Let the Walls Fall Down

“What happened?” Alex asked me as my phone fell from my hand and onto the floor. But I couldn’t find my voice, I’m pretty sure I am in shock. Selena is on her way to the hospital and no one knows why. Alex shook me gently so I would focus. “What happened?” he asked again.

“Selena, she…” I trailed off because I was still processing it all.

“She what?” Brian asked with wide eyes. I looked over at him and he was on the verge of tears.

“They called an ambulance, she’s going to the hospital.” Once the word ‘hospital’ left my lips I broke down in Alex’s arms.

“Holy crap.” I heard Alex mutter as Brian yelled “Why? What happened?”

“I don’t know.” I cried. But had to quickly regain my composure. “I have to call her mom and find a flight to Baltimore.” I rambled as I tried to find my phone.

Alex grabbed a hold of my arms and tried to get me to calm down. “Breath. You can’t call her mom when you’re so upset. It will only upset her more.”

“I told you that something was wrong! I can’t lose her!” I started to cry again.

Alex pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly. “Shh.” He whispered. “You won’t lose her.”

He held me as I cried for a few minutes. I pulled away and wiped my face. Brian had picked up my phone and handed it to me. “Thanks, and sorry for throwing all your crap at you.”

“Don’t mention it, I deserved it.” he shrugged.

I scrolled through my contacts and found Nick’s number. “Hey Demi. Have you find Sel?” he immediately asked.

“Um, that’s why I am calling. Do you think I can borrow your jet? It’s an emergency.” I tried to keep my voice steady but failed miserably.

“Of course. Is she okay?” he got worried.

“I’m not sure, I finally found her and my friend said they just rushed her to the hospital so I need to get her mom there, like now.” I told him.

“Oh my god.” He gasped. “I’ll call the pilot and meet you at the airport.”

“You sure you should go? I was going to take Selena’s um…” I wasn’t sure what to call Brian, “her boyfriend.”

“It’s cool, he can go, but so am I. If I don’t go then I’ll just sit here and worry.” He said. I just said okay and we hung up.

I really didn’t want to call Mandy but I knew I had to. And of course she freaked out and started to cry. Selena’s step dad got on the phone and I explained the situation to him and told him to get to LAX as soon as possible, that I have a private plane waiting for us. I knew neither Brian nor I were in the condition to be driving so I called a cab and said it was an emergency.

“Why are you even coming with us?” I asked Alex as we were in the cab going to the airport.

“For one, my best friend needs moral support. And then there is a girl I really care about who is in pain and I am not about to let her be alone.” He replied sweetly with a huge smile that melted my heart.

I looked over at Brian, who was on my other side; he had his head resting on the window and looked like he was fighting tears. “It’ll be okay.” I said as I nudged his elbow with my own.

“I hope so.” He sighed. “It’s all my fault; she wouldn’t be in this predicament if I wasn’t so stupid.”

“I won’t lie and say that isn’t true because we both know that you were stupid.” I told him and he sighed heavily. “But we don’t even know what happened yet so don’t beat yourself up just yet.”

The rest of the ride to the airport was silent. Alex held my hand the entire time and rubbed soothing circles on the back of my hand with his thumb. Since we were taking a private plane we didn’t have to bother with security. Nick was already on the plane when we got there. I introduced him to Briand and said Selena’s parents should be here soon. It was about ten minutes until they got there and another ten before we were in the air.

I don’t know how long we have been in the air when I looked at Mandy and decided to go over and talk to her. I sat in the seat in front of her since her husband was next to her. “I’m sorry for all of this.” I told her.

“Why are you sorry sweetie?” she asked me confused. I thought she would have blamed me for all this mess.

“I figured when you heard about this that you would blame me. These were my friends first and Selena wouldn’t have known them this closely if it weren’t for me.” I told her as I picked at my nail polish.

“Look at me.” she said sternly so I did. “I don’t blame you one bit. I know that you would never let Selena get involved with anyone you would think harm her. These boys do look older, but they seem like good boys. I can tell the one is pretty broken up about this.”

“Yeah he is. He feels responsible since him and Selena were fighting before she disappeared.” I told her with a sigh as I looked over at Brian.

“What were they fighting about?” she questioned. I guess Selena hasn’t told her mom about Brian.

“They were getting to know each other, she didn’t want to jump into another relationship and I don’t think she would let herself fully trust Brian. He sneezed the wrong way and she would get scared. But she really does care about him, love him even. But with her insecurities and him being an idiot boy and wouldn’t ask her before jumping to conclusions she broke it off. He said she was a mess and he was scared to go after her, and he’s been beating himself up ever since.” I explained to her.

“I hope they work it out.” she glanced over at him then back at me. “Now come here and stop beating yourself up.” She motioned for me to come to her. I got up and sat on her lap and hugged her.

“Thanks for not hating me.” I mumbled.

“I could never hate you. I love you like you were my own.” She kissed my forehead. I gave her one last squeeze before getting up and going back over to Alex.

When we arrived at the hospital Mandy and Selena’s step dad, Brian went straight to the nurse’s station to find out information on Selena’s condition. After I find out that she’s okay, I’m going to have to have a talk with her about potentially dating a guy who has the same name as her step dad, that’s just weird on so many levels. I should have remembered that weeks ago but her step dad was the last thing on my mind, just her happiness. Anyways I spotted Gaskarth pacing around the waiting room area so me, Alex and Brian went up to him, and I’m not entirely sure where Nick took off to though. “Lex” I called out and his head snapped up and I could see that his eyes were blood shot and puffy from crying. I have only ever seen him cry when he’s shit faced drunk so this made my heart sink. I quickly walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. He buried his face in my shoulder and I felt his warm tears seep through my shirt. “Shh, it’s gonna be okay.” I tried to comfort him.

“It’s all my fault.” He cried. I guess I hadn’t realized that he and Selena had gotten close over the weeks. I’m glad they had, because if I could choose anyone to take care of my best friend it would be him and Jack. They may be my crazy, highly perverted, drunken boys but they are also the best people to have in your corner.

“This isn’t your fault.” I insisted. “What happened anyways?”

“We were talking and she jumped up and went to the bathroom. I heard her throwing up so I knocked on the door to see if she was okay. The next thing I know is I heard this huge bang so I opened the door and she was passed out on the floor. I guess she hit her head on the bathtub when she fainted and there was so much blood.” He explained through his tears. His emotions were definitely running high.

“It’s not your fault man, if it’s anyone’s it’s mine. She wouldn’t have been so upset or had run off to Baltimore if I hadn’t been such an asshole.” Brian told Lex. Things took a turn after this because Gaskarth flipped a switch and glared at Brian. We were all shocked to see this happen.

“You should be blaming yourself.” He snapped. “That sweet girl wouldn’t be in this fucking hospital if it weren’t for you! You couldn’t do the decent thing and just fucking talk to her about shit, you had to go and accuse her of pathetic crap. And you chose to believe your bitch of a best friend. If you had believed Selena then she wouldn’t be in this hospital. It’s all your fault and it’s Debby’s fault.” Alex pushed Brian then walked off.

“What the hell was that?” Deleon asked me. I just shrugged and went after Gaskarth.

“Hey!” I caught his arm so he would stop. “What was that back there?”

“Right before Selena got sick, she was telling me something that Debby did to her. She never got to finish telling me though. But she said that Debby found pictures of her on Brian’s cell and leaked them.” He told me and I gasped. I knew that bitch was behind those pictures being leaked, but what else did that bitch do?

“Do you have any idea what else happened between them?” I asked curiously.

“No.” he shook his head. “But I know it was pretty big, she said it was the reason she left LA.”

“I’ll figure it out later, but don’t beat yourself up over this. It’s not your fault.” I gave him a weak smile.

“But it is.” He insisted. “I knew she had been throwing up a lot and had been weak, I shouldn’t have let her in that bathroom alone. If I had went in there with her then she wouldn’t have hit her head.”

“You know as well as I do that sometimes things happen for a reason. Maybe this was God’s way to wake everyone up and see that she’s not okay and that she needs help. And to get Brian and Alex’s heads out of their asses and realize this Debby bitch isn’t perfect.” I tried to make light of this situation. He just sighed and ran his hands down his face. That’s when I realized that someone was missing. “Where is Jack?”

Gaskarth pointed back over to the waiting area, at first I didn’t understand but then I saw Jack sitting on the floor in the corner. “I think he’s beating himself up more than I am.”

“I didn’t know y’all were so close to Selena.” I scrunched my eyebrows together.

He just shrugged. “Jack is closer to her; they talk a lot throughout the day. I’m not entirely sure if he likes her or is just really worried about her after how he found her in Florida.”

I nodded, “I’m going to go check on him.”

“I’m going to go apologize to Brian; I probably shouldn’t have blown up on him like that. I’m just insanely worried.” He said.

I went over and sat down next to Jack who is just staring at his hands. I nudged him with my shoulder and he looked over at me, I could see the fear in his eyes. “I’m sorry.” He whispered.

“Sorry for what?” I asked confused.

“Your best friend is in the hospital and I could have prevented it.” he replied. I sighed; he and Alex were really beating themselves up over this. I was too because I should have kept in better contact with her, but none of us could have prevented this because none of us know what was really going on in her head. I learned that much in therapy and treatment, you can’t help someone who doesn’t want it or prevent something from happening because there’s only so much we can do.

“How’s that? By sitting on top of her and making her talk? There’s something eating at her and we all know that, but we can’t help her until she’s ready to let us.” I pointed out to him.

“But she was starting to open up!” he snapped, not in a rude way though. “I should have stayed there and ordered pizza like Alex told me to. Maybe whatever was in her head would have gotten out sooner and I wouldn’t have let her in that bathroom alone, not after Florida and not after I saw the cuts on her wrist that she doesn’t know I saw.”

“Wait what?” I gasped.

“There was only two, and I wanted to confront her, but she seemed so fragile so I didn’t push it. But I did find something on her phone that was weird. After Alex told me what she told him I went through her phone, I know I shouldn’t have but I was curious, and there were texts from that Debby girl. She told Selena that the deal was off that she was exposing her anyways. But I don’t think she was just talking about the pictures. There were other texts that said this was just the start and it would just get worse even if she kept her mouth shut about the secret. I’m not sure what this secret is, but I think it’s what is haunting Selena.” He explained.

“She’ll be fine.” I rubbed his shoulder. “And I’ll find out whatever it is that Debby is holding over Selena, if it’s the last thing I do.”

We sat there in silence for a few more minutes before we saw Mandy walked over to Brian and both Alex’s, Nick followed close behind Mandy along with Selena’s step dad. I quickly got up as well as Jack and we went over to them. “How is Selena?” I asked her.

“The doctors said that she was extremely dehydrated and a bit malnourished. She did lose a good amount of blood but they gave her more and she had to have a few stitches on her head. They said she should be perfectly fine though.” Mandy told us and we all let out breathes of relief.

“Thank god.” I said with a smile then introduced Gaskarth and Jack to Selena’s parents. Mandy looked a bit skeptical of them but smiled at me and thanked them for taking care of her daughter.

“Can we see her?” Brian asked nervously.

“She’s asleep right now, but the nurse said she should be waking up soon.” Mandy said then told us to follow her.

I burst into tears as soon as I saw her lying in the bed hooked up to machines and ivies in her arms. I sat in the chair next to her bed. Alex came up behind me and rubbed my shoulders soothingly. After a couple of minutes Selena began to stir and her eyes fluttered open. “Water.” Her voice cracked. Her mom handed her a cup of water and helped her drink it. “Why are you crying?” she asked me, her voice was still hoarse.

“Because my best friend is in the hospital.” I sniffed with a slight chuckle as I got up to hug her. “I was so worried about you when Jack told me that you were coming here.”

“Who?” she scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. I looked up at her mom who looked as shocked as I was. So didn’t everyone else in the room.

“Me.” Jack held up his hand.

“Penis jokester right?” she asked and Jack nodded. But she still acted like she had no clue who Jack was. “Why am I here anyways?”

“You don’t remember honey?” Mandy asked her as she ran her fingers though Selena’s hair.

“No, I remember having lunch with Nick, then waking up here.” Selena told her Mom.

I looked over at Brian who had tears running down his face and ran out of the room. Things just got a lot worse. Selena is stuck in the past, no recollection of who Brian is and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.