Chapter 74: Chapter 74

Aria’s Pov.

I was awake before my alarm.

I sat up and checked my phone. Six forty-eight.

Then I got up and got dressed.

My uniform. Hair. The necklace, because I always put the necklace on now without deciding to.

I moved through the routine quietly, the house still mostly asleep around me, and by the time I was done I had twelve minutes before the driver was due.

I looked at my door.

Then I looked at the wall that separated my room from the corridor.

Adrien's room was three doors down.

I grabbed my bag and went to his room.

I knocked softly.

Nothing.

I knocked again,

Still nothing.

Then I pushed the door open.

His room was dim, curtains still drawn, and Adrien was very much asleep. His face half-buried in the pillow, one arm thrown across the mattress.

I walked in and stood at the edge of the bed.

"Adrien."

Nothing.

"Adrien, we're going to be late."

He turned his face further into the pillow.

I reached over and pushed his shoulder.

"Hey. Sleepy head. Get up."

He opened one eye, looked at me and closed it again.

"No," he said, muffled.

"Yes."

"I went to sleep early." He said it like this was evidence of something. "I did the responsible thing. I deserve…"

"You have five minutes."

"That's not enough…"

"Adrien." I pulled the pillow from under his face and he made a sound of genuine grievance. "The driver is waiting."

He squinted at me in the dim light.

"How are you already dressed," he said.

"Because I woke up on time like a functional person."

"That's very annoying of you."

I laughed.

He watched me laugh with the expression of someone trying very hard to stay irritated and failing.

"Five minutes," I said. "I'm serious."

He sat up slowly, his hair going in four directions, then he reached for me.

"Come here," he said.

"Adrien…"

He pulled me in and kissed me. He was still mostly asleep, the kiss was warm and unhurried.

I pulled back.

"Five minutes," I said firmly.

He smiled, his eyes still half-closed.

"Four and a half now," I said.

He opened his mouth—

A knock at the door.

We both froze.

"Adrien?" Cecilia's voice, just outside the door. "The driver's been waiting. Are you up?"

I looked at Adrien.

He looked at me immediately.

Then I dropped to the floor and rolled under the bed in one second without thinking.

The floor was cold and something was very close to my face that I chose not to identify. I held completely still.

The door opened.

I could hear Cecilia's footsteps. The particular sound of her heels on the floor.

"Adrien." Her voice had that morning quality, composed but edged. "It's nearly seven. The driver has been sitting outside for ten minutes."

"I know, I'm sorry." His voice came from above me, admirably steady. "I overslept. I'll be downstairs in five minutes."

She paused.

"Both of you?" she said.

"She's probably already downstairs," he said. "You know how she is. Very punctual."

There was another pause.

I pressed my face against the floor and tried not to breathe.

Dust. Great. This is how I die.

"Five minutes," Cecilia said. The footsteps moved back towards  the door. "Don't make him wait any longer."

The door closed.

Silence.

Then Adrien's face appeared over the edge of the bed, looking down at me.

"Very punctual," he said.

I pressed my lips together very hard.

"Get off the floor," he said.

I crawled out, stood up and brushed something off my uniform that I chose not to examine.

Then we both started laughing at exactly the same time.

We had to stay quiet, which somehow made it significantly worse. Both of us had our hands over our mouths, Adrien's shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

"She said both of you…" I started.

"I know…"

"And you said very punctual…"

"It was the first thing I thought of…"

"It was terrible."

"I know."

We looked at each other and lost it all over again.

I got myself together first. Barely.

"Get dressed," I said. "Now. Actually now."

"Okay. Okay." He was still smiling. He stood and picked his uniform  from the chair.

I headed for the door.

"Hey."

I turned.

He crossed the room in two steps and kissed me quick this time.

"Good morning," he said.

"Good morning," I said. "Four minutes."

I slipped out the door and headed for the stairs, my heart still pounding from what had just happened.

The entrance hall was empty.

I crossed it, pushed through the front door and stepped outside into the morning air.

The driver looked up from his phone.

"Good morning, Miss Hart."

"Good morning." I came down the steps and got into the limo.

I sat back against the seat.

My heart was still going.

I pressed my hands flat on my knees and looked out the window at the gates.

The gate opened.

I sat up straighter.

Adrien appeared at the top of the steps minutes later, uniform pressed, hair done, looking entirely too composed for someone who had been asleep face-down in a pillow eleven minutes ago.

He got in, then looked at me.

"Not a word," he said.

"I wasn't going to say anything."

"You were going to say something."

"I was going to say you made it with two minutes to spare which is objectively impressive."

He looked out the window.

"Thank you,"

The driver pulled forward and Paris opened up around us in its usual Monday morning way, unhurried, already certain of itself.

"What do you have first?" Adrien asked.

"History. Then the council meeting during break." I pulled my planner out of my bag. "You?"

"Double maths." He made a face. "Then Madame Beaumont's class."

I looked at him.

"You have Madame Beaumont?"

"Unfortunately." He glanced at me. "Why?"

"Camille and I have her too." I looked back at my planner. "After lunch."

"She's… something,"

"She is,"

He looked at me for a second like he wanted to ask something, then he looked back out the window.

The school gates appeared through the windscreen.

The morning hit us the second we stepped out.

Saint Claire on a Monday had a specific energy louder than any other day, like the weekend had given everyone something to process and school was where they'd come to do it.

There were clusters of people on the steps. Voices overlapping, someone's music from a phone somewhere.

Camille appeared from the crowd like she'd been waiting.

"Finally." She fell into step beside me immediately. "I've been here for twenty minutes. Do you know how long twenty minutes is when Jules is the only person you know?"

"What's wrong with Jules?" Adrien said.

"Nothing's wrong with Jules specifically. He just talked for seventeen of those twenty minutes without pausing for breath and I now know everything about his cousin's new car."

"That tracks," Adrien said.

Jules appeared at Adrien's shoulder. "Did someone say cousin's new car? Because let me tell you…"

"Jules." Camille looked at him.

"What?"

"Please."

He looked briefly wounded. Then Théo appeared and immediately challenged him to something competitive and they both forgot about the car.

Elodie stood near the main entrance with Daphne.

She saw us coming…or saw Adrien specifically, the way she always seemed to locate him first and her expression shifted into that familiar unreadable look. Not cold. Not warm. Something that sat precisely in between, calibrated and considered.

"Morning," she said, when we reached the steps.

"Morning," Adrien said easily.

She smiled at him.

Then her eyes moved to me.

"Aria." She said pleasantly.

"Elodie," I said, equally pleasant.

The group shifted and we all went inside.

I watched Elodie the whole way in.

Quiet. Strategic. Already calculating.

She's not done, I thought. She's just waiting for the right moment.