Tenhimi: Before The Game

Chapter Eight

TW eating disorders, blood, death, seriously this chapter is intense

"Here, I got you this." I hand the headband to Tenko, looking away to avoid embarrassment. She skims the instruction manual and grins.

"Oooohhhhh thank you so much Himiko! I love it!" She crashes into me with a hug, making my stomach pang.

"It's just to repay you for the wolf." I pout.

"You're too cute. I'm gonna go to the bathroom and put it on, be right back!" She runs off. I sit on her bed, fiddling with the edge of my skirt like I do when I'm nervous.

Ugh, what's that smell? I scowl as a gross odor seeps out from under the bed. Getting on my hands and knees, I peek under Tenko's bed. The smell is coming from a white plastic bin. Geez, did an animal die here or something? I guess I should check so I can tell Tenko if something did.

I pull it out, and to my surprise it's a bucket of vomit. I gag and push it back under the bed, and I hear the rustles of food wrappers.

"Himiko it looks great!" I hear Tenko's voice coming near. I spring up and sit back down on her bed as fast as possible.

She walks in with a bright smile on her face, gesturing to the green flower-like headband on the back of her head. She looks gorgeous, of course, but all I can think about is the disgusting sight I had just seen.

"You look great." I put on a fake smile.

"Cmon let's get out of my boring room with the small TV and go watch Mage Girls."

"And cuddleeee!" She sings, grabbing my hand and pulling me to the living room. She probably doesn't want me to smell the stuff under her bed.

I knew that Tenko had some sort of disordered eating, she barely ate and was always chugging water. But I didn't know it was this bad. Maybe it was just a one time thing. I'll just have to watch her closely.

"Tenko, I'm hungry. Can we make popcorn?" I ask.

"Sure!" She doesn't seem to be uneasy or nervous.

We make popcorn and settle down onto her couch, her arm draped around my shoulders. I half watch the show and half watch Tenko, who's eating the popcorn just like normal.

However after about 10 minutes, Tenko stands up.

"I have to use the restroom, you don't need to pause." Right when she closes the door to the bathroom I scurry over to the door and put my ear against it.

I hear her gagging her guts out.

Disgusted, I run back to the couch, nausea rising. Hell, maybe I'll throw up.

I can't believe this. Poor Tenko, forcing herself to throw up just so she can lose weight? How do I even begin to tell her how gorgeous she is right now? I can't stand the thought of thinking of her purposely making herself vomit, alone in the middle of the night after binge eating through all those wrappers under the bed.

I know when I see her the pain will be too much, so when she comes back I simply watch Mage Girls. I do notice she doesn't eat anymore popcorn, though.

I walk home later that night. I'm confused, and tired, and all I want to do is sleep. My dad's car is in the driveway so I peek in through the front window. He's fast asleep on the couch, so I sneak in through the back window and curl under my bed, like I used to do when I was younger and scared my dad would find me.

I start reminiscing about Tenko and I's first kiss, when everything was simple. But now our friends are going off and joining a killing game, Tenko is bulimic, and I might be pregnant with my father's baby after I was raped. Great. Just... great.