what should i wear for prom

Chapter Five

Fantasies, realities

"Oh yeah, and what's that?" Sting shouted in my face, and I looked around to see if we were making a scene. It looked like most of our classmates were already gone, and the ones that were still here weren't even interested in the little dispute going on here.

"Lucy is mine."

He chuckled at my innocent remark, and I watched him wipe a tear out of the corner of his eye.

"That's what this is about?" He raised a brow, "Seriously?" Waving his hand to usher me away, he mumbled, "I don't have time for this."

I placed my hand on the seat of his motorcycle. "I don't think you understand." He restrained from placing the helmet on top of his head, and looked at me with full determination. "Lucy. Is. Mine." I repeated, watching him shove away my hand from the seat.

"Says who?" He asked, and I opened my mouth to retort. But for real though, I didn't have any evidence that Lucy was mine. She was single, and a lot of guys might want to be with her. Sting might only be one of the many standing in line for the all-you-can-date Lucy buffet. My mouth closed because of the lack of excuse, and I realized that there was only one thing I could do.

Threaten.

"If I see you anywhere near her again," My finger jammed in his chest, "You're dead."

"Ooh," he shook, "I'm trembling in fear!"

And before I had enough time to think of a comeback and reply, he got on his bike and drove away, literally leaving me in the dust.

I has spent the last couple of hours desperately trying to devise a plan to make my wish a reality. I had gone over a lot of website with dating tips, read some female magazines about flirting my mother had left behind for some unknown reasons, googled 'how to force someone to love you', read every single article on WikiHow, prayed to all gods imaginable, and even consulted the local tarot-card-inspecting-lady-thingy. But alas, I am with not a single result.

Turns out there's no such thing as a love potion, even though Gray swore he heard Juvia say she bought one at a strange pawn shop sometime earlier this year, but he had no memory of what had happened after that, and the lady in question said that the store owner had left the town the next day, so I was stuck.

Sitting in my living room, with various notes sprawled on the floor, I continued planning my next move. Should I beat his ass? Should I lock him in the male bathroom? Should I get him into trouble with one of the teachers? Should I hire a hitman? Killing him myself sounds cheaper, though. But I'd have to get rid of the body. I guess dumping it in the river is reasonable enough, but since I'm planning on cutting him up alive, it might be a bit uncomfortable for children to come across floating hands, livers, and especially buttocks in the river. Or maybe—

I was interrupted by the phone ringing. Good, since my fantasies were getting a bit out of hand. I answered, hearing Gray's voice on the other side of the line.

"Dude, you won't believe what's going on." He said, the second after I said hello.

"What?" I acted interested, even though it was just another story of how he stripped somewhere in the middle of town, had no idea where his clothes were, and was going to make me drive all the way there with a bag of my own clothes.

"Guess where I'm at." He sounded quite amused, and I got interested.

"A whore house?" I laughed, but the tone of his voice indicated that he was serious.

"Get your panties out of your ass and listen," I leaned even closer to the phone, as if it would connect me to the happening, "I'm at the book store downtown, the one in the Floria City Mall. You know, the small one, next to the 'Riffen' Coffee shop?"

"Okay, I know which one you're talking about," I mumbled, not at all sure where this conversation was going.

"Well, I had to get some textbooks for school, and some romance novel shit for my mother, and guess who I ran into."

"No!" I shouted in disbelief, "Lucy?"

"Yeah dude. And I thought she was there to look for books. Only after she offered to put the books in a bag did I realize that she actually works here!" He yelled, and I almost stopped breathing. How did I not know this? Lucy? My Lucy? Working at a book shop? Why is this information new to me?

"Anyways," Gray kept on going, "We talked for a while, and it turns out she only started working here today," he answered my unspoken question, "She's nice."

"Stay the fuck away from her." I let out an animalistic shriek, and he laughed.

"I said she's nice, not 'I'm planning on hitting that'." Gray assured me, "And I've been standing here awkwardly pretending that I'm looking at pencil sharpeners while we've been talking, so I kinda have to go and be normal now."

"Thanks dude."

"Whatevs."

Seven and a half minutes later, I'm in the same store Gray told me about. I parked my motorcycle outside the mall, and went in as fast as I could, as if there was some sort of time limit. And sure enough, I felt her presence the moment I entered the shop.

"Can I help you?" I heard her cute voice from behind some shelves. Taking a deep breath, I masked my voice.

"Do you have any books with a lot of romance?" I asked, making my voice sound deeper than usual.

I heard her walking in my direction, and hid behind the shelves, walking away from where she's standing.

"Of course we do," she replied, "would you like me to show you some? I've read a big deal of romance novels, so I can recommend you which I think are the best ones."

"On second thought," I step further away from her, watching her shadow as she wanders around the big shop, looking for me. "I don't need a romance novel."

I walked out from behind the shelf I was using as a hiding spot. Her back was turned to me, and I inched closer without making a single sound. Catching her by surprise, I gently laid both of my hands on her shoulders, spinning her so that she'd face me.

"Because you're the only love story I need."

She was so surprised she couldn't even understand what's going on.

But DAMN though, was I SMOOTH OR WHAT?

She blinked in confusion a few times, before finally regaining consciousness, and shoving me away from her. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Here we go.

"Well, I was walking around with my friend, when I saw you from the window, and I just had to come in."

"You were walking around, huh? Not stalking me?" She tapped her foot on the floor, eyeing me carefully.

"Yep. Just walking around." My hand shot up to scratch the back of my head.

"Uh-huh. So where's your friend?"

CURSES!

SHE'S TOO GOOD.

"Uh? Did I say friend? I meant… trend. Yes. I was walking around in trend. You know, trendy. Yep. That's me. The trendiest boy in town. Trendsetter! Woo!" I'm cringing so hard right now.

She shook her head in disbelief, but didn't question me further. "Whatever…"

She stepped behind the counter, taking out some sort of notebook where she was writing down something about the way the books were sorted, and planning out how to sort the ones that are yet to arrive.

"Why are you still here?" She asked, not even bothering to look up.

"I can look around, right?" I replied with a question, and she brought her head up to look at me. This time, I was right.

"Yeah, I guess." She mumbled, returning back to her writing.

My eyes scanned the place.

The shop was empty except for the two of us. There were a lot of shelves, books, and all kinds of materials for school. Gliding from the pens, notebooks and colorful markers, my eyes trailed back to her. I leaned on the counter, not being able to stop myself from studying her. I watched her expressions change as she wrote, furrowing her brows when she made a mistake, and smiling lightly when she finished something correctly. Her eyes were focused on the task at hand, taking everything she came across with seriously. She was stunning, even while wearing simple light-blue jeans, and a white shirt with the store's peach-yellow blazer for their staff. Saying that she was hot would be an understatement, because this girl is the goddess of the female body. It took me quite a bit of persistence not to jump her.

I especially loved the way her hair waved down her shoulders, but she didn't even notice how it fell over her eyes. Not even aware of what I was doing, my hand reached to tuck one of her blonde strands behind her ear. I snapped back into reality when I felt the softness of her cheek, because I had somehow managed to move my hand to rest on it. I couldn't stop my thumb from slowly running up and down her cheek, marveling at how soft her skin was.

"What are you doing?" The cold look in her warm eyes stopped me in my tracks.

"You said I could look around. I never said I was going to look at books, though."

She slapped my hand away, and started shouting something about manners and physical contact and something about a restraining order. But the only thing my mind could process at the moment, was the faint tint of pink spreading across her face.

"Are you blushing?" I asked abruptly, watching her stop her rant, and blush even more. It's like all the blood in her body rushed to her cheeks. "You're blushing."

"No, I'm not." She slammed her foot on the floor, which reminded me of a small child. Her hands were balled up in small fists on each sides of her body, and she had an adorable expression of anger plastered on her reddened face.

"I have to go," I mumbled, watching her eye me in confusion. "I can't stand this." She raised a brow.

I slammed the door open, turning around one last time before leaving, "You're just too cute."

I stared at my hand. The very same hand that had cupped Lucy Heartfilia's cheeks, and touched her hair. I had touched her multiple times before, like when she shook my hand the first day of school, and one time when I saw her in a restaurant and went to say hi, but it never had such an impact on me. I guess those were the times I liked her, but now I'm 100% sure that I love that girl. I couldn't get enough sleep last night, imagining innocent and not so innocent scenarios of me and her, which I'm sure will never happen, but still.

"Will Natsu Dragneel stop reading the future from his palm, and answer the question?" The teacher suddenly snapped, reminding me that I was in class, still staring at my hand like a maniac.

"Uh, Napoleon Bonaparte." I shouted.

The teacher blinked once. Twice. "This is algebra."

The laughing of students almost muffled the sound of the bell ringing, but I heard it, running away as fast as I could. Just what is this girl doing to me? Is she some sort f sorceress? Am I under a spell? Or is she—

My face collided with the rough surface of a door being slammed against me. Counting all the stars in the sky, I rubbed my nose in an attempt to loosen up the pain, when the blackness from my vision cleared and I saw the person I hated most right now.

"You." I muttered, narrowing my eyes as I watched Sting stare back at me.

"Sorry for, you know, making your face even uglier than it is." A grin stretched out on his smug face, and it took all the willpower I had not to throw him out of the window.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I spat out.

"Uh, I go to school here?" He deadpanned, and I could only watch as he rolled his eyes and turned away. Good luck with whatever it is you're doing. I'd like to stay and chat, but I have to go meet up with Lucy."

Just the mention of her name flared up my insides. "What did you say?"

His smirk widened, "You heard me, pinky. I go to the same reading club as her, where I'll be staring and flirting all day long."

"What the hell is a reading club?"

"It's for people who's I.Q. is higher than seven, so you wouldn't understand."

And I punched. I punched hard. But instead of Sting's precious face, my fist collided with someone's hand, and I turned around to see who had meddled with my fight.

Gajeel.

"Listen here you fucking ken doll," he spat out in Sting's direction, "If I see you around Natsu one more time, I'm going to clean out every single toilet in this building with your freaking Barbie face, you got that? I don't care if you're next to him on purpose, or just standing behind him in line in the cafeteria, but if I see you next to Natsu, you won't live to tell the tale." Sting's grin was wiped out in mere seconds, "and you've seen me wipe the floor with your buddy Rogue, so you know this isn't an empty threat."

I watched Sting stare at him.

"Now beat it." Gajeel shouted, motioning his head to the left, "Scram."

Sting didn't need to be told twice, and walked away with the little pride he had left.

"Woah," I shouted excitedly, "Thanks dude. I was just about to—"

The same hand that had stopped me from hitting Sting had now slapped me on the left side of my face.

"Are you fucking insane?" He shouted, "Do you want to get suspended? Because if you do, I guarantee you that blonde chick will avoid you like the plague. Trust me." His expression was sincere.

Was he speaking from experience?

"Yeah, thanks. I'm glad to see you're back." I mumbled, feeling a bit bad to even think about acting that way. Gajeel saw that I was mentally beating myself up over it, and sighed.

"Third room down to the left." He replied, "Don't ask me how I know."

The sadness drained from my face as I rushed down the hall. Whatever a reading club was, I was determined to join it!

Author's Notes:

Contrairy to popular belief, no, I am not dead.

Before you kill me, just let me explain myself... actually, I got nothing. Go ahead and do it. END ME. I am a lazy asshole who will procrastinate breathing if I can. Why am I like this...

anyways, putting aside the fact that I haven't updated in ages, how've you been? Anything new going on? Where are you planning to celebrate new years? Am I the only one glad that 2016 is finally ending? This hell of a year will be over soon, and now that the bar is set so low, 2017 can not fuck up so bad xD

So yeah, here's the next chapter, hope u like it. I'm actually writing and uploading this on my phone because my parents think I'm sleeping (its 3am here and i have to get up at 6..) so there will probably be a lot of mistakes that i will correct some other time.

again, sorry for being a lazy douche, love u all ❤

~With keys, through flames! Aye!~