You drove home as fast as legally possible, getting frustrated every time you had to stop at a red light. While at work you had stumbled across a news site that had written a particularly harsh article about Demi. Since she had a habit of reading about herself, you knew that she had likely already read it. You haphazardly parking in the driveway and sprinted inside to check on her.
“Demi?” you called out breathlessly, keeping an eye out for her as you wandered around the house. You found her in the living room, sitting comfortably on the couch and watching TV. She looked up at you with a smile, scooting over so you could sit down next to her.
“You're home early. Did something happen at work?” You hesitated, unsure if you should bring up the article since it didn't seem like she had read it. “Huh? Uh, no, everything's fine. I just had some free time and wanted to see you.” She believed your lie, blushing and leaning in for a kiss. “That's nice of you, but you should go back. We can go out to eat when you come home, okay?”
You agreed, not wanting her to know that you were worried about her. You gave her a kiss goodbye and went back to your car, but instead of going to work you called your boss and explained that something had come up at home. You backed out of the driveway and parked around the block, just in case Demi was watching to make sure you left. You quietly made your way into the house again, and you weren't really surprised to see that Demi wasn't on the couch anymore and the TV was turned off.
When you got upstairs and saw that they bathroom door was closed, you seriously started doubting your decision to come back. If she was in such a weak state of mind that she would resort to hurting herself, then the last thing you wanted to do was catch her off guard. You needed to handle this situation delicately.
“Hey Demi, I realized that my phone battery is low so I came back to get my charger. I can't find it, can you look around and see if it's in there?” You placed your ear against the door and listened to her quiet movements. “I'm busy. Can't you borrow mine?” You put your hand on the doorknob, ready to burst in at any second.
“You might need it. Just let me in so I can look for it.” There was some more shuffling and you thought you heard her swear quietly to herself. “Give me a minute” she muttered. While waiting for her to open the door you took several deep breaths to calm yourself down. If she saw that you were worried, she would definitely slam the door shut and refuse to let you in.
She opened the door slowly, probably trying to evaluate your mood. You gave her a small smile and lightly pushed past her so you could pretend to look for your charger. Quickly glancing in the mirror, you saw that she was staring at you with her arms crossed and that she was wearing long sleeves despite the hot summer weather. “Why are you wearing that? It's hot even with all the fans on” you said, trying to sound unconcerned.
She immediately became defensive, giving you a hard shove to get you out of the bathroom. You were able to hold your ground, refusing to give in and let her harm herself. “What the hell? I know what you were about to do, that's why I came home in the first place. I read that article.” She laughed once, her eyes flashing with anger. “You really thought you could stop me? You're really unobservant Y/N” she said angrily.
To demonstrate what she meant, she pulled up the sleeves on her shirt and showed you her wrists. You gasped in shock when you saw the cuts lining her arms. Some of them looked like they were a few weeks old, but the ones that especially concerned you looked as if they had only been done a few hours ago. How could you have missed them? She changed in front of you every day. You literally missed something that was right in front of you.
“Dem...why didn't you tell me? I would've helped you.” Tears came to your eyes and hers as you both looked at the cuts. “You can't help me. You don't care enough” she accused. Just because you hadn't noticed doesn't mean that you don't care about her, so you needed to prove her wrong.
“I do care. The only reason I didn't notice is because you didn't hide anything. You pretended like everything was okay and I fell for it. But that article was cruel and even the strongest person would've been hurt by it. Next time you feel like doing this you can come talk to me. Please?” You thought that everything would be fine now, but nothing is ever so easy.
“I can't talk to you! You have no idea what it's like to feel this way. It's not something that goes away after talking” she yelled. You wanted to shout at her too but you needed to stay calm. “Then show me what it's like. Show me how to get rid of my problems by hurting myself. Grab that blade from the counter and take away my problems.”
There were other ways to handle a situation like this, but you couldn't think of them. Taking a risk, you held an arm out to her, wrist up. She stared at it for a few seconds before looking up to meet your eyes. “I'm not going to hurt you. There's nothing you've done to deserve it.” You hid your relief when she didn't do anything, glad that your last minute plan had actually worked.
“You haven't done anything either. The things in that article were lies, you know that. Please don't punish yourself for the way other people think.” Your voice was soft so you could calm her down. “I'm sorry” she whispered, her body visibly relaxing. You wanted to hug her but you decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea to touch her just yet. “I'm going to take the next few days off so I can help you. But you need to tell me when you feel like this, otherwise I won't know that you're hurting.” When she nodded you smiled, because even though it would be hard, it would be worth it in the end.
