Agreste-Wayne?

5

Alya had gone to her parents' and gotten her old cameras, equipment, and phones. She needed to know the truth.

She set everything up and began to download everything into her computer at home. She found an unused notebook with the stuff she had brought home after she was fired and set it next to her. Alya quickly pulled out a sharpie and wrote 'Lila Rossi' across the cover.

She found her oldest recording from when Lila had first transferred in and began to write every word down. Alya noted down the date, from which equipment it was found on, and it's new file name. Once it was written, she brought up Google and set to work on finding her proof.

As she set to work, she quickly came to realize there wasn't much proof, aside from the blog she had created in the past. She copied down every celebrity name and how she knew them. She could see the change in her work. She would post interesting article about things her friends had done and information about it to spread the news. She had done a piece on the environment because it had meant so much to Ivan and Mylene. She had even done one with Nino and Alix about music and the history behind it. After she met Lila, it was slowly filled up with things she had told her without any of the information. There was no proof like before; just post after post.

Marinette had been right. She had asked her if she had found proof. Mari had told her she was changing and she needed to stop or she'd ruin herself. Back then she couldn't understand what she had meant. She thought Marinette was jealous of how much time Lila spent with Adrien and petty of how successful her new friend was. All she did, was yell at Marinette to fact check herself and see how blind she was to someone who was doing great things. She shouldn't have done that; she was the one who dreamed of being a reporter, not Marinette.

It wasn't that long after that they decided their friendship was over. She never talked to Marinette again.

Alya took her glasses off and set them on the desk, before rubbing her eyes.

'How long have I been sitting here looking at all this?' she wondered, as she closed her eyes and saw the screen etched into her retinas.

Alya looked off to the side and saw her notebook was quickly filling up with lies and notes. All the stories Marinette had claimed were lies were being shoved back into her face and it hurt to face the truth.

'I need some air.' Alya decided.

She quickly saved her work, got up, stretched and decided to grab a bite while she was out.

As she walked around Paris, she saw pictures of Adrien fading and some new ones of Juleka being posted. As she turned the corner to her favorite café, she bumped into a broad chest.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Alys spoke, "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

She looked up to apologize further and recognized his eyes.

'Nino!'

He quickly turned and went back the direction he had came from.

"Nino!" she shouted, chasing after him, "Wait!"

'Why would he listen to me? I broke up with him because Lila told me she saw him with another woman?'

"Please!" Alya cried out and he slowed down to a stop, "Did you know?"

"Alya." Nino sighed, "If you're trying to get me for-"

"Did you know Lila was a liar?" she questioned.

That's not the question he had been expecting.

"I wasn't sure. She kept flaking on me for gigs and after awhile I realized I was stand still. So I kept booking myself. When she told me of one she could get me into or that she would introduce me to someone, I didn't get my hopes up. I talked with Adrien and Marinette and they both knew. Mari said she tried to tell you and then I remembered how we treated her in college. It made sense that she wouldn't help us later. I apologized." Nino stated.

He watched her visibly sag in defeat.

"Lila as your source wasn't she?" he asked.

She only nodded in confirmation and he sighed.

"Come on. I'll treat you to lunch. You probably need to vent." Nino offered.

"That would be nice." Alya smiled.

"I was fired for that 'exclusive'." Alya spoke, as they sat down, "I want to expose Lila so no one falls for her lies again."

"What are you going to do?" asked Nino, as he looked at the menu.

"I pulled out my old equipment. I have all her old interviews, still. I feel so fake. I was never meant to be a journalist. I was such a bad friend to Mari. I told her to fact check about Lila's accomplishments. Almost twenty years later and I'm doing what I should have done in the first place, fact checking her stories." Alya sighed.

"So what, you'll go to the papers with this?" he asked, as their small lunch arrived.

"I want to, but I feel like they wouldn't trust me, now." she groaned, "Do you still talk with them?"

"Yeah. After I apologized, we got closer." Nino admitted.

"Did you go to the wedding?" she questioned.

Nino nodded and saw Alya hold her sob back. Nino could see how hard this was for her to take in. In college ,he was sure that Alya and Mari would be inseparable, but Lila came between that. She was probably realizing the same thing.

"I should get going. Thank you for lunch." Alya said, as she stood up.

"Alya." Nino called out.

Alya looked towards him and saw a napkin, being shoved at her.

"My number, in case you need to talk." Nino offered.

Alya took the napkin and smiled.

"Thanks, Nino." she said as she headed home.