Just a heads-up: the beginning of this chapter portrays a young woman in a vulnerable state. If you'd prefer to skip this part, you can search for the word 'ended' and continue reading from there. I believe this section is important for her character development, but feel free to skip it if you wish.
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My recovery was a lot slower than normal. My body was not designed for what had happened to it. Every single fibre of my being ached. I got better through each day as I was cared for by a team of physiotherapists and medical professionals, but each time I slept I felt like I was back to square one again. I was a moody bitch and even had my public roles removed when I responded to someone online in a way that was deemed "unfavourable." I lashed out at people that I loved. Abi and my Dad felt the full force of my sharp tongue as my patience snapped. Both Abi and my Dad retreated and gave me the space that I needed.
It was all hidden from the public. Recovery is sexy when it is sexy. When it is just a hormonal moody bitch it is not at all sexy or marketable. I was pulled from live interviews and the only interviews that I gave were pre-recorded and very heavily vetted by my team. Rachel and my team generally earned their money, but I was allowed to just deal with it as I dealt with it. I was analysed and observed for future training and conditioning, but I was just left to it. My whole team stepped back and monitored from a distance. I was allowed to fall apart and as each piece fell off me it was catalogued and placed in readiness for my reassembly. If I ever made it to that stage. This was my first real set back and I was struggling to deal with it.
I was curled up on my bed just staring at the wall. The wall was blurry as I stared at it through my tears. I had written my resignation letter although I had not sent it yet. I couldn't do it anymore and emotion took control of me. I blinked and a tear ran over the bridge of my nose and dripped onto the bed alongside many that had fallen previously. Was it worth it? Was this life worth this? Not at the moment it wasn't. I had turned off all my notifications so unless someone came to my door and physically knocked or someone with authority overrode my communication settings I was alone and that is what I wanted.
I squeezed the teddy bear that I was cuddling and felt the wet fur from the combination of tears and the sweat from my ruined body. I held him close and closed my eyes again as I urged myself to sleep. I knew that was not happening though.
A buzz at the door snapped me alert again. "Me," I heard Abi say a fraction of a second before I told the caller to fuck off. She was authorised, it was her room as well, but she had buzzed anyway.
I heard the lock disengage and then slowly open as Abi poked her head around the door. She smiled weakly at me. I was where she had left me a few hours earlier when I had verbally lashed out at her. "Want anything?" she asked to which I shook my head. She cautiously came into the room and sat on the edge of the bed next to me. "Wanna go and open a shit bar in a shit town?" she asked with a careful smile.
I looked at her and smiled. That had been what I had offered Hanna on the night that she quit. She knew the story as I had told her, but her words seemed to carry more weight than an empty promise. I just shrugged. "Have you sent it?" she asked me. I looked at her and wondered if she had access to my email drafts. She didn't, she just knew me better than I cared to admit. "Are you going to?" she asked. Her voice was so calming. The love and genuine adoration of the sweaty teary wreck on the bed was way more than it deserved, yet she was still here.
"I don't know," I said honestly.
"One hundred and twenty-seven thousand, three hundred and forty-one," she said and I just looked at her confused. "Subscribers. That is a lot of weight on your shoulders."
"They got what they wanted," I replied sharply. The views of my defeat highlights were astronomical. Millions. I thought that my fans were on my side, but ultimately, they just want to watch porn and I am fighting to not be the star of the show. This is being unfair. My actual subscriber count barely rose above the normal trend. The extra views were just the people who liked to watch the defeat videos.
"But they haven't for the previous week," she said. Her voice was a level of calm that instantly calmed my anger.
"They wanna watch me get fucked until I am close to death again?" I snapped. Anger flashed in my eyes, but it was not at her and she knew this. I was of course being dramatic, I was never in any serious danger. Not physically anyway.
"Probably," she said with a shrug, "You got to learn to lose as well as win." She spoke the truth and for a fraction of a nanosecond, I hated her for that. I had been trained to win, I had been conditioned to be the best and believe that I was the best, but I was an idiot. A second's lapse of concentration and I was nowhere near as good as I thought. Another tear trickled over my nose but she wiped it away with her finger before it landed on the sheets.
We stayed in silence for a few moments as she gently stroked my back and played with my hair. I woke myself up with a snore as my exhausted body tried to relax. "Do you want me to stay tonight?" she asked. The previous night she had stayed with Jenny as I had been impossible to live with. I did send her an apology which she accepted, but even so.
I looked at her and blinked another tear onto the bed sheets. "I am bleeding," I said.
I saw the look of surprise in her eyes for a second as she was not expecting that. Our cycles were tightly controlled and I had not had a period for over a year. My ovaries felt like they were being used as a punching bag and I had been suffering cramps all day that felt like they were ripping my womb out of body. "Bad?" she asked as she simultaneously offered me a hug which I accepted. I curled up with my head on her lap and let her stroke my back. "Have you flagged it?" she asked.
I shook my head. "I am a girl, it happens," I replied.
"Yeah, but not when you are hormone controlled to stop it," she said in her steady calm voice, "That will be screwing you up so bad."
I shrugged my shoulders again. "They can see on my feeds," I said.