Work Text:
Taylor's stomach hurt.
This was not an uncommon occurrence for her- The hunger pains. She did not eat nearly as much as she should, as the process of doing so was deeply unpleasant for her. There were only a handful of foods she would consistently force herself to eat, and everything else was a struggle. Because of this, she found herself typically only eating one meal per day, sometimes two if she was lucky. Hunger was a constant.
She did not like the hunger pains, to be clear. She could just more easily deal with them than she could by forcing herself to eat something most of the time. It hurt and she knew it was definitely not normal, but she didn't know how to fix it, so she just kept growing hungrier and hungrier, thinner and thinner.
Everyone in the group soon began to pick up on this. Tyler had known for a while (they were siblings, after all), but didn't know how to help her. Ashlyn had noticed fairly quickly as well- She was Autistic and while her food sensitivities had not driven her to the point of an eating disorder, she could not help but recognize herself somewhere in that. Ben and Logan both quietly saw her drop weight.
It was Aiden who eventually tried to help her.
It started with a conversation. One day, he just went to her while she was separated from the rest of the group and popped the question. "Why don't you eat?" he asked bluntly, unsure of how else to word it exactly. She paused for a moment before continuing with what she was doing.
"It's hard"
"Why?"
"It just is, okay" she replied a bit sharply. She softened for a moment. "Sorry" she apologized for her slight outburst. "I'm not, like, anorexic if that's what you're worried about" she went on. "It's just hard for me to force myself to eat"
"Would it help if I started bringing some small snacks with me to school or to our meetups?" Aiden offered. Taylor considered this for a moment. With anyone else, she would feel guilty for even considering the offer, but this was Aiden. The boy was practically rich and also wouldn't mind. He never minded anything.
"Uh, yes, actually" she told him. "Nothing much, though. Maybe just saltine crackers or something easy like that"
"I gotchu" Aiden smiled and gave her a thumbs up. He went to leave, but she held out a hand to stop him. "Hm?"
"Don't tell anyone else about this, please"
"I wasn't planning on it"
"Thank you" Taylor smiled. "For that, and also for the future saltines"
"Of course" Aiden replied. "You're my friend, right?"
"Right"
"See ya around, Taylor" he said, and then he was off. Taylor couldn't help but chuckle slightly to herself. That kid was so weird...