james awoke with a start in the night, feeling like a weight was being pushed onto her chest.
her breaths came out in short, sharp gasps and her hand flew out to feel around on the coffee table as she'd fallen asleep on the couch.
her hand grasped something and she wrapped her fingers around it tightly. the weight was still strongly on her chest and she gripped the item tightly, lifting up her arm and sloppily launched it toward the wall.
after the incident about gus a few weeks back, james had decided this was a good tactic if anything ever happened.
in the next apartment over, jake looked up from where he was editing after hearing the noise.
he placed his laptop aside and stood, going over to james' apartment, using his key to open the door.
james' vision was blurry, but as she felt hands running through her hair, the weight lifted from her chest and she took a deep breath, reaching up and grabbing jakes hand lightly.
he helped her sit up and she coughed profusely, jakes free hand rubbing her back.
her eyes watered as she slumped back in relief, breathing normally now.
'are you okay bubs? what happened?'
'i was asleep and it felt like there was literally a person sitting on my chest, i couldn't breathe. can you pass me my phone? i need to re sync my apple watch so i can look at my heart rate and shit.'
jake passed her her phone and and opened it, throwing it away from her on the couch as soon as she looked at her lock screen and standing up, walking to her kitchen area, close to her front door.
'no fucking way.'
'what?'
'jake, no bullshit, look at the time.'
jake picked up her discarded phone and clicked it on.
3:03 AM
he put it down and walked over to james, grabbing her hands.
'what the fuck.'
'tell me about it, what the fuck just happened jakey?'
'i don't know. are you okay to go back to sleep?'
'stay with me, please'
'okay bubba.'
they trailed back over to the couch and james grabbed the tv controller, clicking it on and settling down on the couch, dragging jake down with her.
jake sat with his legs up on the coffee table, james with her feet curled under her and leaning into jake, his arm around her shoulder, playing with the ends of her hair lightly.
james turned on harry potter and the half blood prince, nuzzling into jakes shoulder and smiling.
jake looked down at her periodically, smiling as she mouthed the words to her favourite scenes, gripping jakes hand tightly at the action even though she knew what was coming.
eventually james drifted off to sleep, jake not long after, both of them smiling lightly.
𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 james led in bed, tears rolling down her face, her eyes shut as she silently cried. she checked the time. 2:00pm.
she hadn't managed to get out of bed yet, hate from social media and her mental health had really been getting to her, she hadn't spoken to her friends in weeks.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
el_james: i will be taking a break from social media for a while. i'll see you all soon, i love you.
[comments disabled!]
𝘁𝘄!! 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝘂*𝗰*𝗱𝗲
she let out a breath, climbing out of bed and clumsily walking to the bathroom.
she took out the medication she takes for her anxiety and looked at the small orange bottle.
take 3 every 6 hours, any more could result in serious harm.
she emptied the necessary 3 into her palm, and looked at the small white capsules. shaking the bottle once more until it was on the verge of empty, she tipped back her head, emptying the medicine into her mouth.
she went and got back into bed, sitting up slightly.
