Marinette couldn't stop processing what had happened half an hour ago. Adrien wouldn't dare to let her out his grasp.
'Was it some kind of sign? Does he....nah there's no way he feels the same way.'
She kept doubting herself but each time he'd grab her hand, playfully shove her into the water or just caress her face, her brain couldn't help but remind her of what happened.
'Was he trying to be clingy? Hm, cute.' She wondered.
Dipping both her feet into the water, Adrien was sat beside her on the huge rocks. It was fun acting like goofs together and trying to swim throughout the ocean but at the same time it was quite tiring because of the handcuffs. So they just decided to sit down on the rocks and do some star gazing. The dark sky was covered with a blanket of silvery stars shining with the moon and onto the surface of the water. "I see a rose over there." Adrien pointed out with his finger. Marinette tried to connect the speckled stars.
"That looks more like a chair." Adrien chuckled, "A chair?" "Okay maybe these rocks are not made to sit on. They're uncomfortable." They giggled before slowly falling into silence. Marinette realized that there weren't really any awkward moments between them anymore and she was grateful to overcome her stuttering around him. The silence brought her a sense of comfort. For some reason it felt cozy.
Like a warm blanket was surrounding her bringing her peace. It's him. He gave her warmth and made her feel safe.
'Does he feel the same as I do right now?'
Their classmates were away building sandcastles on the sand together. But it really felt like it was just the two of them alone, he turned his head to look at her.
Her eyes sparkled beneath the moonlight making her appearance twice as more admirable. His lips curled a bit to form a slight smile, he leaned into her shoulder and rested his head onto it. His damp fluffy hair tickled her skin a little as she looked over to find the boy closing his eyes. His chest and stomach moved up and back down. He always appeared to be handsome but this time he looked very cute in this state.
It'd become a bit difficult for Marinette not to take a quick look down at his abs.
'Should I look? No...he'd think I'm weird if I do that. But..he seems like he's asleep right now.'
Before she could the boy began to speak. "This feels nice.." Before she could react with a flinch, he opened his eyes to look into hers. The small warmth on her cheeks started spreading, he broke the eye contact to gaze back at the large moon. Marinette did the same. They were enjoying each other during the moment.
Marinette knew that she's used to him now. With her free hand, she slowly reached over to touch his hair. She stopped herself for a second thinking that she shouldn't. As she was about to back her hand away he grabbed it with his own free hand to place it into his hair. Marinette smiled at his cuteness, she gently ran her fingers through his hair.
The waves sloshed against the rocks, Adrien sighed as she continued soothing his hair between her fingers. He loved the attention. For once he had someone to care for him. It's hard being locked up in his house all the time because of his father barely letting him go out. He loved this a lot.
But he craved for more, more attention. His eyes closed again, he hadn't felt this comfort in a long time. He hadn't felt it ever since his mother had passed. It's beautiful and very relaxing. Taking her hand, he let himself open his eyes and sit up straight again.
The sound of more waves filled their ears. Making everything calmer. Their situation sort of became a blessing for them, being handcuffed helped them interact more and get closer.
'This is the best day and birthday ever.'
Everything turned out better than they thought it'd be. His hand reached to her cheek, his thumb began to caress it. But his face was closer than usual. Marinette felt herself being drawn even closer too, she wanted to close the gap between them already. His lips parted as his eyes fell down to her own pink lips-
"What are you two doing?" Adrien flinched, he flinched so hard that the two teenagers fell off the rocks and into the water. Once they made it back up, Adrien immediately glared at her. "LILA! You can't just sneak up on us like that! We almost drowned!" He didn't think twice before he yelled. Lila stayed there upset but soon angry. "Or are you just mad because you didn't get to kiss M-" "No. She's just a friend." He blurted out without thinking.
A sharp pain peirced through her chest after hearing those words again.
'Is he being serious?!'
Lila grinned and swam towards him to wrap her hand around his free one. "We're gonna go play some games I made up, wanna join?" "..Sure." And there he goes again, being the kind sweet boy to a selfish b¡tch like her. Lila rolled her eyes after they've landed on Marinette. Something seemed off. Usually she'd fake a smile or something but now she was acting completely different.
'Was it because she saw him with me?? Fuck my heart hurts..'
...
Marinette was now sitting in a circle with her classmates in the sand. And of course, Adrien had sat beside her but he'd stopped holding her hand which concerned her. The whole day he'd been holding it, even if they weren't walking he'd still hold it but now things changed and it was really worrying her.
Was he regretting what happened when they were alone?
Alya sat on the other side with Juleka, Rose and Ivan. Nathaniel sat with Mylene and Chloe, Lila beside Nino. Lila cleared her throat, "Okay! So we are going to play spin the bottle, that is why we are sitting far from Mrs.Bustier so she doesn't see us." She indicated. "Uh sorry but I can't play this. I have a girlfriend." Nino looked accross the circle, unable to articulate the weird idea. "It doesn't matter Nino it's okay." He blinked a couple times, not believing what his girlfriend had said.
"Uh okay?" He tried to shake away the feeling. Marinette caved in to her own thoughts.
'So she wants to play spin the bottle? Needless to say, she's only doing it just to get a chance to kiss Adrien. How much more obvious can she be? Does she just want to get on my nerves? Could she be jealous? H!ll yeah she is-'
Her musings were interrupted by Adrien raising his cuffed hand. "Yes?" Lila answered him. "What is spin the bottle?" The clueless boy questioned, everyone astounded by his behavior. "You don't know what that is?!" Ivan yowled. He slowly shook his head in response.
"Chill out Ivan! Of course he doesn't know, he's never really had friends-" Nino gave Chloe a scummy look. "You don't have to do my dude like that." He threatened. "No worries! I will teach you Adrikins!" Chloe soon offered. "Let's just get on with it, Adrien just watch as we go okay?" Lila batted her lashes at him and smiled in a way flirty way, Marinette cringed. Lila setted the empty glass champagne bottle in the middle of the circle.
Rose brows furrowed. "Uh where the heck did you get that?" "From the chefs, anyway, so who's going first?" "I will!" Chloe volunteered, snatching the bottle afterwards. Marinette stared at her vacantly. Chloe placed it back down in front of her, with a twist of her fingers, the bottle spinned repeatedly. Soon it came to a stop, she traced the bottle to spot Nathaniel on her opposite side.
"AGH! NO WAY THAT IS NOT FAIR-" "Go! It's part of the rules!" Lila reminded her, Chloe crossed her arms in defense. "Uh! No! I'm not going to! Not with that f!cktart! This IS RIDICULOUS! UTTERLY RIDICULOUS!!-" She was silenced with Nathaniels lips pressing against hers, her eyes immediately shot open to shove him away. "EWW!!!" She fussed. Adrien eyes grew a bit wide. "T-That's part of the game?" "Yeah basically that's all there is to it." Marinette explained. He gulped at the thought of her kissing someone else-
'No! I shouldn't be feeling this way!'
Nathaniel smirked and crawled back to his spot. "Nathaniel now it's your turn!" Mylene rolled the bottle to him. Chloe groaned frustratingly and sat back down. Nathaniel spinned the bottle and after a few seconds it landed on Alya. Nino's jaw dropped open.
"HEY! NOT COOL DUDE!" He jumped up to his feet and stomped his way to his girlfriend. "Nino I sai-" Nino picked her up, threw her over his shoulder and stomped away with her. They could still hear Alya whining and saying to him that it's just a game from afar. Marinette giggled at the couple; Nino barely shows affection but when he does he gets really jealous. He hates having another guy near or flirting with his girlfriend.
"I will go!" Lila took the bottle. "This is getting boring!" Juleka complained, Lila frowned until she thought for a moment. "Hold on! I know what we need! Stay here everyone I'll be back!" She picked herself up from the sand and ran to the beach-house.
...
"Alright each of you will have to take one." She passed a piece of cloth to entire circle. "Blindfolds?" Ivan held it in front of him. Adrien watched Marinette take her own from Lila. "Here ya go Adrien." His eyes wondered to the black blindfold in Lila's hand, he grabbed it and looked down at it in his lap.
'Marinette is awfully quiet. Did I do something?'
"Yes! That's right Ivan! We will all be using blindfolds this time!" She explained that everyone in the circle will wear one but the spinner isn't. Once the spinner kisses the chosen person, everyone will take off their blindfolds and guess who was kissed. Then the kissed person will guess who it was that kissed them. If they were right, that person has to spin again. Everyone agreed with her idea.
After they all tied their blindfolds on, Lila spinned bottle. The bottle stopped as she looked at the direction it pointed to. It was between Adrien and Marinette.
'Do I just choose?'
She took a breath in and got up, walking towards the person. Kneeling down to them, her lips formed a half smile. She chose him. Adrien, she definitely wasn't going to regret her decision. Gripping the sides of his face, the boy jolted a bit at her touch.
He could hardly see a thing. Marinette heard the chains of the handcuffs jingle. This made her panick. It was clear that Adrien was moving but something about it felt off. He isn't just shuffling around for no reason.
Marinette knew exactly what was happening. Or about to happen. She didn't know if she was going crazy or if her intuition was trying to tell her something. She felt it in her guts that something is wrong. Or she can be going insane.
But no, it just didn't feel right this time. Lila ran her thumb accross his bottom lip, feeling the softness of his skin. She began to lean towards his face, getting ready to pucker her lips onto his. Marinette's blindfold accidentally fell off, it was as if the universe was looking out for her. Again, she felt crazy.
Her eyes opened immediately to see Lila getting closer and closer to his lips.
"NOOO!!!" Marinette screamed out and tugged her cuffed wrist to the side, forcing Adrien to fall down into the sand. He coughed, trying to fan the sand out of his face and pulled off his blindfold. Everyone else took off their own in a hurry. Lila already filled with rage looked at the girl in disbelief. "Uh WHAT is your PROBLEM!!?" She became annoyed.
"I AM NOT THE ONE TO START FIGHTS BUT LILA! I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING! AND I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU DO IT!" "Huh, and what about you Marinette? WE ALL KNOW THAT YOU HANDCUFFED YOURSELF TO THE POOR BOY BECAUSE YOU CAN'T GET HIS ATTENTION SENSE YOU ALWAYS STUTTER AT HIM LIKE THE DUMBA** YOU ARE!"
'....They're fighting over me?' Adrien watched their argument escalate quickly.
"Lila ouch." Nathaniel commented at her rudness. Adrien was shocked to see how angry Marinette became over the argument. "HAHAHA I've been right all along haven't I? You're the one who's jealous! Alya was just helping you hide it from me!" She yelled. "F!ck. Off. Lila." Marinette did not want to continue the dumb argument.
She had to put it to an end somehow. "WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?!" She threw her hand over and slapped her roughly. Their classmates gasped in horror. Marinette was about to throw a punch but Adrien pulled her away by the waist. He definitely didn't want to be dragged into their little fight.
Before Lila could hit her again, Ivan pushed her to the ground. "F@CK YOU! YOU STUPID B¡TCH! THIS IS NOT OVER! JUSY WAIT UNTIL..." She didn't stop her telling her threats. Adrien had never seen Lila act this way before. She was very different around him. She seemed nice with him.
"Leave now! Take her away!" Juleka yelled in fear, Adrien pulled Marinette by the hand, running with her to the house. There was no sign of their teacher outside, she was probably inside. Adrien and Marinette ran passed Mrs.Bustier who stood at the front table writing stuff down on a sheet of paper. Their loud thumps made her look up, finding them running up the stairs together. She soon suspected that something is going on.
"Is everything okay!" She shouted. "You should go outside and see for yourself miss!" Adrien replied, going in his room and shutting the door. Adrien brought his attention back at Marinette. The boy worried for her, she attempted to hold back her tears. Too embarrassed to make eye contact.
Lila ruined everything, she ruined Marinette's confession to Adrien. He must've known the hint by now. There was no point in telling him anymore. "Marinette..." He spoke only for her to pull her hand out of his own. "I'm so....sorry." He didn't have much to say, knowing that he couldn't really tell her anything even though he wished to help.
His eyes took in the sight of her cheek, it'd become red and started to swell. "..Don't look at me." Her tears had fallen. Facing the other way to avoid him. "Marinette pleas-" "I SAID DON'T LOOK AT M-" He pulled her in to hold her. Now it felt like he was messing with her, especially because of what he'd said and didn't hold her hand anymore. It left her almost hopeless.
"...Happy birthday princess." His voice lowered.
'What? He knows?? Did he remember or did someone tell him? Was it Max? Alya?'
"I'm sorry you had to go through that, especially on this day." Her heart ached, she gave in and hugged him back. Adrien gently rubbed her back. After minutes of crying and hearing Adrien's comforting words, they pulled apart. Without saying another word, he picked her up into his arms and made his way towards the restroom...
To be continued...
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Hello my lovelies! As you can see I've decided to add some drama to this chapter this time! ♡
I apologize from being gone for so long, I am not sure if I will stay consistent to update but I'll try my best. Just to let y'all know this book will end in a few more chapters! Thank you for reading!