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Friday 4th September – 6:30 PM – Club
Nate swung for him. Of course he did, his cheek was slightly cut and the hit had felt like the guy had been wearing a ring so on top of the numbing ache of being punched he had the sour sting of a cut but he clamped his mouth shut and ignored it. He'd been punched enough times to literally take it on the chin. Where the other guy had swung with strength, Nate struck more quickly and with more tactical placement- the nose always hurt more. He hit the guy square on the bridge of his nose and quite strongly too. He glared at the guy with anger, anger that didn't belong on Nate's facial features. Nate was the lovable guy, a bit of loser but he was the overly friendly chilled out guy who always looked deeper into a person than their skin
If Nate had taken a second to think properly, he'd be shitting himself but he hadn't because he just cared too much about Ellie to not get intervene and get involved- it didn't even feel like a duty to him to protect Ellie, it was instinct. He knew it was stupid because it wasn't even like they were together but even just forgetting that, she was his best friend literally in the world and one of his only real friends and he couldn't let someone behave like that towards her- he couldn't not do anything.
He couldn't stop glaring at this guy in front of him but he didn't hit him again, he was immature but not enough to slip into the trap of letting things slip into a full on fist fight- they'd thrown a punch each, if the other guy accepted it they could be done but that didn't mean Nate wasn't tempted to at least try and beat the shit out of him. "You don't touch a woman like that you bastard, not when she says it isn't okay, you just don't fucking do it,"
Arabella sighed and she took a strong grip on Nate's arm and pulled him back. "Nate you're 100% right but we're going. You got him okay and we need to check you out. So just let it go now," She encouraged before gesturing to Ellie and dragging Nate after her through the crowd towards the back of the room.
"I'm sorry Ellie, I'm sorry. I just...I can't watch that kind of shit, I can't just let people be like that," He grumbled guiltily. Now reality had kicked in a bit more, he felt terrible- he was ruining Jamie's set by causing a commotion, he'd probably embarrassed the hell out of Ellie like he always did and Bella didn't need a stressful night out on top of all of the other secret drama she was harbouring because he could tell too that she wasn't right. He'd heard her comment about the bar, when she'd quoted 'To a Mouse' to herself, he'd just been too off guard to comment on it properly so he tried to act clueless. "You too Bella, I'm sorry but I'm a guy- I know what guys are like, he wouldn't have stopped and," He sighed again doubting himself and he ran his hand through his thick hair brushing it back down to how he'd styled it to the side before they left. He felt awful and now he wasn't even sure what to say. It was hard for Nate, raised primarily by his Mother but having a 'gentlemanly' father he'd been brought up to hold doors for women, pull out their seats and defend their honour when necessary especially that of his Mother and dates and although Ellie wasn't his date- she was more important than that, she was his best friend even though they fooled around sometimes and complicated things for themselves, even without that he'd still have the need to do these things for her simply because he cares about her but he'd gone too far this time, even he could admit that. He just didn't know how to make things right.
Arabella looked up at the stage because she heard Jamie's voice and if anything could capture her attention, it was him and she smiled softly at him. It was something familiar and comforting to see Jamie up on stage doing his thing and she smiled because he knew he would have seen what went on but she didn't want him to worry about them because he would, she knew that. Whenever Bella went out for an evening Jamie would be completely flooding her phone checking she was okay so she knew he that character about him and she did not want this to be ruined for him, so she did what she could to let him know they were okay, she even made a small gesture with her hands like she was back in the '90s before she ushered Ellie and Nate outside to get some air and once they were out she rolled herself a joint and looked at them both.
"Anyone else?" She asked calmly, she hadn't bothered responding to Nate's previous apology because she thought it was stupid, she agreed with his actions and his words so she didn't feel like he was in a position where he should apologise. She just felt like it would be for the greater good if they all took ten minutes to just take a deep breath and calm down before they went back in to watch the rest of the set.