Heartbreak Hotel: This Place Hotel

Chapter 53: Borderline

Disclaimer: The next following chapters contain material and dialogue that discusses the mental health and underlying issues. This is merely for entertainment. None of the events that is written has ever happened nor is it realistic. 

Readers discretion is advised...

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"There's another world inside of me that you may never see. There are secrets in this life that I can hide..."

Michael's POV

With aching eyes, I dialed the number that was written on the sticky note that was attached to my index finger. It began to ring immediately, and I slowly lowered myself down into the chair behind me and tucked the phone into the crook of my neck. I played with the curled edges of the paper as I waited for an answer.

The line picked up and a woman answered. "Thank you for calling Encino's Rehabilitation Center, this is Megan speaking."

"Um..." I stared at out the window across from me. My heart tightened in my chest and slowly chewed my bottom lip. Why did I feel so wrong doing this? I cleared my throat and looked at the name in front of me. "Is Deborah Johnson available?"

"Yes, just one second."

I stared out the window again as I found that I was placed on hold. It was a sunny day, and the wind was rustling through the trees softly. I watched as the branches and leaves brushed together to and fro. Gliding my thumb across my bottom lip as I rested my elbow on the armrest of the chair. There was music playing loudly--and horribly--in my ear. I instantly started trying to find a way to tune it out.

My eyes glanced back down at the paper once again as I was brought back to a time when I had called her before. A long time ago, back in '83. After Liyah's "accident".

I was doing everything I could to take care of her. Making sure she was eating and getting plenty of water. I was under the impression that she fainted from dehydration and I chastised her because I told her constantly over the days leading up to that day that she needed to eat something. She was rehearsing for a music video at the time and I was busy with my own affairs. So we only saw each other passing through. I was at the studio working on an album with my brothers when I got the phone call. I almost had a heart attack. Nikki was the one who told me that Liyah was being taken to the hospital. I kept asking her what happening and she wasn't giving me an answer. I was freaking out like crazy.

I didn't get a verdict until I got there: malnutrition. Of course, wasn't the full truth. No one mentioned that she overdosed on some drug and that she almost died. No one thought to tell me that.

I had gotten the idea of calling her psychiatrist that I had only heard her talking about, but had never met, from the doctor who treated her. He brought to my attention that she was hurting herself again--cutting--and in that very moment, I remember feeling both angry and heartbroken all at the same time. She promised me she was done with all that stuff. She knew I hated it when she did that. And at the time, I thought she being selfish and only thinking of herself and no one else. Which...she was. I never fully understood why she felt a need to take everything out on herself and hurt herself. Especially like that. It didn't make any sense. But she sore to me years before that she would never do it again, and that is exactly what she did. The crazy thing about it was I felt guilty because she was doing it right under my nose and I didn't even notice.

Anyway, after I brought her home, I took it upon myself to call Dr. Johnson because I knew that she had a role to play in Liyah's mental state and I really didn't know what else to do besides driving myself crazy worrying about her. I didn't do it right away. I waited a few days until she was kinda back to normal and could carry a decent conversation with someone before I made the call.