“Again, take it easy, okay? You don’t want to overstress your body. Let it rest, eat some food, and drink some water when you get inside,” Scarlett suggested.

“Will do. Thank you,” I told her as I closed her car door.

When I got inside, I didn’t eat or drink anything. I went straight to my bedroom and collapsed on my bed. My body was in pain, so I laid in my bed and watched the moonlight make its way through my curtains and onto my face. I looked at the stars. They were few and far between, but they still put me at ease. I thought about Mel. I wanted to give her a call and ask about healthy foods to eat. I had been eating a lot of crap — cookies, chips, and burgers. That had probably contributed to my lacklustre performance in class.

I sat up and looked over at my desk. On it laid Mel’s phone number. It’d been about a week since I sold her those records. I’d thought about calling her, but I didn’t want to seem clingy. But something about the sky made me feel like everything would be all right, so I decided to grab her number and dial it. I thought, What’s the worst that could happen?

She picked up. “Hello?”

“Hey. It’s Adrian,” I greeted her.

“Dang, dude. A girl gives you her number and you wait almost a week to call her back? That’s edgy.”

Whoa. I wasn’t expecting a reply like that. Anxiety clawed its way inside of my chest. I should have called her earlier.

“I’m sorry,” I told her.

“Ha, don’t be. I’m only messing with you. So, what has you calling Mel Woods tonight?”

I didn’t want to say I was lonely, even though I was. But I also had a reason to call her.

“Yeah . . . I kinda wanted to talk to you about, like, healthy foods and stuff to eat.”

“Oh, yeah? That’s kind of my specialty as of late. How can I help you?”

“Uh . . . so, yeah, I’m just trying to find ways to lose weight and replace the junk food I already eat with something else,” I explained.

“All right. Just so you know, your diet isn’t going to completely change overnight. It takes time. For weight loss, I’d say try going low carb. Eat lots of chicken. Cut out bread, chips, french fries, basically everything that tastes amazing. Throw it all out the window.”

I didn’t want to throw everything that tasted amazing out of the window, though I knew it was necessary. I picked up a piece of paper and started writing things down.

We spoke for a while, and she gave me the rundown on stuff to avoid, but also told me to let my body adjust to change. It wouldn’t happen overnight. Her voice was lovely, but it also left a lot up to my imagination.

“So, yeah. Eventually, the goal is to just stop eating shit I guess,” she finished.