~Meltdowns~

It was seven o'clock in the morning and Bella was sitting in the library, regretting agreeing to tutor George this early in the morning.

It was pouring outside, turrets of rain were smacking against the windows creating an intensely gloomy atmosphere.

"Morning Teach," George said merrily as he strolled in, not looking the slightest bit tired.

Annoyed already Bella slid a piece of parchment across the table, muttering under her breath about his annoying cheeriness.

"Ooh, someone's in a shitty mood," George said mockingly, twirling his quill around his fingers skillfully.

"Ooh someone's going the right way for another broken nose," Bella retorted, flashing him a fake smile.

Rolling his eyes, George started on the quiz, his blood boiling after every chuckle from Bella, signalling that he had gotten it completely wrong.

Finally, after an awkward and tedious hour, Bella had to leave for her first-period class. Thanking her busy schedule she headed for the herbology greenhouse, grateful that nothing else had happened between them.

❤

"Bella just hear me out, ok," Adrien begged, following her along the hallway like a lost puppy.

Bella was walking back from her last class in a seemingly empty hallway, well apart from her ex following her.

Unaware of his ill intentions she kept ignoring him, if she knew what he was going to do she would have walked a little faster.

"Adrien, I swear to Merlin, if you don't leave me alone I will-" "I can change, you said so yourself that you missed me, I'll be good."

Grabbing her wrist, Adrien pulled Bella towards him, pulling her in for a rough kiss, holding her tightly so she couldn't wriggle out of it.

"Adrien!" she squealed against his lips, feeling increasingly uncomfortable, his grip tightening every second, leaving a purple bruise around her wrist.

Yanking Adrien away from the poor girl, George punched him in the face, feeling so insanely angry.

"George?" Bella asked quizzically, not even bothering to step in between them and break up the beating that was going to happen.

The two boys lunged at each other, George being much larger, easily knocked Adrien to the ground and pummeled him, limbs flying everywhere.

Standing up with a bloody nose, George walked calmly over to Bella, "You ok?"

Bella blinked, she was in a daze, still trying to process what just happened, her fingers tracing across the lips that Adrien had kissed forcibly.

"It's no big deal," he shrugged, none of them paying any attention to the bloody mess that had become Adrien behind them in a heap on the floor.

"He was hurting you and I did what I would have done for anyone," he said genuinely which was partially true.

He was all up for beating psycho exes but maybe he wouldn't have bloodied him up so badly if it was a random stranger getting hurt.

"You fucking bitch," Adrien groaned, getting up from the floor, a complete mess.

His anger wasn't directed at George, it was directed at her and that shattered her.

Feeling like she couldn't breathe, her words caught in her throat she gripped onto George's shoulder, not caring who else was around.

George noticed her hand trembling violently and placed one of his own over it to try to soothe her, it didn't work.

She couldn't breathe and she felt like she was dying, surely her face would be going blue any second now?

"I-" she choked out, gripping harder onto his shoulder and leaning into him, "Need," she stammered again, tears flowing freely now.

Her eyes tried to communicate as her voice had given out, all she had was staring desperately but that seemed to be enough.

"I'll take you to my dorm," George said softly, his smile tender and real for once, not any of that fake, sarcastic nonsense, that left when she turned to him for help, clearly needing it a lot.

❤

Luckily there was no one in George's dorm, his roommates had gone out this afternoon.

Bella sat down on George's bed, pulling his quilt around her, still shaking and sobbing.

"Hey, hey, you're ok," George said softly, wrapping her in a hug, not knowing how to properly calm her down but that seemed to work enough and she snuggled into the crook of his neck, her tears dripping onto his skin.

"I'm sorry," she sniffled, pulling away, suddenly feeling incredibly tense.

"Don't be," George said sternly, pulling her back in and stroking her hair until her crying subsided, his arms wrapped around her securely.

Smiling to himself he whispered, "I'm certainly not."

❤