Author's Note: I don't even know. I don't own Demi. I don't own Selena. Shoot me.
Demi's eyes are closed beneath her sunglasses. The waves are lapping at the shore and the sun's beaming down to darken her pale skin just a bit, just the way she likes it. She can hear the seagulls flying gracefully above the beach, the kids running around with shovels and pails and if she listens close enough, she can hear Selena breathing beside her. She wants that to be all she hears, she wants the rest of it to fade into one muffled sound in the background, but if she listens too hard her ears focus on the wrong thing and she hears a child's laugh or the roar of the waves instead. So she tries to convince herself that she doesn't really care, because, really, she shouldn't, and a part of her believes her so she can hear every third breath Selena takes.
After several minutes, she sits up to get further away from the soft sounds of the girl beside her and she watches the ocean like she's suddenly realized it's the most beautiful song she's ever heard. She can rarely go to the beach without thinking of Joe and the song Disney made them record, but he's the last thing on her mind right now. All she can focus on are the butterflies in her stomach and the eyes boring into her back.
Delicate fingers trace her spine and Demi jumps and freezes when she realizes what Selena was doing. Selena's hand stills just long enough for Demi to calm down and she continues trailing her hand up Demi's back, then back down to the dip of her back.
"You're still too skinny, Demi." It's the hard truth and Demi didn't expect any less from Selena. She looked over her shoulder, over the sunglasses that have slid down just a little, and watched the pained look on Selena's face as her fingers start the journey again.
"I know." And she does. But she's trying, and that has to count for something. She made the mistake of looking at rehab as more of a wheelchair than a crutch and she slipped up several times. But she's trying again, getting back into the mindset she had when she was in treatment and reminding herself that food isn't the enemy, it never was. The girls at school, the haters, Alex Welch. They're the enemies.
"I'm so scared that you're gonna break." Selena said quietly, her eyes locked on the rough bumps her finger slid over, the vertebrae in Demi's spine. "That someone's going to say something someday and it's going to be too much. That you'll do it again and your body just won't be able to handle it anymore." Demi swallowed hard and turned to face Selena, holding the hands that danced across her back like she was a porcelain doll. She couldn't speak past the lump in her throat, but she didn't get the chance to. "I think you're beautiful, Demi. I always have." It never used to be enough, during their pointless fighting and sleepless nights. But it was before, when Demi was in school and it is now, when Selena's back and telling her all these sweet things that Demi just has to believe. The way Selena looks at her gives her no choice. "Promise you'll never do it again?"
Demi hates the way Selena says it so carefully, because she knows it's a selfish thing to ask and maybe it isn't her place to ask such a thing anymore, and she squeezes the shaking hands she's holding in her lap.
"Okay." Demi whispered and brought Selena's left hand to her lips, pressed a soft, butterfly kiss to the spot where Selena's purity ring was until this morning. "I promise." She'd promise anything if it meant she'd never lose her again.