Intertwined

Chapter 39

Danielle's POV

"Morning sweetheart." Lauren greets me the next morning as I'm walking out of the bathroom. Today was my first day at my new school so I wanted to look really good so I can make a good first impression. Lauren had bought me this really nice outfit yesterday at the mall and it looked amazing. 

"Morning." I reply, walking past her and into my room to grab my shoes. She follows me into my room and sits on my bed watching me put on my new shoes. "Nervous?" She asks me. I nod in response.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. You'll make plenty of friends. You're a smart little girl, you'll go far." She smiles at me.

"I hope so." I say, tying my shoes. 

"I know so." She replies without skipping a beat.

Once I'm done tying my shoes I grab my backpack that is heavy with school supplies and my sweater and then follow Lauren downstairs to the kitchen.

Last night when we got home Lauren weighed me to see how much weight I have lost. But, much to my dismay, she wouldn't let me see the number. All I know is that she seemed really upset afterwards. She said that since she's been to rehab and knows different types of treatments for eating disorders, she'll help me exactly like rehab helped her. So she's giving me not-so-solid-food so that my stomach can get used to something being in it and once my stomach gets stronger and I don't feel so much pain in like a week or so, she will start giving me actual food in small proportions and then increase that proportion slowly until I can finally eat a proper sized meal. So right now I'm getting even more anxious due to the fact that she's going to give me breakfast.

Lauren reaches the fridge and rummages through it trying to find something. A moment later she hands me a bottle, it's not see through so I can't see what's inside it. "Go sit with your sister in the dining room and drink that, I'm going to go get dressed and then I'll take you to school. Ally is in there with her and knows about what happened so don't try anything because she'll tell me. Got it? Good." She says, giving me a light shove towards the door to the dining room and then turning around and walking back up the stairs to her room. 

I walk into the dining room to see Ally attempting to feed Lila, meanwhile Lila is coloring and giggling at Ally's frustration. Shaking my head, I sit down right across from them.

"DANI!" Lila yells excitedly. I just give her a slight smile and then look back down at the bottle in my hands. I open the cap slowly and hold the bottle right in front of my lips.

"You got this babygirl." Ally encourages me. 

I might as well get it over with. I suddenly start to chug down the whole bottle of what I think is a strawberry-banana smoothie. "NO!!!!" Ally yells, she flies across the table and rips the half empty bottle out of my hands. She stares at me in shock, as if waiting for something to happen. I stare back at her. 

Almost immediately, stomach begins to hurt really badly. My cheeks puff up and my hands fly over my mouth as I stand up and run upstairs to the bathroom with Ally right on my tail. I burst into the bathroom where Lauren is doing her makeup by the mirror. My knees drop down to the floor in front of the toilet and I let go of my hands and open my mouth to let all the vomit come out. Lauren runs over to me and holds my hair back as I continue to throw up. It is no longer the smoothie coming out, but rather my stomach acid and blood. My esophagus burns intensely and my arms and legs feel weak. At this point both Lauren and Ally are holding me up as I throw up and Ally is yelling for Dinah, Normani, or Camila to come. I hear her yelling to go get Lauren's medication and to go get Lila. Once I finish up I fall back into Lauren's arms. She picks me up and carries me to my room.