"Hey, you need to leave." I shot my head up after being startled by the deep voice who had just spoken to me.
After my "date" with Colt I had decided to study notes on my phone until about two in the afternoon, which was the time Adrien was scheduled to go fencing today.
The time was currently half past three and it shocked me. I must've lost track of time. I looked up to see who had just told me to leave my seat on the park bench. By my surprise, Adrien Agreste was the one who was standing in front me.
He look strongly annoyed, with a frown on his face that looked almost permanent. "W-Why do I have to leave?" I stuttered out of embarrassment.
Adrien stared.
"I must've got studies in my lost. I mean, lost in my studies!" I babbled, completely losing my mind as the blonde stood in front of me, still annoyed.
"I really don't care," He snapped, "You've got to go." he repeated. I was slightly taken aback by the sharp, annoyed tone he used.
It shouldn't have felt as if I had just gotten punched in the face or something with the way he was talking to me. And I mean, I couldn't help the fact that I was staring up at him with an awed expression on my face.
"What are you doing here?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.
I mentally slapped a hand to my forehead. I knew he would be here. That's why I was here, overall.
"What am I doing here?" He repeated in a sarcastic voice while holding a hand at his chest. "I happen to have a modeling gig here and the park needs to be cleared."
"I thought that was this morning?" I blurted in a high pitched voice and immediately slapped a hand onto my mouth. "I'm guessing." I added quietly.
"Sure." He replied in a bored voice.
I shook my head and quickly scrambled my way to my feet, "I'm so sorry for wasting your time and I hope you have a good—"
"God, Marinette, would you shut up?" Adrien snapped, cutting me off. I immediately stopped in my tracks and turned to stare at Adrien in shock, trying to keep my mouth from falling open in surprise.
"You know who I am?" I couldn't help but ask, I really had convinced myself that he didn't have no clue who I was.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the daughter of that baker." Adrien stated as he helped lift photography equipment. "We had history together."
Okay, that was a little unusual.
"You remember that?" I said aloud, yet in a quiet voice.
"How could I forget, it was just a year ago?" He said, like it should've been plainly obvious. "You blushed anytime I looked at you."
"Because you are beaut—" I said without thinking."The sky is... uh, beautiful."
Adrien looked above himself at the large gray rain clouds settled in over our heads and then quickly back down, "Are we looking at the same sky?" He asked in a flat voice, raising an eyebrow.
"This—" I said motioning above my head. "is my favorite type of sky... out of all of the skies." I said quite embarrassed and crossed my arms over my chest.
"I figured you were weird, Marinette, but I didn't know you were this weird." Adrien said, staring at me with a completely baffled look on his face, watching me as I pretty much turned the color of a tomato.
"So?" I snapped. He just continued to stare at me with a weird look on his face, like I was growing horns from the top of my head.
"So? So, what?" He finally replied, rolling his eyes.
At that moment I was torn between slapping him in the face for being so mean or tackling him in a furiously tight hug. I couldn't really decide which one would have been more satisfying. And I couldn't even decide if his rude attitude made me hate him, or if it made me more attracted to him. But that didn't matter anyway, he thought I was a lunatic.
But it wasn't as if I could just throw my hands up in the air already and give up, Colt did say that I was the only person who could stop him from making bad decisions— Okay, he didn't actually say that but i'd like to think so.
"You should walk me home." I demanded suddenly, after building up a whole bucket load of confidence, of course.
"Um, excuse me?"
Now it was my turn to stare at him like he had horns growing out of his head, "You should walk me home. It isn't that far."
Adrien let out a low, deep breath and his eyes were thin, full of judgement. "I don't think so." He told me, focused down at his shoes.
I stared at him in open mouthed embarrassment. Had Adrien really just rejected me? Colt knew nothing at all.
"Could you be more of a jerk?" I muttered back under my breath, trying to keep from feeling too offended.
If this was how it was going to be being around Adrien this year, clearly I was going to need to get thicker skin. I already felt like bursting into tears from the rude comments he'd thrown at me so far.
After two minutes of awkward silence, he cleared his throat. "Fine," He said suddenly and began moving toward the park's exit. "only because you'll be giving me free chouquettes."
I glanced over at him with a hint of a smile, "I... Who told you that?" I asked lightly, still unable to keep from tripping over my words.
Adrien side-eyed me as we walked, "You're not the only one who can make demands, Marinette."
We arrived at the bakery shortly after Adrien's comment. The place smelled of freshly baked sweets from the outside and I inhaled the familiar scent.
"Thanks." I told him, trying to keep the newfound bitterness out of my voice.
He looked down at me quickly with a wry look on his face, "Yeah," he replied sarcastically. "I can tell you're real thrilled."
"Why are you being so rude to me, Adrien Agreste?" I demanded before I could stop myself. "I haven't done anything but ask for a walk home and yet you're acting like a complete and total jerk." I continued on, being that it was too late to take what I had just said back.
"Wow. Now who's acting all tough and mighty?" Adrien replied, avoiding my eye.
"I'm not!" I squealed in response. "I just asked you an honest question, and there you go again, throwing it back in my face!"
"I don't know you, and you don't know me," He replied in a rather snarky voice a beat later. "So why on Earth should I be polite to you?"
"It's common courtesy," I said, "I be nice to you, you be nice to me. That's kind of the way it works."
"You really sure about that?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Just, shut up." I groaned and took in a large breath of air.
I guess Colt hadn't been lying when he told me about Adrien's attitude. I hadn't even been around the guy for half an hour and we were arguing like an old married couple.
When I had snapped back into reality, Adrien was staring at the families sitting in multiple booths inside of the bakery with a set jaw.
His wavy, tangled hair was rustling in the slight breeze that blew down the bustling streets of Paris, and his eyes were narrowed, giving him this sort of untamed look.
"You know what, Marinette? Has it ever occurred to you that I don't want people to be nice to me? Has it ever occurred to you that I want to be left alone?" Adrien suddenly asked me, sounding just the slightest bit unstable.
It was safe to say that I was now staring at him like he had hit me over the head with a baseball bat. "But why?" I asked before I could stop myself.
And I honestly wanted to know the answer to that question. From what I was beginning to see, how could anyone have the attitude that Adrien had and still be okay with the way they were? I completely understand what he had just lost when his mom's search was called off, but he should seek help, not push it away.
"None of your business, that's why. I have to go back to the park now. I don't need the chouquettes."
"That's not an answer." I said, stopping him in his tracks.
"I don't care." He replied from over his shoulder.
"Okay, fine. Then I don't care." I snapped and swung the door open to the bakery and stomped inside without so much as a wave goodbye.
My phone started ringing loudly as soon as I stepped on the first step inside and It didn't come as a surprise when I retrieved it from out of my pocket to see that Alya was calling.
"Hey, Alya, sorry for ditching yo—"
"Marinette! I'm so sorry!" She screamed through the phone, making me slightly move it away from my ear.
"Calm down, what happened?" I asked, while walking up the stairs and toward my bedroom.
"I just seen that jerk Cole with some girl..."
"His name is Colt... and we weren't really dating, Alya." I explained as I plopped down onto my bed.
"Oh..."
I laughed lightly and yawned, "Thank you for caring." I said sweetly and hung up before she could reply, which was rude but I wasn't in the mood to care.
Sorry Alya.
What was Colt doing with a girl anyway? Maybe he just gets bored, I would as well, being that he probably doesn't have any friends.
I sighed heavily and sprawled out on my bed, resting my head on a teddy bear that my friend Juleka had gotten me for my last birthday.
Well, Adrien Agreste had obviously made it known that he wasn't in any mood to make any new friends. Why that was? I had no idea, but it was honestly beginning to bother me. I was by no means a person that anybody could describe as verbose, but I had friends.
Granted, my main friend and person that I hung out with the most was Alya. But I still had other friends; like in some of my classes I didn't have with Alya.
I thought everyone at least had one acquaintance in their life. Yet it seemed as if Adrien didn't. Everything I thought I knew about life was being tossed in the air and scattered about, making no sense whatsoever.
What is Adrien Agreste planning on doing? He doesn't wanna make any new friends and he certainly has been getting rid of his old ones, going off of what had happened between him and Nino.
But, even if Adrien didn't want any friends and had developed into an absolute jerk, I made myself promise that I would do everything in my power to actually help him.
I was going to have to help him meet his demons. Figure out what has changed since last year, and why Adrien is so hurt but decides to hide that with anger.
I wanted to bring the Adrien that I knew back.