Demi's eyes widen and she quickly pulls away from Nick, cowering away from him.
Nick frowns confused. "Demi?" he says.
Demi shakes her head, backing away from him. "No," she whispers, squeezing her eyes shut tight. "Please, please don't."
"Demi," Nick says again. He reaches for her but then thinks better of it. "Dem, it's me. It's Nick." He takes a step closer to her. "I'm so sorry, Demi."
Demi finally looks up at him. "Please don't hurt me," she begs him.
"I'm not going to," Nick assures her. "I would never hurt you. Come here." He pulls Demi to him, holding her tightly despite her protests. She eventually relaxes and holds him tight too.
"Nick," she whispers, glancing over at Zac and Taylor, "your friends are looking at us–"
Nick cuts her off with another kiss. "Let them look," he tells her. "I'm through being an asshole. I'm though everyone thinking I'm an asshole. I love you, Demi, and I don't care who knows it."
Demi's eyes swell with tears and she falls into his arms, hugging him tight. "I love you too," she says against his chest.
Nick brings his arms around her too, holding her just as tight. "Come on, let me take you home."
"No!" Demi cries, pulling away from him. "Please don't take me home. Anywhere but there. Please."
Nick looks down at Demi. "If I ask you what your father did to you, you'd still insist he did nothing, won't you?"
Demi nods her head slowly and Nick sighs.
"Okay," he says after a minute. "I'm going to take you home to my house, okay? Get you some food. Cheer you up."
Demi nods again. "Okay," she agrees quietly.
Nick slips an arm around Demi's shoulders and walks with her into the school. He ignores the looks his so-called friends were giving him as he grabs his backpack from where he left it in the cafeteria. He and Demi walk out to his car. He reaches for Demi's hand hesitantly and uncertainly as he starts his car and squeezes it. Demi hesitates a moment herself before taking his hand in her own.
"I don't know what your dad does to you, but I promise you he won't ever hurt you again," Nick says, squeezing her hand again.
"I told you, Nick–" Demi starts.
"I know, I know," Nick interrupts her. "Your father doesn't hurt you." He glances at her for a second. "When are you going to stop lying to me? Better yet, when are you going to stop lying to you?"
"I'm not lying," Demi begins.
Nick pulls his hands away from her. "Demi, I see the bruises! You won't even let me touch you half the time because you think I'm going to hurt you like he does. I'm only trying to help you, so please stop lying."
Demi looks out the window, crossing her arms over her chest. "You can't help me," she finally says. "No one can."
"Mom?" Nick wonders as he and Demi walk into his house a little while later. "What are you doing home? I thought you had work."
"I do," his mom answers, looking up from where she's sitting on the sofa. "But I took a personal day because I really wanted to talk to you."
Nick sighs. "Mom, now is not really a good time."
"Then when is a good time, Nick?" she says, but Nick cuts her off.
"Mom." He nods his head at Demi, who's standing behind Nick, holding onto his arm.
"Oh." She stands up. "What's going on?"
"She's going to stay here, okay?" Nick wonders, slipping his arm around Demi again.
Her mother eyes Demi warily. "Nick," she says uncertainly.
"Mom." Nick cuts her off again. "We're not going to do anything. She just really needs a place to stay. Please."
His mother nods her head after a second. "Okay," she says finally. "She can sleep on the couch–"
"No. I'll sleep on the couch, she can sleep in my room." He turns to Demi. "You can wear some of my clothes since you don't have anything to wear. Do you want to take a shower first?"
Demi nods. "Yes, please," she says quietly.
His mother notices the giant bruise on her cheek and sucks in a sharp breath. Nick gives her a "don't say anything" look.
"Come on, sweetie," she says, putting a hand on Demi's back. Demi tenses up at her touch so she instantly drops her hand. "I'll show you where the bathroom is."
Demi looks at Nick and he gives her a reassuring smile.
"It's okay," he tells her. "After you shower and get dressed, I'll lay with you until you fall asleep, okay?"
Demi bites her lip. "I don't know," she starts.
"Demi, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. You have to know that by now. It's okay."
Demi looks up at Nick, chewing on her bottom lip. Then she nods a little. "Promise?"
Nick nods too. "Promise."
He gives her a soft kiss before she follows his mom up the stairs. He watches her and then sinks down onto the sofa with a loud sigh, closing his eyes.
"Nick?" a soft voice says a while later, pulling him out of his deep sleep.
"Mm." He opens his eyes slowly and looks up at Demi. "Oh. Hey, Dem." He sits up and rubs his eyes.
"You said you'd lay with me until I fell asleep," she reminds him.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I must've fallen asleep myself. I haven't been getting much sleep lately."
Demi cocks her head to the side slightly. "Because of me?" she wonders.
Nick nods. "Yeah," he replies, "because of you." Then he looks up at her and takes in her appearance for the first time. "Damn," he breathes. "You sure do look good in my T-shirt."
Demi blushes slightly and looks down. "Can I lay with you now?"
Nick nods, not giving it a second thought, and opens his arms for her. She curls herself into his arms and closes her eyes. Nick lays his head on hers, closing his eyes too.
When Nick wakes up the next morning, Demi is nowhere to be found. He sits up and rubs his eyes again.
"Demi?" he calls. When he gets no answer, he frowns and gets up, walking into each room in the house. "Demi?" he says again.
When he still gets no answer, he grabs his coat and keys and walks out of the house. He gets to his destination a little while later and knocks on the door.
"Nick?" Joe wonders, and then frowns. "What are you doing here?"
"I really need to talk to you," he says, looking at his brother. "Please."
Joe's frown deepens. "Why? About what?"
"Demi," he says simply.
"Who's Demi?" Joe wonders.
"I'll explain that later," Nick says in a rush. "I just really need to talk to you. Please."
"Nick," he starts, but then stops when he sees the looks Nick is giving him. "Okay, Nick. Okay. Let me just get my coat and we can go for a walk, okay?"
Nick nods. "Thank you," he says quietly. He sinks down onto the front step to wait for his big brother.
"Come on, Nick," Joe says a few seconds later. "Why don't we walk to the park? We haven't gone there in a while."
Nick nods as he stands up. They start to walk to the park in silence.
"So," Joe speaks up, glancing over at Nick, "what did you need to talk about?"
Nick looks over at him too. "You're mad at me."
Joe rolls his eyes. "What gave you the first clue?"
Nick sighs and grabs Joe's arm to stop him from walking. "I'm sorry. I've been doing a lot of apologizing lately, and I need to apologize to you. For punching you, and for everything else. You're my big brother. You were my best friend at one point, and—and I miss you, Joe. I really do. Please, please say you forgive me."
Joe sighs. "I know you're sincere, Nick—I can see it in your eyes—but it's going to take a lot of time for me to forgive you, okay? You were really horrible to me, Nicholas."
Nick smiles slightly at his full name. "I've been getting that a lot."
"Now." Joe looks over at him again. "What's up?"
Nick sighs heavily and looks down at his sneakers. "What do you do when you know someone you love is being abused but can't do anything to help?"
Joe frowns once more. "Who's being abused?"
"Demi," Nick replies. "Her father is hurting her but she denies that anything is happening. I know he hurts her—I see the bruises, she cringes and tenses up and cowers away from me whenever I touch her." He looks over at Joe again. "Her dad...he rapes her, Joe."
Joe's eyes widen. "Oh my god," he says. "You have to get her out of that house, Nick. He has to go to jail."
Nick nods. "I know he does. But I don't know where Demi went. She laid with me last night, and fell asleep in my arms. But when I woke up this morning, she was gone." He looks at his brother, fear in her eyes. "I'm so worried about her, Joe. I can't lose her. I can't, I just can't."
"Okay, okay, shh." Joe pulls Nick into a hug. "She's going to be okay, all right?"
"You—you promise?" Nick asks, holding onto his brother, burying his face in his chest.
"Yeah, Nick," Joe says quietly. "I promise."
I hope I didn't just lie to you kid, he thinks, still holding onto Nick. I really hope I didn't.