Believe in Me

Chapter 18

"I know I don't have to, but I want to," I said grabbing her hand again.

"Thank you," she said softly with a slight smile. Then a woman came barging into the room. 

"Here's your stuff brat," she said harshly while throwing a bag onto the ground. I had never met Anna's foster parents. I'm assuming this is her foster mom. I stood up to greet her, but Anna still had my hand and she pulled me back down. 

"Thank you," Anna said. It sounded different than when she thanked me. She sounded scared this time. The woman rolled her eyes and left. 

"What was that about?" I asked

"Nothing... she's just not in a good mood," Anna replied refusing to look at me. I was going to question her more, but a nurse came in to move Anna up to her hospital room. I grabbed Anna's bag and walked with them. Right after we got to her room another doctor came in to take Anna to an MRI. They gave Anna a hospital gown to change into first. I noticed she had some bruises on her arms and legs. Anna insisted on walking to the MRI so I went with them and helped her walk there. They let me come into the room with her.

"Can you take your wig off for me?" the nurse said. It had never occurred to me that she wore a wig. Anna glanced at me quickly and then hesitated. I put my hand on her back and she slowly pulled her wig off. She honestly still looked gorgeous without hair. She handed the nurse her wig and looked down at her hands and started playing with her rings. She looked embarrassed. I motioned for the nurse to leave for a minute. "Anna, look at me," she refused and turned away from me.She had a big scar across the back of her head from surgery. My heart broke when I saw it. I ran my fingers over it and she tensed up. I turned her around. "Anna, seriously look at me," she refused to look up again. I lifted her chin up so she had no other choice but to look at me. "You are gorgeous with or without hair," she hugged me and buried her head into me. I think she might have been crying. The nurse came back in so I helped her lay down on the table thing. The nurse told her that if she needed something to push a button that was on the table. She strapped Anna down and then went with me to the room right outside of where the machine was. There were windows so you could see Anna from the room. There were a bunch of monitors and stuff too. As soon as they turned the machine on and the table Anna was on moved into the tube the monitor with her heart rate and breathing on it went crazy. The nurse told Anna through the microphone thing that she needed to calm down, but it wasn't helping. I asked if I could talk to her and the nurse hesitated, but then let me. 

"Anna, you need to calm down. I'm right here, okay? Remember, breathe in and out, in and out..." I continued until she had calmed down. The nurse looked at me amazed. After the 45 minute long MRI was done I took Anna back to her room. It was late now so the doctors said they were going to run more tests tomorrow. Anna still seemed embarrassed without her wig and she didn't want to look at me. While Anna was in the MRI I had Max and Natalie bring me some clothes. I went and changed into pajamas. When I came out of the bathroom Anna glanced over at me. 

"You really don't have to stay," she said in monotone while she was playing with her rings.

"I told you I want to stay," she rolled her eyes and then started to get up. "Woah, what do you think your doing?" I said in a lighthearted way trying to lighten the mood some while pushing her gently back onto the bed. 

"I'm changing into my own clothes and taking my makeup off," she replied. 

"You need to rest so tonight you're sleeping in that hospital gown and I'll take your makeup off for you," I said grabbing the makeup wipes from my bed. All of a sudden she looked really panicked.

"Demi, I'm fine please just let me do it!" she pleaded.

"Sorry, but you need to rest," I said as I went over to her and started wiping makeup off of her face. She was shaking. "You okay?" I asked and she just nodded. I continued to wipe makeup off of her face. I let her pull her false eyelashes off. I never realized that she didn't have any eyelashes or that her eyebrows were drawn on either. I started wiping off her eye makeup and she flinched when I touched her right eye. When I got more off I realized why she flinched. She had a black eye. "Anna, who did this to you?" I said trying to stay calm.

"Demi, it's nothing. I'm fine," she said,

"A black eye isn't nothing!" I said and it came out louder than I expected. She pushed my hands away from her face and brought her knees up to her chest and hid her face in her knees. I put my hand on her back. "You can tell me Anna. It's okay, you can trust me," I said. She shook her head.

"I told you it's nothing, I'm fine!" she said angrily this time. Then it clicked. Her foster mom's 'bad mood', her foster parents never coming to any of the shows, her bruises, how she got scared when people touched her, he inability to trust people. She was in an abusive home. I started rubbing her back.

"Did your foster parents do this to you?" I asked. Her face was still buried in her knees. She hesitated and then nodded and she started crying. 

"Promise you won't tell! I'll be put into a group home! I won't be able to sing or get treatment! I'll be left to die. Please Demi!" she pleaded. I didn't want to make a promise that I couldn't keep. She finally trusted me and I would have to ruin that trust. I didn't want her to end up in a group home either. She was right. They wouldn't pay for her treatment and she would be left to die. I couldn't get her to calm down.

"I promise. Now look at me so I can get the rest of your makeup off," She sat back up and turned to face me. She refused to look me in the eyes. After I got her makeup off I saw another big bruise on her cheek. It broke my heart. As soon as I was done she turned away from me and pressed the button on the bed to turn off the lights. I went and laid on the little couch that was in the room. I could hear Anna sniffling. I knew she was crying, but she wanted to be left alone so I didn't try to talk to her. It would have just made things worse. After a couple minutes she spoke.

"Thank you Demi,"

"You're welcome. Now get some sleep,"

"Goodnight,"

"Goodnight baby," after a couple minutes the sniffling stopped and she was asleep.

A/N

Thank you guys so much for the comments and votes. It means so much to me that people actually like my fanfic. I'm not writting it for the reads, votes, or comments though. I'm writting it for fun, but it really makes me happy when I get comments saying good things. It's crazy that I have the ability to write something that makes people emotional. Thank you guys for reading this. I wanted to say that I already have a plan for where I'm going with this story and I think I still have a long way to go on it, but if you have anything that you want to happen or any suggestions feel free to let me know about them. I'm not promising that I'll be able to include them but I'll try to get them to fit with the plot.