Lunch was going great. Sure, I still got stares from Lila, but it went better than last time. She didn't bash out on me anymore, didn't glare at me. She just stared, and though it felt uncomfortable at times, I still managed it and got through with the hangout. Nino and I got closer too. Whenever we were alone, talking while the other girls played ball, he always seemed to talk about her, while staring off into a distance. I didn't know who her was, and though he didn't mention a name, I had a feeling it was Marinette, though I didn't ask either.

While we had been eating, he seemed to have been giving Marinette looks that I wasn't quite sure of, and Marinette kept looking back at him, nodding her head. It made me feel a little uncomfortable, though I still didn't know why.

Seeing them together reminded me of Chloe and I when we were young. They had such a good friendship. So did we. Now it was just. . . Crap.

"Marinette?" Lila spoke up while we were packing up. Lila hadn't spoken much, and whenever she did, it always seemed to be to Marinette. She looked comfortable around Marinette, and Marinette only. "Are we still doing that hang out after school. I asked my mom. I'm free."

"Um," Marinette instantly looked over at me, and I felt bad that she had to cancel just because of the bio we had to do of each other. "Yeah!" When she said that, I frowned, confused by her answer. Right, I get it. She doesn't want to hurt Lila. "Adrien is joining us."

"What?!" Lila immediately screamed out, hurting me. "Why?! Why does he have to come along? Why can't he just go and hang out with his girlfriend?! I'm sure Chloe wouldn't mind his company."

I gritted my teeth a little. She's not my girlfriend! I tried not to ball my hands into fists, so instead I stood up and started walking away, getting tired of how Lila had been treating me.

"Adrien-"

I had been nothing but nice to her, and this was how she was going to pay me back? You know what-? I whirled around and glared at her. "I don't know why you have a problem with Chloe, but she did nothing wrong. You are the one who always attacked her in school when we were younger. Yeah, you, Lila! It's like that part of your memory has suddenly left!"

"Adrien, stop-"

Though Marinette told me to stop, I didn't. I continued, because I felt like I needed to get this all out, make sure Lila knew how I felt. "I've tried so hard to be patient with you. You don't see me yapping on about what you did back then, how mean you had been, how nasty! If you have a problem with me, then fine, I don't care. It's not like I even want to be friends with such a brat like you anyway, so just shut up!"

"Adrien!"

"You don't have to hang around me if you don't like me, but you don't have to insult me either! It's not like anyone wants to be friends with you anyway seeing how lonely you had been-"

"ADRIEN!"

The scream took me aback, and it was just after a while that I realized everything I'd said. I turned to Lila, seeing how upset she looked, on the verge of tears, then I turned to Marinette, seeing how angry she looked towards me.

"You know what, just go!" Marinette screamed out again. "Just leave!"

I gulped, realizing my mistake. Marinette had instantly rushed over to Lila, wanting to check if she was okay, while everyone else stared at me with such unbelievable looks on their faces. Embarrassed, I took my lunch bag and rushed away from them.

~

There was still five minutes of lunchtime left. I was hiding in the locker room, my heart pounding. I'd never seen Marinette look so mad, and she had been mad at me! I understood why. I mean, if someone insulted Chloe like that, I'd get immediately defensive and angry. And of course it made sense that Marinette went off to Lila, rather than me. To see if I was okay.

I sighed and took my phone out. I needed someone with me, to comfort me, but I didn't have any friends who could do that. No, Lila wasn't the lonely one. I was. At least Lila had Marinette, a trustworthy person who would always be there for her, while on the other hand, I had Chloe, who spent more time being afraid and trying to keep everything to herself.

I hadn't even chosen to spend time with Chloe the first time we met. Father and her father got together, and told us to go play. I remembered not wanting to play with her for a few days, but when I finally got to learn about her, I was always there. So, in other words. . . Was I just friends with Chloe because I felt guilty?

"Hello, Adrien?"

I sniffed a little. "Felix? Can you come pick me up please?"

"Adrien, what's wrong? You sound like you're crying."

Yeah, why am I crying? It's just a girl! It's just Marinette! "Can you please just come pick me up? I don't want to be here anymore. Please!"

"Alright, I'm coming. Just hang tight."

I smiled at his words. Maybe I wasn't a loner at all. At least I still had Felix, a person I could trust. At least I still had someone.

~

"I'm not even going to ask, but if you're ready, you can tell me anything. I'll listen."

I smiled lightly again at his words, but I didn't say anything. I looked out the window, which was a mistake, because immediately I noticed Marinette and her group of friends entering the school after the bell had rang. She looked over at me, right in my eyes, and at first, I thought I noticed guilty eyes, but she looked away quickly so I wasn't exactly sure.

"Does it have anything to do with that girl?" Felix nodded over at Marinette, and I could tell I was caught.

"I thought you said you weren't going to ask?" I raised my eyebrows at him in a challenging manner.

"Okay, okay," He started the car with a small smile. "Gosh, I can't believe it, Adrien. It's only been a few days of school and you're already getting yourself mixed in with drama? Does it also have anything to do with Chloe?"

"You sound like my father now," I grumbled under my breath as the car moved father away from the school, the school getting smaller and smaller. "But I mean, yeah, it kinda does." I looked down at my laps.

"Chloe is manipulating you."

"What?!" I looked up, staring at Felix's back as I was sitting in the backseat. "She's doing what?"

Felix let out a sigh. "I never wanted to say this because I was afraid you would get mad, since you always stood up for Chloe no matter what. I repeat, Chloe is manipulating you. You know when we were finishing up our food and you went upstairs because you were upset over something, I overheard Chloe talking with her father.

"Apparently her mother is coming back before my mother's wedding. Chloe doesn't have any problems with her mother, she just straight up hates the woman, but she pretends she's hurt because she thinks that's the only reason why you'd be with her. The only reason why you'd continue to befriend her, or even get into something more than that."

I couldn't believe my ears. I was about to shout out at what a liar Felix was, but then I stopped myself. "You used to go to the same school as Chloe in middle school, didn't you?" Felix nodded. "Did she ever get into a fight with this girl, Lila?"

"Lila? Oh, tons of times. The girls would insult each other back and forth until it got physical," Felix chuckled a bit, and I wondered what was so funny. "One day they were having this huge argument in the middle of class, and everyone were just watching and listening as they roasted each other, everyone oohing and ahh-ing."

I frowned a little. "Both of them? Who attacked first?"

"I'm not really sure, but most of the time, I guess it's Lila. It was rumoured she had a problem at home that was making her act so harsh. No one really knew her, but one time I accidentally walked inside the ladies bathroom because I was getting chased by this dude," Felix replied, "and I walked in on her checking this huge scar that was on her body, right beside her belly-button. I wanted to ask if she was okay, but she immediately took off after that, and she stayed away from me from then on."

"A scar?" Felix nodded. "On her body?" He nodded again. I gulped as I looked down on my laps again, feeling even worse than I had before. Now I knew why Marinette had instantly defended Lila. I had a feeling Lila was having an even worse problem than Chloe, and all these times Chloe would come back and complain about Lila. . . Had she been lying? Is that why Lila hated her so much now, and because I hanged out with Chloe, she thought I was just the same as her; ruthless and annoying?

I gulped again, feeling the saliva as it went down my throat. I'd made a really huge mistake.

~

I gave Felix one last wave before I started heading to the streets, far away from my mansion. I couldn't head inside my place as even though Father wasn't home, Nathalie would still have seen me and reported me to him immediately. Nathalie was a bit sick and was taking a day off from work, and she was that type of woman who agreed on Father's ways of turning me into a "perfect" son. If she saw me at home, knowing I was skipping the rest of my classes, she wouldn't hesitate to get me into trouble.

So Felix and I were going on with our plans on finding me the "perfect" girlfriend. I honestly didn't know why I was still doing this. Did I really need a girlfriend? Did I even want one? I shrugged it off anyway and listened to Felix as he talked about what I had to do and how I was going to do it.

I had decided not to do the gold-digger prank as I found my last experience quite cringe. I didn't want to go through it again. This time I was doing the "no-money" challenge, where I has to disguise myself, pretend I was poor and see how many girls would actually be willing to help me out. Alya had once again done her magic and disguised me as a totally different person. I told Felix that after we finished doing this challenge, I wouldn't do another. I wasn't that much of a great actor anyway, and I feared I would mess up somewhere along the way.

Turning around, I could see that I was quite far away from the mansion. I seemed to have been close to this famous bakery I've heard a few people talking about. I've never gotten the chance to visit the bakery as Father says pastries will ruin my health, and that wouldn't be good if I'm going to keep modelling for him. I took a seat on the ground, not too close to the bakery, and I put the sign I had with me right in front of me, the sign standing up and leaning against my legs, so everyone could see it.

And then, I waited.

~

It wasn't long before I saw the first girl strolling by, but after taking a good look at me, she had completely acted as if I wasn't there, and walked off. I wondered if she was disgusted with me or something, but I had no time to think about it as I saw another girl coming my way. It was then that I realized the girl looked quite familiar.

I gulped. It was Marinette.

I was confused though. School was obviously still on. Why was she here? I didn't stand up and run off or anything like that. I sat there and waited until she got closer. When she was in front of me, she seemed to have this guilty and pained look on her face, and then, something I hadn't expected her to do, she knelt down right in front of me.

I gasped a little, trying not to move too much, or come off as weird to her. She bent down beside me and looked me in the eye. "Are you hungry?" I didn't answer, so she reached inside her pocket and pulled something out. "It's not much," She looked up at me again, "but here's a chocolate bar."

~ Edited ~