i can't breathe
She was not okay. Nothing was okay. They weren't okay. Marinette pulled the pillow closer to her chest as she cried, loud sobs echoing in the empty bedroom.
Her mind was on overdrive. Every scenario that she thought could happened hadn't. The one thing she rarely thought about did, though.
"Wow. Um, I—I'm sorry Mari, I really am, but I—I like someone else. I'm sorry. Please, can we stay friends?"
Marinette had been prepared to hear Adrien proclaim his undying love for her. She had been prepared to live happily ever after, have three kids and a hamster. Have that little house in the city and design fashion while Adrien taught physics. She had even planned the colors of their wedding and had designed an entire collection for every member of the bridal party.
Those things, she was prepared for.
Marinette hadn't prepared herself for the feel of rejection. It washed over her like a bucket of cold water, leaving her shivering and sending a chill through her heart.
She didn't know how she found the courage to speak, but soon found an apology tumbling from her lips, willing herself not to cry as she bid him good-bye. Marinette watched him turn away from her as he entered his car and sped away from the curb, leaving the girl and her broken heart on the sidewalk.
Then she ran. Away from the school, away from Alya's questions and the humiliation of being turned down. Away from Chloe's laughter in the background, from Nino's confused gaze as he watched her go. Away from the sidewalk that housed her bleeding and bruised heart.
Her lungs burned fiercely; salty tears blurred her vision as her feet pounded the cobblestone street, her breaths becoming short pants as her destination came into view.
She'd taken down the posters the minute she had arrived home, cramming them into one of her desk drawers. The drop-down schedule had been ripped from the ceiling and stuffed into a pink garbage can. Her black jacket and schoolbag lay strewn about where Marinette had discarded them once inside the room.
Her chest ached. Guilt and hurt churned inside her heart wildly, knocking the wind out of her lungs as she gasped for air. She grasped the pillow tighter to her chest, shuddering as she sobbed openly.
Bluebell eyes opened wide with panic as she tried to inhale, then found she couldn't. Tears kept falling, burning hot against pale skin. Marinette was drowning, suffocating without the oxygen that she craved so desperately.
I can't breathe. I can't breathe.
It all became too much for her to bear, and she shut down, allowing herself to slip off into the darkness that welcomed her with open arms.