Echoes in the Darkness | Demi Lovato

Chapter 10- Give Your Heart a Break

"Here, eat this," Demi tossed an orange at me as we walked out the door. I just barely caught it.

"Demi..." I groaned as the car beeped, unlocked.

"Nope. You need to eat something before dancing. Either you eat it, or I'm not driving," Demi responded, tossing her keys and purse into the car.

"Fine."

"Fine," my aunt mimicked in a bratty tone of voice causing me to laugh lightly as I sat down beside her.

Don't wanna break your heart.

I started peeling the orange as Demi shifted the car into drive, tossing the peel back into the container that she had given it to me in. Don't eat it, Don't eat it, Don't...

"So, what's your favorite style of dance?" Demi interrupted the voices in my head with her question.

"Lyrical," I answered without having to think about it at all. "I love being able to really feel the music and put my heart completely into doing something like that."

Wanna give your heart a break.

The pop star smiled at my response. "I like that. What about singing?"

I shrugged one shoulder. "I don't know. I guess I like it, but I'm not very good at it." More like I sucked at singing.

"Oh really? Sing something for me then cause I don't believe you."

"Hell no!" Sing in front of the Demi Lovato? Even if she is my aunt, I'll pass.

Demi burst out laughing. "I know you're scared it's wrong," she started with a huge grin across her face before she gestured for me to sing the next line.

Rolling my eyes I sang softly to the point that I could barely hear myself. "Like you might make a mistake."

Demi rolled her eyes. "That's bad huh? Sounded pretty amazing to me."

I felt my face heat up at her compliment. "I was out of tune," I responded quickly, grabbing my bag as she pulled up to Rhythm Dance Academy. Demi's lighthearted laughter followed me out of the car as I walked towards the brick building.

There's just one life to live.

---

"Hey, Max," Mrs. Elise greeted, same as always. "There's no one in the blue room if you want to go warm up in there. Class starts in about ten minutes once everyone else starts arriving."

"Okay, thank you." I nodded at my favorite dance teacher before heading through the second door on my left.

The room wasn't huge as far as dance rooms went, but it wasn't exactly small either.

However, the room was cold. Really cold. I was shaking slightly as I slipped out of my hoodie and leggings, mentally cursing myself when I realized the only pullover I had was my hoodie. It was against the studio dress code to wear a heavy jacket in class, but my leotard had tank-top style straps. My cuts were in full view. Groaning, I pulled the hoodie back on. Hopefully, no one made me take it back off.

And there's no time to wait, to waste.

Even though I was wearing the green sweatshirt, I still started warming up. First I stretched my neck and wrist before doing a couple of jumping jacks to get my blood flowing. Then, I dropped down on the hard ground, doing some hip and leg stretches before sliding into my splits. Let's do this!

So let me give your heart a break!

---

There was a huge smile on my face as I got into a familiar car. I was so used to Demi picking me up that it took me a minute to realize that it wasn't Demi, it was my mom.

"Where's Demi?" I asked without thinking before wincing as a scowl spread across her face.

"What? Am I not good enough for you?" My mom demanded harshly. "She had something better to do." Okay, that kind of hurt. I knew whatever Demi had to do something important, she is like a celebrity after all, but still, that could have been worded differently.

Cause you've been hurt before.

"Oh don't act like you miss her," My mom practically shouted when I frowned. "I know you're just using my sister to try and get whatever it is you want and I'm sure she noticed it too. That's why she had to make up some lame excuse about a meeting to get away from you."

---

Two and a half hours later I was in my room, desperately trying to avoid eating dinner. I could still feel the orange in my stomach and there was no way I was adding anything else to it.

I had changed out of my dance clothes and into purple patterned yoga pants and a grey shirt a while ago, although it was a t-shirt and my cuts were very obviously exposed. Demi still wasn't here and no one in my family would actually care even if they saw my cuts layered over the numerous, pale scars.

I can see it in your eyes.

Speaking of my family, my door opened, scaring me slightly as my step-sister practically strutted into my room. "What do you want, Alexa?"

"What the Hell is wrong with your arm?" The blonde questioned, completely ignoring me. "Did you do that? Oh my God, you're such a freak!"

I rolled my eyes in annoyance, her blue orbs reflecting the action back at me. "Can you just tell me what you want already?"

"My daddy wants you to go downstairs now. He's mad about something you did, freak." With that she left my room, slamming the door behind her. I faintly heard my mom yell something at me about slamming doors. Just Great.

You try to smile it away.

---

The stairs were unusually creaky as I tried my best to tiptoe down them. I could hear Mom and Nolan talking about something in the kitchen as the smell of some kind of take-out dinner hit me full force. It smelled disgusting. "Maxine, come in here!"

The kitchen had a swinging door that swished back and forth as I walked through it, nearly hitting me in the face multiple times.

"Care to explain this?" Nolan practically shoved his brand new iPhone in my face the screen showing that I had one unexcused absence in both of my last two classes.

"I, um, Demi picked me up from sch-"

"Don't you dare blame cutting class on my sister!" Mom shouted from her place across from me and her husband, standing up in anger. "You know how we feel about lying and it's even worse that you're trying to put the blame on someone else."

"I'm not trying to blame her," I mumbled, wincing at the sudden rise in her high pitched voice.

"That's it, back upstairs now! I'll be up to deal with you later!" My step-dad shouted, also standing up with the wooden barstool clattering to the floor.

I turned on my heel, tears of frustration stinging at my eyes. I was right. They didn't even notice the screaming red cuts on my arms.

Some things you can't disguise.  

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Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm back again... and actually uploading this from school. Oops? Anyways, that's to the people who voted on last chapter, and I'm spending the weekend at a friends house, so I'm not sure how on time the update will be, but I'll have my Chromebook and phone with me so I'll try my best. I don't really have much else to say besides that the views are dropping as the chapters go along, so I want to know that I'm doing wrong. Is there something that I can change to make the story better? I know that it's a little slow, but we're starting to get to the point where some drama is going to start up. I just had to get through the background first so I had a platform to build the story-line on. Anyways. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and please, vote and comment. I'll talk to you guys soon! Bye!

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