A Scream For Help 1/?
Title: A Scream For Help
Chapter: 1/?
Pairing: Selena/Demi
Rating: T
Word Count: 1.817
Summary: Her finger went up and down and slowly formed a single word on the glass. Help.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Sadly.
A/N: I know it's been long since I ever posted a story, but I didn't have my laptop for two months. It was torture! But I'm glad I have it back and I have a new story for you guys! It's set in 2014. I hope you guys like it and I hope you review! :-)
It was winter so the morning sun wasn’t up yet as a brown haired girl walked down the streets of New York. She was wearing a black, baggy pants with a dark blue hoodie with the hood pulled over her hair. Her bangs fell over her face, which hid the dark sunglasses that covered her eyes. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest like someone who was trying to protect herself from the bad, bad world. On the outside, she looked like a normal 22-year-old, but on the inside, she was a young girl screaming for her mother. A lot had happened in her life and she didn’t dare to go out on the street because she knew the paparazzi would fire questions at her.
She was only 22, but it seemed as if she had lived the life of a 40-year-old. If she would tell her story to someone, no one would believe that she had been through all of that in only three years time. She never had someone to talk to, except for her mother. After her father left, she and her mother grew closer. She had a lot of friends from set and Disney, but she broke all of them off when things started going wrong. Her best friend? She wasn’t there.
Friends tried calling her, tried visiting her, but she never picked up or she never opened the door. Then they tried contacting her mother. She did pick up, but she wouldn’t say a word about her daughter because she knew she was going through a rough and terrible time.
The first rays of sunshine hit her face, which made her squint her eyes. She wasn’t used to the strong light anymore. For days she lived at home, surviving on tinned food. Sometimes her mother came over to cook, but that was about it.
Footsteps ring through her ear and she kept her head to the ground, not wanting people to recognize her. Or at least, that would be the reason according to her. The real reason that she didn’t look up was because she was afraid. Afraid to look them in the eye. Afraid to show them who she was. Afraid to let them see the emotions she was carrying. Afraid to be who she was.
Slowly, she went into Starbucks, the glass door creaks when it opens and closes. People look up to see if it’s a star who enters, but continue their actions when they think it’s just a stranger. Mission accomplished.
She quietly ordered a coffee. So quietly that the man had to lean over the counter to properly hear that she was asking for ‘a decaf’.
‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’ the man asked as he handed her the decaf. He had recognized her voice. But she was lucky, because he couldn’t put a name on it. She quickly shook her head and headed back to the door, the creaks filling the room again until it was closed.
She took big steps back to her appartment. Her heart was racing, because the man thought he knew her from somewhere. She knew it wouldn’t take too long for him to figure out who she was. Luckily, he never came after her to say he knew it.
Her hand was on the doorknob when she stopped dead in her tracks. Someone was behind her. She just knew it because she could feel it.
‘Mommy! Mommy! Look!’
Feeling confirmed. A little six-year-old was pointing to her back when she was frozen in place. She instantly knew that the little girl knew who she was. How could she not? She still had fans running around. She shut her eyes tightly, hoping that the little girl would just let it go and continue walking. She wasn’t so lucky this time.
A little hand was tugging at her sleeve and she looked down to the little girl to see what her question was.
‘Can I have your autograph?’
‘Dani! What have I told you about hassling stranger?’ Saved by the mother. She offered a weak smile to the little girl, but she could see in her eyes that she wouldn’t let it go.
‘But, Mommy, it isn’t a stranger!’ She took a deep breath. She was going to say it. She was going to say who she was and the next day, or even the next hour, paparazzi would be swarming at her appartment and it would be in all magazines.
‘It’s Selena Gomez!’ There. Dani had said it. Her forehead fell against the door as she let out a soft groan, barely loud enough for the little girl to hear.
‘Come on, that’s not Selena Gomez.’
‘It is! Come look!’
But the mother never had the chance, because Selena had already fled into her appartment. She locked the door behind her and walked towards the couch before she fell down on it, yet she was careful that her decaf wouldn’t spill all over the floor.
She set her cub down on the wooden table in front of her and stood up. The fridge wasn’t far from the couch so she only had to take four steps to get there. She searched for something to eat, but didn’t find anything. It was going to be another day that started without breakfast.
On the set of Wizards, almost everybody said that she had a perfect size. Now, they’d all say she was way too skinny. It was true, she was too skinny, but she didn’t care. She was nothing like the Selena Gomez she used to be.
She used to be confident, happy, honest and stylish. Now all she cared about was getting through the day. Her selfesteem had dropped to the ground, maybe even lower. She wasn’t happy, she just lived the day. Sometimes she even told her mother lies when she wanted to be alone so she wouldn’t come and visit her. Her clothes were way too big for her body, but she liked that because she could hide in them.
She turned around and strolled to her answering machine. The news that she had been seen was going around rather quickly. 10 new messages. Jennifer Stone, the producer of Wizards Of Waverly Place, David Henrie, her mother, Bridget Mendler, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Jake T. Austin, Maria Canals Barrera and David Deluise. They all called, but she didn’t want to hear it so with one click on a button, she deleted them all.
She sat back down on the couch and reached for the remote of her small TV. She zapped through some channels until she heard her name. Apparently, the news of her being seen seemed to have broken the record of fastest news to ever get announced.
‘Selena Gomez was spotted today for the first time in three years. Dani and her mother, Alexa, saw her at an appartment in New York. Alexa says; “It was actually my daughter who saw her because honestly, I didn’t recognize her. I also couldn’t take a better look at her because she quickly went into her appartment as if she didn’t want to be seen”. The only source who can tell us what is going on with the Disney Starlet is Mandy Teefy, but she keeps her mouth shut tightly. She doesn’t want to comment on the condition of her daughter nor on what has happened the last three years.’
Then the screen went all black. It didn’t bother Selena, because she knew what was going on. The electricity bill wasn’t payed. Shrugging, she stood up, took her decaf and went to a little bedroom. She smiled when she saw a small body sleeping under the sheets. Her only reason to be alive.
Then she went to her own bedroom, but the room barely big enough to fit a bed. She crawled over the boxes with clothes, she didn’t bother to unpack them, and laid in her bed.
She turned around so that she could look out of the window. Everything in the backyard of the appartment seemed so peaceful in contrast with what was going on in her mind. A little white bird was drinking from the water fountain as if it had no worries in life. Then it flew away, high in the sky and it was free.
Selena wished she could fly too. It would make things easier. She could fly away from her problems. She could fly to wherever she wanted. She could be free, just like that bird. Suddenly, the bird popped up out of nowhere and landed on the outside of her window. She reached out her hand and gently pressed a finger against the cold glass and the bird pushed its head against it from the outside before it quickly flew away again.
Selena left her finger against the window and started writing something. Her finger went up and down and slowly formed a single word on the glass. Help.
She knew she needed help, but she would never ask for it. She became too shy for that. People had offered her to help, they had, but she never answered to it. She didn’t want to be a bargain in people’s lives anymore so she started helping herself, but she quickly found out she couldn’t.
Everything that had happened the last three years, she had only told to her mother. Everything else, she kept inside. She kept building it inside of her and she knew that one day, she wouldn’t have any room left to build anymore. She felt like that day was coming, but even though she felt it, she was damn sure to not let it show to someone.
The phone rang again. She let out a sigh before she got up and walked towards the living room again, after crawling over the boxes. It was her mother, but this time, she decided to pick up.
It was quiet. She had picked up, but she didn’t say a word. She was just waiting for her mother to tell her what she wanted to say.
‘It’s all over the news. How are you feeling?’
‘Fine.’
It was all she could say. She didn’t allow herself to speak in sentences because then her voice would betray how she really felt. She turned around and walked towards the window, with the phone still to her ear, when she heard children laughing. From behind the curtain, she peeked outside and a little smile touched her lips. They were having fun. Something she didn’t have in a very long time.
‘Sel... I think it’s time you come out more often. You’ve been in that appartment for three years.’
‘Fine.’
She shut off the phone and placed it back on the table. She didn't really know what she just said "fine" to, but whatever it was, she needed to do it. Not for herself, but for her daughter.