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Forgot to Remember

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Chapter 7

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One second he was looking at the green light as he started moving the car forward, Natsu was chowing down on some donuts beside him, like always––his police uniform was getting pink frosting on it, Lucy wouldn't be happy when she had to do laundry––the next moment he was in the rink. The ice rink back in Magnolia University.

"Gray!" Gray was skating towards the puck, two guys on either side of him.

"Gray!" It was Natsu. His haired pink friend was waving his hockey stick wildly. He had an opening, and before anyone else could notice what was happening, Gray hit the puck towards his pink friend––

And then he was inside a car. He was driving. He didn't know where. He was angry; infuriated. Why was he mad? He could see himself yelling at someone in the passenger side, but he couldn't see their face. Gray desperately tried to concentrate as he looked in front of him, but someone was speaking to him.

"Please," they said. "It will only be for two months, and then you can go back."

"You don't understand!" Gray heard himself answer. "I'm so close to making it. If I take this two-month break, it might ruin things."

Gray saw himself keep talking, but he could no longer hear. He could only hear screams. He wasn't sure if I was a man's or a woman's voice.

"Gray!"

"Gray!"

He was back, and just in time, because he turned the steering wheel the furthest he could, only to end up on top of a sidewalk on the side of the road.

"Jesus Christ!" Natsu was staring at him with wide eyes. His donuts had fallen on to his lap. "What the hell was that?"

Gray couldn't answer him, because the next thing he knew his breathing had become shallow and his chest hurt. He couldn't breather. He couldn't breathe.

"Oh, shit." He heard Natsu curse, but it was like he was light years away. Gray. Couldn't. Breathe. "You're having a panic attack man, get out of the car!"

Gray couldn't do anything. His vision was blurry, and his hands wouldn't stop clutching on to the steering wheel. He felt like his lungs would collapse at any second. He felt so cold, but he remembered that it was supposed to be up in the nineties that day.

The next thing he knew, he was being pulled out of the passenger seat and on to the side of the road up the curb. He crawled on the grass. He could hear someone calling his name and trying to hold him. They were moving him, trying to sit him with his head in between his knees but Gray couldn't. He just couldn't.

Why did it have to be him? Why did he have to lose his memory? Why was he trying so hard? All his life, all he had experienced was loss and pain. What guaranteed him that those seven years he had lost weren't full of loss and sadness too?

He could feel his consciousness fading away. The recent flashback still playing on the back of his mind. What had it been? Who had been sitting beside him? Why had they been screaming?

The next thing he knew, he could breathe again. It was like he was breaking through the surface of an ocean. Oxygen rushed into his lungs and his hearing became clear again. He could hear the sound of cars driving by, the chirp of birds in the trees, the own pounding in his head and––

"Gray-sama," her voice. It was melodic and euphoretic.

"Gray-sama," she kept speaking. "Listen to Juvia, breathe in and out. Steadily. It's okay. You are safe."

He gasped as he came to. His vision was blurry.

"What exactly happened, Natsu-sun?" Juvia's voice sounded like morphed ripples in a pond.

"He just zoned out," Natsu answered. "One second he was driving normally and the next thing he was almost hitting the back of some truck. He started screaming and then he had the panic attack."

"How long has he been like this?" Gray could feel Juvia's hand on his back-rubbing circles, trying to calm his down.

"Five minutes since I called you," Natsu had called her? "Good thing we were close by your office."

Oh, Gray thought numbly. I forgot we had been driving somewhere close by her office.

"Should we call an ambulance?" Juvia asked, and that seemed to sap Gray out of his petrified state. He never wanted to go back to a hospital.

"No," he croaked. He tried clearing his throat. "No, I'm fine."

Natsu offered him his hand and helped him stand up. "You good man?"

"Yeah," Gray said wiping himself clean. "Just zoned out for a bit."

"I don't think that's all," Juvia interjected, she was giving him a look he could decipher. "I think it's better that you come with me back to my office."

"What?" Gray asked. "Why?"

"We need to talk over some stuff, especially this." Juvia turned towards Natsu. "Can you tell Laxus that Gray won't be able to go back today?"

"Yeah," Natsu said. "I'll take the car back and let him know."

"Don't you think I have a say in this?" Gray asked perplexed.

"Juvia is sorry, Gray-sama," she didn't look sorry at all. "but you almost killed your friend while driving. Juvia believes we should sit down and talk."

Gray couldn't stop fidgeting as Juvia typed away something on her laptop. Something kept nagging him at the corner of his mind. How did Juvia know Laxu's name? She had sounded so sure that he was the one in charge, but Gray had never listed his name under his work description. He had only written down the address and phone number for the PD.

The ringing of Juvia's phone made them both jump.

"Sorry," she said. Her face had morphed into something unfamiliar as she read the name of the caller. "I have to take this call."

Gray simply nodded, he expected her to walk out, but she answered the phone right in front of him. Her blue eyes seemed stormier than ever.

"Hello?" she answered. "Yes, this is her."

Gray could hear the muffled voice on the other side of the line, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.

"Yes," Juvia's voice was hoarse. "Yes, Thank you. Same time tomorrow? Thank you, goodbye,"

She tried smiling at him as she hung up the phone.

"Everything okay?" Gray asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Just a client."

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Why did Gray have the odd feeling that she was lying?Thank you so much for all those who support me and want me to keep updating regularly. I'll be updating at least once a week once I settle everything.

Thank you so much,

Annabethlove ️