Lydia starts acting strange and refuses help, Beetlejuice is forced to watch from the sidelines as his best friend clings to life by a thread. Mentions of eating disorders and self hatred.

There were many things in death Beetlejuice hated but the biggest would always be his curse, he was powerful, funny and quick witted, but none of that mattered when you were trapped behind a wall of glass, powerless to do anything until someone called your name three times.

Beetlejuice continued to shove, kick and rage behind Lydia's mirror, frustrated, terrified tears splintered from his eyes as he screamed her name repeatedly, someone in the house had to be able to hear him, why couldn't anyone hear him?!

Eyes closed, Lydia continued to lie unresponsive on the bedroom carpet, facing him, her face seeming to be taking on an almost grey pallor.

With every second that passed Beetlejuice felt more and more useless, he'd known something was wrong for months and he'd done nothing. Lydia had been eating less and appearing more and more distant. He'd tried to bring it up a few times, asking if something was wrong, why she never ate in front of him and would always claim that she'd already eaten.

Lydia would always brush his questions off, saying it wasn't important and that she wanted him to stop bringing it up. He'd only started to really worry two weeks ago when he'd found the pills.

Two weeks ago in Lydia's room:

"Homework?!", Beetlejuice yelled incredulously, grinning a bit as he snatched her open school bag and quickly hovered high above her, effectively playing keep away, "Who wants to do homework?! Yuck!".

Lydia sighed, laughing slightly despite herself as Beetlejuice waved the bag in front of her nose, before quickly pulling it away as she grabbed for it, "I need to do it Beej, it's a history assignment".

"History? Why bother studying? I'm full of it!"

Lydia rolled her eyes as she watched him float above her on his back, "You really are".

Beetlejuice glanced down to look at her and smirked, "Guess what else is full of it babes? Your backpack! Now lets see, History- nope, Maths- double nope", Beetlejuice continued to float just out of reach, systematically taking books out of her backpack, reading the titles and chucking them, making them fall gently so they littered the room but didn't get damaged.

Lydia put her hands on her hips, "Come one Beej, I need to work". "Beetlejuice ignored her, still having fun going through the contents, "Hey, what's this in the front pocket?", he started to unzip the front of the bag as Lydia paled.

"PUT IT DOWN!".

Beetlejuice stopped grinning, slowly turning from floating on his back to see the angry and slightly fearful look on her face, he immediately floated down, "Jeez babes, I'm sorry, I was only joking".

"Well it wasn't funny", Lydia muttered, holding out her hand for him to pass the bag back, Beetlejuice pointed with one hand and her books floated up and into the main part of her open backpack before he zipped it closed and handed it back to her.

'Thud!'

Beetlejuice had passed the school bag back upside down and a small transparent bag had fallen out of the front pocket. Lydia immediately grabbed it and frantically tried to stuff it back into her school bag.

Beetlejuice stared as if he couldn't comprehend what was happening, "Lydia, why do you have a bag of pills?". "They're paracetamol" was her quick response as she finished zipping up the bag. Still stunned, Beetlejuice slowly shook his head, "No. They're. Not. What are they?".

Lydia stared up at him, then glared at the floor and muttered. Beetlejuice told her he couldn't hear her, she glared back up at him, "They're diet pills, I bought them from a guy at school because the pharmacy wouldn't sell me any".

Beetlejuice seemed disgusted with the answer, "Why do you need diet pills, you're already as skinny as it gets and 'I know' you barely eat. How do you even know what's in them- (he laughed sarcastically) 'a guy from school', there could be anything in those pills!".

Lydia stared at her shoes, whispering, "Just drop it". Beetlejuice gave another snort of joyless laughter and glared at her, "No I won't 'just drop it', you're my best friend and I-".

"Yeah that's right Beej" Lydia snapped, suddenly stepping forward and jabbing his cold chest with one finger, causing him to quickly back off, "You're my 'friend', not my dad, not my guardian, my 'friend', and if I want to do something, I do it! You don't get to tell me off!".

Beetlejuice looked upset, trying to search her eyes for anything of the happy go lucky, wide eyed goth kid he used to know, "I'm just worried about you Lyds... The pills, all of this. It isn't you Lydia, you're scaring me!".

Lydia teared up, her fists balled and her voice breaking "This is 'me' now… I am 'me'! And if you don't like it then maybe… Maybe you should just go away".

Knowing what she was referring to, Beetlejuice's eyes widened, quickly reaching out to her, "Lyds no-".

Lydia closed her eyes and said it. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!".

He reappeared back at his own house in a flash, Beetlejuice growled in frustration and blinked himself back to the mirror in her bedroom only to find she'd covered it and wouldn't respond when he called for her.

A few days later, she invited him back, they still had fun and joked but it was uncomfortable, neither one of them brought up the pills or her weight loss again. Beetlejuice knew he could have done more, he could have dressed as Bettyjuice and knocked at the door to tell Lydia's dad about it but he didn't.

Beetlejuice wasn't 'just' a ghost, he was a demon, extremely few demons existed outside of hell. It was rare that demons were allowed the chance to exist outside of hell and even if they were, it was almost impossible to complete hell's trials and have any part of your sanity intact by the end. Due to this, the Neitherworld would always treat demons, even 'reformed ones' with contempt and strong mistrust, for Beetlejuice this had basically equalled a slow drawn out eternity of being alone. Interacting with the living made it bearable and he couldn't take the idea that one day Lydia might not want him around either.

Lydia had always asked why he was classed as a demon and not a ghost, he'd always tried not to answer her for fear of how she'd react, now she'd probably never get to know.

No longer screaming, Beetlejuice just felt numb as he stood uselessly behind the mirror and watched her silhouette, it was dark now, too dark to tell if she was even still breathing.

Over an hour ago she'd been scared and breathing heavily when he'd appeared at the mirror, he'd quickly asked her to let him out, telling her he wouldn't judge, he wouldn't say anything, he just wanted to help. She'd been just one Beetlejuice away from releasing him before she had collapsed.

There was a sound outside the bedroom, Beetlejuice quickly ducked down behind the mirror as the bedroom door suddenly opened up, letting light into the darkened room. "Lydia!", her stepmother sing-songed, "Come on now, it's dinner time and- …Lydia? CHARLES! Call an ambulance!".

Thanks for reading, please review if you enjoyed... or didn't, I'll hopefully have a second chapter up soon.