Sue
49kg and falling

"You're so fat, Mia," Ana said, watching Mia turn this way and that in the mirror from her bed, "you should try harder. Whatever you're doing isn't working."
"Hey, I can lose more weight than any of you," Mia rebuffed, daring us all to deny her challenge. It was Sophie who surprised me when she replied, "You think so?"
"I can take you easily, red. What are you now, 65kilograms?" Mia sauntered over to Sophie and stood in front of her, in her space.
"You going take that, Sophia?" Ana asked.
"58 Actually," Sophie replied, not picking up on Mia's subtle stab at her weight, holding her ground. Ever since I had met her in junior high she had been firm in her convictions. She would rise to any challenge, training endlessly to get placed in the running team and then pushing herself to get a perfect grade.
Mia was shorted than Sophie, but I knew that the numbers mattered. The numbers symbolized something more than a measurement; numbers were an identity, a place to belong.
Mia took a few moments as if to access her recent memories. "I'm 57, so I guess I'm winning then."
"Not for long. I'll get to 55 before you."
"Ugh, really. Let's see it happen first."
Ana piped in, suddenly interested in the game, "Loser has to pay a forfeit. Or do you say the winner?"
"What forfeit?" Mia replied. She was on today, I could tell, her voice had changed and we all shied away from her aggressive mood, but Sophie never let herself get pressed into a corner.
"Whoever loses the competition has to be my slave for a week," Ana said, as if it was nothing. Her slave. I wondered what that would be like. I imagined a secretary running from shop to shop, arms filled with bags, none of them enough to satisfy Ana's desire for perfection. Wrong. Do it again.
"I'm nobody's slave," Mia countered.
"So you admit you'll lose?" Sophie shifted her weight, bouncing from foot to foot like a boxer getting ready to strike. She actually looked happy in the confrontation.
"I won't lose." Mia turned back to the mirror and thought for a few seconds. "Okay, it will be fun to watch you be at Ana's beck and call for a week, but only if … what's your name again?" She looked at me.
"Sue."
"Only if Sue joins in. What are you, 50?"
"45," I said.
"Hot shit! Talk about goals," Mia exclaimed. "You have to lose 2 as well, get to 43."
I nodded my agreement. Going down to 43 scared me a little, I had been there before and it was a tough place to be in. Tough place to get out of. But I could get out there now, I knew the path to follow and didn't need doctors to tell me when to eat and have a nurse watch me at mealtimes like they did at the home.
"Something wrong, Sue?" Ana glared at me. "Too hard for you?"
"No, I can do it." I wanted them to see I could take charge just like they could. We were, after all, cut from the same secret cloth.