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Chapter 15

"Okay," Mr. Cope said. "Now that we have that out of the way, let's eat!" I began to reach for the milk pitcher, but Jared placed his hand gently over mine, stopping me. "The morning prayer. Remember?" "Oh yeah," I said, retracting my hand sheepishly. "Sorry, I forgot." He nodded in understanding. "You'll get used to it after eating a few meals at the table."

"Everyone, please join hands," Mr. Cope ordered from the head of his massive table. I placed my hand in Jared's, and then joined hands with Ashley, who was to my right. She sent me a quick smile before bowing her head and letting her eyelids flutter closed, the tangles of blonde hair falling in her face.

I peeked out from the corner of my eye and saw Harley with his head pointedly raised, eyes wide open. He was staring at the wall in front of him like it contained the secrets to the universe.

"Bless us, oh Lord, for these thy gifts in which we are about to receive through thy bounty, in Christ's name, amen." "Amen," we all murmured. "Okay guys, dig in," Cope instructed. I looked around the table, waiting to see how the others would react to the command.

To my surprise, it was very civilized. There was a lot of 'please pass the syrup' and there was no scrambling to get to the food like it was at my house when Carrie and I were young.

The three cooks had prepared a massive array of different foods, despite the fact that there was only twenty of us, excluding all of the staff. On the table, I spotted not only pancakes, but sausage links, bacon, eggs, both scrambled and fried, French toast, omelets, biscuits with an assortment of jellies and jams to put on them, and regular toast. I raised an eyebrow at Jared as I filled my cup with milk from the pitcher and began to sip slowly.

"Why's there so much food when it's just us?" I asked, gesturing around the table. "Some of the kids here have eating disorders," Jared said. "Cope tries to make it a beneficial place for them. They make a ton of food for two reasons. For one, it encourages everyone else to eat more, which encourages them to eat more, too. Secondly, they do it so that there's lots of options. In other words, those kids will almost always find a food they like among the foods on the table, which tempts them into eating more."

"Wow, that's actually really smart," I commented, drinking more of the milk in my glass. "Yeah," Jared replied, biting into his pancake. "COPE is super accepting of anorexics and bulimics. Once management finds out about it, and trust me, they will find out, they treat you with special concern. Like, you can get any kind of food that you want at any time during the day. If you want Sonic at 2 AM, they'll get it for you. If you want spaghetti at breakfast time, you'll get it."

After his little speech, my interest was peaked as I noticed that Ashley wasn't eating as much as everyone else, and wondered what, if anything, she was dealing with behind her own closed doors.

She sent me another shy smile as she nibbled around the edges of a small piece of toast. I could feel Harper's eyes on her from across the table, and wondered how he knew her. She drank a lot of milk, I noticed; just like me. She was already on her second glass, but had barely touched the toast. I also noticed that she did what I did whenever I ate; she jiggled her feet.

It was a trick that I had learned a while back. It was supposed to boost your metabolism and burn off calories. I had been doing it for years. As I looked around the table at everyone else, I noticed similar actions in someone surprising - Daniel.

Daniel seemed increasingly uncomfortable at the table, and he didn't have any food at all on his plate. He was simply drinking a large soda, which seemed an odd drink to have at breakfast. I remembered what Jared had said about the residents with eating disorders being able to get whatever they wanted to eat or drink.

Truthfully, it almost shocked me silly to think that Daniel might have an eating disorder. It was insanely hard to realize that the same cocky, flirty dick that I had met in the garden was now sitting at a breakfast table, looking at the food on top of it with repulsion and almost fear. I knew that he must have had quite a story if he was at Cope, but I had never really imagined that.

Sneaking glances at him from across the large, mahogany table, I noticed that Harley seemed to be lost in thought. His hands were folded together tightly as if he was praying, but judged on how he had reacted to the morning prayer, I highly doubted that was the case.

Harley's blue eyes were flashing and would have scared me if I hadn't quickly recognized that his 'anger' was a cover-up for something deeper. He was angry, yes, but he was something else, too. I just couldn't figure out what. I followed his gaze to the boy across from him, the one that had caught my eye earlier - Matt.

As soon as he caught me staring, Matt winked at me. I felt a smile warm my cheeks, but it fell quickly as the look on Harley's face registered in my mind. He was glaring at Matt. If looks could kill, Matt would have been six feet under already.

It was obvious to me after that little incident that Matt and Harley knew each other, and Harley loathed him for some unknown reason.

Everyone ate much slower than I was used to at Cope. Usually, I skipped breakfast and most of the time, lunch too, and had a small snack like chips or a cookie for dinner. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't even hungry.

I whispered to Jared, "I'm done. When can I leave?" "We aren't allowed to leave the table until everyone is finished eating." After looking at my plate, he added, "You need to eat more anyway, babe. You only had a piece of toast. That's not enough for breakfast."

I rolled my eyes. "I think it's fine, Jare. Besides, the thinner I am, the happier I'll be." My eyes widened in fear as I realized what I had just said. I clapped a hand over my mouth involuntarily, whimpering in dismay at my own stupidity.

The last person at the table finished eating and put down their fork. Jared turned to me and started to say something. "Reese, I -" I cut him off by standing up with my dishes and fleeing to the kitchen as quickly as I could. As I ran warm water over my plate, washing away the toast crumbs, I could hear Jared talking quietly to someone outside.

Me being me, I hid myself behind the swinging door leading into the kitchen and began to eavesdrop.

"Because you know what it's like," Jared said.

What?

"And I saw the way you were looking at her. You like her. You wanted to be friends with her anyway, right?" "Yeah," a feminine voice said sheepishly. "God, I hate that you and Harper know me this well."

My curiosity aroused, I peeked out from behind the door to see who Jared was talking to. I quickly realized exactly who the mystery girl was - Ashley.

"Of course I'll be her friend," Ashley said, tugging the sleeves of her hoodie down over her hands. "I just hope she wants me in her life. I hate trying to force myself on people and, judged by her body language, she's not the type of person to put up with anyone's shit."

SMACK.

"Ashley Faith, you are not allowed to cuss!" "Sorry sir." Jared smiled and pulled her close to his chest in a tight hug. "Love you, Ash." She cuddled into him and replied, "Love you too, Jare."

I decided that the moment at hand was as good as any to make my entrance. I emerged from the kitchen and walked out to the dining room, where everyone except for Jared, Ashley, and Noel had left. Noel smiled kindly at me as Jared and Ashley slowly separated. Noel immediately went to Jared and dragged him away, talking excitedly about some book that she was reading. Before I knew it, I was left alone with Ashley.

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