Gray fell asleep at around two AM. He had spent hours holding me close, telling me everything would be okay. After a while I had pretended to be asleep so that he could get some sleep himself- I could tell he had been keeping himself up for my sake. But I was wide awake. I refused to let myself even feel tired. If I was ever going to have that nightmare again, it would have been tonight. I didn't need that. So, once I was sure Gray was asleep, I carefully wriggled out of his embrace and climbed out of bed. My room was a mess and I began rummaging through my clothes, trying to find the hoody Gray had leant me. I finally found it, put it on and snook downstairs. It was dark outside and inside but I didn't want to risk waking Gray up, so I left the lights off. I made myself a coffee, to keep me awake, and spent the rest of the night switching between my living room and kitchen. I'd sit at the kitchen table sipping my coffee, then I'd move to the living and sit on the couch staring in to space. It wasn't a fun night, but it was soon over. Gray came downstairs at around eight O'clock in the morning. I was sat on my sofa, picking at a loose thread on one of the cushions.
"How long have you been up for?" Gray asked with a stretch as he sat down beside me.
"Not long." I lied, still focusing on the thread.
"How long have you been up?" Gray asked again as he grabbed my fingers to stop me picking at the cushion.
"I never slept." I admitted. Gray sighed and rolled his eyes all at once.
"Why not?" He asked.
"I wasn't tired." I shrugged.
"Liar." Gray said.
"No, I'm not." I protested.
"I can see that you're exhausted." He said as he picked my mug of coffee up from the table. I took the mug from him, got up and wondered in to the kitchen. Gray followed me and leant against one of the counters. "Why don't you get ready for school, while I make us some breakfast?" He asked.
"I'm not going to school today." I shook my head.
"What's going on, Lucy?" He asked. I opened my mouth to respond, but I was interrupted by someone banging on my front door. It made me jump and Gray noticed. "It's okay, I'll get it." He said and hopped off the counter. I hid around the corner of my kitchen doorway and tried to listen in as Gray opened the door.
"Gray? What are you doing here?" It was Natsu. I breathed a sigh of relief, but remained hidden.
"Same to you." Gray said.
"I'm here to check on Lucy. Where is she?"
"What is going?" Gray asked. "She hasn't told me anything."
"Check Facebook." Natsu said. There was a minute of silence, I guessed Natsu was showing Gray what AnonyBitch had posted about me. My heart sank.
"What the hell." Gray said. He was seeing it for sure. "What is this?"
"She's back and Lucy's her new target." Natsu said.
"No wonder she was so upset last night." Gray said.
"So, you spent the night." Natsu said.
"It's not like that, Natsu. There was no way I was leaving her alone like that." Gray said defensively.
"Yeah. Yeah, I get it." Natsu said quietly. Gray returned to the kitchen then, with Natsu close behind. They both had an odd expression on their face and I began to shift back and forth, feeling more than uncomfortable.
"Hey, Lucy. How ya' holding up?" Natsu asked.
"I'm okay." I said with a small smile.
"Liar." Gray said.
"Stop saying that." I said with a glare.
"Look, I've got somewhere to be today. I think Natsu should stay here with you, if you really won't go to school." Gray said.
"I don't need anyone to stay." I said. "I'm fine on my own."
"Even if we did believe you, I still wouldn't leave." Natsu said. Guess I wasn't really getting a choice in the matter.
"Well, now that that's sorted, I'm going to head out." Gray said. I walked him to the door and just as I was opening it Levy flew inside and flung her arms around me.
"Lu! Oh my god! I've been so worried about you." Levy wailed as she clung my head to her chest.
"Levy, I'm okay." I said, struggling to breath.
"I made my mum drive me here before school so we could drive in together with our heads held high." Levy said with a smile.
"She's not going." Gray said dryly.
"Oh, Gray. I didn't see you there." Levy said, finally releasing me from her embrace. "Wait, what? You're not going to school today?" Levy asked me.
"Not today."
"Is that a good idea?" Levy asked me with a concerned look.
"I'm fine on my own, like I keep saying." I sighed.
"But I'll be here, just in case she's not." Natsu said as he sauntered in to the room.
"Oh, Natsu's here too." Levy said with a raised brow. I shot her a look as if to say I'll tell you about it later and she nodded in understanding. "I'll come round straight after school, yeah?" Levy asked.
"Yeah, okay." I said. There was no point arguing with my friends, they seemed to make all my decisions for me.
"Do you need a lift to school? Or home?" Levy asked as she looked Gray up and down. He was still wearing yesterdays clothes and they were all crinkled from him sleeping in them- and a little sandy too.
"Thanks, but I've got somewhere else to be." Gray said before leaving.
"Okay... I'll see you later, Lu." Levy said. And just like that, it was just Natsu and I. He was leant against the kitchen doorway, watching me as I walked towards him.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.
"Not particularly." I said, passing him and entering the kitchen.
"Thought not." He said.
"Coffee?" I asked as I began to fill the kettle with water.
"No, thanks." Natsu said. He continued to watch me as I pottered about the kitchen. Things definitely felt a little awkward between us. For some reason, I felt an obligation to tell him about Gray and I. It's not like Natsu and I had been dating though, so why did I feel guilty?
"Can you stop that?" I asked after a while.
"Stop what?" He said with a blank face.
"Watching me like that."
"I'm just waiting." He said.
"For?"
"For you to tell me what's really going on with you." He said. I sighed. This is exactly why I wanted to be on my own. I didn't want to be answering questions all day, otherwise I would have gone to school.
"I just need one drama-free day." I said before taking a sip of my coffee.
"Okay, fine." Natsu said, raising his hands in defence.
"Good." I said with a nod.
Natsu and I were watching a movie but I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Every now and then my head would droop and I'd have to shake myself awake. Natsu watched me with a smirk across his face.
"Why don't you just take a nap?" He asked.
"I'm fine." I said.
"Even ten minutes would be something."
"I'm gonna' go take a shower." I said, suddenly jumping up from the sofa. I couldn't sit there any longer, I'd fall asleep for sure.
"Okay. Should I make us some lunch?" Natsu asked.
"Sure." I said as I rushed up the stairs. A cold shower was exactly what I needed.
I had just finished my shower and was in my room getting dressed when Natsu appeared in my doorway.
"Did you find something to eat?" I asked as I shrugged in to Gray's hoody.
"No, you still haven't gone shopping." He said.
"Oh. Yeah. I'll go tomorrow." I said.
"Lucy."
"Yeah?"
"Do you think I told people about what happened? On the cliff." He asked me with a serious expression. To be honest, the thought had never crossed my mind. I knew he wouldn't do that to me.
"No. Of course not." I said.
"Then, why do things feel... weird between us?" He asked. I sighed. I really didn't want to have this conversation.
"There is something I should probably tell you." I said.
"Okay..." He said with narrowed eyes. The two of us headed downstairs and sat next to each other on my sofa.
"Gray and I... We, um." I didn't know how to say it. I couldn't just blurt out that we had had sex. But I couldn't exactly call us a couple either. Not yet, anyway. Did I really even need to tell Natsu?
"I know." He said.
"You do?" I asked suddenly, worried that AnonyBitch had posted about that too.
"It's kind of obvious, Lucy. Plus, Lyon told me the two of you were going on a date last night." He said.
"I'm sorry." I said. Although, I didn't really know what I was apologising for. I hand't cheated on anyone and I was sure I hadn't lead anyone on.
"You don't need to be sorry." He laughed a little. "I'm the sorry one."
"Why are you sorry?" I asked.
"I'm sorry Gray beat me to it." He said with a small smile.
"Natsu." I began but I was interrupted once again by someone at my door. I heard Natsu sigh as I got up and answered the door. It was Gray.
"You're back. I thought you had somewhere to be." I said in my best impression of Gray's voice.
"I did." He said. He had his hands behind his back. "Can I come in?" He asked.
"Yeah." I smiled and let him in. Natsu rolled his eyes and sunk in to the cushions on the sofa.
"I went back to that funfair." He said.
"That's where you had to be?" I asked as I shut the front door.
"Yeah. It was the only place I could get this." He said. I turned around to find Gray holding out the cuddly seahorse I had fallen in love with from the night before.
"Oh my god, Gray!" I laughed and threw my arms around him.
"So, you like it?" He asked.
"Of course. Thank you." I smiled as he handed me the seahorse.
"I knew you wanted it." He smirked. At that moment Natsu jumped up from the sofa, grabbed his school rucksack and headed towards the door.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"I'm leaving." Natsu said as he swung open my front door.
"Natsu, wait." I said.
"Three's a crowd, Lucy." Natsu said before shutting the door behind him.
"So, you told him about us." Gray said.
"I didn't have to." I sighed.
"Yeah, I thought that might be the case."
"Um, Gray?" I asked.
"Yeah?"
"What exactly is us? If you know what I mean." I said.
"I don't know." He said. That wasn't the answer I was hoping for.
"Oh, okay." I said.
"Lucy, I-" He began, but I interrupted him.
"I'm actually really tired." I said in a rush. "I'm gonna' get some sleep."
"Okay, I'll just watch TV or something." He said.
"No, you should go." I smiled and began pushing him towards the door.
"Hey, Lucy. Wait." He said as I opened the door and continued to usher him out of it.
"I'll see you tomorrow. At school." I said. "Thank you for the seahorse!" I shut the door and leant my head against it, clutching the seahorse Gray had won for me. I was so disappointed. When I asked him what we were I had wanted him to ask me to be his girlfriend. But he just didn't know. What was I supposed to do with that information? Had I upset Natsu over nothing? Was that night with Gray just a one time thing?
"Urgh!" I exclaimed before flopping down on my sofa.
I counted down the minutes until four O'clock. That was the time Levy was meant to be coming round.
"three fifty-nine." I said to myself as I watched the clock. Levy arrived right on time. She hadn't even finished knocking before I swung the door open. She was the only person I wanted to see, the only person I could completely relax around. But as the door opened I saw not just Levy, but Mira, Lisanna and Juvia too.
"Oh, hey." I said.
"I know we weren't invited." Lisanna said with an apologetic look.
"Well, what were we supposed to do?" Mira asked in a huff. "You weren't answering our calls or messages."
"We just wanted to make sure you were okay." Juvia smiled.
"And to make sure you hadn't, you know..." Mira said with a suggestive look. I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Mira! Don't say stuff like that." Lisanna said.
"Anyway." Levy said. "Can we come in?"
"Yeah. Sure." I said. This was going to be an interesting evening.
The five of us were milling around my kitchen and it was a little awkward. No one really knew what to say me, I could tell they all pitied me and I hated it. After a while Mira came across Helen's wine cabinet. She began pulling out bottles.
"Nice collection." She said as she admired the bottles. By now I had realised that Mira was somewhat of a wine expert.
"Do you want a glass?" I asked. I don't know why I asked that, it just sort of blurted out. But there was a part of me that really wanted her to say yes, just so that I could have a class too.
"Really?" Mira looked up suddenly.
"Yeah, sure." I smiled and got out five wine glasses.
"Lucy, you are bad." Mira winked as I filled her glass. The five of us clinked our classes together and began sipping from them.
"So, did I miss anything at school today?" I asked.
"Well..." Mira began.
"Mira, don't." Juvia said.
"What? You have to tell me." I said.
"It's just that, the picture that AnonyBitch posted last night had been printed out ,like, ten times and stuck all over your locker." Mira said.
"What?" I asked sadly.
"Don't worry. We took them down straight away and put them in the bin." Levy smiled.
"I wanted to burn them." Mira mumbled. I took a long, long sip of wine and poured myself another glass. I could just imagine everyone at school talking about me.
"Lets not talk about that, hey." Levy said.
"Tell us about your date." Lisanna grinned.
"It was great." I smiled.
"It was?" Juvia asked.
"Yeah. Oh, by the way sorry Gray and I ruined your date with Lyon." I said. Juvia went bright red.
"What? Lyon and I weren't going on a date! He just wanted to take me out to dinner, I didn't actually agree to it though." Juvia protested, now she was the one taking a long sip of wine. The five of us laughed and began to gossip about the boys in our lives. It felt nice to not have the conversation be about me, for a change.
After a few hours, and a few bottles of wine, we were all feeling more than a little tipsy. We had gradually made our way to my room and were dancing around to music Lisanna was playing through her phone. Then I spotted myself in the mirror. My hair was a complete mess. I mean it was all over the place. It was frizzy and quite frankly looked terrible. I stumbled to my desk and sat down at it, pulling at my hair and sectioning it in different ways.
"Hey, you guys!" I exclaimed.
"What?" Levy said as she came up behind me and began leaning on my shoulder.
"Lets cut my hair!" I said excitedly. Mira immediately jumped up from the floor and ran to my side, pushing Levy out of the way.
"Oh my god! Yes!" Mira yelled.
"Are you guys sure?" Juvia asked.
"You could totally rock short hair." Lisanna mumbled as she continued to dance behind us.
"Right? I think so too!" I said.
"Let me do it, please! I do Lisanna's." Mira begged.
"Sure, why not?" I cheered. I ran downstairs, grabbed some scissors and returned ready for my makeover.
"Are you sure your're sure?" Levy asked, slurring her s's.
"I'm so incredibly sure." I said as I handed Mira the scissors.
"Let's do this." Mira winked. I sat back at my desk and stared in the mirror as I watched Mira hack off chunks off my hair. I couldn't help but laugh. In fact, we were all laughing.
"You are gonna' look so bad ass." Lisanna said. "AnonyBitch won't mess with you now."
"Yeah. Bad ass." I said as I watched the inches fall from my hair. After a while my door bell rang.
"I'll get it!" Mira said and slammed the scissors on the desk.
"No, I'll get!" Levy said.
"Let's all get it." Juvia said, trying to keep the peace. I think she was the only one out of the five of us that was remotely sober.
"Wait, what about my hair?" I yelled as Juvia, Mira and Levy ran down stairs.
"I'll tidy it up for ya'" Lisanna said, finally retiring from her dancing. She grabbed the scissors and began snipping away at my hair. She was much more gentle than Mira.
"Hey, can I tell you something?" I asked.
"Sure."
"Last night, after you came to my house like that-" I paused to let out a burp. "-Excuse me. Any way, where was I? Oh yeah. After you came to my house last night, I thought you might have been AnonyBitch." I mumbled.
"Yeah, I don't blame you." She said. "One of the main reasons I wanted to come tonight was to apologise."
"Really?" I asked.
"Yeah. I was just a little jealous about you and Natsu. It made me act like a freak." She laughed.
"Well, you don't need to worry about me and Natsu anymore." I hiccuped.
"Why not?" Lisanna asked as she ran a brush through my hair.
"He hates me. He said three's a crowd, Lucy!" I said, trying to mimic his voice.
"What did he mean by that?" Lisanna asked.
"Who knows?" I said, throwing my arms up in the air.
"Well, anyway, your new do is complete." Lisanna said as she ran her hands through my hair one last time. My hair had gone from halfway down my back to a blunt cut that sat a couple of inches above my shoulders. I shook my head from left to right and admired the new, healthy flow of my locks.
"I love it!" I squealed.
"It's called a Lob." Lisanna said. I stared at her in confusion. "Lob, a long bob. Lob!" She explained with a cheer.
"Oh!" I nodded. Levy ran back in to my room then.
"Lucy, your boyfriend's here." She sang with a wink.
"Who?" I asked.
"Gray, duh!" Levy said.
"He is?" I grinned and ran past Levy. If it wasn't for all the alcohol running through my system, I wouldn't have been as happy to see him. He was stood in my living room talking to Juvia and Mira when I suddenly threw myself at him. "Gray!" I yelled as he caught me in his arms.
"Whoa, hey." He laughed.
"What're you doing here?" I asked, trying to keep down another burp.
"I felt bad about how we left things earlier." He said, doing his best to keep me on my feet.
"Lisanna cut my hair." I smiled, completely ignoring what he had said.
"Wait, seriously?" He asked, grabbing my shoulders and holding me at arms length to get a good look at my new hair.
"Don't you like it?" I asked sadly.
"No, I do. It looks cute." He smiled.
"Cute? It's meant to be bad ass!" I said, punching him in the arm. My punch made me stumble forwards causing Gray to grab my waist in an attempt to keep me up right.
"Lucy, are you drunk?" Gray asked.
"No, are you?" I asked back.
"She is." Mira whispered. Maybe I had drank a lot more than the other girls, I just hadn't realised it at the time.
"Why are you drunk?" Gray asked with a disproving look on his face.
"I don't know. I just am, okay?" I said, waving my arms in annoyance.
"Okay. Lets get you some fresh air." Gray said as he held me close and lead me out the house.
"Lets go for a walk!" I said.
"You can barely stand." Gray replied in his usual dry tone.
"Then you carry me." I poked him in the chest and put one hand on my hip. He looked at me for a moment, as if thinking something over.
"Okay." He sighed.
"Really?"
"Yep, hop on." Gray said as he turned his back to me.
"Yay!" I cheered as I clambered on to his back.
"Hold tight." He said. So, I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his shoulders. My head was rested on Gray's shoulder and I was a humming a tune to myself as he carried me around the neighbourhood. There wasn't anyone around at this time in the evening, luckily for me. I'd hate for the neighbours to see me like that. Every now and then Gray would hoist me up if I began to slip and it made me laugh every time. With my hair cut the way it was, I could feel the cool breeze on my neck and it was making me sleepy. I shut my eyes and exhaled deeply. Gray smelt so nice- even nicer than my honey shampoo.
"You awake back there?" Gray asked. I simply hummed in response. "You know, I came round to ask you something tonight."
"What was it?" I asked sleepily.
"I think I'm going to wait." He said.
"Why?"
"I want you to be sober when I ask." He said.
"I am sober!" I said, poking him in the back.
"Oh, yeah? Hey, Lucy. Would you like fries with that?" He asked. It was a mean attempt to check just how drunk I was, but it did the job. Annoyingly.
"Of course. Fries should come with the meal any way." I said. Gray laughed.
"Okay, I don't think the fresh air is doing anything." Gray said, turning us around and heading back home.
"Where are you going?" I asked, shutting my eyes again.
"Back home." He said.
When the two of us arrived at my house, the other girls had already left. I don't know where or why they had gone but a part of was sort of glad that the house was empty. Gray carried me upstairs and tucked me in to bed before grabbing a glass of water to put on my bedside table. I pulled the covers all the way up to my chin and stared up at Gray with hazy eyes. He sat down on the bed and brushed my hair away from my face.
"I don't know what got in to you tonight." He said.
"Could you get me the seahorse?" I asked sleepily.
"Sure." Gray smiled. He headed downstairs for brief moment and returned with the seahorse in hand. He sat back on the bed, pulled back the covers and tucked the seahorse under my arm.
"Thank you." I said, cuddling it close to my chest.
"What are you gonna' call it?" He asked.
"Gray, of course." I said with a yawn, making Gray laugh.
"How are you feeling?" He asked.
"Tired."
"Well, shut your eyes then." Gray smiled and placed his hand over my eyes. I giggled and placed my hand over his.
"I want to tell you something." I whispered, keeping his hand over my eyes.
"Shoot." He said.
"You're one of my favourite people." I whispered. Gray laughed.
"You're one of my favourite people too, Lucy." He said.
x :) x
AN:
Apologies for not much happening in this chapter. I hope you didn't find it too boring. There is a lot more drama to come. I also wanted to say don't start guessing who AnonyBitch is yet, you could very well be wrong ;) Anyways, I hope everyone is well and thank you for reading!