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“Why are you fighting?” This was not the first time Alya had asked that question.
“We’re not fighting.”
Alya scoffed. “That’s hard to believe. We’re best friends. There’s nothing you could hide from me.” Marinette groaned into her pillow and pulled her blankets up closer to her face even though she knew it would do her no good. Alya could see right through her. She always had. There was nothing about Marinette (save Ladybug) that Alya couldn’t detect. “Tell me.”
Marinette wanted more than to tell Alya the truth. Telling Adrien that she was in love with him wasn’t something she regretted. She was proud to love someone so amazing. She was proud to be his friend. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t return her feelings.
“It’s nothing, Alya.”
“Did you trip in front of him again?” Alya offered, no doubt trying to wrack her brains and figure out why Marinette was so down.
“No.”
“Stutter ceaselessly?”
“No.”
Alya patted her friend’s ankle. “Then you must be fighting. Adrien’s been your crush since he transferred to our high school, and you’ve taken down his photoshoot pics.” Then, more quietly, she said “You also stopped answering his texts in a week. What gives, girl?”
“I don’t know.” Marinette shrugged weakly, her face still in her pillow. “Stuff.”
“Stuff?” Marinette glanced over at her best friend sitting at the end of her bed. “I feel like you haven’t left your house.”
“Because I haven’t. It’s summer vacation, and I needed to help my parents with the bakery, you know that.”
“And also I know that you’re my best friend. I know when something is up when you turn down sleepovers, movies and amusement parks with Nino and Adrien.”
Marinette swallowed the reminder of the pain and curled into herself. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about him anymore.”
Alya scoffed rolled her eyes. “What? Why? Did you confess and get shot down?” Marinette’s flinch couldn’t have affirmed it more, and Alya’s face fell immediately. Her shoulders straightened and the hand on Marinette’s leg tightened ever so slightly. “Oh, Marinette, I’m so sorry.”
She sniffed and turned in her shelter of blankets, hoping she could disappear underneath them. “It was bound to happen,” mumbled Marinette. “He’s in love with someone else.”
Alya blinked at her quizzically. This was news to her as well, it seemed. “He is?”
“Yeah. I never even stood a chance.” The thought just drew on her raw memory, and the crack in her heart was chipped at a little more. She should have known better than to think she ever had a chance. Who was she in comparison?
There were a lot of little things that she knew. She knew Adrien felt bad about turning her down, with his hesitance and shifting gaze. She knew he was in love with somebody else by the way he looked away when he talked about love, about already being in love.
For a brief moment, she had contemplated whether it was Kagami or not, but she knew that wasn’t true. They’d been in the park, and he’d been gazing at the Ladybug statue so intently that she knew .
It was an awful thing to know.
“I’m still sorry.” Alya patted Marinette’s back.
“Shouldn’t you be updating your Ladyblog?” she mumbled, wondering if she really wanted Alya to choose between a superhero and her. “I thought that the Mayor wanted to hold a town meeting with Ladybug and Cat Noir present.”
But Alya simply shrugged, an easy smile on her face. “That stuff’ll find its way on YouTube. You are my best friend. This isn’t some run to delete a voicemail, girl, this is a broken heart and as your best friend and best wing woman, I am not leaving your side.”
“Not even for Ladybug?”
“Ladybug isn’t my best friend. You are. Now scoot.” Marinette noticed the irony of that statement but made room for Alya to lay down next to her. It was nice to be with Alya again, to feel side-by-side, to trust her. “We can either watch a movie, live stream the ceremony, talk smack about Adrien,” she paused thoughtfully, “or watch the bloopers from Nino’s video where Chloe trips and snaps her heel on stage. Which do you prefer?”
“Oh, I like that last one,” giggled Marinette and leaned against her friend’s shoulder. “Thanks for this.”
“Girl? Anytime. I’m serious.”
Marinette’s eyes welled up without her control and she gave her friend a tight hug. Forget boys. Boys were too much trouble. Friendship was amazing. She should have just stayed friends with Adrien. Then none of this would have happened. And maybe she should have pushed more to stay friends with Cat Noir. Maybe that wouldn’t have happened either. “And you’re mine.”