My Gift Is My Curse

Demi Lovato was an inspiration for many people. She’d gone through so much in such a short amount of time, and basically the entire world was aware of her problems. Yet she still continued to walk around and show how far she’d come, having teenage girls idolize her all around the globe.

But Alice Lemons was no longer a fan of Demi, she didn’t even idolize her like she used to. Instead she found herself on the lines of hating her, and wasn’t shy about letting anybody know it.

“Hey Lou!” Alice walked into One Direction’s dressing room, where only Louis and Demi were sat. She completely ignored the other girl.

“Uh, hey Ali. What’s up?” He responded, and was very confused.

Alice just shrugged and sat down on a couch across from them. She pulled out her phone and texted Niall while she was waiting for him to arrive back from Starbucks with Paul and Harry.

Demi spoke up. “So, as I was saying before I got rudely interrupted… I’d definitely be down to work on a song with you guys.”

Alice spit out the water she’d just drank from a nearby water bottle, and glared at Demi. “You’re going to work on a song with them? You?”

The older girl grinned. “Yep, I am. In fact, I think we were all gonna sit down and have a writing sesh soon anyway. Right Louis?”

The door opened to the room and in walked all of the other guys, plus Niall and Harry carrying the drinks.

Niall sat down next to Alice and handed her a strawberries and cream Frappuccino, while sipping on his own caramel macchiato. He brushed his fingers against hers as he handed her the drink and smirked as he did so, mainly because nobody was looking at them as they had their own moment.

“So, Niall!” Demi started, and Alice looked at the girl with something short of hatred. “Since we’re all going to be working on songs together… I was wondering if you wanted to harmonize with me at all on a song on my album? Our voices do blend together so well, and y’know I was thinking we could just have a song with the two of us. Your voice would fit so well with the song, too.”

A laugh accidentally escaped Alice, and Demi’s eyes averted to hers, their eyes locking. “I think you should do a song with Harry. You both have some sort of chemistry, no? I think your voices would blend a lot better than yours and Niall’s.”

All of the guys exchanged looks, attempting to figure out what was going on, and because they were trying their hardest not to laugh. The tone of Alice’s voice was the one she used when she was trying to be a bitch.

Demi answered the other girl. “Oh don’t be so foolish, Alice. Haven’t you heard it when we practice together? Or when we warm up together? How about the other night when we actually wrote a song together?”

“Ah, no sorry, didn’t catch any of that recently. I’m not entirely fond of your voice myself, so.” It took all of Alice’s strength within her to not throw her drink at Demi’s face. She wanted to watch the agony stretch upon her disgusting face, make her realize that she wasn’t going to win in any way.

Alice used to idolize Demi so much because they were so alike. Their personalities had practically been identical, and when Demi came out about her cutting, was when Alice had just began to cut.

She’d quickly gone into treatment, but only after Demi had sent out inspirational messages to girls all around. She told them to remember that they’re all beautiful, to keep their heads up, and stay strong.

The younger girl fought so hard to rid of all of her bad memories; the problems she’d had with her parents, and feeling like she was just a girl who wasn’t worth anything to anybody. They were all towards the back of her head at the present time, and they were thoughts she rarely every reflected back upon.

It amazed Alice how quickly she was able to throw her respect for Demi out the window.

--

When the concert was finished and everyone was all showered, they all decided that they were going to find somewhere to eat. They were going to be playing yet another show in the same city, so they figured that they’d go find a restaurant to eat at and kill time at rather than remain on the two tour buses.

All seven of the young adults sat in a large booth in the back of a diner, one that wasn’t necessarily very clean looking. In the middle sat Alice, because she had a thing for needing to be in the middle at all times – no one was quite sure why.

She sat in between Harry and Niall, Harry to her right and Niall to her left. On the other side of Niall, much to her dismay, sat none other than Demi Lovato. Next to Demi sat Liam, while Louis and Zayn sat on the other side of Harry.

Under the table, Alice’s short fingers grabbed for Niall’s long, pale ones. She laced them together and found herself smiling in content. Her curly haired cousin turned to her and attempted to converse with the younger girl.

“Are you going to Uni any time soon?” He asked, genuinely curious. He’d always been curious about his cousin’s life, lately she’d seem to grow a shell and crawl into it, and she hardly spoke to him about anything.

After all, she had graduated a year early, and Harry was just a curious boy himself. He questioned things until they couldn’t be questioned anymore, satisfied when he had all of the answers.

She shrugged and looked at Harry. “Dunno, maybe. There’s not really anything I think I want to do just yet, though. I kind of just want to sit back and take a breather for a little bit, you know? Been in school for fucking forever and it feels fantastic to not have to worry about it at seventeen. My god.”

Seeming to be nosy, Demi decided to put a word into the conversation. “Maybe you should just go anyways, though. Travel somewhere, maybe somewhere far from everyone here so you can have some fun in another place. Plus, you could always just get a degree and find a job later.”

Alice bit her tongue and went to answer snidely, until Niall’s voice appeared next. “I totally agree.” He spoke, and Alice looked at him. Her face was absolutely unamused, and lining between ‘are you kidding me?’ and ‘you fucking asshole.’ “I mean, she’s right. You can get a job anywhere once you have a degree.”

“Exactly.” Demi answered, a smirk on her face. Niall turned to her and smiled back, apparently unphased by the entire situation, and began talking to her about the album.

The other girl sat and quietly listened to the conversation, how Niall so easily seemed to just go with what Demi said. When her pancakes came, she slowly ate a few pieces and then picked at the rest, suddenly very angry with Niall.

He was acting completely different. They had a conversation the other day, and he’d said that he thinks that he should play it up around the guys, make it seem like he and Demi had something going on. He said it was only fair, especially since Louis was catching on to something between Niall and Alice.

Alice had strongly disagreed. She said that he was batshit crazy if he thought that she’d just allow that. But Niall had fought back, and declared that he is a man and can do whatever he pleases, no one can stop him.

That had ended their fight. Alice had left the room with no other words, and they continued on like it had never happened.

Until that night in the diner.

Niall and Demi were flirting. But it wasn’t just a slight hint of flirting, no, it was flirting that was obnoxious and in your face, almost so obnoxious that you wanted to punch out the two people and tell them to get a damn room.

She wasn’t sure if she could sit there and listen to it for much longer, considering the fact that they were edging speaking about the time where Niall and Demi had “kissed.”

At that point, Alice wasn’t even sure if Niall had been telling the truth that they hadn’t kissed. Since that night the pair had been acting a lot differently towards each other, and she didn’t know why. She desperately wanted to know, but Niall was pulling back.

At night, rather than cuddling with Alice before bed – which was something they’d started to do every night – Niall would sit around and text Demi. He’d be found in his bunk or on the couch with a grin on his face, his fingers typing away like nobody’s business.

Angrily, Alice ripped her hand out of Niall’s. He didn’t even move, he didn’t even seem like he cared that she did that. So Alice narrowed her eyes at him, she stared at the back of his head – which was the only part of his head she could see, since he had turned to face Demi – and was mentally cursing him out.

Unable to take it any longer, she tapped his right shoulder rather roughly. “I’m done with dinner, do you wanna walk around for a bit? There’s a park up–”

“Nah, ‘m all set.” He cut her off, waving his hand off at her. “’m gonna keep plannin’ with Demi on th’ album.”

Niall turned back towards Demi, and Alice swallowed the lump in her throat. She sighed as she slid out of the booth after Harry and Louis had so kindly moved for her.

The two boys offered to take a walk with her, and she accepted. Not even halfway down the road was Harry on the phone with Anne, chatting away about how tour was and how he missed her.

Louis had started talking, going on and on about how excited he was that Eleanor would be visiting them in a few days, and Alice found herself tuning out.

As she dragged her Converse along the gravel, she couldn’t help but let tears roll down her cheeks.

Only one thing was left on her mind, and that was Niall. Cutting Louis off in the middle of his story completely, Alice had weakly whispered, “what’s happening?”

Louis wasn’t sure how to answer, so he just sighed and pulled her into a hug. Alice felt more tears form in her eyes, and she just feared for what would be coming next between Niall and Demi.