Young and Beautiful

Ten.

Her once creamy and silky skin was now raw and red. She had lost track of time as she stood in her shower, scrubbing away the feel of Kevin's violating touches. She had been in there for so long because she wanted every inch of her body clean but it was hard because she was shaking like never before and if anyone saw her they would think that she was having a seizure. The warm vanilla body wash that she often used was now gone and it still didn't feel like enough. An entire bottle of body wash, a worn out loofah, and hours of scrubbing still didn't feel like enough. She could still feel him on her, grasping her wrists and feeling her sides and pressing himself against her as if his wife and her husband wasn't just a floor away. It was all so wrong and she felt completely helpless. She had the power to command over 100 employees and she could make even the toughest men bow down to her but now she was cowered in the corner of her shower, viciously scrubbing at her skin while crying her eyes out because this didn't feel fixable. This didn't feel like something that she could control or simply make go away.

A knock sounded off against the door and she nearly jumped out of her skin until she remembered that the bathroom door was locked and no one was getting in unless she allowed them to. That was one thing she had control of.

"Demi!" It was Nick. And he didn't sound demanding or angry or anything else like that. He sounded confused and genuinely concerned and she wanted him to come in and save her but she also didn't want him to see her like this...to see her in such a vulnerable state that she never showed to anyone.

"Demi, it's been two hours. Are you okay in there? Doll...I just wanna make sure you're alright. You really scared me earlier," Nick said, and she knew that he was scratching the back of his neck because she knew Nick. She wasn't even sure if she could muster up the words that she wanted to say to him so she turned the shower off instead. It was time to get out. She couldn't stay in there forever and it didn't matter how much money they had; water wasn't cheap.

"Here I come," she said as calmly as she should, surprising herself when her voice was just a little hoarse and she wasn't stumbling over her words. Her loofa was dropped to the ground and she made sure her towel was secure around her body before exiting the shower and making her way to the door. She slowly opened it and peeked her head out, seeing Nick pacing outside of it with his hand on the back of his neck.

"Oh, doll, you're okay. I was worried about you. What's going on?" Nick asked as Demi shook her head and just moved around him. She went straight to her closet to find something to wear to sleep, eventually settling on a giant crewneck from Columbia and a pair of sweatpants. She didn't normally go to sleep like this but she found comfort in these clothes. It reminded her of what she was and how her life was before she graduated from college and everything changed.

As soon as she exited the closet she was assaulted by a pair of arms around her and she immediately went into defense mode. She curled into herself while squirming out of Nick's arms and nearly bursting into tears when he wouldn't let go. Didn't he see that she didn't want to be touched?

"What is wrong with you?" Nick finally pulled away but held her at arms' length, taking in her disgruntled appearance and the unshed tears in her eyes and the blotchy redness of what he could see of her skin. His wife hadn't been that distraught in a while, and he couldn't even begin to fathom what could've made her like this. It had been a normal day so far. What could've possibly gone wrong?

"I'm really tired...I think all the stress from the show is finally catching up with me. I just need to sleep," she breathed out, avoiding eye contact with him but instead choosing to look down at the plush carpet that covered most of their upper floor.

He didn't believe her. They had been disconnected for so long but he still knew his wife and he didn't believe her. It wasn't just stress or exhaustion. Something had happened and he wanted to know what it was because seeing Demi like this...it just felt like a part of him was dying inside. He hated seeing her so broken because she was never like this. If there was one person who always had it together, it was Demi. And maybe he was naïve to believe that but that's the image that she presented to the world and she was so good at portraying it that even he started to believe it.