𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐑, miraculous au

Chapter 16

My jaw dropped, nearly hitting the floor. "Because of his dad?"

Charlene nodded grimly, a hand at her forehead. "God, it was awful right after it happened. It seemed like everybody knew about it and the kids at school used to pick on Adrien all of the time. They'd rough him up and call him names, so we took him out of school for a while and ended up putting him back in so he'd get away from Gabriel for at least eight hours."

I sat backwards against the counter in amazement. I was scared for what Charlene had to say next. Poor Adrien. This poor family.

"How did I not even know about that?" I said aloud, more to myself than Charlene. "I've been going to the same school as Adrien since he started back."

Charlene sighed, shrugging again. "Adrien does a pretty good job of blending in."

I'll say he did.

Maybe all Adrien needed was somebody to show some sort of kindness towards him, to let him know that what happened with his mother and father reflected nothing back on him. If the idiots at school thought Adrien was automatically a horrible person for what had happened to him, then clearly they were stupid. School was only temporary and after we graduated, the chances of seeing those jerks were slim to none. I sincerely hoped Adrien knew that.

I opened my mouth to tell Charlene something I thought wasn't going to be nice to hear, but the sound of an old phone ringing loudly beat me to the punch. Charlene jumped off of the counter and reached to grab the ringing phone.

"Hello?" She answered breathlessly. She paused, listening to the person on the other line speaking. "Yes, this is she."

Watching the display of emotions coming over Charlene's face as she listened to the caller made me realize that something very, very wrong had happened.

"Wait, what? Are you serious? Well, is he alright? What do—" Charlene broke off mid sentence and slammed the phone back on the hook, sucking in sharp breaths that made it seem like she was fighting back tears.

"Charlene?" I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"There was an accident," She answered a moment later, her voice shaky. Those words just about flipped my world upside down. I clutched at the counter while my head spun in dizzy circles.

I kept praying over and over in my mind that nobody had been hurt and that everything was going to be alright. Charlene and I jogged down sidewalk after sidewalk, me huffing and puffing the entire time, shoving through crowds of people on our way. A few moments later it became perfectly clear where we were running— the nearest bus stop.

When we rounded the last block towards the bus stop, the sight that was waiting for us was completely unexpected. The entire street was blocked off by orange traffic cones and tape and a plethora of police cars and fire engines were parked everywhere, surrounding a crushed bus, smoking into the night sky, clogging my throat and making my eyes burn.

Charlene didn't waste any time pushing her way down the sidewalk, toward the smoky bus. I followed quickly after her and watched as she was almost immediately stopped by police.

"Get out of my way! They are my nephews!" Charlene shouted, struggling against one of the burly looking police officers. A second later tears were streaking down my face when I caught sight of Adrien sliding his way underneath the barricades and reaching for his aunt, Félix following suit.

I didn't dare step any closer than a few feet as Charlene clutched at the two, holding them as tightly as possible while they hugged her back.

From what I could see at this distance, Adrien didn't look that injured. He was covered in soot and the bruise on his cheek looked worse than before, but other than that, I couldn't tell.

I had to remind myself that everything was going to be alright. Adrien was alive. Félix was alive. But this was no accident. The next time something like this happened, they may not be so lucky. I mean, I may not be so lucky, either.

Adrien pulled away from Charlene a few minutes later and then turned to me with this look on his face I didn't know how to describe. "Come on, Mar," He muttered, rolling his eyes. "I'm fine."

Sure, he was fine now, but what about later? If something as serious as a bus wreck was going to happen again, I may not be there and then what was going to happen? Was I really going to lose him?

"Marinette, stop crying," Adrien sighed, bringing me back to reality. "I'm just fine."

"Adrien," Charlene said, gripping his forearm. "What happened?"

Thank you, Charlene. At least now I had a minute to stop crying.

"I don't know, Aunt Charlene," Adrien answered, rubbing a hand across his face. "They're saying it was something with the breaks. It seems a little shady to me."

Of course, it seemed a little shady.

"Are you boys alright?" Charlene pressed, sounding anxious.

"I'm fine," Adrien said, starting to sound a little annoyed.

"Seriously, we're fine. Just covered in soot. That's all." Félix added.

I'll probably never know what possessed me to do what I did next. I just decided to go with the moment and relish in the fact that Adrien was still here.

I leaned over and grabbed Adrien in a furiously tight hug, wrapping my arms around him, burying my face in his chest. Adrien didn't seem to have a problem with hugging me back, even if we were right in front of his aunt.

He pressed his lips against the top of my head and sighed again before saying, "You're so stupid, Mari. I'm fine."

I mumbled something into his shoulder that sounded ridiculous and extremely incoherent. It was probably going to take a few minutes for me to be able to speak properly again. It wasn't very difficult to see that I was visibly shaking against Adrien and I was seconds away from bursting into tears all over again.

Adrien may have said that everything was fine and that he was fine, but clearly that was a lie. Clearly everything was not going to be okay.