Chapter Twenty-Two

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I let out a heavy sigh.

"What is it?" I heard Adrien ask.

"Nathaniel's making his way over here," I told him. I only hoped that Nathaniel wouldn't make a scene tonight. The media was already going crazy, I didn't want him to add anything to the mix.

"Why is he even here?" Adrien said angrily.

I rolled my eyes. "I don't know. Our parents were the ones to deal with the guest list."

"I hope he doesn't cause any trouble," Adrien growled and I'm just gonna say that he sounded so hot-

Can you stop, Marinette? Just stop.

"Can I talk to you, Marinette?" Nathaniel's voice met my ears making me groan lowly.

I still haven't forgiven him for what he had done the other day. My wrist was finally healed now, thankfully.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Adrien beat me to it. "She can't right now. She's busy."

By this time we had stopped dancing and were standing side by side with Nathaniel in front of us.

Nathaniel's glare intensified. "I wasn't talking to you."

Nathaniel stepped closer to Adrien and said blond stepped forward as well. I got between them and pushed Nathaniel's chest causing him to stumble back a few steps. I could feel the eyes of the people in the room on us now.

"Both of you should stop," I said, a frown on my face. I then turned to Nathaniel. "Let's go talk somewhere."

Adrien was ready to protest but I gave him a glare. "It will be fine."

I walked away from Adrien, Nathaniel trailing behind me. I could still feel the eyes of the people in the room on me. I could also hear their so called whispers.

We exited the room, and walked down the hallway away from the music. I was not familiar with this new building as yet. I mean, it was the first time that I've been here since it got built.

When I no longer heard any music, I stopped and turned to Nathaniel. "Talk."

Said redhead took a deep breath and stepped closer to me, causing me to step back. "I want to apologise for what happened the last time we saw each other."

I sighed. Of course that's what he wanted to talk about. "What? Do you want me to say that I'll forgive you and we'll move past it?" He said nothing and so I continued. "Well that's not going to happen this time."

"Marinette-"

"No. I'm going to talk, because that's what you said you wanted to do," I told him. "We have been friends for two years and we have gone through that exact situation before. I told you more than once that I see you as a friend. What can't you get from that? You can't dictate to me who I should talk to or who I should date. That is my choice, not yours. You aren't my boyfriend, Nathaniel. I know that's what you want, but we made an agreement, it's either our friendship or nothing at all."

"I understand that, Marinette, but with Agreste? You're even engaged to him! When did this happen? Why did this happen? You know how much I hate him!" He exclaimed, getting quite upset.

"Does it matter if it's him or not?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Yes, it does!" He replied. "Do you even love him?"

That question took me off guard. I didn't love Adrien. He was just becoming a bit tolerable. I can't love him, but Nathaniel didn't need to know that.

"Of course I do," I said to him, rolling my eyes.

Nathaniel had looked slightly angry before, but now he looked pissed.

"So..." He began to trail off, "you love him, but you can't love me?"

I started step back when he began to walk towards me. My heart quickened when my back touched a wall. "N-Nathaniel, what are you doing?"

His fist collided with the wall beside my head causing me to flinch. "Why do you love him but you don't love me, Marinette?!"

I winced at the harshness of his voice. This was definitely familiar...

"Why do you always have to be such a slut?!" He yelled at me, his hand still wrapped tightly around my neck. I could feel the eyes of his friends on me and I could tell they were amused.

"I didn't-"

"Shut up!" He yelled, his voice dark. He then let go of my neck and shoved me away. "Get out of here before I do something I might regret!"

Nathaniel's hand wrapped around my neck dragged me out of my trance. I wanted to push him away. I wanted to scream. I wanted to do something, but my body wasn't moving.

I felt something wet running down my cheeks and I then realized that I was crying.

Nathaniel's grip got tighter around my neck and it was starting to get harder to breathe.

Why was he doing this?

I just didn't understand....

Suddenly, I could breathe again and Nathaniel's hand wasn't around my neck. I sunk to the floor almost immediately, feeling as if I had lost all feeling in my legs.

I looked to my left and I saw Adrien ramming his foot into Nathaniel's stomach. I buried my face into my knees and tried to calm my breathing. When I felt calm, I lifted my head again. This time Nathaniel was on the ground and Adrien was strandling his waist, punching him in the face non stop.

He could get into so much trouble for this. I tried to tell him to stop, but nothing came out.

My hands were shaking so much. My breathing became uneven and my heartbeat sped up. What was going on? This hadn't happened to me in eight months!

Before I knew it, about three security guards came running and started to pull Adrien from the beaten and bloodied Nathaniel. A lot of people started to crowd around and I got worst.

Adrien's bruised wrists met my eyes when he rested his hands on my shoulders. He was saying something but I couldn't hear a thing.

He started to pull me up.

One moment I was standing and the next, everything went black and I was falling.

* * *

My eyes shot open and I started recognize the inside of the limousine. I tried to sit up and immediately two hands rested softly on my shoulders.

"How are you feeling?" Adrien's asked softly. He was touching me as if he felt like I was going to break, both figuratively and literally.

"I'm fine," I replied, my throat dry. He handed me a bottle of water and I downed it. "I want to go home."

"We are on our way to the hospital. I want to make sure you didn't get hurt," He said, but I shook my head.

"I'm fine, all he did was c-choke me," I stuttered out. I didn't want to think of that again...

I saw anger cross Adrien's face, but he didn't comment on it. "I still want to check."

"I'm really fine-" I started, but the look he gave me told me that there was no room for argument.

* * *

"I can walk you know!" I exclaimed when Adrien picked me up to take me into my house. He did this at the hospital and he was doing it now. "The doctor you forced me to see said I was fine!"

"I don't want you fainting on me again," Was his reply. The visit to the hospital wasn't completely useless, to be honest. I found out that my blood pressure was high and I got medication for that. I had to force Adrien to get his bruised hands dressed and bandaged too.

Now we were at my house and Adrien was being overprotective. He unlocked the door and brought me inside. He brought me upstairs to my room and sat me on the bed.

I crossed my arms and huffed. "That was completely unnecessary."

"Get changed," Adrien ordered, ignoring my statement. "The doctor said you need to take two tablets and head straight to bed and I'm not leaving until you do it."

I rolled my eyes, but did as I was told. I changed into my favourite set of pajamas, with Adrien out of the room of course, and I took the pills he had offered.

Soon I was in bed with my covers up to my chin.

"I'll make sure to lock up on my way out. You have my number if you need anything," He told me as he started to leave the room.

"Can you stay with me?" I blurted out, mentally facepalming. Why did I ask that?!

"Huh?" Adrien looked taken back by the question.

"Can you stay with me tonight?" I asked, not meeting his eyes. "I just don't want to be alone."

"Y-yeah, sure," He said.

He got changed into a pair of male pajamas that I was working on as a new project.

"I'll be in your guest room if-"

"No," My mouth moved before my mind did. "Stay in here."

My face was definitely on fire.

"Okay..." He trailed off, insure. "I'll sleep on the floor then-"

"No," My mouth definitely had a mind of its own tonight. "I want you beside of me."

I was taken off guard when he started to laugh.

"Princess, if you wanted me in your bed all you had to do was ask."

My cheeks lit up at that. "Shut up!" I exclaimed.

Adrien checked if the house was properly locked out before climbing into the bed beside me.

It took all the courage I had left in me to scoot closer to him and to rest my head on his chest. I just wanted to be close to someone right now, I didn't care if it was Adrien. After what happened tonight, a lot those memories have come back and I just wanted them to stay dormant.

As I was about to fall into dreamland, I felt him snake his arms around my waist, pulling me closer.

A small smile touched my lips. I actually liked this....

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Another chapter is here, guys!

How was it?

What are your thoughts?

I have something slightly important this say to you guys.

Y'all must remember that I have a life outside of Wattpad and that I am a regular girl that goes to high school and has to study.

I won't be able to update everytime someone say "update now!". I have school, guys. I said it already that I am in my last year of high school and I needed to focus.

I shouldn't even have my phone! But when I do get it, I try to write a chapter for you all. I'm terribly sorry that the updates aren't consistent, but I have my reasons. I hope y'all can understand that, I really do.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Until next time,

Bye bye little butterflies 😘❤️.