Teen Story - Chapter 4 - Malevolence

Max

She was getting thinner by the day. You were starting to see her shoulder blades on her back and her spine looked really horrible, all these little bumpy bits were sticking up, yuck! She thought she looked alright now but she could be thinner. Her stomach was starting to invert. If her or someone else did not step in soon she was going to die.
Taylor noticed.
She drove her in the car and said, "I'm just going to the shops, is it OK if you can come along? I need the company," she knew Cheryl would run away if she told her the truth.
That was because it happened to someone she knew a few years ago, when they were younger. Her. She could not see it happen to someone else again. Not this time.
They arrived at the hospital, "What the?!" Cheryl lifted herself up with her hands in her seat to get a better view out of the window.
It was amazing she could even do this any more. Taylor had to literally drag Cheryl in.
"NO-O!" she screamed, hanging to the door frame, her knees bent, her trainers in the air.
"I will - not - GO-O!" she screamed like a toddler, "NO-O-O!"
"It's for your own good!" Taylor tugged and Cheryl fell.
Cheryl didn't respond.
"Cheryl!" Taylor screamed this time.
Had she killed Cheryl?
The doctors had to put an emergency drip into her full of fluids like sugar and other supplements her body needed. It was all hanging on a knife edge for Cheryl.
They sent her to a rehab clinic with other girls like her. She was not allowed to see her family, friends, or Taylor until she was near recovery. That would be her treat. The other girls taught her naughty ways of pretending they had put on weight.
"You drink loads of water before you go in!" one girl said.
They were observed in the toilets to check they were not vomiting. There was no privacy. This was driving Cheryl insane!
She thought that she would probably commit suicide instead. It was a lot like jail but they were allowed belts and shoelaces so she could use those.



Taylor

They were allowed to walk round the vast gardens of the huge house they all stayed in while they were there. I would write lived but from personal experience of the place I have to say that it is nothing like home no matter how much they try to pretend. It is so fake.
It used to be an old folk's home and before that it was owned by a lord and lady who were selling off old property because of the cost of keeping them all going in these financial difficulties. She wondered through the grassy embankments, taking a stroll. This was all the exercise she was allowed until she got her strength back. Strangely, it made her calm. She came out here to clear her head. None of the other girls did. They were too scared to see the outside world again until they were better or they had completely gone off exercise.
Eventually she recovered and went to live with Taylor in her flat. They read the most recent book together and commented on it. They laughed together. She was like the big sister Cheryl had never had. She needed a good, female role model. After a while, being fed up on soup, crumpets, tea, pasta, jelly and chocolate fudge cake and custard, Cheryl was ready to face the outside world again.
She felt like it was a horrible place but it was much nicer than she remembered. Since she was eighteen now she decided to head out somewhere on her own after twelve months with Taylor.
"Are you sure about this? It's a big step!"
"Yes. It will give me some independence. I need that to help me grow."
"Alright," Taylor furled her lips, "As long as you let me come and check on you once a week! Once a day for the first month!"
"Why don't you just stay over!" Cheryl waved her arms around madly with sarcasm.
"I'll stay in a hostel nearby, alright!" she ruffled Cheryl's hair like a little kid, she was one to Taylor, after all she did.
"You are taking a real good care of that girl," Taylor and her mum swung on a park bench together as they were chatting.
The last blossoms and organic, amber leaves frolicking around them. Leaving big beautiful piles everywhere for children to play in.
"She is," Taylor sighed, drifting off into the distance.
"What can I do to make it up to her?" asked Cheryl when she was out shopping with Max, (the boy who was a teacher the same age as her from the karate class).
"Don't go mental again!" he said, matter-of-factly.
"Ma-ax!" she shrugged, laughing at him.
She had got a lot stronger now, before that kind of comment would have made her break down.
"You could..."
They had to leave that and come up with ideas later. First they had to work out where Cheryl was moving too.
"Not too far away so I can still see you!" he poked.
"OK, OK!"she held her hands up, smiling, she had not smiled like that, ever!
"Does this look good on me?" she asked, swirling round and pouting in the mirror with a scarf.
"Yes," he said, "Very good. Why the hell did I come shopping with you any how?!" he asked, crossing his hands in his fingerless gloves, his scarf was grey round his neck with white skulls.
His slicked to the side, black straightened hair let you just see both his eyes as the highest feathering was just above his left one, graduating down to the right. he swept it back with his hands as it went in his eyes again. They had become good friends through all this. That had been one god thing for her. She had all her pals at the book club too. They had all become really close together around her illness too.
When they got home to the flat they pulled out a world map.
"What are you two doing?" Taylor asked with amusement, Max was always hanging about round the house now since the two of them had become thick as thieves.
"Just plotting where Cher will stay," Max told her, and don't worry because I made sure she will not be too far away for me too visit.
"Why has she got out the world map then. Ah, she's a sneaky one Max. You may think you've got her figured out but on the surface - things aren't as tricky as on the inside. Are they sport?" she ruffled Cheryl's hair like she always did, Cher was his new nickname for Cheryl.
"Oh," he looked down trodden by a thousand elephants.
"What if I look too far," Cheryl worried.
"Don't look," said Taylor, just close your eyes and throw the pin in, "Wherever it lands, that's where you'll go."
Max had made his mind up by then but he was not telling, "Alright then," decided Cheryl, "Let's give it a go!" she smiled rottenly as she closed her eyes, swirled round and plunged the pin into the deep abyss.
It landed on...



Cheryl