Broken Hearts

★★Chapter 39★★

< Thursday >

Alya woke up in the morning very early, not sure on how she was feeling. Then she realized something.

"AHH!" She let out an inhuman scream, waking Stephanie up. "Tomorrow is my birthday! How could I have forgotten?! Oh my goodness. I was thinking so much about my sisters that I forgot my birthday was coming up."

She had listened to the news about her sisters being found, and she couldn't stop thanking Marinette. She wanted to do something for her, but she didn't know what just yet.

Stephanie grumbled something under her breath, before laying back down to sleep. Unfortunately she couldn't fall asleep any longer, so she woke up.

"I'm practically 18 already, oh my goodness," Alya laughed.

"Come on, it's not your birthday yet! No need to make a huge fuss over it," Stephanie grabbed her pillow and attempted to throw it at her, but stopped herself before she did.

All the memories of yesterday came rushing back and Alya sat back on her bed. "It's not good to lie, you know. I know your friends didn't dare you to do anything. You're just trying to scare me, aren't you?"

Stephanie didn't say anything.

Alya sighed and laid on her back. "Sometimes I get envious of how you and Nino know each other from way back. I wish I knew him for that long."

"Whatever."

"When I heard about you, I really thought we could be actual friends. It's probably weird to become friends with your rival, but I'm not like that. I'm friends with anyone who's nice, and I... I really believed that you were a nice person. Guess I'm easy to fool."

Stephanie sat up. "You... You believed I was a good person? Why would you think that? You see me hanging out with Alison and Chloe and Bette, yet you thought..."

"I just had a feeling that you were different from them. I've seen girls who hang out with Chloe, Alison or Bette and they always end up leaving the school because of the shameful things they've done. It's not their fault. They just chose the wrong friends to hang out with."

"So you're saying that those girls are just fooling me?" Stephanie frowned. "I understand Savannah, but the others-"

"They just want you to be like them," Alya then sat up and faced her.

Stephanie sighed. "Yeah, I know you're right. I'm the kind of girl who used to get bullied a lot. I thought nobody liked me. The only person that ever stood next to me was Nino, and I just let him go like that.

"It just felt nice to have a group of friends who actually wanted to be with me. It felt nice because I felt that I was wanted. I didn't know what I was doing was wrong." She wiped her eyes for the incoming tears. She had cried a lot last night, she didn't want to do it again.

"I'm sorry you felt that way-"

Stephanie shrugged. "It's better to have one real friend than have three fake ones. I'm sorry for what I did, you know, about lying to you."

"It's fine."

"But Alya, I hope you understand what I'm trying to say-"