𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃. 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘦𝘬𝘢𝘩 𝘮𝘪𝘬𝘢𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘰𝘯

0.6

liza
hey bekah boo

liza
can i call you

bekah boo
Why?

liza
Look, I know you don't really
like me but, you don't have to
talk, I just need someone to listen.

liza
For once, I just need someone
to listen.

Rebekah stared down at the phone in her hand, her eyes rereading the messages over several times. She looked up at where her siblings were gathered in the living room area, and stepped away to another room. She knew that, as vampires, they could hear whatever Liza said if they wanted to, but the illusion of privacy was what mattered. For the past month that Elizabeth Elaine had been texting her, Rebekah had never seen her send anything even remotely serious, meaning that something was wrong.

bekah boo
Fine.

It took a moment, but her phone began to ring, the generic ringtone being cut short when Rebekah accepted the call.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end mumbled out. It was soft and light, much calmer than Rebekah ever imagined the energetic girl to sound like.

"Elizabeth." Was Rebekah's short reply, and she heard Liza inhale sharply. If Rebekah didn't know any better, she'd say that Liza sounded like she had just gotten done crying for roughly three days. But Rebekah was there to listen, not interrogate.

"God, thank you for picking up," Liza sounded so relieved and so hopeful that Rebekah felt some strange twang in her heart, the oddest little pull. "I don't know what to do. See, I have this, this thing," Liza stopped to take a deep breath, her brain trying to focus on the words she wanted to say. "I panic a lot. It happens, unexpectedly. The doctors called it panic disorder, and basically, it uh, it means that I get unwarranted severe, random panic attacks in places and then it makes me afraid of it. I don't know when the next one will be, and it makes it worse." Rebekah listened intently, now knowing just how hard this was for Liza to admit. "It's been happening for a while but, I was only diagnosed about two months ago. My friend David helps a lot and he's really great. My parents, they," Another deep breath, this one trembling. "They try to understand but they just don't get it. My mom babies me too much, acts like I'm going to break if she talks too loud. My dad just gets angry, like there's something fundamentally wrong with me now. Like I'm broken." Rebekah's heart broke a bit, listening to the pain in this girls voice. The same girl who was just making crazy jokes the day before.

"I'm sorry for just dumping all of this on you. I just needed someone to listen. I'll text you later, um, bye." Before Rebekah could muster out a word, the line went dead.

"Don't go," She spoke, a moment too late. Liza was already gone.

[ yo this was deep. i'm sorry. honestly, i also suffer from panic disorder and it really fucking sucks but i just wanted to throw in the fact that liza isn't happy and carefree all the time. she has problems too. ]