Disclaimer: I do not own House of Anubis, the characters in it, and the locations used.
A/N: Let's repeat this altogether now - I am only an hour late. I am only an hour late. I am only an hour late. Okay? Please, keep this in mind. I say my dates, I do not say what times I post them. It was supposed to get posted an hour or two ago, but more important things kept me busy. Please forgive me!
Rant down in the bottom A/N. Please read once you're done with the chapter!
Fabian POV
"Where's Nina?" was the question on my lips as I headed for the front door. Jerome, Alfie, and Patricia were already there and waiting for the others, who were a step behind me.
"I think she already left," Jerome replied. "We saw her heading over here, so I guess she decided not to wait for us." Alfie nodded along with him, a smirk on his lips that made me wary. Someone was in a good mood… and when he was in a good mood, it usually meant that someone was going to get pranked.
"Let's go, maybe we can catch up with her on the way," Patricia said, and slipped out of our group and for the door. We trailed along after her, each of us locked in our own conversations.
It was Amber who saw them first.
"Guys," she said loudly, the alarm in her voice immediately making us stop and look to her. She pointed to an area off the path. It took me a moment, but then I saw it.
Mark was talking to Nina. And just as we all recognized them, Mark raised his hand in the air like he was going to slap her across the face.
"HEY!" Patricia shouted, stopping him in his tracks. Both of them jerked their heads in our direction - Mark looking confused, Nina looking scared. "Don't you dare try to touch her, you slimeball!" Then she was running, and everyone was following, and I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
Because unlike everyone else, I knew for a fact that Mark had never touched a hair on her head save for the one time in theatre class.
Unless Nina had been lying, and really had two abusers.
Oh no.
By the time I caught up with everyone, Jerome and Mick were pushing Mark further away from Nina. He was protesting and asking what was going on, but his voice was soon drowned out by Patricia, who grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"We know it was you. We know the truth. I would say I'm surprised, but I'm really not, and that makes it even worse. How can you stand yourself?" she demanded. "How can you wake up every morning knowing that you're ruining a girl's life with every breath you take? You should go to jail for what you've done. I can report you to the authorities, you know."
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" he finally cut in, looking from one pair of eyes to the next. "I haven't done anything, I swear!"
This only seemed to spur Patricia on further. "We just saw you, don't pretend to be innocent. You were about to slap her, and you won't even admit it, will you? You're a slimy arse, that's what you are."
There was an urgent tug on my sleeve, and I looked down to see Nina giving me a pleading face. She shoved a note into my hand as Patricia continued to rant.
Mark didn't do anything. He was apologizing.
I assessed Nina's face, trying to tell if she was lying or not. She pointed to the note, and there was nothing but truth in her eyes as she looked up at me.
"He didn't do anything," I announced, stopping Patricia in her tracks. "He hasn't done anything, and he wasn't going to hurt her. He's innocent."
My words didn't faze her at all. "What, did Nina tell you that? She's lying, Fabian! This rubbish piece of a human being is making her say that," she replied, her voice hard. I was a little stunned that Patricia of all people was defending her so much.
But this time, she was defending her from the wrong person.
I put my hand on her shoulder. "Patricia," I said in a very calm voice. "I can say with absolute certainty that Mark is not the abuser."
It took a moment, but realization flashed in her eyes and her mouth fell open. Her grip on his collar loosened, and Mark immediately slipped away from us, stumbling a few steps back.
"You are all insane," he said, shaking his head slowly. "Have a nice life." He glanced at Nina and winked. "Think about what I said, yeah? The offer is still open for the taking."
When Nina's cheeks lit up a cherry red, he laughed and walked off.
Offer? What offer?
I was going to ask what he'd meant, but before I could, there was a bombardment of questions.
"How do you know?"
"Who told you?"
"How long have you known?"
"Who is it?"
"Why haven't you told us?"
"Will everyone shut their mouths for a moment please?" I half yelled, sending an apologetic look to Nina when she jumped. Everyone finally went silent. "Nina told me. I've known for a week, and Amber knows too. We aren't telling you who it is under the request of Nina, but I can assure you that she isn't currently in danger."
Mara gave me a wary look. "How are we supposed to trust you? What if you're the one who's abusing her?" There were one or two nods of agreement, though everyone looked hesitant towards the idea, Mara included.
"Are you kidding me?" I threw my hands up in the air. "I'm the one who's been helping her! I haven't done anything, and the abuser has stopped for now. Don't even try to pin this on me, you know I could never do that."
Patricia was the first one to nod. "Okay, so you haven't been doing it… for now. But how do you know the abusing has stopped?"
"I just do."
"Fabian-"
"Patricia. I. Just. Do."
"But-"
This time, it wasn't me who cut her off. It was her own gasp when the slim, bony hand of Nina reached out and snatched the water bottle in her hand…
Only to pull up her sleeve, pour water all over her arm, and scrub away at the concealer covering her scars.
Before, when we'd first seen her wounds, they'd been through a long-sleeved shirt. While we'd been able to tell what they were, we hadn't seen the details. And now they were on display for all of us.
Amber actually covered her eyes the second she processed what was in front of her, and I couldn't blame her.
There wasn't a patch of skin that didn't have scars.
Her arm was one long map of pain.
Not one was the same. Some were thin and just discolorations of new, pale skin against older, more tanned skin. Some were what looked like dark red burn marks, and after a second, I realized that they were in the shape of the bottom of a clothes iron. There was one line of skin that was permanently bubbled up - a different kind of burn, but a serious burn all the same - and it stretched so far that it continued into her still covered up shoulder.
But Nina's face made me sicker than anything else.
Shame. Shame was one of the few things I could recognize in her expression. Her eyes were clouded with pain, fear, and embarrassment, but shame overpowered the others.
Her eyes were also staring right at me, watching for my reaction. And by the way her lips twisted into a grimace, it wasn't the reaction she was hoping for. I realized my jaw was wide open and quickly snapped it shut.
"Okay, I get it. You don't have to leave your sleeve up, Nina," Patricia whispered, wincing as she gave her arm another glance. It was then that I understood why she'd done what she had.
While there were countless scars, none of them were recent. There were no bruises on her skin. She had done this to prove that no one had hurt her in the past week or two. That Mark hadn't hurt her.
That I hadn't hurt her.
Nina grabbed a mini tube of something unrecognizable out of her jeans pocket, opened it, and squirted some on her arm. Concealer. She then started rubbing it in with her hand, and within 30 seconds, her scars were gone, though you could still see the raised skin of some of them. She shoved her sleeve back down.
Just like that, the evidence of her past was gone.
That fact bother me.
The haunted look in her eyes stayed as she pulled out her notepad and returned the concealer to its place. I knew this moment would be remembered for a long time, especially by her.
As I told Fabian, he was apologizing to me about what he did in theatre class. He talks with his hands. He wasn't hitting me, he was just waving his arms around as he talked. The closest he came to touching me was when he grabbed my sleeve, and he never even touched me through the fabric. I'm fine, but thank you for defending me.
The surprise on her face was still there, probably shocked by the fact that all of us had come to what we thought was her rescue. Still, I was bothered.
What offer?
"Of course, Nina," Patricia replied, smirking. I could almost see her scrambling to make the air lighter in the wake of Nina's show. "I needed an excuse to rough up that slimeball anyway. He's been side eyeing me for weeks. He definitely won't be interested in me now." There was a round of half chuckles, though Nina's was not among them. I gave her a worried look.
She avoided my gaze, even as we headed back to Anubis House.
X
Nina POV
It was Halloween, and I had red eyes.
Amber had somehow gotten me into a vampire costume without me raising a single protest. I was wearing the tight shirt she'd gotten me, because it was my only black shirt that wasn't in the laundry, but it was covered by a blood red cape she'd gotten from the school theatre closet a few days before, so I wasn't too worried about that.
I was more worried about the fact that I had makeup on my face.
Sure, it made me almost unrecognizable, but that wasn't the point. Even if I had an almost pure white face, Amber had put eyeliner and mascara on me, as well as dark red lipstick. I hadn't even realized what she'd done to me until she'd put a mirror in front of me, but now I couldn't wipe it off without ruining the whole thing.
It'd been hard, letting her that close to my face, but when I'd flinched back she'd given me a soothing look and said something like if you can dance with a guy all alone after midnight, you can let me put cosmetics on your face.
I hadn't thought about it that way, and so while I was caught up in the fact that I'd sooner let Fabian touch me than any girl I knew - at the same time wondering how she knew about the dance at the picnic in the first place - she started without my permission. It ended up being a lot less stressful and overwhelming than I'd thought it would be.
Then came the red eye contacts - which blocked my peripheral vision and sort of freaked me out - and the hairdo: my hair was in a high ponytail for the first time ever.
This whole Halloween thing was crossing so many of my lines and I hadn't even gotten downstairs yet.
"You look beautiful, Nina!" Amber squealed, bouncing up and down in her princess dress. "We need to do this more often, without the white powder and with more natural colors. I could turn you into a model. Oh, you could model my clothes, you have the perfect body for it-"
My loud and pointed huff cut off her ramblings. She sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But a girl can dream, alright?" I rolled my eyes, earning a giggle from her. "Okay, time to go downstairs."
Every muscle in my body suddenly locked and refused to work.
Go downstairs… where everyone would see me in makeup.
Where Fabian would see me in makeup.
Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god oh god.
I could not do this.
"Don't be a wimp, Nina," Amber teased. "Think of the candy! Think of the Reece's and the Hershey's and the Milkyways and the Whoppers."
That won't work. The only thing I've had out of those since I was four is Hershey's, and that was a piece of a bar that I'd snuck in my backpack when my stepfather wasn't looking at school. I was ten. That and one time when I broke my record on blacking out. Come up with something else.
For a second I froze as she read it, realizing that now she'd figure out about my stepfather, until it hit me - she did know. Fabian had told her. And like he'd promised, she hadn't mentioned it once.
Amber's face darkened, and she glanced from me to the note.
"Well, you know what?" The dark look dissolved into a determined one. "You're going to try them. Every single one of them. It'll do some good for you - you're still far too skinny, don't think I can't tell. I saw you with your tight shirt before you put on the cape, don't think I didn't." She arched an eyebrow. "And if you need motivation… I think you'll like Fabian's costume tonight, whether you try to deny it or not. Let's just leave it at that."
And with that mysterious comment, I was hooked, I was out of my chair, and I was heading downstairs before I could convince myself out of it.
Everyone was there and everything was chaos. Alfie was an alien, currently being chased by a zombified Mick and some sort of secret agent Jerome. Patricia and Joy were devils, red tail and all. Mara was a witch, wearing the pointed hat Jerome had presented to me during the Harry Potter Movie Marathon and gripping a broomstick as she watched the boys chase each other.
I saw Fabian in the same moment he saw me, and I could not stifle the gasp that escaped me.
Fabian was a werewolf, that was clear. His makeup was obviously done by Amber, and he had bright yellow eyes that I could see even from across the room. He had claws for nails and his hair was wild, like he'd just rolled out of bed. Points had been added to his ears and he was wearing a set of longer canines than usual, shown when his mouth fell open at the sight of me.
Amber giggled behind me, jerking me back to awareness to see that Fabian was now in front of me and I was staring at him with no sign of stopping. I shut my mouth and blushed so hard they could probably see it through the white powder on my face.
"Nina," he breathed. "You look… great. I mean, beyond great. Wow."
How was it possible that a simple few sentences could create such a huge diversity inside of my mind?
I didn't want to look great, I didn't want to be noticed, especially by the opposite gender. And yet when he said it, I blushed more and grinned at him, my vampire teeth glinting off the ceiling lights.
"Nina hasn't had a single piece of candy since she was ten, so you're going to back me up and get her to eat at least one of everything tonight. I want her bouncing off the walls and clutching a sick stomach by the time we go to bed, yeah?" Amber cut in, shattering the moment.
Fabian smirked. "Yes, Queen Millington. Nice dress, by the way. Is that one of your own creations?"
"Indeed it is, moon boy. How did you know?"
"It has that Amber flair to it, that's all. I've seen enough of your designs to know your style, that's for sure. You do look spectacular though, Ambs." He reached up to ruffle her hair, but Amber's warning glare made him drop his hand as quickly as it had gone up.
Against my will, a shot of jealousy went up my spine, surprising even me. Fabian said he didn't like her, but-
It doesn't matter, I reminded myself. There's no reason to be jealous. He has full right to go out with whoever he wants. It's not like he'd go out with you, either way. You saw the look in his eyes when he saw your scars.
My mood took a sharp downhill spiral. Fabian's face had been painted with horror when he'd seen them. It wasn't disgust, but it was enough. He could never like me.
And I didn't want him to. I knew that if he told me he did - though that would never happen - I would once again go running in the opposite direction. Because liking me meant expectations, and expectations were bad. Worse than bad.
The reminder of earlier's events brought back Mark's words.
"I wanted to… apologize," he said, the word coming out bitter but honest. "What I did - attacking you like that a few weeks ago - was wrong. So I want to make it up to you."
I tried to calm down my nerves. He was apologizing for attacking me, so surely he wouldn't attack me again, right?
"I want to take you out on a date."
I sucked in a gasp. There went calming my nerves. He was asking me out on a date. What would he do if I said no? Would he attack me anyway?
He continued on, seeing my shock. "You're way too… stiff. Everything scares you. Kissing you was the wrong approach, obviously, so… I just broke up with my girlfriend. Way too attached, in my opinion. How about we go out so I can show you how to loosen up?" He smirked. "No sudden kisses, I promise… unless you ask for one."
I was going to be sick.
"Okay, this whole no talking thing is going to be a problem, though," he said, throwing his hands up in the air. The movement startled me. "You-"
That was when Patricia's voice had come in. The rest was history.
"Hey. Nina." Fingers snapped right in front of my face, making me jump as I returned to reality. Amber's face loomed before me, looking amused. "You just went all thinky on us, didn't you?" She took a step back, watching me as I calmed my breathing again. There was a smirk on her face. "I don't like Fabian, you know. I see him as a brother. He's one guy I would never consider dating, unlike the rest of the boys in this house."
I gave her an alarmed look, wondering how she'd guessed and if Fabian had heard that. I spun around, wondering where he was, and she laughed.
"Calm down. He went to help them with the DVD player, it's having problems." She pointed at Fabian, who had his back to us across the room. "And it was pretty obvious what you were thinking. You have this special look reserved just for when you're thinking about him."
My responding huff was covered by Trudy's call.
"Picture time! Everyone gather around by the left wall," she called out. When everyone shifted towards that area and I didn't, she raised an eyebrow. "You too, sweetheart."
All I did was blink at her. They wouldn't want me in the picture. They'd regret the choice later on, I was sure. So I shook my head and took a step back.
"Nina, come on," Amber insisted, and everyone, from Fabian to Mick, nodded. "Get in the picture or I'll drag you over here myself."
That's how I found myself in between Fabian and Amber, almost exactly in the middle of the photo. Fabian's hand rested lightly on my shoulder, sending a blush to my cheeks.
And Amber threw her hand over my other shoulder with no warning a second before Joy's camera clicked and a flash went off.
I didn't even flinch.
Once Trudy had taken the group photo, then came the photos of the smaller pairs and groups. Alfie and Jerome, one of all the girls (including me, once again to my surprise), Joy and Patricia, Amber and I, and so on.
We were about to stop when Amber interrupted.
"We need a picture of our vampire and our werewolf together!" There was a chorus of agreement, and Fabian glanced at me with a hesitant smile.
Oh.
They meant Fabian and I.
Fantastic.
"You don't have to if you don't want to," he said. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable." But I nodded anyway, and we positioned ourselves in front of the wall.
This time, Fabian put a very light hand on my waist. The camera snapped, my vision went white for a moment, and Amber let out a large awww as she looked at the picture on the camera over Trudy's shoulder. Then she showed it to me.
I was looking at the camera, a bright smile on my face that showed off my fangs. Meanwhile, Fabian hadn't been looking at the camera.
He'd been looking at me.
Okay, maybe I didn't mind being in pictures if this was going to be the result. I might actually ask for a copy.
"Okay, enough with pictures. It's alien time!" Alfie crowed. Amber snorted and headed for the couch, leaving me to trail after her and curl up in between her and Fabian as Signs began.
A bowl full of candy was put in my lap, and I glanced up to see Fabian grinning down at me. "Start with the Butterfinger," he suggested. Immediately there was a group off shushes, the loudest one from Alfie, who was putting on a tin foil hat for who knew what reason. His voice was lowered when he continued. "That's my favorite."
That night held a lot of candy, a lot of jumping, and a few times where I hid my face in the side Fabian's arm when something scared me a little too much. Under Amber's order, I ate one of everything, even when my stomach hurt. And it's funny, how it worked out in the end.
Because Butterfinger happened to be my favorite, too.
A/N: Only five people guessed what Mark's intentions were. Congrats to them! Now, you may be thinking... what was the point of having him show up for one chapter after so long? Mark will be seen later on in Scarred. And you're also thinking, okay Definition, you've got all her enemies surrendering or apologizing for the most part... what could you possible have planned?
Well... you'll find that out soon. ;D
Next chapter update is June 12th, next Wednesday. Amber, Fabian, and Nina have an important conversation. Fabian reveals something to Nina. Prank Day! *sets up water balloons* Prepare yourselves! ;D
Reviews are love, dear readers. It helps that you get a preview of the next chapter for reviewing. And the person who reviews first gets two. Tempting enough?
Okay, rant time that I hope some of you will read, that's concerning my delay in updates:
Guys, the simple fact is that I have a life outside of writing Scarred. I write as fast as I can, but juggling all the things I'm juggling right now, it's a little hard. So let me be blunt: The last thing I need right now are reviews and PMs like the ones recently where they've been booing me, telling me that I've disappointed them, or that - and I quote - "I'm lucky I still have readers considering how careless I am when it comes to the needs of my fans and my fanfiction." - One of my readers.
I mean, I don't think you realize how much time I put into my fans and this story. I spend anywhere from an hour to four hours every single day writing Scarred chapters. I spend at least an hour every day responding to almost each and every review and PM I get - and trust me, there are quite a few.
Reviews like those are going to slow me down. In fact, it already has. I'm feeling very discouraged thanks to the hurtful reviews sent solely at me, not at my writing. Writing criticism I can take with a smile. Criticism towards me as a person? No. In addition to that, my summer is just starting. I have a job, I have high school to prepare for, I have trips to go on, and I have divorcing parents. I have more than just writing on my mind right now. I hope you all understand and forgive my slowness over the next few chapter updates.
To those who sent those PMs/reviews: I'm not mad. I still want you around, and I hope you will stick with me and understand that I am trying my hardest. I respect your thoughts on the story and always will, no matter how big or small.
To those who have always supported me: I cannot thank you enough.
See ya next Wednesday!