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Chapter 9: Changes

"How much more weight have you lost, Neon?" I said, pointing to her sweater sleeve. We both stopped jogging and looked down at it, and then she looked back at me.

"Huh?" Neon asked, looking at me, then back at Yuki. He walked up to her and gently took hold of her arm, moving the sweater sleeve past her wrist.

Geez....her wrist and arm, from what I could see, was beginning to border on skeletal. I know she hasn't been eating much lately, but does it happen this quickly?

"When was the last time you ate, Neon?" Yuki asked, his eyes averting from Neon's arm to her face, and then back to her arm again.

Without a word, Neon removed her arm from Yuki's grasp, moving her sweater sleeve back up to her wrist and keeping it in place, holding onto it firmly with her free hand.

"What's the scared look for?" I asked, stepping closer to her, which made her back up.

"Neon, you've gotta eat something. I can take you to my house and give you something there after class is over. Mom made leftovers last night if you w-" Yuki was cut off by Neon.

"I'll be fine, Mom." Neon said to Yuki, the "Mom" part coming out in a mocking tone.

"Let's continue jogging, guys. This won't get us anywhere." I responded, stepping between the two of them. I pointed to the gym floor in front of us as if telling them to continue walking along the floor. Once we started doing that, nothing much else was said throughout the duration of the class.
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The class finished. With our backpacks on our shoulders, my friends and I walked out of the gym.

"Come on. Let's go to my house." Yuki said.

"Oh yeah? Why?"

"You know why." Yuki said, lightly nudging my arm while looking over at Neon.

"Oh. Right." I muttered, keeping my voice lower than usual as to make sure Neon didn't hear us. Must've been talking about the food thing.

"Hey Neon, wanna go over to Yuki's house?" I asked, which made her look at me, then him, and she shrugged while nodding.

"Sure. I haven't been over there in a while. Why not?"

"Good. She must've forgotten about our earlier conversation." I thought. We made our way to the front of the building and walked outside onto campus and turned left this time instead of right.

When we finally got to Yuki's house, we walked through the door, the kitchen greeting us first. The first thing I noticed besides that were all the lights were off.

"My parents have longer job shifts today." He said, turning on the kitchen light and walking towards the fridge.

He reached into the fridge and pulled a container out with something inside it. He set it on the dining room table and opened it, Neon and I gathering around him. Inside I saw what looked like two pieces of steak. He looked at Neon, who shook her head.

"Heat it up." Said Yuki, receiving another headshake from Neon.

"Then I'll do it for you." I said, taking a plate out of his cupboard and putting one of the steak pieces on it. I opened the microwave and put the plate inside it, pressed on the numbers on the side of it, and closed the door. The piece of steak circled around in the microwave for a minute, and once the microwave dinged, I took the plate out of there and walked closer to Neon.

"Something smells good." I heard Neon say as I put the plate in front of her.

"Now go get yourself some water." I said, crossing my arms, watching as Neon walked to Yuki's cupboard and pulled out a glass from one of them.