secrets ↠ demi lovato / 5h

[14]

"Demi, it's one bowl of i-"

"I'm not done. I said I was going to be even prouder tonight - can I tell you why?"

"Demi, I don't think that's necessa-"

"Too bad. So first, you've worked so hard. Every song we pick together you take and rehearse it even before a rehearsal. You take all the notes and pointers and you're a determined little fighter. I mean, yeah, you get those moments, but look where you are! Hashtag XF finale. This is something you should be proud of, darling! You said we wouldn't make it, but look how far we've come," Demi quoted.

"Trainwreck," I identified.

Demi stared at me for a while. "You're phenomenal. How do you even register all this so fast?"

I shrugged.

"Anyway," Demi continued, picking up my hands and tracing my palm lines, like she always did. "You're a little fighter. Like me. We both fight for what we want. And I remember the week you were near the bottom. You came this close to getting eliminated, Lea. But what did you do? During the second song, you went out there and did all that crazy stuff with your voice. Even I didn't know you could do that, sweetie. You fought hard that night, and you placed first. You were the most voted for by the general public. That right there is amazing, Lea! And no matter what happens to you tonight, know that I'm always by your side, regardless, okay? You're always going to be my baby girl."

I stared at Demi in silence for a while, my eyes filling with tears.

She called me her baby girl.

Baby girl.

asdfghjkl!!

I reached up and wrapped my arms around Demi, resting my head on her shoulders. Demi hugged back tightly.

"Girls, I hate to interrupt this love fest, but Lea has to go for hair and makeup, Demi, you're expected to go on in 10 minutes for the first performance," Daria appeared at our side. Demi reluctantly let go and kissed my forehead softly.

"You are going to slay," she said in all seriousness as she walked away.

------

the three of us (Marie, Brooke and myself), were huddled on the stage together. Mario was stood on the right side of the stage, holding a card with the big, famous X printed on the back.

this was it.

"this season, a first in the history of The X Factor, we have a joint second place," Mario said.

That's cool.

Brooke stretched out her arms and hugged Marie and I into a little huddle. I wrapped my arms around the two girls that I had spent the last three months with, and now we were going to go seperate ways. Marie held us tight and I closed my eyes, looking down. the audience was shouting out names as Jamie paused for suspense.

I could hear the cameras zooming in to our faces, but I didn't look up. I bit my lip and squeezed my eyes together.

"the first person in joint second place is.."

I started shaking. my head was pounding and the noise the audience was making was suddenly amplified and the world started spinning. I felt Marie tighten her grip around me.

panic attack.

"Lea. you're going to be okay. take a deep breath and you'll be able to see Demi in a bit, yeah?" Brooke whispered.

I was so grateful for her saying that. there she was, this was going to affect the rest of her life and she must've been petrified. but there she was, helping me ward off my panic attack.