*POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT*
Reference to episode seventeen ("Animan") in this chapter. You have been warned.
Alya had just settled into her bubble bath when her phone went off.
Thinking nothing of it (as a blogger, notifications were something that constantly followed her), Alya simply sighed and settled further into the hot waters. If she was going to the ball, she'd need all the pampering she could get.
Her phone beeped again.
And again.
And again.
When it started alerting her of a call, Alya finally groaned and reached over for her phone laying on her towel.
She frowned. Marinette?
She picked up.
"Hullo?"
"A-Alya?" Marinette hiccupped, her voice hoarse and barely audible.
Instantly straightening up, Alya held the phone closer to her ear. "Marinette? What's wrong?"
Marinette took a shaky breath. "I-I can't go t-tonight."
"What? Why not?" Alya's mind furiously ran through the list of possible reasons. Parents? No, they had gotten permission. Did she lose her invitation? That wouldn't happen; Alya was sure she kept it taped above the dress when it was finally done.
"S-Someone came into my room," Marinette choked out. She began crying again.
"What?! Your mom? What happened?!"
Marinette continued to cry. Alya's phone beeped again.
Switching onto speaker, she quickly unlocked her phone. Four new messages from Marinette. One new picture.
Alya I cant go
Icanticant
please answer
Itsrunined
Alya heart sank. On the phone, Marinette continued to sob.
Picture Attachment. 4.7MB [Download Now]
With a feeling of dread, Alya pressed download. Within seconds, the picture loaded.
Alya gasped. "Oh, Marinette…"
It was a picture of the Marinette's dress. Or, at least, what remained of it. What was once a gorgeous ballgown that Alya had watched Marinette bring to life was now an almost unrecognizable tattered piece of fabric. Cuts tore up almost every inch of the dress and ran along the embroidery that Marinette had painstakingly worked on for almost every day after school. Most of the cuts were so severe that half of the fabric had fallen off of the mannequin. To add insult to the injury, the very invitation, or what looked like it, that Alya had taped to the collar of the mannequin was scattered pieces at the foot of the dress.
"It was l-like this when I came home," Marinette whimpered. "I can't make another one in time, Alya, I can't!"
"Shh, okay, breath. Deep breaths. We can fix this," Alya said soothingly, standing up from her bath. She wrapped her towel around herself. "I'm coming over right now, okay? Just stay there."
"I-I'm fine."
"No, you're not." Alya shifted her phone to her other ear as she started dressing. "Do you want to wear my dress? I don't need to go; you're the one who worked hard on this. Take my invitation."
"Alya, no. I can't."
"Yes you can," Alya argued.
"Your dress doesn't fit me, Alya," Marinette protested. She sniffled.
"I'm sure you can adjust the size."
"I-It's not as easy as that…"
Alya frowned and paused. "Marinette. Why are you so against me helping you?"
Silence. From the other end of the phone, Alya heard more sniffles.
Alya sighed. "You do want to go to the ball, right?"
"Y-Yes…"
"Then what's the problem?"
"I know you want to go to the ball just as much as I do," Marinette said glumly.
Alya froze.
"Because Nino will be there," Marinette continued. Her voice was steadier now, albeit quieter. "I worked really hard on your dress because you wanted to look nice for him, right?"
Alya pinched the bridge of her nose. Leave it to Marinette to worry about other people's chances rather than her own. She wasn't obvious about her feelings, that she was sure of. But of course Marinette would notice. She always did.
"Mari, I have a better chance with Nino than you do with Adrien on any given day." It was the truth. Or at least that's what Alya always told herself. To be honest, she always wondered if she ever really had a chance with Nino. Yes, Nino had "confessed" about liking her but it was out of panic at the time while avoiding Marinette's question of who he liked. Thinking back on it, it was probably that same day that Alya had started having feelings for Nino. Before that, she had only seen him as a friend.
Marinette drew a small shaky breath. "Alya, that dress was made for you to wear to the ball. I'll be fine."
"No, you won't—"
"Alya, you know that I won't be fine at the ball by myself," Marinette interrupted. "If you don't go, Nino will be disappointed as well."
"I don't care if Nino is disappointed, Marinette. He's not my best friend; you are," Alya said forcefully. Hearing no response from Marinette, she sighed. "I'm going to ask the guys for an extra invitation, okay? And I'm sure Adrien can rustle up some ballgown you can wear from one of his designer friends. I'll call you back when I have some news."
"...Okay." Marinette's voice was unconvinced. She sounded so...tired. All that work wasted. All of those hours after school and on the weekend...Alya scowled.
"Marinette, who did that to your dress?"
"Huh?"
"Your dress. Who did it?"
Marinette was silent.
"...I don't know."
"You don't know?"
Alya heard Marinette sigh tiredly. "The first thing I did was call you."
"Well, go ask around, alright? Ask your parents. I'm pretty sure the culprit didn't jump through your window. Unless Ladybug saw your dress and had a jealous fit."
To her relief, Alya heard a dry chuckle from the line.
"I doubt it."
Alya smiled. "See? Go ask your parents. I'm going to talk to Nino and Adrien for help. I'll text you soon, okay?"
"Okay."
"Bye, Mari."
"Bye, Alya." A pause. "Thank you."
Alya smiled before hanging up. She put her phone down and cracked her knuckles as she looked down at the screen.
"Alright, time to hit up Nino."
Marinette set down her phone. Tikki, who had been sitting on her shoulder the whole time nuzzled against the girl's cheek in comfort.
"It'll be okay, Marinette, you'll see," Tikki said encouragingly. "Alya will get ahold of Adrien and you'll have a new invitation and a dress in no time."
Marinette blew her nose. "It won't be the same, Tikki. It won't be my dress."
"I know. But at least you'll get to see Adrien, right?"
"I guess…"
"It'll still be fun!" Tikki said cheerfully. "Meanwhile, you can ask your parents if anyone came in here, okay?"
Marinette sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I don't need to. It was Chloe."
Tikki frowned. "But the dress was fine this morning when we left."
"And? It has to be Chloe, only she's evil enough to do something like this," Marinette said sullenly. "Who else could it be?"
"Marinette, Chloe was in class the whole day with you, remember?" Tikki reminded gently. "She couldn't have done it."
"Then…" Marinette frowned as she struggled to recall the morning.
"Oh yeah? Where's Sabrina anyways? Did your lapdog get tired of serving you?" Alya smirked at the blond girl.
To both Marinette and Alya's surprise, however, Chloe smirked right back. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms. "Wouldn't you like to know."
Marinette's eyes widened. "Sabrina," She breathed out.
"Are you sure?" Tikki asked.
"She wasn't at class this morning," Marinette quickly explained, her brows furrowed. Now that she had someone to blame, it was easy to forget her misery in place of anger. "She came back at lunch with food from the bakery!"
"That isn't enough to blame someone, Marinette," Tikki tried to reason. "Why don't you talk to her and—"
"She tore up my dress, Tikki! How can you take her side in this?!"
Tikki flinched. Seeing this, Marinette sighed.
"I'm sorry. I'm just angry."
"Being angry won't fix your dress," Tikki said softly. The kwami wiped away a stray tear from the girl's cheek.
"I know."
The two sat in silence for a few seconds when Marinette's phone beeped, notifying her of a new message from Alya.
Okay, don't panic...but we can't reach Adrien. Nino said that Chloe dragged him to who-knows-where for who-knows-how-long as soon as school ended. We must have missed it since we were hurrying home. He's not picking up his phone either…
Marinette's heart sank. Tikki gently squeezed Marinette's shoulder.
Nino went to his house but Natalie said that she didn't know where Chloe took him, only that they'll be back before nine… And according to Natalie...they're not giving out more invites at this time
She wanted to cry. Before nine?! Knowing Chloe, she'd keep him out as long as possible, away from his phone. No invitation, no dress… It was almost like the universe itself damned her. Or Chloe did.
Before she could cry, however, a knock came at her door.
"Marinette? Your friend's here!" Her mom's voice called through the door.
Marinette and Tikki glanced at each other before the kwami flew into her pink pouch.
"Coming!" Marinette called out, scrambling to her feet with a frown. She cursed under her breath. Leave it to Alya to not listen.
Running downstairs, Marinette took the steps down two at a time partly so her mom couldn't get a good look at her face as she passed and partly because after that rollercoaster of emotions, she needed something to work off all that energy.
She nearly ran into her dad as she rounded the corner of the bakery floor.
"Whoa, what's the rush?" her dad laughed, holding her shoulder to steady her.
"Ah, sorry!" Marinette squeaked, momentarily dazed. She hadn't expected her dad to be there; usually, he was behind the counter.
"No need to run; Sabrina just left," her dad chuckled. Marinette froze.
"Sabrina?" Marinette spoke slowly, not truly believing her ears.
"Yes, yes. Nice girl." He held out a familiar white box to Marinette. It was the bakery's take-out box. "She told me to give you this. I don't know why she's returning the box, though. I was just about to head upstairs to give it to you."
Confused, Marinette took the box. It was lighter than how it usually felt, full with pastries. In fact, it nearly felt empty.
Her father turned with a smile, already on his way back to the cash register. Still confused, Marinette opened the box. Her breath caught in her throat.
Sitting in the middle of the white box was nothing other than an invitation. A beautiful, untorn, invitation. The golden words of "You're Invited." gleamed up at her.
Scarcely able to believe it, she turned over the envelope. The untouched red wax seal looked back at her. As she turned it over, Marinette noticed a small piece of folded paper underneath the envelope. Setting down the invitation in the box again, she unfolded the paper.
Written in black pen were two simple words, partly blurred by teardrops long dried.
I'm sorry.
Author's Note:
This chapter was meant to be longer and not as rushed but I have a sociology midterm exam and a speech to give tomorrow so… ^^;
Just a heads up, this story may be delayed for a bit so I can focus on finishing my other miraculous fic Ceramics Class by April Fools (sorry)
Reviews make me smile :)
Thank you to ctebalan, Lokilust, Rose Tiger, missdragongirl, yellow 14, Ern Estine 13624, Guest, Luiz4200, and mayuralover for reviewing! :D