Truth Be Told

Chapter 1

Bright lights in many different colors gleamed and lit the sidewalk in a brilliant display of twinkling holiday lights. Snow crunched lightly under a small pair of booted feet, leaving a fresh trail of small, almost child-like footprints.

The sky was navy blue and gleaming with dozens and dozens of silver stars. The moon was full tonight, proving this by glowing brightly from up above.

Marinette shivered a little and pulled her scarf tighter around her neck in an attempt to stay as worm as possible. Her dark hair rustled a bit in the wind, blowing her pigtails around like a swirling mini hurricane.

"Well, here goes." The pigtailed bluenette muttered quietly to herself and made her way inside one of the many many clothing stores.

Marinette was doing some last minute shopping. And so she had decided to do just that at the mall.

A short lady with green eyes and raven-black hair greeted the young 14-year-old as she stepped foot into the clothing store.

The dark-haired teenager just gave her a quick nod of her head in greeting before turning her attention toward the many hangers and shelves of clothes.

Marinette sighed and swept her gaze over each and every piece of clothing with a critical eye. She needed to find something perfect that her girlfriend would love.

She was browsing through a shelf that had various plad skirts and leggings in various different color screams. She was just about to pick up a few items when she heard a very familiar voice call out to her.

A bit startled, the pigtailed bluenette let out a startled yelp and spun around to face the owner of the voice.

Bluebell eyes met caramel-brown ones and a flash of recognition spouted on the bluenette's face and she smiled brightly at the other girl.

"Oh my spirits! Meiling, what are you doing here?" The girl now known as Meiling, just shrugged her shoulders and returned her frien's bright smile.

"My parents dropped me off here! They said I could stay in Paris for Christmas since they've got a lot of work to do back home."

For a few more moments, nothing was said as the two girls walked around the clothing store in a comfortable silence.

Eventually though, it was the French-Asian girl who decided to be the one to break the ice.

"So where are you gonna be staying while you're here?" As she waited for friend to answer her question, Marinette turned and snatched a silver button-up jacket from a nearby hanger and a pair of black combat boots from the shelf nearby.

It took only a few minutes for the other girl to finally say something. "I'm really not sure, my parents kinda set this up for me as a last-minute surprise." She laughed a little at that, smiling shy and shaking her head from side-to-side as she thought carefully over her next few words. "Uh, hey Nettie? Do you think I could stay at the bakery with you and your parents?"

The joyful smile that Meiling had expected to follow after her question was instead replaced with a somber look and a forced smile stretching across the older girl's face.

A horrible feeling tugged at her corners of her mind and she felt her breath catch in her throat. Something was wrong and Meiling wasn't sure if she really wanted to know the answers to the many storm of questions that were currently swirling around in her brain.

She opened her mouth to apologize for even bringing the topic up but her friend looked up at her, her bluebell eyes watery and her lip trembling slightly as she bit down hard in an attempt to keep herself from crying.

"Y-you d-don't have t-to apologize, there's no way you could've known about it." Meiling's heart clenched tightly in her chest at the broken sound that came out of her friend's mouth as she spoke.