I was honestly so proud of myself. I had made a huge amount of progress with Adrien and it was starting to excite me. Well, not that huge.
The thought of our "progress" would probably be exciting me a whole ton more if I didn't have to use the restroom so badly. Hurrying through the hallway so I could use the restroom before the tardy bell rang, I tried my best not to tackle over other students as I do so.
I placed my hand on the handle of the ladies bathroom and I suddenly felt a chill cross my body when the presence of someone's hand had weighed onto my shoulder. I turned around so quick that I almost toppled over and onto the floor.
I looked up to be greeted by Colt standing before me, wearing a black felt stetson hat, a T-shirt and jeans, staring down at me with a creepy smile.
"Hello." He spoke, moving his hand from my shoulder and into his pocket.
I cleared my throat and took a collective breath of air, "Why are you here? How'd you get in? You could be arrested—."
"I need to speak to you." Colt cut me off, I rolled my eyes. I was not in the mood for this and I doubt I ever would be. What was he doing bothering me again, anyway?
"Okay, speak." I was not happy that I was now here wasting my time talking to Colt Breyer, and not using the restroom, which I had been dead set on doing since lunch started.
"Look, I know Adrien Agreste seems like he is always as mad as a mesquito in a mannequin factory, but all you have to do is work with him." Colt said, leaving me with all the confusion in the world.
"I'm confused..." I admitted.
Colt let out a groan and rubbed his face with one hand, "Good Lord." he mumbled underneath his breath. "Marinette, I guess all i'm saying is that you need to take your time with him, not too much, but please do take your time."
"I've been doing that this whole time." I stated, Colt shook his head and leaned on the nearest wall.
"Okay, cool. This progress that i've noticed is good, very good, but you need to quicken up the process, we don't have that much time. It'd do you good to know that there is an impending universe where Agreste is in the block. I need you to erase that universe and quickly, Marinette."
We? We don't have that much time? The last time I checked, I was the one having to deal with Adrien's attitude and rude comments, not Colt.
Wait... "What?" I whispered shouted suddenly. "Adrien is in the block? Block as in jail? Why wouldn't you tell me this on Saturday. I—"
"Marinette," Colt cut me off sternly, making me sink a little. He could be very intimidating. "I need you to keep him out of trouble is all. Do it fast an—"
I was the one to cut him off this time, "Look, Colt Breyer, next time you want to appear at my school out of nowhere, do that when you have advice for me, not when you're in the mood to come over here and tell me things that just confuse me all the more than I already had been!" I fired at Colt without noticing, making me feel the slightest bit of guilty.
Colt just tipped his annoying hat at me and walked in a completely opposite direction, leaving me just even more confused, but I honestly wasn't surprised.
I finally took my chance in the restroom and let out the most frustrated groan I could muster up and didn't bother heading to my last class of the day.
When the final bell rang, there I was, walking out of the school doors and onto the sidewalks of Paris, which sounded like an ideal afternoon, which wasn't so when I had happened to get shoved right into none other than Adrien Agreste and his moody looks.
Adrien sucked in a breath of air and straightened his posture, beginning to stare down at me with a glare that would probably haunt my dreams.
I gulped loudly, feeling my face heat up.
"I'm starting to think this is fan behavior." Adrien said in a raspy voice, "Or do you have a reasonable reason as to why you're bumping into me and following me around like a lost puppy?"
Great. Rude Adrien is back. Wonderful actually. And now there I was, at a lost for words.
"I thought so. My ride is here, I'm going to leave now." He said while pointing at a car that had just pulled up beside him and then leaving me there awkwardly on the sidewalk, staring after him in astonishment.
I had a feeling this was going to happen a lot. Maybe because I was possibly in love with him.
"Adrien." I said softly before he could sit in the leather seats of his car. Adrien shot a look up at me and narrowed his green eyes.
"What do you want?" He asked, sounding harsh enough to actually hurt my feelings. I gulped once more and clutched my eyes shut.
"We should... you know... hangout." I managed to spit out, holding one of my bluebell eyes open to study his reaction, which wasn't what I had wanted.
He gave me a flat look, not phased by what I had just said whatsoever. "Absolutely not. I don't hang out with people, also, I can't." He replied, shrugging.
And that's when a lady from the passenger seat of the car leaned toward the backseat, bright smile plastered onto her face, her black with red highlighted hair in a low bun. "Actually, Adrien, since you're staying with your grandmother this month i'm sure you could have friends over." She objected for me.
I looked quickly over at her and then back at Adrien, clutching my backpack with a wide smile. Adrien groaned loudly like a child and rolled his pretty green colored eyes.
"So are you in or what?" I asked with the most hopeful tone that I could've use. Adrien stood there a moment, which i'm guessing lost in thought.
"Okay. Fine. Whatever." He finally said. It took me a moment to catch up with reality and process the fact that Adrien had actually agreed to hang out with me. At first I wanted to ask him if he was joking around with me or not, but there was no mistaking the look on his face.
And right when I was going to reply, my phone started to vibrate, followed by the loud ringing of my ringtone. I quickly dug into my pocket and pulled out my phone to see that my mother was calling.
Without thinking, I quickly answered, held a finger up to the lady in Adrien's car and began pulling him with me and toward a wall close to the school.
"Hey, mom!" I cheered, my mother let out a light chuckle through the phone.
"Hey! Where are you? You're usually back by now."
I shot a look up toward Adrien, which I couldn't tell if he looked annoyed or satisfied. "Uh, yeah. I'm hanging out with a friend this afternoon." I answered quickly.
I could see the knowing nod through the phone and exchanged "I love you's" before hanging up.
I was about to open my mouth and ask Adrien what our plans were, but before I could get out any words, I was cut off by a loud, familiar voice shrieking "Mari! Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" from across the street.
I turned and saw Alya huffing and puffing her way across the street in attempts to most likely not get hit by a car and she did not look the slightest bit happy.
"There you are," She huffed, holding her hands on her knees, attempting to catch her breath. "I went to your house but you weren't there, obviously. Are we not studying together today?"
I glanced shiftily over at Adrien and saw him giving Alya a rather put out look. "No. I can't," I answered, as sweetly as possible. "Adrien and I have plans."
All of the color immediately drained from her face as she looked over at Adrien and saw the stern expression on his face. "Oh? Really." She said in petty shaky voice, not able to look away from Adrien.
"Really, really," Adrien said brightly, patting the top of my head as If I were his dog. Wow.
"Cool, cool, cool." She finally managed to say, swallowing hard. "Have fun."
I turned back to Adrien and saw him actually smiling for once, looking amused, but not exactly happy.
"What?" I said self consciously.
"Poor Nino." He said while walking and standing by the open car door of his. I pulled my eyebrows together in frustration and climbed into the car.
"Where are we going?" I asked him as we started down the roads of Paris.
"Don't speak, just be patient." Was his sweet and generous answer. Not
I bit back a sarcastic remark and kept my mouth shut, going along with what he said. Not that I wanted to or anything.
I hope he knew that you have to speak to people you hung out with.
When the car had finally pulled into the driveway of a redbrick house, Adrien let out what sounded like a sigh of relief and climbed out of the car before anyone could say anything.
I followed quickly after and Adrien wrenched open the screen front door, having me lunge forward and catch it as he marched inside before it flew shut.
What a gentleman.
I followed after him with a somewhat disgruntled look on my face, but the second I stepped into the living room I had followed him into, I had to stop and stare around in amazement.
The place was beautiful. There were two matching sets of brown leather couches, matching the wooden walls and gorgeous paintings hung. The entire place smelt like some sort of pumpkin spice and had a couple of old easy chairs seated around a large bricked fireplace filled with wooden logs.
"Who lives here again?" I asked Adrien in a kind of breathless voice.
"My grandmother lives here." He answered in a dull voice. He clearly wasn't happy we were hanging out.
"Anyone else? This place looks a little big for just a person or two."
Adrien turned his head from looking at the ceiling and pointed toward a photo on the wall, hanging beside a small tv. The photo was of a man and a woman smiling in a tuxedo and a matching dress, both with brunette hair.
"My aunt and uncle, Charlie and Charlene, they stay here to watch over my grandmother." He explained, I nodded with a smile and began rocking on my heels.
"Are they twins?" I asked.
He just nodded in response and looked suddenly very angry as he turned away from me, dropping his school bag on the couch, along with himself.
I got the feeling that he didn't talk much about his family life.
I followed suit and dropped my school bag onto the same couch, but felt too uncomfortable to actually sit on the couch with him.
The second after I had put my things onto the couch, there was the arrival of three people, Charlie and Charlene, but one of them I didn't know in the slightest. The woman standing beside the twins was fairly old, probably in her early or late seventies, but still managed to look beautiful. Her hair was ginger but has noticeable streaks of gray and lied right at the top of her shoulders.
"Where were you all day?" The old woman said in a confused voice, appraising Adrien's appearance. "You had me wondering. We were supposed to go grocery shopping"
"No, that would be this Sunday." Adrien corrected her, stuffing his face with Hershey kisses that he had gotten out of a bowl on the coffee table in front of the two of us. "I was at school all day. Don't you be forgetting now."
Charlie and Charlene then both opened their mouths at the same time, probably to add on, but that was when they noticed me.
"Oh? Hi." Charlie said, a surprised look on his face as he stared at me. I then also began to notice Charlene looking back and forth between Adrien and me, like the entire situation wasn't making any sense or something.
"Hi," I said, forcing on a pleasant smile.
The old woman beside Adrien walked over to the front of the couch and then in front of me, smiling. "Is she your girlfriend?" She asked Adrien sweetly, while she began examining me.
I flushed a brilliant red color and started stammering out a response, completely embarrassed, while Adrien looked extremely at ease.
"Absolutely not," He replied in his regular sarcastic, condescending tone. "I don't date, and especially not people like her."
That comment shouldn't have bothered me as much as it did. I knew that Adrien was a bit of a jerk and obviously didn't care much about what other people thought. But I was beginning to realize that perhaps he was a bit too brash for his own good.
His words made my stomach twist and turn even more than usual and I was fairly certain that I had turned the color of a tomato. I didn't like the way his words made me feel. I felt sort of repulsive now and unwanted, and in all honesty, it kind of hurt. It wasn't like I was going to announce that to anyone, though.
"Adrien Agreste!" Charlene exclaimed with anger.
"Watch your mouth kid!" Charlie added loudly.
"Calm down now." The old woman said softly and looked up to me with a warm smile, "Who are you, young lady?".
"I'm Marinette," I said, clearing my throat. "I go to school with Adrien."
The old woman gave me a smile, and I was almost positive a sort of relieved looked flashed in her warm blue eyes, "I'm Linda. Adrien's mimi, even though he thinks he is too grown to call me that, but you can."
"It's nice to meet you," I said with a smile. This was honestly just the slightest bit weird. I hadn't known I'd be meeting some of Adrien's extended family when hanging out with him.
"And I'm Charlene, Adrien's aunt, that's Charlie, and those three are the other grandkids, Cadence, Kai, and Shane." Charlene added, pointing at Charlie and then a picture of Adrien, with what looked like a teenage girl, and two younger boys.
I nodded and turned to Adrien with a scowl. "I thought you said the twins and your grandmother were the only ones who lived here." I reminded him.
"Oh, no," Linda laughed, "we have a whole farm here, the twins and their spouses, plus kids live with me because i'm old and can get forgetful."
That was sweet of them.
I noticed that Adrien had remained decidedly quiet through out this entire interaction, chewing on chocolate like they were the most interesting thing he'd ever seen before.
He was probably embarrassed by me.
Wonderful.
"Where are Cadence, Kai, and Shane, anyway?" He asked Charlie and Charlene, looking very bored.
This all had to be an act. There was no way somebody could look as bored as Adrien did right now.
"Shane and Kai are at the trampoline park with Eve, and Cadence is with Chase." Charlene answered before Charlie could.
It felt as if I were supposed to know who were those people were.
"Marinette, hun, would you please get Adrien to do his homework. He is always making excuses not to do it." Linda asked sweetly and suddenly as she began to scoop up wrappers Adrien had thrown onto the table.
"Of course." I told her with a smile. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Adrien's normally pale cheeks had turned the slightest bit pink, and I had to fight back a round of giggles. He definitely was embarrassed by his grandmother, that was for sure.
"I do my homework on my own time." He objected loudly as he lifted himself up and off of the couch with his school bag and supplies.
I followed dutifully after him as he wandered his way into their kitchen and hauled his heavy things onto the dining table. He dropped into a seat at the table and I sat down across from him, pulling my school bag towards me.
If anybody in the future were to ask me what it was like "hanging out" with Adrien Agreste, I would profusely deny telling and reliving the experience, but it was nice.
It crazy awkward, I'll give it that much. Every so often Adrien would look over at me and his eyes would be narrowed in an annoyed expression, as if he couldn't believe I was actually sitting across the table from him. I did my best to ignore it.
But the silence between us was actually kind of comfortable. I wasn't stupid enough to think that he'd tell me anything more about his family— I was still reveling in the fact that he'd actually brought me here. And not only that, but he'd probably spoken as much today as he did in an entire year, from what I knew about him.
Adrien seemed to have no problem whatsoever focusing on his homework. Maybe what he had said to his grandmother was true?
He held his pencil loosely while he did his work and seemed to make no mistakes, since he never used the eraser. I had a feeling that he was a bit more intelligent than he let people believe.
I'd gotten most of my homework done when I checked the time on my cell phone and found that it was after five in the evening. The only thing I had left to do was stupid, stupid, physics.
The more rational, logical side of my brain was telling me that it was probably best for me to pack up my things and catch a ride home. But like usual, I decided to ignore it.
My curfew wasn't until nine and it wasn't as if I was doing anything illegal, right?
"Quit staring at your homework like that. You're making me nervous." I looked up at Adrien in surprise as he spoke, a frown appearing on the features of his ridiculously handsome face.
The house had been so quiet it seemed to be empty and neither of us had spoken in quite a while. It was a bit of a shock to hear his deep, smooth voice again.
"Sorry," I said, running a hand throughout my hair. "I hate physics. I really don't care for the subject, so I ultimately suck."
"I'm not a fan of physics, either, but it's not difficult, all you have to do is... pay attention. " He said with a smugly. "You have to be dumb, you know, if you're not able to do that."
"Oh, shut up, would you?" I muttered, dropping my gaze from him.
"Give it."
I glowered at him. He hadn't spoken or anything. He'd more or less just given an order.
Rolling my eyes, I shoved my textbook towards him and dropped my homework and pens in front of him. His green eyes scanned over the pages in front of him for several moments before his know-it-all smirk came back and he was looking smug again.
"You're having trouble with this?" He asked in a disbelieving tone. "Marinette, I learned this in like, the seventh grade."
"I don't care! It's so pointless and I suck at it." I yelped, feeling more than embarrassed.
"Clearly," He teased while beginning to erase all the writing on my page. "All of your answers are wrong on your paper... and this is not the continuity equation." He laughed shortly and started writing.
"What're you doing?" I demanded.
"Your homework." He said, like it should've been obvious.
"Oh, how kind of you," I snapped. "You're so sweet."
"Yeah, well, don't get used to it," He muttered. "I just can't stand seeing people struggle with such an easy subject."
I heaved an overly dramatic sigh and fell back in my seat as I watched him speed through my homework like it was a first graders homework.
"Finally! Done." Adrien shouted loudly, slumping backward in his chair, after answering the last question on my paper.
I laughed and rubbed both of my eyes with the back of my palms. "Thanks, Adrien." I said, laughing a little.
Adrien ran his fingers through his hair and let out a heavy sigh, "Yeah." he replied and lifted himself up from the table.
"Alright, it's nearing eight, i have to go." I said sweetly and headed toward the front door, Adrien just waved with two fingers and watched as I helped myself out of the front door.