Happy Ever After Read Online Free PDF Page B

suggested.
    Melissa was shocked at how blatantly pushy she was. ‘Oh—’
    ‘We’re not quite sure exactly what we’re doing yet,’ Sarah interjected. ‘I’ve to buy some bits and pieces for my mum first. See you around, Evanna.’ She put Eckhart Tolle back on his shelf, grabbed Melissa by the arm and edged away as though the other girl was suffering from a particularly virulent form of plague. ‘Is she for real?’ she muttered as they hurried out of the bookshop. ‘If she was still friends with Turdy Sampson she wouldn’t even bother to say hello to us. Did you hear her inviting herself up to your place?’
    ‘I know.’ Melissa shook her head. ‘You handled it really well. How did you know all that stuff about that book by that Ekkey fella?’
    ‘I read it on the back of it.’ Sarah giggled.
    ‘I loved the “questioning mindset” bit. Did you see the look she gave you? Good buzz, you big spoofer.’ Melissa chortled.
    ‘Yeah, it was good, wasn’t it?’ grinned Sarah. ‘Let’s go and have a Big Mac and go and flop on the balcony for the afternoon. We’ve had a lucky escape. If she starts hanging around us in school, we’ve like totally had it.’
    ‘I know,’ Melissa agreed glumly as they made their way out on to the street. ‘We’ll just have to do our best to ignore her.’
    An hour later, Melissa stood in the bathroom of the penthouse she lived in. Sarah was draped on a lounger outside reading OK . Melissa’s heart pounded. This was her first time, and she knew she was crossing a line that could lead to trouble if she was not very careful.
    ‘I’ll only do it when I eat junk,’ she promised herself, kneeling down in front of the toilet and opening her mouth. She felt sick just thinking about making herself sick. How could girls do it five and six times a day? She hated getting sick. But she’d just stuffed herself with a large portion of fries, burger, ice cream and Coke, enough to pile on the precious pounds she’d lost since the wedding.
    She dithered, and then thought of those horrid words that were seared in her brain: ‘ Who is that little fat tart? ’ The words that had ruined the best day of her life.
    It was enough. She shoved her fingers down her throat and puked.
    When it was over she stood up and wiped her mouth. She caught sight of herself in the mirror. Her eyes were unnaturally bright, her cheeks were red. Melissa felt strangely exhilarated. She’d done it. She’d taken that first step. She knew two girls who were anorexic. She’d watched them fade to nothing before they were hospitalized. One was even being force fed through a tube up her nose. She wasn’t going to end up waxy as a candle, emaciated, hollow-eyed and gaunt. She just wanted to lose a stone and a half, and then she’d stop.
    She wouldn’t be like the lollipop heads. She’d stay in control. She would be in charge of IT. IT would never control her , she vowed as she flushed the toilet and made her way out to join her best friend.

J UDITH
    Judith Baxter lay drowsing against her pillows as the sun emerged in a shaft of piercing light from behind a drift of clouds. It shone in through the hospital windows, bathing her in unwelcome brightness. Its intensity woke her, and she sighed deeply.
    She was tired and sore, the effect of the painkillers having worn off earlier, and she wasn’t due any more medication for another hour. Judith struggled out of the rumpled iron-framed bed and padded over to the window to pull down the blind. She stared out the window, glad that she had a room with a view. She was several floors up, and the panorama across the suburbs to Howth and the sea was remarkable.
    She paused for a moment to study the SeaCat gliding across the glassy sea, many miles away. And it seemed, as it glided along the horizon, to sail into the sky. Usually, this optical illusion fascinated her, but today she had a headache and was restless and agitated. She was itchy all over, and she knew, because the