The Summer Festival // A Lukanette/Adrinette Story

Chapter 4: Spinning Fate

Marinette's POV:

I remember a conversation I had with Alya a long time ago. She had just arrived in Paris from a trip with her family and we were sitting on my roof, watching some sappy romance movie on her phone. I don't remember how the conversation even started in the first place, but I do remember her raised eyebrow as she asked me softly, concern evident in her voice,

"But what if Adrien rejects you, Mari?"

At that point in my life, that premise seemed impossible. I and Adrien barely spoke to each other and there was no way in hell I was going to try to make a move on him. It was a time when just the idea of being Adrien's friend was as strange as the idea of becoming besties with Chloe. However, despite my immediate dismissal to her question, I was constantly pestered with the concept of rejection during those months. This horrible idea that maybe a day would come in which I'd have to face reality.

A reality in which Adrien Agreste was somebody, but I....I was nobody.

Just a normal girl with a normal life. Just Marinette.

Not the dashing superhero who saved Paris on the daily, but the simple classmate who had managed to dream up a happy ending that would never truly become reality.

Nonetheless, as I stood in the Couffaine family bathroom with a face smeared with tears, I couldn't help but wish I could turn back time. Because even if anxiety consumed me back then by just thinking about this outcome, it would always be much better than the aching pain I currently felt.

The hollowness that had just replaced my once rushing heart.

"Hey, who is here?!" Someone asks outside and I quickly grab my makeup from my purse, trying to fix up the mess that was currently my face.

"Ummm it's me. Marinette! I am just...fixing up my makeup...I'll be out in a sec." I holler trying to sound cheerful but failing as I manage to somehow smear enough concealer on my face to disguise the previously running eyeliner and puffy eyes.

"Oh, it's me Alya! Girl, you gotta hurry up everyone is already making a circle to play truth or dare! Like you can't miss out!" She practically screams, her words slurring slightly, and I instantly have a strong urge to throw away every alcohol bottle in this household...I mean boat.

"Yeah save me a spot! I still need to pee, but I'll meet you on deck in a bit." I shout back, slightly thankful that she was drunk enough to believe my cheerful act, to which I hear the stomp of her high heeled boots outside as they fade away as a response.

"This isn't gonna be fun," I mutter and I hear Tikki respond from my purse something among the lines of it'll be okay or similar, but I ignore it not feeling like lying to Tikki too.

Quietly, I open the door of the bathroom, making sure I didn't accidentally bump into a couple...or Adrien...and slowly make my way to the deck were sure enough our friends were all sitting in a circle an empty rum bottle in the center.

"Okay, the rules are simple. You get the bottle top you gotta spill the truth or do the dare, you get the butt and you are the one asking or daring. Got it?" Kim says a hand on the bottle as I sit next to Alya who had a ridiculous grin on her face.

"Yeah, but romance dares for last. I know we are all thirsty here but we gotta build up the action, folks." A voice chimes in who I, after a glance around the circle, manage to identify as Max, which brings a round of laughter from the group. Thankfully, I didn't spot Chloe nor Sabrina anywhere, which was a giant relief. However, next to Rose and...prince Ali...sat an unfamiliar girl.

She had black hair styled in a typical pageboy-bob, almond-shaped brown eyes and wore a silky, red dress that I could've sworn I had seen at a fashion show that had aired on TV a few weeks ago. I was sure I had seen her before somewhere, but I couldn't quite place her at the moment, my memory fuzzy.