Nervousness wracked through my bones as I waited for Jasmine to get home.

During the wait I talked to Mikey until he slept off, ate some dry biscuits, and drank probably five litres of water.

My parents were coming to visit in two days, and it didn't feel right at all. Something was seriously up.

I paced all around the living room, made a list of all the things to do before they came, to make it look like my life was in order, and then ate a few more biscuits. As dry as they were, the crunchy-snappy sound they made when I bit into and chewed them, calmed me.

By midnight, exhaustion had taken over me. I dozed into a restless sleep on the couch, hanging off it halfway but too tired to move.

• • •

"Oh God" I moaned to myself after seeing how late I had woken up.
After replying Mikey's sweet morning message, my sister's goofy one, and Olivia's jibberish (probably from falling asleep on her phone), I took the quickest shower, dressed in my warmest clothes, and bolted out the door.

"Thanks for following me Olivia, only God knows how much I need a galpal with me. Especially someone who knows how to do stuff like markets and all that"

"mhm" she hummed, twisting her hair into a top bun and securing it with pins from her mouth.

"You ever been on a train before?" She finally spoke real words for the first time since we'd gotten together.

• • •

"Oh my God" I mumbled for the second time since I woke up, after we got down from the train.

Going downtown London was something I'd always wanted to do. But Jasmine never really showed any real interest in it, and I couldn't do anything without Jasmine by my side. Almost all of my firsts had been with her, and that felt like such a sacred part of our best friendship.

"I love the smell of giant markets in the morning" Olivia grinned, looking as if she was in her element, while sge pulled my hand into the bustle of people with her.

The lanky blonde picked things from every stall she stopped at, haggling prices and dragging me off again before I could remove my list from my bag.

"Ah, Livvy darling, I get some new things from Italy dear, some friends of my son bring them. He say they good quality"

I watched as a pale old man, with red ears, a shiny bald head and a strong Jamaican accent, put his hands around Olivia, gently taking her into his own. slightly bigger kiosk. Unlike with the other vendors, she didn't act impatient or in a hurry to leave. She looked almost too comfortable with him, more than I'd ever seen her, and as much as it warmed my heart, it angered me.
We came to this market because of me, she couldn't go about being all nicey-nice with some strange old man.

Waiting impatiently outside the kiosk, i looked around the gigantic market. There was literally no ground space, but people moved freely in throes, not even minding the next person; so disorganised, yet orderly.

Another five or so minutes passed, and I couldn't take it anymore. Olivia could sleep in the kiosk for all I cared, I had more important things to worry about.

Stepping down from the elevated slab of stone that held old man red's kiosk, I braced myself; it was time to face the market.

• • •

"Oh my God, Adrien!!"
Four hours later and I couldn't separate my sweat from my tears.

Olivia and old man red pulled me upwards into his kiosk, forced me down onto a worn chair and forced about a gallon of water into my body.

"What were you thinking, going about like that? It's a new place for Christ's sake, you've never even been here before!"

All I could see, admidst my blurry eyes, was that old man red probably had the prettiest kiosk in all of the market that I had seen.

"Livvy calm down, poor girl still in shock" old man red chuckled and pulling my attention to his face.

"T-they took my phone Olivia. They pushed me and called me fat a-and -" she pulled me to her slim frame and shushed me, patting my hair down and telling me it was okay.

So I sobbed. I cried my heart out - loud and embarrassing - onto Olivia's shoulder, not caring about the rest of the world.

I'm not sure how long I lay on Olivia's shoulder, but when she noticed that I had stopped heaving, she slowly detached myself from her.

"You alright?"

I searched her face for any sign of anger or humiliation.
There were none.

So I nodded.

"I'm fine"

Old man red - who's name I later found out was Stev - got my phone and money back from the thug boys, helped with most of my shopping and gave me a beautiful amethyst jewelry set.

" I really can't thank you enough Stev, you are a great person" I sniffled, tears pricking at my eyes for the fifth time in one day. I couldn't believe the mean things I thought of him.

"I swear to God Adrien! If you cry one more time, I'll make sure your eyelids detach from your face"

Despite the threat Olivia threw at me, a few stray tears still slipped out, followed by giggly laughter and a ton of hugs.

"Will you be okay on your own?" Olivia asked, her hand on my shoulder and nothing but genuine care on her face.

"I will. Jasmine should be home by now so I won't be alone"

"Good" She pulled me into a tight, quick hug, before leaving me on my own.

"Godmother! I've been so worried where did you go?"
Jasmine's hands clutched my face, pressing hard on my cheeks as she questioned me.

"I went to the downtown markets with Olivia"

"Olivia?"

"Yeah, Mikey's cousin. The really slim, really pretty, supermodel-ey one I told you about"

"Ohhhh, okay. You guys rode the trains too?"

"Jas, there's no other way to get there" I deadpanned, starting to put away the millions of groceries that Stev helped me get.

Because he was a market man, he was able to get a better deal on everything on my list, even saving me some money in the process.

"Wow, that's a lot of stuff" Jasmine observed, pulling out carrots from one bag and dumping them in the sink.

"I know right? If my parents are coming under such short notice, I gotta pretend like I've got my life under control, right?"

"Hold up, parents? When did all this happen?"

She genuinely looked confused, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm serious Adrien, what's going on?"

While we washed, cut up and put away groceries, I narrated to her everything, from Maddie's phone call, to the second before I knocked on the door.

"Just within one week? Wow" she said, more to herself than me.

I didn't want her to best herself up for not paying much attention to me or her phone because of work and her budding relationship, so I moved in for a hug.

"It's okay, you've been really busy, and I get that"

Despite my efforts to rouse her from feeling bad about not having much information on my life anymore, Jasmine was down the rest of the day, and refused to answer Damien's calls.
Eventually she did answer one, and told him that I needed her, so she couldn't be available for the rest of the day.

Dinner was a quite noisy, as we ate spaghetti and gossiped about the Kardashians and mocked their accents.
No matter how loud I tried to laugh, it didn't shake off the feeling that I had exactly twenty-four hours to do anything I really wanted, before going crazy with worry.

And while Jasmine and I lay in the same bed, she slept soundly while I stared up at the pure white ceilings and thought some more.

A/N
Hey guys!
I'm so sorry this chapter took so long to come out, but here it is!
This was more of a filler chapter to be honest, but I hope it was informative and interesting enough.
There was no Mikey in this chapter, but let's hope that there will be in the next. I've also missed Nicolas if I'm being honest. I'll also try to make him available in the next chapter

From all the talk about Adrien's parents, what kind of people do you think that they are?