LABYRINTH | Scarlett Johansson x Daughter

30 | relax, lottie.

Scarlett

"Sweetheart, please try and stay still for two more minutes," I ask in a gentle manner, trying to address the wound she gave herself after attempting to run away from me.

It's not going particularly well.

Apparently she thinks the couch is a trampoline, so any time I take my hands away from her face for even a split second, she's up and jumping in no time.

"Relax, Lottie, my chin doesn't even hurt," she tells me, bouncing on my very expensive cushions.

Apparently, 'Lottie' is her new name for me. Even after correcting her half a dozen times, she still finds her way back to it, so I've decided to leave it be.

"I know it doesn't, but I don't want it to get infected," I explain.

"I'm thirsty." Completely ignoring me, she steps off the side of the couch and makes her way into the kitchen. Taking a deep breath, I stand up from my knees and follow in after her, getting there just before she can open the bottle of wine in her hands.

"Unless you want to end up in the hospital, I think you've had enough," I say, taking the bottle from her and placing it up on a higher shelf before I take out a bottle of cold water from the fridge. "You can have this instead."

"I don't want that," she tells me.

"Too bad. You're not having the wine."

"Please?" She pouts.

"No. If you don't want the water, I have lemonade or juice?"

"Water," she decides, taking the bottle from my hand and making her way back into the living room.

It's not even ten seconds later that she's back jumping on the couch and tripping over the throw pillows.

The state my daughter is currently in worries me beyond belief. It's not just her drinking or smoking I have to be concerned about anymore because after Oliver informed me of what it was that she took, my heart sank.

I wanted to scream at him for being the one to give it to my her, but I was able to withhold myself and ask for his parents' numbers instead so I could inform them of what their child is doing. I highly doubt that they're aware.

Kenzie's mental health has evidently taken a rapid decline since losing her parents, but I think it's worse than I originally had thought and I so desperately want to help her.
It's difficult in the sense that because I'm not her legal guardian yet, I can't make her do anything. Not that I would anyway, unless it got to the point where she was no longer able to make a judgement call for herself which truthfully, after what she's done tonight, she could possibly be stepping in that direction.

"Guess what?" Kenzie squeals, falling on top of my body as I lay my back against the pillows on the couch across from the one she was previously bouncing on.

"What?" I ask, brushing the loose strands of hair out of her face as she rests her chin in my chest.

"I'm so happy."

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, silently praying that tonight hasn't just opened up the door for addiction.

__

It wasn't until seven-thirty that Kenzie fell asleep. The sun was already starting to creep through the curtains, so with the hopes she would sleep off any sort of hangover, I closed them to block out as much light as I possibly could.

In the six hours she slept, I devoured three cups of coffee due to my own lack of sleep and consequently made my anxiety immeasurably worse. I cleaned the entire downstairs area which after Christmas, was desperately needed anyway, and I refused to go upstairs because I was so worried about something happening to my daughter that I would check in on her every single minute.

I also spoke to Sam and Ryan for a decent amount of time and explained what had happened before spending the rest of my day on the couch across from Kenzie, reading up on anything I could find that could possibly help her.

"Scarlett?" The quiet sound of her voice instantly makes me lift my head up from my laptop.

"Hi, sweetheart," I send her a gentle smile as she stretches her body out with a groan. "How's your head?"

"It's okay," she mumbles, rubbing her face, stopping as she runs her fingers over the bandage on her chin. She kept trying to scratch at it in her sleep and made it bleed once so I placed it there to prevent the graze from bleeding again. "What happened to my chin?"

"You fell over last night," I explain, closing my laptop and placing it down on the coffee table.

"Oh," she says, sitting herself up, "and how did I get here?"

"You called me extremely high, so I came to pick you up. How much do you remember?" I question, wary to keep my voice soft as I get up to sit next to her.

"Um," she breathes, throwing her face into her hands and pulling them over her head before leaning onto my shoulder, "I remember taking something and the fifteen minutes after that and that's about it. What's the time?"

"It's just gone three-thirty. You didn't fall asleep until seven this morning," I explain.

I feel her nod against my shoulder as she breathes deeply. "Are you mad?"

I clasp her hand in mine, "I'm not mad as much as I am concerned. Do you want to tell me why you did it?"

She shakes her head.

"You weren't forced or pressured though, babe? It was your own choice?" I don't particularly think either option is any more comforting than the other, but at least if it was her own decision then it's one less thing I have to inform Oliver's parents of.

"No," she mumbles.

"Okay, Kenz," I sigh, "let's go get you some coffee and then we can talk some more."

_________
How angsty do you want this to get!?

Also I'm 100 days clean tomorrow WHAT THE FUCK