You Can't Choose Your Family ➸ Demi Lovato

{Chapter 46}

{a/n: Skylar Diggins for y'all 😍😍}

The therapy session was surprisingly bearable. We were a good ten or so minutes late in arriving, meaning I had to awkwardly find a seat with everyone else already in theirs, quiet and waiting for the leader to begin.

"I'll start off with wishing you all a happy new year," the leader started up instantaneously as I settled in my chair, "and introducing myself to the couple who don't know me yet." She gestured towards the blonde girl sitting on the armchair a little to my right and me. The session wasn't set up like they are in the movies. It's literally just in someone's living room with a few extra chairs pulled in from the kitchen. The setting wasn't intimidating at all. "So I'm Hollie, leader of these meet ups," it was cute how she called them 'meet ups', it added to the non-threatening feel. "I'm forty two, originally from Minnesota, married to my four cats and have an odd obsession with peanut butter and tomato sandwiches."

I suppressed a giggle, everyone around me's lips were lifted slightly too.

"So we'll start with you," Hollie pointed at me, smiling softly, "what's your name honey?"

"Saskia," I replied tentatively, not fully comfortable with everyone's eyes trained on me.

"Hi Saskia, tell us something about yourself?"

"Um... I'm fourteen, originally from Albuquerque, I wish I was married to Skylar Diggins and peanut butter and tomato sounds horrible."

The room filled with sniggers when I finished. Someone who was sitting just behind me patted my shoulder. I turned round at the contact, blushing slightly at everyone finding me funny. I honestly didn't even mean it to be amusing, I was just stuck on what to say so repetition seemed like the safe option.

I was met with the toothy smile of a girl, slightly older than me with a nose ring and a top frenulum piercing. She grinned at me and we held eye contact for a few seconds before Hollie brought the attention back to her. She introduced the other new girl and then made the others present us with their names. I only remembered one out of the fifteen or so. Eva. The girl who'd tapped me on the shoulder and smiled so brightly.

I wasn't really involved in the discussion too much, I just listened to Hollie and the occasional comment from one of the others. The focus was on the media and it's affect on how we see ourselves/others. The fact commercials are traps and supermodels are photoshopped and issues like that were covered. It was kind of interesting yet scary as I realised just how messed up it was trying to achieve a supermodel's body shape. Even if I was still fasting and continued to do so for tens of years, I would have never achieved the 'perfect' body. It wasn't possible as the 'perfect' body isn't securable.

After Hollie's 'class' finished, a middle aged woman entered the room and invited us into the kitchen for a drink and snacks. I was about to follow but a hand grabbed my wrist, pulling me back,

"Ow!" I squealed, whipping my head round to see who had caused my still relatively new wounds to burn excruciatingly.

"Shit sorry," Eva cursed, biting her lip apologetically. I shrugged and shook my head, signalling it wasn't a big deal. There was a small pause until she spoke again, "I just couldn't let a beautiful girl like you rush home without even getting to introduce myself properly." She admitted shamelessly, grinning at me. I felt myself blushing heavily. Not even Joel had been that directly flirtatious. "Eva Timms," she held out her hand for me to shake.

"Saskia Lovato." I presented, surprised at how confidently the words came out.

"Pretty name for a pretty girl," Eva winked causing my cheeks to turn an even darker shade of red. I looked at my feet awkwardly, not knowing how to react to her advances. "I'm gonna catch this movie that's meant to be fucking hilarious after this and there's no fun in laughing alone. You up for it?"