Coping With Clarity

Chapter Nine

It had been a couple of days since the Nick-fiasco. Somehow the whole school had been present that night, or so it seemed. Selena got used to being pointed at during school hours pretty quickly. She also had to get used to the unfair reality of someone uploading the whole exchange between them onto youtube. Taylor had managed to get word to her before she faced a sniggering second period. They’d hid in the bathroom watching it on the girl’s worn iPod touch.

It was shot, by an amateur, from behind; so it was perfectly clear that Nick was attempting to grab at her ring. Luckily no one could hear a word of the conversation. She’d buried her head shamefully into Taylor’s hug, aware of how different her contact felt to Demi’s. The only form of communication she’d received from her-on-a-break-jerk-boyfriend Nick was a text briefly stating he was going to New Jersey to visit some relatives. Or to escape his curious peers. Leaving more for Selena to deal with.

~

Meeting up with Demi after school was an outlet from the scrutiny she was in the midst of. Taylor, as good as a friend as she was, couldn’t always be there because of her Lucas shaped commitments. But Demi was. She’d been taken off sedation, the reasons for it in the first place were still unknown to Selena, and they’re conversations had evolved. Their bond strengthened. Selena anxiously waited for the day to end so she could arrive at the hospital. Her mom had noticed; in between her ever busy schedule, her recent eagerness to walk through the doors. Selena just smiled.

Her smile stayed planted on her face as she walked through the hospital, until she felt someone following her. A familiarly unfamiliar presence. Her shoes kept a tap-tap rhythm that worked over the clomp-clomp of her stalker. Selena’s neck itched to turn. But it also stretched towards Demi’s room, visible in the short distance.

However when the footsteps didn’t cease behind her as she crossed the boundary, she stopped; and was almost tackled to the ground by her clumsy follower.

“Why did you just stop like that? I could have fallen!” An exasperated Resident David Henrie stumbled out of her personal space slower than Selena would have liked.

“If you weren’t following me it wouldn’t have happened. What is with you?” Selena retorted. Henrie hadn’t changed much since she’d last met him. His hair looked slightly deflated, Selena hoped someone had finally let him in on the hair gel thing; and his scrubs now fitted him. But God his voice was annoying.

“I was not following you, please.” David brushes his shirt off, not noticing how his action crumpled the paper he was holding. When he realized his face scrunched up in his dismay.

“Right, whatever.” Selena turned away from the bumbling dork and happily escaped to the more welcoming - stalker free- atmosphere of Demi’s room.

“Hey there.” Selena greeted.

“Hey Selena.” Demi warmly smiled. She was back in the green gown again. The sun shone through the window and lit up the curve of Demi’s back.

She was sitting on the edge of her bed, the barrier had been pushed down; Selena internally smiled at Demi’s dangling legs as they swung in a childlike manner. This is what she had come to look forward to in the afternoons. Sitting, talking with Demi about anything - rediscovering their love of Paramore - musical tastes - just the two of them. Friends.

“Hey David!” Demi’s use of a foreign name causes Selena’s eyes to return to the door. Henrie’s body is surrounded in outside light. He clutches the paper to his chest, and gives an obviously disgruntled stare in Selena’s direction. Before a full fledged staring war can break out, Demi coughs. Distracted from Selena, David bounces in waving the paper to Demi. Selena crossed her arms; he was too hyper. He was also too close.