Marinette hugged her cushion tightly, staring at the wall. Alya sat across from her, perched on Marinette's lounge.

"So, let me get this straight." Alya looked her best friend in the eye, expression serious. "The guy you've liked for practically forever just kissed your arch nemesis, and yet you still want to get ice-cream with him? Girl, I know I've said this before, but I'm actually serious this time. Are you out of your mind?"

Marinette gave a half smile. "No, I'm not crazy, Alya."

"Then why?" demanded the blogger. "I expect an answer, girl."

Marinette turned her eyes to the ceiling. She wasn't exactly sure why. Maybe she wanted answers. Maybe she wanted revenge. Or maybe, she just wanted some small shred of hope that there was still a chance for her and Adrien.

Except she didn't want there to be a chance with Adrien. Or perhaps a better way of explaining it would be to say that she didn't want to want Adrien's affection, but she did. Her heart was going against her willpower, but Marinette couldn't change it.

Maybe he'd broken her heart. Maybe she hated him. But for some stupid, inexplicable reason, Marinette Dupain-Cheng wanted to spend her Friday evening with Adrien.

Alya tapped her foot impatiently. "I'm waiting."

Marinette sighed. "I don't know. Seriously. Maybe…. Maybe I want to find out why he kissed Chloe. Maybe I want revenge. I guess you could call it a hunch." Marinette tried to make her lame excuse of an answer seem believable.

Alya studied her, then shrugged. "I never pinned you as the kind of girl to want revenge. But then again, you did just see the love of your life in a liplock with Chloe." Alya shuddered.

Marinette huffed. "He's not the love of my life, Alya. Not anymore."

"Sorry. But, you know, maybe we're jumping to conclusions here."

Marinette snorted. "Don't know what you're doing, but I'm stating facts."

The blogger shook her head at Marinette. "Just hear me out, will you? Don't try and interrupt, 'kay?"

"Fine," grumbled Marinette.

"My point is, we don't know for sure that Adrien actually kissed Chloe."

Marinette opened her mouth, about to protest angrily, but Alya held up her hand. "Yes, I know that half the class, including you, saw Adrien and Chloe kissing. But we don't know that Adrien kissed Chloe."

Marinette stared in confusion. Alya sighed, frustrated. She was having difficulty saying what she meant. "Basically, what I'm trying to say is, how to we know that Chloe didn't trick Adrien into it?"

Marinette continued to stare, and Alya took that her an invitation to go on. "We all know that Chloe's a devious, manipulative witch who's completely obsessed with Adrien, much like you were until recently. The difference is, she's way more bold about it than you were. So I wouldn't put it past her to wait until everyone was around, and kiss him, to sort of force him into a relationship, if you will."

Marinette thought about that, then gave a grudging nod. "I guess that's possible," she conceded. "But, Alya…. Chloe said something about them making their debut at the dance. I assume that means that they're going together, which probably means they're dating, which means that they were kissing each other because they're a couple, and that's what couples do."

Alya bit her lip and began to fiddle with her glasses. She hadn't heard about the whole debut thing yet, and she had to admit that Marinette might actually be right, and she, Alya, might be wrong.

For her best friend's sake, she hoped that Marinette was wrong.

MLBMLBMLB

Adrien wished there was a patrol tonight.

After his terrible day, he really just needed some time away from it all. He needed to spend some time with Ladybug, who always made him feel better.

But there was no patrol tonight. He knew that Ladybug was a student, and he knew that she was busy. Yeah, he could head out as Chat and hope she would be at their usual meeting place, but it was highly unlikely. He could call her, and schedule a patrol, but that would seem needy, and he didn't want her to think that he was desperate.

Even though he was desperate.

The model was fuming at Chloe. She'd manipulated him so easily. Now he was forced to be in a relationship with her, simply because everyone thought they were dating.

And the only reason they thought they were dating was that Chloe had made them think that.

Adrien had been cross at Chloe before, it was true, but this was more than just a little miffed. This was full on rage at the scheming girl. He couldn't believe that she would deceive him like that. He'd known that she'd had a thing for him for a while (the constant attempts to kiss him might have been a little bit of a give-away), but he'd never imagined that she'd actually stop so low.

Adrien had hated every minute of their kiss. Not just because it was forced, but because it wasn't with Ladybug, his one true love. Maybe it was tacky, but Adrien had been trying to save his first kiss for someone special. Yes, he'd once almost kissed Marinette, but that was just acting. Marinette was a good friend, but from the way she'd looked at him this afternoon, Adrien wondered if she no longer liked him.

She'd looked so hurt. Maybe it was because it was Chloe, her enemy, or maybe it was something else. Adrien didn't know, but he hoped that he'd get some answers from their not-really-a-date on Friday.

The model slumped down into his desk chair, spinning around and around, slowly trying to make himself dizzy. Adrien wondered what to do about the dance. He wanted to go as Chat Noir, with Ladybug. He'd seen the invitation on the Ladyblog, but hadn't mentioned it to his partner yet. She was still pretty upset over the whole rejection thing, and Adrien hadn't thought that is was the time to talk about such things.

Plagg floated over to his chosen, and for once he wasn't stuffing his greedy face with cheese. "Whatcha gonna do, kid?"

Adrien groaned. "I honestly have no idea."

Plagg rolled his luminous eyes. Get out your stupid plan, kid."

Adrien did as he was told. His kwami wasn't great at advice, but by now Adrien was willing to try anything.

Plagg studied the crumpled piece of notepaper, screwing up his face as he did so. "What part are you up to again?"

Adrien frowned, mentally going over everything. "Still phase two, I think," he replied.

"Ah, right. So you still need to make Ladybug fall in love with you." Adrien didn't miss Plagg's eye-roll.

"Yep," said Adrien dejectedly.

Plagg flew over and pinched him. "Quit feeling sorry for yourself, Adrien, and actually do something about it!"

Adrien stared at him. "Is that honestly your idea of advice?"

The kwami shrugged. "I don't do romantic advice. That's Tikki's thing. So, yeah, pretty much."

Adrien was all out of options, so he decided to take the risk. "Okay, what should I do then?"

Plagg muttered something about having a dense chosen. "Hopefully something all romantic and lovely, but don't make it obvious. She's still getting over you."

Adrien thought hard. It had to be discreet, so the whole of Paris wouldn't know about it. Something romantic, yet not obviously so…. What did friends who wanted to be more than friends do?

His mind drifted to Marinette, for some reason. Maybe it was just a random tangent or something. But it gave him an idea. He and Marinette were just friends, and they were getting an ice-cream….. Food…. A meal….

Bingo.

Adrien jumped up from his chair, excited. "I know, Plagg! We can have a picnic!"

Plagg shook his head. "You'll be seen, and it'll turn into an interview."

"Yeah, but we'd do it at night," argued Adrien. "And in a private location."

"Not too private," said Plagg cheekily.

Adrien went pink. "Shut up. I just meant somewhere that won't be packed with people."

Plagg grinned. "Yeah, yeah. I was just kidding. Not bad, Adrien. Not bad at all."

MLBMLBMLB

"Pinch punch, first of the month!"

Pain flared in Marinette's upper arm. "Ow!" she cried, then glared up at Kim. "Wanna hit me any harder?"

Kim grinned at her. "Sorry, Marinette. Guess I got a little carried away!" He dashed off to pinch and punch some other poor soul.

Muttering crossly, Marinette dropped her books down onto her desk, aware that half the class was staring at her. Some were concerned, others curious, and in two cases, gleeful. Those two cases were Chloe and Sabrina (shocker).

The spoiled blonde flipped her ponytail and called out to Marinette. "Well, hi, Marinette! Gotten over that nasty bug you had? What was it again? Oh, wait, I remember now. Jealousy!" She cackled, and Sabrina joined in.

Suddenly Alya was in front of Chloe, fuming. "You take that back right now!" she ordered, slamming her hands down on the desk.

Chloe jumped, then sneered. "Aw, poor little Marinette. Is she so traumatized that she can't talk to me herself?"

Marinette saw red. She got up and stalked over to Chloe's desk to stand beside Alya. "Unfortunately for you, I can still talk to you, Chloe."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "And why would that be unfortunate, you pathetic little girl? Everyone knows that you'd never have a chance with Adrien."

Marinette stared at Chloe for one full second. Then she turned around and walked back to her seat.

"Ha!" called Chloe from behind her. "Scared of me, loser?"

Marinette spun on her heel and smiled at the girl. "No, nothing of the sort, Chloe," she replied. "You see, when I went over there, I was hoping for a battle of wits, but I see you're unarmed."

The room was silent. It took approximately three seconds for the class to work out what Marinette had just said. Then they exploded.

"OHHHHHHHHH! ROASTED!"

"Do you want some ice for that burn, Chloe?" called Alix from the back.

"No need, Alix," replied Alya. "She's already got a heart of ice."

Chloe's right eye twitched, but otherwise, she seemed frozen. She was staring at Marinette, mouth wide open as her classmates swarmed around her, still ohhhing.

The door opened, and Adrien walked in. He took in the strange scene and blinked in surprise. "What's going on?" he asked Nino.

Nino gave a delighted cackle. "Chloe just got absolutely roasted by Marinette! It was epic! And I got it on video!" Nino held out his phone and showed Adrien the clip.

Once it was done, Nino started to howl. "It was so classic, man."

Adrien laughed, too. It was pretty hilarious.

The door slammed open again, and Ms. Bustier stormed into the room. "Class!" she cried. "Settle down immediately! Back to your seats!"

The class quietened, and slowly returned to their desks.

"My word," said Ms. Bustier, shaking her head. "Talk amongst yourselves until the bell goes. Quietly," she added sternly and left the room again.

Alya turned to Marinette, eyes sparkling. "You totally roasted that spoiled brat!" she whispered. "Way to go, girl!" The blogger high-fived her friend.

Marinette grinned and shrugged. "It felt good."

She glanced in front of her and saw a familiar blonde head. She was instantly reminded of what would happen tonight.

How could she have forgotten?

She tried to breathe deeply and told herself that she could always pull out. But deep down, she knew that she wouldn't. Marinette wanted to hear firsthand why Adrien had done the things that he had and broken her heart in the process. She just had to stay calm. No stuttering, no blushing. She couldn't give him any kind of clue about how much he had hurt her, whether it was intentional or not.

An ice-cream from Andre's with the guy she hated. What could possibly go wrong?

Hi guys! So so so excited for the new episodes! They are literally my life right now (yeah, pretty pathetic, but anyway). For all my Australian readers, hope you guys have a great Easter holidays! For all my other readers, I don't know what you'll be doing, but have fun! I'll keep posting through the next fortnight while I'm on break, but I might be a bit irregular. Thanks for reading!