Miracle Box - an MLB rewrite

The Secret Life of Nooroo

The horror movie was bland. Most people at Chloe's party were too distracted to watch it anyways. It was just a sad way of pretending today was normal, that there wasn't just an akuma attack. Marinette sat on the floor, leaning up against Nathan's shoulder out of exhaustion. The movie was almost over but she couldn't remember anything from it, or how it got to this plot point. She was too busy thinking about Adrien. Adrien's dad literally jumped out a window from the top story of a film center which was about thirty to forty stories high. He definitely wasn't alive. And after Adrien's mysterious disappearing act before she left to take care of the akuma, he hadn't returned. He must already know about what happened, she couldn't imagine what he was going through.

Marinette had decided to bite her tongue and keep quiet about the incident. A) If she told everyone that Adrien's dad died, they'd be curious to know how she would know that since there hadn't been any broadcast of the event. And B) If she told them, Adrien would be getting overwhelmed with phone calls from everyone and he'd probably have a nervous breakdown. She didn't want that for him.

Alya was nowhere to be found. She left to go "put ice on her leg" but hadn't come back in over three hours. It was suspicious, and worry began to gnaw at Marinette's gut for the rest of the movie thinking about it. Alya hadn't responded to any call or message she sent either. Something was wrong.

What bothered her most was that everyone was pretending this was fine. The movie was a distraction, despite being so bland and boring. No one dare mention that Alya and Nino were both gone, or that Adrien, drunk, was missing.

Marinette had enough of her thoughts. By the time the movie was done, she was so sick to her stomach she had to do something about it.

"I'm gonna go... find Alya." Marinette announced, standing up. There were a few lousy murmurs in response. Marinette climbed over the bodies of sleeping people on the floor and made her escape from the room. She felt like she had no air to breathe in there. The whole night had been a disaster.

"Alya?" she whisper-called around the halls. Alya was either in a bathroom, or down in the lobby, if Marinette had to guess. But to her dismay, she couldn't find the girl anywhere. Maybe she went home? Her leg was probably killing her anyways, Marinette wouldn't blame her.

Marinette checked one of the bathrooms just in case and to her surprise, Alya was actually there. She was slumped on the floor against a wall, her wheelchair all the way across the bathroom, far from her reach. Alya didn't look like she was struggling though. She just looked... tired.

"Alya?" Marinette asked. This was the bathroom in the lobby, so it was public and had multiple stalls. "Are you ok?"

"Oh. Hey Marinette." Alya hardly even looked at her.

"Is everything alright?"

"Everything is... fine..."

"You missed the movie."

"That's ok."

"Are you sure you're fine?"

"I was overwhelmed, so that's why I'm here. Nothing else."

Marinette sat down against the wall next to Alya. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"I can't really."

"You sure?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Well, even if I don't, it might feel good to get it off your chest?"

"I can't really do that either."

"That's alright then." Marinette gave her an assuring smile. Then there was silence.

"You know when... you already have so much to worry or stress about... and then more just keeps getting added to it?" Alya finally spoke.