A Brand New Day

Chapter 36

Nick's pov
As soon as River and Demi leave I put all of the razors in a bag and bury them in the trash can out in the garage. Thank god tomorrow's trash day. Then I go and check on Meadow. She's in her room just sitting on her bed. I knock on the doorway. "What?" She asks refusing to look at me.
"Nothing. Just wanted to know what you're doing."
"Nothing."
"Okay. Do you want to help me make lunch?"
"No." She says laying down and pulling the covers over her head.
I nod and go down to the kitchen. What am I going to do? I make some sandwiches and grab a couple little bags of chips from the pantry and then a juice box from the fridge. I shout, "lunch is ready!" To her and sit down at the table. I eat alone and when I finish I grab her sandwich, chips and juice, and go back upstairs. When I get to her room she's dead asleep so I leave her food on the night stand. Then I go back to living room and wait for Demi and river to get back. This is insane. I don't know how 4 days ago I had what I thought was a perfect family. Now, everything is shattered and I don't know what I'm doing. I know River will come out of this. She always bounces back quickly, but this is our first time having any type of issue, and damn she's dark and twisty. She reminds me of Demi, but younger and that freaks me out. I don't want to lose her. I close my eyes and listen for anything to make noise.

Demi's POV
After river and I get some snacks, I pull up to the house. "Thanks mom."
"Anytime honey. I love you."
"I love you, too."
We get out and I follow her inside. She goes upstairs and I go into the living room. Nick is asleep on the couch. I sit down and pull his head into my head. I kiss his head as he opens his eyes. "Hi." I whisper. 
I play with his hair as we lay there. Listening to the house's silence. "Have you eaten?"
"Yeah. But Meadow hasn't. She's reminds me of you." He whispers.
"That's what mom said." I say thinking about what mom said to me.
"You saw your mom?"
"Yeah. She said River is going to be easy. But Meadow is going to be like me. Which scares me."
"Me too."
"She said it's karma."
"Fuck." He groans.
I chuckle, "that's what I said. What's she been doing?"
"Nothing. Last time I checked on her she was just sitting on her bed. I took her lunch up there and she was asleep. I just left her. I mean I don't know what to do."
"Me neither. Mom said we are going to have to watch her every move."
"That sounds exhausting." I nod and we sit together in silence until my phone rings.
"Hello?"
"Hey Demi. Um... Phillip just called and said Tour is cancelled. So... What's going on?" Lauren asks.
"My family is imploding and I have to take some time."
"Okay. Is there anything we can do?"
"No, not right now. I just really need to get my family together." My phone beeps to let me know I'm getting another call.
"Okay, tell River I said hi, and the girls and I will keep in touch. Love you."
"Thanks, I will. Love you too. I've got another call. I'll call you later." I switch the call over before checking the caller ID. "Hello."
"Hi, this is nurse Jackie. I'm calling on behalf of Madison De LA Garza. She wanted to speak to River Lovato."
My heart starts to beat fast but I respond, "yeah, okay one second." I say putting my phone against my chest. "River! Phone!" I shout.
I listen to her feet come from upstairs. "Is it Corrbin?" She asks out of breath.
I sigh and shake my head, "it's Maddie."
"Oh. Um..." She goes pale and looks like she's going to throw up. But she puts her hand out. I slip my phone into her hand. "Hello." She whispers. Nick and I watch her as she goes into the office and closes the door.
"What do you think she wants?" Nick asks sitting up.
I shrug, "hopefully just an ear." I whisper.
I strain to hear what River is saying but I can't hear a word. Just then I hear feet trying to silently slip into the kitchen. "Meadow." I say.
She comes to the living room. "Did you eat your lunch?" Nick asks.
"Yep." She says walking away. I stand up and follow her. She first goes to the fridge and grabs a handful of grapes and grabs a glass from the cabinet. "Do I have to go to school tomorrow?" She asks.
"No. Not this week. We can discuss it further tomorrow in therapy."
"So we're not going to talk unless we have some stranger there to help us?" She says turning to me.
"I mean. Do you want to go back?"
"No."
"Why not? I mean I understand the bullying is unbearable, but we could move you to a different school."
"Never mind." She snaps.
"That's why I wanted to talk about this in therapy. I feel like your shutting down and that makes it very difficult to talk to you."
"Really... I feel statement. Healthy, mom." She says as she goes into the pantry and grabs a bag of chips.
"You're not taking a whole bag of chips." I say stepping in front of her.
She raises her eye brow, "why?"
"Because your going to eat it all. Just make a bowl and then you can eat in the living room."
"I'm going to take this bag of chips to my room and eat them all. You wanna know why? Because I can, and you're not going to stop me."
I'm shocked, "Meadow, knock it off. Just make a bowl sit down in the living room with us."
Just then River screams sobbing, "this is not my fault Madison! Don't call me again."  I turn my back to Meadow and she takes off. "Madison! I didn't do anything to you! Are you really mad at me for saving your life? You're fucking selfish." Then I hear a big crash and more sobbing. I open the door, River is staring at my shattered phone, "No! I'm— I'm so sorry. Please don't be mad. I'll—" I step toward her and grab her arm. She flinched and snatches her arm from me. "I'll get you a new one." She bawls as she backs into the corner. "I'm so sorry."
"River, it's okay." I say as I get closer to her.
"Meadow! Where are you?" Nick yells from upstairs.
I go over to the door of the office, "Nick!"
"Meadow's not up here." He says from the top of the stairs.
"Okay. Um... just come here." He comes to the door and looks at River bawling in the corner.
"What happened?"
"I don't know but she broke my phone." I say.
"Riv, what happened?"
"I — I can't—" she cries. Then she gets up and bolts upstairs. I stare at Nick.
"What the fuck are we doing?" I snap. He shrugs. "Let's find Meadow."
We search the entire inside of the house, the closets and all the extra rooms and she's not there. Then we go out back. Shadow is barking at the bottom of a tree. Nick and I stand down at the bottom with shadow and stare up. "Meadow, what are you doing?"
"Minding my business, eating chips." She snaps.
"Okay." I shrug. She is exactly like me.
"Okay?" Nick says looking at bewildered.
I grab his hand dragging him a way from the tree. "Just let her sit up there. She'll come down eventually. Can I use your phone, to call my mom. Then I'll go sit with river. Everything else is going to have to wait till tomorrow. I love you."
"Okay..." he hands me his phone and I go inside and call my mom.
"Nick?" She answers confused.
"Hi, momma. Just wanted to let you know Maddie just called my phone to talk to River. Whatever she said really upset River and she broke my phone. So call Nick's or River's phone if you need me."
"What'd she say?"
"I don't know. When the nurse called she asked for River so I gave the phone to River. But now River's bawling. I'm going to find out right now."
"Okay. Please let me know."
"Okay. Love you bye." I say as I hang up. I leave Nick's phone on the counter and go find River in her bed bawling her eyes out.