Stitches • Marichat

Chapter Twenty Two

Holy crap guys, Red String has officially hit 900k reads!!! I seriously cannot thank you guys enough, I'm so grateful that words are failing me right now. I have bee typing all day since I found out, and now I finally have you guys a new chapter!

I gotta say though, chapter 23 will most likely be the last chapter of the Red String series, but also probably the longest.

After Stitches is completed, I will be focusing on my other books, such as Pawns In His Game, but there will be 2 new stories coming out. One is Ready or Not which is Chlothanael, and the other is Our Undying Love, Marichat. This is based off my one shot, with the same plot but will be extended into a longer story.

Please, enjoy your long awaited chapter!

It was a clever idea. At least, Marinette thought it was. She fell in love with him in the rain when he gave her his umbrella, so it only seemed right to return it to him when she revealed herself. Right? Marinette glanced out her window, watching the rain pelt against it. Alya's voice seemed to be drowned out by the steady thumping of water hitting the glass panes. She hadn't expected the rain to get worse, but it did, such was her luck. However, she couldn't hate on her luck. Luck was on her side, clearly, seeing as Adrien and Chat Noir were the same person.

"Marinette." Alya said, cutting through her thoughts. The brunette was sitting cross-legged on Marinette's pink chaise, wet Ladybug umbrella cast to the side. Her hazel eyes sparkled in mischievous delight as she watched Marinette. "Are you going to tell me what's going on between you and Adrien, or am I going to have to figure this one out by myself too?"

Marinette turned to face her friend, confusion clouding over her features. "What?"

The twinkle Alya held in her eyes dimmed, until it was no longer there, which worried Marinette. Alya always held some sort of glint in her eye, whether it be curious, passionate, or angry, she always had one. It was one of the reasons why Marinette became friends with her. She kept things exciting for her, and she always cared and gave her one hundred percent to everything that she did. Not once had she ever seen that glint disappear, and now that she knew she was the cause of it, whether on purpose or not, she felt terrible.

"Do you really not get it, Marinette?" Alya watched Marinette with inquisitive eyes. The blue-eyed girl slowly shook her head, her lips pouted in worry as she watched her best friend. "You've been leaving me in the dark for months now, Marinette! Every single thing that has been happening to you lately, you never tell me. I had to find out from Nino about the problem that is going on between you and Adrien. Nino, not you!"

Alya continued, and with every point she made, Marinette wilted more and more. "You have a secret boyfriend that I never knew about; you keep coming to school looking as if you haven't slept at all and that's not even the worst of it! Marinette..." Alya choked on her next words, finding them the hardest of all to say. "Some days you- Some days you come to school with scrapes and bruises, and do not give me that bullshit that you tripped and got them."

"And none of these I learned from you, I learned because I care about you and I notice things about you because of that." Marinette's posture dropped, her head dipping below her shoulders as if she could hide away. All this time, she had forgotten about her best friend- she hadn't even thought about what Alya had been going through. The more she looked at Alya, the more she realized how ignorant she had been for the one person who was there for everything (Aside from Chat Noir/Adrien, of course, but even he couldn't be there for everything. Whole identity thing made it hard.) And boy, did it suck.

"Alya..." Marinette was at a loss for words. What on Earth could she possibly say to make this up to her best friend? What would it take for her best friend to truly forgive her? "I-"