Disclaimer: I still own nothingggg D:
Chapter 4
Before long the four girls had left Rangiku's house. They followed a busy main street in the heart of downtown. People were bustling around them, trying to make their own way through the crowds. Orihime couldn't help but to hopelessly wonder where they were going. Nel and Rangiku had gotten her into a nice V neck t-shirt and a mini skirt, obviously in the attempt to show off her assets.
Orihime, unused to this kind of clothing, felt very uncomfortable. Worry getting the best of her, the orange haired girl finally asked her new friends where they were going and who they were meeting, in an almost pleading voice.
'Fine, we'll tell you, but your only spoiling the surprise for yourself!' Nel chided as she continued her happy skipping.
'We're going to see a movie.' Rangiku continued, reaching into her purse and pulling out four tickets for some popular movie.
'You guys still haven't told me who we're meeting with.' Orihime persisted.
Rangiku laughed, 'Don't worry, just friends from school. Grimmjow, Toushiro and Ichigo.' She concluded.
The orange haired girl thought quietly about this for a moment, Ichigo had been more than friendly with her ever since they had first met, but she'd barely spoken a word to the other two. Anyways, why would her friends have dressed her up like this for a silly movie. You can't even see in a movie theatre.
Eventually, the four girls had reached the theatre and headed directly inside to the appropriate screening room. Orihime marvelled at the enormous size of the theatre, back in her old town it was much smaller and definitely not as nice as this one. She watched as crowd of people exited screening rooms and others play in the arcade before being dragged off by an exited Nel.
The screening room itself was equally large, there must have been at least 200 seats still to be filled before them. Orihime followed as the other three girls headed up to the seats in the far back before her. Halibel had taken a seat at the end of the row with Nel directly besides her, already chatting happily. However, Rangiku had left an empty seat between her and the green haired girl.
Automatically Orihime assumed this seat was for her and began to make her way to it. Rangiku, on the other hand, had other plans and grabbed Orihime's arm, pulling the orange haired girl to the seat on the other side of her. This left an empty spot between each group of two girls. Orihime wondered vaguely who would be sitting there.
Luckily, the gap between the four beauties did not seem to interfere in their conversations. They waited patiently, chatting, for the boys to arrive. The screening room began to fill with numerous unknown faces. Seats began to fill and soon the lights would be dimmed to begin playing the previews.
Orihime, preoccupied with watching the theatre fill, did not notice the busty strawberry blond beside her reach into her purse and extract a cell phone. She read the messages that had just been received before announcing that the boys would be entering the theatre at any moment. Orihime looked towards the entrance and sure enough, there entered the three boys.
Toushiro looked thoroughly unimpressed, whereas Ichigo and Grimmjow looked to already be enjoying themselves laughing loudly.
Rangiku stood up after spotting the brightly coloured heads of the three boys and began waving excitedly. Toushiro noticed first, the other two boys distracted. He began heading up towards the group and soon after orange and blue hair followed.
Once close enough to be heard, the strawberry blond called to Toushiro. 'I saved you a seat! right here, next to me!' she exclaimed indicating the seat between her and Nel. The green haired girl on the other hand looked absolutely horrified, obviously she'd been hoping Grimmjow would occupy that seat.
'I'd rather not'. He reply dully walking right passed a fake-pouting Rangiku and choosing one seat down from Orihime. The seat between orange haired girl and Toushiro was quickly snatched up by an eager Ichigo while Grimmjow was left to the seat between an ecstatic Nel and Rangiku. (A/N: if the seating arrangement is unclear, it goes; Halibel, Nel, Grimmjow, Rangiku, Orihime, Ichigo, Toushiro)
Orihime watched as Nel began talking excitedly to Grimmjow, who looked mostly uninterested. It appeared to Orihime as though the two of them didn't share the same feelings for each other. Her gaze then shifted to the blue eyed girls besides her, who was too busy texting to notice the watchful eyes upon her.
However, the orange haired girls attention was finally pulled to the boy besides her when he began speaking. 'I've been waiting to see this movie ever since the previews came out'. He told Orihime. She remembered seeing previews for the movie and unfortunately could not share the same enthusiasm as Ichigo. She simply nodded in reply.
Ichigo continued undiminished, 'So what classes do you have in the afternoon?'
Orihime replied kindly and the conversation continued happily from there. The orange haired girl was delighted to find the boys kindness towards her. She thought it might be awkward, but Ichigo was a great conversationalist. As a matter of fact, the two had to be hushed by an annoyed looking Toushiro as the movie began.
The first half of the movie passed quickly and fine, Orihime was surprised to find that she enjoyed the movie much more than she thought she would. It might have been an action flick, but it had a good bout of humour too. The orange haired girl was so submerged in the movie that she jumped when Rangiku nudged her from beside.
Orihime looked up only to find Rangiku giving her a look. It wasn't necessarily a bad look, but it wasn't good either. She shifted her eyes to the armrest besides Orihime and back onto the orange haired girl all in an instant. Confused, Orihime also looked at the armrest.
Ichigo's arm wrested on it peacefully, his hand facing upwards, open. Orihime looked back into the blue eyes of the girl to her other side. Orihime had no idea what Rangiku was trying to tell her and gave a non-understanding shrug in reply.
Finally, the annoyed strawberry blond pulled Orihime close and whispered in her ear. 'Have you never been to a movie with a boy before?'
Orihime simply shook her head, where was Rangiku getting with all of this?
'He wants you to hold his hand!' She half hissed. Orihime's grey eyes shot to Ichigo's resting hand and then again back onto Rangiku.
'N-no, no. He definitely doesn't want me to do that!' She whispered hurriedly in reply.
'He definitely does'. Rangiku assured her.
Orihime thought for a minute. If only Rangiku hadn't told her, then she wouldn't have to make this decision. It's true that Ichigo is very nice and kind to her, however Orihime wasn't sure if she liked him back. She thought of everyone she'd met so far. No one had yet stuck out to her in a way Ichigo had, but then again... Orihime's mind flashed quickly to the pale figure that was Ulquiorra.
No, there was no way Ulquiorra liked her and she definitely didn't like him. He was just... interesting.
Her grey eyes returned to the hand resting besides her and ever so hesitantly, Orihime lifted her hand to place in Ichigo's. Maybe, just maybe she would give this whole thing a chance.
As her hand touched his own, he seemed surprised but welcomed it graciously. Ichigo had almost thought that the whole movie would pass and she would give no reply to his pending invitation. his laced his fingers between his own and looked over to smile at her. Orihime was looking carefully at their hands before looking up and smiling hesitantly.
Her grey eyes seemed to shine brightly, even in the dim light of the theatre and Ichigo couldn't help but to admire her beauty. Orihime was equally astounded by the kindness of his features, but something in the back of her mind didn't like it. However, she ignored the feeling and continued watching the movie, hand resting in Ichigo's the whole time.
The end of the movie ended on a high note and a big explosion to which Grimmjow cheered excitedly. Nel on the other hand, held a sour expression and Halibel watched her knowingly. And as the lights of the screening room began to brighten and everyone began to satnd, readying themselves to go, Ichigo felt Orihime's hand extract itself from his grip. He quietly noted that she looked rather shy about the whole thing and was probably simply avoiding questioning from her friends.
He laughed a little and smiled at her as she looked up questioningly. Rangiku then grabbed the orange haired girls arm and dragged her to the stairs descending back towards the exit. Everyone, with the exception of Nel looked at ease and in a good mood.
While leaving the theatre Grimmjow recounted the best moments of the movie to a bored looking Halibel, who replied by saying that she was there and already knew. This did not deter him though, because moments later he recounted the same parts of the movie to Toushiro who nodded along. Meanwhile, Rangiku spoke happily with Ichigo and the three other girls walked ahead in silence.
Orihime noted Nel's sour expression and leaned over slightly to whisper in her ear. 'What's wrong?' She asked quietly so that the other wouldn't hear.
Nel simply shook her head and gave Orihime a look that said she would explain later. Orihime nodded slightly and continued her walk to the grand theatre doors to exit. Once the seven of them had finally exited the theatre they began saying their goodbyes, readying themselves to split up. Rangiku's house, were the four girls would be going, was in the opposite direction of the boys homes.
Rangiku gave Toushiro a big hug and Grimmjow laughed while asking why she never gave him any hugs. To Orihime's surprise, Ichigo took this moment to give her a slip of paper with his cell phone number before speaking, 'I had fun'. He said.
'So did I,' Orihime replied with a smile, 'I'll text you sometime'. She then concluded, putting the tiny slip of paper into her bag before turning back to the other two boys to say bye.
As the groups split up Rangiku waved enthusiastically goodbye, while Grimmjow and Ichigo did likewise from across the way. Meanwhile, Nel continued walking away, her arms folded.
Once the boys were out of sight Rangiku turned around quickly and sprung besides Nel. 'So, how did it goooo?' She asked wrapping her arm around the green haired girls.
'I don't want to talk about it.' Nel said harshly.
Rangiku looked thoroughly disappointed, when a voice from besides Orihime spoke up suddenly. 'Grimmjow rejected her'. The blond said emotionlessly.
Rangiku turned on Halibel, mouth open in shock. 'He did?' She asked hurriedly. 'Wait, what happened?'
At this, Nel responded unwillingly. 'I asked him if he wanted to hold hands and he just looked at me and started laughing. He thought I was just joking around'.
Halibel nodded, confirming that this was indeed what happened. Rangiku on the other hand looked thoughtful. 'But he was in such a good mood?' She then asked.
'The movie was just too awesome'. Nel stated firmly adding quotation marks with her fingers to the word "awesome".
'Don't worry about it Nel, your too good for him anyways'. Rangiku then told golden eyed girl in a consoling matter.
Nel seemed to recover quickly after this, stating that she would indeed, just forget about Grimmjow and that there were more important things to discuss right now. To which Rangiku nodded excitedly, while everyone's gaze shifted to Orihime.
'Wh-what?' The orange haired girl asked nervously, even though she knew exactly what was to come. After thinking about it, she really didn't know what to tell them. She didn't want to say that she didn't like Ichigo, but she'd only known him for a couple of days after all. They couldn't honestly expect it to be love, could they?
'Well?' Rangiku persisted when Orihime didn't answer.
The orange haired girl lifted her hand to scratch the back of her head before answering, 'There's not much to tell'. She then said quietly.
'Yeah, right'. Nel snorted, 'Don't think we didn't see you guys holding hands'. She then stated crossing her arms across her large bust. Rangiku simply nodded knowingly.
When Orihime still didn't answer, the strawberry blond continued, 'Well, do you like him? did you give him your phone number? did he ask you out?'
'N-no! He didn't ask me out! and, well, he gave me his number...' Orihime trailed off.
'And?'
'And, I don't know if I like him yet'. Orihime concluded firmly.
'Don't worry about it, you'll figure it out eventually'. Rangiku said with a laugh and smile. 'Anyways, do you know how many girls would be jealous of you right now?'
According to Rangiku, Ichigo was one of the hardest boys to get. He might be friendly with everyone, but he rarely showed real interest in anyone. It had been very surprising when he'd asked the strawberry blond to set the whole movie affair up.
'Wait!' Orihime exclaimed, 'He's the one who set this up?'
'Yeap, I think he's really interested in you'. Rangiku concluded.
After this, Orihime spent the rest of the night in thought. She even left Rangiku's house early because she was so distracted. She didn't want to go for Ichigo right away, there were still so many people she hadn't met. For all she knew her soul mate might sit across class from her, unless her soul mate was Ichigo... No, Orihime decided to stop thinking about things. She was getting way ahead of herself, thinking of soul mates and all.
In any case, there was one thing that night that hadn't skipped Orihime's mind, even through all her deep thinking. She remembered that she had a plan, a plan for tomorrow.
Even though it was late and she was tired, the orange haired girl proceeded to her kitchen to make lunches for tomorrow. One for herself... and one for Ulquiorra. She would surely impress him with her eccentric cooking skills and then maybe he would open up to her. She was sure that persistence was the key.
A/N : THANK YOU GUYS FOR THE REVIEWS :D I am very grateful!
And please don't kick me with the IchigoxOrihime, its only temporary! I Promise! And I know someone commented on liking the pairings they see here, but trust me they're all changing D: like as in no GrimmjowxNel and what not! but they do have pairings so just wait for it haha.,
Anyways, sorry for the slow update D: I'm taking an online course in 12th grade pre-university English so that I don't have to do it next year ;), unfortunately though, its consuming all my time. So hopefully I can get another update out before the end of the month, but it's not for sure, so bear with me! AND REVIEW ;D!