Forgotten

Chapter 5

After crying himself to sleep, Adrien felt slightly more prepared to return to school the next day. He had done his homework at some point yesterday, though he could barely remember what he had written, even less if he was correct. But it was done, and that was the important thing at the moment.

When he arrived at school everyone was giving him sympathetic looks. Adrien hated it. His father's restrictions meant that he was almost certainly the only one that didn't know what the news reports were saying about Chloe or the accident, and judging by the looks people were giving him, the Agreste family must have made an appearance, too.

No amount of internet blocks would stop the sympathetic looks, whether they were real or fake. Adrien tried to ignore them all, but he could still feel their eyes on his back, hear their whispers as he walked past them.

He ended up in the library again, at the same table he had spoken to Marinette, Alya and Sabrina at the day after the accident. Only Marinette was sitting there this time, sketching something. The closer Adrien walked, the more details he could make out. Marinette was drawing Queen Bee.

Tears welled up in Adrien's eyes again and Marinette lifted her head to look at him. Once she caught sight of his eyes she stood up and moved towards him. "Are you alright, Adrien?"

Unexpectedly, Adrien wrapped his arms around Marinette and pulled her into a tight hug. For a second, he thought Marinette tensed up but that thought quickly disappeared when Marinette hugged him back, pulling Adrien tightly to her.

Neither of them said anything, just standing there for a few moments of silence. Then Adrien realised that he had probably made Marinette incredibly uncomfortable. Just as he was about to apologise, Marinette beat him to it, saying, "If you need to get away from your house for a while, you can always come to the bakery."

"I don't want to intrude on your family with everything that is going on."

Marinette squeezed one of Adrien's hands before letting go in almost the same second. "You wouldn't be intruding, my parents actually wanted me to tell you to come over whenever. Sometimes constantly being around that much sadness can make things worse."

"Thank you, Marinette." Before either teenager could say anything, the bell rang and they both walked to their classroom in silence. The room went quiet when Adrien entered, like no one knew what to say, or how Adrien was feeling.

"Welcome back, Adrien. I assume Nino gave you the work from yesterday?"

"He did. I've completed it," Adrien reached into his bag and retrieved the sheets of paper, "but I honestly can't remember many of my answers."

"If you ever feel like you won't be able to finish homework or anything in class come and tell me. All of the teachers here want to make sure you don't stress too much considering everything that is going on." Miss Bustier gave him a reassuring smile, but Adrien couldn't find the energy to return it.

Out of nowhere, Sabrina ran over to Adrien with a basket in her hands. "Please make sure Chloe gets these, I tried to visit her, but your father told the hospital staff that no one was allowed in except for family." Sabrina pushed the basket into Adrien's hands. "How is she? I couldn't find out, either."

"She's stable and improving slightly, which is good. Father isn't letting anyone see her except for the doctors looking after her and us. Even I'm not allowed to see her every day." Upon first inspection, the basket just seemed to contain a few flowers and some food that Adrien assumed Chloe liked. It seemed like an apology, which was weird considering Sabrina had nothing to do with the collapse.

Tearfully, Sabrina nodded before turning back to her seat. Adrien placed the basket onto his desk before moving it a little more to the side, then a little further, until he ended up just placing it on the ground. Only then did he actually sit down, waiting for Miss Bustier to continue with what she had been saying before.