Because He Loved Me First

9

Marinette looked around the large mansion, completely surprised at how amazing it looked. She had always wondered what the inside of the mansion looked like, not that she ever thought she would actually be able to find out, but here she was now, inside of it, looking around inside and waiting for Gabriel to show up.

Adrien finished his call and gave Nathalie back her phone, before turning to Marinette in an apologetical manner. "My father is working late today. Sorry for wasting your time, but I don't think we're going to be meeting him today." He sighed and turned around to face the door. "I can take you home."

"Wait," Marinette stopped him, refusing to believe that she came all the way here for nothing. "What time is he coming home, then?"

"About 8-pm, but he likes being left alone after coming back from work, which means going straight to his room and hoping no one disrupts him. Why? What are you thinking?" Adrien smirked when he asked the question, hoping what he had in mind was what Marinette had in mind as well.

"We could wait for your father. We could convince him enough for him to help us out, and if he doesn't, then it's okay. We'll just do my parents then." Honestly, the only reason why she even wanted to finish this project soon was because of her decision of leaving. The project was due on Friday, and on Monday, just three days away, she would be leaving. Sometimes the teacher liked giving students extra time to finish school-works, and Marinette didn't want that.

Adrien smirked though, seeming to get the wrong idea by the way his face was shaped. "Marinette, this is still 5:15-pm, so we have about 3 hours until my father comes back," he walked closer to her and leaned towards her. "You're willing to wait?" Marinette nodded. "Okay, why don't we go to hang out while waiting. Trust me, waiting here in the mansion will bore you to death."

Marinette chuckled a little bit, though she hadn't meant to. She wasn't exactly sure if hanging out with Adrien was the best option right now. Adrien raised his hand, saying something about getting something from his room. Marinette wasn't really listening, but then her ears awakened when Adrien grinned and said, "wanna see my room?"

Marinette twitched at the words, sort of getting the wrong idea. She cleared her throat, looking away with a small blush, before answering, "yeah, whatever." Marinette, you're making a mistake! But still, she dragged her feet and followed Adrien up the stairs. Adrien led her up more stairs, until they finally came at a hallway with a bunch of room doors at each wall. Then he took her hand, taking her by surprise but not saying or doing anything about it, he started walking her towards the door in the middle. On the door of the room was a large 'A' being printed on it. Adrien opened the door widely, before taking Marinette inside of it. He turned to Marinette after stepping inside. "Well," He threw his hands up in the air, "welcome to my room."

"You're acting as if I'm staying here for a long time," Marinette muttered to herself, looking around the room. She had to admit, the room was quite admirable. She had never being inside such a large bedroom before; this had to be even larger than Chloe's bedroom seeing as the room was twice the size of her own room. When she walked closer to the shelves, she could see various fencing trophies. Three fencing banners were also visible — green, purple, and red; the larger green one was pinned above his king-sized bed.

"Whoa!" Marinette widened ber eyes when she turned around to see a rock-climbing wall, a basketball half-court, a yellow and red basketball posters hanging beneath the hoop. Marinette also noticed two wooden skateboards, a foosball table, a zipline, an arcade station, featuring two arcade consoles and a dance pad. A large white couch which seemed to be big enough for five people. "I don't get it," She turned around to face Adrien who was searching around in his closet. "How do you get bored in this room?!"

"It's boring when you do these kind of things alone," Adrien shrugged, then his eyes lit up. "Hey! Maybe you should come over often-"

"No!" After a while, she spoke up again. "Hey, can I. . . can I tell you something?"

Adrien turned to her with a small smile. "Yes, of course you can!"

"Well," Marinette looked around everywhere but refused to look at Adrien. "You see, you may not have heard but. . ." How was she going to release this news to Adrien, and how could she be so sure that Chloe hadn't already shut down the bakery? "One of the reasons why I asked you to keep away from me was because of Chloe." Should she had started like that? Maybe she should have just went straight into the problem; the bakery. She should have probably just told Adrien that the bakery was shutting down by a certain brat. She didn't have to mention Chloe.

"Oh, I already know of that!"

Marinette widened her eyes. "Seriously?" If Adrien knew, then why wasn't he doing anything about it? Did he really not care about the bakery? Did he not care whether it got shut down or not? "So you know bout Chloe threatening me?"

"WHAT?!" Adrien dropped what he was holding — his wallet — and faced Marinette again. He suddenly looked a little angry as he started walking closer to Marinette. "Chloe's been threatening you? For how long?! Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

"I thought you just said you knew about it," Marinette was confused.

"No, what I meant was. . ." Adrien groaned, turning away. "I know the reason why you tell me to leave you alone is because Chloe's been mean to you about it. She's been sending you glares, yes, I notice the looks she gives you, she's been spreading more rumours about you, I heard two girls talking about the new rumour she came up with; I can't believe people even believe those lies. And. . . Well, you said it yourself too. Chloe's just mad because she thinks you're stealing her crush away from her."

Marinette gulped down her saliva. "So you didn't know about her threatening me?" She had made a huge mistake. Well maybe it wasn't a mistake, but now Adrien knew and she had been the one to inform him about it. "Nobody told you about her wanting to shut down the bakery?" This was probably the 28th time this week that she'd told herself to think before she spoke. Adrien looked back at her, horrified at the news, but Marinette had to admit, a few bits of her were believing this wasn't a mistake after all.

Adrien turned back to her with an angry look. "Why didn't you tell me?! I can stop Chloe. My father can convince hers to drop the plan. I-"

"Actually," Marinette stopped him from saying anything else, before putting her hands on her waist. "I have a better idea." And she started telling him about the plan on how to save the bakery, that is if Chloe hadn't shut it down yet. How they had to gather people who loved the bakery, make sure Chloe saw this and backed off. If the Mayor did something that the whole Paris hated, what could stop them from removing him as a Mayor? Marinette wondered — did it work like that? She told Adrien everything without stopping, and throughout the whole explanation, Adrien was smiling. Then she finally reached the end of her explanation and gave Adrien a questioning look.

Adrien have a slight chuckle. "Consider it done."