Little Miss Perfect | Neteyam¹

Chapter 25: Confessions

She silently urged him to continue, so he did. "I tried to hate you. I did. But no matter how hard I tried to hate you, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that I hated you, I never could."

"Then why did you treat me the way you did?" She questioned with one eyebrow raised.

"I thought it was the best thing to do at the time." He said, receiving a scoff from Marali. "The best thing to do? Really? And why was that the best thing to do?"

"I was doing it to protect you and me, Mari," Neteyam stated.

Marali looked at him in disbelief. Why would he need to protect himself from her? She would never do anything to hurt him. Did she do something to make him think that she would hurt him? What he was saying didn't make any sense to her, in fact, it made her even more confused.

"Why? I would never do anything to hurt you." Marali asked.

"Not physically, no," Neteyam said as he took a slight pause. "But when I saw how close you were getting with Lo'ak in training, it made me jealous." He said, and Marali contemplated his words for a minute.

Neteyam? Jealous of Lo'ak? If only Lo'ak could hear these words, he would be on cloud nine. Marali thought to herself.

"So, let me get this straight." Marali started, "You ignored me and pretended to hate me because you were jealous of your brother?"

It was probably one of the stupidest reasons he could have given her for his behavior.

Neteyam continued to play with the girls' fingers as he could feel the blush rise to his cheeks. "That's not the only reason." He muttered.

"I was also jealous of how good you were when we were training and the fact that my dad would compliment you, but never me," Neteyam explained, and the pieces started to fall into place.

Memories flooded back into her head of all the times Neteyam and her accomplished something at the same speed, but she was the only one who was complimented. She was the only one who was praised. His behavior towards her made sense, but it still wasn't justified. It wasn't her fault that Jake was so hard on his sons.

"You should have explained that to me, Neteyam." She softly said, and he nodded his head. "Do you know how hurt and confused I was when you suddenly started to ignore me? When you no longer wanted to play with me? I thought I had done something wrong."

"I'm sorry, Mari. If I could go back in time and change it, I would. I promise." Neteyam said.

She nodded her head as she looked him in the eyes. There was nothing present in his golden eyes that suggested he was being deceitful. "I want us to take things slow, Nete. I want to get to know each other again before we jump into a relationship." Marali informed.

Of course, Neteyam was disappointed, but it was ultimately her decision on what they did. He would do whatever she wanted him to do. He would do anything for her.

Suddenly, it dawned upon him what taking things slow meant. "Wait! Does this mean you won't kiss me anymore?" He asked.

"That is what taking things slow means, Nete," Marali sarcastically says.

"But I like kissing you," He said, whining like a child. Marali rolled her eyes as a smile made its way to her lips. "You've only done it once." She laughed.

"Yeah, and I want to do it again," Neteyam complained.

Marali smirked at the teenage boy in front of her, "Well, that's too bad." She teased.

Neteyam playfully glared at her before an idea popped into his head. "Hey, what's that over there?" He said, pointing to something behind Marali.

The girl quickly turned around, confused as to what he was pointing at. "What are you-" She was cut off when Neteyam's lips met hers for a slow gentle kiss.