Echoes in the Darkness | Demi Lovato

Chapter 23- We Can't Back Down Part 1

The plane ride was super boring. Demi let me have the window seat, so I entertained myself for a while by looking at the clouds soar by before eventually, I became bored of that and just put in my earbuds to listen to music. At first, a lot of Fifth Harmony was playing, but then one of Demi's songs came on and I couldn't help but smile as I looked over at my aunt who as sleeping peacefully in the seat next to me.

We can't back down.

"Attention, all passengers please buckle your seat belts, we will be landing in Los Angles soon!" The intercom came to life and Demi jolted awake, causing me to laugh softly.

Just as the piolet had requested, the two of us clicked our seatbelts as I leaned my head slightly against Demi's shoulder, one of her songs from Camp Rock still playing through my earbuds.

Don't close your eyes.

"Tired?" Demi asked, but since the song was playing softly I could still hear her faintly. I nodded wordlessly in response.

"I couldn't fall asleep," I lied. Truthfully, I had fallen asleep at one point while listening to music, but I had a nightmare and woke up shortly thereafter.

"Aw, I'm sorry, baby girl, it can be hard to fall asleep on airplanes. You can take a nap when we get home though," Demi assured me softly, running her fingers through my brunette hair like she always did. I just nodded again.

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Demi's house, or should I say mini-mansion, is huge! It was a modern style home, but it was still really comfy, and I ended up falling asleep on the couch almost as soon as we got there.

We're all in this together.

"Time to wake up, Love," I heard someone say softly and I groaned, rolling over to come face to face with Demi. "It's almost 7 PM."

Sitting up, I yawned and Demi chuckled. "I'm still tired though," I complained in a small voice.

"If you sleep now, you won't be able to sleep at night. Come on, sleepyhead."

Wherever we draw the line we're not going to straddle across it...

"Plus, we have a big day tomorrow and there's someone that I want you to meet," Demi continued in my silence. "But before any of that, it's time for dinner."

I paled at the mention of food. I knew that Demi was going to make me eat while I was here, and I did, in fact, want to recover, but that didn't mean that I was looking forward to having to eat three whole meals a day. Normally, I was lucky if I allowed myself to have one every other day.

The singer must have seen the look on my face. "Don't worry, Mad Max. It's just one step at a time, come on."

I followed Demi into the kitchen where there were two plates and glasses sitting on the counters in front of the bar stools. Upon further inspection, I realized that it was a combination of salad and fruit on the plates, and thankfully the glasses only held water.

"One step at a time," Demi repeated softly to me, pulling me closer to the stools. "Just eat as much as you can for me, okay?"

"Okay," I agreed, not wanting to let my aunt down but also not wanting to put that stuff inside of me. I'm fat enough as is.

Or lose it.

It took a while, but eventually, I finished about a fourth of the salad and half the fruit before I pushed the plate away from me. Demi had been encouraging me the entire time, and when I pushed it away she didn't say anything at first, she just cleaned off the two plates and put them in the dishwasher before finally saying something.

"I'm proud of you, baby girl."

We can't back down.

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Author's Note: Hey all! I am so so very sorry that it's been like 20 days since I last updated! I just recently started my first job and there's a lot of drama that's been going on with my dance team. That combined with me feeling exhausted and uninspired lead to a really long wait for all you readers and I am so sorry. I know that's no excuse, but I hope at the least everyone liked the chapter and that kind of made up for it. My life is still very chaotic right now, so while I'm gonna try to get back to my normal updates, there may still be times when a chapter is a day or two late. However, it won't take anywhere near this long again. 

Anyways, I hope that everyone's had a good like a month since I talked to you guys last and I hope you all enjoyed chapter 23. Also, I have an idea for a new story and I just started working on it, so keep an eye out for that. I'll talk to you all soon and have a good day or night wherever you are! QOTD: What would you guys like to see more of in this story? More action, more drama, more quality time with characters, etc.

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