I"m Not Ladybug

Chapter 5

Adrien smiled brightly as he stood on the porch with Nino and Alya. They had stopped and gotten Marinette's favorite pizza as a surprise along with a sweet note to let her know how much she means to them. He was sure this was going to work! He bounced on the balls of his feet as he heard footsteps coming towards the door.

The door opened hesitantly. A head poked out as little as possible. The head belonged to a messy, tired looking girl with pigtails...that would be Marinette. She looked awful. Her skin was a sickly color and she looked so thin! She had a thin sheet of sweat on her skin and she looked uncomfortable even standing. She must be really sick.

"Adrien? Alya? NIno? What are you guys doing here?" Normally Adrien would have found her confusion quite cute, but she didn't seem happy that they were there. That was weird, since when did Marinette not like visitors? She was the queen of socialization. She planned every event, she had parties, she was more welcoming than anymore. Here she was though, hiding behind her door and clearly not looking like she was going to invite them in. Adrien would have worried about being rude, but concern from his friend came first.

"Hey Marinette! We brought you some goodies to take your mind off not feeling well. Can we come in?" She was hesitating. He could tell. He was sure the other two could as well, but before he knew it she had plastered on a smile and was allowing them into her house. The house lacked it's normal familiar warmth. The warmth he always wished had been part of his house. He frowned looking around. "Marinette, where are your parents?" She looked confused at his question, having to think it through before responding.

"Oh, they're in China for a baking competition. They'll be back in a few weeks." The group frowned at that. Why would they not take Marinette? She was really going to be all by herself for weeks? That definitely doesn't explain why she hasn't been social! If her parents were out of town she always asked Alya to stay with her so she wasn't alone...so why hadn't she mentioned it?

"GIrl if you had told me that I would have been here this whole time!" Alya joked about being offended. The others couldn't see it, but Alya was worried. This was all so so weird. To see her like this. It took her a second to smile at Alya's words, even then she looked nervous.

"Oh yeah! Sorry about that. They haven't been gone long though, only a few days. Plus they call everyday. It's not like I'm lonely or anything." Marinette shrugged it off as she grabbed water for everyone.

"Well surely one phone call a day doesn't use up all of your social energy. What do you say we have some kind of get together with our class?" Adrien spoke hopefully. Usually Marinette would have been so excited for him to suggest an idea (probably just so she wasn't the only one anymore), but she didn't react to his words. Her face remained blank. Her eyes didn't shine. It actually seemed like the more he spoke the more she dreaded the whole idea. "What do you say Marinette?" She seemed to focus back in on the conversation at the mention of her name. Her face was guarded as she spoke.

"Umm I'm not sure that's a good idea since I'm sick right now." She didn't suggest doing it when she got better either….huh so she must not want to do it. Did she have an issue with someone in the class besides Chloe.

"That makes sense. We could do it when you're better though, right?" She gave him a hesitant smile.

"Yeah, sure! Sometime! I love that kind of stuff."She smiled brightly. Adrien smiled back, glad to see things were becoming normal again.

"Speaking of stuff you love, we brought your favorites dude." NIno pulled out the foods they had brought for her. Nino smiled as he pushed everything towards her. Marinette on the other hand was not smiling, she in fact wasn't moving. She looked pinned to her spot. She looked nauseous.

"Marinette you okay?" She covered up whatever she had just been doing quickly.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, I'm fine. It's just the stomach virus, I don't think I should eat right now. I'll have some soup later or something." Adrien watched confused as Alya looked frustrated all of a sudden.

"Ok girl, I'm just going to come out and ask it. Is someone bullying you? Because besides that you've got me beat. You're not eating, you've clearly lost weight, you're clearly upset and you're pushing everyone away. What is going on?" Alya wasn't yelling, she was just being a passionate best friend. Marinette looked as though she had just been screamed at. It then turned to a bewildered look.

"Bullied? Why would you think I was being bullied?" Nino and Adrien looked just as confused. Alya on the other hand looked as though it was obvious.

"Girl come on! You've clearly lost some weight, you don't like eating pastries anymore or dressing the way you used to, you avoid school and people like everyone's the plague. It's obvious! Who was it? I'll kill them. Chole? Sabrina? Lyla?"

"What? Alya no ones bullying me!" Marinette snapped as she felt the tension getting higher. She needed them to all go!

"Then tell us what's going on! Something is going on! We're your friends, we want to help you." Alya snapped back. Marinette seemed genuinely stumped at that reply. As though she wasn't expecting it. They watched as her face went blank. She didn't say anything. 'They can't know. They'll stick you in a looney bin. You don't even know how to explain how you feel, you'll only look crazy. You have to come up with something. They're all waiting for you to talk. They're going to start asking really hard questions if you don't think!' Marinette mentally told herself. Everyone else was kind of afraid to speak. Just as Adrien was getting ready to, the brunette finally spoke again.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being like this. I just didn't really know how to talk about it….it's just a lack of motivation guys. I was sick and now I fell behind and it's just...the stress is piling up. When I get stressed I have a hard time eating. That's why I've lost weight. For my clothes I just haven't really had the time to put myself together in the mornings with all the catching up I have to do. I've just been struggling."

Before she knew what was happening she was piled in a three way hug. "Girl why didn't you just say so! We've been so worried about you! We could have helped you catch up easily. We actually have your school work with us." Alya spoke into her shoulder.

"Yeah, you've helped us out so many times. The least we could do is get you all caught up. Besides, it shouldn't even take that long considering you're the smartest girl I know." Marinette tried her best not to look into the things Adrien was saying. His words and posture seemed completely sincere. His words though...those were words you'd normally save for someone you were dating. She felt a pang in her chest, both for her and Kigami. What was Adrien doing? He wasn't a player so why was he acting like this? She settled for a slight chuckle. She was flattered by his words afterall.

"Might not want to let Kigami know you think I'm smarter than she is, but thanks Adrien." Adrien gave her an awkward smile, she mentally face palmed. Great, she had made him uncomfortable. She should have kept her big mouth shut. She had been doing so well lately. She felt bad lying to her friends, but she needed them to believe this. If she couldn't handle this life anymore one day, she needed no one to be onto her. She didn't want anyone to stop her.

"Well why don't we get you caught up on all that work?" NIno suggested after the awkward silence was gone. Marinette threw on her best smile and nodded.

"Sounds great, I really appreciate this guys." She really did not want to do school work. She honestly wanted to go dig a razor into her skin or go back to sleep, but it looked like neither of those things were going to happen. Instead she sat down with her friends and pulled out her books. Adrien's compliment did stick with her as much as she hated to admit his influence over her. She did catch herself catching on quickly and being able to finish the work incredibly fast once it was explained to her. She felt a sense of happiness as her friends would give her proud looks as they told her everything was right. Or when they would laugh at something she said, or just give her those warm smiles.

She felt pretty nice until a plate with two slices of pizza was plopped next to her. She frowned looking up to see Alya sitting there. "Eat. You're way too thin right now." Marinette looked down trying to hide the increasing frown. She was not thin. She could be so much thinner if she tried, not that she really cared one way or the other. The comment just annoyed her.

"Alya come on. I'm not that skinny and I'm still getting over a stomach virus. PIzza is the last thing I need." Before she could even finish her sentence Adrien was hopping up.

"I know exactly what you need! I'll make you some soup. I used to make it for my mom all the time when she got sick." Adrien sped off to the kitchen and Marinette was feeling frustrated and guilty. Great now Adrien was going to go through all of this trouble. She wasn't even worth it. Plus she knew she would only puke it up later. She couldn't let them know this though. She had to act normal!

"Thanks Adrien! That's really sweet of you. Are you sure it's not too much trouble?" Adrien shook his head from the kitchen.

"No trouble at all. It's just soup afterall." She heard him moving around as he found what he needed. She really hated for him to cook. There was no way she would be able to keep it down! She kept her face as passive as possible. They were all paying too much attention today. She couldn't let them see how much the thought of eating panicked her. 'I guess I could just puke while they're here and let them think it was a stomach virus? What can they say? No it wasn't? They would never say that. All you'd have to do is make sure you lock the door…' Marinette really didn't want it to come to that. They would only give her more unwanted attention.

Before she knew it all of her homework was done and a steaming bowl of soup was being placed in front of her. If she was being honest it smelled amazing. Plus Adrien's proud smile would have made it delicious either way. She gave a hesitant smile before she shoved spoonful after spoonful into her stomach. Before she knew it she had cleared the whole bowl and her hands were shaking. She quickly sat on them to hide the fact. "Thanks Adrien. It was really good."

"No problem. Do you want me to leave the rest with you so that you have something easy to make?" He was so excited and hopeful. How could she say no?

"That sounds great, thanks." She tried for a smile and she guessed she had succeeded based on how happy he looked. Ugh! Why did he care how happy she was. He had a girlfriend already! Her happiness was the only one that mattered. Adrien needed to learn how to leave her alone! Isn't it bad enough he chose Kigami over her! Now here he was acting like he was her boyfriend and she was just supposed to go along with it! She hated how much she wished he was her boyfriend. Maybe she wouldn't feel this way if he was.

She was racking her brain for ways to get them out of the house when Nino made it easy on her. "Well we've been here for a while and you probably still need your rest. I think we're going to go ahead and head out. Neither Adrien or Alya seemed to like that idea, but Marinette could see what Nino was trying to do for her, so of course she jumped on the opportunity.

"Yeah, I am probably going to go ahead and head to bed soon. Thanks though guys for dropping by. I'll see you all again soon." Leaving no room for arguments they were soon all ushered out the door. Leaving Marinette to finally breathe. She slowly headed for the steps and shuffled into her bathroom. She quietly and sluggishly lowered herself beside her toilet and began to gag...She heaved for the fourth time before her stomach felt empty again. She frowned as she pulled her finger out of her mouth...what was that? Leaning to look into the toilet she was surprised to find blood. Well...maybe she would be going sooner than she thought. Not that she had an issue with that. Maybe her body would just kill her all on it's own. No help from her needed. "Marinette, what are you doing in there?" Tikki's voice came muffled from the other side.

"Nothing Tikki, just not feeling well. I'm fine." To Marinette's horror Tikki came flying through. If Kwami's could get pale Tikki would have been a ghost.

"Marinette, what is that! Is that blood! Did you do this to yourself! Marinette you have to go to a doctor, you just have to! This could KILL YOU! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF! MARINETTE LOOK AT ME!" Tikki's insistent words were getting under Marinette's skin.

"Tikki shut up and get out! Just leave me alone! This has NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU NOW GET OUT!" Marinette roughly grabbed her ear rings and threw them onto the floor making Tikki disappear with a shout. Marinette quickly brushed her teeth and crawled into bed. She had one final thought as her mind slipped into darkness. "Could this be the beginning of the end?"

Author's note: Sorry it's been so long. Just that life has been busy. I'll update when I can, but I hope at least one person enjoys this chapter. Have a good one guys.

-Kaitlyn