Credit for the AMV above goes to the YouTube channel Heidinette!

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Adrien wasn't bluffing when he told Marinette that he would give Lila a taste of her own medicine.

He never liked Lila as person, and the reflected thought of once being with her intimately made him sick to his stomach. Why had he ever considered dating her? Why had he ever agreed to have sex with her?

Lila would always have that memory hanging over his head, and she would probably use it to taunt him if he tried to expose her. But Adrien wasn't afraid of people finding out he slept with Lila. If the whole student body didn't already know about that, they at least had to suspect it.

It wasn't a mystery that Adrien Agreste used to sleep around.

Which bothered Adrien in more ways than he cared to admit. He didn't feel pride swell in his chest whenever he thought about his reputation, no, not anymore. It made him feel sick to his stomach, especially when people like Lila thought she had some sort of control over him, or some sort of claim on him, just because she got to spend an hour with his dick. So when Marinette told him what Lila had said to her when she dared to corner her in the bathroom after their movie date, he was beyond annoyed. He was furious. Lila had absolutely no right to antagonize Marinette just because she was hanging out with him.

Lila had no right to act like he was hers.

Because he certainly wasn't.

Adrien approached Lila that Monday, looking so agitated that everyone in the halls quickly cleared a path for him. No one dared to stand in his way. Lila was standing with her hip jutted out in front of her open locker, talking to a few girls he didn't recognize.

He slammed his hand against the closed locker beside hers, causing all three girls to look up at him in surprise.

"What's your deal?" Adrien asked Lila specifically, who personally didn't seem too surprised to see him. Her two friends looked anxious, as if they felt they were being scrutinized, but Adrien didn't care about them. All he cared about was Lila, who now wore a smug smile.

"My deal?" Lila slowly closed her locker and spun around to face him, blinking up at him innocently. But he wasn't a fool. He knew this was a game she liked to play, and her games were always toxic. Even the sound of her sweet, sickly voice sounded toxic. "What are you talking about Adrien?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Adrien said, his gaze stern and unwavering. He narrowed his eyes and did his best not to scowl. "You always do." He watched as Lila raised a brow, her smile still smug, as she stepped away from her locker.

It was a silent invitation for him to follow her, and he did.

Reluctantly, he followed after her. He noticed a few eyes following his every move, and he did his best to glare in their direction.

As soon as he silently fell into step with her, she said, "So, I'm assuming you're talking about Friday night? Your date night at the movies, right?"

"I don't appreciate what you did to Marinette." Adrien said gruffly, "And I don't want you meddling in my business either. What I do with people isn't your concern."

Lila chuckled, flashing her pearly, white teeth. "Oh please, Adrien. I don't care if you hang out with Marinette or not." She turned her head to the side, giving him a very uncomfortable once over. "I just... happened to see her when I went into the bathroom, and then I looked at her through the mirror, and I got really... concerned about her."

Despite knowing that Lila was known to to be a liar, Adrien somehow didn't even notice he was falling right into her trap when he asked, "Why would you be concerned?"

Lila's smile stretched almost sinisterly, making the faded lines underneath her eyes crinkle. "Well, you see, when I saw Marinette, she was leaned over the sink and looking at herself in the mirror, but she looked like she'd been crying. When I tried to ask her what was wrong, she pulled away and knocked over her bag, and when I went to pick up her stuff, I found a bottle of prescribed pills."

Lila looked genuinely remorseful. She was frowning heavily, and her tone of voice sounded extremely sympathetic, but Adrien couldn't help but frown nonetheless.

He was frowning mostly because he didn't like where this conversation seemed to be turning.

"So?" Adrien tried to sound unperturbed, even though he was internally panicking. "She's taking medication. Why does that matter so much?"

Lila glanced over at him and rolled her eyes. "Are you that blind, Adrien? She's taking pills because she's sick."

His eyes widened, "Sick?" And this time, he was sure she could pinpoint the panic in his voice.

"Mhm." Lila nodded.

Adrien didn't want to believe her. He really didn't. After all, he should know better—Lila was known to fabricate the truth. She was a liar.

And yet, he couldn't get her words, or Marinette's, out of his head.

"She laughed at me when she found out something... I didn't really want anyone knowing..." Marinette had told him, and somehow, those words left an uncanny feeling in his stomach.

Did Marinette not trust him enough to tell him whatever burden she was carrying?

Then again, he had no valid reason to expect her to trust him. He'd done too many things that ruined whatever trust Marinette once had in him.

And he wasn't sure if he could ever gain that trust back.

"I found a bottle of pills..." Lila's words echoed in his mind. "She's taking pills because she's sick."

Was Marinette really sick? And if she was, was she seriously sick? Like sick to the point where it could be life threatening?

Adrien threw a glare at Lila. "I honestly don't care what you saw. Marinette told me that whatever you brought up, she didn't want anyone knowing, and you clearly invaded her privacy by rummaging through her things."

Lila gasped in mocked horror. She placed a hand to her chest, looking at him with wide eyes, as if the notion actually offended her. It didn't. "Rummaging through her things? Who do you take me for, Adrien?"

He didn't even hesitate. "A liar."

Lila made a quiet 'hmph' sound, but she didn't sound offended at all. She seemed amused. "Whatever you say, Adrien."

"You better leave Marinette alone." Adrien said as they finally reached the closed classroom door that led to Lila's next class. Lila didn't even spare him a glance, but he didn't care if she didn't look at him. The only thing he cared about was if she listened.

Lila checked her manicured nails, her smile not even wavering, "Or you'll do what?" She said, a silent challenge for him to try his worst; that she wasn't afraid of him, or what he thought he could do.

Adrien's angered expression remained stern. "Or you'll lose your internship with my father." He watched as her shoulders tensed, bringing a small smile to his lips, because he knew that he had evidently struck a nerve. "It'd be tragic, wouldn't it? If I told my father that you have a nasty habit of harassing me?"

Lila snapped her gaze to his, her eyes full of rage. "You wouldn't."

Adrien matched her glare. "Try me."

Lila grit her teeth, and seethed, "I'm your father's best model. He wouldn't drop me over a claim."

"I guess it just depends on who makes the claim." Adrien smirked, "You're not the only one who knows how to manipulate."

Lila scowled, but she kept her mouth shut. She couldn't argue with him over that because she knew he was right. If Adrien told his father that Lila made him uncomfortable for validated reasons, his father would not hesitate to remove her off from Adrien's photoshoots.

The only problem was that... even though Adrien could dangle that threat over Lila's head as leverage, Lila still had a way to bite back by targeting Marinette.

And he didn't want that.

In a way, his hands were tied. But at least he could still ruffle her feathers a little bit.

"You need to move on, Lila." Adrien murmured as he glanced around them, watching to see if anyone daring enough was trying to listen in. "I don't like you. I will never like you. You and I will never be a couple. We will never be friends. We're just two separate people being forced to work together."

Lila breathed out a laugh through her nose. "Oh Adrien," she shook her head, "You might think you don't have feelings for me, but your dick—"

"Goes to sleep whenever I'm around you." Adrien finished for her. He watched as she whipped her head around to face him again, blinking up at him with wide eyes, as if she couldn't believe he had the audacity to say that. Adrien simply shrugged. "I think I know my own dick better than you do. And he's not really that thrilled to see you."

Lila's scowl returned in a matter of seconds. "If it wasn't because you're Gabriel Agreste's son, that dick of yours wouldn't even be attached to your body anymore."

Despite her sickening threat regarding his lower region, Adrien was extremely amused. "Is that a threat?" The blonde feigned a dramatic gasp. "Imagine how my father would react.. the moment he found out one of his models threatened to cut off a part of my body."

Lila's scowl was so prominent, that he was sure even the school cameras could easily see it, and the teachers watching the cameras were probably covering their eyes.

After all, Lila was a monster.

And even though he knew this, Adrien was smiling. Maybe it was because he was finally putting Lila in her place, or maybe it was because he was finally defending Marinette.

Either way, he felt really good.

And speaking of Marinette... Adrien spared a glance over Lila's shoulder the moment he spotted the familiar sight of bluish-black. Sure enough, the amazing girl he was falling head over heels for was walking down the hall, looking as beautiful as ever.

She was wearing legging and a hoodie, and disappointedly, it wasn't his hoodie that he'd given to her and told her that she could have. She had the hood pulled over her head like she always did, hiding her dark hair and even her face from everyone else around her.

He couldn't help the frown that tugged at his lips as he watched her.

Adrien didn't like when she felt like she had to hide from the rest of the world. He knew she was capable of being confident; he'd seen it before.

But lately, Marinette was keeping to herself more than usual. And she was sort of avoiding him as well.

He hadn't pointed it out. He hadn't even mentioned it to her. If anything he tried to ignore it and label it as him reading into things wrong.

But something was definitely wrong.

Marinette was acting different, and he noticed. Ever since their movie date, she was acting distant. He didn't understand why. Besides Lila's annoying interjection, he thought the night went well. He had a good time with her, and he thought she felt the same.

But now, Adrien was beginning to wonder if Marinette really did enjoy herself on their date, or if he just caused more problems for her by asking her to go on a date with him.

Adrien frowned. He didn't want to cause any more problems for Marinette. He wanted to help her fix them.

Marinette suddenly looked up, and Adrien froze, their eyes instantly falling together. As soon as he met her eyes, Adrien offered her a genuine smile. He couldn't even force himself not to smile even if he wanted to. Marinette always brought a smile to his face.

And the same didn't seem to apply for Marinette. She seemed uneasy, looking at him with a strange look in her eye he couldn't quite decipher. When she didn't return his smile, his own smile fell, and that seemed to make her feel even worse when she reciprocated his disappointment.

Marinette tore her eyes away from his before Adrien could even offer her a look of concern—one that silently asked if she was okay. He watched sadly as Marinette turned away from him and headed down the hall in the opposite direction, pulling her hoodie even further to cover her eyes.

In that moment, Adrien had the strong desire to pull that hoodie down himself, just so that he could see her beautiful face.

"You should be careful..." Lila started, and Adrien had, in all honesty, almost forgotten that she was even there. He turned to look back at her, only to find that her expression was unreadable— like always. "...about who and what you're willing to put out on the line, for the sake of being comfortable."

Despite her threat and who it was really aimed at, Adrien was not going to back down, or allow himself to be vulnerable. "You don't make me uncomfortable," he admitted lowly, "You make me sick."

Again, Lila grimaced. He took pride in making her feel angry. Without another word, she spun around sharply on her heel and opened the door, heading into her next class, and shut it promptly behind him.

But he didn't care. Adrien simply stood there, with his arms crossed and a smile on his face.

Little did he know that the cost for comfortability came with an exorbitant price.

"You're avoiding me."

It didn't come out as a question. When Adrien was finally able to catch up with Marinette during his history class (which he skipped), he found her in the school library—all the way in the back, might he add—leaned back against the bookshelf with her knees pulled up to her chest.

(Which meant that she was also skipping her trig class... but that was the least of his problems.)

Her head was still covered by her hood, so he couldn't see her expression when she mumbled, "So what if I am?"

He frowned. Her words felt like a spear being jabbed into his heart. "Why?" Adrien asked her, his voice coming out more pleadingly then he had originally intended.

Marinette shrugged, keeping her head downcast, away from his view. "It's complicated."

Her answer, however, only boiled his anger. "That's not an answer." He bit, almost regretting it when he saw her flinch. "You can't just expect me to accept that."

"And why not?" This time, she lifted her head to look at him, but the girl that he saw wasn't Marinette. "That's what you expected out of me, the night we had sex and I asked you to be my friend—outside of closed doors."

"I thought we were passed that?" He threw up his hands, suddenly feeling so frustrated. "I'm your friend now. We're more than just friends."

"Are we really?"

"Of course we are! We went on a date like three nights ago, remember? I had a great time!"

Marinette averted her gaze from his, looking back down at her knees. Adrien almost asked her if she regretted going out with him, but decided to hold back his tongue. He didn't want to know the answer to that.

Instead, Adrien slowly and silently removed his book bag off his shoulder and moved to sit down beside her. He grunted as he lowered himself onto the navy-blue, carpeted floor, and stretched out his legs in front of him. He leaned his head back against the bookshelf, closed his eyes, and sighed heavily through his nose.

"Did you?"

He didn't look to see if Marinette had lifted her head to look at him. He didn't need to see her reaction. He just needed her to answer.

"Did I what?"

Adrien's eyes blinked open, only to refocus straight ahead. His eyes felt heavy, and almost threatened to close again due to his emotional exhaustion. "Did you have a good time?" He said emotionlessly, "On our date."

It took Marinette a moment to answer him, but when she did, it sounded... unsure. It sounded wrong. "Yes."

"You hesitated."

"I didn't." Her tone was accusing.

"You had to think about your answer, therefore you hesitated."

That seemed to earn him a groan. An irritated one. "Does it matter?"

"To me it does." He insisted. "I want you to be honest with me."

Marinette whipped her head to the side to look at him so hard, that he suddenly feared her neck might break. He didn't have to turn to look at her to see her fury.

He could see it out of the corner of his eye just fine.

"Honest?" Marinette spat out. "You want me to be honest with you? Well... maybe I'm just tired of this charade."

Adrien couldn't help it—he had to turn and meet her eyes then. "What are you even talking about?" He almost reached out to her, almost took her hand in his, but pulled back before she could even notice his attempted advance. "What charade?"

"Us. Our relationship." She gestured between the two of them—whatever little space was left between them, that is. "If you can even call it that."

"Why the sudden... disgust?" Adrien wrinkled his nose, not really liking her tone of voice regarding their rough, but still functioning relationship.

He was trying to understand her—he really was, but he didn't. Considering everything that had already happened between them, he thought things were going well. He thought he was making progress.

But, apparently, they were back to square one in a matter of days.

Adrien began to recall what could've gotten Marinette riled up over something that he honestly had no clue about. He thought about their date—the one thing that always brought a smile to his face. How Marinette looked so beautiful when he picked her up, how she looked happy and smiled so bright that he could tell it was genuine. But then he remembered that her mood fell when she went into the bathroom, and claimed that—

Lila. Lila Rossi had done something, or rather said something, that Marinette wasn't telling him.

Or maybe... Lila has told him herself. She told him Marinette was sick... and maybe this is what this was really all about.

Maybe this was Marinette's way of pushing him away... because of her sickness.

"Are... are you dying?"

Adrien could've asked that question a lot less bluntly, but suddenly he was scared. Scared for the girl beside him whom he was falling dangerously in love with.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Marinette's eyes widen in complete horror. "What?! Why would you think that?"

Adrien breathed out through his nose slowly, mostly because he needed to calm himself down. "Lila... mentioned that you were sick. Said you were taking some meds and that she was worried about you. I know she's lying about the 'feeling worried about you part', but are you really taking medication?"

Marinette's visual flinch was all the answer he needed.

"So... you are." Adrien sighed. He was sure she could hear the disappointment in his voice. "Is it bad? I mean... were you going to tell me?"

"I wasn't going to tell anyone," she admitted softly, though she also seemed sad—sounded regretful; guilty. "But... I guess that didn't work in my favor."

"So what? You were just going to die from a disease or whatever and not tell anyone?"

Marinette scoffed, and he was surprised to hear a playful tone behind it. "I'm not going to die. Why would you even come to that conclusion?"

Adrien grimaced, turning his head away from her again. "My mom used to be 'sick'. It wasn't supposed to kill her, but it did."

He reached out for Marinette's hand again, and this time, he didn't retreat. He found her hand with ease, slid his fingers in between hers as if it was his place, and sighed contently when her warmth offered him comfort.

Marinette opened her mouth to say something—probably to tell him that she was sorry for his loss, but Adrien shook his head. "Please don't say you're sorry." He whispered softly, "I didn't tell you that so that you could feel guilty and give me your condolences."

Marinette snapped her mouth shut, pressing her lips together into a tight line.

Adrien offered her a soft, small smile. "I've never told anyone about my mother before," he admitted as he ran his thumb over the top of her hand in gentle circles. "But I told you because I trust you, and because I want you to understand why I would assume you're close to laying in your death bed."

Marinette whimpered softly, and he felt her squeeze his hand. "I'm not going to die."

Adrien squeezed her hand in return, leaning closer to press a soft, ghostly kiss to her temple.

"I'll be holding you to that." He murmured, smiling as he brushed his nose against her temple lovingly and sighed in relief.

_______________________________

Hey! I'm back!

Unfortunately, APOM did not win a place in The Ladybug Awards. It was kind of disappointing... cause tbh, I really thought it would get something.

But... I'm not going to dwell over that. This book wasn't written to win contests after all.

It was written to spread awareness.

Thank you all for being so patient with this book. I know it's been so long and I know some of y'all were dying for a new chapter.

So, I hope you enjoyed!

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