safe//5SOS

9

Bella

"Calum," I whispered, shaking him gently. He slowly woke up but when he saw me he bolted upright.

"What's wrong hun, turn the lamp on," he mumbled. I did as he said and sat on his bed. When he looked at me, he knitted his eyebrows together.

"Is it your mouth? Your cheek is swollen a little," he asked.

"My mouth, my jaw...it hurt when I drank cold water," I trembled. He grabbed his phone and brushed the hair out of my face.

"You're going to take some pain killers now and stay in here until the morning, then we will head in early with Michael and sort you out- as long as it doesn't get too much worse you will be fine," he said.

It got worse.

I was in agony when I woke up and soon the whole house was awake because of me.

My ear hurt, my jaw hurt, my mouth hurt. I couldn't stop crying but I didn't want to go to the dentist. Not again.

I sobbed into Calum's chest as he ran his fingers through my hair.

"Calum can stop the pain love," Luke said.

"I don't want to go," I wailed.

Luke gently took me from Calum while he and Michael went and got dressed.

"Shh. Everything's going to be alright Bella, let's put your hair in a pony tail and get you in one of my hoodies," he said, taking the loose bobble from my hair and doing it again. Ash brought through a hoodie.

I slipped it on and leant back into his chest. I cried silently.

"Come on bub, let's go sort this out," Calum said.

We all drove to the office and Calum unlocked the door, while Ashton carried me inside. Everytime he stepped I jolted and pain slithered through my mouth.

It felt like it was always me.

When we got inside, I refused to sit down. Michael and Calum were quickly prepping the room as I struggled.

"Is it possible for me to lay with her?" Ashton asked. Calum nodded and he turned back to me.

"Come on, I'm gonna sit down with you and Luke can hold your hand," he said stubbornly.

He sat down on the chair and waited for me to climb on; he wrapped his arms round me and held my own down with his hands. I took one out to hold Luke's hand tightly.

As the light hit my face, I moved my head to the side.

"Alright, I'm going to use my mirror and explorer like before and I need you to tell me if it hurts anywhere," Calum explained.

I tried to get out of Ashton's grip but he was too strong.

"I don't want you to touch it," I said, my voice quivered.

"I'm going to try not to, can you open up for me?"

Luke rubbed small circles on my hand as I opened my mouth, letting him look inside. The first few teeth he tapped were fine but the closer he got, the more anxious I began to feel.

"Deep breaths," Michael reminded.

"Is it hurting yet?"

I shook my head, lying.

He tried to look again but I moved away, whining. As I shut my mouth, tears began to form.

"Woah, it's ok. I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you," he explained, "Can I look? I'll be super gentle,"

I shook my head.

"The quicker you do this, the quicker you get out of the chair," Luke said.

I shook my head again.

"I know you don't want to do this but I see how much pain you're in Bella and it's only going to get worse and worse... you can do this," Ashton whispered to me.

I shook my head and began to cry, thrashing my legs around. Someone slid a mouth prop in.

Ashton took my hand from Luke and held them both to her stomach, rubbing them slowly. Luke had to hold my legs down and Michael gently moved my head back into position.

"I'm giving you laughing gas," he said sympathetically.

I sobbed, defeated.

After a couple of minutes, I felt my body relax. Whatever he'd given me had worked and I no longer had the energy to thrash around.

"I need to take an X-Ray, just keep breathing sweetheart,"

He took a couple X-rays of my teeth and looked at them with Michael while Ashton and Luke tried to calm me down.

"Let me out," I uttered moodily, my words slightly slurred.

"We know Bella, you're tired and in pain. You're terrified and don't want to be here but please just do what Calum says because it's making our life a lot harder," Luke said.

Ashton stood up with me so him and Luke could swap; I was back down straight away on Luke.

Calum and Michael came back over, putting their masks back on.

"Ok love, there's a lot going on in this little mouth of yours. You've been very brave actually because it's extremely painful, I'm sorry," he explained.

Michael carefully placed numbing gel on my gum but the gas was getting to my head and I wasn't sure what was happening. He sprayed a little water in my mouth and made me jump.

Then my heart started pounding as I knew what was next. Luke could feel it and he held my hands gently.

"Ok, close your eyes for me and take a deep breath," Calum said. I did it and felt a sharp pain moments later.

"Stop," I tried to say. I couldn't tell if it was getting worse or staying the same but it was very painful.

"Don't move, it's alright you're done for now," Michael assured, wiping my mouth with a tissue and suctioning it.

"You're so brave, the worst part is over now," Ashton said.

As soon as I was numb, I was laying back down and gripping Luke's hand.

"Are you in any pain?" Calum asked, stopping.

I shook my head so he carried on. He removed the cover and used the explorer again, from what I could gather at least.

"Almost done sweetheart, almost there,"

Calum

I've never seen anyone leave that chair so quickly in my life as she went over to Ash and hugged him.

Bless her.

She'd gone through more in a week than I could handle in a year.