(Present Time- March, 2016)
"Naya?" She hears someone say from a distance. "Naya, wake up." She feels her body shake lightly as her mind caught up with her body. She slowly opens her eyes, forgetting where she was for a second. As soon as she hears some beeping, everything comes rushing back, making her jolt.
"Heather?!" She says quickly as she stands up, making her lightheaded. "Whoa…"
"Naya, relax…" She finally sees Mark next to her. She figures he was the source of the voice. "It's just me."
"Oh." She says, sounding a bit disappointed. She swears she didn't want it to sound like that. "Hey. What time is it?"
"It's morning." He answers softly, fearing that a loud voice can break her.
Naya slowly sits back down, her body too exhausted for sudden motions. "I guess I fell asleep."
He sets some paper bags aside as he sits on the chair next to hers.
"What's that?" She motions to the bags.
"I brought you some food." He answers smoothly. "Figured you were hungry."
She smiles politely. She isn't hungry at all but she couldn't remember the last time she ate, so she leans towards the bags and sets them on her lap. "Thanks. Forgot to eat."
"I thought so." Mark takes the bag from her lap and gently unwraps the egg sandwich he brought. "Here."
"Thank you." She takes a bite and her body exhales. She hadn't noticed she was starving.
They stay in silence for a few minutes until Naya finishes her meal. Once she sets everything aside, she speaks up. "How did they let you win?"
"Well, the Doctor happens to be a Glee fan. So that was pretty easy." He smiles.
She smiles, too. "Right."
"Where's her mom?"
Naya sighs. "She's furious at Heather. She flew here when she was admitted but then she saw me and not Taylor and everything clicked for her. She said she didn't want to be involved in this mess."
Mark sighs. "What a bitch."
"Yep…"
"What about Elijah?" Mark questions.
"He's with Taylor. A perfect excuse for him to not show up."
"What about your kid? And your husband?"
Naya looks away. "I can't deal with them right now, especially since I'm the only one who's taking care of her." She glances at Heather's motionless body and her blood boils. "Assholes."
"If you want you can go home. You can change, take a shower, and come back. I'll stay here."
"I don't know… What if she wakes up?"
"I don't think she'll wake up without you here." Mark says.
Naya leans back, considering it.
"I heard the news on Twitter. Just like Cory's." Mark adds.
Cory's name makes Naya shudder. Years later, and she still couldn't believe he was gone.
"My heart stopped. I thought she was going to die. I remember thinking, 'No, not another member of my family. I can't handle that again.'" Mark continues.
Naya stays quiet.
"So I quickly called Dianna who had apparently just talked to you, and I rushed over here. I saw you guys the first night she was admitted. I don't know if you saw me."
"I did. I was just freaking out. Didn't really talk to anyone unless they talked to me first." Naya answers.
"I bet." Mark takes Naya's hand. "We're with you, okay? All of us."
Naya licks her lips. "Lea hasn't even called."
Mark squeezes her hand harder. "She will."
She takes a deep breath, trying hard to suppress her shaky voice. Her chest starts feeling heavier and she knows she shouldn't cry over Lea out of all people, she knows she just forget about her completely, but her feelings seem to think otherwise. And before she knows it, a sob escapes her lips.
"Hey…" Mark tries to calm her down. "Don't cry…"
And another sob echoes on the quiet, white room. And another, and another…
Mark quickly embraces her, placing her head on his chest. She continues sobbing as he rocks her. 'Forget about Lea, okay? She doesn't matter…"
"I-I thought I didn't miss her but right now I-I need her so much." Naya starts wailing, her shattered heart hurting. "Mark, she was one-one of my closest friends. She was always there for me, I don't know what happened!"
"Shh…" He tries to soothe her. "It'll be okay…"
"No it won't!" Naya holds on to Mark as tight as she can because she needs an anchor. She needs someone to hold her as she falls apart. She needs someone to catch her. And she wishes it was Heather… Or Lea… Or Dianna… But Heather was in a coma, Lea wasn't her friend anymore, and Dianna was too busy filming a movie so she is left with the one who has always been there when the world has walked out.
And she continues crying until she stops feeling again.
(Mid-April, 2011)
A hookup turned into many hookups rather quickly. In a way, Mark was right. Having sex with someone else sort of helped. For a second, you forget about everything. You don't feel so alone. You get to sleep with someone by your side. You feel alive as you ride an orgasm. But at the same time, he was very wrong.
That small amount of time she got to feel something was quickly replaced with an even worse sense of emptiness and guilt. Mark was nice and delicate; he never pressured her like Heather did. But once the high was over, he would fall asleep next to her, and she felt stiff on her own bed. She wanted to leave but she didn't know where to. She kept trying to feel as happy as she'd feel with Heather after their nights together, but she couldn't. She'd promise herself that next time, she was going to really enjoy it, but she wouldn't and she wanted to know why. She needed to be straight. The Heather thing had to be a phase. Keeping secrets was beyond exhausting and she didn't want to deal with it anymore. And she could never just come out… Her PR would never let her… And she didn't want to.
She just wanted to feel good with a nice boy like Mark. Was that too much to ask?
She'd silently cry herself to sleep until her body was too exhausted to wonder why she couldn't be "normal".
Unfortunately, word got around fast. It was a small set and everyone knew each other, so the day Naya and Mark arrived to work together, everyone added two plus two. And like a real high school, everyone gossiped about it.
And before she got a chance to tell them, Lea and Dianna found out.
"It was a mistake, Naya!" Lea said to her as Dianna listened to their exchange from Naya's couch. "You're just hooking up with Mark to forget about Heather!"
"That's not true!" Naya denied. "I told you, we're friends now!"
"You don't even talk to each other anymore!" Lea argued back.
"And that's none of your concern!"
"God, Naya, you think we're so stupid! You're hiding something from us! We know something is going on!"
Naya rolled her eyes. She couldn't give herself away now. She was doing a hell of a job at keeping quiet about everything. "I told you, I'm not."
"Lea…" Dianna said, trying to ease the tension. "This isn't our business…"
"Di, don't be such a hypocrite." Lea warned her. "You're here because you wanted to know as much as I did what was going on. You said so yourself."
"I know." She defended herself. "But Naya clearly doesn't want to talk about it, so-"
"There's nothing to talk about!" She tried too hard to make it clear. "Heather and I are friends, Taylor moved in with her, and I'm sleeping with Mark. No big deal."
"We're not that oblivious." Lea spat back. "What a coincidence it is that you're sleeping with Mark now that Taylor moved in."
"God, what do I need to do in order to get through your thick head that we're done!? It was just a phase! We're done with it!"
"It's not a phase when you're still in love with- "
Naya couldn't take it anymore. It was too much to handle. "I'm not gay. She was a phase. I thought I was in love with her but I'm not. I'm straight!" Or at least she wanted to be.
Lea and Dianna looked at each other with concerned looks.
Truth be told, Naya felt horrible about lying to everyone she cared about. But she couldn't tell the truth. She felt too ashamed to do so. So she thought it was best to just push them both away before they found out for themselves.
"Naya…" Dianna was the one who spoke up that time. She looked at Lea before continuing, who just looked completely taken aback from the comment. "We know it's been hard, but you don't have to run back to the closet…"
"I'm not- " Naya tried to argue but Lea interrupted her.
"Last time you slept over, you cried because you didn't want to be gay… I remember that… And if you're sleeping with Mark to change your sexual orientation…"
It was too much for the Latina. She felt like she was about to burst. Everyone kept thinking for her. Everyone kept making decisions for her. They all kept assuming shit without asking. They all crossed her boundaries without asking permission to. Even fans, who had never even talked to her, kept shipping her with Heather. She just couldn't handle it anymore. She needed an outlet, she needed to distance herself from everyone.
"-then I can assure you, it's not going to help." Lea continued. "If you love Heather, it's- "
"Lea?" Naya interrupted her, trying hard to make her voice sound as strong as possible.
Lea and Dianna both gave Naya a confused look.
"Yeah?" Lea answered.
"Please get out of my house. Both of you." Naya said firmly as her legs quivered.
Lea and Dianna looked at each other, making sure they both heard correctly.
"What?" Dianna asked.
"Get out of my house." The Latina faced her.
Lea spoke up, trying to get some sense into her. "Naya, come on, you can't- "
"Get. Out. Of. My. House." She spelled out.
"No." Dianna deadpanned as she stood up. "We're not leaving."
"If you don't go, I'll call security." Naya informed. God, she felt so horrible about this…
"Naya…" A defeated Lea tried again. "We just want to help…"
"Then leave. Both of you. And stay out of my life." The Latina felt her throat tighten. Don't let them see you cry…
"No, we're not leav-" Lea started, but Dianna interrupted her.
"Fine." The blonde grabbed Lea's arm. "We'll leave." The shorter brunette looked at the taller blonde, waiting for some sort of plot twist, but Dianna just started to grab her stuff. A confused Lea followed her lead. Just when they were about to walk out the door, Dianna faced Naya again. "You can try to push us away as much as you want, Naya. But it won't change the fact that we still care about you. Call us when you need us."
"I won't." She replied dryly. Don't be such a bitch.
Dianna just nodded as she walked out, followed by Lea. The minute they closed the door, Naya shut her eyes and let the tears fall freely. But even if it hurt, she couldn't face them anymore. She was too dirty. Too sad. Too miserable. And even if it killed her… She needed them out of the way.
-Outside the door-
"Are we really going to leave her?" Lea asked Dianna as they walked to the elevator.
"I don't think we have a choice." Dianna answered as she hit the button.
"We can go back in there and make her talk to us."
"That didn't work. She needs space. She did that on purpose." Dianna explained.
"We can't just leave her…"
"I know…" They got in the elevator and Dianna pressed the Lobby button. "But Lea, this is serious… She's going through a really hard time right now… And there's something else going on, but she doesn't want to talk about it. We can't force her to."
"So what do we do?"
"We give her space."
Lea sighted. "I'm worried about her. I feel like she's spiraling."
"I know." Dianna informed. "Me too."
Double update cause why not?