I saw you

I saw you at the grocery store last month on one of those beautiful days that we get treated to occasionally in December where we can actually go without coats. I haven't stopped thinking about you. You were ahead of me in line, in fact you were the only person in line.  I couldn't help but notice you.  The pallor of your face made me wonder if you were sick.  I noticed your arms after that.  Your skin was so dry and the bruises ran from the top of your arm down to your wrists.  I have never seen that in someone so young.  Then I noticed what you were buying and I wanted to tell you that you didn't need to buy that, my heart screamed say something but you looked so fragile I didn't know if it would put you over the edge.  The checker noticed what you were buying too and even though she was but a teenager I am sure she knew, like I did, that your dry skin wasn't from a lack of moisture and your bruises weren't from something easily explained.  I can still see those four boxes of laxatives in my mind, just four boxes, no food, and how you quickly paid for your purchase in cash and left as quickly as you could.  I can't get you out of my mind and I have prayed for you to realize that you are beautiful, exactly as you are and that you see it before you kill yourself to be some version of beautiful that for the majority of women is not realistic. Everyone is beautiful in their own way and that is part of what makes this world so wonderful, we are all different.  If this ever is put in your way to read I hope you know that I think of you and pray you'll be fine in the end.  The next time I'll listen to my heart and tell you that you're beautiful, we all need to know that.