Marinette stood outside Luka's door. She didn't want to knock because she risked running into Adrien, but she couldn't find Luka anywhere. They were supposed to go roller skating.
After waiting almost twenty minutes on the front steps, Marinette had gone off in search of her boyfriend.
She dialed his number again.
It rang and rang.
"Oh come on," she muttered under her breath.
Marinette took a deep inhale and knocked on the door. Unfortunately, Adrien answered. He stared at her with a wide deer-caught-in-headlights look.
"Marinette?"
She crossed her arms protectively. "I'm looking for Luka." Marinette tried to keep her tone casual. She didn't want to fight with Adrien right now.
She didn't want to fight with him ever again.
Marinette shook herself out of that thought. "Have you seen him?"
"Last I saw him he was heading out." Adrien shrugged. "Oh, he did have his guitar with him. Maybe he went to the music room?"
Marinette blinked. She hadn't expected Adrien to be so nice or helpful, but he was talking to her like nothing had happened. Almost instantly she was angry. It was Adrien's fault they had broken up in the first place.
He had stolen her designs and submitted them to his father's internship without her knowledge. She now relished the fact that her designs had been good enough for Gabriel Agreste, but she was also still frustrated Adrien hadn't respected her wishes.
Adrien gripped the door frame and leaned further across the threshold. "So, how are you?"
"Good," she said quickly. "Just fine. You?"
"The same," he said.
They drifted into an awkward silence.
"Um, I have to go." Marinette motioned down the hall, her phone still in her hand. "I'm late. Thanks, uh, by the way. For your help."
She cringed. Why did it feel like she was talking to a stranger?
"No problem." Adrien looked like he wanted to say something else, but he just closed the door.
Marinette headed to the third floor classrooms where the music room was. As she rounded the corner, she saw a group of students huddled around the door. Camera lights flashed as some of them took photos.
"Excuse me." Marinette tried to cut through the crowd, but it blocked the whole hallway. "I'm looking for my boyfriend."
"Shush!" A girl in a beanie said. "I'm trying to get a picture of Luka."
"Go for it," Marinette said, feeling a little irritated. "Talking isn't going to keep you from doing that."
"But you pushing me will!" The girl whirled around with a fierce look on her face. "Who are you anyway?"
"Luka's girlfriend."
"Girlfriend? Ha! As if. You're just a pathetic fangirl. Are you stalking him?" She narrowed her eyes. "I've never seen you here before."
"It's a large school." Marinette rolled her eyes. "Besides, I'm wearing the same uniform as you."
"You could have stole it."
"Stolen," Marinette corrected her.
"See!" The girl's hand shot out as if she had proof. "Did the rest of you hear that?" she asked the kids standing around them.
"No! I was correcting your grammar, dumb-dumb." Marinette facepalmed. Where on earth was her boyfriend?
"There's no way you're dating Luka," another girl chimed in. "You're not his type."
Suddenly it seemed like the whole crowd was against her. Marinette's chest grew tight. She felt like she couldn't breathe. Marinette tried to back away, but she was pinned in.
"Excuse me. I need to get out," she said.
"Oh, scared we'll call the cops on you?" the first girl asked.
The second pulled out her phone and mimicked dialing a number.
Marinette's breathing grew erratic. She pushed against the people pressed up on all sides. "Please," she whispered.
They just laughed.
"What's going on here?" Luka demanded.
The students parted as he walked up to Marinette. "Are you okay?"
"She was saying she knew you," one student scoffed.
"She's my girlfriend!" Luka said sternly. He glared at the kids closest to her. "What did you think you were doing?"
"Nothing! We didn't know. Honest!"
Luka looked ready to beat someone up. Marinette tugged on his sleeve. "It's okay. Let's just go," she said, feeling like a little kid.
Luka grunted. He put his arm around her and walked away from the crowd. "I am so sorry."
"Where were you?" she exclaimed. "You were supposed to meet me out front over an hour ago."
Luka's eyes grew wide. "Sorry, Marinette. I went to work on some songs and lost track of time."
"I called you so much! I even went by your dorm!" The tears Marinette had been holding back started to spill down her cheeks.
"My phone was off—wait, you went by my dorm? Did you see Adrien?"
"Yeah, he was the one who told me you were here." Marinette wiped away snot and tears with her sleeves, but she couldn't stop crying.
"Look." Luka stopped and faced Marinette, looking her in the eye. "I'm really sorry I forgot. And I'm sorry about the crowd. That's just the way it is now."
"Well, I don't like it." She crossed her arms. "I'm your girlfriend, and you just forgot about me."
"I promise I'll make it up to you."
"Luka, I just got trapped by a crowd of your 'adoring' fans. I was so scared," Marinette paused. "I just don't think I can do this."
"You are not serious. You're dumping me again?" His eyes burned. "You know I love you, Marinette."
"Yeah," she whispered. "But I don't think I love you."
***
Adrien wove his way through the throng of students in the cafeteria. He scanned the area for Kagami but didn't see her signature bob anywhere. Suddenly, his foot caught on another student's leg.
Adrien slammed into her, and both of them almost fell to the ground. He grabbed a chair with one hand and the girl's arm with the other. After he'd pulled her up, he found himself staring into the face of Marinette.
"Oh sorry, M'lady." Immediately, Adrien didn't know whether to blush or faint.
He hadn't meant to call Marinette that. It had just slipped out.
"No problem." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Bye." Marinette barely gave him a cursory glance as she hurried away.
Adrien groaned. He had heard about her breakup the day before, and she probably thought he was making fun of her.
He was sorry for Marinette, but part of him was glad he had ended it with her. Knowing that Luka still had feelings for, feelings she reciprocated, didn't make for an easy relationship.
Would she have been happy with him? Sometimes Adrien regretted not giving Marinette the chance to chose. Breaking up with her had just pushed her into Luka's arms.
Adrien turned back toward the buffet, finally catching sight of his girlfriend, who looked a little miffed. He stepped up next to her at the end of the line and kissed her on the cheek. "Good morning!"
Kagami blushed slightly. "Hi. Ready for our next fencing practice?"
"Yeah I guess." Adrien stuck his hands in his pocket. "Is something wrong?" They both moved up in the line, stopping in front of a square column.
Kagami shook her head. "No, why?"
"You looked irritated right before I got here."
"Oh well, it's early." Kagami shrugged. "I didn't sleep well last night."
Adrien frowned. "I'm sorry."
Something was holding up the line. They hadn't moved in several minutes.
Kagami started to say something, when Adrien saw Marinette walk up to get in line. He was sure she hadn't purposely gotten behind them because she looked nervous.
Kagami noticed Adrien's gaze was over her shoulder. She turned around and looked at Marinette but didn't speak to her. Quickly, she swung back to look at Adrien, flipping her hair over one shoulder.
"I was going to say, I missed you last night," she crooned.
Adrien couldn't understand the change in her tone. She never talked like this.
"Okay?" he asked.
Kagami grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pushing him back in to the column. His shoulder's stiffened. What was she doing?
Slowly, Kagami leaned in and passionately kissed him. Adrien tried to kiss her back but something about the situation made him uncomfortable. He had just started to push her away when she stopped.
Marinette had jumped out of line and was heading back to a table where Alya and Nino sat. Adrien saw Kagami smirk in her direction.
Had Kagami done that on purpose? Adrien felt uneasy after their kiss.
It didn't feel right. It just didn't feel right.
***
Lila slapped a stack of papers on one of the cafeteria tables. "I need the next part, Rose."
"Hmm. That's too bad," she giggled. "I don't know what happens next." Rose motioned for Lila to sit down next to her.
"Rose!"
At first, Lila couldn't believe she'd agreed to read what Rose was working on for creative writing, but once she'd started she was hooked. Now she eagerly read Rose's assignments every week and was usually satisfied, except this time, Rose had left her story with a big cliffhanger.
"But Jack and Claire were about to declare their love! Until the evil pirate king kidnapped Claire... again."
"He has an unhealthy obsession with her," Rose teased, not giving Lila any clue about what happened next in the story.
Lila fake punched her on the arm. "Tell me something I don't know." This was one of the few times since she'd started attending Clifton that she'd felt relaxed.
Lila hadn't known how much strain the lying had put her under. She had always been stressed, anxious, and afraid someone would find her out.
She sat back in her seat and looked up just in time to see Kagami shove Adrien against a wall and kiss him.
In front of Marinette... Oh. Well, that made sense, Lila thought. Kagami was jealous of Marinette. Besides, hadn't she heard that Luka and Marinette broke up yesterday?
But wow, Lila hadn't thought Kagami would stoop that low.
Clearly, Chloe hadn't either. Lila saw the blonde's face turn red when she saw it. Lila almost said something when Chloe passed their table, but stopped herself. Chloe looked angry enough. Lila didn't want to make her more upset.
***
Marinette was still trying to work through what had just happened. What was that? Kagami's aggressive kiss with Adrien made her feel uncomfortable. She wasn't the only one. Marinette saw a very upset Chloe beeline for Kagami.
She paused at the table where Alya and Nino sat. Neither of them had seen the encounter. Alya's head was buried in her phone. Both she and her boyfriend had intense looks on their faces.
"Alya, what's wrong?"
"Jagged Stone's plane went down in a storm over New York," Alya said. "They still haven't found the wreckage."
"So, Jagged's dead?" Nino asked.
"What do you think happens to people who are in a plane crash?" Alya snapped.
"What? Where was the crash?" Marinette asked.
"The Catskill Mountains I think." Alya scrunched her nose. "Marinette?"
Jagged dead? Marinette raised a hand to her face. How? She couldn't even comprehend what Alya was telling her.
Luka.
Did he even know? Should she tell him?
Marinette knew what it was like to lose a father. Now Luka would be going through the same thing. She didn't care that they were broken up.
"Marinette, where are you going?"
Marinette was already heading for the cafeteria door. "I have to go," she called over her shoulder.
She needed to find Luka.
RIP Jagged :) Don't hate me.