SLOWLY FALLING FOR YOU (α∂яιєηєттє)

Chap. 4

The last bell finally rang and I quickly started packing up, wanting to be the first out. As soon as I was done stuffing all my books inside my bag, I got ready to leave, but then someone called me back. I turned around, knowing it had been Marinette, and I waited for her to come over. Marinette lifted up her bag and started walking towards me, a look of apology on her face.

"I'm really sorry for what happened at Lunchtime. You didn't deserve that, and I feel like it's my fault."

"Chloe didn't deserve that either. She's not pathetic." I completely ignored her apology and started walking away again. I could tell she was following so I walked faster, just to see how much of her time she was willing to waste just so she could make sure I wasn't mad. When I stopped walking after a few seconds, I looked back to see that she was still behind me.

"I don't know you guys that well, but I can tell you too are good guys. Lila's just been through so much, and she just finds it unfair that Chloe is after her," Marinette said again, and I widened my eyes. "What?"

"Lila? That's her name?" Marinette nodded, and I could feel my anger starting to actually rise.

"Chloe, what did you do? You promised me you wouldn't get into another fight!" I folded my arms and looked away with a huff, feeling upset that my own best friend had broken her promise. "Why did you do it? You were doing so well too."

"I'm sorry. It was just this girl from my class. She-" Chloe sniffed, covering her face. I turned back to her, feeling a bit guilty that I'd gotten mad, despite everything she was going through. "She called me a motherless daughter. Can you believe her?!"

I unfolded my arms, a small gasp escaping from my mouth, and then I got mad. "What's her name?" Who would dare to hurt Chloe like this?!

Chloe uncovered her face and turned to me with a face of all seriousness. "Lila. That's her name! It's Lila!"

I let out a bitter laugh. "So Lila was here talking about how Chloe was such a bully, when she herself was a bully too? I can't believe this!" Marinette looked confused though, and I pondered over whether to explain to her what I was talking about or just leave. After a few seconds of staring at each other, I sighed, giving up. "Lila used to be this bully from Chloe's school when we were kids. I didn't go to her school, nor did I know what Lila looked like, but whenever Chloe came back home, she would always complain about her. One day they got into a huge physical fight, and both girls got expelled from the school, though because Chloe's father was the Mayor, he let his daughter stay in that school and only Lila had to leave."

"That must be why Lila hates Chloe so much. She did always tell me that a blonde girl got her expelled once and how she was going to get back at her." Marinette shrugged, walking beside me as we headed out of the school. "I never cared enough to put more thought on who this blonde girl could be, but after seeing how Lila acted around Chloe, I figured it was her."

"Why are you even friends with her in the first place?" I blurted out, not meaning to sound rude.

"Lila is having problems of her own, and one day she came to my bakery, her clothes all torn up, bruising everywhere. This was like six years ago. I didn't really know her well back then. My family helped her get cleaned up and gave her food, and she stayed over at my bakery for a week, the both of us sharing a room." Marinette looked down while talking.

"Then after a week, this man was furiously knocking on our door and said he wanted his daughter back," She continued. "We didn't want to give him Lila, but Lila assured us she was okay and went away with the man. I was really worried. For a few days, I didn't hear from her. And then I started going to her school and we really hit it off well, and we became friends from then on. She would sometimes come over to have lunch with us, and would even sometimes have a sleepover with Alya and I. Like I said again, Lila is having problems and I'm sure she didn't mean what she said back there. And. . . please, don't tell her I told you this. She likes to keep her situation private from others."