, right? Eat this piece of cake, and I'll take the video down."

He picked up a slice of cake from the table and held it out to me.

Juliana looked at me.

"Austin, it's Bob's birthday today. Don't make a scene."

I stared at the cream-covered cake, my stomach heaving.

Bob went on, "Just eat it, and I'll have Juliana get in touch with the best medical team."

"You're not going to leave your father lying in there for the sake of some so-called dignity, are you?"

Juliana came to my side, her voice dropping low.

"Austin, don't gamble with your father's life just to make a point."

"You don't eat it, and no doctor will dare take your father's surgery."

"Eat it, and this all ends."

In that moment I finally understood. They'd known my weak spot all along.

Trembling, I took the cake and ate, bite after bite.

The cream clogged my throat until I could barely breathe.

Bob clapped and laughed.

"See? It's not that hard. You're doing just fine."

I forced down the nausea and swallowed the last bite, tears dropping into the cream.

Juliana came over and wiped the cream from the corner of my mouth.

"That's more like it."

Her tone was as gentle as it used to be.

But all I felt was cold. I pushed her hand away and turned to leave.