Help Me, Save Me

By: Riley

Summary – Now at the start of his senior year, things are better for Zack. Every day is as hard as he recovers from his eating disorder, but with his friends by his side, he can do it. However with graduation in the near future and no set plans he's starting to become rattled and his solid foundation may crumble back down once more.

Trigger warnings for the story: Eating Disorder (Anorexia to be precise), Cutting/Self-harm, and Bipolar Disorder

.:Prologue:.

Zack rolled his eyes, trying not to be too annoyed with his mother's words.

"Zack, don't roll your eyes at me like that, I have good reasons for being worried," Carey said. She let out a tired sigh, reaching up to run her fingers through her shoulder length hair. "You're still recovering and I'm afraid that—"

"That I'm going to get so bored I'll start eating paper?" Zack asked sarcastically. "From what I can tell it has plenty of fiber so at least I'll be getting that in my diet." As if to prove his point he reached out to the half eaten plate of food sitting in front of him and picked up his sandwich, taking a bite. "It's just school Mom, not a cult that's trying to make me worse."

The corner of Carey's mouth twitched upwards. "What about sports though? I know you, Zack. Every time you're told not to do something you always do it." Zack shrugged, smirking. "And the doctors said you can't play any sports until he feels you're strong enough."

"That has nothing to do with going back to school, that has to do with not running around for a while because they think it'll start up my fitness obsession gain," Zack pointed out. He pushed his plate away from him, crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"The big deal is that you're anorexic, Zack."

"I know that. But senior year is starting up and all I want to do is go back and see my friends. You have to admit that me begging to go to school must mean something. Especially when I would do my best to stay away from it." He continued when his mother chuckled. "And Dad says that I should be going back to being as normal as possible. He's not afraid of me going back."

"Please don't make this a fight between me and your father," Carey said warily. "We already do enough of that around Christmas time as it is." She crossed her legs at the knee and brought a hand up to her chin. "It's hard enough that you two go back and forth from the Tipton to his apartment every two weeks now."

"It's what we all agreed on, so…"

"I know. I know." Carey sat in silence as she thought. Zack continued to sit across from her, gently poking his finger into the center of his sandwich. He was in recovery and had gotten better at eating what was on his plate; however there were still times where he found himself full by the time he was done with half of his plate.

Even his favorite foods would remain half untouched when he got to that point. His doctors had said it would take a while before he got back to his normal eating habits, especially as he was trying to gain weight rather than lose it. Now his food journal kept track of what he ate in a more positive way. It had to get checked every morning and every night, so much so that even if he wanted to skip a meal again, it would be readily detected.

"I can't let my friends go into their senior year without me," Zack continued. "You have to trust me some time."

"I do trust you, Zack. I'm just worried. I'm a mother, I can't help it."

He knew that. She had been with him every step of the way while he was going in and out of doctor's officers and therapy appointments. It surprised him really; even after all of those mean thing she had said to her as he was venting, trying to get his frustration of his relationship with her out in the open. He had said some truly mean things and had felt bad about it afterwards. He felt worse when Carey said she understood how he felt, apologized, and had moved on from it. He expected and in a way wanted her to blow up at him. He was used to it, seeing her agree with everything was just wrong.

But their relationship was getting better, though it still wasn't to the point he wanted it to be.

"I guess I can't keep you from going to school, especially since no one would be able to home school you," she said.

"And because Moseby probably doesn't want to see more of me than he already has to when I'm at work," Zack agreed.

"Alright," Carey said. She held up a hand as Zack grinned. "But you're going to be going part-time, I don't think you're ready to go back full time yet. Not with all of the pressure of it being your senior year."

"But what about graduation?" Zack protested. "I won't be able to do it on time if I don't go full time."

"It won't be good for you to suddenly jump back into everything," Carey pointed out. "The doctor says that stress can be a big part of anorexia and going back into that isn't a good idea right now. Besides, you know everyone's going to talk and having all of those questions thrown your way won't help either."

Zack sighed and nodded.

As long as things were going back to normal, he could deal with it. He just had to prove to everyone else around him that he was better.

A/N: This is the actual sequel to Save Me From Myself, while Intuition is a side-sequel sort of thing. I'm thinking of writing them both at the same time, but we'll see what happens as time goes on. Please bear with me as this story won't be updated as frequently as Downfall since I want to focus on that a bit more.

Cheers

-Riles