"Sophie cannot finish her dinner, she says she's had enough... Sophie's trying to make herself thinner, says she's eaten too much..." -Sophie by Eleanor McEvoy.

It's three in the morning and she's still exercising, downstairs in the home gym. She becomes dizzy and stops, slowly stepping from the machine. She takes a sip from her water bottle, a bite of lettuce, and gets back on for another half hour until she is out of her lettuce and the water is half empty.

Her older brother is coming down the stairs as she's heading up and she smiles, holding up her water bottle when he asks if she wants a protein bar. He grimaces, but says nothing, heading to his weights and the treadmill she was just on. She looks over at him, sighs, then opens the door at the top of the stairs, heading into the living room and up the other set of stairs to her room.

She passes her sister's room on the way and hears weeping, knocking, "Melanie? Everything okay in here?" She turns the doorknob and opens the door slowly to find Melanie wiping her eyes with a tissue.

"Dad says you're dyin'. Is that true?" her sister whispers.

"Of course not, silly. I'm just on a diet--I'll slow down once I'm where I want to be." She smiles reassuringly and Melanie sniffles.

"Okay."

She heads back out after a small hug, walking to the restroom, stripping off all her clothes to get the most accurate weight, and stepping on the scale. Eighty pounds at 5'4" (the average weight for a 5'4" female is 108-132).

"Five pounds?" She smiles- her lettuce, watermelon, and ice diet was working. Soon she'd be to her goal- soon she'd be skinny; pretty. But she looks in the mirror and picks at her imagined pudge in her stomach region, and thighs, and her smile turns into a wobbly frown. Still fat... ice and lettuce now... no more watermelon.

She puts the scale back, slips her clothes back on, her pants almost falling off her hips, drowning in her shirt, and heads to her room, falling on her bed, curling in a ball and falling asleep to the satisfying pangs of hunger and her own sobbing.

***

Two Weeks Later...

She is in the kitchen grabbing more lettuce and some ice water, spreading just a slight glaze of ranch dressing on the lettuce slices having found she could easily work that off with an extra half hour, when a wave of dizziness overcomes her and next she knows, she's looking down on herself. She sees the blood first, in stark contrast to the white tiles, but then she hears the screams and shouts of her family members, and looks up. Her mother is on the cell phone, even though she'll be late to work if she doesn't leave now, her father is holding her sister, and her brother is next to her, checking her pulse.

He looks up at her parents while Melanie's eyes are turned away, and shakes his head. He then does something he hasn't done since she was little- he kisses her forehead, and he cries.

"Why, Sophie?"