A/N: I got pretty awesome feedback so… here's ch. 2
Most of the car ride was quite. The music took over the entire atmosphere, filling in the silence. Demi pulled up in front of Selena's house and Selena immediately reached for the handle. Quickly, Demi slammed her hand against the handle, which caused Selena to jump back and for her eyes to narrow.
Demi took a few seconds to take in a deep breath. She unbuckled her seat belt and began, "I'm sorry." Her eyes fell and sat back into her seat. Her hands wrung the steering wheel. "I really didn't think he was going to react like that…"
"Is that the best apology you got?" Selena asked with her arms crossed.
Demi's eyes narrowed then softened. "I don't apologize much… or ever… so that's the best apology I have: actually being sorry."
Selena paused, unsure of how to react. Though she knew she should be angry, the feeling completely left. "It's fine…" One side of Demi's lips curled. "Just remember that I'm a person… and that we're never hanging out at your house ever again." Selena put on a smile that matched Demi's.
"And, you're not taking the bus tomorrow." Selena raised an eyebrow. "I'll pick you up at seven, so be ready, Russo."
"Oh… o-kay, Monroe." Selena replied, confused. Demi watched her walk out of the car and to into her house.
---
Demi sank further into the couch and nuzzled the side of her face into the pillow. It was the coziest room she had ever been in yet the last place she wanted to be. It seemed like this whole thing is just a waste of time. It has been over four years since her parents sent her to get "help" and there has been no change.
"So how has the medication been working for you lately?" he asked with his pen at the ready.
"Same, I suppose." Demi trailed, trying to give him as little information as possible. The last time she gave him "too much" information, she ended up locked in her room for two weeks.
He looked up from the rim of his glasses. "And are you still having inappropriate thoughts about…" he cleared his throat. "girls?"
Demi rolled her eyes. "There's nothing inappropriate about my thoughts." That was a complete lie. Demi had many inappropriate thoughts about girls, especially one in particular. She stopped discussing her thoughts when she became a tad older, and figured that he only listened to them for his own perverted pleasure.
"Well, the diary that your parents found…"
"Was none of their business!" she shot up from her supine position. When her parents found her diary, they learned every "disturbing" detail about their molded child's innermost thoughts and alternative wedding plans. They managed to keep it a secret from everyone.
"Well, if they never read your diary, you would have never assigned to get help."
Demi scoffed. "I'd rather be bi-polar than to be here…"
"And, your other problem?"
Demi leaned back on the couch. "We're never going to get anywhere…"
---
Selena walked into her house, and kicked off her shoes. "Hey, dad."
"Hey, Pal." He said, taking another swig of beer. "How was your friend's?" he asked, looking away from the television.
An involuntary smile crept across Selena's face. "It was good." She stated, both of them sharing a nod before she went into her room.
She enjoyed her brief conversations with her father. She really did. It always seems like her mother was trying to pry into her business, trying to find out who is who and who did what. As long as she was alive and not in danger, that should be the only thing that mattered, right?
Selena looked through her pile of books that were stacked ever so sloppily under her bed. She pulled out her old Junior High yearbook and skipped to the pages where Demi was. She was nearly in every club, and extracurricular activity that the school could possibly make up. It was so hard to believe that behind that sweet smile was a locker trashing, graffiti writing, milk-spilling bully. And after she came out, the torture seemed to have gotten worse but today, it was different.
It had been the first time in ever that her and Demi had a friendly interaction. For the past ten years, Selena had been Demi's plaything for as long as she could remember and the most torturous part about it, Selena still had an odd attraction to her.
---
It was exactly 6:56 a.m. when Demi pulled up in front of Selena's house. Quickly, she checked her mirrors, tucking her hair behind her ears and making sure her make-up was on correctly. She heard a door squeak open, forcing her to jump and look up.
Selena trotted lazily to the car and gave Demi a crooked smile. "Why are we going so early?" she said during a yawn. "It's only a ten minute drive from here."
"We're getting breakfast, Lazy." She giggled, starting the car. "What's your sleep schedule like?"
"Pretty normal." She yawned again. "Eleven to six…"
"Wow, seven hours…" she popped in a new CD. "What about your eating habits?"
Selena shook her head. "Inconsistent."
"Well, that's going to change." Demi said dryly, not taking her eyes off the road.
She paused. "Wait, so you're even going to change my eating habits?"
"Yes, but with in reason of course." She laughed. "I'm not going to make you eat something you hate, nor am I going to make you go on an unhealthy diet."
Selena laughed. "Yeah, I couldn't tell what was what in your refrigerator. The only thing I recognized was a jar of pickles."
Demi shook her head. "Yeah, my parents had me on strict diets since I was born."
"That blows. I ate mostly hamburgers and hot dogs before I even grew in all of my teeth." They both laughed. "Wait, we're going to a smoothie place for breakfast?"
"Yeah." Demi parked a few spaces down. "I have a different smoothie everyday and I have this…" she pulled out a bottle that read Fish Oil. Selena scrunched up her face in disgust. "It doesn't taste like it. A better name for it would be Omega. It sounds a lot better than wringed out fish." They laughed as they stepped through the main door.
"What's it for?" she asked as she read the bottle.
"It does a lot. It's for your heart, nervous system and it can improve your memory over time." Demi got the attention of the cashier and ordered. "Hey, I'm in the mood for a pina colada, 16 oz." She turned towards Selena. "You?"
She shot her a questioning look. "They serve alcohol here?"
"N-no… regular, non-alcoholic pina-colada."
"Oh… same I suppose."
"Um, that would be $7.00, Demi." The cashier said over the counter.
Selena pulled out her wallet but was quickly interrupted by Demi's soft hand. "He said, Demi." With the other hand, Demi pulled out a ten-dollar bill, handed it to him and turned back around.
"You come here that often?" she chuckled, tucking her wallet back into her jeans. Demi nodded proudly. "You didn't have to pay for me."
"I know." She shrugged. "Thank you, Steven." She said with a huge smile. "We're having it here. I try to stay out of that school as much as possible."
"Why? You have so many friends there, and you're like in every club."
Demi shrugged. "Well, I try not to be home as much as possible and the only excuse I have is that I have something for school to do." She paused. "As for friends; they are not." She said dryly. "So how do you like it?" her tone changed back into its perky form.
"Good." Selena nodded as she took another sip of her cold drink.
"Are you awake now?" she giggled, teeth gently on the tip of her straw.
"Yeah." Selena answered with a huge smile. "I could get used to this being breakfast."
"Well, I come here every morning. That means the weekends too, so this shall be breakfast."
Selena smiled in agreement. "Oh, so how was physical therapy."
With her mouth still on her straw, she looked up from her cup. "Stupid."
"Why do you even go? Were you in an accident or something?"
Demi shook her head. "It's stupid. Let's not talk about it."
"Okay, fine." Through the short time Selena spent with Demi, she learned that no means no, yes means yes, and change of subject means just that. She is the queen of manipulation and anyone who tried to beat her at the game lost terribly.
"Did your dad say anything about me being there?" Selena asked cautiously.
Demi shook her head. "Not really. He just wants me to warn him before I bring over company."
"I didn't even think that was your dad when I saw him. He looks really young"
"He's 32." She said dryly.
Selena looked shocked. "He's so young. And your mom?"
"Same. They went to high school together and made their first and last mistake on the bathroom floor of a house party." She laughed at her own joke. "We should start going. It's almost time for first period." Speechless, Selena agreed.
---
As they walked through the halls, all eyes were on them. They awkwardly stepped through the halls, but Demi did her best to conceal her discomfort. Selena hugged Demi's books to her chest and walked to Demi's locker.
Selena stacked the books into the proper locker and turned around to see Demi's lackeys, both had a disgusted look on their face. "Demi, why is this dyke in your locker?"
Selena glared and opened her mouth. Before she could get a word out, Demi interrupted. "She is putting my books into my locker, and she will be referred to as Selena or Miss Russo, understood?" Christine and Sarah exchanged confused looks. "Understood?" she repeated.
"Yeah, sure." They both said in unison, and shuffled their feet as if they were children, that were being yelled at by their parents.
"Now, I'm going to head off to class. If I find out that there is any disrespect between you three, you will not have a pleasant encounter with me." Demi said in a much serious tone. "And you," she turned her attention to Selena, her voice still filled with a much serious tone. "meet me at my locker at 2:30." Demi nodded, and Selena did the same. "I'll see you all through out the day."
Selena waved and the Barbie Twins said good-bye. When Demi was out of sight, they both glared at one another, turned their heels and stormed off.
---
"Wait," Jennifer still didn't grasp what happened. "She took you to breakfast?" It was their second time around the track and they were still on the same subject.
"Yeah, pretty much." Selena said with a huge smile. "She took me to the smoothie place, and even paid."
"I'd never think… It just seems so illogical!" Jennifer said, adjusting her glasses. "What is she up to?!"
Selena shrugged. "I don't think she's up to something. She's been nice with in reason."
Jennifer's mouth gapped open. "She tortured you since elementary school and you see the sudden change normal?"
Selena shrugged again. "I guess it's one of those you should have been there things."
"I guess so." She said, animatedly. "This is just so hard to get."
"I suppose. But she even put the Barbie Twins in their place when they called me a dyke."
"Dude, she calls you a dyke all the time, and the one time someone else says…" Jennifer paused. "She must be up to something."
"Can't you just think more positive and believe she's not all evil?"
Jennifer paused. "I still believe she was replaced by an alien."
Selena looked at her through squinted eyes. "You watch too much sci-fi."
"There's no such thing as too much sci-fi."
---
"Demz, what's with you?" one of the girls in the circle asked, playing a decent roll of a somewhat convincing concerned friend. "Why are you hanging out with Selena Russo?"
"Well, Brooke, she owes me a few favors and she's not all that bad." Demi's eyes scanned the track, looking for her servant.
"And aren't you forgetting that she's a lesbian?" another girl whispered the final word.
Demi shrugged. "She hasn't hit on me or even did anything to indicate that she's a lesbian around me." She looked up and smiled once she spotted Selena walking with a huge smile.
---
"You still down for Deadmou5?" Demi asked over the music. "They should be playing in two weeks."
"I can't wait." She smiled. "How much are the tickets?"
"Only twenty-five dollars." This being her first rave, she was more than excited.
"I'll see what I can scrape up." Selena said in a much less excited tone.
At the red light, Demi reached into the glove compartment. "Well, you better come up with something to pay me back." She held the ticket receipts in front of Selena's face. "I already bought them."
Selena's smile faded. "How will I pay you back?"
The sides of Demi's lips curled. "Each massage you give me will equal up to five dollars."
"Wait, so in five massages, I should be fully paid off?"
Demi shook her head. "I said they were worth up to five dollars." She laughed. "Prices may vary."
"Vary on what?" she questioned, trying to determine what she means.
She shrugged. "On how well you do."
"Wait, how will I know what you like?"
Demi laughed. "You should know me by now. If I don't like something, I say something."
Selena did her best not to show her excitement. "So when do I start?"
Demi clenched her wheel. "When will I be allowed over?" she bit her lip. "My house is obviously off limits..."
"I can ask my dad if you can come over tonight?"
Demi shook her head. "Another time. I have things to do today."
"Like what? More physical therapy?"
"Piano and voice lessons today…" she answered dryly.
Selena was shocked. "Voice lessons?" she repeated. "I didn't know you sing… or play the piano."
"Well, when you have parents as neurotic as mine, they tend to expect perfection and for something to brag about so they sort-of forced me into the whole triple-threat thing."
"Triple threat? Like dancing too?" Selena asked, amazed.
Demi nodded. "Dance classes are on Thursdays…"
As they pulled up in front of the house, Selena cleared her throat. "I guess have your afternoon cleared on Friday."
Demi watched Selena step out of her car and into her house. When she was fully out of sight, for the first time in over ten years, she let out a high-pitched squeal.
Authors Note:
I sort of rushed this chapter… I kind of got bored writing it so I zoomed right through.
