The Salt Files: Additional Cases (MLB)

Would You Have Listened?

Lila gets exposed as a liar and she tries to take Adrien down with her. He starts getting blamed but points out that he wasn't going to be listened to.

"If you didn't believe Marinette, why would you have believed me?"

This was not happening. This was not how this was supposed to go.

Let's go back a bit. So, Lila comes back from one of her and her mom's international trips to "save the world" or whatever, and she comes back glowing and with plenty of pictures and stories to share. As she walked into class with an iced coffee and a mouthful of stories to share, she could immediately tell something was off.

For starters, Alya was glaring at her. Not even like staring, just glaring. It was alarming, but Lila was sure she could fix whatever was wrong.

Another off detail was that the teacher, Ms. Bustier, was also glaring at her. She had her walkie talkie (do teachers have walkie talkies in classrooms in France or is that just an American thing T-T) on and was actively speaking into it as Lila walked in.

Now, here was the thing that was throwing Lila off entirely. It wasn't just those two looking at her, everyone was. Conversations stopped as soon as she walked in, as if just her very presence stole all the attention.

Now, normally Lila wouldn't mind this attention, this was what she wanted after all. All eyes on her, her stories, her opinions, all of it. But this vibe wasn't what she wanted, so what's the deal?

Lila cleared her throat and started speaking. "Hi guys! I'm back from Greece, and I have some amazing pictures to show you guys!" Lila started swiping through her camera roll, but Alya stopped her.

"Cut the crap Lila, we know you're lying!" Alya hissed. Lila froze for a second, then shook it off.

"Alya, what makes you think I'm lying about this?" Lila pulled up her camera roll and found the pictures of the beaches and stalls, but Alya smacked her phone away.

"Do you think we're dumb? You were outed last night and you have nothing to say about it?" Lila, for once, wasn't playing dumb. Outed? Last night? By who?

"What? I was on a plane until 4am, Als. I don't know what going on." Alya nearly strangled her until Max and Markov spoke up.

"Lila, at 12am exactly, a video was uploaded disproving everything you have told us, starting right at the very beginning. Every lie about your travels and people you know were disproven with facts, witness statements, and even news articles. You never saw any of that?"

Lila shook her head, because this time she actually was on a trip. Her mom had an emergency meeting she had to go to and didn't have time to prep any food for Lila to have so she offered to let Lila come with her and she do her work online. Lila, who didn't feel like going to school that week, agreed happily and thought this was a good way to keep her lies going, since this time there will actually be physical proof.

Oh, how that backfired on her.

"But-but-"

"No buts Lila! Just drop the act! It's getting annoying." Alya rolled her eyes. Lila put her head down, getting annoyed but relieved her act was up. She raised her head back up and had a satisfied smirk on her face. The change was so fast that Alya even had to back up.

"So you guys finally figured it out, huh? Took you long enough, only like seven months. The other classes I've been in figured it out in less. Even your own class president figured it out within two weeks, you know, before you guys drove her off." The class winced at that, they constantly kept calling Marinette jealous at everything she tried to expose about Lila. Eventually she transferred to Mendeliev's class, along with several other classmates, including Nathaniel, Chloe, Sabrina, Juleka, and Nino. The classmates who were exchanged never bought into Lila's stories, which is why they weren't surprised at this reveal either. They just watched with entertainment in their eyes.

Alya almost threw up at the memory of Marinette leaving. She was so mean to Marinette and wasn't hearing her out about anything, and she was just trying to protect her! It got so bad that Nino even broke up with her, and here he was watching her downfall as well.

"...Are you at least sorry? Or going to apologize?" Alya whispered. She heard Lila giggle.

"Apologize? For what, revealing your true natures?"

"For LYING to us! Was everything just a game to you? Were we just pawns?!"

"Of course you were, you guys mean nothing to me. But don't feel bad, everyone is a pawn to me. What's the point of making friends when you just move around a lot? It's a waste of time and connections." Lila finished her drink and headed for the door. "But since you guys figured it out, congratulations! Now you get to suffer while trying to get back into good graces. Have a good life!" Lila walked out the door. Bustier started after her but didn't get far. Alya slumped down into her seat, taking in the silence. Nino just looked at her sadly but didn't say anything. Just then, Adrien decided to walk in.

"Hey guys, what did I miss?" The blonde boy asked while taking his seat.

"Lila got exposed last night and we confronted her..." Kim whispered. Adrien hummed.

"Oh, you guys saw that? Oh yeah, I orchestrated that." Every head turned to him, even Bustier's.

"What?! You did that?" Nino pat Adrien on the back.

"You knew she was lying and didn't tell us anything?!" Alya screamed. "You just let me ruin my friendship with Marinette just for the fun of it?"

"You ruined a lot more than your friendships, Miss Ladyblogger. Besides, if you didn't even believe in Marinette, why would you have believed me?" That shut Alya up. "She was your best friend, overworked herself for you, and you still treated her like garbage and threw her away."

"W-well what did you do? Last time I checked you didn't help either!" Kim shouted. Adrien winced, remembering how he hurt Marinette as well. 

"That's fair, I didn't help at first. But after she changed classes, I apologized and started this whole plan to make it up to her. This whole time she felt like no one was on her side, but I wanted to show that I still was, even as her friends started dropping like flies." Adrien glared at Alya. "I betrayed her as well, but at least I'm earning forgiveness."

"What about Lila? She's just going to run free now to scam the next class." Rose asked.

"Not if the police officers stationed outside have anything to say about it." Right on cue, a siren went off. Adrien smiled, soaking in the devastation. "Ah yes, sounds like they've spotted her." There were screams and yells and the sounds of cars driving away. "Let's get started with the lesson today, shall we Ms. Bustier? I believe class started fifteen minutes ago, and my father deeply cares about my education." Shakily, the teacher nodded as she started her lecture.

Adrien basked in the glory of exposing Lila. Little does everyone else know that after classes today, both Bustier and Damocles are losing their licenses for not properly handling Lila's situation as they should've. As he sat there, embracing the chaos, he felt a message on his phone.

Thank you, Marinette's message said. Adrien smiled. No one messes with his girlfriend and gets away with it.

...Oh right, you didn't know they were dating. Cat's out of the bag now, I guess.

Proper black cat antics, Plagg is running wild

I thought this was a fun idea, trying to get through some drafts I had while I had some free time

I also sometimes feel like I need a balance of shitting on Adrien while also giving him credit he made it this far with a lack of proper social skills

I think someone actually requested I do a Marinette salt and I have yet to get a proper idea for it ngl

I've also started combining requests cuz my brain is running on empty, oopsies

But I hope you enjoyed!

Have a good day/night

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