High Noon [H.S]

love thy neighbour

I had always been really bad at self-control. It was something that I lacked completely in my every day life. No matter how many times I told myself no, my body seemed to have a mind of its own.

So, when I had spotted the boxes of half-off donuts sitting in front of the cafeteria's checkout line, my arms lunged out for them before I even had a chance to think it over. A total of four obnoxiously bulky plastic containers rested in my arms as I stood in the queue, watching a few passer-by's stare at me as if they'd just discovered a new species. I'd really hate to see their reactions of me in the junk aisle at Tesco's during my time of the month.

I slowly make it to the front of the line, carefully dropping the boxes of powdered sugary goodness onto the counter before fishing for my wallet. I blow a few stray hairs out of my vision before glancing up—a familiar face greets me from behind the register.

"Morning, Janet."

Janet's head shoots up, her curly red hair bouncing underneath its hair net as if it were trying to break free. "Rory, hun! How are ya?"

Janet had worked at the campus cafeteria since my second year. She was a feisty, firecracker of a woman who'd always gift me free coffees every Tuesday morning before my classes in exchange for the subscription of the Cosmopolitan Magazine I'd get sent every month. She supported my caffeine addiction whilst I supported her sex magazine reading obsession. I think that's why we got along so well; we reinforced each other's needs.

"I'm good! October's subscription should be coming soon." I mutter, dishing out a 20-pound note from my wallet. Janet's warm smile meets my vision before she looks down at the items on the till and then right back up. Her face quickly changes to a look of disappointment, as if she were my mother, scolding me for something I'd done wrong. "Aw, come on Janet. Don't look at me like that. You were the only one who didn't judge me for my bad food habits."

My friends (especially Niall) gave me shit on a daily basis for the amount of junk food I consumed. It isn't normal, they'd say, but I didn't care— I'd rather have hundreds of calories and sugar going into my body than something that tasted like rabbit food and grass. I think my digestive system secretly thanked me for allowing it to taste such delicious nutrition, whilst in return, I liked to thank my fast metabolism for allowing me to savour my food and not have to run on those damn treadmills every day.

Last week, my friends had challenged me to a bet; if I could last 7 days straight without eating anything remotely toxic to my body, I would win 50 pounds. Of course, me being the most stubborn and challenging person on earth, I agreed thinking that I was going to be laughing straight to the bank with that prize money.

I was wrong, so wrong. I had no willpower. It was only the second day and here I was buying four containers of high-caloried sweets, planning on eating them all by myself the minute I would get home from my morning lecture. But, what they didn't know wouldn't kill them and she knew if there was one person who'd have her back in a situation like this, it was Janet.