When the Cat Met the Wolf

5. Of Jealousy & Statues

Arianne was in her practice room playing the violin when her cellphone rang. She leaned her instrument against the wall and grabbed her phone from the table. The screen read:

'Mari'

"Hey, Mari. What's up?" she questioned, walking across the room.

"Aria, you have Adrien's phone number, right?" Marinette replied with another question on the other line.

"Yeah" nodded the girl. Adrien was her best friend, of course she had his number "Why?"

"Can you give it to me? I want to invite him to the movies" Arianne's heart sunk a bit upon hearing that, and it angered her. Not the fact that Marinette wanted to invite him on a date, the fact that she was jealous.

Something else no one knew, is that she hated being in love with Adrien. It made her feel extremely guilty because Marinette liked him, too, and even though who she fell in love with was out of her control, she would have preferred someone else to own that space in her heart.

She wanted the butterflies she felt every time she saw him to disappear, and the best way to do that was by helping someone else to earn his heart.

And that someone was Marinette, one of her best friends.

"You sure you up for that?" questioned Arianne a bit jokingly "No offence, but every time you see him you start babbling like an idiot" Marinette chuckled on the other line, 'cause Arianne was totally right.

"That's why I want to give him a call. I think it might make things easier" since every time she saw him she couldn't talk, Tikki, her kwami, had suggested that she should call him. In that way, all she had to do was talk, not stare at him.

"Let me help you" said Arianne. Even though it sounded like a good idea, Aria was sure that Marinette would have trouble speaking to him anyway, even through a phone "I'll be there in five minutes"

"Alright" agreed her friend, nodding "Thanks"

"No problem" replied Arianne "That's what friends are for" she hanged up and put the phone in the pocket of her jean jacket.

"What you are doing is very nice of you" said Ayu, floating in front of her "Helping Marinette with Adrien when you like him, too"

"It's the only way I can think of to forget about him" she replied, smiling sadly at her kwami.

"But, you know..." Ayu started to speak again "You've known him more time than Marinette, so you sort of have the right to be in love with him" he was right. Arianne had met Adrien when they were five, while Marinette just met him at the beginning of the year. Arianne knew him better than Marinette did, too.

"She's my friend, Ayu" she replied with a sigh, as she placed her violin on the case and closed it "And if she is happy, then I'm happy" she hanged her case from her shoulder "Let's go" she said, walking out of the practice room and into the street. Her parents weren't at home, they were working. His father was a lawyer, and her mother was a chef for one of Paris's most famous restaurants, so they were almost never at home.

"Aria, remember that today they are unveiling Ladybug, Chat Noir and Loup d'Argent's sculptures. You have to be there" reminded Ayu.

"I know" Arianne nodded. She remembered "But it's at 3:00 PM, I still have some time" it was barely 2:25 PM, and Marinette's house was five minutes away. She had enough time to help her ask Adrien out and then go to the unveiling.

"Look, we all know improv is not your forte" said Arianne with a stack of paper sheets in Marinette's room. Alya was there, too "So just stick to the script" she handed it to Marinette, who was sitting on a chair in front of the computer.