ADRIEN

I feel my head starting to ache as I go down the staircase that leads to my basement. As I arrive there, I turn on the lights and I admire the view in front of me: My paintings and sculptures. I have to check on all of them for my art exhibit next week.

I go through all of them. My paintings of landscapes. My sculptures of different Anime characters. Hey! That addiction can never go away.

I pass by every painting and sculpture of mine until I reach the entrance to my back room. I keep my important and meaningful paintings there. I open the door and I enter the room.

The room was dusty. All my first paintings are here. I even have a lot of portraits of my wife. Ex-wife, I mean. I go through all the paintings since I remembered one painting that I never displayed or showed to anyone before. That painting has been stuck in my head for weeks already and I really need to see it right now.

After going through most of my paintings, I found it. It's an abstract painting and I think that I would be the only one who would understand it. I moved far from it and I saw my hidden picture. I drew a family, my family. With a drawing of me in the left and my wife on the right while she is carrying our son. Using different shapes and sizes, I created my family portrait. I go near the painting and I look at the lower right corner. It has her initials: M.A.

Marinette Agreste

This was supposed to be my gift for Marinette when Thomas was 2 months old. I was so happy the first time I saw Thomas that I made a family portrait in 2 months. But Marinette never got to receive my gift because on the day I was going to give it to her, we found out that Tommy was sick. How could I give her the painting without letting her get hurt?

So I have been keeping the painting for more than 4 years already and it wouldn't hurt to display it, right? Oh God, my head hurts just by thinking about it.

I need to relax first because this single painting is making my life so stressful right now. Ah! I know the perfect place where I can cool myself down.

---------------------

I enter one of Paris' top clubs and I see Nino at the sound booth. He's a DJ in this club and he is well-known around Paris and he has a stable relationship with a famous blogger too.

I walk over to him as he was drinking vodka. I can tell that he was having his break now. I take away his glass from him and I drink what's left in the glass. Nino looks bewildered to see me.

"Hey!" He shouts, "That drink is not on the house!"

"Make me drunk." I simply say to him.

He looked puzzled. He knows that I don't like to get drunk and he also knows all too well that no one can take care of me when I get drunk.

"Adrien, what the hell are you trying to say?" He shouts over the music.

I sigh and I scratch my head because of how annoyed I am already.

"I have a problem, okay?!" I shout over the music in order for him clearly understand what I am saying. "A very big problem and I don't know what to do!"

Nino must have understood what I said since he took my arm and lead me inside a VIP room where we could only see a few people loitering around.

"Okay, tell me the whole damn story." Nino says once we sit on the bar stools.

"I don't know if I should display the painting or not." I directly go straight to the topic.

"If this is about your art exhibit next week then you should display it!" He exclaims.

"It's not that easy-"

"It's not that easy?" He interrupts me, "Dude! You gotta display every painting you have! You're talented and you got a lot of money and you can get the chi-"

"It's the family painting, okay?!" I shout out loud and the whole room becomes quiet and everyone is staring at me. I try to hide myself by looking at the ground and bringing my coat up to my head.

"Hey! All your drinks are on the house if you leave the two of us alone!" Nino shouted out loud and everyone started to go back to what they were doing and they seemed to talk even louder, giving more privacy for me to talk with Nino. Nino turns back to look at me with a deadly stare.

"From all paintings that you can worry about, it has to be that painting?" He seriously says with no expression at all.

He knows about the painting. I kept on telling him about ever since I first thought of it, but he has never seen it.

"Don't display it. It would be suicide if you display it." He says, sternly.

"Why? You talk like as if it's a big deal-"

"It's a freaking big deal, Adrien!" He shouts at me, "People are not stupid enough to not know the true meaning behind the painting!"

"That can be true, but Nino, I-"

"And!" He interrupts me, again, "I remember you telling me that you don't want anyone suspecting you to be a divorcee. If they find the hidden picture in that painting, your career will die!"

"My career is dying already!" I finally explain to him, "This is the main reason why I am having an art exhibit! The art school is not earning enough money anymore. I'm going bankrupt, and if I include that painting in the exhibit, I could be saved." I continue as I start to calm down. I start to sulk as I realize that my life sucks right now.

I pick up the glass that's filled with an alcoholic beverage, that I do not know, and I drink from it.

"This is why I told you to make me drunk." I say, "Maybe if I get drunk, I would know what I should do." I sulk and I start to refill the glass and I drink some more and I have no plans on stopping right now.

I start to feel dizzy and tipsy already. I'm not used to alcoholic drinks and I easily get drunk.

"Hey!! My man! Yo! Adrien needs more!" I say with my some of my words, slurred and I raise my glass, showing him that I need more.

"No!" Nino suddenly shouts out loud to the bartender, "He doesn't need more! Actually he should stop already!!" Nino makes me stand up and now I am leaning on him as I try to walk "properly".

"Hey, where's Marinette? Thomas is crying already, he needs his mother!" I shout out loud in the VIP room. People start to leave the room and I can see that they were annoyed at me already,

Nino guides me to the exit and he is struggling to hold me properly.

"Oh my God, Adrien! You should never drink again!" He scolds me.

"Yes, Marinette!"

"I'm going to force myself to forget this day." Nino says while he was wheezing because of how tired he was. "Hey! I'm taking you to your house!"

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It is now the day before my art exhibit and I still do not know if I should display the painting or not.

I am sitting beside the grave of my son and I just stare at the headstone.

"It's hard being a grown-up, Tommy. Daddy is facing a lot of problems right now." I say to the headstone. Luckily, no one is here at the moment so I get to talk to my son without anyone looking at me like as if I am crazy.

"Should I put up the painting?" I suddenly ask my son.

I get silence as an answer and I know what it means. I rake my fingers through my head and I sigh heavily.

"Oh God..." I mumble, "I need the money, okay? And, I want to display it because.." I stop, trying to calm down, but I can't. I just can't.

"Ah! I can't live like as if everything is okay because everything is not okay! I am starting to get broke and I am heartbroken!" I shout out all of my frustrations I have been keeping for so long. I start to calm down and I suddenly realize one thing that just ruins my life.

"I think I still love your mother." I confess to my 'son', "And I have never stopped thinking about her.

Just thinking of her affects my day. I can't forget our fight and the...the day we separated. 'Does she really hate me?' I kept on asking myself that question and I cannot find a damn answer! I'm-"

I stop and I clutch the part where my heart is. I kneel down in front of the headstone and I start to cry.

"I'm lonely...and I have no one to take care of me...for 4 years I have been alone. Your grandfather decided to leave me early and your mother also left me."

I open my eyes and I stand up after realizing something.

She should have never played with my feelings! I need to wake up! I should stop my love for her! She doesn't deserve anything from me!

"That motherfu-" I stop as I look at the headstone in front of me. I curse under my breath.

"Thomas," I say while looking at the headstone in front of me, "I'm so confused right now...what should I do?" I get silence again as an answer and I start to get annoyed. Not annoyed at him, but at myself.

"Maybe I should-" I stop as I hear someone coming this way. The person was stepping on the fallen leaves that were on the ground and I can hear the sound the leaves make as he or she steps on them. I run to hide behind a tree and I peek to see who it was.

I stopped breathing. My heart started to beat really fast. I felt like as if someone punched me really hard in the gut and I forgot how to breathe.

"Oh my God..." I whisper to myself. "It can't be..."

After 4 years, you still look beautiful, Marinette.

My feet, on instinct start to go in her direction but I stop as I see her, my ex-wife, kneel down in front of the headstone of our son, and she brings out something from her bag. She places the thing in front of the headstone and then she stands up and leaves.

Why did she not stay longer? That's her son and she couldn't stay any longer??

Out of anger, I grab a rock from the ground and I position myself to throw it at her and as I was about to throw it, I immediately stop.

Adrien, what the heck are you doing? You almost threw a rock to the mother of your son.

"Ahh!" I shout as I throw the rock far away. "Get a hold of yourself, Adrien!"

I start breathing heavily and I force myself to relax. I smoothen out my messy hair and I walk back to the headstone.

"What did she leave behind?" I ask myself as I near the headstone, and there I see it.

There is a toy train in front of the headstone. I grab it and I check its details. I smile as I examine it.

I'm holding Thomas, the tank engine. I chuckle as I remember how we got the name, Thomas, for our little boy.

We were just going through our old VCDs, and we saw 'Thomas, the tank engine', and Marinette fell in love with the name. I couldn't say no to her because she was so happy that day and the following days after that.

I put the train in the pocket of my coat and I look at the headstone.

"You know what, Thomas?" I chuckle once again and I take out the train from my pocket. I examine the train again and I see that there are engraved initials on it.

"T and A." I whisper and I know what it stands for. I look back at the headstone.

"I'm going to display the painting."

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