Dysmorphia

Progress

Florence looked down at the scale four months later and smiled, she was definitely making progress, she looked at her food diary today she had managed to only eat 25g of blueberries and of course drink plenty of water, her stomach didn't even growl anymore.

Everything was going well, she could feel herself growing more and more willowy, stronger, better, improved and most importantly no longer applicable to the category that she'd been placed in. She saw the glances the other students shot at her, they looked admiring, they looked like they wanted to say something to her but never did and she smiled at the expression on their faces. There had been no more FBPG jokes thrown her way and if she could just lose a few more pesky pounds she would be on her way to being a new and improved Florence.

Clarice had invited her to a party but she had declined, a party meant too much temptation all those snacks, all those fizzy drinks and of course any party Clarice went to would have a steady supply of alcohol.

Though they had now been 'friends' for months Florence didn't really know what to make of Clarice, she was a relaxed type of friend and the friendship they had was nothing like the one she had shared with Cooper, Madison and Lauren. Clarice didn't really ask personal questions, she just talked about random topics never anything too 'deep' as she liked to put it.

She felt like they weren't really friends, they were just with each other because they had to be, not because they particularly shared the same interests or had enlightening conversations.

Her mother was so preoccupied with running the Diner that Florence hardly ever saw her anymore which suited her just fine because she didn't want any prying questions. Her father had returned from his trip only to leave again, to go to California this time for a classification project, which she also didn't mind, it meant the house was mostly hers with to do as she pleased.

She began her morning as usual with her crunches pushing herself harder than she ever had before spurred on by the cheery voice of the Youtube Fitness Instructor then moved on to jumping jacks.

She had lost around thirteen pounds since she had started her exercise and diet regime, she didn't want to lose to much, just enough to make her no longer recognisable as the girl who had run down a corridor, her arms flailing. That particular video had received over ten thousand views on Facebook.

That day something strange happened at school, she was waiting in the bathroom for Clarice to join her when Cooper entered holding her maroon lipstick, she stopped staring at her awkwardly, Florence was frozen, she didn't know how to react they hadn't been in such close proximity since her former friends had ditched her.

"Florence" she flinched at hearing the familiar sound of her name on her friends lips.

"What?" she replied trying to fake boredom.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry"

She hadn't been expecting that.

"I'm sorry we dumped you Florence, it was a horrible thing to do, if I could take it all back I would do it in a second"

Florence felt anger stirring in her stomach.

"Good for you Cooper, you can resume you're perfect life now, you're conscience clear now that you've apologised to your fat old friend, give Madison and Lauren my regards won't you?"