Can You Keep It A Secret?

Chapter 23: You Weren't There When I Needed You The Most!

"Number 6 check. And thank you for the ride Agreste." I say and give him a kiss on the cheek. "Of course Mari." He says with a smile as I get out of the car.

I walk into my house and see my parents sitting at the table looking over some papers. "I'm back." I say. They ignore me and continue to look over the papers. "That's it! I'm tired of this!" I shout as I slam the door. They look up with their eyes wide. "You guys have done nothing but ignore me for the past 3 months!" "No we haven't Marinette. You're exaggerating." "Yes you have! Here I am coming home at-" I pause to check the time. "3:00 am and you guys don't even bother to ask me where I've been!" I notice them ignoring me as they continue to look at the papers.

I walk over to them and pull the papers out of their hands. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng! We did not raise you to behave this way!" My dad shouts. "You haven't been doing much raising lately!" "Go to your room!" "See this is what I'm taking about! I'm trying to talk to you right now and you're not even listening!" I yell with tears pooling in my eyes. "What do you want us to say?!" My mom shouts back.

"Something! Anything! I just-  I don't want to be in this house having to be in my room all the time! I want to be able to talk to you guys! But no! I can't because every single time I try to talk to you, you just brush me off! Every time I ask you to go to the doctors with me you always find an excuse not to go!" The tears streaming down my face.

"Do you think we like not going with you?!" "Then go! Be there for me!" "We're scared!" They yell. "IM SCARED TOO!" I yell louder.

"But being scared isn't a good enough excuse! Adrien is scared too and he's with me basically every second of everyday! You guys have known for 3 years! He barely found out 3 months ago and he's been there for me way more than you have!" "We don't want to get closer to you just for you to leave us!" "I'm your daughter! You should want to spend as much time with me as you can no matter what!"

"We don't want you to die!" "And you think that I want to? I'm 17 years old! I'm on my last year of high school and I might not even get to graduate! I haven't even lived life yet! I don't want to die either but I don't have a choice and neither do you!" I wipe my tears as more stream down my face.

"You don't know what it's like to have your daughter so close to death!" "And you don't know what it's like to have parents not be there for you! I've been through so much these past months! I've coughed up blood not once but 3 times, I went into surgery, I went to my weekly check ups, I got another chemo treatment all without you! The only person who's been there for me was Adrien! Where were you? Where were you when I needed you?!"

"Marinette we-" My parents stand up and try to give me a hug. "Don't touch me! A hug can't make up for this! I don't even know who you guys are anymore! You used to be so involved in my life-" "And you got mad whenever we were too involved!" "But that doesn't mean I wanted you to cut yourselves out of it completely! You weren't there when I needed you the most! I don't think I can ever forgive you for that!" I say. I grab my jacket and start to walk to the door. "Where do you think you're going young lady!" I ignore them and leave slamming the door behind me.

As I walk outside I feel water immediately hit my skin. The rain and my tears blend together. I don't have an umbrella so I get completely drenched in water but I don't care. I'm to upset to worry about it.

I finally reach Adrien's house and knock on the door. Adrien answers and has a worried look on his face. "Mari? Get inside you're going to freeze." He gently pulls me inside his house. "Nathalie can you get her a towel please?" Adrien asks. Nathalie nods and walks out of the room. "Were you crying? What happened?" He asks. He wipes my tears but it's no use because more stream down my face.

"Is that Marinette?" Emilie asks excitedly as she walks into the room. As soon as she sees me her smile falls. "Oh honey what happened?" Nathalie walks back into the room and hands me the towel. I try to give her a smile but the emotions running through me won't let me. Nathalie notices and gives me a soft smile.

"Let's get you dried off. Once you're dry and warm you and Adrien can talk." Emilie says. I nod and she takes me to the room they set up for me. Emilie lays a pink dress on the bed. "Here are some dry clothes. Take a warm shower sweetie." She says and walks out of the room.

After I shower I walk out of the room looking for Adrien. "He's sitting outside." Gabriel says. "In the rain?" I ask. "He said if you had to get wet in the rain then so does he." I turn to walk outside. "Marinette?" I turn back around to face Gabriel. "I hope everything gets better." Gabriel says. "Thank you Mr. Agreste." He nods.

I walk outside and notice the rain stopped. I see Adrien sitting on a bench. Thankfully he's completely dry.

I walk over and sit beside him. He immediately turns his attention to me. "What happened Mari?" I feel the tears slide down my face again. "I got into a big fight with my parents. I finally confronted them about them ignoring me and it didn't go that well." I say in between sobs.

Adrien places his hand on my back and rubs circles trying to calm me down. "I'm sorry Mari." "I'm so tired of it Adrien. I just want them to be there for me. Is that too much to ask?" He shakes his head. "Of course it's not." He pulls me into a hug. "It'll work out sooner or later. I promise."

"I'm sorry I came here, I just didn't know where else to go." "Hey don't apologize." He says pulling away and making me look at him. "You know you're always welcome here." He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. He gives me a soft smile that warms my heart. His smile never fails to bring a smile to my face. And that's exactly what it did.

His smile grows wider. "I made you smile? Am I really that charming?" I giggle and gently push him. "Don't flatter yourself." He chuckles. "There's the Mari that I know and love." I feel blush rise to my cheeks. He smiles. "Come on. Let's get you inside the sun is starting to rise already." He says and stands up. I stand up too and we start to walk inside.

"Adrien?" He stops walking and turns to face me. "Thank you." He furrows his eyebrows. "For what?" "For always being there for me. Even when I made the dumb decision of turning you down, you never left my side, so thank you." "You don't have to thank me Mari." "Yes I do because you didn't have to do everything that you've done for me." I say staring at the ground.

He walks closer towards me and lifts my face up. My eyes meet his. "I'd do it again. In a heartbeat." He says with a soft smile. I don't know why I even needed to think it over. I love him. I've loved him ever since 3rd grade. I never stopped. I made a mistake turning him down, but that doesn't mean that I can't change it.

"Come on it's going to start raining again." He says as droplets of water fall. He starts walking toward the house. "I'm in love with you Adrien!" I shout as thunder rumbles. He immediately stops walking and turns to face me. "Wh-what?" The rain starts pouring down, neither one of us caring as we stay standing outside looking at each other. I take a few steps toward him. "I'm in love with you and the only reason I turned you down was because I was scared. I- I don't want you to get hurt." He smiles and walks toward me.

He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me into a kiss. I cup his face to deepen the kiss. He lifts me up and I wrap my legs around him. He breaks the kiss. "I love you." He says and kisses me again. He repeats this a few times but after a while neither one of us wants to pull apart. We both smile into the kiss.

After a while we pull apart and rest our foreheads against each other. "I love you too." I whisper to him. His smile grows wider and he places a soft kiss on my lips as if we're going to be doing this for the rest of our lives. But sadly we're not...