The Things We Do For Love

I walked up to the door of her house, or at least what I hoped was her house, with my bags around my arms. I had traveled all this way, and I desperately needed this to be the right house. It had to be. She was famous now, but she was still my Demi, and I knew she would take care of me if I could only find her. I walked up the steps to her house and knocked on the door. It had been three years since I last saw her. Three years was a long time to not see someone. We were both so different now, both of having done things that we never had dreamed of doing. I knocked again, and prayed desperately that someone would answer. I needed her now, more than I had needed anything in the world. She was the last person who I knew would love me, even after I had done the unthinkable.

I had gotten pregnant.

My mother had freaked out when we found out two months ago, and my father wouldn't even look at me. I didn't mean for it to happen; Zack said he loved me, but he was obviously lying. He knocked me up and then ran away when he found out the consequences of his actions. My mother threw me out of the house when I refused to have an abortion, and my father did absolutely nothing to stop her. My whole family was ashamed of me, so Demi was literally my last option. I had tracked the letters she had sent me through the years to this house, and now I stood there waiting for someone to open the door.

Just as I was about to leave the door opened, and a tired Dallas looked out at me. I had forgotten how late it was. It was already midnight. When she saw me her eyes lit up and she swung open the door and gave me a quick hug. She didn't speak or say anything, she just gave me a huge hug and then stepped back to look at me.

Her eyes trailed over me, and I self-conciously tugged at my hair and clothes. I hadn't taken a shower in over five days, and I was disgusting. My clothes were baggy to hide the baby lump that was starting to show, and overall I looked pretty horrible. I was surprised Dallas had even recognized me.

"What happened to you Ella?" She asked softly. Her voice was still a bit rough from just waking up, and I wondered if everyone else was asleep as well.

"Do you want the truth?" I asked. I wasn’t going to BS her, but if she was just asking to make me feel better I would just barge upstairs and look for Demi and tell her.

"Of course I want the truth," Dallas stated at me firmly. She grabbed my arm and pulled into the house, bags and all. "Drop your bags by the shoe rack, will figure out where you're going to stay later," she said, pointing at the mound of shoes that piled over the small stand in the corner.

I walked slowly over to the corner and dropped the huge, heavy bags I had been lugging around for the past week. Dallas stayed by my side as I let my bags go, easing them out of my arms so they wouldn't land with a thump. I knew now that everyone was asleep. The only sound that I could hear came from down the hall. The Notebook's ending song was on, and I guessed that Dallas had been watching it before she fell asleep.

After dropping my bags Dallas grabbed my elbow again and pulled me up the stairs and into a bedroom that I assumed was hers. It was covered with pictures from when we were all little, Selena, Demi, Dallas, and I had been so close as kids, and I smiled at all the memories. Then I saw one with Zack in it, and my eyes teared up. Looking at him after what he had done was painful, so I looked away with tears in my eyes.

Dallas saw my eyes tear up and looked at the picture of Zack and I on the wall.

"What the hell did he do now, Eleanor?"

She sat me down on her bed and took my overly baggy jacket off. My baggy shirt still covered the small baby bump that was growing, so she didn't know yet. I stayed silent as I thought about how to tell her, but Dallas mistook that as me not wanting to tell her and started to yell at me.

"Eleanor Samantha James! Tell me what that boy did to you right now or we're going to drive all the way back to Texas and ask him what he did to you, and you know I don't lie about that kind of crap!"

I looked at her in shock, then I heard a thunk come from the room to the left of us.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Dallas?!" Demi's voice shouted through the wall. "Shut up and let me sleep!"

Dallas stomped out of the room and reentered thirty seconds later dragging a very tired Demi through the doorway. Demi was still clutching her pillow, and she only looked half awake. When she looked up and saw me on the bed she was thoroughly up, and she projectiled herself onto the bed and me. She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly in her arms.

"I missed you so much, Sammy darling!" She said quietly. I felt the wetness from her tears on my shoulder, and I stroked her head softly as she cried. It had been a long time.

Dem always called me Sammy for my middle name, and Dallas called me Ella for my first.

"I missed you too, Dems," I smiled into her shoulder, crying slightly myself.

I was in a death grip but I was happier than I had been in weeks. Through everything I suffered I had just pictured her face and knew that once I got to her everything would be okay. I wouldn't have to worry anymore, because she would take care of me. Demi let me go and looked at me with a smile on her face that soon faded to a frown as she saw the horrible state I was in.

"What happened to you?" She asked, her tone extremely worried. "Who did this to you?"

Dallas came and sat on the bed beside us. "That's what I was trying to ask her before you so rudely interrupted me by yelling at me to shut up," she said drily.

Demi punched her in the arm softly. "Shut up and let Samantha talk," she ordered.

I looked at her face, calm but questioning, and then looked down at my hands that were lying motionless in my lap. "Well…I had sex," I stated bluntly. I was going to tell them sooner or later, so why draw it out any longer than I had to?

Demi and Dallas looked at me, shock in their eyes. I was the girl who planned on being pure until marriage, and yet here I was, sixteen and no longer a virgin. Sixteen wasn’t even that old, but I was going to have a baby.

"Yup," I nodded to the question in Dallas and Demi's. "I had sex." I laughed without humor, and then added, "And guess what?" Demi and Dallas were silent, still processing the fact I was no longer a virgin. "I got knocked up as well; first time, too." I started laughing hysterically from the relief of letting them know, and then all of a sudden the laughter turned to tears.

I curled up into a ball on the bed, dirty shoes and all, and cried my heart out as Demi and Dallas comforted me. They both put their arms around me and we lay there in a huge ball on the bed for thirty minutes until the overhead light was flipped on.

"What the hell is going on here?" Aunty Dianna yelled from the doorway.

None of us could see a thing from the bright light that had just been turned on, and my eyes were still flowing steadily with tears.

"Dallas? Demetria?" Aunty Dianna was the only one who ever called Demi by her full name, and then only when she was really confused or extremely pissed. She was like a second mother to me, and at the moment I loved her more than my real mother.

My eyes adjusted to the light, and the tears slowed. I was still crying, but not as bad as before. I sat up and looked at Aunty Dianna, pulling Dallas and Demi up with me.

"Hi Aunty Dianna," I shyly said, smiling meekly and crying at the same time. "I just got here and-"

She interrupted me. "From the looks of your clothes, your face, and the bags downstairs you're going to be staying for a very long time." She smiled and walked up to me slowly, taking in the awful sight, and gave me kiss on the cheek. She pulled me into a tight hug and let me cry on her shoulder. "It's okay, Eleanor dear, you can stay as long as you want."

She stroked my hair softly and patted my back. I slowly calmed down, and soon I had stopped crying altogether. Demi and Dallas hadn't told her the real reason that I came, so that meant that I was expected to tell her myself. I sighed into her shoulder and prepared myself for the worst. I pulled myself out of her hug and fixed my hair before I began to speak.

"Aunty Dianna," I started. "I don't really know how to say this, but…" I took a big breath and decided to blurt it all out. "I had sex with Zack and then I got pregnant and when my mom found out she told me to abort it but I didn't want to because I already love it and when I refused to she kicked me out of her house and my whole family was so ashamed of me that they didn't want me so I came here and my dad didn't even do ANYTHING to stop her at all, and-"

She cut me off by covering my mouth. "I knew you were pregnant the moment I saw you. Even through tears you have the beauty of a pregnant woman. I would never, ever even think of not taking you in, in fact I would never let you live on the street even if you wanted to. I love you like a daughter, and I can't believe that your mother would do such a thing." She smiled at me and pulled me into another quick hug, then let me go again and stared at Dallas and Demi with her hands on her hips. "What are you doing standing here? Go and get Ella's bags and bring them up to the guest room." They looked at her in shock, and she laughed at them, pulling them off the bed and shoving them along with her hands. "Hurry along now, girls."

They vanished down the stairs to get my bags, leaving Aunty Dianna and myself alone on Dallas' bed.

"So, anything new with you guys?" I asked, trying to break the awkward silence that was building.

My face still felt puffy, and I had a huge headache from all of the crying. I rubbed my eyes and laid myself down on Dallas' bed. Aunty Dianna lay herself right down next to me, and began to update me on everything that had been going on since I last saw them.

Apparently Demi had been very busy after her short role in As The Bell Rings. She had gone on to start her first album, Don't Forget, and to film Camp Rock with the Jonas Brothers. I cringed when I heard their name, and Dianna laughed and told me that Demi was actually good friends with the boys, so I would have to watch out. Demi and I had always been the odd girls out in our class. We weren't obsessed with Disney, in fact we both actually loved punk rock and heavier rock and metal bands. Girls always used to tease us about that stuff. I remember when Demi and I were little roly-poly munchkins in kindergarten and some girl called us fat. I was about to punch her out but Demi wouldn't let me because it wouldn't be nice. It just shows how far she has come, and how you should be nice to everyone know matter what. It's like Bill Gates says, "Be nice to the nerds because someday the nerd may be your boss." Demi was richer than all of the popular girls in our old class combined, and she was an overall nicer person as well. It was strange that she had ended up as a Disney star, though, I had to give them that.

Just as Aunty Dianna finished updating me, Dallas and Demi walked back into the room huffing and puffing, their arms empty.

"What did you pack in those bags?" Dallas asked, falling on the bed with her hands on her sides. "It was like carrying a bag of rocks."

"I packed everything…?" I said awkwardly.

I had indeed packed everything in my bedroom, from baby pictures to my socks. I never planned on going back to the hellhole I had once called home, so I had taken everything I had ever been attached to with me. The only thing that I had been forced to leave was my dog and the stuff in my bathroom. I tried to take her but my mom wouldn't let me. She kicked me out and locked my dog in the basement of our house. The stuff in the bathroom, well…I just forgot that I had a bathroom in the hurry of packing.

"Oh," Demi said, trying to break the awkward silence that was starting. "So…do you want to see the room we put you in? It's almost as amazing as mine…" She trailed off and then winked at me playfully.

"Sure," I said jumping up off of the bed and grabbing her hand. "Let's go." I turned around and faced Aunty Dianna and Dallas. "Thanks for letting me stay. It means the world to me."

"You're welcome here for as long as you want, and I mean it." Aunty Dianna said firmly, but still smiling. "I'm going to find out a way to become your guardian so this is all legal; how does that sound?"

"Amazing!" Demi and I squealed at the same time.

Dallas sighed. "Great, now I have to deal with two of them." I glared at her. "Not that I don't love you both!" She said, putting up her arms in defense.

I let go of Demi's hand and gave Dallas a quick hug as Demi waited impatiently to take me to my new room. "Thanks, big sis." I grabbed Demi's hand again. "Now we can go. 'Night guys!" I called back softly to Aunty Dianna and Dallas. I really hoped that Uncle Eddie and Madison were still asleep, I would feel awful if I had woken them up too.

Demi pulled me into the guest bedroom that had become my room, and sat down on the chair, waiting for me to do or say something; I wasn't sure.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, confused.

"I'm waiting for you to take a shower, put on your jammies, and then tell me the details on everything that happened," she stated simply. Then she smacked my butt as I stood there not moving. "Hurry your ass up you slowpoke!"

I jumped, and ran over to the huge pile of bags with my stuff and pulled out a huge pair of baggy red and white plaid Old Navy pajama pants, some underwear, a bra, and a baggy white shirt. Then I ran into the bathroom that was connected to my room and turned on the shower quickly. The warm water instantly came on, and it felt so good after a week of not showering. As I scrubbed my body I could literally see the layers of grime going down the drain, and by the time I had finished cleaning my whole body and shaving my skin was slightly red from all of the scrubbing. I then stepped out of the shower and looked at myself in the mirror for the first time in a week. My eyebrows were bushy and awful, my mouth was cracked and dry, my face was breaking out a little bit, and my baby bump was visible. If you didn't know I was pregnant, you would think I was fat, but I knew and I could tell that there was a baby in there. I slipped on my pajamas and then called to Demi,

"Hey, can you come in here while I work on my face, and I can tell you everything while I make myself look normal?"

"Why don't you just bring everything you need out here?" She called back softly, making sure not to wake anyone. It was extremely quiet besides our talking, and I was guessing that Dallas and Aunty Dianna had already fallen back asleep. "There's a make-up table with a mirror and everything out here."

"Okay."

I hadn't noticed the make-up table when I came in, but I also wasn't looking for it. I grabbed a bag of toiletries that I'm sure Demi had set out for me, and walked back into the bedroom with my tools in one hand and my dirty clothes in the other.

"Where's the dirty clothes basket, Dems?" I asked her, holding my stinky clothes in one hand far away from my nose I didn't smell them. "These things need some serious washing." I crinkled my nose up at the smell.

Demi laughed at my expression, and took the clothes from me. "The dirty clothes basket is back in the bathroom, smart stuff, but I'll go deal with it and you can sit yourself down and start on fixing your appearance."

"Okay, thanks." I handed her the clothes and she crinkled up her nose just like I had.

"Ugh, these things do stink," She said in disgust as she walked back into the bathroom.

I laughed, just as she had, and put some deodorant and perfume on so I wouldn't stink like my old clothes. I felt no need to relive the horror of stinkiness. Then I opened the toiletry bag and looked inside. It was packed full of everything a girl needed to live, and everything I had forgotten back at my mother's house. In the rush of leaving I had only taken everything in my bedroom, and forgotten all about my bathroom. There was tweezers, nail files, face cream, hair dye, you name it, it was in there. I decided to start on my eyebrows, the most noticeable part of my appearance that was in decline. I had just finished on my right eyebrow when Demi came back in.

"What took you so long?" I asked, moving over to my left eyebrow. "I'm already done with one of my eyebrows."

"Sorry, I had to go the bathroom," She sat down in the chair next to me and looked at my face in the mirror. "You're looking more like the old Samantha already," she said, smiling.

I smiled back at her. "So, what do you want to know?" I asked.

"Everything," she stated. "Absolutely everything."