Chapter 15: Scoring Points

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Grimmjow had taken me to a restaurant, and we were sitting out on the patio. Neither of us were hungry, so I was enjoying a milkshake and he was having some sort of drink… an alcoholic drink… He had offered to get me one, but I had adamantly refused, which amused him. He was also smoking, but he was considerate enough to sit downwind and blow the smoke away from me.

I was listening to him as he told me different stories about his friends and his clubs… apparently he owned more than one. The Castle was just the closest and the first one that he had opened. He had a lot of interesting stories. I was so caught up in listening that I was startled when my phone started ringing.

I dug it out of my bag, not missing the way that his eyes narrowed. Renji's face was flashing across the screen. "Sorry, Grimmjow…" I muttered before answering it. "Hello?"

"Hey. Where did you go?" Renji sounded concerned. "Is everything alright?"

I could hear other voices in the background, but not well enough to know who it was or what they were saying. "Yeah. Everything is fine." I felt bad for blowing Renji off… I had promised to hang out with him after school. "I'm sorry for just disappearing."

"Well as long as you're alright, then it's fine." He sounded relieved, which only made me feel worse. "So are you gonna be able to go to the mall with me?"

Dammit… what was I gonna do now? "Actually… is Rangiku nearby?"

"Uh…" He sounded confused, and I didn't blame him. "Yeah."

"Do you mind if I talk to her for a sec?" I was ignoring Grimmjow's glare, which only made him glare harder. Ugh.

"Um… sure. Hang on." Now he sounded even more confused.

The noises shuffled around a bit before Rangiku's voice rang out in my ear. "Hey, Juna!"

I smiled at her cheeriness. "Hey, Rangiku… do you remember what we talked about earlier today? At lunch?"

"Of course!" She gushed. "But where are you? What happened?"

"I'm fine. I'll explain later. Just, uh… it's happening, and… could you maybe help me out, now?" I was very uncomfortable with the way that Grimmjow was watching me. Though, I'm sure that I sounded like a crazy person.

"Oh. Yeah. I got this!" She sounded way more confident than I did. "We'll meet you there!"

"Wait, what?!" Renji yelled in the background.

"We're all going to meet Juna at the mall." Rangiku explained to him, and to whoever else was there with them.

"What?! I asked her to go. Not you!" Renji sounded more upset than I had expected him to be.

"Well we're all going and that's that!" Rangiku snapped back at him.

I heard scuffling and then Renji was back on the phone.

"Juna… you didn't want to go with me?" He sounded so upset… dammit! What was I supposed to tell him?!

"It's not that, Renji! It's that… I have something that I need Rangiku's help with…" I struggled to think of an explanation.

"What can she help you with that I can't?" He grumbled.

"Well…." What could I say? What could I say?

"She's having female issues, Renji! Jeez!" Rangiku screeched in the background.

And suddenly I was mortified.

"What the hell is going on?" Grimmjow finally spoke up, probably because of the look on my face, but also because he was tired of waiting.

It seemed like Renji was horrified as well. He was stuttering, not able to think of anything to say. I couldn't think of anything to say, either. Rangiku's implications were just too embarrassing…

"Juna!" Grimmjow snapped, reaching for my phone. He snatched it away before I could blink and held it to his ear. "Who the hell is this?"

…oh, for fuck's sake.

"Rangiku?" … "The mall?" … "Fine. Whatever."

Wait… Rangiku? Then she had taken the phone back from Renji! Oh, thank sweet ice cream! But wait… what was she telling him?!

He hung up the phone and then gave me a pointed look. "If you had 'female issues' then you could have just told me."

Oh, fuck! I was going to KILL Rangiku! I let my head fall onto the table, wishing that this day would just end already. He laughed, obviously amused by my pain.

"It's okay, babe. I'm not some high school dweeb. I'm a fucking grown ass man." He chuckled, reaching over to pet the top of my head. "Now what do ya need? Tampons? Pads? Midol? Chocolate?"

I could hear the grin in his voice. It made me want to hide forever. And why was he even so open about this? And it wasn't even my time of the month! Fuck Rangiku and her stupid idea of an excuse!

"None of the above. Now can we please just go to the mall so that I can kill Rangiku?" I grumbled, refusing to lift my head from the table.

He laughed again. "Fine… let's go."

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Grimmjow wasn't thrilled about going to the arcade in the mall, so I told him that he could just drop me off if he wanted, but the suggestion only made him scowl unhappily and he continued to walk beside me. When the arcade came into view, Grimmjow wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him. I gave him a questioning look, but he was staring ahead.

"Juna!" Several voices called out. "You're alive!" "You're alright!" "What the hell happened?!"

I was surrounded by friends and questions as soon as we walked through the doorway. I opened my mouth to start explaining, but I was interrupted by another question.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Renji glared at Grimmjow with a disapproving frown.

Ah, jeez… Grimmjow started smirking and was about to answer, but I cut in.

"He gave me a ride here." I answered quickly and simply, removing Grimmjow's arm from my shoulders… well, I tried to, but Grimmjow just held on tighter.

Rangiku pushed her way in between Renji and Rukia to look at Grimmjow. "Gin is on his way… so hopefully you won't be too bored." She grinned happily at him. And then she grabbed my arm. "We need to talk."

"You're damn right we do." I grumbled at her as she pulled me away.

Renji and Rukia were following behind us. I could hear Ikkaku laughing as Yumichika complimented Grimmjow on his hair. Jeez, I had weird friends.

"Why did you leave school early?" Rukia asked immediately.

"Ummm…" Before I could answer, Grimmjow's voice broke in.

"Her uncle asked me to sign her out because he needed to speak to her." He had come up behind me. He leaned his head down next to mine and grinned at me. "You certainly have some inquisitive friends."

I sighed. "Yeah… they get that way when they're concerned." I smiled to try and lighten the tension that had built up.

"Hey, Renji! Let's play some Street Fighter." Ichigo called out as he made his way over.

Orihime was right by his side. "Rukia, wanna play DDR with me?"

"Uhh, sure…" Rukia mumbled, tearing her scrutinizing eyes away from Grimmjow and me.

Ichigo grabbed Shuuhei and muttered something in his ear before dragging him over to us.

"Uh… Grimmjow, is it?" Shuuhei mumbled. "Ikkaku, Yumichika, and I are gonna shoot some pool… wanna join?"

I realized that Ichigo knew that I wanted to talk to Rangiku… so he was trying to get everyone to split up, calm down, and leave me alone. Damn, he was awesome. I gave him a smile before grabbing Rangiku's arm and pulling her to the washroom. I didn't even stick around to see how his plan worked out.

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" Female issues, Rangiku?! What the hell?!" I screeched at her, now that we were finally alone.

She just started giggling. "What? I had to think of something that would get the guys to stop asking questions." She shrugged innocently, as if it were the perfect solution.

I glared at her. "Well your plan only worked on Renji. Grimmjow wanted to know details."

She gaped at me. "Really? What did he say?"

"He said that I could talk to him about that kinda stuff and then he asked if I needed tampons or Midol!" I was blushing just recalling the recent memory.

She started laughing hysterically. "Are you serious?! That's so funny!"

"It is not!" I yelped, completely unamused.

She barely managed to stop laughing. "So what were you doing with him anyway? Why did you really leave school?"

I stopped pouting so that I could answer her. "Will you promise not to tell anyone?"

Her face turned serious. "Of course, Juna."

I sighed. "Okay… the last thing I need is another lecture from Rukia or for Renji to start acting even weirder…" I mumbled, mostly to myself. "Well… Grimmjow picked me up early because I hadn't answered his text messages… since, ya know, my phone had died. And he was worried so he wanted to make sure that I was alright…" I hoped that my explanation didn't make him or even me sound like a crazy person.

She clapped her hands together and started squealing. "Awww! That's so sweet of him! I wish that Gin would do something that romantic!"

She got all starry eyed as she stared off into space, probably imagining Gin riding up on a white horse… I laughed. She was really amusing.

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When we left the washroom we spotted Gin over by the pool table with Grimmjow, Shuuhei, Ikkaku, and Yumichika. Apparently, when Gin had arrived, Yumichika had gladly handed over his place in the game to him, so he was just watching and jeering the others on. Rangiku and I walked over to greet them. I tried not to watch as she wrapped her arms around Gin's shoulders and planted a long, wet kiss on his lips… it was embarrassing, and I wasn't even the one doing it.

"So, babe." Grimmjow wrapped his arm around my waist and grinned at me. "Where's my kiss?"

I blushed at least ten different shades of red. "I, uh…"

"Dammit!" Ikkaku yelled out, upset that he had missed a shot.

I used the distraction as an opportunity to pull myself away from Grimmjow. I grabbed Yumichika's hand and took off towards the air hockey tables. "Come on, Yumi. Let's go play a game."

I could hear Grimmjow chuckling as we walked away.

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Yumichika had won the first round of air hockey, unsurprisingly. He was already winning the second round when I felt a warm hand brushing along the small of my back and then settling on my waist. I didn't even look up, too focused on trying to keep up with Yumichika.

"Grimmjow, I'm busy." I was trying not to smile as the blush spread to my cheeks. And then Yumichika scored another point. "Dammit, Yumi!"

The hand tightened on my waist. "Sorry, didn't mean to break your concentration."

"Maybe if you stepped up your game you could score a point of your own, Juna!" Yumichika called from across the table.

I was putting the puck back into play, but… that voice was not Grimmjow's. I looked up into warm, brown eyes to see a tattooed face surrounded by dark red hair. "Oh." I struggled to catch my breath, completely surprised that he was the one with a hand on my waist. "Hey, Renji."

He grinned at me. "Hey. I wanted to see if you were up for a game of Time Crisis."

"Don't do it, Juna! He cheats!" Keigo popped up out of nowhere… I didn't even know that he was here…

Renji punched him on the top of the head and he was down for the count. "Will you shut up?!"

"You'll have to ignore him, Juna. He's just a sore loser." Mizuiro rolled his eyes before going back to typing on his phone.

"How do you cheat and beat someone at a co-op game?" I questioned.

Everyone looked at me for a second, blinking as they stared.

"Whoa." Keigo stood up from the floor and continued to stare.

"Did you just say co-op?" Yumichika asked.

I shrugged. "Yeah. So?"

Keigo elbowed Renji. "Dude… she knows about games…"

Renji elbowed him back, but he was harsh and it sent Keigo to the floor again.

"I just said co-op!" Their weird behavior was starting to get a little aggravating.

Renji shook his head. "Yeah… so you wanna play?"

I shrugged again. "Sure. Just let me finish this game with Yumi."

"You mean you have to finish getting your ass kicked by Yumi!" Yumichika corrected, flipping his hair over his shoulder and giving his devilishly handsome smile.

I glared at him, trying not to laugh. "You jerk! I'm gonna win this time! You'll see!"

And I actually did win. But only because Renji would block the puck every time Yumichika was about to score. Yumi bitched about us cheating, but he let it slide since he thought that it was cute. When the game was over, Renji dragged me over to the Time Crisis game.

"Ya ready?" He grinned at me.

I giggled at the look on his face. "Yeah."

He hadn't been counting on me to be any good, I guess… because he started freaking out when I was scoring higher than him. Keigo just about keeled over when we beat the game and my score was better than Renji's. I was laughing at the gaping, surprised looks on their faces. And then Rangiku grabbed my wrist and pulled me over to DDR.

"Come on, Juna! I wanna play something fun!" She squealed as she dragged me along.

I was beginning to wonder if anyone around here was able to walk normally. It seemed like I was always getting dragged along somewhere… and everyone else was, too… either that, or they were pulling someone… I guessed it was just normal for them.

We had to wait for Rukia and Orihime to stop playing for our turn… and Rangiku picked out Barbie Girl, of all things. I hopped up onto the platform and started dancing along with the arrows, swaying around with the music and even singing along. I almost started laughing when I heard Rangiku singing with me. And Rukia and Orihime started cheering so loudly that they drew everyone else's attention. When I realized that we had an audience, I started blushing, but I kept at it.

I'm a Barbie girl in the Barbie world

Life in plastic, it's fantastic

You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere

Imagination, life is your creation

I was laughing so hard as I sang along and danced the steps that my stomach was hurting. I had never realized how obscene the Barbie Girl song actually was! And when I caught sight of Grimmjow smirking at me I nearly died.

You can touch. You can play.

If you say I'm always yours.

OMG. Why were there so many people watching?! Grimmjow winked at me suggestively and I ended up missing some steps before I was able to recover. Damn, I hoped that no one noticed how horribly that I was blushing. Eventually the song ended and I hopped off of the platform.

Rangiku wrapped her arms around me excitedly. "That was so much fun!"

"Wow, Juna. You have an awesome voice." Ichigo complimented me.

I started blushing harder. "Thanks." I mumbled back at him.

"Seriously. Great job…" He kept going, and I just felt embarrassed.

"Hey! What about me?! I was singing, too!" Rangiku pouted indignantly.

Ichigo deadpanned at her. "Yeah, and you sounded like a dying cat."

She started freaking out and I had to hold her back to keep her from clawing his eyes out.

"Hey! We should go to the new karaoke bar in town!" Renji said as he helped me tame Rangiku.

"I'm down. How about tomorrow night?" Ichigo seemed happy with the idea.

And then everyone started talking about how exciting it sounded. Except for maybe Ikkaku… he was kinda bitching about it. But everyone else seemed excited. And before I knew it, everyone had agreed to go after school tomorrow… even Grimmjow and Gin. And Grimmjow had agreed for me.

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The song lyrics used in this chapter are from "Barbie Girl" by Aqua.