Fourth chapter is up! Enjoy
Chapter 4 – The Number And The Carnation
Less than twenty-four hours and as I walked into the school grounds the next morning, the amount of attention that I received from students as they jogged up to me felt amazing, so much so that I found it uncharacteristically hard for me to keep a composed look on my face. I smirked as the male students, either in my year or in the years below, greeted me and asked about whether or not I was going to participate in the next Sports games that were due to take place soon. It was common knowledge that when it came down to Soccer and Basketball, I was at the level of a professional, despite only being seventeen. Some people even thought that I was above the level of a profession, and I smirked, knowing full-well that I always loved having an ego boost. As for the girls, I had at least three girls come up to me and confess their feelings for me. It felt good to be in the centre of their world, but no matter how many people conversed with me, the small lingering feeling of interest towards Kurosaki that I had had, had been enough to make me temporarily forget about the people that were lucky enough to stand in my presence. I watched from where I stood as Kurosaki walked into the school grounds, shortly followed by a couple of what looked to be his friends. I don't understand. Why do I feel even the slightest bit interested in the guy? I don't swing that way, right? What's so special about him anyway? What even made him think that he could stand on equal ground as me like he did yesterday? It doesn't make sense. Oh well, it's not like he's popular or anything, so it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, I quickly told myself as I continued to walk into the school grounds.
It was when I finally got to class that I saw Ulquiorra. Usually, we would walk to school together but now and then, he would prefer to walk the short distance from his apartment to the school grounds. I didn't particularly care either way. I watched subtlely as he conversed lightly with the same orange-haired girl that he had spoken to yesterday. She smiled in what looked to be a cheerful manner and I couldn't help but notice that the corners of his lips cracked a little, as if he was resisting the urge to smile at what the girl had just said. I watched as the girl awkwardly shifted her weight from one foot to another, but it was Ulquiorra's comment that had caused her to blush feverently. I shook my head and continued to walk to my seat. It didn't take a genius to work out the fact that the girl had a crush on him. The rest of the day passed by at a fast pace, and before I knew it, the first two classes of the day had been and gone. I quickly dropped the pen down onto the wooden desk that was sat casually mere inches away from me; the pen landed in the middle of an open textbook, and near it lay half a page filled with notes that was accompanied by the odd doodle or two.
"You look pretty content there, Grimmjow" Ulquiorra's voice rang expressionlessly through the room at that point. I smirked and stretched my arms before I allowed them for one to cross over the other behind my head. I caught sight of Ulquiorra's pen slipping out of his grasp, only for it to bounce once or twice before it finally landed on the wooden desk in front of his body.
"I am content. I'm popular, so that means I'm content" I scoffed lightly and turned my gaze so that I could get a better look at him.
"Don't you think you're starting to get a swelled head?" he sharply asked. Again, I scoffed at that. Ulquiorra sighed. "Alright, let me put it a different way. Don't you think that you're a little lonely?" he asked after he cleared his throat once.
"Lonely?" I responded. I had to think about it for a moment. I smirked. "Nope, don't know the meaning of the word" I said casually and moved into a more comfortable position. I looked around the room and saw several groups of friends conversed with one another, some laughed whilst some complained lightly. At that point, I stood up and headed for the door. My mind wasn't really focused on anything at that certain point, but as I opened the door, I was surprised to see a petite girl with short, black hair stand in front of me. Her large, purple eyes stood out against her dark hair and pale complexion, and I was surprised to see that there was such a large height difference between the pair of us. The look in her eyes told me that she wasn't going to back down from anything, that she was a fighter.
"Are you going to move, or do I have to move you out of my way?" she spat at me. Her voice sounded venomous, as if she hated me with a passion. I had been used to girls playing this angle. There had been girls who acted sweet and innocent, whilst other girls acted tough but had a feminine side to them that was desperate to escape. She seemed to fall into that category.
"Nope, but you can come with me. I'll make it worth your time" I smirked coyly to her. It seemed like a vein had popped on her forehead because at that point, she glared at me coldly. I had come across girls who would sometimes glare at me, but never before had I seen a girl glare at me as malicious as this girl before me did. It was certainly a surprise.
"No thanks. I don't feel in the mood to want to catch anything from you. Besides, I'm already interested in someone else" the girl sarcastically spoke. I resisted the urge to smirk but I could feel a small wave of anger start to come over me, and I knew that if this girl didn't move anytime soon, I would have made her move in one way or another.
"Aww, come on, don't be like that. Who knows? You might even like it" I had tried to make it sound persuasive. I watched as she desperately tried to fight the tint of blush that had crept up her cheeks, and I watched her intently as she quickly glanced to her left, then to her right. I had figured that everyone would be watching; she was, after all, the first girl that had dared to even argue back at me. She hesitated for a moment, as if she thought that speaking to me like this was embarrassing her. "Well, what's it gonna be?" I asked and leant in closer to her. She jumped a little at the close proximity that the pair of us shared at this point before she glared at me again. I sighed once. If she wasn't going to ask for my body now, then I'll just have to make her scream for me to take control, I thought. I grabbed a hold of her wrist, and just like Nelliel's, her wrist felt slender against my fingers.
"Hey, let me go. I don't want to. Let go, you jerk" the girl complained and tried to pry her wrist free of my grip with her free hand. It didn't work and the more she tried, the more I slowly tightened my hold on her. It didn't matter to me whether the passing students who were either coming in the opposite direction as I was, or were heading in the same direction as I was, saw this as a violation of the girls' basic human rights or not. I had thought about finding an empty janitor's closet and doing it in there with her, but decided against it for some reason. I think the only reason as to why I didn't decide to go with that option was because the girl tried desperately to pry my fingers off of her slender wrist. In the end, the pair of us had managed to get to a part of the school which looked to be fairly secluded. I spun her around, so that the nearest building wall came into contact with her back. She winced a little at the impact. I mentally kicked myself for causing some form of harm to her petite frame. I pressed the palms of my hands firmly against the wall over her shoulders, encasing her in a makeshift bird cage. "What's the big idea?" the girl snapped, the look in her eyes was nothing more than Defiance.
"I don't get it. You're a girl, but you don't make it a secret that you don't want me. I mean, girls like you would try every trick in the book to get me to even look in their direction. What are you after? What's your angle? Everyone loves me" I spoke smugly, as if it was the truth. I would have even gone as far as to say that it was the truth. The girl looked at me with a shocked look on her face; it looked undeniably innocent. At that point, the girl grabbed a hold of one of my wrists and pulled it away from her, as if I disgusted her. I felt her then kick me once in the shin. I was surprised to know that despite her short stature, she sure packed a punch.
"I'm not like the girls you sleep with for one, and you wouldn't know love if it bit you on the butt, you inconceivable asshole" the girl snapped at me. If I had learnt one thing at that point, it was the fact that the girl that stood before me had an incredibly short temper. I smirked regardless of what the girl had just said. Her hand still remained on my wrist, and I felt her apply more and more pressure as each adrenaline-induced moment passed. She then kicked me in the lower left abdomen; I winced. "You have until graduation to find love, or stay this way forever" she said darkly before she let go of my wrist and hurried away from me. I didn't know what she had meant by that, but in the time that it took for her to be out of sight, a faint burning sensation had started to generate from where she had just kicked me in the lower left abdomen area. At first, it didn't ache but as time passed on, the burning sensation grew more intense, almost to the point where the pain had started to become unbearable. I didn't cry out in agony; I didn't need to, but as my hand reached underneath my shirt to where my skin burned, I quickly withdrew it.
On the tips of my fingers was faint but ever-present scorch marks before droplets of fresh blood ran freely down my hand until it pooled in the form of a small tattoo on my right forearm. The fresh blood contorted into what looked to be a tattoo of a crimson-red carnation before the design pressed itself into my skin excruciatingly, as if it was real tattoo ink coming alive into human skin. There hadn't been time to think or even question what my own blood was doing at that point, but needless to say, I felt like my own body had betrayed me. I stared at my forearm for what felt like centuries, before the pain in my lower left abdomen spiked again. Unlike before, I felt the need to cry out incoherently in pain and I felt myself stagger closer to the wall of the building for support. It didn't take long for my back to come into contact with the cold, naked wall and as soon as I had managed to compose myself, even if it was just a little, and steady out my breathing whilst my heart and lungs hammered erratically against my chest, I hesitated to touch the area where the girl had kicked me. In the end, after delaying it, I slowly pressed my hand underneath my shirt to the area that had been injured. It didn't hurt, but what did make my eyes widen hysterically was when my fingers traced a familiar shape that had appeared to have been burnt into my skin. The shape was easily distinguishable, but the fact that it remained etched into my skin, along with the crimson carnation on my forearm made me feel shocked, not to mention, a little anaemic. I tried desperately to hold back the urge to throw up as my fingers repeatedly traced the figure that had appeared agonisingly onto my flesh. The figure, a large, black, gothic-styled six that stubbornly refused to peel away from my body.