Disclaimer: I do not own House of Anubis, the characters in it, and the locations used.
A/N: Hey look, there I go, failing you guys again. I'm a week late, I know. I had a research paper, a powerpoint presentation, a debate topic and arguments for it, another paper, five unit tests, and another powerpoint presentation, all due in the past two weeks. And I've been sick.
I know that I haven't replied to reviews. I am so sorry, guys, honestly. But recently I've been getting more and more depressed and as much as I love reading your messages, I simply don't have the energy to reply to all 60 of them, nor the time. But this time I'll try harder, I promise.
And here we go, with chapter 35!
Fabian POV
"I hate this."
"I know."
"I wish we could report him."
"I know."
"I'm worried about her."
"I know."
"Stop saying I know Amber and find a solution to the problem!" I snapped. "I have to fix this. She has to be so terrified to be around him, and it's killing me. There has to be a way."
Amber put a hand on my shoulder and sighed slowly. "I don't know, Fabian. I'm clueless. We don't even know where they're going for their date tonight, and we can't follow them without being obvious. Nina isn't budging on her secrecy about it." She hesitated. "Speaking of secrecy…"
"What?" There was a pause, and it hit me. "You got her to talk? About what? When?" I demanded.
She ran a hand through her hair. "A few days ago. There just hadn't been a good time to tell you. She told me about the letter. Pieces of it, at least." I gave her a look that read well get on with it already. "Um, her stepfather is mad about the guitar. He said she'd be punished for it… badly. And…" She gulped, hesitating.
"Amber, I swear to all that is holy-"
"I can't tell you," she blurted out. I glared daggers at her, and she raised her hands in defense. "Look, I can't, okay? I swore to her that I wouldn't tell anyone, especially you. And as much as I would like to tell you, if I do that, I'll lose her trust. She won't tell me anything ever again, and one day there might be something a lot more important than what I'm keeping from you."
I growled and put my head in my hands. "Fine. Did she tell you when her stepfather was coming?"
"Family Day."
"And you believe her?"
"Not one bit. But she doesn't know that," she said. "I have no clue when he's really coming, but at least we know it's before then. Before February at least." I nodded in agreement. "This won't be good. He has to have something planned, and she has to have some clue about it if she's keeping it from us."
A sigh was pulled from my lips, long and quiet and pained.
"But she admitted something else," Amber said, suddenly blazing with happiness. I blinked at the change - this was out of the blue even for Amber. Apparently, she'd admitted something good. Something really good if it was enough to change her mood so quickly.
"Okay, what did she say?"
Amber gave me a mischievous yet guilty smile. "I promised I wouldn't tell you that either."
"What? Again?" I demanded. "What do you mean? You can't just dangle that in front of me and then take it away!"
She giggled. "Look, all I can say is that it's good… for you especially. You'll have to talk to her if you want to find out."
"But she won't talk to me," I said, and my voice grew pained just as suddenly as Amber's had grown excited. "I'm amazed she even let me show her how the phone worked. She's been avoiding me like the plague and when she doesn't she's still distant and she's been curling more and more into her shell with each day and it's killing me, Amber," I rambled, voice more and more frustrated by the second. "I can't stand this. Mark is slowly crushing her and I can't help."
"Fabian, I need you to calm down before you give yourself your first panic, okay? Breathe," she said, putting a hand on my arm. I sucked in a deep breath and looked down.
My hands were shaking.
"You need to talk to her before you explode. Before you both explode. She knows it too, I've talked to her about, it, she's just pushing it off because she doesn't want to face her feelings." She paused. "Just… let her know you're there to talk to, and that you will never judge her. She'll come when she's ready."
I nodded and swallowed thickly, trying to ignore the still-sick feeling in my stomach.
"Are you going to the skating fundraiser tonight? You know how much everyone loves to watch you skate…"
I shook my head. "Nah. Not in the mood."
Joy burst into the room, her eyes bright with pride. "I know where Nina's going with Mark!"
"Where?" I demanded, shooting to my feet.
"I came up behind her in the living room while she was on her laptop. She was looking up how to skate on Google." It took a moment, but realization dawned in Amber's face, just as it did in mine.
"Amber," I said slowly. "I think I'm going to that skating fundraiser after all."
She saw the idea forming in my eyes just as clearly as I felt it building itself, block after block. "You have a plan, don't you?"
"Yeah. A big one. And it's going to involve any member of Anubis House that'll come, skates, and a lot of nacho cheese." A smirk stretched my lips.
Mark would never see what was coming for him.
This was going to be good.
Nina POV
X
I could not do this.
I could not do this.
I could not do this.
The music was pounding over our heads so loudly I swore my chest was vibrating with each beat. Lights were flashing and swirling across the skating rink. Screaming kids. Cries as people fell to the floor. Popcorn. Pizza. Mark's cologne. Lights. Music, god, the music-
This was a panic attack waiting to happen.
"Someone's nervous," Mark said teasingly. "Don't worry, Nina. I won't let you fall."
I'd rather he let me fall than be touched by him, but I guess I didn't have a choice. I never did with him. He smiled at me, unaware of my thoughts. "Come on, let's go get our skates." I searched for an excuse to get away from him and was relieved to see the restroom just up ahead.
Actually, I need to use the bathroom. Get my skates for me. I'm size 7.
He shrugged and nodded. "Alright, small feet," he joked. "Hurry back to me."
As if.
As soon as I got the stall door to lock, I slid down to the floor, bringing my knees up to my chest. I pulled out my phone and barely managed to send a text to Amber.
We're here. Freaking out a little. -N
Her response was immediate.
Are you with him? Where are you? -A 3
No, I'm hiding in the girl's bathroom. And we've been over this, I'm not telling you where we are. -N
This one took a little longer.
Alright. See you in a sec. -A 3
Wait.
What?
"Nina? Are you in here?" called out a familiar voice. I immediately stood and opened the door, almost slamming Amber in the process. She shrieked and jumped out of the way. "What the hell? Watch what you're doing, will you?"
"What are you doing here, Amber? Why are you here?" I croaked, too shocked to consider apologizing.
She grinned. "What? It's a school night. Everyone is here." She locked arms with me and led me out of the bathroom. "I brought help. Just continue like normal with Mark, we'll be watching and waiting for the right moment. Everything will be fine."
"Who's we?" I whispered, but she just flashed a devious smile and slipped into the crowd. Unsettled but reassured at the same time, I made my way back over to the skate rental area. Mark was in the middle of paying when I joined him.
"Hey," he said with a warm look that sent a disgusted shudder down my spine. "You took a while. Here are your skates." I took them hesitantly, eyeing the wheels with such wariness that he laughed. "You'll do fine. Come on, let's get them on. Do you want help?" I quickly shook my head. Like hell was I going to let him touch me more than needed. "Have it your way."
Five minutes later I was finishing the tie on my right shoe. Mark watched with amusement when I tried to stand, waving off his help. The ground felt very unsteady, shifting underneath me. I lifted on foot, and immediately slid. The ground came closer and closer and I let out a small squeak, waiting for-
Mark caught me around the waist with one hand and grabbed my shoulder with the other, saving me just in time. The second I was vertical again, I flinched away from him. He released his grip on me, but I didn't miss the way his fingers trailed across my waist for a lot longer than necessary. I shuddered, and he sighed.
"Are you alright?" he asked. I nodded silently. "Why does touch freak you out so much? I mean, no matter who touches you, you react this way. Rutter, Millington, Williamson… and especially me." Not wanting to shift to grab my phone and risk falling again, I just shrugged in a clear, I just do, sorry, sort of way. He rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm going to go get a drink of water real quick, so stay here, yeah? I'll be back before you even have time to miss me." Then he was gone.
A second later, a hand grabbed mine, startling me so badly that I would've fallen if the owner of the hand hadn't kept me steady.
Fabian.
"Hey," he said cheerily. "Ready to learn how to skate?" Now this was worth bringing my phone out for.
What do you mean? Why are you here?
He laughed. "Amber said we were here to help. I'm one of the four people included in that we. Amber, Patricia, Joy, and I are all here. Mara and Jerome are coming later, and we aren't sure about the others."
Mark can't see you with me, Fabian, you have to go.
"Oh, I don't think we should be too worried about that, thanks to Amber. If all went well, she just 'accidentally' spilled nachos all down his front. Cheesy ones. Not to mention her soda…" We both looked toward the water fountains and the bathrooms, and I saw the back of Mark's head as he stumbled into the restroom. Amber giggled and shot us a thumbs up. "If he comes out too soon, Patricia will conveniently stumble into him and put a pizza down his shirt."
I couldn't help it.
I grinned.
I see you've got this night all planned out.
"Yep," he said proudly, puffing out his chest exaggeratively. "Amber and I were working on it all night… on all points except one, and that's dependent on you." He extended a hand to me. "Will you skate with me?"
I don't know, Fabian…
"I won't let you fall," he promised. "I will never let you fall." For a moment he seemed to be talking about more than just skating, and I smiled the slightest bit. Without processing what I was doing, I stuffed my phone into my pocket and took his hand. His smile was the brightest I'd seen in weeks. "Alright. Let's teach you how to skate."
It took me several minutes to actually make it over to the skating rink and multiple near-falls, but Fabian was there holding me the whole time. I stared at the polished wood before me with more than a small amount of nerves, and he squeezed my hand. "I'm going to go on first, yeah? Stand as still as you can and watch how I move." He slid onto the rink with ease and began making his circle around the edge.
He was pushing his feet out almost diagonally, from what I could tell, but I was ashamed to say that I barely even focused on his feet. No, what I was focusing on was him.
He'd worn one of those athletic shirts that clung to his body and helped to keep him cool when doing physical activity, and in the speed of the skating, his hair was moving in the wind. He seemed so at ease; light and cool and confident in a way I rarely saw him.
He was beautiful, and I wished for nothing more than a sketchpad in that moment.
When he made his way back to me, I gathered my thoughts quickly and smiled nervously at him. He took my hands. "Do you trust me?" he asked, and it reminded me of the way he'd asked me the same question the day of our midnight picnic. I squeezed his hands and nodded, but the emotion in my eyes would've been answer enough either way. "Alright. Here's how this is going to go. We are going to make our way to the center of the ring. That's where those who are still learning are at. But we have to cut through the faster, better skaters first. So I'm going to slowly lead you out and guide you, okay?"
I nodded again, and he smiled. "You're going to do just fine, Nina."
So why did I feel like he was about to guide me through open heart surgery?
He lightly pulled me onto the rink, sliding backwards. My eyes widened when I hit the wood - I'd thought the carpet was the most unsteady thing I'd be on today.
I'd been wrong.
He saw my fear and squeezed my hands again. "Do you remember how I moved my feet?" I nodded quickly. "Alright, we're going to start with the right foot. Lean the slightest bit forward and to the right, and then move your foot diagonally." I did, and nearly fell. He caught me in time and set me back straight. "Try again."
This time, I managed to slide a little across the rink. Just a few inches, but enough that it made us both smile.
"Fantastic, Nina. Now do it twice - first with the right foot, then with the left." I sucked in a shaky breath and tried, only to stumble. But this time I caught myself and tried again. Again. Again. On my fourth attempt, I finally did it. "Now, I'm going to skate backwards and pull you along to the center. I want you to do that little movement for me, but not too fast."
My eyes widened again. Wouldn't that be dangerous for him?
"I'll be fine," he reassured me, seeing my worry. "I've done it before. Get ready. Three, two, one-"
Then we were sliding out into the main part of the skating rink, and I was terrified. Skaters seemed to go right around us as if we weren't even there, but there were a few that nearly crashed into us and ended up falling themselves. A couple gave us dirty looks, and Fabian apologized quickly before continuing. "See? We're doing fi-"
Someone crashed right into us, sending both of us to the ground and skidding across the rink. I immediately looked to make sure he was okay. He hadn't seemed to hurt his bad arm, which was my main concern. He gave me a thumbs up and a worried look and scooted over to the center of the circle, motioning for me to join him. I looked up at the skaters swerving around me and froze like a deer in headlights. I couldn't move.
I couldn't move.
Then there was a familiar hand grasping mine and yanking me into the center, barely avoiding a skater who sent us an annoyed glance. Fabian's arms wrapped around me. "It's okay, you're safe," he whispered soothingly in my ear. Immediately, I relaxed, taking a deep breath to calm myself.
Are you okay?
"Yeah, I'm fine. I landed in a way that I'll probably only have a light bruise on my hip. Are you hurt?" I did a mental body check and winced when pain flared in my leg. I pulled my leg out a bit to see that I'd scraped up my knee pretty badly when I'd gone skidding across the floor, like some twisted carpet burn. There was a hole in my jeans, but not enough that it would reveal any scars. It was bleeding, but not nearly as much as I'd expected. While I relaxed, Fabian tensed. "I'm so sorry, Nina. Come on, let's go back out to the carpeted area."
Why? I'm fine. It's not bleeding that much, and it barely hurts. I can skate.
He started to protest, but when he saw the determined look on my face, he sighed. "Alright, alright. But here." He took off the hooded sweater he'd tied around his waist and lightly pressed the cloth of one of the arms to my knee. I didn't flinch when the pain flared again. When he pulled it away, it was sticky with blood, but my knee had stopped bleeding thanks to the pressure he'd put on it. "I was going to get this thing cleaned soon anyway. Come on, can you stand back up?" I nodded and put the phone back in my pocket.
"Alright. Let's try this again."
X
Within fifteen minutes we were heading out onto the big circle. I wasn't nearly as graceful as Fabian was and I managed to trip a few times, but I stayed standing and I skated with a smile on my face, never letting go of Fabian's hand.
I felt like I could fly.
I quickly came crashing down to reality when Mark skidded into the rink to stop us, nearly sending us to the ground. His eyes were alive with anger. "So. I've had nachos spilled down my front, I got a pizza somehow put into my shirt, and I have burns on my skin from both. Your friends weren't even kind enough to let them cool down before they sabotaged me."
I leaned closer to Fabian, fear flashing through me, and Fabian shifted in front of me slightly like Mark was about to take a swing at me. "Mark," he said calmly, but it was a deadly sort of calm, like it was mask hiding thinly concealed rage. "Take a step back. Let's not cause a scene, not in front of most of the school population." His words might have worked if he hadn't seen our interlocked hands.
"Oh, so you cringe away from me but you'll clutch at him like he's your lifeline? I see how it is. You're such a fake," he spat. "I thought you were different, I thought you really had a reason. I was feeling sorry for you because I thought you were abused or treated poorly or who knew what. But you just want attention, don't you? How dare you?"
Fabian growled. "Some people just have problems with touch. Let it go." This only seemed to rile him more.
"No, she's a liar is what she is! How many people are in on the secret, huh? Rutter, obviously, but Millington? Williamson? Mercer, that girl who was following him around like a puppy dog for years? You're all pathetic. I'll give you something to flinch away from!" He shot for me, his hands reaching for me, and for a moment I could have sworn that he held more sadness than anger in his eyes.
Then a hand was shooting out to grab his, and it wasn't Fabian's.
It was Alfie's.
"Get off our friend," he growled with such anger he almost seemed like another person, and shoved him onto the hardwood floor. Mark skidded just as we had, but he scrambled onto his feet much more quickly. Now it was Mick pulling him to a stop. People had started to take notice, and several of them had stopped skating to watch the commotion. Fabian pulled me closer to him and wrapped an arm around my waist when he noticed, but I didn't even think he'd realized what he'd done.
Mark was struggling between the two of them, but the skates made it hard to get away. "Let go of me!" he shouted. "I won't hurt her, I swear, just take your hands off of me!" One of the workers came over to see what had gathered a crowd, but they released him and waved the man off. With a wary glance he went back to the carpeted area, and Mark relaxed when they let go. "But I still want to talk to her."
"Like hell," Fabian spat.
"I'll stay where you can see us," he sneered, skating over to me. "I just want to have a conversation with her. I won't even touch her."
Fabian opened his mouth to shoot down his wishes, but I quickly skated in front of him and nodded. Everyone gaped at me, but I ignored them as I skated back over to the carpet. He quickly followed after me and led me over to a less crowded spot, still in the line of sight of Fabian and the others. "I do not appreciate what you got your friends to do to me," he growled. "And you've made it all too clear what you think of me. So here's how this is going to go - we separate from each other now. We don't speak if you don't want to, we don't even look at each other if that's what you wish. But on a day of my choosing, I get to take you out on one more date. One. And then it's all over."
Why?
"Because you have a secret, a secret that I want to know, even if it's not what I thought it was. And I want to have one single date that one of your friends won't ruin. Are we agreed?" When I hesitated, his eyes darkened further. "If you don't, I will continue to pursue you, and I don't think you'll like my methods."
Fine. You have a deal.
"Good. I'm going to leave since you clearly don't want me here, and none of my friends came tonight. You go… have fun," he said, softening for a moment. "Don't let me get in the way of things again." I frowned, confused by his sudden change of emotions.
Why do you seem so nice and sudden get so mean? It scares me, Mark.
He looked away, and I knew there had to be a secret of his own there. "It's a long story," he muttered. "One that I won't be sharing." He looked back to me and touched my cheek for a moment. "I'm sorry for scaring you. It's never my intention, not at first." He could see the way I forced myself not to flinch from his touch and dropped his hand. "Sorry. I won't touch you anymore. Have a good night, Nina."
Then he was skating for the rental booth and returning his skates. Within five minutes, he was gone.
And for some strange reason, I was just as sad to see him go as I was relieved.
"Nina," Fabian said softly, making his way over to me. "What happened?"
Nothing of importance. I'm fine.
"Do you still want to skate, or do you want to head home?" I bit down on my lip, glancing at the skating rink. Mick and Alfie were skating now, and Patricia was putting on her skates. Amber was buying some nachos while Joy filled up a drink. Jerome and Mara had arrived and were over by the skate rentals, talking animatedly.
The whole crew was here.
I wanted to be a part of it.
I want to skate. I'll go home when everyone else does.
Fabian grinned, pleased by my answer, and grabbed my hands. "Alright. Come on, I'll introduce you to a few skating tricks I learned." He started leading me to the rink, but I happened to look back and glance at the window.
Mark was standing there, watching us with nothing but sadness in his eyes. When I locked gazes with him, he quickly turned around and headed for the car.
Fly, little bird. Fly, fly away.
A/N: Welp, that was eventful, no? How soon do you think Nina will finally talk to Fabian now that Mark is gone(ish)? When will Mark reappear? What will happen on their third and final (maybe) date? How soon will Nina be calling her stepfather, and what do you think will happen?
Next chapter update is November 17th, Sunday after next. Not quite sure what'll be happening... maybe a conversation between Fabian and Nina... with explosive consequences. Maybe she'll receive a certain phone call from a certain someone... *whistles* I'm going to YALLFest next weekend, but that means I'll have a 10 hour car drive, so that'll be loads of time to write. I will be on time. I will be on time. I will be on time.
Reviews are love, dear readers. It helps that you get a you get a preview of the next chapter for reviewing. And the person who reviews first gets two. Tempting enough
See ya on the 17th, my little definitions!