The Waiting Game

Chapter Eleven - Somebody That I Use To Know

Three months since the last update, yeesh. Honestly I finished this chapter a while ago but I was never happy with whatever I wrote. This chapter went through so much editing and changing until I wrote what you see now. It isn't perfection, which is something I'm trying to learn. I can create perfect, but I can make something that I'm proud of :)

I'll stop being a sap now, enjoy!

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If looks could kill, Marinette would be lying dead in the snow. Some small part of her wishes that she could drop dead, at least she wouldn't have to bear witness to the pain boring through Adrien's eyes.

"I guess you hate me now." She said weakly.

Adrien contemplated this for a moment. "I don't think I could ever hate you, maybe that's the worst part. I'm just...I'm sorry you had to go through that alone. What happened after she left?"

"I didn't see her for a few years, so life went back to normal, as normal as it could be. Alya apologised for what she said over the phone, she thought she knew what was best. We made up and I had Thomas a few months later. I wish life had stayed that simple, those five years in Paris with nobody but Alya, my mama, Nino and Thomas were so peaceful," Marinette shared a melancholic smile, the past taunting her. "But like I said. She came back after a few years. She was somehow worse. Her face was this constant shade of sickening grey, she stopped wearing nail polish but the bite marks were more prominent. I could tell that her mother had died, she never said anything about her trip and changed the subject each time I brought it up. I slowly let her into my life again, and not long before Thomas's fifth birthday I let him meet her."

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"Thomas, I would like you to meet Renae."

Thomas looked up at us from his playmat. I could tell he was already very cautious of her, she did look like a ghost so I don't blame him.

"Hey little guy," Renae leaned down to his height. "I remember when you were something your mother and I would gossip about at lunch. How are you?"

Thomas gave me a puzzled look. "It's okay, Thomas."

"Uh...hi. I'm just playing."

Renae stood back up and I saw tears in her eyes. She noticed me staring and quickly wiped them away.

"He's cute. Is it okay if I stick around?"

For the next hour, she played with Thomas, who had opened up to her a bit more. At least to the point where he showed her his favourite toys, I even left them alone together a few times to help my mama, which I thought I would never be doing. When dinner was ready Renae told me she would go down to get it for us, I was surprised at her gentle behaviour. She would make a good mother.

"Mama?" Thomas asked.

"What is it, Thomas?"

"I have a question."

"Yes?"

"When that lady and I were playing we were talking about you and she said that you didn't want me. What's that mean?"

I felt my body go limp. I had to sit on my chair so I wouldn't fall over and frighten him. "What did she say?"

Thomas shrugged before going back to his toy train set. "I don't know."

I could hear Renae coming up the stairs. Her humming almost made me gag.

Renae climbed into my room. I could see it now. She was a spider, capturing people in her web and taking what they thought they knew. "Your mother is insisting that we eat downstairs."