Until previously, Adrien hadn't known what it was like to be stuck in the middle of a friendship rift. Sure, he'd seen it happen before in many, many movies, but seeing wasn't really experiencing. Yes, he'd seen a few Nino/ Alya arguments, but those never lasted long, and he had Marinette there to ride it out with him.

But now Adrien knew exactly what it felt like, and it was most definitely not pleasant.

He'd been late for school due to an impromptu photo shoot that started at the most ungodly hour imaginable, and ended quite some time later. Therefore, he'd missed homeroom, but managed to make it into English with Ms. Bustier. He'd taken his seat next to Nino, who was organizing his notes. The lesson began quickly, and so the pair had no time to chat, and were forced to pay proper attention, as Ms Bustier was going over the study guide for next week's test.

Adrien was a good student, with grades high enough to please his father, who was satisfied by almost nothing. Perhaps it was just the effect of being tutored by some of France's finest, or perhaps Adrien just had a natural intelligence. Whatever the case, he could afford a few missed questions.

But Gabriel had been on the warpath lately. Maybe a business deal gone sour, or just no inspiration for designs. Adrien wasn't sure, but knew that it was best not to slack off while his father was like this. 'Not slacking off' meant perfect marks, and that required Adrien's full attention during lessons.

Physics followed English, relieving Adrien. Physics was his best subject, so he wouldn't have to work quite so hard.

After spending forty-five minutes in the classroom, Adrien could sense that something was amiss. It wasn't a warm day, but there was a kind of frostiness in the air that didn't have anything to do with the temperature. The model didn't know what had caused the coolness, but he intended to find out.

Recess couldn't come quickly enough, and Adrien practically flew out the door in his hastiness to discover exactly what he had missed. When he skidded to a halt in front of the quartet's usual bench, he was stunned.

No one was there.

Marinette was talking to Alix, and standing over by the basketball hoop. Alya was twenty meters away, sitting by herself in a corner, using her mobile phone. And Nino was in a conversation with Max, a fair distance away from the two girls.

Now, ordinarily, Adrien wouldn't have minded. They were perfectly entitled to hang out with other students. But after feeling the tense atmosphere of the classroom and seeing the considerable distance between his friends, Adrien was sure that something was up. And he intended to find out what.

The blonde marched up to Nino, and -always the gentleman- coughed politely. Nino turned around, surprised.

"Adrien, my bro," he greeted cordially. Max nodded at Adrien.

"If you'll excuse me, Adrien, Nino, I have to go." He walked off, leaving the two boys standing alone.

Adrien looked at Nino. "Hey, Nino, where's Alya and Marinette?" he asked, pretending that he hadn't just seen them less than a minute ago.

The DJ's face turned suddenly stormy, and he shot a glare in Marinette and Alix's direction. "Over there," he muttered sullenly, pointing out their respective positions.

Adrien looked at the girls again. They hadn't moved since he'd walked into the courtyard. "Oh, right. Any particular reason why we're all, you know, seperate?"

Nino shrugged and moved to pull out his phone. "No."

Adrien eyed him with what Alya called his RBF, or Resting Beyotch Face to keep it PG. It was basically Adrien looking at someone like, seriously?

Nino sighed and gave in. "Fine," he snapped, annoyed. "We had a fight."

Adrien still wasn't satisfied. "During homeroom?" he inquired curiously.

"Before school."

"About?" pressed the model.

Nino groaned. "It's hard to explain, and I don't feel like talking right now. Go ask M or something."

Adrien nodded. "Fine, I'll stop bothering you. Let's go." He grabbed Nino's jacket and began to drag the surprised boy over to where Marinette was standing.

"Hey!" protested Nino. "No way, bro! Marinette practically hates me!" He tried to prise Adrien's fingers off his clothes, but the blonde just tightened his hold.

"Come on, Nino," said Adrien. "She doesn't hate you."

Nino shook his head so hard that his headphones nearly fell off. "You didn't see her face when Alya told her," he muttered. With a quick movement, he shrugged off his jacket and dodged away from Adrien. "Haha! You are not getting me over there. No way, Jose!"

Adrien sighed and threw Nino his jacket. God, it was just Marinette. Anyone would think that he was dragging Nino to the guillotine, the way he was carrying on.

He kept walking towards Marinette. The bluenette felt his gaze and glanced towards Adrien. Her facial expression immediately went from relaxed to horror- movie white. She looked like she'd just encountered a ghost, and her pale face contrasted sharply with her midnight hair.

Adrien placed a hand on her shoulder, and felt her flinch slightly under her touch. "Hey, M. Hey, Alix."

Alix smiled at him. "'Sup, Adrien." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the pink-haired girl smirk at Marinette. "I've gotta go to the library, work on that history assignment. See you around, you two." She walked off with a wink at Marinette. The bluenette glared fiercely in response.

"So, Marinette," began Adrien, removing his hand from her poncho, "I wanted to ask you something."

Marinette's blue eyes widened. They reminded him of Ladybug's thought Adrien dreamily. The same gorgeous colour.

"What about?" she said finally, stammering a little.

Adrien flexed his fingers before replying. "Well, it's about Nino and Alya. You three all seemed kind of tense during class. I asked Nino about it just now, and he said you guys all had some argument, but he couldn't explain it. He told me to ask you, but wouldn't come over himself. He said you hated him, or something?"

Marinette went a deep red. But not in an embarrassed way. It was more of an angry flush. "I don't hate him," she replied crossly. "I just got angry with him. That's all."

"Very angry, by the looks of it," noted Adrien. "I'm pretty sure that he's now terrified of you."

Marinette rolled her eyes and muttered something about Nino being a drama queen.

Adrien laughed. "A drama queen, huh?"

Marinette shrugged, slightly self-conscious. "Well, yeah. It's not like I punched him or anything."

Adrien cracked a smile. "Not like that other guy."

Marinette looked at him, confused. "Huh?"

"That guy that annoyed you on Monday night. You said that you'd punched him," explained Adrien. "So obviously, the argument couldn't have been that bad if you didn't give Nino a right hook to the nose."

Marinette didn't smile. "Yeah, well, I might have overreacted," she muttered.

"Care to tell me exactly what the fight was about?"

Marinette sighed, and looked away. "It's complicated, but okay." She brushed her bangs out of her face. "So Nino texted Alya, asking her if I was busy on Friday. She didn't know,and asked him why. He said that is was because he had asked you if you wanted to hang out on Friday, but you said no because you were waiting for a reply from me. Alya was really surprised, and when I told her that I had to help my parents, she walked over to the bakery and talked them into letting me off. That's why she was late. And then I got angry at Nino for telling ALya because, uh, now my parents might struggle and I don't want to stress them out. And I was angry at Alya and Nino, so they're both kind of avoiding me. I think Nino's mad at Alya for telling me that he told her about you, because I yelled at him." She finished and took a breath.

Adrien blinked. Marinette had been right- it was extremely complicated, but he'd managed to grasp the basics. The entire argument was pretty much because he'd asked Marinette to go get ice-cream.

"Marinette, I'm sorry," he said.

Marinette did a double take. "What for?"

"For causing this whole thing. It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't just rescheduled the ice-cream thing."

"Oh. No, don't worry. We'll get through it. It was just a stupid argument. Anyway, I guess I'll be seeing you on Friday, then. Six o'clock? Or is that too late?"

Adrien thought for a moment. "No, that's perfect. I'll pick you up from your house."

"Sure. See you later, Adrien." Marinette walked away quickly, leaving Adrien standing alone, surprised. Marinette had been more talkative than usual, but then she'd suddenly turned brisk again. It was almost as though she disliked him but had forgotten, then remembered again. But he didn't think Marinette disliked him. Maybe when they'd first met, but not now. She was probably just having a bad day. That must be it.

On the bright side, though, she and Adrien would be getting ice-cream at Andre's on Friday. Hopefully that would cheer her up.

Marinette pulled the locker open roughly, and began to snatch books from it until her arms were full, the stack balancing precariously. The girl rested her forehead on the cool metal door, and tried to breath deeply.

She did not like Adrien Agreste. She did not like Adrien Agreste. She did not like Adrien Agreste.

So why on Earth had she agreed to get ice-cream with him?

Yeah, Alya had kind of forced her into it. But she could just make up some lie, say she needed to check in with her parents just to be certain they didn't need help, or some such thing. But she hadn't and now she was spending her Friday evening with the guy who had broken her heart.

Goddamn Alya and Nino!

Marinette tried to even her breathing, which had become shallow and panting. She could do this. She just needed to assess her situation. Prioritize, Marinette, she told herself.

Okay. First of all: pretty much nothing she could do about Friday ice-cream, since her parents knew about it. Yeah, she could fake sickness, but that usually wouldn't fool her mother. Actually, if Marinette even tried, Sabine would think she was mental, as she didn't know that her daughter was no longer in love with Adrien.

Secondly: she needed to sort out this fight. It was pointless, and even though Marinette couldn't really tell Alya about her pain, the superhero needed some support.

Maybe she was being stupid, for not telling Alya about her feelings for Adrien. But honestly, it would probably seem very suspicious. Yeah, the boy who I've been completely crazy about for a year? I'm not interested in him anymore. Alya would want to know exactly why Marinette didn't care for Adrien, and that could get messy.

Truthfully, Marinette would have loved to spill the whole tale to Alya,except for one tiny little detail: the fact that Marinette was Ladybug. Marinette wished Alya could know about her identity, but that would mean breaking Tikki's golden rule: No one can know.

That rule was in place for a very good reason. Even if Marinette told someone like Alya or her parents, someone who she would trust with her life, it was still a risk. Marinette wasn't completely certain on how the whole Hawkmoth-possessing-people thing worked, but she was pretty sure that Hawkmoth could see into your mind, and even had access to stuff that was meant to stay secret. If marinette told someone and they were akumatised, then Hawkmoth had won. It was just too much of a risk.

But back to sorting out the argument between Marinette and her friends. She wanted it in the past as soon as possible, just so it was one less worry off her mind.

Marinette straightened up and pushed back her shoulders. She shut her locker, and began to walk to her next class, as the bell was about to ring.

The bluenette climbed the stairs carefully, and was joined by Rose as she did so, both of them struggling to keep their books from falling. As they rounded the corner, the two girls stopped suddenly, gasping in shock at the scene before them.

Marinette's books fell to the ground with a clatter, as she felt her heart break even more.

Sorry, I'm such a troll when it comes to cliffhangers. I'm pretty sure that I'm suffering from lack of sleep. I'll try to get the next chapter to you quickly so as not to keep you in suspense. Also, I was going through some previous chapters and spotted a lot of typos and mistakes. If I make spelling/ grammar/ punctuation errors, sorry. I really hate editing my chapters as it can take a while and I do my writing at night, so I just want to sleep. But if I write something that doesn't make sense or is confusing, let me know through private messaging and I'll tell you what I meant to say.

As always, thanks for reading!