As the day passed, Adrien noticed he hadn't heard from Alex a while. From yesterday, when that incident happened, he didn't call him even once, which was common for him. Of course, Adrien would end the call if he started talking about something dumb like 'How are you, Mr. Marais?'. He could've just came over to small talk, he at least had nothing against Alex being in his house, even if he was quiet or talking with himself. Adrien concluded that he'd just have to call him himself.
Oddly enough, he didn't pick up immediately. For Adrien it was unusual, but he stayed calm. But he knew what this meant, he probably failed miserably at his job of convincing Unako to not be in the rebellion. No wonder after what happened yesterday, Unako wasn't dumb. He had no idea if he should just tell the truth to Alex or not. This was getting too complicated.
After the fourteenth time he called, Alex finally picked up the phone.
"Hello...?" He sounded very sleepy.
"Were you sleeping this whole time?" Adrien questioned, getting more alarmed.
"Ah, Mr. Marais, yeah, sorry, I'll get going, sorry..." He mumbled as Adrien heard rough noises of him standing up quickly.
"I wasn't calling you for business, you don't have to rush at all." He told the younger boy, somehow feeling sorry for him.
"You weren't?" Alex asked in confusion.
"No, you hadn't called me, so I just..." Somehow this was very awkward suddenly.
"You checked up on me?" Alex finished off for him, his tone much brighter than before.
"Well, yes, that's exactly what I did." Adrien confirmed, feeling very grateful he didn't have to say this by himself.
"Can I still come over?" Alex questioned with an obvious smile on his face.
"Do you have to ask me that every time?" He questioned, not understanding the formalities Alex had to respect.
"I can't just barge in." The boy answered in a meeker tone.
"Just come over." Adrien hung up, a thing he liked to do in a middle of the conversation.
It left Alex feeling sad, as always. He should've gotten used to it, but no matter how much he did it he still felt hurt by it. He expressed his sadness to Adrien multiple times, subtly, only for him to say 'social norms aren't important if I trust you'. When he thought about it, it was actually flattering. He felt dumb once again for not noticing what Adrien meant by it.
He sighed at himself. He sure did feel like a failure the last few days. All of it kept going down hill. He looked for a girl called Oliviera in local bars, only to get drunk after a small drink. He didn't like alcohol and he forgot it was because of his shit tolerance for it. That lead to him oversleeping the entire day, which he could've spent doing something much better, like looking for three girls he said he'd look for. Mia, Unako, Oliviera... Why couldn't he do anything right?
When he came to Adrien's house, he rang the doorbell politely and waited outside. After twenty minutes of standing outside, he noticed what Adrien tried to teach him and opened the door himself. Alex was shocked to see Adrien with a woman he hadn't quite seen before. Her orange hair was cut short, but it was slowly growing small bangs and grew past her ears and her eyes were a deep shade of purple. She was oddly familiar, but he didn't know why.
"I'm glad you listened to me." Adrien told him swiftly as he looked at the papers he was holding.
Of course he didn't open the door on purpose. That's a very Adrien thing to do.
"Hello, I'm Alex. And you're...?" Alex immediately introduced himself politely, which caused the woman to let out a small laugh.
"You're so high strung!" She shifted a bit on her seat.
She sure did have a lot of energy to waste. She always kept shifting at her seat, or tapping something, or just looked around in an airy way.
"I'm, um, Eleonore." She looked like she was confused at what she was saying.
She looked at Adrien in a confused manner, like she was looking for his approval. Adrien only nodded with his blank face and she smiled. He rolled his eyes and looked at Alex. She seemed unamused by this.
"Do I know you from somewhere?" Alex blurted out.
"Oh, you do." She answered in a mysterious way, obviously teasing him.
"How do I know you? I can't remember." He tried remembering, but he couldn't fit her anywhere in her mind.
She looked at Adrien with a grin, signaling that Alex should ask him, not her. This was obvious payback for him rolling her eyes at her affection. He got annoyed once more. This wasn't going to go well, it was complicated. He should've never brought back his past.
"I think you should know the truth, Alex..." Adrien stated, not seeing a point at keeping this from him anymore.
And the truth made Alex completely mind boggled, but somehow it made sense. Unako was right all along. But he knew one thing, he wasn't joining the rebellion. It was scary and unknown, but if there was anything good about this society was that he felt safe. He had Adrien and his dad on his side, there wasn't anything that could happen to him.
"I think it would be a good idea if she was over at my place." Alex concluded.
Adrien looked at him with surprise. That was actually a smart idea. He thought about it for a bit. It was actually an obvious solution. Why was he being so confused these last couple of days?
Eleonore seemed quite unamused by this idea. This would be quite the problem now.
