Page 49 of Bewitch

“That makes the two of us.” He lifts his chin. “You done?”

“Not… Can we do something where I’m sitting?”

“Why? Because of that limp of yours?”

“Why have me do squats and lunges if you saw the limp?”

“I saw that you were trying to walk through it. I thought maybe your muscles were just tight. I didn’t think you would be stupid enough to try to work through a legit injury.”

“It’s not a legit injury. It’ll be fine tomorrow, I’m sure. I just… I fell.”

He narrows his eyes. “There’s more to it than just that.”

“You don’t want to hear it. None of it.”

“Try me.” He crosses his arms.

I swallow hard. “I…” I cover my mouth with my hand.

“Are you going to be sick again?” he asks, his eyebrows shooting up.

I shake my head and lower my hand. I bite my lower lip.

“Come,” he says quietly, and he brings me back to his cubicle. “Just showing up when you aren’t in the mood to work out is a win.”

“It’s not that I… Maybe I didn’t want to. My head isn’t in it today.”

“You’re allowed to have a day off here and there if you need it. Working out is mental as much as it is physical.”

“It’s not the working out that’s getting to me. It’s the lack of progress. I… I puked because I binged.”

“Was there a reason behind why you binged?”

“There doesn’t have to be a reason why,” I mumble.

“Was there a reason this time?”

I hesitate.

“You don’t have to tell me. Hell, you don’t have to like me, but you should like yourself. Do you?”

“Most of the time.”

“That’s a start. What don’t you like about yourself?”

“Are you a counselor now?”

He grimaces, and the flash of anger crossing over his features has me wondering what sparked his ire. “If you want help, help yourself. Talk to me, talk to a friend, talk to the wall for all I care. Just open up. Be true to who you are.”

“And what will happen then?”

“You’ll be able to change you are then,” he says simply.

The way he puts it… It’s not as easy as it sounds, but I get the impression that he’s done this before.

There’s so much I don’t know about this young man before me. Maybe there’s a reason why he’s said those shitty things to me. Not that there’s an excuse, but…

“I don’t want to get into right now,” I say slowly. “Not with you or anyone else, but… I will try to do better.”

---