Teach Me How To Love You

... Till Dawn

     "Best night before my tour ever!" She announced, her eyes lighting up as I was reminded that she would be gone for a few months. "Who needs sleep right?" The blonde smiled. "Breakfast anyone?"

     "We seriously have to get to your car though." I reminded my friend as she snapped her fingers and signaled towards me.

     "I forgot about that part. Well, Demi could give me a ride to my car and then we can all meet up at Ihop or Denny's. Let's say in about forty minutes?" Taylor didn't really leave room for us to answer her as she made her way towards the front of the home. We followed after her, the morning sun glimmering over the horizon. I volunteered to drive Demi's car as she stretched herself out in the back. Taylor and I had a short conversation as I drove her just around the block to her vehicle before a flash of blonde hair, short and familiar passed by. Justin had just entered his home from whatever he had found himself doing, unless he too had just come from Katy's party.

     "Meet me in forty minutes." Taylor reminded me as if I didn't remember her words from just moments ago. The second she left the vehicle, I faced Demi. She had been asleep, her arm resting under her head as I smirked.

     "Do you think we should get Marissa?" I wondered. "Demi?" No response. "Okay, you can't say that I didn't ask." The drive to where we were heading wasn't a long one. We arrived within minutes, only to find ourselves waiting for my friend. My phone had been lighting up with emails all evening, but I ignored them much like the ones I refused to open up earlier. But instead of just sitting with my own thoughts, I opened a few of them. They were mostly business emails my mom had sent to me. She had set up a few interviews and even got me a spot on a night show. I was already preparing myself for the probing questions which would follow my previous breakup, but that had seemed to be the least of my problems.

     "Are we there yet?" Demi's voice filled the air as I faced the back, her eyes still closed.

     "Yeah, we're waiting on Taylor." I nodded, going back to my email to reread it. "I'm presenting at an award show apparently." I felt my stomach drop. It's not as if I hated to do such things, but a fair warning would be nice. I agreed to interviews and things like that, not something such as this. "My mom likes to torture me." I thought I was talking to myself because no word left the woman in the back. "You know," I continued, "remember when we were younger and we'd pretend to host shows together?" I giggled, "you'd always win the award for best song or best original vocals or something like that."

     "And you'd always win most beautiful." Demi whispered, as I faced her. Still, she lay in the same spot, eyes closed and hair gently falling against her cheeks.

     "You'd always perform over the allotted time." I reminded her.

     "And you would always thank way too many people." Demi's lips shifted into a smile, her eyes gently opening to find mine studying her.

     "I would always win most beautiful because there were only two judges and you always found a way to eliminate my decision." I found myself stating.

     "You would win because even then, I had no choice... I had to fight for you even if it was to keep you from yourself."

     "That's really sweet." I rolled my eyes, just as Taylor pulled up next to my car, her hair now placed in a bun and her clothes were changed. "She went home before coming here." I gasped.

     "She's your friend, you should have known." Demi pushed herself up on her hands, unbuckling the waist restraint she had over her. I don't think either of us wanted to think about food considering sleep was still to be had, but we made it out of the vehicle just the same. The early morning brought in only a few people. No one was staring us down or trying to snap a photo, which was a comforting notion. As we climbed into our table booth and ordered our pancakes and orange juice, Taylor leaned against the cold wooden table and signaled for me to speak.

     "What is it?" I questioned her. But she would only shake her eyes or face Demi who was zoned out of the moment. "No." I shook my head as my friend cleared her throat. I narrowed my eyes on the woman, knowing she wanted to poke and prod me more about the conversations we were having earlier. It was a subject already touched and picked over, I wasn't in the mood to venture back to it once again.

     "So, Demi." Taylor spoke up as the brunette at my side nodded for her to go on. "I'll be away for a while..."

     "You already threatened me to take care of Selena or else. What could be your next move?" The woman asked, as a smile made it across her face.

     "I'm glad you asked." Taylor pepped up as I groaned.

     "Let's ignore Taylor and eat..." I spoke up as they both faced the center of the table. "The food is coming, eventually."

     "I was just going to say..." My friend began once again.

     "Nothing." I told her. "You were going to say nothing."

     "I'm guessing I should ask what's going on." Demi faced me before Taylor tilted her head my way.

     "Stop it." I reached over the table and swatted at the blonde.

     "Is something wrong?" Demi was exhausted and I could tell, but she gave me her full attention.

     "No." I honestly spoke up. "Taylor and I were talking earlier and it was supposed to be between the two of us." I reminded the blonde.

    "Who's keeping secrets now?!" Demi smirked, just as the waitress brought over our food. "If you're okay with lying, I'm okay with ignoring the fact that it bothers me."

     "I'm..." I wanted to scold my friend, but she stayed sitting across from me with a smile on her face. "We were talking about this situation I put us both in. And although we're making progress, me avoiding the press isn't helping the situation."

     "What are we talking about now?" Demi asked confused, digging into her pancakes.

     "You know, the same loop our lives have been going in for the past month. Me leaving Nick and dating you. The press putting their own twists onto things because I haven't been saying anything to them."

     "Neither have I." Demi admitted.

     "Nick not wanting to talk to me..." I faced Taylor. "The fact that it bothers me."

     "Him not talking to you?" Demi finally placed her fork against her plate as I groaned.

     "It's too early to dwell on this." I admitted.

     "Dwelling on it means you've been thinking about it a lot. If you're not trying to hurt me, trust me I understand. But if you want to get him to speak to you, that's going to be a hard task. Because he doesn't even want me mentioning..." Demi paused before nodding. "You're right, it's too early. But we can talk about it. About him. I've always encouraged that."

     "See." Taylor clapped. "Progress."