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Later that same day, as soon as the day's classes end, Jimmy hurries to reach the building's entrance before anyone else.
Upon arriving, he waits for Mandy to show up; he wouldn't let her escape the conversation about her bulimia.
A few minutes later, she appears, trying to be discreet, only to give up when she realizes that Jimmy had already seen her and that there was no way out of this subject anymore.
Jimmy then takes her by the hand and, without saying a word, leads her to the school basement, a place where they could talk without having to worry about being overheard.
"I told you there was no way you could run away from this conversation", Jimmy comments as soon as he closes the basement door behind him.
"That doesn't change the fact that I don't want to talk about this," hesitating to look at Jimmy, Mandy says as she rubs her arm, looking uncomfortable.
"But you're going to have to talk! Now, do you force yourself to throw up what you eat? Do you fast?", shrugging, Jimmy asks calmly, looking her straight in the eyes.
Still not looking at Jimmy, Mandy stammers softly, admitting, "Y… yes!"
"Why do you do this? Do you think you're fat? Or is it something like wanting to be skinny like those malnourished models?", Jimmy asks, wanting to know where the root of the problem was.
"No, it's not that at all, it's just that… you yourself said it, I'm not intelligent, the only thing I have going for me is my body and my face, and if I gain weight, especially, what's going to become of my life in the future?", Mandy explains, exposing one of her deepest fears.
"Just to be clear, I never said you were dumb, I only said that the way you are right now, you don't have enough knowledge to get into college", Jimmy corrects her, wanting to make it clear that he never said anything about her intelligence.
"Isn't that basically the same thing?", Mandy asks, confused, throwing Jimmy a brief glance.
"No, quite the opposite, knowledge is acquired by studying! It's not too late for you; in fact, it will never be too late to start studying!
Now, whether you're academically intelligent or not, that's something you can only find out if you start genuinely putting effort into school.
What I know with absolute certainty is that you have a social intelligence that few possess! You know how to read people and your surroundings, you know what to say, and those who use these skills the right way, even if they aren't intelligent, reach comfortable positions in life", Jimmy replies sincerely, giving his opinion on her situation.
Raising her gaze, Mandy asks hopefully, "You really think so?"
"Yes, I think that if you start putting in the effort, you'll achieve great things in the future", despite the future being nothing more than uncertain, Jimmy had faith that Mandy could rise to great heights if she started putting in the effort now.
Veering even further off the topic, Mandy comments softly, looking down in embarrassment, "Saying things like that is incredibly sweet of you. If I didn't know you were dating Christy, I'd think you were hitting on me."
Jimmy explains how his relationship with Christy works before then commenting without thinking much about it, only to shortly after scratch the back of his neck, somewhat embarrassed upon realizing the awkward situation he himself has just created. "I'm not dating Christy, our relationship basically comes down to being friends with benefits! But like, I'm also not trying to hit on you, I just want to help you because you're my friend now."
"Ah... uh... so, about the bulimia...", saving them from the awkwardness that threatened to take over everything, Mandy pulls the conversation back to the topic they had been discussing before.
"Right, you know that doing these things to lose weight isn't healthy, right?", before she could continue, Jimmy comments as he sits down on a dusty crate.
"I… I know that now, okay? And just so you know, I don't want to have this bulimia thing, it's just that… I don't know… I want to have a nice body and… I think over time this ended up turning into paranoia", Mandy replies, trying to explain her reasons for doing what she did.
Looking at Mandy oddly, Jimmy asks, making her blush, "Let me ask you something, you know you're hot as fuck, right?"
"I mean, yes, I know! But I feel like if I'm not careful, I could lose everything very quickly", Mandy says, sitting down on another crate across from Jimmy.
"So your goal in doing these stupid things is basically just to stay in shape?", Jimmy asks to confirm.
"Yeah, I just don't want to gain weight", Mandy nods in confirmation.
Jimmy then changes the subject, wanting to analyze every aspect of Mandy's bulimia before reaching a conclusion, "Do you exercise?"
"Yes, I'm part of the cheerleading squad, did you forget?", Mandy replies with a huff.
"How strenuous is that training?", frowning, Jimmy asks pointedly.
"A lot", Mandy says, not really understanding where he was going with these questions.
"Did you gain weight after joining the cheerleading squad?", Jimmy continues with his questions, building a picture of all of Mandy's information in his mind.
"No", Mandy answers, not remembering gaining weight while part of the cheerleading squad, though she had always linked it to the things she did.
"So you would say that your bulimia started in the past?", Jimmy asks, feeling like he was getting where he wanted.
"I… yeah, I think so", digging into the depths of her memory, Mandy replies after a few seconds of uncertainty.
Then, Jimmy asks the crucial question to get to the core of Mandy's problem, "When exactly did it start, and why?"
"It was… a few years ago, when I was eleven! I gained noticeable weight, and my mother noticed. She tormented me so much that I resorted to these things, but after that, she became even more unbearable than she already was", Mandy says, frowning. Despite everything she had built at school being fake, it was better to be there than to live with her mother.
"Why did your mother do that?", Jimmy asks, beginning to understand where her bulimia came from.
"I don't know, I guess it's because her dream was to be a model when she was young, but since she couldn't achieve it, she projected that dream onto me. And when I gained weight, she freaked out", rubbing the back of her neck, Mandy says, a little uncomfortable bringing up this subject.
"But you said earlier that you didn't want to be a model, right?", Jimmy asks, remembering her answer from a few minutes earlier when he asked if she wanted to be skinny like a model.
"Yeah, that's my mom's thing, I don't want that. Actually, I wanted to be an actress! But she never took my opinion into consideration; she always tried to control every aspect of my life. Luckily, coming to this school made her lose control over me", Mandy replies with a sigh. The thing was, her mother wasn't a nice person to live with; she honestly didn't know how her father was still married to her.
"Damn…", Jimmy comments with a sigh, feeling for her.
With a slight corner-of-the-mouth smile, Mandy says, not wanting to show that it affected her, "Yeah, but it's all right now, at least for now."
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(AN: 1,257 Words)
Quick explanation that will appear in all chapters from now on: If you can get this fic up to the top 50 in the Power Stones ranking and keep it at least there, I promise to publish two full chapters per week, divided into four smaller chapters throughout the week because the site prefers to reward frequency over anything else.
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