Stay by my Side

Stay by my Side - Chapter Ten

"Marinette?"

"... Nathanial?" Marinette hesitated, worried he was going to hurt her too. The bell had just rung, and the other students and teacher had left, Adrien throwing a small, concerned glance towards the two of them before being dragged out by Nino, Lila, and Chloe.

She braced herself, curiosity getting the better of her, and asked, "W - What's up?"

"I..." Nathanial looked towards the floor, ashamed of himself. "I fell for Lila's lies."

"W - What? Her... her lies?" Marinette echoed, shocked. Nathanial... realised she's been lying?

"Marinette... I'm so sorry for how distant I've been lately. I found some of my... drawings leaked online, and Lila convinced me you had done them but... I saw a couple of my missing pages slip out of her bag yesterday, and I realised how wrong I was."

"She damaged your personal property?!" Marinette felt disgusted. How could someone be so cruel? To go as far as destroying and sharing personal sentimental items of other people... just to make her hated?

"Yeah... I honestly can't even believe I fell for her tricks to begin with." He trailed off, wallowing in self-hatred, before shaking his head. "No, that doesn't matter right now. Marinette."

"Y - Yes?"

"Would you like to join Marc and I for lunch? I don't think Lila's spoken to Marc yet, so we could get to him before she does and warn him..."

"That's a great idea, Nathanial!" Marinette cheered, running up to him and giving him a hug, feeling her shoulders slump in relief. She's not going to be alone anymore! With such a large weight off her shoulders, she felt like she was flying.

Excitement driving her, she grasped Nathanial's hand and pulled him to the art room, to see if their plan would work. Nathanial - not being as athletic as Marinette - struggled to keep up, but since the distance was so short, allowed himself to be dragged over.

As they burst into the art room, Alix and Rose gave Marinette a violent glare, huffed, and stormed out of the room. Marc watched them leave in confusion.

"... Is there something I'm missing?" He asked, confused.

Marinette laughed, overjoyed at Marc's neutral reaction: proving Lila hadn't spoken to him yet. This could work!

"We... we need to talk to you, Marc." Nathanial said, pulling Marinette to Marc's table. "Would you mind if we ate lunch here? It's going to be a long discussion."

"Oh, alright." Marc responded. "Just let me put away my books."

As he gathered his writing supplies and notebooks, Nathanial began explaining how Lila had tricked him, and stolen and damaged his supplies. When Marc questioned why he didn't report Lila, Nathanial responded with the fact that there's no security cameras in the classroom where his papers fell from Lila's bag, so there'd be no recording to catch it. And if Lila ended up in trouble, she could use her lies to wind it back to Marinette, and get her in trouble for something, when she's done nothing wrong.

Marinette nodded in agreement. "We need to find a way to catch Lila in the act. If she tried to do something in the locker rooms we could catch her with security cameras... no... she's too smart for that."

Marc walked back over to the table and placed a hand on Marinette's shoulder. "Either way, you've now got us. We'll hang out with you Marinette, and help you find a solution. You've always been so kind to us - we're making a book series now thanks to you! - it's only fair that we help you out in return when you need us."

"Thank you Marc." Marinette said, tearing up slightly. "That means a lo-!"

"Marinette!" Lila shouted, storming into the art room. She smiled 'sweetly' when she spotted her next to Marc and Nathanial. "Wow, I found you! You've probably been annoying these poor people who just want to get on with their work, come with me to the bathroom - we need to have another 'talk'!"

Marinette flinched, knowing what Lila meant by that, and as Lila fiercely grabbed her wrist and pulled her up from her seat, she frantically turned her head and sent pleading gazes to Nathanial and Marc.

Lila suddenly found hands on the wrist connected to the hand holding Marinette's.

"Let her go, Lila. She clearly doesn't want to go." Nathanial said with a snarl.

"Besides, we, uhh... have to talk to Marinette about our book series! She's been helping us, so it's only natural for us to keep her informed."

"O - Oh, I didn't realise you were all busy..." Lila stammered, shocked people would oppose her like they just did. "But uhh... I need to talk to her right now. I - I'm leaving school early today you see! So I need to speak to her right now - isn't that right, Marinette?"

Marinette's mouth opened and closed, but no words escaped her, fearful of Lila's reaction. Marc wavered, having not experienced Lila's talented lies before, but Nathanial wasn't having it.

"You can always talk to her tomorrow, we're busy Lila." He paused, then added. "Oh, I'll tell Mrs Bustier that you couldn't make it to our last lesson, so you can leave early without having to waste time talking to her."

"Oh... umm, wait!" Lila responded, knowing she can't miss school lessons for no reason. "There's just a chance I might miss the next class, I'm not sure whether I will or not. I have someone important from my... uhh... family arriving, and they wanted me to greet them... when they arrived!"

"Then maybe you should leave early, to make sure you're there on time." Marc added, catching on to what Nathanial was trying to do.

"I... uhh... okay." Lila responded, leaving the classroom. She wasn't overly worried - she could get out of class in her sleep! But... those two boys... had seen through her deception.

That's a problem.

New chapter yayyyyy!

So yea! Nathanial and Marc now have Marinette's back >:D

This was not in my original plan, but I'm happy that it's going this way - Marinette could use a small angst break XD

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed reading, and I'll see you guys again soon!

But for now...

Peachy out! 😊