"Em!"

Emily turned around, a smile pulling at her lips as she saw Phoebe grinning brightly at her in greeting. She readjusted the box containing her personal items in her arms, walking as quickly as she could towards Emily. When Phoebe reaches her, she placed the box on the ground and threw her arms around Emily, pulling her in a fierce hug.

"Oh, I've missed you so much! We have lots to catch up on." Phoebe stepped back to look over Emily, causing her to tense up involuntarily. Phoebe's gaze met hers, and she gave Emily a small smile. "You look great," she complimented her. "Really good and...and healthy."

Not knowing how to respond to that, Emily simply nodded tersely, throwing in a small smile to make her gratitude more believable. She had hoped to avoid any comments about how she looked because she didn't need to be reminded of how much weight she had put on during her time in recovery over the summer. She knew her parents had talked to Phoebe to ask her to watch over Emily to "make sure she doesn't go back to bad habits". She felt a burst of hatred and annoyance at her eating disorder. Because of it, she was now dealing with awkward conversations and people treating her like a fragile thing. She didn't want that, though, she just wanted to feel normal again.

Emily glanced over Phoebe's shoulders to wave at Michael, who was coming over to join them with another box of his sister's belongings in his arms. He smiled back at her in greeting.

"Hey, Em. Nice to see you again. How was your summer?" he asked her when he got close enough.

Emily shrugged, feeling Phoebe's careful eyes on her. She knew that if she said anything slightly alarming, Phoebe would let her parents know. She had to answer carefully.

"It was fine. I mostly just relaxed since nothing exciting really happened," Emily answered.

"Well, I'm glad to hear you got to relax. You seemed really stressed last year." Michael turned to Phoebe. "You've still got one more box left in the trunk. Can you grab it?"

"I'll get it," Emily volunteered, rushing to Michael's car to grab the box with Phoebe's name scribbled in sharpie. She joined the siblings, then led them to her dorm building. Luckily for both of them, Emily and Phoebe were in the same dorm building this year.

Climbing up the stairs to Phoebe's floor, Emily didn't even realize she was counting her steps until they were almost at their destination. She breathed in deeply, doing her best to let go of the thoughts that were like second nature to her. No more need to count how many calories she was burning walking up and down the stairs. No more, she berated herself, ashamed that she was still having these thoughts even after three months in a recovery program. Shouldn't these things have stopped by now?

Phoebe pulled out the key to her room and opened the door, revealing a room identical to Emily's. Michael deposited the box in his arms on the ground, and Emily followed suit, her arms aching. The burn of her muscles brought back memories of how accomplished she used to feel after an especially tiring workout. Don't think it, Emily thought bitterly, her teeth gritted.

"Alright, I'm not needed here anymore, am I?" Michael asked Phoebe with a raised brow. Phoebe shook her head in confirmation.

"What are you going to do for the rest of the day?" Phoebe asked her brother.

"I'll go drop off my stuff in my room, and then I'm meeting up with Levi and Daniel."

Emily's head snapped up at the sound of his name, so fast that she heard the sharp crack as her neck protested against the sudden movement. She winced, placing a hand on the back of her neck, but ignored the pain.

"Levi?" His name was out of her mouth before she could stop herself. Both Phoebe and Michael glanced at her.

"Yeah. He was the one you met at my birthday dinner a couple months ago," Michael reminded her, thinking she needed help to jog the memory of the flirty blond guy who helped her through the darkest moment of her life.

Emily nodded slowly, pretending to just remember who Levi is. "Oh, right. Yeah, I know him," she said lamely.

Luckily, Michael was convinced by her terrible act and excused himself soon after. Phoebe was talking to her excitedly about the plans she had for the two of them for the rest of the day, but Emily wasn't really paying attention. Her thoughts were, to her annoyance, on Levi.

God, she hated herself for reacting so strongly to his name. She was so desperate to see him and talk to him again, it was pathetic. What the fuck is wrong with me, she thought with a scowl.

"Em? You ready to go? I've got those tickets to the show." Phoebe grinned with excitement, and her smile was contagious enough that Emily couldn't help but smile back.

"Yeah, let's go," Emily told her, letting Phoebe link their arms together. She let herself be dragged out of Phoebe's room and outside. At this point, she was desperate to do anything to get Levi out of her mind.

Even if he was the only person in her life who seemed to have genuinely cared and believed her about her issues.