Angel (Damiano David & Victoria De Angelis)

Chapter 1

Two days had passed and they were back in Italy. Their manager had resigned after finding out about Damiano's problems and they had ended the tour a few days early. As a band, they had decided that they would take some time off, go to their Villa on the countryside and just focus on his mental health. After the incident with Carla, everything had gone to hell. The amount of hate they - and especially Damiano - were getting was unbelievable and there were only very very few supportive fans. They had lost quite some followers and were getting spammed with one hate comment after another. She woke up at 5 AM...it was the first morning back home but it wasn't at all how she had wanted it to be. She turned to the side, looking at Damiano. He was sleeping but even now he looked restless and broken. He had already been so vulnerable, so all the hate really got to him. She was quite sure that he had never cried as much as in the past two days. Very gently, she took his hand into hers. She was worried. More worried than ever. What if he tried to kill himself again? She hadn't left him alone for much longer than 5 minutes since that concert and still he had managed to do things to himself. She felt like the self harm was getting worse as well. Who could blame him? Carla had basically ruined his life and he had no hope of having her arrested. She was very careful when she grabbed his arm, lightly tracing his scars. He was so broken, so damaged, yet so insanely beautiful. He looked like a fallen angel...that was the only description she could think of.

At about 7, he woke up as well. "Hey, Angel...how are you feeling?", she asked softly and placed a kiss on his cheek. "I want to go back to sleep and never wake up again...", he mumbled, already sounding like he was about to cry again. "Come on, Angel...we're gonna get up and get dressed, okay?", she already knew the following weeks would be even harder than she had ever thought they would be. He shook his head, closing his eyes again: "Please...I just want to sleep." She wasn't an expert but she knew that wasn't a good sign, so she put all of her physical strength together to pull him to his feet. He was shaky, holding onto her immediately. He was really longing for physical contact, she could clearly feel that. Almost instantly he began to cry again, as if getting up had been the hardest thing he had ever done. "It's okay, Angel, I'm here...I got you.", she pulled him into a strong hug and he immediately held onto her, sobbing into her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Vic...I know I'm a mess." She softly brushed through his hair: "You know that's not true, Angel...you're handling the situation really well. The next few days and weeks are gonna be hard, there's no doubt but we're gonna get through this together.", she assured him and very slowly made her way to the bathroom, making him sit down. "I'm gonna clean your arms now...here...you can brush your teeth in the meantime.", she tried to hand him a toothbrush but he shook his head: "I don't wanna..." She sighed and nodded, putting some toothpaste on top of it: "Open up, Angel." He seemed reluctant but he did and so, she brushed his teeth. After that, she kneeled down in front of him, checking on his wounds before cleaning them up as well. How was it possible for someone to be so broken that that person wasn't even able to do basic things? Not that it annoyed her...she would do everything possible to help him heal but still, she was wondering.

A little later, when they were having breakfast in the huge kitchen downstairs, Ethan and Thomas didn't look less worried than she felt. He wasn't eating either. Of course, Ethan and Thomas would support them no matter what but they had accepted the fact that Victoria really was the only one who was allowed to take care of him. "Angel...can you please eat at least a little bit? I know it's hard...but I can't let you starve. You barely ate anything the past two days." He shook his head, staring down at his hand which was resting on her thigh...he seemed to do at least a tiny little bit better as long as he was able to hold physical contact with her. "I'm not hungry...", he mumbled. His voice was scratchy and croaky from all the crying but there was still a bit of softness to it. She grabbed her spoon and brought it to his mouth: "One spoon of cereal...please. That's all I'm asking..." He stared at the spoon, disgust and tears showing in his eyes. He looked at Ethan and Thomas as if he was scared of being judged if he dared to allow her to feed him but they didn't pay attention to that. And she was very thankful for that because he opened his mouth a bit, letting her give him a spoonful of chocolate cereal. "Good job, honey. You're doing real good.", she praised him, filling the spoon up again: "One more?", she asked but he shook his head. "Please...you know I don't like uneven numbers. If you take one more, you had two which makes it even.", she did her best to give him a reason to do it and maybe even to lighten the mood a bit. Hesitantly, he ate the second spoon, looking like he would throw up if he tried to eat any more. She knew she had to accept that...at least he had eaten something instead of nothing at all like the day before.

After breakfast they had gone outside, now sitting in the garden by the pool. Thomas and Ethan were playing a card game and even though Victoria would have liked to join them, she didn't because Damiano was clearly drowning in his depression and she didn't dare to take her eyes off of him. When he began to sob softly again, she kneeled down in front of his deck chair, taking his phone away: "Don't read them, Angel. They're only gonna make it worse." He looked directly at her, his eyes red and swollen, making them eerily beautiful: "Why does nobody believe me, Vic? Why do they all hate me so much?" She laid down next to him, lovingly caressing his waist: "Because they are uneducated. One of the biggest flaws in our modern society is that male victims are almost always overlooked. They don't believe you because some women can't accept that they aren't the only people who suffer. They have this weird way of thinking where they want rape and mental health issues to be something that happens exclusively to them. And the older generations and some guys put the stigma of having to be strong and fearless on men. That doesn't mean nobody is going to believe you...there are smart people out there...just not many. And I feel like sometimes it's hard for people to accept that the so called stronger gender can suffer too because they are so fixated at women's problems."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hey ;)

So, I hope you will like this book as much as the other one and I would really appreciate to hear your thoughts.

Do you think it's a natural reaction for Damiano to fall into a deep depression like that after what happened? Do you think Victoria is trying too hard or is she doing a good job? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

- Thalia