Scars [An Exclamation Point Fan Fiction]

PART 22

**PAUL'S POV****

I chase Nikki out of the restaurant, but she's too fast. I catch up to her in a park, as I see her take a razor out of her purse. She presses it to her wrist.

"Nikki stop!" I yell. I run up and kneel by her.

She looks up, tears streaming down her face.

"Why should I?" She says. "Everyone hates me. No one wants us together. This," She says holding up the razor, "Is the only thing that wants me." She presses it to her wrist and slowly drags it across. Something changes in her eyes. I grab the razor and throw it into a nearby pond.

She looks at me, with anger in her eyes. "Why did you do that, you asshole?" She yells.

"Because I love you, and I'm not about to watch you do this." I yell back.

"You don't love me." She says. "You just love hitting me."

She thinks I'm Nate.

"Nikki, it's Paul. I'm not going to hit you. I love you ok." I put my hands on her neck and kiss her. She tries to pull away at first, then kisses me back with tears streaming down her face. I pull away and see her wrist is bleeding. I use the end of my shirt to wipe it off.

"I can't believe I said that.." She whispers. "I knew you weren't him, I just, I don't know." She lays her head on my chest and cries. I rub her back, until she pulls away and wipes her eyes.

"Today seriously sucked." She says.

"How about we go watch a sappy love story to make you feel better?"

"Paul.." She says. "Why do your fans hate me so much?"

I look down and sigh. "I really don't know, but it hurts me seeing you like this. I hate how they make you feel." I take her hands into mine. "I wish I could make everything better." She leans over and kisses my cheek before laying her head on my shoulder. I look up at the sky and lay down, with her head on my chest. I start to sing, "Look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and everything you do." She smiles against my chest and finishes the line, "Yeah, they were all yellow."

I smile and look at her. "You ok?" I ask.

She looks up at me. "Yeah." She stands up and holds out her hand for me to grab onto. I stand up and she says "Let's go watch that sappy love story you were talking about." We go back to mine and Danny's room. Danny and Chris stayed out, so Nikki and I were alone. We lay in bed and turn on The Notebook. Nikki falls asleep not even halfway through the movie. I quietly crawl out of the bed, trying not to wake her. She groans and cuddles the pillow I was just laying on. I sit at the desk and turn on my laptop. Pulling out my phone, I open Twitter and make a new tweet.

" @epPaulZimmer: Surprise Ustream in 2 minutes!" I post the link, and wait then I go live. I start by talkng to the fans a little. Telling them about the past few months that we've been here. After almost an hour I start to end the video.

"So all of you have found out by now that I'm dating Nikki." Her name pops up on the comments section, with tons of hate. "I know some of you don't like it, but I love her. She's the best thing that's ever happened to me. Besides being on this show. I don't want to lose her. I'm not telling you guys to like us being together. I'm just asking for the hate to stop. Stop telling her to die. Stop telling her you hate her. Please, when she sees these it breaks her heart. She actually believes she doesn't belong with me. And seeing the hurt in her eyes, it breaks my heart." I look over to the bed, where Nikki lies asleep. "She's here now. She fell asleep watching a movie with me. I'm gonna go now. I love you guys, don't forget to vote tomorrow night. Bye!" I end the Ustream and crawl back into bed with Nikki. She stirs and her eyes slowly open. I look at the right side of her face, that got hit with the cup. It's bruising.

"Ughh... my face hurts." She groans.

"The cup left a bruise." I say gently stroking her cheek.

She throws herself back onto the pillow. "Fantastic." Her right side hits first. "Owwwww." She rolls over and faces me. I'm trying not to laugh at her. "What?" She groans.

"You know how you said I look adorable when I sleep? Well you're pretty adorable when you're grumpy."

"I'm not grumpy. I'm just not a morning person."

I bust out laughing. "Nikki, you slept for about and hour. It's almost midnight."

"Whatever." She says putting her face in the pillow. I lay down next to her and rub her back. She turns her head and looks at me. "Why are you still with me?" She asks. "I'm so mean to you."

I laugh. "Only when you're tired, or had a long day. I don't take it personally. Plus I love you, that doesn't matter to me." I kiss her cheek and she smiles. She closes her eyes and whispers, "I heard you talking to your fans about me." Then she falls asleep.

**MY POV**

I wake up in Paul's bed, and my face is sore. I sit up and see Paul is asleep on the floor with a couple pillows around him. I crawl out of bed and go lay on the floor in his arms. I put his arms around my neck, having them drape over me. He squeezes me and kisses the back of my shoulder. "Good morning." He whispers.

"Morning." I say holding his arms. "Why are you on the floori?"

"I didn't know if you'd be ok with sleeping in the same bed, and I didn't want to wake you. So I moved to the floor."

"We lay in bed and watch movies, it would've been ok." I say turning to face him.

"I just want to keep you comfortable. I don't want to overstep any boundaries."

I softly kiss his lips. "Thank you for caring."

He smiles, and runs his hand through my hair. "Do you remember last night at all?"

"Unfortunately I remember the bad parts. The cup being thrown, me cutting, yelling at you, waking up being grumpy at you. The good parts I'm glad I remember."

He smiles. "What are the good parts?"

I smile against his chest. "Laying in the park, singing Coldplay, The Notebook, you confessing your love to me on Ustream."

"So you heard that.."

"Yupp. Thank you for asking them to stop."

Paul pulls my chin so I'm looking at him. "I just want you happy." He whispers, before softly kissing my lips.

"When I'm with you I am."

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Danny says.

I look over and see him standing over us.

"You guys are on the Internet again. Everyone loved Paul's video telling everyone to back off." I smile and take Danny's phone. The video has tons of hits on YouTube, its trending on Twitter. People are actually agreeing with Paul. I've never felt happier.