𝐴𝑛𝑥𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑦 || 𝑛. 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑛𝑎𝑝𝑝 ✔︎

𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗲

Anxiety

it was a rainy wednesday afternoon. today lorelei was being discharged from the hospital. they said she lost a lot of blood. she had made four cuts on each wrist that night and five of them were opened scars. one of them was super deep, but they made sure she would be ok.

"how are you feeling?" noah asked, brushing lorelei's hair she wasn't supposed to move her wrists in any weird way for another week, so noah would have to help her a little bit.

"i'm ok." lorelei responded as she lifted her wrists to look at them. the nurse wrapped them for her and told her how to take care of them until she gets her stitches out. "my wrists hurt a little worse than yesterday."

"your doctor said it was usually like that on the third day." noah smiled, finishing her hair.

"oh shit, i completely forgot about filming." lorelei worried.

"it's ok. they postponed it until tomorrow."

"but what about my wrists?"

"do you remember how in the last scene for episode four, your character falls into one of those spikey bushes?" noah asked, trying to refresh the girls memory. lorelei nodded and waited for him to continue. "they're making it to wear you fell and your wrists got really scratched up."

silence fell as lorelei grabbed her socks and started to put them on. noah shot up and grabbed them for her.

"noah, i can put my own socks on." lorelei laughed.

"i don't want you to hurt yourself! now give me your foot." noah smiled.

"did my mom visit me?" lorelei asked and noah's smile fell.

"my mom didn't tell you, did she?" noah asked nervously.

"tell me what?" lorelei asked, but noah didn't answer. "noah, what did she need to tell me?"

"your mom left yesterday." noah said, grabbing her shoes and sliding them onto her feet.

"to go where?"

"home."

—

"lorelei! omg i missed you so much. are you ok?" sadie jumped up as soon as the door opened, caleb trailing behind her.

"i'm ok." lorelei smiled as she pulled sadie into a hug. "thank you for standing up for me."

"you should've heard what caleb said! it's nothing compared to what i said." sadie said, pulling away from the hug and holding lorelei's shoulders. caleb's cheeks turned red and he smiled. "oh, babe, your bleeding through your bandages." sadie added, pulling her arms up.

"be careful!" noah said.

"noah, i'm not going to hurt her. calm down." sadie rolled her eyes and carefully put the girls arms back to her sides.

"i'm gonna go shower ok?" lorelei smiled as she hugged caleb. everyone nodded and smiled at her.

"do you need anything?" noah asked.

"if one of you could run to walgreens and get something to wrap my wrists with, that would be nice. i want at least one of you to be here, though." lorelei said.

"me and caleb will go." sadie smiled. "see you in a bit." she added as she pulled caleb outside of the apartment.

"holy shit." lorelei said as she let tears slip from her eyes. she put her back to the wall and slowly slid down it. noah immediately stopped what he was doing and sat on the floor beside her. "i can't believe she left. she's terrible, but i never thought she would leave. especially while i'm in the hospital."

"maybe she called to tell you? i know you say-" noah started.

"my moms not like that. i say that all the time, but you don't understand." lorelei interrupted.

"w-would harper know?" noah asked.

"i don't know." lorelei sniffled. "it wouldn't hurt to ask though." she added before grabbing her phone and unlocking it. she went to her messages and pressed on harpers contact and began to type.

harper

hey har!
do you happen to know why
mom left me here by myself?

hold on
mom left atlanta?!

she's not home??

no i thought she was with
you
i haven't heard anything from
her since you guys left

well long story short
i was in the hospital and
she left without telling me
she told karine and noah she was
going home

dad might have heard
from her but i'm not sure
why were you in the hospital?

long story

i always have time
you know that

i brought my razor blade
noah found me
i lost A LOT of blood
don't tell quinn
she'd KILL me

IM going to kill you
why would you do that??
omg please tell me you're ok now
thank noah for me

yes but if noah wasn't here
i probably would've died
he said you're welcome

speaking of noah ;)

let's NOT do that ;)

oh come on
you're sharing a house with
your celebrity crush
is he cuter irl?
is he sweet?

...
yeah
but seriously stop
he feels privileged that i think
he's cute

you've told him??

once or twice

SPILL

i can't
i'll call you tonight
i love you
keep me updated on mom

kk
i love you too

"SHE JUST CONFIRMED THAT YOU THINK IM CUTE. SCORE!" noah yelled with a huge smile.

"i don't wanna talk about it, noah!" lorelei whined, ungrateful for her sister and noah's idea to text her.

"well, i want to talk about it." noah teased.

"uh, huh. i'm sure you do." lorelei teased back.

"you do know we're going to have to kiss for stranger things at some point." noah continued.

"yeah, ok. that's only if will byers doesn't come out. everyone knows he's gay." lorelei said, mocking noah's teasing.

"HEY!!" noah yelled with a smile.

"shut up! we have neighbors." lorelei smiled.

"our 'neighbors' are caleb and sadie!" noah laughed.

"ugh, you have the brain of a two year old." lorelei shook her head as she finally stood up.

"have a nice shower!"