Thank you mdelpin, .oO, SilverWhiteDragon, and MissAlliCat for reviewing! I'm so happy that you're all liking the story.

What do you all think the curse is? mdelpin is already questioning it.

Chapter 4

"Let's hang out."

"What?"

"Come to my house tonight."

"Okay."

I laid on my bead, the conversation playing over and over in my mind. I couldn't believe I had invited Gray to my house. It had been very sudden, but I needed to talk to him. I needed to know what happened to his mother, and if that's why he tried to be so physically active. I needed to know why he wouldn't touch anything at lunch, and why he wouldn't drink milkshakes.

I needed to know why he didn't have time for girls.

"Natsu," my mother said, knocking on my door. It was closed, which wasn't normal. "There's a boy here to see you. Is it the new kid?"

I opened my door to see my mother's concerned face. I walked past her and down the stairs. Gray was sitting at the kitchen table, my sister smiling beside him.

"That's nice you and Natsu are friends," she was saying. "I like Wendy a lot. We can all be friends! Won't that be fun? Not for Lucy, though. She doesn't seem to want to be friends with us, only those boys-"

"Sherria," I said. "Why don't you go work on homework?"

"But it's Friday!" she said.

"Then it'll be done early," I said. She got the hint and left, leaving me alone with Gray. Not truly alone, though, because I knew my mother was leaning against the wall in the hallway, trying to figure out why the new boy was in our house.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" Gray asked.

I loved the idea of leaving my house, so I agreed. There was a pretty creek by my house, so I started walking there. Gray probably didn't know where we were going, but he didn't seem to mind.

"You don't eat lunch at school," I said. It wasn't a question, but Gray still answered, "And what did we have today for lunch? And the day before that?"

I didn't understand his question. We never had the same thing at lunch, so I didn't realize what his point was. I answered, anyways, "Today we had cheese pizza, leftover macaroni and cheese, and the usual milk. I don't remember about yesterday."

"We had cheesy potato soup," Gray said. He must have read the confusion on my face because he connected the dots for me. "I don't eat meat products."

"You're a slegan?" I asked in shock.

"Vegan," Gray corrected. "I have been since I was nine. Dad says it's better for my training."

"Was that after what happened to your mom?" I asked. I had planned on bringing up the topic of his mom more sensitively, but I had blurted the question out.

"Do we turn here?" he asked, pointing to the obvious path leading to the woods. I nodded, a little surprised that he guessed where to go.

We walked in silence down the path. I always thought the woods were peaceful, but I was full of anxiety. I felt like my world was changing. Every truth I had previously known was being shattered.

First, no one new ever came to Magnolia. Now, there was a family of five on Strawberry Street that didn't belong. The parents were both divorced for unknown reasons and found love in each other. The father had two children, a boy and a girl. The girl and my sister were becoming fast friends, and the boy was changing other truths. The mother had one daughter, and she seemed to be wanting to get friendly with everyone, probably too much with a lot of boys.

Two, Gray was causing me to feel and not to feel things. He was making me not feel anything for Lisanna anymore, the girl who I was supposed to live Happily Ever After with. He was making me feel things towards him. I shouldn't be feeling anything towards any "him."

The third truth may or may not still hold true. Magnolia has a curse, and I have vowed to one day prove it. It is unknown if the Fullbusters have affected it.

"What are you thinking about so hard?" Gray asked. He had stopped along the path and was facing me. His eyebrows were knit together, which was making his glasses slip very slightly down his nose.

"Do you like boys?" I asked.

Gray started laughing. He didn't laugh in a cute, quiet way. He doubled over, grabbing his stomach. He gasped for air, not able to catch a full breath. My cheeks heated up, and I scrambled to find an excuse for my random question.

The fourth truth is that I was always calm and collected. Lately, I had been blurting out whatever came to mind, mostly around Gray.

"I mean dogs," I said. Gray slowly stopped laughing. "I was going to ask my mom if I could get a dog. I wasn't sure whether to ask for a boy or a girl."

Gray started to blush, his cheeks just pink enough for me to notice. I couldn't imagine why he was embarrassed. "Oh, I used to have a dog," he said. "I only remember her being old. She slept a lot. After she died, we were too heartbroken to get another dog."

I couldn't help but think about how something terrible happened to Gray's mother, yet now Silver has another wife. I cursed myself for thinking of Gray's mother again. I had to force myself not to ask about her again.

"Cool," I said. I continued down the path, hoping that after a few minutes my embarrassment would subside.

"Natsu," Gray said. He reached out for my arm, and the gesture shocked me. I jerked my arm back, which made me stumble over a tree root. I fell hard onto my back, and the momentum flipped me over onto my stomach. I reached my hands out to try to stop myself from flipping further, and another tree root scraped my arm. I winced as I brushed the dirt off.

"Natsu!" Gray yelled. He ran over to me in two strides and dropped to his knees. He helped me sit up and looked at my arms. His eyes were wide, and he was breathing heavier. "Oh my god."

"It's okay," I said. "It's just a scrape. I'll be fine. When we get to the creek, I can wash it off."

My idea seemed to panic him more. "No, we need to take you back home," he said in a rush. "You don't know what kind of bacteria that dirt carried Your arm could get infected."

I chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. "Gray, it's fine. Really, I'm okay. See?" I moved my arm up and down as I spoke. He didn't seem convinced. I grabbed his arm. "Gray, calm down."

"Please just let me take you back home," he said. "I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight unless I get you the best help I can."

Even though we never made it to the creek, I let him take me home. He told me to apply hydrogen peroxide, triple antibiotic ointment, and a bandage on the wound. I told him I would, but I wouldn't do it all over again on Saturday. He didn't like the idea, but he was glad I was at least taking care of it that night.

We reached the end of my driveway, and Gray stopped walking. He said, "I don't like girls. I've never had a boy, so I'm not sure how I feel about them."

I didn't know if we were talking about dogs again, but he left before I could ask.