The Most Common Obsession

A teens obsession over her weight.

 

Kiera rushed upstairs to her bathroom and locked the door the second she

came home from school. The shy, fifteen year old girl was abnormally

obsessed with looking thin. Kiera was a pretty, five foot six and a half

inch teenager girl with strawberry blond, shoulder length hair, unusually

beautiful blue eyes, a host of friends and a list of talents. She was a four

time chess champion and the president of the drama club. Kiera was perfect

in every other way but for her obsession with her weight.

 

Kiera weighed exactly one hundred and three pounds, which many would

consider to be underweight for a girl of her height and age. But she thought

differently. During her lunch break, Kiera would normally eat one slice of

turkey with a packet or two of mustard. That's all. In a seven hour day at

school, she would eat little to nothing at all while everyone else indulged

in their hearty meals.

 

Drinking water was also bad, as she would state often to her friends. "Water

is great for a healthy looking skin," she'd say, "but it's also bad for

dieters because it has the potential to produce water weight." It was

surprising to many that she could find something unhealthy in the healthiest

of drinks. Kiera never ate more than twice a day but everyone else,

according to her, was eating unhealthy.

 

Kiera’s mother, Robin knew that she had issues with her weight and body,

but she never thought it would be as severe as it had become. Her concerned

mother wanted to schedule an intervention for the troubled teen, but she

didn’t want to give the impression that her own mother thought she

daughter was mentally ill.

 

“We need a resolution.” Kiera’s mother Robin said to her husband.

“She needs help or she will die. I refuse to lose my daughter to the self

image she believed she needs to adhere to.” She continued.

 

Robin pledged help. She scheduled an intervention for her daughter for

Saturday night around eight. She had arranged for her mother Joan to be

there along with her father Eric. She asked her brother Richard and sister

Samantha to be there as well. Robin called on everyone she could think of to

help her daughter.

 

On Friday afternoon, she was forced to eat a bite of a turkey sandwich.

Kiera didn’t want to eat but she didn’t have much of a choice. She

looked noticeably faint in her Economics class so her friend Jake

strong-armed her into going to the nurse’s office by picking her up and

carrying her over his linebacker-like shoulders. The concerned friend even

threatened to turn the emaciated Kiera over to the proper authorities if she

didn’t cooperate with the nurses orders. He even waited outside the room

missing the rest of class as she was being treated.

 

Nurse Mills was stern and compassionate. Having been in the same situation

herself when she was around Kiera’s age, she understood all too well the

plight of the teen trying to fit into the stereotypical illusion of what a

teenage girl should look like. Nurse Mills was especially sensitive to Kiera

since she had a daughter who herself had a severe and debilitating eating

disability.

 

She took one look at Kiera and examined her thoroughly. She took her blood

pressure, measured her heart rate and tested her reflexes. The nurse even

gave her an eye and hearing test just to be on the safe side. Nurse Mills

left no stone unturned with Kiera. She gave the teen a protein shake to

drink and the aforementioned turkey sandwich that drove Kiera over the edge.

 

 

“Before you go, Kiera” the nurse said, “I want you to eat this turkey

sandwich with a thin slice of cheese and mayonnaise.” Kiera looked at the

sandwich as if it was an unidentified flying saucer. “I ate a little

something at lunch.” Kiera responded with fear in her eyes and her body

trembling—possibly from malnutrition. “I am full, believe me.” She

continued. “I am not hungry, honest.”

 

“I know you are dear,” Nurse Mills replied. “But I will not permit you

to leave my office, or the school grounds for that matter without eating

this sandwich.” She declared with authority. Kiera, in a rush to get out

of there, took a bite of the sandwich and swallowed gingerly. Her face

looked as if she had been asked to swallow glass laced in battery acid. The

bodily expression Kiera exhibited gave the impression that she had just been

forced to swallow rat poisoning.

 

“I cannot eat anymore.” Kiera begged. “Please just let me leave

now.” She pleaded. “I can’t dear.” Nurse Mills replied as she

stroked Kiera’s shoulder length strawberry blond hair. “I need to make

sure you are taking care of yourself.” She said. “While you’re here in

my office, I need you to eat at least two more adult-sized bites, Kiera.”

 

Kiera looked up at the compassionate nurse with the same puppy eyes that

worked on her father for so many years; but that wasn’t enough for Nurse

Mills who put nothing before the health of her patient.

 

“Just take two more bites and I’ll send you home for the rest of the

day.” She said.

 

Kiera opened her mouth and took the second and third bites of the sandwich.

Though she was reluctant to eat just a little of the sandwich, she admitted

that she felt full and much better to the nurse, though she turned down a

forth bite. “I know you’ll think I’m lying,” she said “but I

honestly do feel a whole lot better now. Can I still have the rest of the

day off?” She asked with an innocent smile.

 

“You most certainly can, but I must warn you,” Nurse Mills said sternly.

“I will not sit idly by and allow you to slowly but surely kill yourself.

Eating disorders are no joke. I will be watching you closely and if I have

any indication that you are not doing right by your body and minding your

health properly, I will take the next appropriate step.” She concluded.

 

“Thank you for caring so much about me.” Kiera said as she slowly made

her way to her feet. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

 

With just hours remaining before the scheduled intervention with her parents

and friends, Kiera rushed home. She ran so fast that she didn’t even say

goodbye to her concerned friend who carried her to the nurse. As everyone

would come to expect, she had a mental breakdown. Kiera had been forced to

eat, which within itself made her feel not only physically ill, but violated

in some way.

 

The comfort she claimed to have felt was just a ploy to get out of the

nurses office.

 

Kiera tore through her front door, past her grandmother who was visiting for

the weekend and the intervention on Saturday. She didn’t even say hello.

Grandma was asleep on the sofa anyway, nodding off to one of those insipid

talk shows about infidelity or racist rednecks.

 

Kiera pushed open the door to the bathroom in her bedroom and immediately

threw her face into the toilet bowl. But nothing came out. She was panicked

that she had eaten so much foot that the fat would attach itself to her

stomach and never break down and pass out of her. She was truly on the brink

of destruction.

 

Kiera grew more panicked by the minute. She dropped to her knees in front of

the toilet bowl for nearly twenty minutes before she decided that she

wasn’t going to wait anymore. When she got to her feet, she noticed that

the new bathroom scale was behind the door. She kicked off her shoes,

hurried over to the scale and stepped on.

 

“Your weight is 122 pounds.” The scale read.

 

Kiera panicked and started to scream. She screamed so loudly that her

grandmother woke up and hurried up the stairs as fast as she could.

 

“Kiera, honey, are you alright?” Her weary grandmother asked as she

hurried up the stairs and banged on the bedroom door before rushing inside.

 

With no answer on the other side, grandma rushed into the room and saw that

her granddaughter was on the scale sobbing and downing mouthfuls of two

different sets of diet pills and chocolate laxatives.

 

“What the Hell are you doing, girl!” Grandma screamed. But Kiera

didn’t stop.

 

“I gained 19 pounds, God-Damnit!” That b***h made me eat a sandwich and

I gained weight!” The disturbed girl shouted at her grandmother as she

sobbed on the floor cradled in her grandmother’s arms.

 

“Honey you are killing yourself. This is why I am here. I want to help

you. You have not gained weight.” Grandma repeated as she cried along with

her granddaughter and dialed 911 from Kiera’s cell phone. “You’re

beautiful dear.”

 

“911, what’s your emergency?” The operator asked.

 

“My granddaughter just swallowed dozens of diet pills and laxatives.”

She said frantic but calm. “Please send someone over quick. She’s going

to die.”

 

“Ok, is she awake, alert?” the operated asked.

 

“Yes, she’s crying that she got fat because she ate a sandwich at

school.” The grandmother responded.

 

In the background, the operator could hear Kiera screaming.

 

“I’m fat now! I am really fat! I might as well be dead!” She yelled.

 

“Ok. The paramedics are on their way,” The operator said “but don’t

hang up.” She continued.

 

“This girl is so sick, operator. She is so sick and I am so scared.” The

frantic but calm grandmother explained to the operator as she began to lose

control of her composure.

 

“She has an eating disorder, ma’am. She thinks she is fat all the time

when she is in perfect shape. A healthy young girl” She continued.

 

“I see this all the time, ma’am.” The operator said compassionately

and understandingly.

 

“It’s sad. I’m so scared for her. She rushed home frantically because

she thought she gained weight due to eating a damn turkey sandwich at

school. She claimed that she put on more than nineteen pounds.” Grandma

said caressing her grandaughter.

 

“That’s not possible, you know ma’am.” The operator said.

 

“I know, operator,” grandma said with certainty. “She still has her

backpack on.”

Author's Note

I'd really like an opinion on this one.
WWW.JLWONLINE.COM

Reviews

[Brandon Meyers]

Too tragic is the reality of this story. I had a close friend who was anorexic in high school and it was a very tough experience, both for herself and her family. Body image awareness is something that seems to be getting at least a little more attention these days, but as I'm sure you know, it's far from where it should be.
Nicely done, my friend.
By the way, and completely unrelated, my girlfriend's name is Keira.