One curse word, let me just have one curse word.

"Harmony, I scheduled a doctor's appointment for you on Thursday," Ms. Wilfeld announced as Harmony got up to leave the dinner table.

"What? No. I'm fine." Harmony gave a silent scream as she paused in front of the sink, where she had just thrown her plates in. "There's no need; it's just a stomach ache."

"We're going," Ms. Wilfeld said in a tone that meant it was final.

"Fuck," Harmony muttered under her breath.

X X X

"Mom, this really isn't necessary," Harmony whined as she took a long drink from her water bottle, barely finding the strength to hold it up to her lips.

"Yes, but maybe they can give you medicine or something to cure your stomach ache faster," Ms. Wilfeld replied. "C'mon." She pushed open the driver's door and motioned for Harmony to get out with her.

"But..." Harmony started, not wanting for someone to point out that something was obviously wrong with her and make her eat more. "But..."

"No buts, let's go."

Harmony sighed as she hopped out of the car on her side and begrudgingly followed her mom into the near-empty waiting room. It was only a few minutes before they were called inside, but it felt like an eternity of reading the posters on the wall and subtly glancing over at her mother. But finally, finally, a nurse came out and called, "Harmony Wilfeld?"

"That's us." Ms. Wilfeld motioned to Harmony, and together they stood up and followed the nurse back.

Quickly, they went through the usual weight and height checks, and then they were taken into a room where Ms. Wilfeld told the nurse in detail about Harmony's "stomach ache" while Harmony sat in silence, hoping the nurse wouldn't see through Harmony's little lies. Finally, after five minutes of back and forth and ten minutes of waiting, the actual doctor arrived.

"Hi, I--"

"She's been having a stomach ache for the past week or so, and her weight has dropped down quite a bit," Ms. Wilfeld immediately jumped in, and Harmony half-expected her to tell the doctor her life story. "She's also been refusing to eat. She only had some of her meals, and I'm not even sure if she ate lunch. She only ate less than xxx calories today.

Hah, Harmony thought to herself. I wish. The breakfast you made me choke down today was that many calories alone.

Harmony sighed to herself as she went through the actions of pretending to be fine, pretending to be fine, and, oh yeah, pretending to be fine. Maybe a month ago she'd wanted help getting out of this cycle, but now? She was so over that. Her new goal was to get to only eating xxx calories a day as soon as she got out of here--in other words, to meet her mother's expectations, even if they weren't positive. But less than five minutes later:

"Go to the ER right away. I'll let them know you're on your way."