Unanchored: Inspired by Demi Lovato (book 1 of the unanchored series)

33.⚓️

I honestly felt like shit. Nothing that Demi had given me helped suppress any emotion of mine. She did give me one pill for my legs. She was accessible to this pill because it was in Nick's medicine cabinet. It was for his legs, although I am pretty sure in Nick's condition, the doctors only prescribed the drug only meant for Nick and not me. Demi said that the side effects weren't too risque, just some drowsiness, nausea, and dry mouth. You know just about the same familiar side effects that you'd see on any medication label. The medicine was so strong that it knocked me out. I remember the medicine started to kick in as soon as Demi put me down on the couch in the dim-lighted living room. While Emma was busy putting blankets on me, Demi came back with a tablet and a glass of water. I didn't really bother asking what the drug was called, as dumb as that sounded. To be honest, I was kind of happy that I came in contact with my customary substance also known as my best friend, who I constantly run from and run back to. I know that it was just one pill, but it felt good to have some type of drug inside me. Before I knew it, I was out like a light and my eyes were shut. Then I opened them and I saw him...again. This time, it wasn't me that he raped, it was Rina. I tried to stop him but before I could, I woke up and it was too late.

My eyes shot open and I realized that I was no longer in the living room on the couch. I was in someone's bedroom, I think it was Emma's since there were a Stranger Things poster and a collection of Magic Tree House books on a white shelf. I've hanged out with Emma a few times, had dinner at her house, watched Mean Girls a thousand times in the living room, but I had never been in her room. I also never slept over her house. This was my first time sleeping at Demi's house. I woke up to see that I was not the only person in the room. Demi was sitting in the white hanging chair, tapping her fingers away on her phone, hence the light hitting her olive looking skin. She looked up from her phone and smiled, turning off her phone and setting it on the tawny-colored nightstand. She got up from the chair and walked over to the right side of the bed where I was lying. She sat down adjacent to me and put her hand on my shoulder, rubbing it with her thumb.

"Hey, sweetie. How are you doing?" Demi asked, giving me a tiny smile as she moved her hands from my shoulder to the side of my face. I looked away from Demi, not answering her question because I really could not answer that question. "Okay, I understand if you want some time to yourself. I'll go." Demi said, getting up from the bed. I quickly turned my head from against the wall and grabbed Demi's hand. "No." I cried. Demi looked back at me. "Please, don't leave me by myself. I don't want to be alone, n-not after what happened to me. Demi, please don't go!" Demi's eyebrows creased in a worried expression as she sat back down. "Hey. Hey. Hey, I am right here. I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here, baby. I'm staying right here." Demi pulled me in for a hug as I threw myself into arms, crying like a baby. "Promise me you won't leave me." I cried as my body trembled against her. Demi held me in her arms, rubbing my back and caressing my head. At first, her breath was shaky but then she mustered up her strength to reply back. "I won't leave you...I promise."

We sat like that for a while before Demi asked, "Honey?" I moved my head a little, saying, "Hmm." Demi pulled away from me and asked, "I need you to tell me what happened this morning? Why were you out on the street, it's freezing cold? Shouldn't you be home with your friend?" I instantly removed my hands from Demi's and I brought my legs up to my chest, looking down at the butterfly patterns on the blanket and shaking my head in fear. "I can't...I can't go back there. If I go back there, he'll do it again and again and again. He'll never stop." Demi's eyes started tearing up and she asked, "Who won't stop?" "Dennis, Mick's uncle. This morning around three...I couldn't go to sleep, so I went to the bathroom to splash some water on my face. He had been watching me a couple of days before the incident. I felt so uncomfortable, so uneasy, that I could not fall asleep. I couldn't even breathe. I always felt like he was constantly breathing down my neck. So...m-my face was wet and I went over...I went over to the rack to dry my face." I felt a lump rising in my throat due to me, swallowing so much saliva as I was weeping.