A/N: So this chapter is short again, but it is another chapter quickly. This one was suppose to be longer originally, but something huge happened. So, my cat went missing in August and i did everything you could think of to find him. After eight weeks and basically every early morning and early evening spent walking 5km around calling his name, I was exhausted and had no hope of finding him.

Yesterday morning though, he showed up. I was stunned. Even more stunned by his appearance. He looked like a walking skeleton. So yesterday I had off and was suppose to spend part of the day preparing for our move and the rest writing this chapter. But instead I spent the day at the vet, sure that we'd have to put him down. He could barely walk and was filthy. It wasn't looking good. Even the vet thought he'd have to be put down.

Well, they did his blood work, and it came back positive. Despite how tiny he was, and was obviously starving, he was going to be alright if we followed treatment correctly. So its still a long journey and it's not 100% obviously, but it is looking up. So my focus is going to be on my other responsibilities, my child and now my sick kitty. I'm sure you all understand, but this story is getting so close to being done. So please enjoy this, and ideally see you all again next weekend.

Please Keep My Secret

Chapter 8

Monday morning Adrien was excited to be heading to school. It was the most exciting part of any of his week days. The part where he could live even bit of a normal teenage life. He could go to school, learn with the other young people his own age, and hang out with people during breaks and just feel normal. The only thing that beat it was when he got to hang out with Ladybug on patrols here he could really be himself.

He chuckled.

That wasn't true anymore. He could with Marinette now too. His stomach did flip flops as they drove closer to the school and he realized he was going to get to go to school and see her again. They had such a short time together after a shoot, but it had been such a blast. They texted all evening too and he couldn't help but giggle about at the thought.

Even as they approached the school, the excitement building in his stomach wasn't easing away and he suspected that it wouldn't until he got to see Marinette that morning. So when the car came to a stop and he climbed out, he instantly scanned the area for a sight of the bakers daughter. Usually she hung out front with Alya at the top of the stairs, but there was no Marinette. Just Alya who was talking to Nino.

He glance in the direction of the bakery but didn't see her at all. His heart sank a little and was worried that she might not be feeling well today. He walked up the stairs, realizing that Nino was standing near Alya and they seemed to be talking deeply.

"Hey!" Adrien greeted. The usually chill Nino looked serious and Alya looked really upset. "Is everything alright?"

"Dude, Marinette's not coming today," Nino stated.

"Is she sick?" Adrien asked.

"No! She's upset!" Alya cut in.

"Upset? Why?" Adrien asked.

"You serious right now?" Alya raised her voice at her class mate. She grabbed her phone and started tapping around the screen and brought something up. She hold the phone at him and motioned for him to take it and take a look. "Look at the pictures and then look at the comments," Alya stated.

Adrien did. And did he ever see what Alya was talking about. The pictures looked innocent enough, minus the one with the most reactions and comments. They were in the hundreds, while the main photo had thousands already. The angle the photo was taken from made it appear as if the two of them were sharing an intimate kiss, but of course he was just giving her a friendly kiss on the cheek.

The comments were worse. Photos taken from a bad angle was one thing, but these fans had worked themselves into a frenzy in just a few hours. They had not only come to the conclusion the girl was his girlfriend, but who she was and where she went to school and lived. Even her families business wasn't safe. All of it was revealed.

"They've been messaging her all night," Alya explained. "Contacting her parents store, attacking the business with bad reviews on review sites and basically making their lives miserable."

His fans were doing this. His hands shook, and Alya's phone dangerously came close to falling from his hands. She quickly took her phone back and put it away for now. "She's scared to even leave the house. The front of the shop was egged this morning. Her dad was out front not too long ago, hosing it down. Adrien I don't know what to do. Fangirls when they get like this, can't be reasoned with."

Adrien was taking in her words, but he still couldn't process them. Marinette was frightened to leave her house, and her families business was being attacked because of him. It was just a friendly gesture. Let her see how the fashion industry worked from the photo shooting position and the kiss on the cheek was literally a friendly kiss on the cheek. They were french for crying out loud! A kiss on the cheek was a greeting culturally. And he was convinced that photo was taken at that angle purposely. Marinette didn't deserve such harassment. Even if he had kissed her on the lips, there was no reason to bother her and her family.

"Adrien, how can we fix this?" Alya asked.

"I don't know," Adrien answered. "I don't interact with fans on social media. My father had Nathalie run most of my social work media pages. They are used for business purposes, and she deals with the fans. Nino can tell you I only use Facebook to contact friend and I use Instagram, and I just share screenshots from gaming on there. Its not even listed under my name. I only just started following Marinette on her Instagram a few days ago," he explained.

"What were you even doing with Marinette yesterday?" Alya asked.

"I invited her to the shoot. She's interested in the industry, so I thought she'd be interested in seeing a professional shoot," Adrien explained.

"But why did you ask her all of a sudden?" Alya asked. "You two barely spoke outside school. Or so I was lead to believe," Alya stated.

"Alya, don't get worked up," Nino said. "It's very personal to Adrien. Don't push."

Alya pushed past Nino and glared at Adrien. "What does that mean?"

Adrien sighed. "Marinette found out a big secret about me and she promised she'd keep it, but I was nervous about it getting out still. I have been trying to be more friendly with her because I was paranoid. I asked Nino's advice and he suggested a date, but I didn't want to feel like I was tricking her like that, so instead I invited her to the photo shoot as a friend. She knew it was a friendly gesture."

"What kind of secret?" Alya asked, her eyes narrowed.

"I can't tell," Adrien said. "The secret has zero to do with the harassment that's going on. And its nothing bad, but it had to be kept a secret. No one else besides Marinette knows and it has to stay that way."

The bell rang, and they were officially late. Alya showed no signs of letting this go, but she did turn her back to him and headed to the class room. Over her shoulder, she spoke, "If I find out your lying, I will make your life miserable."

Adrien felt awful, and wanted to turn around and check on Marinette right then and there, but he knew if he skipped class, it would be reported to his father. There was no way around it for now. He's have to check up on her later when he got home. Maybe call her at lunch and hope that she picked up.

8 8 8

She wouldn't have it! The teenage model was staring at her phone, her eyes tracing over the photo of Adrien Agreste with a girl after a photo shoot, his eyes closed, stealing a kiss from the girl. Olivia Monet had never seen her before. Not in any ad's or magazines or any of the runways. In all the other photos her face was clear, and she was hardly anything special, so it was clear the girl wasn't in the industry.

Olivia was the perfect example of what a teen model should look like. Tall, lean, some muscle on her still, well liked in the community, and the only female model in the industry Gabriel Agreste trusted with his designs for young women. She had modelled with Adrien several times since her debut last year.

Her hazel eyes perfectly matched his green ones and her sun kissed skin perfectly matched his porcelain complexion. He was only slightly taller than her when she wore her heels, which worked perfectly for Adrien's father's more flirty designs. They looked amazing together, and he even agreed with her on occasion how well they looked together in the fall line!

They had a connection! She knew they did. So why was he kissing some...some random girl? She wasn't a model. She wasn't that pretty. She was average at best. Olivia was the real deal. She closed the social media app, and tossed her phone aside. She'd be seeing Adrien for an afternoon shoot for their air shots for the new winter line. Adrien would explain. He'd be able to give her a simple explanation. This would be fixed. She was sure of it.

A/N: Its short again, but it is a second chapter so quickly. I'm really sorry. As I explained above, my focus is on my cat right now. But I am going to work on the next chapter throughout the week. Its going to be a longer chapter. I basically split chapter 7 and 8 as they were originally planned to be one average length chapter.