The Story of Our Life

chapter thirty-one -:- listen to her

SLIGHT TRIGGER WARNING

Demi was busy texting on her phone when she walked into the waiting room of the Children's Hospital. One of her cases had an allergic reaction while at his foster home and she needed to make sure he was okay before allowing him to go back with the family. She looked up from her device when the ambulance bay doors opened and a paramedic walked in with her hand holding the one of a small child with familiar raven hair and green eyes.

"Lauren," Demi said, approaching the medic and child.

"I'm sorry, do you know her?" The woman asked, looking down at the six-year-old she was escorting into the hospital.

"I was her social worker. Lauren, what happened? Where's Mike?" Demi asked the small girl who had tear-stained cheeks. She was gripping what looked to be like a filthy toy lion in a clearly swollen left arm.

"She hasn't said a word to us," the woman explained, beginning to lead Lauren back towards an examination room.

"How'd you find her?" Demi asked as she watched Lauren get sat on a bed.

"She was just wandering the streets. We pulled up and noticed how beat up she was. The police will be here shortly," the medic explained, allowing a nurse to put a heart monitor on Lauren's chest, and a blood pressure cuff around her arm.

"Lauren, sweetie. Tell me what happened," Demi said, looking at the broken green eyes of her old foster child case.

Lauren just shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, remembering how the night played out.

She woke up to silence in the apartment. Mike's friends had to have gone home by now. She tried moving but found herself in more pain than a few hours ago. Her heart beat in her arm and her bruised limbs ached in protest as she sat up and began to put her Dora underwear back on.

Lauren decided that she was not going to stay with Mike if this was going to happen again. She just wanted her old home and family back. She just wanted someone to listen to what she wanted for once.

Lauren walked out of the apartment, not even caring if she woke Mike up in the process. She was on a mission to get home, and no one was going to stop her.

The six-year-old took the elevator to the bottom floor and walked outside into the cold night, beginning to walk away from all the bad stuff that happened that night. She was about to cross the empty road when she looked at the alleyway where her comfort things were thrown out months ago. None of her things would still be there. It was impossible.

But then she saw Nala. The stuffed toy had fallen behind the dumpster, one leg missing and it's fur covered in dirt and all sorts of animal matter. But Lauren didn't care. It was her Nala and she couldn't leave her alone.

So Lauren crawled under the dingy dumpster, her hair and skin getting covered in the dirt that accumulated in the LA alleyway.

She retrieved Nala and hugged her close, not even minding that the toy reeked of weeks old trash. It was the closest thing to happy that she felt in weeks.

Lauren and her Nala, both dirty, stinky, and broken, began to walk away from the apartment building, not looking back as it was decided that people were going to listen to her for once and give her what she wanted. Not what the adults wanted.

Lauren heard her doctor say three things: rape kit, setting her wrist, and anesthesia. Demi agreed to all of those things, acting as the girl's temporary guardian since the police were on their way to investigate Mike.