THIS COULD BE US, anna shumate

my claim on you

authors note:

i love you all of you guys for reading and voting on this book. i know most people find it hard to say what they have achieved this year and last year. but i wanted to let you all know, i am so proud of you and keep pushing. 🤍

i love you all 🤍

—————

layla didn't how much she was holding in until she finally broke down after seeing people's 'godspeed' sung by frank ocean stopping seeing a video about a girl with tears running down her face as she had all of her achievements in the video.

like how she overcame her nicotine addiction, layla felt herself tearing up remembering how she used to self harm after her and drew broke up, it's been a whole year since she's self harmed, and a whole eight months since she last thought about suicidal.

she decided she wanted to come clean of what's been going on in her life behind the screen what no one knows about, not even her family or any of her best friends knew about.

she left the tears on her face, wanting to show everybody that not everyone on social media is doing okay, that most people have things they deal with behind the screen, so she recorded herself, tearing fall down her face singing along to godspeed before putting text about her one year of self harm free.

her whole eight months since she last thought about suicidal, or how she overcame eating again due to not eating wanting to be skinny for her photoshoots and how she overcame her nicotine addiction after she came to los angeles going to rehab helping her get clean.

posting it as everyone was downstairs making tiktoks for their spam and main account, layla said she wanted to go to sleep due to the day they've had.

she locks her phone after posting the tiktok, seeing her tiktok notifications and message notifications blow up about how proud everyone was to tell them this.

emylabeck: i'm so proud of you luv. you're so strong for doing this 🤍
(liked by creator and 123.4K people)
- laylapaige ☑️ • creator: i love you so much ❤️

noahbeck ☑️ • friends: i'm so proud of you. i love you lizzie
- laylapaige ☑️ • creator: 🤍🤍

laylaisbae: keep it up 👍
(liked by creator)

coopdaddy69 • friends: is this what you were tryna tell me, jaden and nessa?
- laylapaige ☑️ • creator: yuh
— coopdaddy69 • friends: i'm so proud of you layla, we're here for you, i'm here for you 🤍
(liked by creator and 642.5K people)

annabananaxdddd ☑️ • friends: i'm so proud of you 👏🤍
(liked by creator and 758.4K people)

callumscott: congratulations on one year self harm free. i'm the same 🤍🤍
(liked by creator)
- laylapaige ☑️ • creator: congrats that's so amazing 🥺

emmabrookmcallister • friends: oh beb. i'm so proud of what you've accomplished. i'm so, so proud of you.
- laylapaige ☑️ • creator: i love you 🤍

noahbeckhearter: so proud of you
(liked by creator)

tatum_beck • friends: i miss you so much and i'm so proud of you baby ❤️
(liked by creator)
- laylapaige ☑️ • creator: miss you too 🥺

oscarcarson ☑️ • friends: i'm so proud of you layla, i miss you 🤍
(liked by 106.4K people)
- laylapaige ☑️ • creator: i miss you too

dixiedamelio ☑️ • friends: so so proud of you 👏 👏
(liked by creator)
- laylapaige ☑️ • creator: thank you 🥺🥺

karina.prieto • friends: come downstairs. i wanna give you a hug, i'm so proud of you telling everyone this.
(liked by creator)
- laylapaige ☑️ • creator: i'll be down in a minute. ❤️

layla lets out a breath, it felt good to get all of that weight off of her shoulders from what she was holding in for a long time. when she feels her iphone buzz in her hand seeing her brother's contact name.

"hey thick neck,"

noah chuckles playfully rolling his eyes seeing his sister have tears coming down her face, "i'm so proud of you for doing that," noah then frowns, "why didn't you tell me, tatum or mum or dad?"

layla lets out a sigh, "it was after me and drew broke up," noah frowned at the mention of his sister's ex boyfriend, "it hurt so much noah, i couldn't eat or sleep—"

noah looked at his sister not knowing when her and drew broke up she was self harming and vaping, "i just can't believe i couldn't see it," layla shakes her head, "yeah it's cause i made it seem like i was okay but i wasn't,"

she looked at her brother, "the only person who knew was kio," noah furrowed his eyebrows, "he's the one who drove me to rehab," noah runs his fingers through his hair, "so that's why you were gone for so long without reaping back to my messages,"

layla nods her head, "i'm happy that i went to rehab, it helped me so much, they helped me so much," noah sighs, "you're better now, right?" layla nods her head wiping her tears from her eyes, "i'm all good now,"

"you would tell me if you were self harming again, right?" layla gulps looking at her twin brother, "-layla, promise me," layla nods her head, "okay, i promise," she holds her pinkie to her iphone whilst noah does the same.

"i love you duckie,"

layla smiles at the nickname noah had given to her since they were little, "i love you too," they end the facetime call, layla running her fingers through her brunette hair.

—————

emma runs her fingers through layla's brunette hair after layla told the girls and brad everything what she put on tiktok video about how she went to rehab with kio's help.

"i'm so proud of you," emma kissed the top of layla's forehead hugging the girl closer to her body not wanting to let go of layla, "one year of being self harm free,"

layla nods her head, "yeah—" she clears her throat not wanting to get into details about it, "i'm so proud of you, we're so proud of you," karina said holding layla's hand in hers.

layla lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding in, looking around at her friends, "so.. um-who wants to make a tiktok with me for my spam account?" she asked.

anna looks at layla, "come on," she takes layla's hand coming out into the airbnb's back yard where the background was absolutely breathtaking, "oh wow,"

layla said, looking at the background to their airbnb, "it's beautiful," anna smiles, she didn't want layla to be sad anymore, she wanted to get layla's mind off of the tiktok video she posted.

"you're beautiful,"

layla smiles at anna's compliment, "thank you.." anna comes close to layla wiping the tear from layla's face that fell from her eyes, "there's no one like you layla,"

layla gulps as she looks into anna's blue eyes, before looking away, as she now has emma. and emma was amazing to her and supportive in everything she does, "i um— so about that tiktok,"

anna nods her head clearing her throat, "let's make it.."