Page 19 of #Beautiful

Mom takes my hand and leads us over the a secluded sitting area. She takes the seat next to me while Dad sits across from me. The three of us are silent for a few minutes until I finally sigh and hang my head. “How do I help her?”

Mom puts her hand on my back and rubs up and down with a sigh of her own. “We don’t have an answer for that, honey. Lena has to want to help herself with this one. Eating disorders aren’t something you can just fix with medication. She’s going to need therapy and support, and when I say support, I mean she is going to try and fail, and have to keep trying. This isn’t something that’s easily fixed.”

Turning my head, I stare at my mom. “You say that like you’ve experienced it.”

She gives my father a quick glance before taking a deep breath. “I have. Maybe a year after you and Darcy were born.”

Sitting up, I can’t take my eyes off my mother. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Oh, don’t look at me like that, Declan,” she snaps. “Your father and I aren’t perfect, despite what you and your friends seem to think. We didn’t get to where we are in life as people without struggles and heartache of our own. Your father was a brand new senator, and he was gone a lot. He had this secretary that was just beautiful. Tall, thin, always put together.”

“And that gave you an eating disorder?” My eyebrow quirks up as I continue to stare at her.

She sighs heavily as my father reaches over and puts his hand on her leg. “It was more than that. She spent a lot of time with your dad, and I was home raising you two. One night, she showed up at our house, dressed to the nines. Your dad needed help with his tie because he was running late, but I was cooking and had you on my hip and Darcy screaming bloody murder in the high chair.” Mom sighs again and runs her free hand through her hair. “She steps up with her perfectly manicured nails and ties his tie, and the way she looked at him . . . I suddenly felt like I was loosing everything. It became the undoing of my self-esteem, I got this twisted idea that when she made a move on your dad, which I knew she would, that he’d realize what a fat mess I’d become and leave me for her.”

“Which was completely bonkers,” Dad says, squeezing her leg, and earning a sad smile from Mom. “I never would’ve left your mother. The best part of my life at that time was coming home to her in sweats, covered in dirt, knowing that she was doing a job a million times harder than mine, and also knowing that I wouldn’t last ten minutes doing what she did with you two.”

“But, that spiraled into me trying to force off what I thought was too much fat and make myself perfect like I thought that woman was. About the same time, I finally had a breakdown and got into treatment, spilling all my disgusting secrets to your father. That woman actually made a move on him.”

My jaw dropped. “How?”

“She walked into my office one night while I was working on an important law proposal, everyone else had already left, and when I looked up to acknowledge her, she was completely naked in heels.”

“Holy shit,” I say under my breath, confusion and shear shock filling my mind. “What did you do?”

“Fired her,” Dad says without batting an eye. “There wasn’t an alternative. If I’d have kept her on my stafff, she’d have tried again or done something crazy because of my rejection. Knowing that she was the catalyst to your mother’s insecurities, it was an easy decision.”

My mind starts turning over all the things that happened this year so far, and then the light bulb goes off. “Jackie.”

My parents glance at each other and then me, their eyes asking what they don’t.

“Last year, when I was pledging Sigma Nu, at one of the away games, I was high, and this cheerleader was dancing on me. Nothing happened, but the same girl hit on me this year, and then said some really mean things to Lena. Then the other night, she send nudes to my phone. I don’t even know how she got my number.”

“Do you still have the text?”

My browns pull together as I pull out my phone to see if I actually deleted the message or not. Shit. It’s still on my phone. “No. Damn, Lena will flip if she finds out I still have it.”

“Don’t delete that,” Dad snaps. “Tomorrow morning, you need to make an appointment with the Dean. This college has a strict code of conduct, and you need to show this girl and Lena that you take things like this seriously.”

“You want me to show the Dean a nude photo another student sent me?” My dad can’t be for real.

“Yes,” he says, nodding. “Declan, take it from someone who spends all day in politics, dealing with laws that center around this type of thing. Unsolicited nudes is quickly becoming a form of sexual harassment.”

Locking my phone and sliding it back in my pocket, I nod, too. “Okay. I’ll tell Lena, too. What I plan to do, I mean.”

“Well, you can see her now,” Mr. Harrison says, making me jump and turn toward the entrance of the waiting room. “She’s waiting for you, and I’m going to meet you all at your house tomorrow morning to help get Lena into treatment.”

Standing, I stop in front of him with my eyes on the ground. “I’m sorry, Mr. Harrison.”

“For what?”

“I promised you I’d always take care of Lena, and I know this doesn’t make it look like I’m doing a very good job.” I didn’t realize how bad this made me feel until the man walked in earlier, but it does. Our senior year of high school, I promised to always protect her, and I didn’t last year, and I’m not this year.

“Son, look at me,” he says with a soft authority that almost confuses me, but I lift my eyes to meet his anyway. “Lena is an extremely independent girl. She always has been. The fact you found her, brought her to the hospital, and called me is exactly what I expect, and I’m grateful. Others might have just brought her hear and then acted like nothing happened. But you were brutally honest with me, with her, and with yourself about what situation we are in with this, and that is the best kind of protection you can offer a woman like my daughter, because you can’t make her choices for her, so instead, you and I both just have to love her, even when it is tough love, and hope she makes the right decisions on her own.”

By the time he stops talking, there’s tears in my eyes, and I try to blink them back, but instead, they spill over. Mr. Harrison pulls me into a hug, and it should probably be awkward, but it’s not— it’s actually comforting.

When he lets me go, he pats me on the back and turns to leave, my parents hugging me and following him out as well. I take a few minutes to pull myself together before heading back to Lena’s room, and when I get there, she’s dressed in the clothes I brought for her from the house, sitting on the side of the bed. I didn’t think she’d want to leave in her Catwoman costume so I grabbed sweats and a hoodie.

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