Eyesore

Sundays come fast and without any warning or invitation, but they always ended in the same form. The kitchen would be a mess with empty containers or ripped open bags of food, plates stacked in the sink with the remnants of spreads and crumbs still over them, and Minnie would be crying on her bed, hating herself for bingeing after six days of starvation. She had worked so hard to keep her body clean and without any nutrients only to load up on a large intake of calories and flavors.

Flat on her stomach, she was crying into the pillows and staining their white covers with snot and thick noisy tears, her hair was strewn in her face and sticking to her wet cheeks that were turning lobster read, as she mentally picked on herself with words like ‘stupid’, ‘fat’, ‘gross’, and ‘ugly.’ She wished for the guts to be able to poke her toothbrush into the back of her throat and bring up everything she’d just consumed in such a short period of time, but she’d tried that before and her mother caught her because of the stains left under the toilet seat and it hurt way more than the girls on the Internet sites said it would.

Singing over the sound of hysterical cries and screams was her ring tone, Four Minutes by Madonna and Justin Timberlake, and though usually the song brought a simple smile onto her face, she wanted to throw it against her bedroom wall this time. She reached her hand around onto her computer desk, by her bed, to try and grab the phone. Who would be calling her right now? Liz had stopped trying to hang out with her, Gav never called her anymore, her cousins didn’t bother because they liked going to the hottest restaurants and she avoided eating like the plague, Brier was out with friends, her mom had just headed out on a blind date. Minnie had no idea who would be ringing her and she didn’t recognize the number either.

"Hello?" After reluctantly answering, she opened up her voice that cracked out of how dry her lips were from crying so loud and hard.

"You sound like death." On the other end, Joe tried to be friendly and make her feel like they’d been friends forever.

"Who is this?" Not in the mood for games, Minnie circled around onto her back and asked, trying to figure out what guy would be calling her. She had always felt uncomfortable around guys and when Gav and her broke up, all of his friends ditched her.

"It’s Joe." He said, expecting her to have recognized his voice. "We met at your sister’s party..."

"How the hell did you get my number?" After leaving Minnie outside in the hot California night to play his second set, Joe had come back out and tried getting to know the little brunette, but she gave him nothing. He would ask her a generic question about herself and she would find a way to answer sarcastically or with just a single word. Plus, she never asked him anything back, except for: "Why are you talking to me?" and when he’d say "I want to get to know you", she’d scoff and roll her eyes in disbelief.

Before he had to leave, he asked for her number, but she shot him right down in front of his whole band including Kevin and Nick, then headed inside to find her mother.

"I have my ways."

"That’s not creepy." Never without sarcasm, Minnie replied, dryly.

"I just wanted to see how you were since I last saw you. You weren’t really in the best mood that night." Joe tried to keep their conversation from dying, even though she was doing everything she could to kill it.

"Please, you weren’t even interested in talking to me until you realized I was related to your boss." Minnie could never wrap her mind around any guy finding her attractive or interesting, so the fact that an international celebrity, who had his pick of women, did, boggled her. "And if you’re trying to get my dad to do something for you, I’m the wrong sister to be flirting with."

"I’m not flirting." Gasping theatrically, Joe denied his tactic and pretended to be surprised that she would insinuate something like that.

"Whatever. My dad and I stopped hanging out when I was eight, we don’t really see eye to eye."

"Well, it sounds like you and I have more in common than you think, Molly."

"Minnie."

"Oh, I’m sorry, my bad." Joe had to bite down on his tongue not to laugh at his mishap. "As I was saying, you and I could really bond over this because, I’ll have you know, your dad and I don’t really see eye to eye."

"Then, get a new boss. I don’t understand why you’re calling me."

"See, it’s not that simple, Minnie, I’m tied into an agreement that makes your dad the proud owner of my balls for another five years."

"Sucks to be you."

"Come on, Min, don’t you want to piss your dad off? Go on a date with me."

"He won’t care." Minnie argued. She didn’t want to go out with Joe because it would mean that she’d have to get dressed up and allow someone to see her body in all it’s imperfection, but on the other hand, if she went out on a single date with Joe, her dad might actually notice her.

"My brothers and I are playing at this Disney event to honor this guy, Allen Trope, he’s this guy on the board of directors for Buena Vista and he’s like...."

"I know who he is." When Minnie was a little girl and she used to run around her dad’s office, all of the men in the building used to pinch her cheeks and give her hard candies to keep her mouth shut while they worked on negotiations with Gaston.

"Yeah, well, come with me."

"You must be pretty lame if I’m the only date you can find."

"Oh, I am," Joe teased back. "I’ll call you closer to the date. Make sure you look good."

"Bye." Trying to sound indifferent, she hung up all at once, leaving her cell phone on the bed next to her. Now, that she had a date coming up, she hated herself even more for eating everything in the pantry that she could get her hands on.

XXX

"What are you up to, Joe?" Nick eyed his brother, suspiciously, leaning against his dressing room door.

"Oh, nothing, little brother." He laughed, shaking both of his hands through his long mane of black hair.

"It doesn’t look like nothing. You’ve got the same face on that you wear whenever mom surprises you with ice cream." Rolling his eyes, Nick turned around to leave Joe’s dressing area to find someone to join him in an Xbox marathon, but Joe excitedly whipped around and pulled his brother in by the collar.

"Okay, don’t tell anyone yet, but I found a way to get Gaston off of your management team." He hissed while pressing Nick against the mirror.

"How?"

"I’m taking his daughter to Allen Trope’s retirement thing."

"Is daughter’s, like," Nick began to count on his fingers and in his head. "fourteen, that’s illegal and sick."

"No, his other daughter, idiot!" Joe let go of Nick and slapped him against the side of the head, brotherly. "And I’m going to take her on a few dates, buy her flowers, whatever, I’ll even write her a song if it comes down to it..."

"I don’t understand." Nick tried to follow his brother’s plan of attack, but all of his words were jumbling together in his excitement.

"Listen, Gaston knows us, the last thing he wants is for one of us to date his daughter, he always tells me I’m, like, a father’s worst nightmare. He’ll pull me aside, tell me I better stop seeing his daughter and I’ll tell him only if he exits gracefully off our contract, bada bing bada boom...we’re in the clear!" Joe threw both of his arms out for effect, playfully hitting Nick’s chest, but Nick wasn’t resuscitating at all. He looked ghostly pale from everything his brother had just admitted out loud.

"Isn’t that a little seedy, Joe, even for you? I don’t like the idea of using someone."

"But, she doesn’t like her dad, either! She won’t care!"

"Is she in on it?"

"Not really, just trust me, Nick, okay? This is all for the best."