This Is the Safest Place I've Ever Known

20

A/N: Hi, hello. I think this got out within a week of the last chapter so wooooo. 

Weird, short time skip happened because I'm absolutely terrible and don't know how to transition time very well, but this is a few days after the end of last chapter.

Tiny bit of angst warning for this chapter. No spoilers as it happens basically immediately. 

Hopefully you read and enjoy. :)

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Lauren poked her head out from her pile of blankets on the couch as a knock sounded on the door of the apartment.

She frowned as the knocks turned into loud, aggressive pounding on the door. She wasn't expecting any visitors. Camila went to do the grocery shopping for the week. She would have gone with, but she woke up with a serious headache and slight nausea, so Camila had told her to stay home and keep the lights off.

Lauren considered getting up to check who it was when a voice came from outside that stopped her blood cold.

"Lauren, if you're in there, open the door right now," the gruff, stern tone of her dad called impatiently.

Lauren didn't know what to do. She absolutely did not want to open the door. She didn't have any idea why her dad was there, but she refused to see him. It didn't matter what he wanted. She wanted no business with him.

She reached for the phone as the pounding continued. She turned it completely on silent before typing a text to Camila.

Lauren: My dad's here

Lauren: I don't know why but he's here

Camz: Do NOT open the door

Camz: Go to your room if you're not there already

Camz: I'll find someone to go over ASAP

Camz: Do not open that door. I don't care what he wants

"Lauren Michelle, open this door right now," her dad growled from the hall.

Lauren slowly stood up from the couch, making sure to grab her blanket from the couch. She tried to keep her movements as light and quiet as possible. Her dad was still impatiently hitting the door and demanding for it to be opened. He was definitely angry, and if she didn't want to open the door before, she definitely didn't want to then.

He wasn't as angry as he had been that night, probably helped by the fact he was supposedly completely sober today, but he was still angry. That terrified her.

She crept her way into the short hallway and ducked into her room and carefully shut the door behind her. She snagged Nala off her bed and went to hide on the floor behind her bed, out of sight from the door.

Her heart pounded heavily in her chest. She tried to take deep, slow breaths to calm herself, but it didn't help very much. Tears pricked her eyes, and she buried her face in Nala's side as her grip tightened on her blanket.

Her headache worsened considerably, and her stomach seemed to both be knotted and doing somersaults. An ache started to form where her scarring was, but she wasn't sure it was real or just in her head.

All she knew was that she was terrified, and she did not feel well at all.

Her stomach roiled again, and she wondered if she could risk leaving her room to get to the bathroom. It was just across the hall. Maybe she wouldn't be heard there.

She left Nala and her blanket on the floor and sluggishly got to her feet. She made it all of three steps to the foot of the bed before she fell to her knees, her pulse slamming in her head like a jackhammer. As her stomach rolled again, she couldn't hold back the nauseating wave that hit her. Bile rose in her throat and she couldn't force it back down.