Even Heroes Have Scars

[70] Give Your Heart a Break

A/N

Please comment, guys! I need suggestions for this story! I used to get so many comments and they really motivated me to update faster because it felt like my readers were very engaged with this story. I want to know how you guys are doing/feeling!

Demi's P.O.V.

Fear instilled itself in Ansley's eyes as she stared over my shoulder, out the window of the diner. I almost turned my head, but she cupped my cheeks to hold my head still. Then she quickly stepped back, a three-foot gap separating us now. I glanced over my shoulder and saw a man pointing his camera at us through the window. It was like slow-motion, how he snapped a few photographs and lowered his camera as he continued past the diner, how I turned back to face Ansley and watched her exhale the breath she'd been holding.

"I thought if I kept you from turning around he wouldn't take pictures, but it didn't stop him. And if I kept my hands on you, people would know—" Ansley expressed her concern, but I cut her off.

"Stop. It's okay. It's not your fault," I sighed. "Do you think he saw anything, though?"

Ansley shrugged, staring at the floor in shame. I pulled her into a tight hug, hoping she would stop feeling guilty for something that wasn't her fault. God, this was all I wanted to protect her from. She really didn't need the spotlight to know about us. At least, not yet. It was going to be up to her when she would want the world to know about us. Except for right now, because my parents needed to hear it from us first, not TMZ.

~ next day ~

The pictures from yesterday surfaced on Twitter, as most drama did, but thankfully, they were blurry and pixilated and had a lot of reflection on the glass of the window, so it wasn't super clear what was happening between us. Didn't stop Ansley from calling me in a panic at three in the morning, though, so much urgency in her voice that I got myself out of bed and sped over to her place.

When I reached her apartment, the door was already unlocked. Ansley was sitting up in her bed with a cup of water in her hand. Her blank gaze focused on the wall across from her bed, Jacob towered over her, practically already taller than the last time I saw him (which was just a couple weeks ago). He was rubbing her back, motioning for me to enter her room and approach her, so I did.

"She hasn't said a word since she called you," Jacob told me. His eyes were a little red, probably from the lack of sleep from waking up in the middle of the night. "She's having a panic attack. Usually water helps her, but it's not doing much for her right now."

I nodded in understanding. "Thank you, Jacob. I got it from here, okay? And you can go back to bed." I gave him a quick hug as he left the room.

I crept onto the bed beside here, instructing her to take a sip from her water, which she did, finally snapping out of her trance. When she finished, I set her cup on the nightstand and hugged her. Her breathing was heavy and rushed, full of anxiety and fear and dread. I clasped her hand in mine and held it to my chest, like I did when we first met. "Feel my breathing? Match yours to mine, love. Come on. Deep and slow. In through your nose, out through your mouth."

Her eyes remained locked on mine and she attempted to match her breathing to mine. Eventually, it ended up that I was laying on my back and she laid on top of me, arms wrapped around my waist and head resting on my chest while I held her. And we just sat like that in silence until almost four o'clock as I waited for her to process. I was used to this. I was used to the media finding out about relationships, sometimes before the relationship was official. I was used to seeing pictures of me and Ansley online, but only as friends. It wasn't that I was okay with seeing this, but I was certainly expecting it a lot more than she was.