D E S I D E R A T A [ g.d ] ON HOLD

12

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"What's that?" Nellie looked up at Maël and Marcia with confused face.

She had been sitting on their couch, in their living room ever since last night, when she left Clive. Shaken and worried, she was in a daze, not quite sure what happened. Once they arrived, Marcia made sure that she ran a bath for Nellie and secretly watched as her best friend undressed – curiosity getting the best of her – but soon enough she started crying when she saw all the bruises on Nellie's body.

That night, Nellie couldn't sleep. Her eyes refused to close because of two reasons. First, she was restless and her brain was racing with many thoughts and second, she was afraid that Clive might barge in and do something to Marcia and Maël, to her or – she didn't even want to think about it – to little Tim.

"A ticket," Marcia replied calmly as she sat down on the edge of the coffee table. Maël just smiled warmly at Nellie, a dimple appearing on his left cheek. He placed a hand on Marcia's shoulder, lovingly.

Nellie weakly smiled at her friends. "I see that, Marcia. I am just confused. Are you travelling somewhere?"

"You see," Maël started and Marcia gripped his hand on her shoulder, urging him to go on. "We, Marcia and I, we thought that you need a vacation." Nellie's eyes widened in surprise as Maël emphasized the word 'you'.

"But... I—," Nellie started, her fingers lightly scratching the fabric of Marcia's pyjama pants. "I cannot accept that."

"I don't want to hear any of it," Marcia smiled and moved over to where Nellie was sitting. She hugged her friend around the shoulders and swatted away Nellie's fringe that almost covered her eyes. "You need to get away for a bit. From your life, from this city and from Clive especially." At the thought of Clive, Nellie shuddered and Marcia only gripped her tighter. "Think of it as our present for your upcoming birthday," Marcia replied with a smirk and winked at Maël.

Nellie just looked at her friends, bewildered and slowly safety filled her body. She was on the verge of the tears but this time they were the happy ones. Her chin started to quiver and a single tear rolled down her cheek. Slightly embarrassed, she wiped it away with sleeve of Marcia's sweater.

"Trust us," Maël broke the silence and sat on the edge of the table so he could be closer to Nellie, "you need to get away for a while. You need to be you for a while and enjoy your life without an afterthought of what might or what might not happen."

"But what about Clive?" Nellie looked up, straightening her back. Angst was now fighting the happiness, threating to move it away.

"Well, that's another story." Maël got up and crossed his arms on his chest. For a second his face turned serious. "I've talked with Albert last night and he told me two important things for the future. For now, I will just talk to some friends in the police department and get a restraining order against Clive. It's usually the victim who needs to do that but I got my ways so don't worry about it."

Nellie just stared at him, her brain trying to take in all the things that Maël was telling her. "What's the other thing?" she asked.

"That's something you don't have to worry about, just yet." Maël smiled warmly at her as Nellie still starred at him in shock. Everything that Maël was saying seemed so unbelievable.