She was late again today.

I watched as she opened the door just wide enough for her to slip in. She carefully crept towards her seat, keeping an eye on the teacher. Luckily, the woman had her back turned towards us and she managed to slip into her chair. I noticed her visibly relax and smiled, happy that she finally succeeded in slipping into class unnoticed.

The joy only lasted for a few moments, though. When the teacher turned around, the first thing she saw was Marinette, now in her seat. A tight smile made its way into her face as she spoke, "Ah, Marinette! How nice of you to join us."

The said student visibly tensed up, and I could just imagine the nervous smile she'd wear- one that was almost always present when she was near Adrien Agreste, the popular model and son of the famous Gabriel Agreste, who also happened to be our classmate.

"What is your reason for being late this time?" the teacher asked.

I could almost see the gears turning in Marinette's head as she tried to come up with a plausible excuse. After a few moments of silence, she raised a finger up to say something, an excuse most probably, but decided against it and sighed, her shoulders slumping forward.

"I have no excuse," she admitted.

The teacher seemed pleased with her honesty and nodded. "Try not to be late next time," she said before returning to her lesson.

Instead of listening to the lecture like I should be, I continued to watch Marinette.

She was talking to Alya, her best friend. Her usually light skin was painted a deep red as she talked, her blue eyes wide with embarrassment. I could see her mouth moving as she talked, her hands making wild gestures in the air.

It was times like these that made me wish I was Alya. I wanted to be the one to hear her stories, and pat her head to help her calm down. I wanted to be the one who helped her make plans and support her through them. I wanted to be the one she called when something exciting came up. I wanted to be the one she shared her life with.

When the two girls turned back to the board, I sighed and did the same.

She was having an argument with Chloé now. It was about our roles in the play.

She'd been assigned as the director, meaning it was her responsibility to assign the roles of the rest of the class. Everyone seemed happy with their roles, except Chloé, of course.

She wasn't happy with her role as the bully, which was ironic because she already was a bully. She just had to act like herself for the film, but she wanted to be one of the main characters, who were all nice, mind you. Specifically, she wanted to be the best friend of Adrien's character.

"Chloé, you can't be Francine!" Marinette exclaimed dropping her papers down on her desk.

"And why not? I would do a way better job than Juleka," Chloé replied snarkily. It amazed me how genuinely rude Chloé could be. It was as if she didn't even care about what our other classmates thought, which might as well be true.

I saw Juleka step forward to say something, but was cut off by Marinette's strong voice.

"Juleka will be playing Francine, and that's final. Chloé, you simply do not fit the role therefore you cannot be Francine," she said, maintaining eye contact the blonde.

Chloé's face heated up in anger as she opened her mouth to retort but Marinette held a finger up to stop her. "Either the bully or nothing at all," she said.

The blonde immediately shut her mouth. Being in the film was a must for her, so she had no room to argue. Instead, she screamed and stormed out of the room. Sabrina, the one person who may actually like Chloé, followed after with all their stuff.

The room was silent after they left, but soon everyone was going back to their tasks.

I was happy with my role, since I could do something I liked and it gave me the opportunity to talk to Marinette about something we had in common. With that in mind, I set about sketching the costumes while the rest were practicing.

I was nearly done with Adrien's design, as he's the main character, when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I flinched in surprise and turned to meet bright blue eyes. I could feel my cheeks heat up instantly as I recognized who it was. She smiled at me, and my heart pounded in my chest.

"Hi, Nathaniel," she said, waving a hand.

I waved back shyly, peeking at her from behind my hair. She continued smiling, seemingly not minding my shyness.

"I see you're done designing a costume," she commented, taking a peek at my sketchbook.

I nodded.

She hummed in thought before asking, "Is that one for Michael?"

I nodded.

"It looks great!" she flashed me a bright smile. I melted. "If you want, we can talk about it after class. I can think of a few more things to add in there."

I nodded.

"Great! See you after school," she said before walking away.

I internally kicked myself for not saying anything and watched as she talked to Nino. I sighed and told myself that I'd talk to her after school. For now, I'd finish at least one more design. I smiled, excitement cursing through me as I went to work.

When the bell rang, I hurriedly packed my things and made my way towards Marinette, who was talking to Alya as she packed her own things. I stood there nervously, fiddling with the papers in my arms as I waited for her to finish. It took a while, and she only turned when Alya pointed at me, jumping at the sight of me. I smiled nervously as she calmed down.

"Nathaniel, you gave me a heart attack! I didn't see you there," she panted, putting a hand on her chest.

"Sorry," I mumbled, shifting my gaze down to my sneakers. I felt my cheeks flush as I avoided the stares of the two girls. I saw Marinette's feet shuffle closer to me and I looked up, meeting her kind blue eyes. She flashed me a smile, "It's alright. C'mon, I want to see your designs!"

The blue haired teen waved goodbye to Alya before guiding me outside the classroom. She ushered me onto one of the benches, taking a seat right beside me. I flushed at our close proximity and opened up my sketchbook with shaky hands. I flipped to the pages with more recent drawings, making sure that Marinette couldn't see my other drawings. I would be embarrassed if she did.

As I flipped from page to page, Marinette spoke up. "Wait," she said, causing me to stop mid-flip. "What is that?" she asked. I followed her gaze down to my sketchbook and blushed.

On the current page was a drawing... of Marinette.

I started stammering, trying to think of a plausible excuse, but she cut me off. "Is that... me?" she asked, her voice soft. I forced myself to look up and noticed that her pale cheeks had a slight tinge of pink on them. I quickly averted my gaze, slowly nodding.

I was extremely surprised when the girl beside me let out a happy squeal. After all, I expected her to get mad and call me a creep. I look at her and was even more surprised to find a smile gracing her features.

"Thank you," she said, pulling me into a hug. Unsure of what to do, I simply sat there as she wrapped her arms around me. I was sure that my face was beet red when she pulled away, her wide grin reduced to an appreciative, close-lipped smile. If she noticed my redness, she didn't say anything as she admired the drawing.

"I'm sure you've probably been told this a million times before but, you're a really good artist," she said, rambling on about my style, technique, and so on so forth. I was thankful to be able to experience it first-hand, especially since it was directed towards me. I watched her as she went on and on, committing every detail of this moment to memory.

Her cheeks were a noticeable pink as she talked, which made great contrast against her skin. Her eyes were flitting towards everything but me, and she was making gestures with her hands. She was adorable and I just wanted to have her for myself, which was practically impossible. Anyone could see that she had a crush on the blond model in class, which is why I was going to savour every second I spent with her today.

Marinette seemed to realize she was rambling and stopped herself, her blush growing darker. I was happy that I was the reason why she was blushing for once, not because of Adrien as it usually was.

"S-Sorry," she said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. She used her other hand to gesture to my sketchbook before continuing, "We should probably take a look at the designs now." I nodded, flipping through a few more pages before arriving at the one that held the design. I handed her the sketchbook and watched as she studied it.

We talked for quite some time, covering topics from where I got the inspiration from, to what materials will be used to make it. It was enjoyable, or maybe moreso. We shared similar tastes, and got a lot of work done. I'd even changed the design a a bit, taking some of Marinette's suggestions, and it turned out better than what I'd originally done.

We'd just finished when I noticed Adrien making his way towards us. I glanced at Marinette to see that she'd already noticed him. Her eyes were wide as he neared us, her face flushing rapidly. I watched as she stood up stiffly, waving at the blond when he was close enough. He waved back lightly, even giving me a nod to acknowledge my presence.

"Hey, Marinette, about the play..." Adrien said, trailing off.

"What play the about?" Marinette replied, a horrified expression passing over her features as she realized what she'd said. She moved to correct herself, "I-I mean, what about the play?"

It was painful to watch them converse. Seeing them together was a painful reminder that Marinette loved someone, and that someone wasn't me. It was Adrien. It left a searing pain in my chest every time I was reminded of that with physical evidence.

Deciding that I wasn't needed anymore, I packed up my things and stood up. Marinette barely noticed me do so, but Adrien, being the perfect human he is, waved goodbye. I nodded in acknowledgement before shuffling away from them.

Once I was out of school grounds, I slowed my pace and thought about my feelings for Marinette. Why do I still like her, I wondered for the nth time. It was obvious why I liked her- she was beautiful, smart, funny, honest and headstrong- but I couldn't tell why I still had these feelings despite knowing that she was in love with someone else.

I've been trying to stop, but I couldn't. Every time there was a crowd in the hallway, my eyes would immediately land on her. Everytime I tried to walk past her, she'd wave at me and my resolve would crumble. And everytime I tried to isolate myself, she'd be there to keep me company. It was impossible to stay away from her, and even more so for my feelings to fade out, no matter how much I wanted them to.

I closed my eyes and remembered her bright smile when she saw my drawing of her. I remembered the words she said as she rambled, and our conversation about the costume design. I remembered the sound of her carefree laughs, and the way she'd tuck stray hairs behind her ear.

I loved it.

I loved her.

I sighed, coming to the conclusion that my feelings were not going away any time soon, and that they'd always remain unrequited. Dejected, I made my way home and entered my room. I dropped my things on my desk before falling back on my bed and closing my eyes.

Tomorrow is another day. Another day in which I will constantly be searching for her sky blue eyes, thinking of her bright smile, and fall deeper into this abyss.

Author's Note

Hello! I wrote this back in June, 2016 for my lovely friend, Jin. I had this up on Wattpad, and I'm only uploading this here now because I'm trying to make all my social media parallel to each other. With that said, I hope you guys enjoyed this old thing!