SLOWLY FALLING FOR YOU (α∂яιєηєттє)

Chap. 22

I was about to say something, but Alya quickly waved at us, telling us to come over. Marinette and I headed over to the others, taking a seat on the large blanket. Alya chuckled a little bit as she looked at all over us. "First Chloe goes off to talk to Nathaniel. Then Adrien goes to talk to Marinette. Is there something going on between the four of you that the rest of us don't know about? Because it feels to me like we got two new couples yet they're not saying anything."

"W-what," Nathaniel blushed, looking away. "How could you say that, Alya? We were just talking about something really important, that's all." Telling from the way Chloe was giggling and Nathaniel had a small smile, I could tell they had made up.

"And plus, it's not like Marinette nor Adrien like each other," Lila spoke up next, and all attention went to her. Lila turned to Marinette with a smile, but I could immediately tell it was fake. "Right, Marinette?"

"Uh, yeah. . .right!"

"Hm. . . I don't really know about that," Alya smirked, but she didn't say anything else about it. "Anyway, lets eat!"

I grabbed a bite of a croissant , thoughts about Marinette and Lila filling up my mind. The thing is Marinette may actually like me, but if I go to confess to her, she probably might reject me because of Lila. I just need to get her free from Lila. I chewed and swallowed the pastry. Don't worry, Marinette. I'll find proof of Lila being a fraud and get you away from her.

"Oh, I know!" Alya exclaimed out of nowhere. She grabbed her phone out of her pocket and waved it around. "Let's take a group picture!" The rest of us instantly agreed and Alya started getting the camera ready on her phone. But then I saw her freeze all of a sudden, and I asked her what was wrong. "Oh-h, it's nothing of that importance." Before she could recover from what she had seen on her phone though, Chloe peered at the screen from behind her.

"What the-" She instantly covered her mouth after seeing the screen and backed away. Her eyes immediately rushed over to Lila, before looking at me. At first she looked mad, but then she tried to act like it was nothing, which didn't really go well as planned, because she still looked mad.

"Well since Chloe has already made a huge fuss over it, I'll show you." Alya turned her phone around so the rest of us could see the screen. My face immediately went green from seeing what the fuss was all about, and I immediately started to wish that Alya hadn't showed the screen to all of us. "Someone posted this on the internet." On her phone screen was a picture of Lila and I hugging. . .well really, it was Lila hugging me with tears in her eyes. Her shirt had been lifted a little, so a bit of her wound was being shown. Just like I'd thought. . .that girl who had taken a photo of us must have been the one to post this. . .but why? I didn't know that many people, so I was sure I wouldn't know her either.

I looked over at Lila and saw that tears were already brimming at the bottom of her eyes. She covered her face, knees falling to the ground. "I knew it! All this time, I've been worrying that something like this would happen. It's been eating me up, not knowing what was going to happen next, but as soon as I heard that girl running off, I knew she was bad news. Why would she do this?! What's worse is that my wound is showing as well. That's what I feared the most."

We all looked at each other, not knowing what to say. Nino and Nathaniel were frowning, and I had a feeling it was because they didn't believe her tears; they thought she was faking it. I didn't exactly know what Alya felt about this feeling, but she looked somewhat upset. Maybe she was now having second thoughts about Lila. Marinette on the other hand had her eyes fixed on the screen, as if not believing what she was seeing. I could tell her eyes were mostly glued on the wound on Lila's body. Chloe still looked shocked, and a little mad. I wanted to know why she looked mad, but I couldn't find my voice at that moment so I stayed just as quiet as the others.

"I. . . I'm sorry this picnic was ruined. I shouldn't have acted when I saw the picture. It just took me off guard." Alya sighed, picking up a macaroon.

"Who posted it?!" I shouted. I could just feel the rage boiling inside of me.

"It's this girl I'm following. . .uh, Juleka," Alya replied. Just like I'd expected. . .it was a girl I didn't know about. "It is a little weird though. . ." Alya continued. "Juleka is such a quiet girl and posting rumors literally never crosses her mind. I've know that girl ever since I got to this school. She was the first girl after Marinette whom I ever spoke to. But look at what she said under the picture she posted." Alya read from her phone. "'Caught Adrien and Lila hugging. At first I believed he was together with Marinette, but guess I was wrong. It seems to me that Adrien is playing both girls or something like that, or maybe he dumped Marinette and got together with Lila instead. Both him and Lila seem pretty close.'"

I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. It pissed me off to hear that a girl I didn't even know about was creating rumors about me. We all stayed quiet after that, anger and confusion circling the air. That was it. Lunch was officially ruined! But then I snapped her head back up when I got an idea. "Alya, can you please show me the picture of the girl?"

"Sure." Alya did a few things on her phone before she handed it to me. On the screen was a picture of a girl with copper eyes and tailbone-length black hair, with dyed violet tips at the end and bangs covering the left side of her face. I noticed her from somewhere. I thought back to where I had seen her before, before I gasped.

"Nathaniel!" I yelled out. "It's her, isn't it? Juleka is the girl you're doing for your biography?" He nodded, and I knew I was right. Juleka sat in front of us with this other girl with short blonde hair. I recalled the teacher calling her name for attendance. I sighed as I handed Alya back her phone. I didn't understand at all. I'm sure the girl didn't even know me that well, so why would she suddenly go and do this?

"She must be after me," Lila suddenly spoke up. Her tears had died down. "I don't know why, but it makes no sense as to why she'd do this because of you, so she must be after me. She posted this without even caring about that wound, without caring about how I would feel with her going and doing this." Lila stood up from the ground, shaking a little bit. "I feel sick. I want to go home. Sorry guys." Bending her head down, she started walking away while muttering, "now everyone knows! Now everyone knows!"

"She seems really traumatized," I commented. I had to admit I felt bad for her. All tears flowing down her eyes were absolutely real, but I wasn't quite sure if she was faking being hurt. I then looked over at Marinette, realizing that she hasn't said anything, as if she was in her own little world. She hadn't even comforted Lila when she was breaking apart, nor had she said anything about the picture shown. Maybe she's actually starting to believe that Lila is faking it, but. . .how can she be so sure anyway? Lila could hate her if she keeps this up, and possibly report it to Marinette's parents.

Marinette then stood up, not saying a word and she too started walking away from us. I wanted to call her to come back, ask her what was wrong with her, why she was acting so weird, but I didn't. I wouldn't know what to say if I had called her back.

"I really believe that Lila is playing us all, pretending she's hurt and all that," Nino spoke up, and Nathaniel nodded. "But she's too good at it, and we still don't know the reason why she's doing this. We know the main reason is because of Marinette, but what is she trying to pull? What is she going to get out of this? We need to figure this out before she hurts and fully breaks Marinette apart. We'll take matters into our own hands! Find out the full reason why Lila is doing this!" Nino sighed. "The sooner, the better!"