Lunchtime rolled around too fast for Lynette's liking and suddenly Sebastien was grabbing her hand and leading her out of the school to wait for her mother. Lynette felt her skin crawling at the unwanted physical contact but did her best to conceal her disgust.
Suddenly her phone went off, and she smiled as she read the text, "My mom can't make it. Her morning meetings ran late and now she's behind on overseeing the winter collection."
Sebastien audibly growled before smirking, "well, no matter we'll just have to go to that bakery and get us some delicious pie for our date."
Lynette wrenched her hand away from him before she shouted in his face, "look, I'm going to say this one last time before I go to the police about it. You, my parents, everyone can back off. I'm not interested in dating you, Enrique, or any other model, or person for that matter that they can come up with!"
"So who are you after then? A peasant? Your parents would love that," Sebastien sneered.
"Why don't you look up Chloe Bourgeois. Your personalities are completely in sync," Lynette scoffed as she turned her back and walked from the raven haired boy.
This however infuriated him as he grasped her wrist tightly and bellowed, "I own you!"
"I'm a person, not an object or a piece of property you can claim," Lynette shot back as she tried to tug her wrist free only to realize he was holding her tightly enough to cause pain. She could almost feel her wrist breaking.
"Hands to yourself!" A voice called out.
Glancing at the direction of the new voice Lynette wasn't surprised to see Marinette standing there, Adrien, Kim, Nino, and a red haired boy were also with her.
"This doesn't concern you," Sebastien growled as he yanked Lynette closer to himself.
"It's between a couple," He added with an egotistical smile.
"That's a lie if I ever heard one," Nathanael stated.
"What?"
"Man, give it up. She isn't interested, clearly. I get that it hurts ya know. I've been there, and done that, I'd do it again. That's because if you really do care about her, then her happiness comes before yours," Nathanael added.
Sebastien beared his teeth and squeezed Lynette's wrist more.
"You're really hurting me. Let go," Lynette begged almost whimpering as she tried to shake his grip lose.
Adrien grasped Sebastien's wrist and squeezed as tight as he could.
Sebastien hissed in pain as he glared at the blonde male.
"I own her!"
"She isn't yours to claim," Adrien stated as he maintained his grip.
"The longer you hurt her, the longer I'm going to hurt you. Let go," Adrien ordered.
Marinette blinked at the sight, she'd never known Adrien had a dark side to him but this wasn't exactly a situation anyone had ever found themselves in before.
"What is going on here?" An adult's voice asked.
Turning around they saw Ms. Bustier with her hands crossed over her chest and an angry scowl on her face. Horror wiped over her expression as she realized what was happening and she hastily ordered, "Adrien let go of him, now, and you Sebastien, unhand her!"
Sebastien let go of Lynette's wrist, glaring daggers at Adrien while Adrien let go of the dark haired boy's arm.
Lynette gently rubbed her wrist while Kim wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to himself.
"Are you alright?" He asked, offering his hand to inspect her throbbing limb.
Lynette shrugged, the fear, pain and hurt erased from her facial features.
"I don't want you going home alone, or anywhere," Kim stated as he watched her wrist.
"Ms. Montclair, are you hurt?" Ms. Bustier asked as she approached the two friends.
"Just my wrist hurts a little, nothing big," Lynette replied with what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
Eyeing the wrist, Ms. Bustier announced, "You're bruising quite severely. We'll have to get that checked, make sure it isn't broken."
"I-uhh, no it's okay. I'll just put some ice on it," Lynette objected, looking to Marinette, "your parents have ice?"
"Probably," Marinette replied.
She looked to Ms. Bustier, "I'm first-aid certified, Ms. Bustier, if it's alright I'll over see her treatment."
Ms. Bustier nodded, "Alright, Marinette but if she needs medical attention we'll have to send her."
"Yes Miss," Marinette replied as the group of friends headed over to the Dupain-Cheng bakery.
Sabine almost gasped out loud when she saw the bruising showing up on Lynette's wrist and quickly readied an ice pack bringing it over with a towel.
"Thanks, but really I prefer the cold," Lynette replied, refusing the towel.
"Don't be silly, you'll get frost bite that way," Sabine insisted.
"It's fine," Lynette affirmed, not allowing the towel back in between the ice pack and her skin.
"Lynnie, we want to help," Kim started.
"There's nothing anyone can do," Lynette stated.
"You don't know that," Adrien challenged.
"I know people through my father, and Marinette has connections through her own talents. Talk to us, Lynette. This isn't like you and frankly you're really beginning to scare me," Adrien insisted.
"Yeah, and don't forget your grandfather, one of the most powerful men in France. He thinks the world of you, do you really believe that he'd want you to hurt like this? Talk to us," Kim pleaded.
Lynette took three deep, shaky breaths before snapping, "Don't you think I know that?"
"God! It isn't like I haven't thought of calling him, okay? I have! But I begged to be allowed back this year, last year away from you was torture, I can't go through another four or five years of that," Lynette admitted a few tears coming down her cheeks.
"You're the first one that ever saw me and just took me for who I am, Kim. That means more than you could imagine. I don't have to girl myself up, I don't have to fake being something I'm not. I don't have to lie, I don't have to sing, I don't have to show off my body. I can just be me with you, I can't lose that, not now," Lynette exploded as her breathing came out in hot huffs of air.
Marinette gently moved some of Lynette's hair out of her face as she said, "Lynette what's going on?"
"Lynnie," Kim started before hesitating. He rubbed the back of his neck and swallowed a bit of saliva in his throat before asking, "are you into girls?"
"That'd be easier, actually," Lynette answered with her voice breaking towards the end of the sentence.
"At least people understand that. People get it. People find out what I am and just think I'm broken. I'm depressed. I must need medication. Maybe I was raped, best throw me into therapy. That's not working? Oh let's change the medication, up the dosage, and throw in more therapy sessions a week," Lynette rambled with a scowl on her face.
"That still doesn't work? I'm just being stubborn, let's force a relationship on her and she'll let go of that ideal. Let's tell her that it's okay to let a guy take care of her. Let's tell her she's going to end up poor if she tries to take care of herself, that'll 'fix' things," Lynette continued.
"Every single day I wish I could just die. Everywhere you look, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. I'm sick of it. I want to gauge my eyes out everytime I see a sexy commercial. You know what my mom tells me when I change the channel while those are playing? She tells me not to be a prude," Lynette admitted.
"She always wants me in two pieces for photo shoots. In all honesty I'd rather wear a one piece. I'd rather wear jeans and plaid shirts, tank tops. Not 'girly enough' how will I ever get a boyfriend? Every single day since I turned thirteen has been hell, I'm turning sixteen in the winter, that gives you an idea. Nearly three years now, every single time a guy crossed my path, 'Isn't he cute Lynette?' Uhh, maybe? I don't know, is a waterfall 'cute'? Same difference to me," the brunette revealed.
Nino's eyes were shifting left to right as he processed her ranting as he asked, "So you don't dig dudes or chicks?"
"Bingo, man I'd love to give you a prize, but unfortunately I'm too much of a liability to have any kind of sway in my parents' businesses. Sorry. If you ever need background vocals on a track though, let me know. Been doing that for a while," Lynette grumbled.
Kim blinked a little and suddenly things began to click. Right up until they were thirteen Lynette had been happy, and not worried about much of anything. After they turned thirteen she began to show that she wasn't happy anymore.
"I'm asexual," Lynette confirmed, "and my parents want me to be straight, so they keep trying to force it on me. Nice of them, huh? I get to hear every single day, 'When you start dating', 'when you get a boyfriend', 'when you get proposed to' 'when you get married'. When purple elephants fly with a yellow polka-dot umbrella!"
Nathanael blinked as the girl vented her pent up frustration. This was a lot for anyone to go through, he'd heard some similar things from his LGBT friends but he never once heard of anyone being asexual before.
"You're not broken," He stated as he sat across from her, "you're different, but different isn't good or bad, it's just different."
"Tell my parents that," Lynette pleaded as her voice cracked and fresh tears made their way down her face.
"I mean really. Sebastien terrifies me because if he tried to force things I really don't think my parents would stop it, or file a report, or anything. They want it to happen to 'cure me'. It's just sick… but every way out that I can think of either means I start over with absolutely no friends, get bullied like I was at all of the after school groups I went to last year, or I kill myself," Lynette concluded.
"That isn't an option," Sabine objected, Marinette glanced over at her mother not even recognizing that the objection had come from her. Sabine's usual delicate tone was harsh and nearly combative.
"You're sixteen in the winter, you can apply for full emancipation from your parents," Sabine recommended.
"I'd need my own lawyer, pro-bono. My parents have seized control over my bank account," Lynette shared.
"Then when you're ready, you can call me," Sabine offered with a gentle smile.
Marinette blinked in shock while the rest of her classmates watched the bakery co-owner with surprised gaping mouths.
"I stopped practicing law just before we had Marinette, but I still know quite a few civil rights lawyers. You just tell me when and I'll make it happen," Sabine clarified.
Adrien gently nudged Lynette's side, "Told you Mari's parents were nice, didn't I?"
Lynette offered a small smile, and removed the ice pack from her wrist. The bruising had stopped but her skin was bright red from the coldness of the ice.
"Oh my gosh," Marinette whispered moving to grab a towel.
Lynette grasped Marinette's sleeve and kept her close as she assured her, "I'll be fine.. My wrist just has to warm up that's all."
Kim raised an eyebrow at his childhood friend's reaction to her skin's condition as he voiced, "You're awfully calm for someone risking frost bite."
Lynette shrugged, "steady yourself for this Kim: It isn't the first time my skin's looked like this. But I figure scalding or freezing myself is better than cutting. Given what my mom has me model I can't really cut anywhere to feel alive so I burn myself or hold ice in my hands to remind myself I'm still a living person."
Marinette had known Kim through most of elementary school and wasn't at all surprised when the jock excused himself to the washroom, it was the first time she'd ever seen him shed a tear over something.