Bradyn's gaze had been lingering on my thin face, lost in thought. When Kelsie suddenly addressed him, he was caught off guard and didn't know how to respond.
Weight loss? I hadn't even been 110 pounds to begin with. Why would I need to lose weight?
I looked up at Bradyn, but he turned away, quietly murmuring in agreement with Kelsie's story, effectively framing my suffering as self-inflicted.
"You're always being so reckless!
"You'll ruin your health if you keep this up!"
Bradyn's father stepped in to smooth things over, instructing the maids to serve the food quickly before we got hungry.
There were fish, shrimp, and chicken...
The table was filled with all my favorite dishes.
"Come on, Giana, enjoy yourself," Bradyn's mother urged.
Under her watchful gaze, Bradyn reluctantly served me with the braised pork and placed it on my plate.
But that was the dish I despised the most.
Bradyn and I had grown up together as childhood sweethearts. How could he not know what I hated to eat?
He did it on purpose. His gaze at me was filled with resentment.
He couldn't openly defy his mother's wishes, so he expressed his dissatisfaction in this way.
And I became his outlet for frustration.