The ED Diaries

Another weekend, another wrestling meet.

This particular meet had carried them up North into York, Nebraska. It was another small and insignificant town much like his own. But there was one thing special about it and about the sport they had gone there to compete in. That meant everything. Most people probably didn't understand. Their future didn't ride on a sport.

Eugene knew better.

He had seen his brothers and their friends. A sport that you were good at meant everything. Especially if you ever wanted to get out of their small Kansas town. That was why he worked so hard at wrestling. He was at every practice. He ran several times a day and did weights about the same amount. Of course none of that mattered if he couldn't stay in the right weight bracket.

That was something he had managed to pull of perfectly. It had taken him a while to get the hang of it, but once he hadn't, it hadn't been really about the weight anymore. Sure, that was important. After all, it was the key to his wrestling career, but it wasn't everything. There was also the addiction. Most people couldn't understand the high of what he did. Sure puking could hurt. It burned as the bile made it's way up your throat and out of your body. But the pain and getting away with it...that was a high. It was an adrenaline rush.

"Hey Gene, where you going?" Casey called. Casey was in a weight class far above Eugene's own and almost twice the older boy's size. Not that it mattered. When it came to wrestling, it was the skill you had in your own class that counted. Eugene had learned that quickly.

He shrugged in reply. "It's not my turn just yet," he called back. "Tell coach I'll be right back if he asks." A few girls looked his way and he winked. Girls always seemed to like his accent for some reason. Something to do with the fact that he was a country boy. If only they knew what that country boy was going to do.

Eugene slipped into the men's bathroom and checked around to make sure that no one was there. That was always the key. No one could know. If they knew, it would cause trouble and that was the last thing that he needed. He was happy to find the bathroom empty. A smirk touched his lips as he choose a stall and knealt down in front of it.

A few moments later, the big breakfast his mother had made was finding a new home in the toilet bowl in front of him. It actually felt nice to empty his stomach. The high began to build in his head with every bit of bile that slipped from between his lips in a cascading waterfall of dull colors.

He didn't even hear the door open. The sounds of his retching was the only thing that came to his ears. He didn't even hear the sound at the stall door. He was consumed in a losing game. A hard, heavy hand landed on his bondy shoulder. Eugene looked back, a thin line of saliva and bile trailing down from the corner of his lip as he looked up at the head coach of the York High School Wrestling Team. "What the hell you think you're doing boy?"