nobody like you (Lauren Jauregui)

weird day

Alma sighs, the anxiety arriving in her stomach as she sits in front of her stepdad at the dinner table.

"Why did you take a test in detention?" David asks and Alma ignores him, playing with Tamsin's goldfish crackers. "I'm talking to you!" He raises his voice a little, but Alma still doesn't acknowledge him, too busy making her sister laugh by pretending they're real fishes in the sea. "Alma!" He yells, and all three of the girls jump.

She finally looks at him.

"Can't you just leave me alone? Is it too much to ask?"

"I'm so tired of you acting like a little brat."

"I'm not being a brat, I'm just sick of you too being up my ass always. I'm fucking nineteen, I know what I'm doing, for fuck's sake!"

"Go to your room."

"I'm not doing this again. You're not scary, David."

"I swear if you don't leave right now, I will fuck-"

"David!" Alma's mom says and he stops, sending Alma a hateful glare.

"I will destroy you." Alma tells him, and she stands up to leave.

She just can't take it anymore because being around him makes her so anxious. Their energy are so different -mostlt because Alma's mentally more stable than him- and she doesn't like people with bad energy.

Sadly the second she's up, she's being held against the wall by the collar of her shirt.

"David!"

"If you don't stop being such a bitch, I will kill you in your sleep and then I'll kill both your mom and your sister." He whispers, and it sends a shiver down Alma's spine.

Because she doesn't know him enough to know if he's being serious or if he's just drunk or high again.

"Let me go." She says, trying to get out of his grip but he lifts her a little higher and now it's hard to breathe.

She isn't scared of him, but right now she has to admit that the light in his eyes is making her heart beat a little faster because there definitely is something wrong with this man.

He lets her go, which makes her fall because she didn't expect it, and he goes back to the dinner table as if nothing happened, leaving Alma breathless on the floor as her mom just looks at her.

Alma stares at her with tears in her eyes.

"I hate you so much." She whispers to her mom, and David gets up to do God knows what, but her mom stops him.

"Stop it." She says.

When she's finally upstairs, Alma takes a minute to breathe because she somewhat is out of breath and that might be because of the invisible weight on her chest. She hates it.

It's so irritating having something so heavy that it seems to be stopping you from moving, breathing or just living.
She's scared that with that weight, if she lies down, she won't find the strength to get up when she'll have to.

But she does it anyway, after taking a shower and brushing her teeth, and she doesn't even fall asleep. She spends the whole night turning around in her bed, eventually forcing her eyes to stay close but she never falls asleep.

All she sees is David's empty eyes and all she hears is his threats.

When her alarm rings, she gets up and gets ready to leave as soon as she can and walk to school. Obviously no one is here except teachers when she arrives and she doesn't even know if Lauren is, so she doesn't walk to her class.

She sits down on one of the chairs in the gymnasium and just waits, staring straight ahead, barely acknowledging anyone, not even Alisha, because once again she has this burden on her upper body that makes it so hard to breathe and it just keeps getting worse every second, irritating her and making her so angry.

Or maybe it's just the fact that she can't stop talking about him that makes her so angry.

She jumps when the principal starts talking in the microphone and looks around, taking in the movement in the room and it all goes fast when she feels how hard her heart is pounding against her chest and she can't comprehend whatever the principal is saying.

"Hey, Alm-" a hand touches her shoulder and she loudly stands up, backing away from it.

Everyone turns to her, and she somehow locks eyes with Lauren who looks concerned. She then looks around, and when she takes in the stares, she sprints out of the room and literally collapses on the ground as she feels no air coming in anymore.

Lauren kind of panics when she sees Alma running out and she feels trapped because she doesn't know if she should go too.

Eventually, she grows way too worried so she stands up and quietly leaves without anyone noticing except Normani.

She immediately finds Alma sitting on the ground, her knees to her chest, sobbing.

"Oh my God, Alma." She sits down and forces Alma to look at her but Alma squirms out of her grip.

"Don't touch me!"

"Alma, baby, calm down. You're okay, you're fine."

"No, I-I'm not." Alma stutters, the weight on her chest growing heavier.

Lauren stands up and takes Alma's hand to lead her to the nurse's office and obviously the nurse isn't in it so it's perfect.

"Lay down." Lauren says but Alma keeps trying to get away from her. "Alma, listen to me, lay down."

She forces her on the bed, and it breaks her heart to see her in a such a state of distress. She puts heer hand on her cheek and it somehow gets Alma's attention.

"Take a deep breath"

Alma aggressively shakes her head, trying to get away again.

"I can't. I can't, let me go, I can't!"

Lauren closes the door with her foot when Alma raises her voice, and she once again forces her down with her hand on her stomach.

"No, stay here, calm down. Stop crying." She says as calmly as she can, wiping Alma's tears away. "Stop crying, take a deep breath through your nose and let it out through your mouth. You can do it, you're so strong, I know you can do it."

It takes quite a long time for Alma to actually calm down, and when she does she squeezes Lauren's hand as she turns to lay on her side and Lauren kisses her wet cheek.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Lauren whispers and Alma shakes her head. "Do you wanna go home?" She shakes her head again. "Are you sure you wanna get to class?" Alma shakes her head again and Lauren frowns. "You can't stay there all day. What are you gonna do?"

"Stay with you." Alma says, her voice a little broken from all the crying.

"Okay. Let's go home baby."

As soon as they get home, the both of them get rid of their shoes and their pants as they climb into Lauren's bed, the older girl allowing Alma to fall asleep on her chest.

This has been a very weird day, but she guesses she won't have an explanation and she doesn't have to get one.