Stay by my Side

Stay by my Side - Chapter Fifteen

Marinette slowly trudged along the hallways of her school. She was planning to meet up with Marc and Nathanial later, which she was excited for. Finally school life was starting to take a turn in the right direction for her.

She sighed, turning, and leaning against the wall behind her. She felt the cold paint flake onto her fingers from her nails scratching too deep into the pale shade of beige as she thought.

Lila... had been ignoring her. Marinette wasn't entirely sure why, but it was something she wasn't going to complain about. But still...

"Are you alright Marinette?" Tikki asked. "If you don't hurry, you'll be late for class."

"I - I know that!" Marinette replied, slightly flustered. "I was just thinking about... how sudden and how... I guess strange? This situation is..." Marinette struggled to tell Tiki how she really felt, but thankfully Tikki seemed to get the message.

"I was thinking the same thing." Tikki replied. "Maybe Chat Noir talked to her? Or maybe Nathanial, Luka or Marc did?"

"No..." Marinette turned her head away from Tikki, cupping her chin with her hand, deep in thought. "Marc wouldn't try, he's intimidated by her. Nathanial and Luka already know that approaching her directly wouldn't work..."

She paused, focusing less on her surroundings as she grew even deeper in thought, shifting her weight slightly onto her left foot, as her right one raised to press against the wall. "Chat Noir might, but I doubt he knows enough about Lila to have approached her so quickly. I'll make sure to ask him not to talk to her when I see him tonight, just in case-"

A forceful shove on her shoulder caused her to lose her balance and fall onto the floor, crashing against the cold stone. Marinette gasped in pain, feeling the side of her head and her shoulder roughly collide. That's going to leave a bruise...

"Who... Lila?" Marinette said, struggling upwards.

Lila chuckled, her red nails lying against her cheek and lips, as she loosely tried to muffle the sound of her laughter. "Of course? Who else would it be?"

Marinette felt cold fear run down her spine. This was not good. She couldn't transform into Ladybug - who knows what Lila would do with that information. On the other hand, she didn't want to simply deal with Lila either.

She glanced to her shoulder bag, where her phone lay. It had tumbled off her shoulder and now sat a few feet away from her. However, Nathanial and Marc were in class, and there's a chance Lila would break her phone - and maybe even her wrist - if she tried to contact someone right now.

Her best chance...

... was to run for it!

Marinette jumped up and scooped her bag in one motion, before rotating sharply on her heels, and sprinting off in the opposite direction. If she got to class, then she'd be safe... bolting into another classroom would be suspicious and she'd have to explain herself. If she got Lila involved... she could use her lies to get Marinette into worse trouble.

However, Lila was blocking her way to class.

Knowing the best course of action, Marinette took out her phone while running. Nathanial and Marc were in class - which just left two choices. Which one? Who should she call?

Sighing, already knowing her answer, she calls him.

"Hey! Hey! I need help-"

Lila flung her shoe at Marinette, hitting her hand and knocking her phone out of her grasp. Ignoring her lingering thoughts on how Lila should try for the shotput or javelin team, Marinette left her phone there, and kept running.

---TimeSkip---

Marinette was getting tired. She had no idea how Lila seemed to know where she always was, but Lila would not let her past. She had no idea whether he actually heard anything she said, or knew she was in trouble, but all she could do now was rely on him.

Either way, Lila was gaining on her. Lila had made the right call by not sprinting after Marinette. Now Marinette was exhausted, and Lila was able to run after her.

A few small tears ran down her face in fear, as she realised she was at a dead end - the corridor leading to the janitor's closet, nowhere else she can run. She trembled, waiting for Lila to catch up to her. Is this really it? Is she just going to have to suffer with Lila beating her up?

Was no one really going to save her?

As Lila approached - maybe not shotput or javelin, maybe instead she should drop out of school and become a detective or hireable stalker - Marinette called out to her: "Why are you so angry? What suddenly made you so aggressive? You wouldn't normally do this..."

"Your dumb black cat is why." Lila spat out, approaching her. "He arrived at my window last night, going on and on about you, trying to be all threatening. Well I'm sick of it!"

"C - Chat Noir did that...?"

"Yeah, he did! So do me a favour." Lila closed the distance between her and Marinette, and grabbed her by her shirt, pulling her closer. "Stop talking to Chat Noir. I'll make your life hell if you do."

Marinette whimpered, all strength she had as Ladybug escaping her as she felt an overwhelming sense of fear. Lila's hand switched so it was grabbing Marinette's neck and she tightened her grip, cutting off Marinette's air supply, and securely holding her in place as she drew her fist back to hit her.

Marinette closed her eyes tightly, preparing for the enslaught of pain coming her way.

"Stop!" A voice shouted. "Marinette!"

Marinette opened her eyes slightly. It's you...

Hi guys! Hope you enjoyed.

I'm not going to say who came to her rescue, although you can probably tell already just from context, but you'll find out next chapter!

I hope you enjoyed reading, and I just wanted to thank you all again for the amazing support you've shown me so far. It's been incredible.

Anyways, I know of SOMEONE whose gonna really enjoy next chapter, so I should probably get back to work and write it already, haha!

But for now...

Peachy out! 😊