“Brian, waht are you thinking about?” AJ asked. Brian stared deeper into the water below the bridge he was standing on. AJ leaned his arms on the ledge and watched Brian. “Hey, me and Nina broke up,” he said, trying to get Brian’s attention, to no avail. “Congrats Brian, you’re pregnant!” Brian looked at AJ.
“What?”
“I knew that would get your attention. Now what’s the matter?”
“Just thinking about Nick.”
“Dude, he accepted your apology, there’s no hard feelings.”
“It’s not that, AJ. There’s something seriously wrong.” He stared into the rushing water again for a while, watching as it twisted and turned around the rocks, splashing everything around it. Sort of like his head, the ideas and images hitting blank spots and him not being able to piece everything together smoothly, like the running of a calm stream.
“What’s the matter with him?” AJ asked.
“He hasn’t been eating, he’s been over-exercising, and he’s lost a lot of weight,” Brian told AJ.
“I’ve been noticing. How much?”
“Last time he was checked, he was down to 171, but that was two weeks ago.” AJ looked surprised at that.
“So he lost 40 pounds in 4 weeks?” Brian nodded, a little taken back by the realization of it.
“You think he has a problem?” Brian worried.
“Sounds like it, but what?”
“The doctor tried to find something, but didn’t succeed.”
“Something that would make him too sick to eat?” AJ asked. Brian finally got the calm stream he had been looking for.
“Something in his mind that would make him intentionally stop eating.” Brian looked at AJ, but AJ didn’t have a reply. Next
