Just my Luck -Book 1

Chapter 8: If you give a Chat a Cookie

Adrien had not intended to go to one of Chloé's parties that night. She had been inviting him for years ever since she started having them on a weekly basis. Even though Nino was the DJ and was making a killing, Adrien had avoided her parties like the plague, mainly because of the fact that Chloé would be there. 

Not that he didn't go to parties. He was often recruited into participating in high society, entertainment, or fashion related parties, always at his father's request. It was more or less work, especially since Natalie or the Gorilla would be sure to report every little thing to his father.

That night as Chat, Adrien had patrolled around Paris and as he ran rooftop to rooftop his hair and tail whirled in the wind. He had stopped to admire the view from the Sacré-Cœur, the Champs-Élysées, and the Eiffel Tower, before crossing through to the other side of town. That was when his super cat hearing picked up the sounds of the party.

He jumped on the top of the luxury hotel that Chloé lived at, then transformed into Adrien and tried to blend into the party. He was a bit surprised to see most of his classmates were there. Juleka, Rose, Nathaniel, Max, Marc, and many others. He hadn't expected Chloé to invite people from different social groups. But for some reason, he didn't see Marinette anywhere. He tried to make his way over to Nino, who was in the middle of DJing a fast song when he was spotted by Chloé.

 "ADRAKINS!" She shouted as she ran, her designer high-heels clicking loudly against the marble of the dance floor. She launched herself into his arms and gave him a kiss on the cheek. 

He tried to pull away politely. "Chloé did you..."

"Did I want to dance? Oh yes!" 

She put her hands back on his shoulders and Adrien sighed. That wasn't what he was going to ask, but it would have been rude to stop in the middle of a dance, so he went with it. "Chloé, did you invite Mari?"

"Invite her? Miss Mari-trash?" Her face scrunched up into a sour frown before she sighed and rolled her eyes. "Of course I did. When I invited Luka Coufaine he said I needed to invite her and a dozen or so other people. But she said she was busy... probably scrubbing pots or baking bread. And now I have half the dance floor filled up with filthy peasants and I don't even have a famous rock star to show for it."

"Oh," Adrien said, not sure how to respond politely to that. Chloé sure made it hard to be civil. He continued dancing as courteously as possible until she suddenly leaned in for a kiss. Before her thick glossy lips could make contact with his, he quickly made an excuse and left her to go talk with Nino. 

Adrien hated rejecting girls. He dreaded it. But having so many fans, and most of them being female, it was inevitable in his line of work. Of course, his fail-safe rejection was to simply say, 'I'm glad to have you as one of my fans.' It wasn't as if he could tell people he was unavailable. He couldn't tell anyone about his secret crush on Ladybug without drawing unnecessary attention. 

Suddenly, Nino put on a new song. Something about the singer's voice was familiar and the lyrics were deep and moving. Half of the dance floor started singing along as the chorus came on.

"Choose me," Lila sang along as she came up to Adrien's side and linked her arm with his. "Luka has such a sexy voice. Did you know that Luka wrote that song for me?"

"He wrote that for you?!" Mylene said.

"That's amazing," Alix cheered with excitement. "You two would make a great couple."

"I'd die if anyone ever did that for me," Rose said, with her eyes wide and her hands tightly clutched together.

"Oh yes I know," Lila answered. "He's quite the romantic, but I have to keep turning him down because someone else has my heart." She gave a sly glance Adrien's way, who was a bit speechless on what to say.