*MAJOR CHANGES TO THE STORY BEGIN IN THIS CHAPTER*
Chapter Seven: The First Step
"The first time I went to talk to the detectives was nerve-wracking. I wasn't ready to hear them say that they were pursuing me, or that they thought I had anything to do with their deaths. I wouldn't have been surprised though… that's the reason why I made myself unrecognizable. However… the moment they told me this could actually be a murder made me freeze. They told me that someone tampered with the breaks, according to Crime Scenes Unit. It was a targeted hit, from their perspective. I never thought this could've been anything more than a terrible accident… but apparently… there was a large possibility that it wasn't."
"Wait…. what?" Lyon stated in disbelief after hearing what Lucy had to say through the screen. He faced Sting, who looked equally as stunned and in disbelief. "There's no way this was a murder, right? You were there!"
"We were there at the hospital…" Sting sighed, as he faced down on his table. "I don't know what happened to the car." His hand pushed away the hair in front of his face, as a single tear trickled down his face. "We never stayed to hear how Lucy was doing…"
Lyon's initial disbelief turned into immediate guilt after hearing what Sting had said. The whole class' attention was steered towards Sting, whose single teardrop made an imprint on his cheek. "She was a coma and we never knew. We didn't even try."
Unbeknown to Sting, he wasn't the only one shedding a tear for Lucy… as Natsu sat quietly in his seat, listening to every word she had to say.
...
"Murder…?" The sheer terror the word gave Lucy was enough to paralyze her for a moment. Unaware of the detectives' concerned glares towards her, Lucy began to shake. A cold gust of thoughts encompassed around her stale mind - unwilling to settle down. Murder… with each repetition came more terror. Lucy clasped her hands together, and inhaled sharply - in an attempt to calm herself. She drew her eyes towards Detective Benson - who's look of disturbance locked with her own eyes. Her lips quivered as she attempted to part them. "...murder."
"I know this is hard…" Detective Stabler released a lengthy sigh while breaking off eye contact, "... but there is evidence of probable cause. We can't rule this out yet"
Lucy shook her head slightly as Detective Stabler's notion. Her eyes began to blink at a rapid pace, and her breath became stiff. "Probable cause…?" Her question was met with a silence from both detectives, as tension build inside the interview room. When neither wanted to make eye contact, Lucy broke her silence. "What do you mean by that? Are you still telling me that you're not certain?"
"We're not." Detective Benson concluded, with a voice tainted with regret and disappointment. Lucy's eyes twisted towards her, right after she uttered the words. "But I can promise you… we're going to do everything in our power to find out."
"But in the meantime," Detective Stabler interrupted, "we need to ask you some questions. About you, your friends, and the relationship you had with them."
"Am I a suspect?" Detective Benson and Stabler were taken aback with Lucy's question, whereas the one who delivered the question remained unfazed. A look of exhaustion and depression took place on her face, as she waited for a response from either one of them.
"We told your grandfather, that you were never a suspect to begin with." Detective Benson reassured Lucy as she placed her hand on her shoulder. Lucy tilted her head towards Detective Benson, however, she didn't look at her. She couldn't.
"Does that matter?" Lucy's voice echoed irritation. "Everyone else thinks so."
Detective Benson's and Stabler's look of puzzlement irritated her even further, with her hands forming into fists. "Look at me. I can't show my face to anybody. I can't talk to anybody. The school that I grew up in accused me of murder. Mainstream media is also accusing me of murder - cause they got a hold of that stupid rumour." Tears began to form inside Lucy's tinkling eyes, as her look of sheer venom pierced through the detectives. "Sometimes, I feel like my grandfather can't even look at me without assuming the worst."
"That's not true -"
"So what do I do?" Lucy interrupted Detective Benson's attempts to deteriorate her thoughts, "I go into hiding. I change my hair so no one can look at me and see the girl that was able to survive a horrific car crash - the only one to survive the car crash. At certain moments, I can't blame them. They have a point, don't they?"
"Lucy, please -"
"But that doesn't matter." Lucy slid over Detective Stabler's sentence. "None of it matters. I lost my sisters, and the world thinks I had something to do with it. Accident or not, my name will never be cleared. I'll always remain the predator under the eyes of everyone who knows us - and what happened that night. And I'm going to have to find a way to deal with it - even if it means destroying who I used to be. I'll do that."
Despite their previous attempts to comfort Lucy, neither Benson or Stabler could say anything to demote Lucy's suffering, and pain.
…
Lucy's eyes remained fixated onto the coffee cup she held on the tip of her fingers. The coffee shop was never busy during the mid-afternoons, but the relatively quiet environment where the outside tables were caused her thoughts to spread like wildfire. The word remained imprinted in her thoughts… murder. The coffee cup remained over half-full, however, Lucy pushed it away. Her hands grasped her hair, wanting to shake herself out of the misery, only to little success. Tears had been welling in her eyes and pooling down the entire time she had been sitting down, as her now-cold coffee cup continued being neglected.
Pulling out her wallet, she pulled out a 5000 yen bill to leave on the table. As she was about to close her wallet, and leave the shop, a familiar sound erupted her seething thoughts. "Are you okay?"
Startled, Lucy vigorously wiped her tears, and turned around to face whoever it was that spoke to her… and to her utter and complete despair, the salmon-haired boy she shared an intimate night with was standing right behind her, with a expression of concern.
"Natsu!" Lucy said, with a slight alarmed tone to her voice. "What… what are you doing here."
"I was just going home, when I saw you here… crying." Natsu said, concerningly, as he made himself go closer to Lucy. His eyes tried to align with hers, but Lucy's eyes didn't meet him back. "Luce, what's wrong."
Continuing to wipe her tears rapidly, Lucy shook her head while giving off a disingenuous chuckle. "Nothing… nothing, I'm fine."
"You're lying to me. Something's wrong. What is it?" Natsu repeated his question, obviously not buying into Lucy's deception.
"Nothing's wrong -
"Come on Lucy, it's pretty obvious that -
"I said I'm fine!" Lucy snapped, frustrated with Natsu pestering her. Taking a step back, Natsu's guilt-filled eyes fell onto the ground… almost in shame and embarrassment. Taking a deep breath, Lucy's anger morphed into disappointment, as she put her hand on Natsu's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Natsu. I really am."
Looking up, their eyes finally made contact with one another. Taking her hand off of his shoulder, Lucy wiped another streaking tear, and presented a small smile towards Natsu. "I just… had a rough afternoon." However, as Lucy tried walking away before she embarrassed herself in front of him by bawling her eyes out, Natsu stopped her by grabbing her hand. Looking back at him, Lucy noticed a change in his facial expression - his eyes seemed caring, instead of badgering.
"There's no way I'm letting you go while you're looking like that."
...
"Where are you taking me?"
"It's a surprise." Natsu chuckled, as he kept Lucy's eyes covered as he led her down a sidewalk. There weren't a lot of voices in the sidewalk, but Lucy could hear distant, closed off chatter and laughter. From the moment when Natsu picked her up from the coffee to now, she had absolutely no idea where Natsu was leading her. Lucy could feel her feet slowing down, and after a few seconds, Natsu peered his hands off of Lucy's eyes. Opening them slowly, Lucy looked up in front of her… to find the name Cafe Crema House on a sign above a large door.
"You took me away from a coffee shop… to go to another coffee shop?" Lucy said as she turned to Natsu, puzzled.
Smiling deviously, Natsu grabbed both Lucy's shoulders. "It's not just any coffee shop." He turned Lucy around, giving her a gentle nudge on her lower back. "Come on… go inside."
Letting out a soft giggle, Lucy obliged to Natsu's commands, and opened the door. However, once she did, she was greeted into a different universe. It wasn't just a coffee shop - it was a lounge. A sophisticated, chic lounge area where coffee lovers were enjoying each others company. But when Lucy turned to her left, she saw a stage. On and around it, she saw musicians with guitars and microphones setting up for a show. Blinking her eyes several times, a smile full of excitement and delight spread across Lucy's lips. It was the first time she had seen a scene like this in months.
"Cafe Crema House is having their annual open-mic day today." Natsu said, while walking up just behind Lucy, who kept staring at the setting in front of her. "And judging by the look on you face… I was right to bring you here."
Turning her head to the side, Lucy beamed with delight towards Natsu, and he took her to one of the empty tables at the back of the coffee house. A guitarist and singer were about to perform on the stage, and they began setting up the microphone on the stand. Lucy and Natsu had gotten their coffees, when the guitarist began to strum a few notes. "Thank you for sticking around, everyone! We are back, with two more songs to perform. Up now, I have the beautiful Sara Fujioka, singing her last song for the day!"
The young woman and the guitarist seemed to be in tune as the notes began to hit. The vibe in the coffee house, with music lovers joining together to celebrate the art and what it represents, was mystifying. Lucy was drawn into the song, having it being one of her favourites.
I just wanna see
I just wanna see how beautiful you are
You know that I see it
I know you're a star
It also used to be one of her favourite songs to play on the guitar.
Where you go I follow
No matter how far
If life is a movie
Oh you're the best part
It had been just over two months, but for Lucy, this was what she needed. Getting back to the core of who she was, was what she needed for her to forget what happened this morning. She might have damaged her guitar, and turned her back towards music… but her love for it will never go away. Breathing in and out deeply, she turned to Natsu, who had also been looking at her as he smiled. "Thank you for this. I can't tell you how much this means to me."
"You don't have to." Natsu said softly, as he sipped his cappuccino. "I can already tell."
Responding with a shy smile, Lucy ducked her head down, trying to avoid eye contact. "You know... I really didn't think we'd talk again."
"You did?" Natsu asked with a hint of surprise to his voice. He leaned back on his chair, and crossed his arms, which made Lucy's eyes hard as steel. "What made you think that?"
"Isn't that what rebound sex is?"
"You thought that was rebound sex?"
"Did you think it was rebound sex?"
Not able to say anything, Natsu chuckled. Lucy pushed herself closer to the table, and placed both her hands under her cheek. "Cat got your tongue?"
Shaking his head, Natsu uncrossed his arms and put them on the table, while looking at Lucy directly in her eyes… making her heartbeat accelerate. "No… I didn't think it was just rebound sex."
Stunned, Lucy couldn't find any words to respond to him. Their eyes remained fixated upon one another's.
If you love me won't you say something
Natsu's eyes gazed at Lucy's hand, which was now on the table, next to her coffee cup. With his own hands quivering, he slowly started reaching for it. Realizing what he was trying to do, Lucy's hands also began to shake.
If you love me won't you
Love me, won't you
With those last few words and runs, the song was over, and the audience gave a well-deserved cheer to the duo on stage. The cheer interrupted Lucy and Natsu, who, in turn, also clapped for the musicians.
As the woman was walking down from the stage, another person ran up to the stage, and began whispering into the guitarist's ear. A few moments later, he stepped in front of the microphone. "Guys, I just got word that my last singer cancelled her appearance last minute." Groans and words of disappointment filled up the room quickly - Lucy couldn't help but feel a dissatisfaction alongside them. "Does anyone know the lyrics to Thinking 'Bout You by Frank Ocean? If not… we're going to have to end the Annual Open Mic Day early."
Without thinking before saying anything, and not processing what she was doing, Lucy's hand shot up straight in the air. The guitarist, the audience, along with Natsu all stared at her, astonished.
"I know the lyrics."