As Marinette packs up to leave behind her family and her friends, reminiscing on the past and so many 'unexpected' memories she'd made in the past week, she's ready to start her new life in the US. But as the saying goes on, she trips down memory la...
That whole night, all she could think about was how Nathaniel just revived her forgotten memories. And she was surprised how much Nathaniel reminded her of 'him'. It's been 9 years, and Adrien had left France once and forever. Although she wasn't aware when exactly he'd vanished or where exactly he was, and of course it would be weird to put her 'stalker skills' to the test right now unless she'd go anonymous. She finally sat up straight and decided to text Alya, making up her mind that she'd tell her the truth. She unlocked her phone and straight up ahead dialled Alya's number. "Hello, Alya? Are you there?"
"Yeah girl, I was just blogging about a product I ordered last week before hitting the bed."
"Ah okay, I was wondering if you could read the text messages I'm about to hit send, I can't really talk it out loud." Marinette rubbed her temple "Of course Mari. But you sound tensed, everything all right?"
"Not really... just read my texts, please?"
"I got ya girl." Marinette smiled through her phone before hanging up. She then started texting Alya, panicking a little here and there because she was afraid of what Alya would think.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Marinette grew tensed as moments passed by, she wanted to tell Alya as soon as Adrien had left, but never gained the courage to hear what Alya would have to say. She was pretty sure at this point that Alya wouldn't talk to her so normally after this. She knew it all.
She read the incoming texts, her thoughts grew intrusively. All she worried about was what would Nathaniel think about her if he got to know this.
She was not ready to let him go.
'Tell him about it.' was what Alya had answered with, but Marinette had gone blank. For a moment, she imagined herself abandoned by Nathaniel, because that was how it had ended with her first love, even though it wasn't meant to turn out that way, Gabriel had some other plans. She left Alya on seen and sank into the mattress of her bed, slowly sinking into her depression and her eyes started to tear up. Her cheeks began to heat up and she didn't want this, she never did. Something in her told her that he would understand and not take it to heart but then it snaps. A part of her had wished that Adrien should've never gone away but then it was supposed to end this way.
◆ ◆ ◆
She woke up and looked at her phone, it was 8 am. Her parents usually open up at this hour. She got out of her bed and opened her curtains, she squinted her eyes when sunlight hit her face and brightened up her room. She grabbed her phone and slid through her DMS, no chats. She opened Alya's chat and saw her last text: Tell him about it. nothing more.
That's when she realized that she should've told Alya long back, but she broke the rule. She dropped off her phone on her dressing table and walked to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror, She had swollen eyes. She wet her toothbrush that had toothpaste on it and started brushing up, still looking at herself, thinking how shitty she was for betraying her own best friend, she felt like a cheat to Nathaniel.
She got out of the bathroom and checked her phone once again; 'no new messages' was all that she read. She was disappointed in herself, but not getting any messages from her only best friend made her feel like the worst person on the planet. She wore new clothes and sat down at her dressing table to do her daily skincare routine, she felt sleepy mostly while she moisturised her skin. But just when she was about to get up, her phone popped a new notification and she immediately picked it up. It was Nathaniel; 'Ready for our daily sesh?;)'
For a moment, she forgot that she was distressed and smiled at his text sheepishly. She replied with 'Totally!!<3'
She picked up her bag and dropped her phone in it, she made sure she had all of her things and she did. She brushed her hair lightly and sprayed herself with perfume. She let out a sigh before going downstairs
C'mon Mari, we can do this She closed the door behind her and started walking downstairs, her home filled with the fragrance of freshly baked bread and cake. She spotted her parents at the dining table, they looked like they were having fun. She smiled at the sight of them and started walking to them. "Good morning maman, good morning papa." but then their smiles turned into disappointed frowns when they looked at her. "We didn't expect this from you, Marinette." Tom said as Marinette's face showed agitation, she was frightened. "You've been hiding it for the past 9 years, how shameless you are!!" Sabine roared getting off the table
"You didn't think of telling us? We're your parents!!"
That's when Marinette snapped out of it, she was still there on the stairs in front of her room, smelling the scented house. She felt relieved that it was all in her head, but one thing she was scared of was that she was going insane. She walked downstairs, her parents not in sight. Probably in the bakery She thought as she made her way through the backroom of the bakery. She entered the main hall and saw her parents there. "Woohoo, our cherry tart is awake!" Sabine said as she gave Marinette a tight hug. "Good morning ma, good morning pa." Marinette smiled at her parents when she heard a horn outside, she looked out the glass door and it was Nathaniel waving at her to come with him. "Alright Dad, I gotta go." She said as she gave Tom a hug. "But you haven't eaten anything. Here, take some chocolate-filled croissants I just made this morning." He said as he handed her a paper bag with some weight to it. "Thank you pa, bye!! bye ma!!" She waved at them as she walked out of the bakery and sat in his car. "Hey love." "Hey Nath." Nathaniel leaned in for a kiss but Marinette just looked away making a seatbelt as an excuse to get away. Nathaniel cleared his throat, "Well then" And he started driving away.
For a good amount of time, no one broke away the silence but Nathaniel felt the need to start up a conversation with her. He saw how she was fidgeting with the paper bag. "So, what's in the bag?"
"Oh it's just some chocolate-filled croissants Dad made this morning, nothing much."
He looked at her, she had some sort of anxiety written all over her face. Perhaps from something she didn't want to tell, something that she was hiding. He held her hand as he drove, "What's the matter, Mari?"
She looked at how his hand gave her the warmth that she missed, how his warmth gave her assurance that everything would be alright, but she decided not to bring metaphor into action right now, she thought she could be wrong. "Um, it's nothing, really." She said as she looked away. Nathaniel looked at how she didn't want to even look at him, this made him worry that if he'd done something wrong.
Whereas she felt that it was better to let go before she'd get attached even further.
