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Socqueline wished the familiar view of Marinette exiting the principal’s office and running down the stairs wasn’t such. Socqueline’s guts twisted at the reminder that she was probably very right about what the reason might be.
At least Marinette was stopping by the store that evening. Maybe, if they could grab something to eat at the mall, maybe even something tiny, it could make her friend’s evening better in the slightest.
Socqueline waited patiently for Marinette to make her way down the stairs. Falling down just to avoid keeping her waiting outside wouldn’t be a great way to start off the evening.
However, Marinette’s balance appeared oddly unbalanced, even for her. After a moment, it dawned on Socqueline it was the fact Marinette was apparently trying to carry every one of her notebooks and her pencil case on her arms.
“I think you forgot your backpack,” Socqueline said lightheartedly. It wouldn’t be the first time Marinette had a slip up that big, although Socqueline would have expected her to forget the rest of her belongings along with her bag.
“About that… don’t worry.” Marinette replied, gloom filling her eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t have a backpack, at least not anymore.”
Socqueline hadn’t wanted to ask in hopes that allowing the situation to fly away would be better, but, her backpack? That was too much to simply gloss over.
“What happened to your backpack?”
In all honesty, Socqueline didn’t even need to ask to know who the culprit was, but she wanted to know exactly what had happened.
“Chloe… she threw my bag outside and it got caught on something and it kind of ripped,” Marinette said with a tiredness in her voice Socqueline recognized from each and every day in which she exited the office after pointlessly trying to defend herself. “It hit Ms. Mendeleiev, and she sent me to the principal’s.”
Socqueline felt her blood come alive as every one of her muscles tensed up, making her have to remind herself how bad of an idea physical aggression was. It wouldn’t end up well for her or Marinette. As much as she wanted to act on her urge, she refrained.
“Didn’t they ask what happened?”
“Yes, but as always Chloe made something up.”
“How do they still believe her? Every single one of her stories sounds so fake!”
“They do, but as soon as anyone asks questions she just pulls out her phone-”
“-and they get scared.”
Marinette nodded. “Can we just… go?”
“Sure,” Socqueline replied, leading the way to the bus station. She wanted nothing more but to have a good talk with Chloe Bourgeois and every one of the adults that kept on turning blind eyes and deaf ears to her friend’s desperate pleas for help, but as always, it wouldn’t work. It never worked.
It was worth trying, though.
The bus finally arrived, and the two girls boarded.
“I’m going to talk to Chloe tomorrow,” Socqueline stated. “She’s going too far, even for her standards.”
“Don’t worry, it’s fine,” Marinette responded.
“One of these days she’s going to hurt you!”
"I told you, it's okay!! You don't have to worry about me, at this point it's... normal."
The bus driver turned around a corner abruptly, almost throwing Marinette off her feet. Luckily, Socqueline was able to catch her just before her friend lost balance. By some sort of miracle, everything the girl was carrying was still tightly clutched between her arms and torso.
It didn't go unnoticed to the older girl that even after that close call, Marinette still wasn't holding any of the support bars. In fact, it almost looked as if she was avoiding touching anything with her palms.
"Hold on to something, you're going to fall again," Socqueline pointed out, trying to not let the suspicion get the best of her. Maybe it was just her imagination, or Marinette was simply distracted enough that she forgot the bars existed for a purpose.
Marinette had a lot on her mind as of lately, and Socqueline knew very well what most of it was about.
"I- okay." Marinette grabbed one of the metal tubes, squinting a little. The little gesture made Socqueline raise a suspicious eyebrow.
“Here, you can put your books in my bag until we get there. I have one you can borrow until you get a new one, that way you don’t have to carry your mom’s materials in your arms either.”
While Marinette put her belongings in, Socqueline couldn’t help but notice some sort of… rash? on her friend’s hands.
"Are your hands okay?"
Marinette panicked. "My hands? Of course they're okay, why wouldn't that be?"
As the bus made another turn, both girls tightened their grip on their respective bars to avoid any further accidents. Quietly, Marinette squealed. The sound was soft, almost imperceptible as its high pitch mixed with the sound of the screeching tires of the bus and its rusty engine.
Socqueline glanced at her friend suspiciously.
"Look, seats!" Marinette called out, almost dragging her behind. Socqueline would have thought it was so that no one could get to the seats before they did, but they were the only two standing passengers on the bus.
As they sat, Marinette began fidgeting, unsure what to do now that she wasn’t holding onto anything as she usually did. The awkward twisting of her hands revealed scratching that didn’t stop being visible even in different angles…
“What happened to your hands?” Socqueline asked again, now grabbing her friend’s hand. “Here, put some of this on!” she said as she extended disinfecting wipes.”Why didn’t you tell me? It could have gotten infected from holding the bars.”
“Thanks,” Marinette said shyly. “It’s okay, I just fell down.”
“You fall down everyday and you have never gotten scratches like this.”
Marinette looked up at her friend with tears in her eyes.
“It was Chloe, she- she pushed me and I fell on my hands!”
Socqueline’s heart shattered at those words.
“I knew she was going to hurt you badly one of these days!”
“It’s only some scratching, I always get some from tripping over myself, it’s… normal.”
With every day that went by, it was more and more obvious to Socqueline how her friend was tied up in her bully’s web of hurt, and it was growing with every day that went by. The only thing in her power right now was to talk to that wretched girl yet again-
Socqueline leaned in to give Marinette the warmest hug she could. Upon feeling her friend by her side, Marinette felt herself breath slowly.
Suddenly, the bus stopped.
“Oh no, this is our stop!” Marinette realized and both scrambled to get off.
Marinette laughed.
Socqueline smiled.
“Do you want to get some bubble tea?”