A/N: Please note this chapter will contain heavy discussions of eating disorders

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The next morning, when Avery wakes up, she stretches whilst lying down and looks to her side. She sees Megan sat up on the sofa on her phone.

'Good morning, sleepy head.' Megan smiles.

'What time is it?' Avery asks through a yawn.

'Just gone nine.' Megan tells her.

'Crap.' Avery whispers, getting up. 'I gotta go take my meds.' She walks out of the front room and into the kitchen. She completely ignores T.K. who is sat at the table with a coffee and walks to the cabinet where Owen keeps her meds. She opens it, takes out her meds for the day and places them on the side. She fills a glass with water, picks the pills up and takes them, washing them down with the water. She finishes the water off and places it in the sink. She turns to see T.K. staring at her.

'Good morning to you too.' He laughs.

'Morning.' Avery replies.

'How did you sleep?' He asks.

'Not good.' Avery shrugs. 'But then again, I don't really sleep well anyway.'

'What are you going to have from breakfast?'

'I'm not that hungry.' Avery shrugs.

'Ave-'

'I know.' Avery says before he can convince her to eat. 'I need to eat, but I'm not hungry. I'll get something in like an hour or two.'

'I'm gonna take Megan out for lunch, Carlos wants to take you out to lunch later, he'll be here around one.' T.K. informs her.

'Okay.' Avery nods. 'I'm gonna go back to Megan.' She walks out of the kitchen and back into the front room.

'Am I okay to use your shower?' Megan asks Avery. 'T.K. is taking me out to lunch.'

'Of course, you don't need to ask.' Avery smiles.

'Did you want to shower too?'

'Yeah, but I'll use the main shower.' Avery says. They both go to walk upstairs, bumping into T.K. on their way. 'We're headed up for a shower.' She tells him. T.K. looks into the front room and sees the state that its in.

'I'll just clean all this up then?' He asks jokingly.

'That'd be great.' Avery grins. 'Thanks bro!' Avery and Megan continue heading upstairs.

'I was joking!' He shouts after them. He shakes his head and walks into the front room and begins clearing up.

Upstairs, Avery and Megan walk into Avery's room. Avery gets some towels out for the pair of them and places them on the bed. They both pick out some clothes and go for their showers. Before Avery has her shower, she gets her phone out and texts Judd.

To: judd-meister 

hey judd-meister, could i pop round in a couple of hours and talk to you about something? i need some advice. 

Judd replies telling her that she can pop by anytime because he's not doing anything. She sets her phone next to the sink and proceeds with her shower. Once she's done and has gotten dressed, done her hair and make-up and brushed her teeth she walks back to her room where Megan is waiting for her.

'Fancy doing a little bit of "Avery-watch?' Avery asks Megan.

'Why?' Megan question sceptical.

'I want to go talk to Judd about something but dad or T.K. won't let me go alone, but if I'm with you, they'll let me go.' Avery explains. 'We won't be too long, we'd be back before lunch.'

'Have you asked your dad and T.K. yet?' Megan asks.

'Not yet.' Avery shakes her head. 'Let's go and ask them.' They both walk downstairs and to the kitchen where T.K. and Owen are.

'Judd just called.' Owen states. 'He said you text and asked to speak to him today?'

'Yeah.' Avery nods. 'I wanted to head over now.'

'With Megan?' Owen asks and Avery nods. 'Okay.' Owen nods. 'As long as you're back before one to go out for your lunches.'

'We will.' Avery nods. 'We're gonna get an Uber.'

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Half an hour later, Avery and Megan are knocking on Judd's door. A few moments later, he answers.

'Hey, girls.' He smiles. 'Come in.' Judd lets the two girls in. 

'Dad wouldn't let me come without Megan.' Avery tells him.

'Still under Avery-watch then?' Judd asks.

'Yep.' Avery laughs. 'We can't stay for long because we have to be back before one, but I do really want to talk to you about something.'

'Is there somewhere I can go to give you guys some privacy?' Megan asks Judd. 

'You can go sit in the guest room. Down the hall, second door on your right.' Judd tells her. 'The wi-fi password is on the dresser in there.' 

'Thanks.' Megan smiles before walking off. Once Judd hears the guest bedroom door click shut, he turns his attention back to Avery. 

'Let's go sit on the sofa.' Judd says. They both walk to the lounge and sit on the sofa. 'So, what's up?' 

'Normally, I'd go to Jason for advice on something like this but it's kinda hard for me to take advice over the phone.' Avery starts. 'A few years ago, before my suicide attempt, I started to become really self-conscious about my body and I thought, y'know, I'm a teenager, it's normal for us to feel insecure. Then the thoughts got worse.' She continues. She takes a deep breath before continuing. 'I have an eating disorder.'

'I take it your dad and T.K. don't know?' Judd assumes.

'They suspect.' Avery nods. 'I overheard them and Carlos talking last night. About how they think I have one. Carlos suggested he take me out to lunch today and try to get me to open up. That's why we have to be back before one.' 

'You want some advice on how to handle it?' Judd asks and Avery nods. 'I would say you speak to them and tell them when you're ready. Don't force yourself to tell them because then, if there's anything I've learnt about you, you will be reluctant to accept help.' 

'Yeah.' Avery frowns slightly, fiddling with her sleeves. 'I mean, it's not as bad as it used to be.' She adds. 'I just feel- ever since I've come to Austin, all I seem to have done is cause trouble.'

'Hey,' Judd puts a hand on her shoulder, 'you have not caused trouble. You've gone through some unimaginable things and you have everyone's support. Don't think for one moment that anyone thinks you've caused trouble.'

'It's been hard.' Avery admits. 'Trying to keep a brave face, a fake smile. I want to speak to them about it but I don't want to be a burden. I've put them through enough as it is.' 

'Ave, you are not a burden.' Judd assures her. 

'It's not just T.K. and dad, though.' Avery shakes her head. 'It's Carlos. He's cut down on his hours at work so that there's always someone with me.'

'Carlos offered to watch over you. He wouldn't have done that if he didn't want to. He wants to help you. As do the rest of the 126. And me.' He reassures her. 'Asking for help is hard. Believe me, I know.' 

'How do I tell them?' Avery asks. 'I've always struggled with speaking to them about my mental health. I don't want to give them any more reason to coddle me because it feels like I'm suffocating as it is.'

'Tell them what you want.' Judd tells her. Avery looks down. 'What do you want?' 

'I want to be able to eat without feeling guilty.' She looks up at him. 'I want to be able to eat three full meals a day again, at the moment I'm only eating one - dinner - and that's only because of dad, T.K. and Carlos. Breakfast and Lunch - I get away with a little snack, sometimes nothing. I can't eat three meals a day anymore, not without- not without making myself throw up. Jason would always help me. He'd make sure I was eating and if I was ever at his, he wouldn't force me to eat, if I did eat, he'd make sure it's something that I like and something within my comfortable calorie range but still gave me all the nutrients I needed.' She stops and takes a deep breath. 'I want help. I want to recover. But I don't want to do it in a facility.' Her phone then pings. She takes it out and sees a message from T.K.

From: Dork

To make it easier for you and Megan, Carlos and I are gonna come and collect yous from Judd's. I've already let Megan know. We'll be there soon 

She sends a quick "ok" back before turning her attention back to Judd.

'That was T.K., him and Carlos are gonna pick us up from here.' She tells him. He notices that Avery really is pleased that she's made to go out for lunch.

'You don't want to go out for lunch, do you?' Judd realises. 

'Not really.' Avery shakes her head. 'But I don't want to say something in front of T.K. I'll speak to Carlos when we're both alone.' She continues. 'Thank you.' She smiles. 'For talking to me about this.' 

'Of course.' Judd smiles back. 'I'll go and let Megan know we're done.' He stands up and goes and gets Megan. They both return and Megan sits on the sofa.

'Did you talk about what you wanted to talk about?' Megan asks Avery.

'Yeah.' Avery smiles slightly and nods. For the next half hour, the three of them talk and catch up until there's a knock at the door. Judd excuses himself to answer it and returns with T.K. and Carlos.

'Hey.' Both girls smile at them.

'You two ready to go?' T.K. asks. 'We both drove here separately.'

'How did you handle that?' Avery jokes.

'We can handle a short drive away from each other.' T.K. laughs. 

'Yet when we're at home, you can't keep your hands off of each other.' Avery smirks, making fun of her brother. Carlos goes bright red whilst Judd tries to hold back a laugh. 

'I'm surprised you took your head out of a book long enough to notice.' T.K. bites back, grinning. 

'The banter you two have is amazing.' Megan laughs. Avery looks at her.

'The perks of having an old brother.' Avery smiles. She looks back at T.K. and sees the look on his face. 'I meant, older, of course.' 

'You are so very lucky I love you.' He narrows his eyes.

'Love you too bro.' Avery grins.

'We better get going.' T.K. says. Avery turns to Judd and they hug.

'Thank you again.' Avery thanks him.

'Of course.' He nods after they've parted. 'Remember what I said.' Avery simply nods before leaving with Megan, T.K. and Carlos. They all stand by the two cars.

'We'll meet you back at the house.' T.K. says. They all say goodbye before Megan leaves with T.K. and Avery with Carlos.

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A few minutes into driving, Carlos sees that Avery is on edge and notices that she's drumming her fingers on her knee.

'Is everything okay?' He asks concerned.

'Yeah.' She nods, but Carlos knows she isn't. Despite that he doesn't want to push for answers. A few more minutes pass. 'No.'

'Sorry?' Carlos asks confused.

'No. Everything's not okay.' She shakes her head. Carlos finds somewhere to pull over. Once they've come to a stop, he turns to face her. 'I don't want to go for lunch.' 

'Avery,' Carlos states, using her full name, 'you need to eat. T.K. said you didn't eat breakfast and you barely ate yesterday.'

'I don't want to go for lunch because I don't want to have to force myself to throw up afterwards.' Avery admits.

'Ave.' Carlos sighs sympathetically. 

'I overheard you, dad and T.K. talking last night.' Avery says, looking at him. Tears threatening to spill from her eyes. 'About how you guys suspected I have an eating disorder. How you were taking me out to lunch to talk to me about it.' She adds. 'Yes, I have an eating disorder.'

'I'm sorry we spoke about you behind your back like that.' Carlos apologises.

'No, don't apologise.' Avery shakes her head. 'You had every right too. You were concerned about me.' She sighs. 'I want help. I really do.' Tears are now escaping from her eyes. 'But please don't force me to eat. Not in a restaurant anyways.'

'What do you want to do? Food wise.' Carlos asks.

'Seriously?' Avery raises an eyebrow.

'Seriously.' Carlos nods.

'The only people that have ever asked me that are Jason and his mom.' Avery smiles slightly. 'I want to eat in private, have something small.'

'Then let's go back to my place and see what we can rustle up.' Carlos tells her. 

'Thank you.' She smiles gratefully. 

'Hey, your mental health comes first. If that's what you want, then that's what we'll do.' Carlos says. 'If you're up to it, we can talk about it more and whether you want to tell your dad and T.K.' 

'I'd appreciate that.' Avery nods. Carlos starts driving towards his house. When they get there, he talks to her about what she wants to eat and makes it up for her. Over lunch, Avery shares with him what she shared with Judd. Together, they come up with a plan to tell T.K. and Owen the next day so that she can prepare for it. After a couple of hours, he takes her back home.

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Avery and Carlos pull up in front of the Strand residence. 

'Thank you for lunch.' Avery smiles slightly. 'And for understanding.' 

'Of course.' Carlos nods. They both get out of the car, as they do, T.K. pulls up and parks. He gets out of the car and walks up to Avery and Carlos with Megan. 

'Good lunch?' T.K. asks them.

'Yeah.' They both nod. All four walk up the path and into the house. Whilst Megan and Avery go up to Avery's room to chill out, shouting hello to Owen as they do, Carlos and T.K. walk through to the front room where Owen is sat.

'Did everything go okay?' Owen asks Carlos.

'Yeah.' Carlos nods. T.K. and Carlos both sit down. 'She's not ready to talk to you guys today and I don't feel comfortable sharing what she told me.' He continues. 'She overheard us talking last night.' 

'Is that why she went to speak to Judd?' T.K. queries. 

'I believe so.' Carlos nods.

'Did she eat?' Owen asks the most important question.

'She did.' Carlos nods. 'Not much, but she did eat.' 

'Good.' Owen nods.

'She wants to speak to you guys tomorrow.' Carlos informs them. 'About what we talked about. She wants me to help her so I'll be here around 4pm tomorrow.'

'Thank you.' Owen thanks him. 'We appreciate it.' He looks at T.K. who also nods.

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It's the next day. Megan is having a catch-up with Max, one of the nurses from the facility she was at not that long ago.  Avery is in the front room, sitting on the sofa, reading a book on your Kindle when T.K. sneaks up behind her, 'What'cha reading?' He asks making her jump.

'Jesus fucking christ!' Avery gaps, quickly stuffing her Kindle under one of the cushions. T.K. walks round to face her. 'Don't do that!' T.K. cocks his head. 'What?'

'Why did you hide your Kindle like that?' He asks.

'What do you mean?' Avery laughs nervously.

'You hid your Kindle like you didn't want anyone to know what you're reading.' T.K. says. 'What are you reading?'

'Nothing interesting. Just some YA book I saw on TikTok that I thought I'd like.' Avery shrugs. 'You wouldn't know it.'

'Hmm.' T.K. ponders. 'You always hide your fantasy books that fast?' He steps a little closer to her. 'What's it about?'

'Erm, it's a Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920's Shanghai.' Avery tries to convince by explaining a book she's already read.

'Didn't you already read that?' T.K. asks. 'What was it called?' He thinks for a moment. 'These Violent Delights? You cried after the end of the sequel?'

'Did I?' Avery laughs nervously once more. T.K. takes another step closer to her.

'What are you really reading?' T.K. raises an eyebrow. Before anything more can be said or done, T.K. lunges and tries to grab the Kindle hidden beneath the cushion.

'Nope.' Avery quickly grabs her Kindle, jumps over the back of the sofa and runs off, with T.K. chasing her. He chases her out of the front room, through and around the kitchen before running back into the front room. They stop either side of the sofa. 'Na na na na na, you can't catch me.' She sings, looks back and sticks out her tongue at him before taking off running again out of the room and up the stairs. As she reaches the top of the stairs, she drops her Kindle. She scrambles to get it but it's too late. T.K. has caught up with her and grabs the Kindle. They both stand in the hallway at the top of the stairs. 'Give it back!' Avery tries to snatch it out of his hand, but he holds it above his head. 'T.K.!' She groans as she jumps up and tries to grab but it's no use. He holds her at arms-length as he brings the Kindle down in front of his face.

'Now,' he clears his throat, 'let's see what you were reading.'

'Fuck.' Avery mutters under breath. She watches as T.K. unlocks her Kindle and reads the page she was reading. A minute later he looks up, his face scrunched with disgust and his mouth agape. 'You dirty bitch.'

'I'm not going to apologise for what I read.' Avery takes the Kindle from her brother.

'You're 16!' T.K. laughs, not sure of what to make of the situation.

'Nearly 17.' Avery states. 'I've always been a mature reader, you know that. I can handle shit like this.' She adds. 'I've read worse.' A smirk forms on her face.

'You've what?' T.K. questions, making sure he heard right.

'Please,' Avery scoffs, 'this is tame compared to other things I've read.'

'I don't even wanna know.' T.K. shakes his head. 'You're basically reading porn.'

'I know, I'm the one reading it.' Avery laughs. 'Smutty romances are where it's at these days.'

'And you found this book through TikTok?' T.K. asks.

'Like I said, smutty romances are where it's at.' Avery answers. 'Everybody's recommending them at the moment.' She adds. 'Before you say anything I was reading these kinda books before I saw TikTok's on them.'

'You know if dad was here, or if he knew you were reading books like- like that, he'd go ape-shit.' T.K. points out.

'Correction – he'd try and talk to me about how to not expect sex the way it is in books.' Avery corrects him. 'Which I already know by the way.' She continues. 'It's just a book about a princess and her bodyguard fucking, so like I said, tame compared to other books I've read.' She finishes casually.

'If that's tame, I don't want to know what other books you read.' T.K. laughs. 'You really like them? They don't make you feel uncomfortable or-'

'No.' Avery shakes her head. 'Everyone has their guilty pleasure, right? Smutty, and sometimes trashy, romance books are mine. I know what to expect from someone when the time comes and to not pay attention to how it's done in books and TV shows and movies.' T.K. goes to say something but Avery holds her hand up. 'I'm not done.'

'Bossy.' He huffs.

'I know that you're my big brother and you want to protect me from everything, especially given my past. But I don't need protecting from what I read. I look up content warnings before I read a book. If a book has something that could trigger me, and I still decide to read it then that's on me. The moment people start gatekeep what I read is the moment I stop checking those content warnings and read books out of spite and that can be really harmful, hell really damaging, to my mental health. That isn't a guilt trip – it's the truth. You can ask Jason, he's witnessed it.' She says. 'Now I'm done.'

'I trust you.' T.K. states.

'Wait, what?' Avery asks confused.

'I trust you.' He repeats. 'Like you said, you're a mature reader and your mature for your age. If you say that you can handle books like that then I trust you.'

'Thanks.' Avery smiles slightly.

'I have one question though.' T.K. adds. 'Have you ever read any of those kind of books in front of me and dad?'

'I have an excellent poker face.' Avery smirks. There's a knock on the door. 

'That will be Carlos.' T.K. states.

'I know.' Avery nods. 'He said he'd help me speak to you and dad.' The two of them walk down the stairs just in time for Owen to answer the door and let Carlos in. Owen closes the door. 'Can we go through to the front room?'

'Sure.' Owen smiles and nods. The three of them walk to the front room. Avery sits crossed legged on an armchair whilst Carlos sits on the other armchair and Owen and T.K. on the sofa. Avery takes a couple of deep breaths. 

'I'm ready.' She states. 'I'm ready to talk to you guys.' She carries on. 'You've already suspected it but yes,' she nods, 'I have an eating disorder.' 

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This is such a long chapter but I hope you enjoyed it!

Remember to check out  DharmaWinter's story "Addicted" - Megan's story! 

Let me know what your thoughts!

Much love