A/N: PLEASE review it means a lot to me and motivates me to write.
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Chapter 7
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The doctors were amazed at how quickly Eddie seemed to recover from losing nearly two thirds of the blood in his body. It was practically inhuman in fact.
But there was there was no reason to keep a patient in the hospital if he didn't need to be there.
So with orders not to do anything too vigorous until his stitches had been removed, Eddie was released from the hospital a little after dawn the next morning.
Which meant Eddie was allowed one day of bed rest before he could return to his schooling.
'If only I could have swung another day,' he sighed mentally.
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Fabian Rutter was not known to be an angry person. In fact, out of all the boys in Anubis house, he was known to be the most forgiving.
However, in the case of his girlfriend sleeping with his best friend, he was not forgiving in even the slightest of senses.
But, despite his internal seething, he knew that he had to keep up a normal appearance, and continue on with life.
So like the Englishman he had been raised to be, Fabian stood in the boys shared bathroom with a stiff upper lip as he finished wrapping the wounds he had received the night before.
First he applied Neosporin to the palm of his hands, before he gently wrapped gauze around each one. He let out a deep breath as the anti-septic came in contact with his miscellaneous injuries. Especially the chain marks frozen into his hands.
He had gotten the marks when the chamber had frozen last night, the chain that Fabian and Patricia had been hanging from had iced over and burned the pairs' hands with a rather painful line of frostbite across their palms.
Once done with his hands, he moved onto the five half inch deep puncture wounds on his calf, which while painful were thankfully nowhere near as severe as Eddie's had been.
With his injuries attended, Fabian finished dressing and headed to breakfast.
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Trixie tentatively flexed her ice burned hands to make sure the bandages that Nina had helped her with wouldn't slip. In return she had helped Nina cover the bruise on her face with concealer; perhaps she shouldn't have slapped her so hard.
Amber and the rest of the girls had already headed down to breakfast without them, citing that Nina was taking too long. Trixie, however, knew Nina was stalling in a vain attempt to postpone seeing Fabian, and made no move to hurry her as she normally would. She herself was not looking forward to the awkward tension that was sure to ensue.
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The tension in the room was palpable. And seeing as only three of the tables occupants knew why exactly it was that the room was tense, the entire situation was made all the more awkward.
"Would someone mind telling me why Fabina is sitting on polar opposite ends of the table?" Amber asked confused.
Fabian began hacking his sausage to bits with vigor, "Perhaps it's because Nina would rather be a part of Neddie instead of Fabina."
"Perhaps if you had listened to my explanation last night, instead of running away, maybe you would know that I don't have a choice in the matter!" Nina shot back, the hurt visible on her face.
"Huh?" Alfie intoned confused.
"Choice about what?" Joy asked looking between the two.
"There is always a choice 'Neri'," he practically spat the name, "You could have told me before any of this ever happened. I would have been hurt but at least it wouldn't be the slap in the face I got last night."
"If I recall I was the only one slapped in the face last night," Nina hissed.
"Sorry about that," Patricia said again.
"It's fine, I deserved it," Nina accepted, "What I didn't deserve is to have my boyfriend walk out when I was trying to explain what happened."
"EX-boyfriend," Fabian announced causing everyone at the table to gasp as the drama unfolded.
Tears welled in Nina's eyes as she stared wide eyed at Fabian.
Eddie took that particular moment to arrive in the silent room.
"Who died?" Eddie quipped as he walked in. The arm on his left was in a sling to keep him from jarring his stitches. Completely unaware of the tension in the room he walked up behind Nina and grabbed a biscuit off the plate in front of her.
Fabian snapped, "Look who's back. You know I was rather hoping you'd died of blood loss. Guess I'm just not that lucky."
Everyone gasped at that. Weren't they supposed to be best friends?
"Fabian Rutter!" Trudy exclaimed horrified. She had just walked in with a plate of toast in her hand, "That is no way to speak to your friend! I don't know what this little squabble is about but it can't be so bad so to wish your best friend was dead!"
"EX-best friend!" Fabian snarled, "If he was my friend he would never have slept with my girlfriend.
Everyone's heads swiveled towards Nina and Eddie who were staring at their usually meek friend.
"Oh," Eddie said finally understanding, "You told him…didn't you."
Nina nodded as tears rolled down her face. She was close to full out sobbing.
"What? You think crying is going to change the fact that you're a selfish liar! That you didn't care how it made me feel, as long as you got what you wanted," Fabian said coldly.
Eddie glared at Fabian in warning. The words might have had some truth to them but he obviously didn't know how hard it was for Nina to deal with what was happening to her.
"It wasn't like that! You don't have a clue what she's going through, so don't be so quick to judge!" Patricia seethed, her voice rising.
Nina was her friend and while she was hurt by what had happened with Eddie, she knew that what the two were going through took precedent and that they weren't to blame.
"What you're turning on me too?" Fabian hissed, "We nearly got killed last night because of the little slut's games and you expect me to happy when I find out she's fucking my best friend!"
Not a sound could be heard after that, as everyone stood stock still, unsure of what to do next. No one wanted to be the one that got up to leave in case they missed anything interesting. Besides how often was it that you saw quiet, geeky Fabian curse out his friends.
"Apologize," a voice quietly demanded.
Everyone turned to look as a seething Eddie.
"What?" Fabian asked uncertain of what to do. His friend had a look that promised pain. A look that didn't belong on the face of the usually laid back Eddie Miller.
"Apologize," came a whispered order from Khai who was gritting his teeth as he glared at Fabian with a look that could have put him six feet under.
"Neither of you deserve it," Fabian returned quietly.
"Apologize or lose your tongue boy," Khai threatened with a deadly edge to his voice. He had killed men for less. Insulting his wife by calling her a slut and making her cry was not something he allowed anyone to get by with. Picking up a bread knife from the table with his free hand, his eyes never left the now wide-eyed boy who was looking at him with a look of confused fear.
"Eddie?" Alfie asked, "What are you doing?"
Khai kept his eyes on Fabian as stalked closer to the boy, "Apologize!"
Fabian was now up against the wall as Khai stood in front of him, the knife held clenched in his hand. Realization lit up his brain as he finally understood that the man in front of him was not his seventeen year old best friend, but rather the three thousand year old warrior that he had seen hacking up an enormous crocodile two night before.
"You're not Eddie," Fabian whispered so low that only the man with the knife could hear, "That's what Nina was trying to say. That it happened when she wasn't herself and you weren't Eddie."
"Took you long enough," Khai smirked dangerously, "Now apologize before I decide to castrate you for insulting my wife."
Fabian nodded minutely as he stared into the glowing blue eyes that were dimming back to their original dull green.
"Good," Eddie stated as he turned back to the wide eyed occupants of the room, "Well I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Fabian do you have something that you want to say to Nina?"
Before Fabian could utter a single word, Eddie dropped the knife onto the table and walked over to Nina and wrapped her in a quick one armed hug. As he did so he noticed the gleaming, ruby-set cuff on her wrist, "Nice bracelet, you can tell me all about it when you get back from classes later."
With a possessive kiss to her temple and a warning look at the frowning Fabian, Khai exited the dining room.
As soon as he was gone the room turned expectantly to the previously fighting couple.
"What is going on?" Mara asked.
"Nothing!" Fabian and Nina said in unison. The now split couple looked at each other as they realized how open that confrontation had been.
"S'not nothing," Mara grumbled before returning to silence.
Everyone was now looking at Fabian expectantly. With a deep breath and a sigh, the meek boy turned to face his ex-girlfriend.
"Nina, I'm sorry for what I said," Fabian apologized, "You didn't deserve that. We were friends long before we were ever together and no matter how much you hurt me, I know that things happen, and that I can't take all my anger out on you. Can you forgive me?"
Nina nodded slowly as she wiped her face of tears.
With that Fabian strode from the room without another word, the apology was the most he could deal with right now.
Nina gave a deep shuddered breath as she stood up and quickly left the room.
The dining room was silent for a moment as the drama ended and the tension left the room.
"Can someone PLEASE tell me what's going on?" Amber asked confused.
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A/N: Please Please Please review, they motivate me to write more and any feedback or ideas help me take the story in the right direction.
