3. Easier said than done.

“Come on Spindly,  you got this." Leilani's  scarlet curls bounced with her movements where she stood,  crouched over the sweaty and panting mess which was her new friend. "Just two more."

"You make it sound like it's such a small thing," Adana grunted straining her arms to carry her weight once again. 

She succeeded this time and finally completed the twenty pushups assigned to her by Leilani. Making sure to lay on the floor for as long as she wanted,  Leilani exited the room and came back with a bottle of water which Adana accepted and gulped down most if not all the contents greedily while eyeing Leilani's rounded frame sway with the tune in her head.

"I need a long, hot shower. I feel like dirt," Adana said and hauled herself off the gym floor. 

When she had said all the fat was coming off, 'easier said than done' was exactly what she had gone through. 

After endless throw ups and exclusions of various harmful good items from her diet,  she had finally lost a good stone of fat and she wanted to loose more but as Leilani would always say, 'baby steps', she was trying not to go to the extreme end with pushing herself.

Arctic rims which outlined the slate grey eyes under the sun shone as they made their way home. "You always feel like dirt," Leilani muttered in a deliberate loud voice resulting in a playful punch on the shoulder from her a silent chuckling Adana.

"Don't be mean." Leilani pouted and she stopped walking to hold onto Adana's shorter form and shook her with all her might. "Can you believe tomorrow in my actual first day?" 

Adana's lush brows pulled together in a frown, "you've said that like a gazillion times already." 

"I know, I know. I'm just really really really re—”

"Okay,  I think I get it now," Adana quickly butted in. "You're gonna do great."

Unknown to Leilani,  Adana wasn't only encouraging her but also herself. 

Junior high wasn't friendly to her at all. She had lost count of the number of times her back would connect with the lockers when their hands shoved her into them. She had also lost count of all the faces but one face stood out. In the ocean of faces which has abused her,  the pale face of the golden haired boy stood out like a sore thumb.

"... Are you listening?" Leilani snapped her fingers inches from her face. "What are you even thinking about?"

"Uh, it's nothing. Just stuff," she responded quickly. A little too quickly. "See ya tomorrow."

She turned away from a slightly confused looking Leilani and without a single backward glance, made her way to the creaky porch.

With her sneakers in her hands, she tiptoed into the house and closed the door silently and saying a silent prayer that her mother was passed out or not in.

She had only stepped on the first few steps when the scatty cracked voice of the woman she had come to loath since her very existence, rang out from the kitchenette counter. "Where you going lass?" 

Adana should have seen this coming. Her eyes searched the woman at the counter from her spot in the stairs and she contemplated ignoring her but noticed she was as sober as a stubborn donkey. With a lowered head,  Adana inched closer to the woman. 

"I asked a question girl," She repeated while  her tightly balled up fists shook with every step she took that brought her closer to her daughter. "I need an answer."

Adana hesitated while weighing the pros and cons of answering the question but all her thoughts were wiped out when the clinging of metal from the wardrobe material around her mother's wait filled her ears.

Not another whipping. The purplish hue from the earlier slashes from this morning were a testament to how far she was from healing.

The woman ate up the distance between then until the air was filled with relentless whips. Every whip caused the metallic scent in the air to grow heavier and Adana's clothes to rip open and be stained again with the cranberry liquid that was her blood.

"P-please mother."

That seemed to infuriate the woman further because she only increased the intensity of her ministrations. Sometimes Adana would wonder if this woman was even her mother in any way.

Ever since she was brought into this world,  she had only been showered with love and care from this same woman but as soon as she clocked twelve,  the pain crashed down on her like an angry torrent of rain which attacked her skin in every possible way.

"Now,  stand up."

Adana's knees wobbled but she managed to stand and the woman came forward to drag her by the wrists,  up the stairs and into her room where she commanded her to sit on the floor,  close to the bed and bounded Adana one of the legs of the bed.

"Now I don't want to hear a single sound from you," She warned with a raised finger and wide eyes. "I've got a guest visiting and I don't need them to see the pathetic excuse of a daughter I have. Got it?"

Adana nodded weakly,  her hair,  long escaped from the bun, obscuring the glazed over depths of sad orbs which now spilled out salty liquid. "I understand."

Satisfied with what she had accomplished, she exited the room. Once again,  Adana was left to cry up a river in silence. She just hoped her 'mother' would untie her soon.