Idk about this one...I feel like i've done something wrong with it but I hope you enjoy it anyways x


Monday morning I found myself in front of Ichigo's mirror, combing down my bangs to make sure they were covering my bangs and checking that my scarf was secure around my neck. For any other bruises I'd dabbed on a bit of foundation that I bought over the weekend and I fixed myself up with some concealer, a little mascara and a hint of nude lipstick.

Wonder why I'm going through all this effort?

It wasn't because I might be seeing Grimmjow during the day. Or at least partially.

A migraine was tearing through my forehead this morning and I woke up feeling and looking like a zombie, but I refused to stay in bed today and if I told Ichigo he'd definitely tell his father and he'd definitely not let me go to school today. I thanked the big man up there for letting Hal take the time out to teach me how to use make up.

Plus, I haven't seen my other friends in almost a week. Screw the headache, I was going to see them.

I heard Ichigo calling me from downstairs and grabbed my phone-that Kurosaki-san was so kind to buy for me over the weekend- and my backpack and jumped down the stairs by twos. Not my smartest decision since it rattled my brain even more and made the headache even worse. Oh well. Time for school.

School was a nightmare.

I forgot how loud and noisy the people could be as I walked with Ichigo to my homeroom. There were people banging lockers open and closed, girls squealing, people arguing and it all rained down on my head like a stack of newly sharpened needles. I got to homeroom and told Ichigo I'd meet him on the rooftop for sure, as we normally do and stepped into the class.

As soon as I stepped in, it was like the entire classroom fell into silence.

All eyes were on me.

Were my bandages showing?

Was my scarf loose? It didn't feel like it.

I walked hurriedly to the back of the class and took my seat, head hung low. As soon as I sat down I whipped my phone out and launched my front camera. My scarf was in place and my bangs were fine.

Why was everybody staring at me like that then?

Our teacher came in and everyone faced front for roll call, ignoring me once more.

All the better.

Today was definitely strange.

When I walked from homeroom down the corridors I noticed other students looking and pointing at me too.

What in the world...

The people in French were no better.

While all this was happening my headache was steadily playing its own beat in my head. I could barely concentrate on the essay I was to write.

It was at lunch that I finally realized why they were staring at me like that.

On my way from the languages block to the rooftop where my friends were, two girls appeared out of nowhere blocking my path. Both girls were slender looking, and had a menacing aura about them that didn't settle right with me. One had long black hair, pulled back into two pigtails and one had short blonde hair.

Who were these girls? Why were they blocking my way?

I looked behind my shoulder to see if there was anyone there, but there was no one. Just me.

"So you're the bitch" sneered the black haired one.

Wait...what?

"Excuse me?" I asked slightly incredulously.

"What, are you deaf?"

"Do I know you?" I asked. She was...annoying me. And I rarely ever got annoyed.

"No but I've come here to give you a warning you freak," replied pigtails stepping towards me.

"Okay...so what's the warning?" I asked, shifting my backpack strap on my shoulder impatiently.

"I was getting to that will you shut up?" she snapped.

My eyebrow twitched. And now I was annoyed level 100.

"Stay away from Grimmjow!" she shouted all of a sudden.

I blinked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said stay away from Grimmjow you green haired freak!" she shrieked again.

She was blocking me from my friends, food and potential pain killers from Halibel to tell me to stay away from Grimmjow?

"Why?" I asked, cocking my head in confusion.

"Because he's mine! You hear that?! MINE!"

Or maybe she was just crazy. Probably delusional. According to Halibel, Grimmjow didn't date. And he wouldn't want to get to know me while he had a special someone...right? He wouldn't try to kiss me if he had a girlfriend...or would he?

Suddenly Ichigo's voice popped up in the back of my head. "He's a playboy Nel!"

I mentally shook my head. Nuh-uh. Not now.

"And if I don't stay away?" I asked, glancing at the time at my phone.

5 minutes of chatting and food being wasted on this girl.

"Then I'll knock your face on concrete!"

Yep, delusional.

"Uh...I don't know what you've been seeing or hearing, but there's nothing going on between Grimmjow and I. He's helped me out once when someone was going to attack me and that was it," I said, "now if you'll excuse me, I have to go meet my friends-"

"You'll go nowhere you lying bitch! Everyone's been talking about how you were kissing in front of Gardner-sensei's classroom! You stay away from him or you'll regret-"

"Neliel, I've been wondering what was taking you so long to get to the roof," came a voice from behind Thing 1 and Thing 2. Halibel was leaning against a wall looking unimpressed.

"Loly, Menoly, what the hell are you doing?" she asked pushing herself off the wall and striding to them. She strode past them, took my hand and hauled me straight through them and to the rooftop. Before we got onto there though she stopped and faced me.

"You know there's been some rumors flying around all day today about you and a certain blue haired engineer."

My eyes widened, thinking suddenly of all my friends.

"Do they-"

"Know? Yep. Good luck with explaining it to them. Ichigo's been socking everyone who's been talking about it in the face as well. He's livid."

He was going to kill me. We walked onto the roof and as with every other human being that's seen me this morning, all conversation ceased and they were all staring at me again. I kept my head down and took my usual seat by Rukia and Orihime. Before my bum was parked on the bench Rukia snapped, "Spill. And don't you dare leave anything out"

"I didn't kiss him! We were outside my classroom and we were talking and then my teacher told me to go into my class which I did and that was it! There's nothing going on I swear" I blurted out. That was...90% of the truth. Not exactly a lie. I was just editing certain events from the whole story.

"See Ichigo? It was just rumors. You can keep your knickers on now and apologize to Renji." said Rukia, resuming her lunch. The rest of the group's tension also seemed to disperse and the conversations from before started over again.

I could still feel Ichigo's eyes on me though; I knew I wasn't anywhere out of the hot water. A Kurosaki styled interrogation was bound to happen when we got home tonight.

"So...how did you end up in cohorts with someone like Grimmjow Jaggerjaques?" asked Rukia suddenly.

Internally I sighed. Trust her to not let it go.

"Nothing too serious. He defended me once and I sparred with him in gym last week and since then we've just been talking," I replied, taking a bite out of my sandwich and chasing it down with some strawberry smoothie. I felt my headache disperse a little and I thanks the heavens. Maybe it was just the hunger after all.

"You know, they say he's a real player, always messing around with girls, especially that one...what's her name? That one that's always in the pigtails, you know who I'm talking right Hime?" said Rukia casually.

Pigtails?

"Oh you mean Loly? I wouldn't know, but she isn't very nice, I don't think he'd go for a girl like her," mused the ginger girl, spooning some brown concoction into her mouth.

Loly?

Like the Loly that stopped me on my way here? Grimmjow used to have a thing with her?

I looked at Halibel questioningly, but her face gave away nothing.

I could feel the headache building up again. So much for it being the hunger. Suddenly I felt really...angry.

I stood abruptly, taking my bag with me and heading for the door.

"Where are you going Nel?" asked Ichigo.

"To the nurse. Girl problems." I said breezing out. I knew he wouldn't follow me. If there was one thing that he'd most definitely stay away from it was "girl problems" even with Orihime. I breezed down the stairs, massaging my temples and heading for the back lot. On my way there I checked my watch. Barely 15 minutes until the bell rang signaling the end of lunch.

I could always ask him about it tomorrow, but for some strange reason I had to know. Today. Right now. I spotted the black Mitsubishi, but the owner wasn't there so I made a beeline for the garage. Just as I was about to step through however, memories of an unsavory kind struck me.

That boy.

That one that just seemed to want to hurt me.

What if he were in there?

He wouldn't hesitate to knock me out if he got the chance, and he's tried to demonstrate that many times already.

So here I was standing outside the garage contemplating all this when a familiar voice called out to me making me jump.

I turned to see that tall lazy looking one that Halibel was dating.

"Starrk?" I asked timidly.

He yawned and nodded. "I'm guessing you wanna see the Blueberry?"

I nodded and he hummed.

"Stay here. Inside's a real mess and I don't want you tripping over anything and busting up your pretty head." he said walking into the huge building. Once more I was left on my own. I pulled out my phone to see a message from Halibel.

The nurse's office isn't in the garage you know, be careful-H.

That's what I loved about her. Though she was my best friend and she had her moments when she could be over protective, she gave me space to breathe and do what I want to do.

The door creaked open and Grimmjow stepped out. The first thing I noticed about him was that he looked dead tired, but still drop dead gorgeous. He was wearing dungarees and the top part was off, hanging down on his hips. To my disappointment, he was wearing a shirt though. Sigh, well a girl could dream.

"Hey Shorty, thought you were having lunch with the Brady Bunch today," he said with an amused look on his face, walking to me.

"Well I was, but the most peculiar thing happened today and it's been bothering me for a while so I decided to cut lunch short to address what happened to you," I said.

"That so? What peculiar thing happened today that made you cut lunch time with your oh so precious friends then?" he asked.

"Well today when I was on the way to the rooftop, a girl stopped me, threatened me and said I should stay away from you, said you were hers. Her name's Loly or something like that. Ring a bell...Blueberry?"

I watched the expression on his face turn from amused to annoyed.

"For fuck's sake"

"Language. Now, who is she?" I pressed.

"Some...girl I had a fling with a while back. Nothing serious. Then she started to get attached and I broke it off with her" he replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

Oh?

"Well she's threatened to slam my face into concrete just so you know," I said showing him my back and pretending to be upset.

He laughed.

And all I could do was stare. Those lines of stress and fatigue disappeared and he just looked so carefree and handsome. He slapped his leg and crouched a bit.

"Slam your face into concrete? That's priceless. I asked her to open the door for me once and she had to force her entire body weight onto it before it opened!"

I cracked a grin, his laughter was so contagious. I loved his laugh.

"Woo, Shorty that made my day. I hope she actually tries. I'd love to see you throw her into a wall or something." he hooted.

"I just might," I sniffed, feigning arrogance.

His laughter finally calmed down and his feral grin was back.

"You know what? If I didn't know any better I'd say you're jealous of her," he said pulling out a box of cigarettes.

Me?! Jealous?!

I snatched the box away from him and stamped on his foot in frustration. He hissed.

"Oh please Grimmjow."

"I'm right aren't I?" he said, stooping to rub his tender toes.

"There's nothing to be jealous of," I said, turning to hide my blush from him. His shadow loomed over mine and I turned to be almost chest to chest with him. Well...face to chest if you considered my height.

"Well just to let you know and to ease whatever worries you may have in your mind Shorty, I'm very much single and I'm only interested in one girl at the moment."

Butterflies erupted in my tummy.

Did he have to be so close?

I kept my head down, I refused to look into his eyes. I refused to look up.

His hand reached under my chin, just like last time and tilted my head up.

"Are you wearing make-up?" he asked suddenly.

I reddened even more. "A little."

"Why? You don't need that shit," he said gruffly.

"Because I've got a migraine and I felt really crappy this morning and if Ichigo saw that I wasn't feeling good he wouldn't make me come to school today," I said, "plus it's not even a lot!" I added defensively, stepping away from him.

I frowned at my actions and took a step towards me. I took another back. The grin returned slowly and he moved so fast I barely registered it. Suddenly he was in front of me, holding both my hands to my side, staring down at me intensely.

We stood like that for who knows how long, just looking at each other. Then my phone rang out, breaking the spell. Halibel's ringtone.

"I-I have to get that. It's Hal," I mumbled, pulling away from his grasp.

"Hello?"

"Get your ass to your lesson please. You'd better be on the language block by the time I get to the garage," she threatened casually.

"And...where are you now?" I asked, biting my lip.

"Just making my way down the stairs from the rooftop. I'm gonna make a stop for a drink though. That should give you enough time to beat feet and Grimmjow enough time to get the oil that I've been asking him to get for me since Friday," she replied.

"O-Okay! Bye!" I hung up and spun to see the boy sucking down one of those god awful cigarettes.

"I have to go before Hal gets back and apparently you have oil that you've been meant to get for her since last week," I said, shuffling my feet awkwardly on the ground.

He chocked on the smoke, clearly he forgot about the favor he'd been asked. He stood up and held his hand out to me. I stared down at it questioningly.

"What do you want? Your phone Shorty. Hand me your phone."

I gave it to him cautiously and watched him tap away at it then hand it back to me.

"My number's in there now. Text me after school or something. Am I still seeing you tomorrow for lunch?"

"Uh, sure," I replied, staring at the phone he placed back in my hand.

"Now you go before Hali-bitch gets here to kick you into next week," he said smirking.

"Don't call her that!"

He stepped towards me and I wrinkled my nose, taking a few steps back.

"Ew, you reek of that nasty smoke,"

"Aww, not even a hug?" he asked jokingly.

"To make that nasty smell rub off on me? No way Jaggerjaques," I said turning and walking away from him.

As I rushed to my next class-thankfully not running into Hal on the way- I couldn't help but feel relieved.

He was only interested in one girl.

He'd almost kissed me before.

He wanted to get to know me better.

The butterflies were having a riot in my stomach.

So this is what crushing on a guy actually feels like huh?

I liked it.