“This one?” Harper said. Beka looked in and wrinkled her nose. It seemed to be full of drunks, and it smelled. But why not? She shrugged.
“Yeah, this one will be fine.” She stifled a yawn, not wanting Harper to know how tired she was still feeling, even after sleeping all day. Harper seemed excellently clueless as he walked into the bar. His right element, no doubt. They went up to the bar, and he turned to her.
“So what are you having?” She thought about it for a second, but really, there was no contest. She didn’t drink alcohol. Full stop. Besides, alcohol contained lots of calories, anyway. So did juice, which was what she normally had.
“Just water,” she said. At Harper’s raised eyebrow she added; “What? You know I don’t drink!” Harper shrugged.
“Ok. And I’ll have a pint of Kalderan ale, please.” The barman, a seemingly gloomy sort of man nodded, giving Beka some bubbly mineral water and Harper a large pint of ale, which he promptly emptied. Beka giggled at his eagerness. She was still playing with the, however unlikely, thought that his kiss had been real. Well, if it was, she’d definitely find out now. If Harper got tipsy, there was no way he’d be inhibited, and Beka had decided if he wanted to try something on, she’d let him. She wouldn’t let him touch her too much, but she’d let him kiss her again. Definitely.
The night went on, Beka basically just had that one glass of water while Harper emptied pints of ale and beer. As usual. Beka couldn’t believe how long it took him before he got drunk, but he did. Well, not so much drunk, but tipsy.
“So, um…” Beka tried to find something to say, but couldn’t think of anything. What could she say? The embarrassing episode of the failed dinner date still hung over their heads, and Harper had made no move to repeat himself. She moved her chair a little closer to his. No plans, no, not at all. She just wanted to see what he would do. He emptied his pint quickly and glanced at her, looking uncomfortable. Quick as a cat, he got up from his seat, moving away from her.
“I’m just going to…to the toilet,” he mumbled before quickly dashing off. Beka wanted to cry, what she already knew now confirmed. It had been a pity kiss, one that he now regretted. She scolded herself. How could she have believed it would be anything else? How could she possibly have believed he would have done it for any other reason? Attraction? That just wasn’t possible. Tears started to form in Beka’s eyes, but she blinked them away. No matter how much weight she lost it just never seemed to be enough. Never. Would she ever be nicely slim? Properly? She wasn’t sure anymore, and it was a hard thing to think about. Along with Harper’s non-interest, it all got too much. She started tapping the device on her arm. She wouldn’t tell anyone about it, but she’d downloaded a library with the calorie content of pretty much everything you could think of.
“What’ve you got with the highest alcohol content?” she asked the gloomy bartender, trying to sound casual.
“I thought you were little miss ‘just water, please’,” the bartended replied sarcastically. She glared at him. “Well,” he sighed, “that’d be plain vodka.” She nodded and tapped it in, biting her lip as she got the result. A 70cl bottle of vodka contained 154 calories. She tried to think how much Harper would have drunk. Well, he hadn’t actually drunk vodka, but it was all pretty much the same though, wasn’t it? Looking at the amounts he drunk, she’d have to drink several bottles before getting drunk. That would be lots of calories. Then again…if she got really drunk she’d throw it all up, wouldn’t she? She convinced herself that would happen, and it would be ok.
“Ok, can I have a bottle of vodka please?” The bartender choked on his drink.
“You mean a glass? Vodka with orange juice?” Beka gave him an annoyed glance.
“No, I mean a bottle of vodka. Plain.” The bartender gave her a hesitant look.
“Are you trying to get drunk?” Beka gave him an annoyed glare, gesturing to the drunks scattered all across the room.
“It doesn’t exactly seem like you’d mind that,” she said. He couldn’t argue with that, so he shrugged and handed her the bottle as well as a glass. She forgot about the glass and opened the bottle, putting it to her lips. She took a mouthful and forced herself to swallow it, her face scrunching up at the taste.
“How can anyone drink this stuff?” she thought to herself, but forced herself to keep drinking from it until she’d finished. She got another one.
****
Harper sank down on the toilet floor. What to do? He knew he felt something for Beka, but he hadn’t got his feelings quite sorted out yet. From what he could painfully remember, she’d made her feelings on the matter quite clear, and he’d expected this to be just a friendship thing. Maybe he was just imagining it, but he could swear she was trying to get him to do something again. Or was he just being paranoid? He wiped his sweaty forehead, not sure what to do anymore. Should he tell her the truth? That he thought he had feelings for her, but then again, what would that achieve? Should he wait until he had sorted his feelings out, until he was sure what they were? What if she didn’t return them? It could ruin their friendship forever. Should he try to forget about it? He sighed. How could he work next to her everyday, pretending like there was nothing wrong? Would he ever get over it? Probably, but while they still worked together? It would take a while.
Deep in thought, Harper completely forgot about time as he begrudged his situation in the toilet. Some time later, he looked at the time and jumped up in horror.
“It’s been half an hour,” he thought and started making his way out quickly. “Beka’s going to think I’ve done a runner!” As he came out, he noticed how quiet it had suddenly gone. The music was still playing, but the laughter and screaming from the drunks had gone silent, and suddenly the loud bar wasn’t so loud anymore. Harper quickly wondered what had caused this sudden silence, when he saw it.
It was Beka. Staggering on a table, obviously blind drunk, another equally drunk man was in the process of pulling her sweater over her head. It would have bothered him normally, but it wasn’t what caught his eye. It was what he saw when Beka’s sweater came off. The drunk man obviously thought the same thing, as he staggered backwards and promptly fell off the table. This was also the reason the rest of the room had fallen silent, and the reason why Harper suddenly felt completely sober, as well as prone to faint.
Her upper body was completely bared, as she wasn’t even wearing a bra. Not that she needed one anymore. Her ribcage was protruding painfully, her breasts were sunken away and her waist, well he wasn’t sure it could even be called a waist. All he could see was the bones. Her arms, once toned and athletic now looked like sticks, the upper arm now thinner than his wrist. So much bones. So brittle she looked like she would break in two if he touched her. So much. He knew everyone had the same amount of bones of course, but on show like this? She could have an exhibition if she wanted. Start a museum. Her own exhibition of bones. He silently started crying as she giggled, maybe not even aware of her own state of undress. She staggered on the table.
He caught her as she fell.
