Intertwined

Chapter 16

Ally's POV

Dinah stepped out for a moment as I attempted to comfort Camila. I didn't know what was wrong but I had an idea of what was happening. She is breaking. Our little Mila is hurting. I never really saw how strong the love between Lauren and Camila had been. I mean they've only been together for a little while so I assumed it wasn't a close, sentimental, strong relationship. But seeing them like this, Lauren holding on to Camila whenever she can and Camila never leaving Lauren's side or thinking about anything else but Lauren shows how much they care about each other. They NEED each other. None of us ever saw it like this. We didn't see that without each other they are reduced to nothing. It's like the two lovers holding on to each others hands and if either of them lets go, they both fall.

Camila finally stopped crying and all I would hear from her were little whimpers every now and again and sniffles. Out of the corner of my eye I see Dinah still in the doorway, frozen. She was staring at something down the hall. All the color in her face had drained. I hear several feet padding against the floor in the hall along with the sound of something rolling. Dinah suddenly snaps out of her trance and steps out of the way. Through the doorway comes a hospital bed and two nurses pushing it. They put the bed in it's place, give us a sympathetic smile, and then walk out. Camila looks up to see what is going on and when she sees Lauren in that hospital bed a tear begins to stream down her face once again as she jumps up out of my arms and runs over to Lauren's bed, pulling a chair over next to it. She sits down quickly and gently grabs on to Lauren's hand.

I stood up, all my attention on Camila. But when I look to where Lauren is...all I felt was horror. She looked so pale and her lips were a purple color. White scars lined her arms along with deep red cuts. They went past her elbows, up into the hospital gown. She was thinner than I had imagined. I never saw this due to her hiding under sweaters all the time. I hadn't seen the cuts or how many she had. I didn't see her body through those baggy hoodies. She always insisted towards our wardrobe people for something dark and baggy. Most of the time she'd have bracelets on and if not she'd have a long sleeved shirt of jacket on. Now I know why. She's just skin and bones. Her face was small, her cheeks were so clearly hollow. Deep bags were under her closed eyes. Even from where I am standing across the room I can see that her hair is thin and brittle. I now realize all those characteristics that I had never seen before. I never noticed any of the weight loss or the hair loss. I was suspicious about the long sleeves and bracelets but usually just brushed it off.

Standing here seeing her like this brought so much pain upon me. My heart felt like it had been shattered. My eyes burned with tears that blurred my vision. I cannot imagine how much this has affected Lauren's parents (who haven't even seen her like this yet). Nevertheless, Camila, who has been by Lauren's side this whole time Lauren has been in the hospital. Camila's health is at risk because her whole life at the moment is Lauren, nothing else matters. Not food, not sleep, not using the bathroom or cleaning herself up...nothing.

I hear footsteps coming towards me, I turn to see Dinah, still in shock, standing beside me. Very softly and very slowly, with a shaky breath she says, "Hey, um, I'm gonna go find Mike, Clara, and Normani. I don't think I can just stand here, it hurts to much." She looks to me with watery eyes as I nod understandingly. Before she leaves I whisper, "I'll stay here to keep my eye on them, I'm worried about Camila and if something happens to Lauren I want to be here, Camila probably won't know what to do with the state of mind she's in. Text me if you need anything." Dinah nods and walks out of the room.

I sat back down on the couch and just watched the two in silence, thinking. And as I sat there thinking, all that went through my mind was how did it get this far? how did we not notice? what is going to happen now?

~

Normani's POV

Lauren's mom and I were on our way back to Lauren's room. Clara was completely out of it. I tried to make conversation with her but her answers were vague and monotone.

"I've been thinking...maybe we should move Lauren to a treatment facility after this. You know...after her vitals are up and stable. What do you think?" Clara's voice interrupts my thoughts. I look at her shocked. They were taking her to rehab? That means that she'll probably be out of town. Or even worse, out of state. What will me and the girls do without knowing how Lauren is. We want to be with her. "Clara...how will we be able to know how she is? Are you going to take her out of state?" She looks down and nods. "How will you convince her? She's 18 years old. She's an adult."

Lauren's mom just keeps walking along side me in silence. The only sound is the soft beeping and chatting between nurses and visitors. The bag of food in my hand making a crumpling sound as I walked. "Maybe an intervention..." Lauren's mom says softly.

"I guess me and the girls can sit down with you and Mike to discuss how we will approach her. But we all need to have an intervention for Camila first. We don't know how she will react to all of this. We need to convince her that this is Lauren's sake. We need to convince her to support this decision even if it hurts her to be away from Lauren." Clara nods but I can tell she still had something on her mind.

"But there is something else. Before we do this intervention I need to talk to Lauren's doctors. If they were to clear that she is a danger to herself...she has no choice under the law but to be admitted into a psychiatric ward for 15 days or so. If I get them to clear her of that I have a back up. If Lauren refuses to get help and get better then we already have papers against her that will MAKE her go." Clara says. I am taken aback by her plan. If I were Lauren I'd feel so trapped. This is all going to be thrown upon her very soon. The real question now is: How will she handle this?