Lean on Me Forever || rini au

07. fear

tw: abuse
—

"n-noah please don't-"

"did you forget our deal?"

"b-but i-"

the girl gets cut off by a sharp pain on her cheek, his force being so strong that she fell to the ground and had her tears filling up.

"you've been quiet for a year, you'd think you would've learnt by now." the boy growls

she felt him grab her by the wrist and pull her back up onto her feet, her legs week as she had her tears streaming down her face.

she saw a twinkle in his eyes, her chest tightening at the expectance of what he was going to do next, knowing she had no other choice and no one to help her.

—

when you feel fear, you feel your chest tighten and your body starts to tremble. your heart rate goes a hundred miles an hour and you can't think clearly. you're in a dark tunnel all of a sudden and there's no light at the end.

now, sitting here, nini felt all of her fear rise up inside of her when she saw the sight of noah's face.

he had the same smirk he always wore when she was younger, his dark brown hair still the same, messy hair cut. but he somehow looked eighteen instead of twenty-one.

nini lost her voice. her throat became dry and she tried to open her mouth to say something but he spoke again.

"you look good neens," he grins

she felt a chill go down her spine and quickly brought her jacket closer around her frame before finally finding the courage to speak.

"w-what are you doing here?" she asks quietly

"you didn't think you could just run away from us without an explanation did you?" he questions

before she could say anything the bell rang and ricky ran in through the door with his books in hand, the teacher following him.

"hey, sorry i took so long," ricky chuckles as he gives nini a quick kiss on the top of her head and sits down in the other seat next to her.

nini swallowed and tries to take a deep breath before nodding "it's fine."

she could feel noah's eyes on her and ricky as he talked to her and she was terrified of what he was here for, what he was here to say or do.

"you okay? you look pale," ricky whispers as the teacher starts talking.

nini felt her vision becoming blurry slightly but she just shook her head and forced a smile "i'm fine."

—

when the bell rang, nini got her books and stood up, heading closer towards ricky as he got his stuff ready.

he tucked his books under his arm and held her hand as nini felt a safety net embrace her, but her body was still trembling and her heart was pounding against her rib cage as she saw noah walking down the hall further ahead.

"you're going to have to head to the cafeteria alone," ricky tells her "i need to go ask mr mazzara something about this project he gave me-"

"no!" nini exclaims, ricky raising his eyebrows as a few people turn to look at her before she clears her throat and lowers her voice "uh-n-no, w-why don't you just-go after we eat a bit?"

"because then we go to our spot, and there's no way i'm missing that." he beams with a light laugh before giving her a small kiss on the cheek "i'll see you there okay?"

nini nodded quietly and felt the cold embrace her once again as ricky let go of her hand, walking in the other direction.

she took a shuddering breath and decided to skip the stop to her locker and head straight to the cafeteria where there would be a lot different people.

but when she took a turn towards the staircase to the cafeteria, the hallway was empty, noah the only one leaning against the lockers on his phone.

she tried to be as quiet as possible and walk past him, but she couldn't help but jump when she heard his voice.

"so, little nini's got a boyfriend now." he announces, pushing himself off the wall of lockers and walking towards her.

nini took in short breaths and swallowed as she tried to keep walking, but of course, he followed her.

"you didn't miss me then? that's a shame, you know i missed you a lot." he smirks, walking backwards in front of her.

nini kept her eyes away from him, another chill rushing through her body as she spoke "y-you're not supposed to be here."

noah laughs and stops walking, making the girl stop too as he started walking towards her

"this is going to be fun," he whispers in her ear, making nini flinch at the sound of his voice so close to her again before feeling him walk away, leaving her alone in the hallway with her fears.