Chapter 11

That night at the suburbs was the best night Tara had with Dan. After seeing that Tara enjoyed spending time with his friends, he started to make plans for the two of them to spend more and more time with his 'gang'. Even though most of them were nice to Tara and seemed to enjoy her company, and she theirs, there was only so much they could do to help Tara because Dan and the others were in to hiking, camping and in to adventure sports; and Tara considered the walk to her car from her flat as her morning exercise.

The weekend after the party at the Edwards, Dan dragged her to go hiking with some of his friends. While Tara was hyperventilating on one side of the hill, the others were one on the other side taking selfies and posting on social medias. Dan constantly asked her if she needed help and tried to be sympathetic, but she knew what he really wanted to ask her was how come she can't climb a small hill without almost having a heart attack? And what she wanted to do was break Dan's perfect nose was torturing her. That whole week Tara's body felt like a road roller had passed over her.

Since then Dan considered it his duty as her boyfriend to make Tara more fit and healthy. He made a plan as to what she should and should not eat each day of the week, and also included jogging and exercising in to her daily routine. Tara tried to reason with him by reminding him that she was slim and there was no need for her to follow a diet plan, but Dan's only reply was that just because a person is slim, that does not mean that she is healthy and fit. Since Tara knew what he said was the truth she couldn't counter him.

Tara tore up the plan as soon as Dan walked out of the front door and went to sleep that night happily. But her phone rang in the early hours of next morning and she knew something was wrong. It was Dan, calling to ask her to get out of bed. She wanted to throw the phone out of the window and go back to sleep, but she knew even being half sleepy that Dan would be persistent and she had no choice. She was scowling and muttering all the curses she knew as she made her way out of the bedroom and in to the bathroom.