Where did you go?

6~ Thou shalt be smacked!

What on Earth do they want? Why can't I just have one moment of peace? Does the universe hate me?

Probably, yeah.

Shut up inner voice.

I stare them down until eventually they reach us and are standing right in front of me. Alya notices that I went silent, then turns around to look. She then goes silent too. The tension in the area just went from 0 to 100 so quickly. Adrien then decides to break the silence and start talking.

"Hey guys", he says.

"What do you want?", Alya snaps.

She read my mind.

"I wanted to talk to you guys about what happened", he replies. He then takes a big breath and continues, "Why didn't any of you call me? I tried contacting you guys multiple times-".

"WE didn't call YOU?", I interrupt. "You were the one who always declined our calls. You were the one who didn't even send us a text. We didn't even get informed that you left until days after because you didn't show up to school."

"I went to the United States."

"Yeah, we obviously know that now. Miss Bustier announced it to the whole class."

"She's right Adrien. You went completely MIA on us. Not the other way around. We just wanted to know if you were okay", Nino adds.

Alya nods her head and Adrien has a confused expression smeared on his face. What on Earth is he confused about? Is he playing the stupid card just to avoid taking accountability for his actions? Pathetic. All of a sudden, he takes his phone out of his pocket and stares at it.

"I swear I tried to call you guys", he says.

I scoff and roll my eyes, and Nino holds out his hand.

"May I?", he asks, signalling to grab the phone.

I see Adrien hesitate a bit, but he ends up handing Nino the phone. Nino is next to Alya so I can't exactly see, but his fingers are tapping fast on the screen. After a couple of seconds, he holds up the phone to Adrien's face and raises an eyebrow.

" 'Tried to call us?' ", Nino mocks. "You have us blocked dude."

He blocked us? Are you serious? Did he have some unleashed anger towards us that all of a sudden came out when he left? He said he "attempted to call us". What a liar! This is ridiculous-

Is Lila smirking?

Oh hell no. Was all of this her fault? Is that why our contacts are blocked on Adrien's phone? As soon as I made this realization, I felt myself getting angrier by the second. Without thinking, my hands formed fists, and I walked my way over to her. I lifted my hand and slapped her in the face.

That felt good.

After I slapped her, my hand went down immediately after I realized what I did. Oh no. I just slapped Lila Rossi. The queen of lies. What was I thinking? She's gonna tell the principal that I like- tried to kill her or something. I'm dead.

Rest in Peace, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Less than a millisecond after I slapped her, Adrien came in between us, holding his arms back to protect Lila. Wow, what a prince in shining armour.

"What are you doing Marinette?!", he yells.

"I know this was all her fault!", I reply. "Why do you think we're all blocked on your phone? This snake was probably the reason behind it! You're just too DENSE to see that!".

Alya and Nino are watching this argument with smirks on their faces. I'm on a roll here. Go Marinette! Who's the best? Me, obviously.

"Why would she do something that would jeopardize my friendships?", he questions. "She's my girlfriend."

I'm sorry,

What?

My mouth drops open, and from what I can see in the corner of my eye, Nino and Alya's mouths drop open too.

They're dating? What on Earth happened in the United States? I hate to admit it because I had built up a strong wall between me and my feelings for Adrien, but hearing that hurt. I feel heartbroken and betrayed for some reason. Not because of him being with someone else. Yes, that's part of it, but I know it's not his fault if he doesn't like me. What hurt is the person he's with. Lila tried to absolutely ruin my life several times before, and Adrien was one of the only ones who stood up for me. For him to just switch up, go on a 6 month trip with her, and date her? What the f**k.

That's beside the point. I shouldn't be feeling like this. My 5 month anniversary with Luka is tomorrow, the day before my class goes on the trip to the United States. I need to get myself together and stop it with these thoughts. I just hope that I at least have fun this weekend. I need it.

I look Adrien in the eye and start speaking.

"You deserve to be slapped too, although I won't ruin my mood any further than it already is ruined", I say, then turn to hug Alya goodbye, do a handshake with Nino, and leave.

I hop on my bike and start riding home. I'm too pissed to continue that conversation. I'm too pissed to do anything right now. I just want to go home and sleep. That's what I end up doing for the rest of the day anyways.

(Adrien's POV)

~6 months ago~

My father had proposed a trip to the United States for a modelling opportunity for me. It was very last minute, so in the end, I just decided to go. Why not? It all happened very quickly, and very late at night, so I forgot to let anyone know before I got on the plane. Once the idea came to my mind, I got interrupted by my father coming up to me, and Lila all of a sudden popping up next to him.

"Adrien, I proposed the idea of coming with us to your friend Lila", he says. "I suppose you remember her, as she's had a photoshoot with you before. The photographers from the United States asked if we could bring a female muse to join you."

Oh, that's fun! Having a friend come with me would definitely make this trip better, and a lot less boring.

"Yes, of course, father. Thank you for letting me know", I reply.

He nods and walks back to his section on the plane. Lila then plops down in the seat next to me and puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Adrien! I'm so glad to be coming with you, we're going to have so much fun! I'm so glad that my tinnitus isn't acting up, being on the plane would trigger it", Lila says.

I allow myself to laugh a little at this lie, and the flight attendant announces that the plane will be departing soon.

"Yeah, sure! I'm glad you came along Lila", I say. "I'm going to head to the bathroom before the plane takes off. I'll be right back."

I leave my phone on the side table next to my seat and head to the bathroom. Once I come back, My phone was in a different spot, but I didn't think much of it. Before I know it, the plane takes off, and I forgot to let my friends know that I was leaving.

We didn't end up coming back.

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