I Wish You Were Still Mine.

It's Hidden In The Scars

Joe woke up to find Demi looking into his eyes. They got lost in each other's eyes far too often. Demi sat up leaning against the back of Joe's bed, her knees up and her head in them with her arms tightly clutched around her legs.

Joe got worried and tried to comfort her but she just told him there was nothing wrong - as usual. He's heard that too many times before. He knew inside him that it was a lie.

After a couple of minutes, Demi had that look back on her face, Joe finally snapped to his senses and he realized where he remembered it from. On Demi, it wouldn't come up often, but that didn't mean it didn't come up at all. But when it did come up, she was in some serious pain... That was her heartbreak face, the face that always hid her heartbreak or any sort of mental pain. She wore it particularly a lot before treatment.

She looked up at Joe with those sympathetic-eyes and they were just screaming 'hug me, hold me and never let me go.' Joe didn't complain, he stretched out his arms and within seconds she was already in them. Joe lightly kissed her forehead and asked, "Demi, what you said this morning, did you really mean it?"

"Did I mean what?" She asked trying to hide her denial and pulling away from the hug.

"What you said... About being scared to fall in love. Was it true?" Demi looked into his eyes and he saw it, it was true. She sighed knowing he figured out the truth, she crawled back under the sheets facing away from Joe but towards the window. She fluttered her eyelids closed and tried drifting back to sleep. Joe just ignored the question, simply thinking she didn't want to answer it even though he already knew the truth.

•••

Joe sighed gently shaking her body trying to wake her up "Demi, wake up, wake up." He could hear her chuckling really softly and breathily. He pretended like he didn't hear it and just whispered "I'm a bit hungry, just gonna get some water. Be right back."

She closed her eyes trying to make sure he wouldn't see her faking because she was an actor y'know.

Joe walked out of the room and ran downstairs into the kitchen. He picked up a glass and filled it with water. He took a sip then filled it back up again and walked back to his room where he still found Demi ''sleeping''. He was still trying to wake her up a few minutes later. He knew she was awake by her slow, under-breath chuckles.

"Fine" he said holding back his laughter "you asked for it" he picked up his glass of water and dumped it on Demi. She sat up instantly and yelled "JOE!!!!! Why would you do that?!"

"Did I wake you up?"Joe asked sarcastically.

"Yes oh my god. I can't believe you just did that!" her top and stomach was soaking wet from just the one glass of water. She pointed to her shirt "Joe, look what you've done!" he chuckled lightly.

"Don't make me feel guilty" he said still being sarcastic.

"You should be!" She shouted playfully pushing him really hard onto his bed.

"Whoooaaa, slow down Miss Demi, what do you want?" She answered his question with a glare. He laughed so hard that he found himself struggling for breath; Demi started laughing along with him.

"No seriously, my top is see-through now... Oh my god... DON'T LOOK AT ME!!" She felt her brain kick in and she felt insecure.

He laughed a little more. "Demi, your top was see-through in the first place, it's sits at your waist and it has a low neck line and you're seriously worrying about me looking at you in 'that way'? Cause I don't!" he walked over to his wardrobe and pulled out a plain purple T-shirt "here, wear this instead if you like."

Demi chuckled and looked at her top pulling it from her body. She shrugged and reached for the purple v-neck in Joe's hands. She took off her crop top right in front of Joe so easily, she acted like he wasn't even there even though in her brain, she was so self conscious. 'She wouldn't even do that when she was a size 2 let alone being a size 10' Joe thought. There was nothing wrong with her being a size 10, he was just saying in general. He thought she was beautiful no matter what size she was. He really was proud of how far she's come after treatment.

"Much better, thank you Joe."

"Anytime Demi," he said with a smile on his face. She returned his smile with a small, delicate one that made his heart melt. She looked up at him and sighed running her hands through her hair.

"Joe, I am scared to fall in love. I'm just scared of love. It's hurt me so many times before and I'm definitely not ready to push that aside yet. I know we have all these romantic moments and they all make my heart skip a beat but the truth is, I'm not ready to make something more out of it. I'm sorry. I just can't..." after finishing the last word she walked out of his room.

She walked back to her house and as she looked back at Joe's place, there he was standing at the front door with his head leaning against the door frame. She felt so embarrassed telling him her problems about love.

He looked up and Demi stopped walking, she was standing on the footpath staring into his eyes from 100 meters away. All she could see in his eyes was confusion, pain and maybe just maybe... hope. She sighed and continued waking back to her house wondering what to do.

Maybe she read his eyes wrong, she was an awful distance away. She just couldn't shake it from her thoughts. Something about his expression seemed like he was hurting... In the bad kind of way.