HEY I'M NOT DEAD
You thought lol. Seriously I'm so sorry for the wait. And this chapter isn't even that good. I've just been so busy with school you guys have no idea. And I currently can't use my laptop so I'm limited to the family pc or my tablet and I'd rather my dad didn't read everything I wrote over my shoulder thanks :))
Seriously though I'm back at yall with a nice long chapter (as bad as it may be) it's like 4000 words long and normally I write 2000 max so yayayay
As the sun peeked through the curtains of my bedroom, I was startled awake. My phone vibrated and rang louder than an elephant stampede and ears struggled to adjust to the sudden sound. I could barely bring myself to get out of bed. My hair was tangled against my white pillows and my toes curled beneath my quilt.
My phone continued to ring, and I heard Loke exclaim from the other room. "Would you answer your god damned phone?!" Followed by a slamming door.
I swung my arm and stumbled around blindly, answering my phone and yawning to the person on the other side. "Hello?"
I heard hushed swears and a hesitant sigh before the person on the other side started to talk. "Shit, I'm sorry Lucy. Did I wake you up?"
"Gray?" I whispered. I sat up, rubbing my eyes with my free hand. My voice was raspy and I probably sounded (and looked) like death. "What's going on?"
"Remember when I asked you if we could catch up?" Gray spoke through the phone. His voice was raspy too but rushed and excited. I assumed that he was pretty tired as well. "Well, I said that we should get lunch, but I have an even better idea."
I stayed quiet as I got out of bed. I didn't bother putting my socks back on since it wasn't that cold and stumbled into the loungeroom. Layla sat quietly by herself watching Go Diego Go on Nick Jr, and I found a note on the door of the fridge as Gray continued to speak. "We're playing a show in Hargeon tonight and I wanted you to come and watch us."
The note was short - it only said that Loke had gone to get milk from the general store. I winced at Gray's words, unsure of how going to their concert would end. "I'm not sure, Gray. . ." I muttered. "It's an hour long train ride and I have a daughter to take care of."
Gray moaned on the other side and I could just see the disappointment in his eyes. "I know, I know," he said. "I know that you don't want to see Natsu. You don't have to deny that. But you won't have to talk to him. Just come to see us play and I can bring you backstage and it'll be great." How could he see right through me? "Besides, if you're worried about who would take care of your daughter, I'm sure Mirajane or Loke would. You're still in touch with them, right?"
I nodded, forgetting that he couldn't actually see me. I guess it could be fun. If I just forgot about what happened over the past couple of days, I'm sure I'd enjoy myself. "Yeah," I sighed. "I am. You know what? Fuck it. I'll go."
"Yes! Awesome!" Gray cheered, suddenly his voice wasn't raspy and he seemed far more awake. "The warm up band starts at seven-thirty and we go on at eight. Tell the guy at the door that your name is Lucy and be sure to take some ID. He'll take you to a seat I reserved just for you, 'kay?"
I nodded again, whispering a small yeah and smiling. "I'll see you then." I hung up and put my phone down on the kitchen bench as gently as possible.
Layla gave me a soft stare and tilted her head. "Who was that, mom?"
I picked her up and gave her an Eskimo kiss, hugging her tightly. "Just an old friend. I'm gonna be going out tonight so daddy might have to take care of you."
"Where are you going?" Layla questioned, giving me a suspicious glare that I just know Loke taught her. "Why can't I go?"
"I'm just going to a get-together. And I'm sorry, but you're too young." I pouted, putting her down. "Now, breakfast - pancakes?" Layla nodded frantically and jumped up to the table, waiting patiently for me to start cooking. She always loved to watch me cook.
"Loke, please," I begged, staring at him with big, desperate eyes. "It's just this once! My friend's in town and wants to catch up."
Loke scoffed and threw the TV remote to his side, giving me a stern look. I had been begging him to take care of Layla so I wouldn't have to call Mirajane. But he wasn't having any of it. His suspicions were getting in the way and he just wouldn't give in. "Lucy, you just want to be with one of those punk rockers from Fairy Tail tonight. You're a mother. Your times of partying are over."
"For fuck's sake, Loke!" I exclaimed, becoming very frustrated. "It's one night. I hadn't seen him for five years before yesterday. Please just take care of Layla just this one time and I'll make it up to you."
A silence crept into the room as Loke and I exchanged muted stares. No words left either of our mouths although we both clearly had a lot on our minds. Loke opened his mouth and closed it over and over again before finally letting out a huff of frustrated air. "Just this night. I'll take care of Layla until tomorrow at lunch. If you're not home by then I swear to god..."
"Thankyou!" I interrupted him, jumping onto him and engulfing him with a warm and grateful hug. "You won't regret it! I promise!" I placed a short peck on his cheek as I hurried into my room to call Gray back.
Come on, Gray... pick up... I thought to myself as I held the phone to my ear eagerly. The sun was beaming through the window, and I could tell without looking at the clock that it was past three in the afternoon. If I didn't leave soon I'd be late for his show.
The phone stopped ringing, and an unfamiliar voice rang in my ear. "Hello? Who's this?"
I didn't say anything for a few moments, confused as to who it might have been who answered. I know it wasn't Levy and I knew Erza's voice well enough to know that it wasn't her. Perhaps it was a strange girl Gray had been fooling around with? Or maybe he had a girlfriend?
Why did it matter? It's not like I was into Gray or anything.
"Hello? If you aren't going to say anything I'm going to hang up."
Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I quickly rushed to reply. "No, don't." I chuckled awkwardly. "I'm Lucy - Gray's friend. Is he there?"
The girl huffed as she told me to hold on. I could hear her put down the phone and shuffle away, yelling for Gray and accusingly asking about who Lucy was. I winced, recognising that tone of voice to be jealousy. Yeah, she was probably his girlfriend. Gray's voice replied with a few reassuring confirmations that I was only a friend, and I rolled my eyes, waiting for someone to pick up the phone.
"Lucy?" Gray picked up (finally). "What's up?"
"Who was that girl?" I avoided the question for some stupid unknown reason. "She seemed pretty annoyed that a girl she'd never heard of was calling you."
"Oh... that's Juvia. She's in the band duo group thing who's opening for us tonight." He clarified. "She has a thing for me. Anyway, why are you calling?"
I furrowed my brow, thinking of the name Juvia. It was so familiar... but I just couldn't put my finger on who she was or what band she was in. "Uh... I'm just calling to let you know that I'll definitely be there tonight. Loke said he'd take care of Layla." I didn't let Gray reply as a thought flew through my mind. "Hey Gray... why is it that you didn't seem all that shocked that I had a daughter? When I told you I had a daughter to take care of... you didn't make a big deal about it."
With a reluctant chuckle Gray hissed. "Yeah... Natsu told me. We had a fight and afterwards when we made up he told me about your daughter. I can't remember if he mentioned her name, though..."
"It's Layla... wait, were you guys fighting about me-"
"Isn't Layla your mother's name?"
"Yeah, it was. Answer the question." I ordered, becoming frustrated. I noticed that I had been becoming frustrated very often lately.
"It was just about how you and I talked after the interview." Gray cleared up for me. "Natsu just wanted to know what we were talking about. I guess he's still kind of protective of you."
"Oh..." They had a fight about me? Why would Natsu care about whether or not Gray and I talked? He seemed pretty fed up with me at the interview. He even admitted to lying. Maybe no one else knew it but I sure did. "Well, yeah... I just wanted to let you know that I'll be at the concert. Where's the venue?"
Luckily, I got out of work for that night and the next day. Mondays were the days when I worked at night, so I was always so exhausted the next morning and started work a little late. I was actually very surprised when Jason gave me the time off. Since Fairy Tail came to Magnolia and I showed up in their drama on the news, articles have been blowing up and our rumours section is being filled to the edge of each page. Usually I was the one who wrote out the rumours with Jason's other journalist Stacey, but Jason and Stacey took over for me.
I was pretty sure that they just felt sorry for me. Especially after what happened yesterday. Jason never understood why I avoided doing the interviews with Fairy Tail, but after yesterday's whole incident he told me over the phone that he wouldn't make me do them again. I told him that I didn't think it would matter anymore, but he insisted that I shouldn't have to do them.
The train had been going for at least 50 minutes, and I was surprised I hadn't fallen asleep. It was a 7:15 and if I didn't get to the venue soon, I would have missed out on seeing that Juvia girl perform. Seeing as I always avoided the news about Fairy Tail, I didn't know who the band opening for their tour was.
"Stopping at: Hargeon station."
The automated voice echoed through the train cars and I grabbed my bag in a rush. I was always paranoid that I wouldn't get off the train in time. I never missed the doors, but it didn't hurt to be careful.
The Uber ride to the venue seemed to take forever, even though it was only a five minute ride. The Uber driver seemed to have bigger lungs than a god damned elephant considering she talked for pretty much the entire ride. Even though she didn't stop talking, I couldn't remember her fucking name. I think it was Molly... maybe Milly? Something starting with M. All I really knew about her was that she had some weird kink for cats.
The Hargeon Stadium was huge. I got all emotional thinking about how far the boys had gotten. As mad as I was with Natsu, I couldn't help but give him some credit. He had dreamed of rocking out on the stage of a stadium for so long, and now it was coming true. The boy had talent.
I spotted the closest security guard - a tall, buff man with a bushy beard - and got his attention. "Hey! Excuse me!" His stare was terrifying, even though I'm sure he wasn't trying to me intimidating. I wasn't the tallest girl, so maybe it was the height advantage he had on me that scared me. "Uh, hi... I'm Lucy Heartfilia. Gray, the guitarist from Fairy Tail is my friend and said to talk to-"
"Can I see some identification?" He interrupted me changing his intimidating image to one of passivity. "Also, could you please tell me your profession and the name of any child you may have?"
Wow, Gray went all out with making sure no strange girl got in claiming to be me. "Yeah, sure..." I scrambled through my bag as I searched for my Drivers License. "Uh, I'm a Journalist at Musicians Weekly and my daughters name is Layla." I confirmed as I handed him my ID. He handed it back to me after a few seconds and whistled at another security guard nearby.
"This is Lucy," He said casually, as if he knew that all the security guards already knew it. "Take her to the side barrier spot reserved for her. Make sure Dave knows to take her backstage after the show."
The second guy gave me a quick nod and started walking. I assumed that he wanted me to follow him, and seeing as no one stopped me. I was right.
Seemingly breaking the tension, the guard struck a quick conversation with me. "So, how do you know the guitarist?" He wondered aloud, not bothering to looking at me. "He seemed pretty hung up on the idea that no... imposter tried to get in rather than his friend. You must mean a great deal to him. It is ridiculously expensive to reserve a spot just for one person."
"Gray and I..." My mind wandered as it tried to come up with a suitable way to describe our relationship. "I suppose you could say we were really close before he ran off with Natsu for this band."
"Natsus the drummer, right? You weren't close with him?"
I laughed, nodding although he wasn't even looking at me. "No, no..." I shook my head. "Natsu and I were practically joined at the hip."
"So why have none of their security seen you before?"
"Ask him."
The walk to my 'spot' was long and boring. I observed the few buildings that surrounded the Stadium and noticed the Karaoke Bar not far down the street. Karen's Karaoke. I remember the lady who owned the place wasn't the most creative woman you'd meet. I also remembered that Natsu and I would go there almost every year for our birthdays.
I snapped my head from the humble building. I didn't want to cry. Not here. Not now. Not behind the tough dude.
After about a good five to ten minutes of walking we finally got to an entrance of the venue that seemed awfully sketchy and private. There were security cameras around so I assumed that the area wasn't some secret passage like those ones in Harry Potter.
"Straight down." The security guard startled me after an awkward moment of us staring down the long hallway. "Once you get to the end, there's a huge door. You can't miss it. Go through there and you'll see a tall lanky blonde dude. That's Dave. Tell him you're Lucy and he'll believe you. I'm gonna call him on the walkie-talkie. Got it?" As soon as I nodded, he gently pushed me into the hallway and clicked his tongue, wishing me farewell and good luck.
I swear the hallway went on forever.
He was right - anyone who couldn't see the door at the end of the hallway would have been either blind or incredibly stupid. Through the door I could hear screams and loud rock music. The opening act must have started by now.
Yet again, he was right. As soon as I pushed through the heavy door I saw a tall blonde lanky man. He was nowhere as intimidating as the first guy or the second guy, but he was way taller which kind of scared me. "Uh... Dave?"
He spun around and gave me a warm smile. "Hey sweetheart," he greeted. "You must be Lucy. Gray was right when he said that you'd be pretty."
I felt a blush creep onto my face, setting a mental reminder to give Gray a good slap for that. I knew I wasn't ugly. In fact, I knew that I had the favour of looks on my side. However, I always became so flustered and embarrassed whenever I was complimented. "Thanks, I guess..."
The moment I made it to my spot in the stadium, I regretted coming.
From every direction I had accusing looks thrown my way and glares burn through my brain. I supposed it was because of the drama I had been involved in on the news. A few girls, however, asked me if I was Lucy Heartfilia and we're really nice to me. There were always those types of girls in every fan base - and fucking hell was i glad.
The band (or duo, seeing as it was only two people) opening for Fairy Tail were awesome, and I immediately recognised the band to be Phantom Lord. I had interviewed them before.
The tall, muscular guitarist whose name I believed to be Gajeel spoke excitedly into the microphone. "How's it going Hargeon?!" The crowd screamed and bustled about as excitement rushed through the audience. Gajeel rolled his eyes and chuckled. "I thought you could do better than that! I said, How's it going Hargeon?!"
My eardrums practically shattered as an uproar of screams, cheers and whistles erupted from the audience. Surprisingly, the crowd was a pretty varied mixture of men, women, girls and boys, and that just made it so much louder.
"That's better!" The blue haired girl, who I figured out was Juvia, the girl from the phone earlier, took center stage and grinned to the audience.
"You guys and every other fan out there who has come to one of these shows are the greatest people out there!" She exclaimed, eliciting another uproar from the audience. "Juvia is so incredibly blessed to be up here with Gajeel, looking down on all of your beautiful faces!"
Gajeel then took over. "We only have one song left, and it's called Brand New Moves. This one is pretty different to our normal stuff, but I'm sure you'll like it." The audience agreed enthusiastically with cheers and whistles as Gajeel continued. "Juvia and I are so grateful of the guys and gals of Fairy Tail to have taken us on this journey... so make sure to welcome them with open arms!"
More screams.
Juvia prepared herself behind her keyboard and adjusted the microphone, waiting for Gajeels go before she started playing. When she started singing, I was blown away.
"I'm the lock and you're the key... So open me, come on open me. You can have me anyway you like, yeah. I'm right here so pour yourself all over me, all over me. Treat me wrongly baby, it feels so right, yeah."
Gajeel played the riff expertly as he took over the singing. "Don't it feel like it's been forever? Don't it feel like it's been a while? Don't it feel like it's been forever? Been forever? Been forever?"
They began to harmonize. "Since the last time we danced I learned some brand new moves, uh! Since the last time we kissed I learned a thing or two, uh! Since the last time we danced I learned some brand new moves (I wanna try them on you, I wanna try them on you). Since the last time we kissed I learned a thing or two (I wanna try them on you, I wanna try them on you). Uh, brand new moves... I wanna try them on you. Uh, brand new moves... I wanna try them on you!"
The song was ridiculously catchy, and the audience thought so, too. The fans all sang along to almost every part of the song as Gajeel and Juvia performed like fully fledged professionals.
As they finished the song, the crowd screamed and awed. There was a ten minute long break of which consisted of more glares and the occasional 'can I have a picture?"'
So this is what it's like to be famous by association.
Suddenly, screams boomed through the stadium. I didn't know how it was possible for people to be so damned loud without any type of microphone. It was like Justin Bieber just walked onto stage in his underwear. My ears hummed against the penetrating sound, trying desperately to keep my eardrums from exploding.
The lights around the stadium dimmed and smoke began to spread out across the stage. I had a barrier spot, right at the front, which meant that I would be right in front of Gray, Erza or Levy and surrounded by glaring fangirls. Well at least I wasn't going to get obvious attention from Natsu. I heard somewhere that he was the fan favourite and I supposed that was why I was getting so much negative attention from their fans.
A guitar riff began to play and echo through the stadium, eliciting even more cheers and screams. I heard strings of curses and exclamations from fans, and I'm pretty sure I heard a girl screaming spread my ass cheeks with your guitar, Gray! To put it simply - I was scarred. Scarred and scared.
The silhouette of Natsu revealed itself behind the well lit drum kit that sat toward the back of the stage, and a spotlight flashed to reveal the salmon haired drummer that I had so desperately wanted to avoid. He spun the drumsticks around several times in his hand and bashed down on the drums with more energy than the entire crowd put together, shoving a closed fist into the air. He drummed against the kit with force and energy and his face lit up with an enthusiastic smile.
The guitar riff started, and it was a quick bouncy progression of chords that sounded so painfully familiar it killed me. The red headed bassist lead the other two, Levy and Gray, behind her as she ran onto the stage, playing the riff until they were all in their positions.
Levy got extremely close to the microphone as she belted out the lyrics of the song I recognised to be their single from last year: Misery Business. It was on the radio every bloody day.
"I'm in the business of misery, let's take it from the top, she's got a body like an hourglass that's ticking like a clock! It's a matter of time before we all run out... When I thought he was mine, she caught him by the mouth!"
Natsu surprised me as he sang the next verse, and I looked up st Gray who was right in front of me, who was giving me an enthusiastic, excited smile. "I waited eight long months, he finally set her free. I told her I couldn't lie, she was the only one for me. Two weeks and we had caught on fire, he's got it out for me, but I wear the biggest smile!"
The audience screamed even more than before (which I legitimately thought was impossible) at the harmonies in the chorus. Natsu's voice fit perfectly with Levy's. It made me swoon.
The song finished so quickly I didn't even realise that they'd started singing a new song. They played one more before they stopped and thanked everyone coming out to see them and they thanked Phantom Lord for opening the show for them. They played almost 10 songs, before they stopped for a few minutes and glanced at one another. Gray's eyes wandered to mine.
"What do you guys think about letting one of the amazing fans have a go at one of the instruments?" Gray cheered into Levy's microphone, eliciting another uproar from the crowd. "I think it's a pretty good idea."
Natlsu sounded from the back with a skeptical twang to his voice. "Sounds interesting... who did you have in mind?"
Gray scouted the front few rows and squinted before resting his eyes on me. With a smirk, he winked at me and grinned. "I think the cute blonde right here," he pointed at me. "-should have a go."
ooOoh yeah drama what will happen what is Gray doing stay tuned to find out !
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