A/N: Have I told you guys how much I love the horizontal line feature thingy? It literally is a Fanfic writer's best friend. xD

Chapter 18 – The Word That Leads To Rejection

This is normal. A hockey stick in my hand and the ever-present sting of the chilled air. Yet there's this emptiness that pounds on my heart, hitting faster and faster until I feel like I'm going to explode.

I spot the puck come flying towards me and as I rush to it I brace myself for the swing. That is, until I see a held out hockey stick. My momentum makes it impossible for me to slow down, the only thing I can do is twist my body so my shoulder takes most of the impact.

"Fullbuster, snap out of it and look me in the eyes," bellows an all too familiar voice.

I let out a little groan before staring up at my coach. "Sorry, I'm kind of a mess today" I mumble half-sincerely.

Coach Elfman opens his mouth about to go off on a rant, but he somehow resists the urge. "Your passing skills are that of a novice and as a bonus you're making up your own position. What I'm saying is that your playing sucks. Look, I know crap happens but the moment you step foot into the rink, know that the team and I expect 110% from you. You're lucky that practice ends in two minutes. Just don't do this," he motioned to all of me, "ever again. Understood?"

I stand up shakily and am slightly annoyed at the thought of all the bruises that will appear the next day. "Yes mom," I say grumpily and walk off into the locker room to get my gear.

"That was such an epic practice dude," my teammate gleefully says with a slap against my back. "Your performance was a throwback to junior high."

I glare at Sting with an openly annoyed expression. "Whatever, everyone messes up. I seem to remember the game in high school where we lost the championship because you were waving to your girlfriend from the stands."

I hear a snicker at my comment and Rogue pipes up, "Yeah, that was cocky and dumb rolled into one. And for the longest time you denied waving, saying that the shot was clearly impossible to block." He snorts, "Years later you finally admitted it. Mainly because Coach threatened to take away your candy stash if you didn't."

"Ughh you guys won't let me live this one down," Sting complains. "It was just so embarrassing I literally convinced myself that didn't happen. It's like my brain rewrote my memory, but if Yukino said I did it then I guess there's no denying it."

For some reason I frown at his explanation. Especially the word rewrote. I tune out the two bantering with each other as I figure the best way to fit my gear into my bag. That word brings me back to my high school psychology class. It was fascinating, yet I only remember bits and pieces. How humans behave, their relationships with one another- that class surprisingly helped me to gain a new perspective on people in general.

Walking back to my room, a thought begins to creep into my brain. I try to push it down but it crawls back to the forefront even more forcefully. I look at the evening sky, blowing out a light stream of air and marveling at its vivid color. Orange and yellow are prevalent, but a light shade of red seems to dominant tonight. I gather up my courage and head back to change into nice clothes. I shrug trying to shake off the nervous feeling rising in my chest. I guess the only way to know is to ask.

I whistle in amazement. I take one step into the entrance of the Millennial Art Museum and my mind is blown. People don't need to be an art buff to appreciate this place. The stonework is impossibly detailed and the lighting showcases that the walls are gilded with gold. Essentially the building was made with a touch of the supernatural.

I take it in slowly as I try to adjust the scratchy collar near my throat. On more than one occasion I was tempted to cut it off, but every time I am prevented by my mother's haunting words. "If I ever see you dismember the clothes I give, you are never coming out of my house alive."

Slightly shuddering at the thought, I realize I have bigger problems to deal with. I never took into consideration that the MAM would be crowded and well, bigger than the Queen of England's Palace. "It's near to impossible to find her," I think glumly, but at the same time I'm kind of happy. Maybe I won't have to talk to her after all. With a wry smile I turn around to leave until I spot a small head with an uncanny hair shade.

I stop in my tracks, if the girl with pigtails and leather backpack somehow managed to sneak in, then that means a certain red head is the culprit. "Aghh if she's here this is going to make it 100% more difficult. Lately I've been picking her up from school and driving her home because a) both her parents work and b) my practice and her soccer practice ends at the same time. I don't mind it, I get paid for gas money and her home is 20 minutes from campus, but what I do mind is her tendencies to pry and tease and be the most annoying kid in the world all the while making you love her.

Out of the corner of my eye I spot the infamous rule breaker and try to calmly walk towards her. Inside I'm panicking, not knowing how to say what I should've. All the rehearsed lines I was going to say went blank and before sheer panic envelops me I'm face to face with her magnificent brown eyes.

"Can, can- uhh." I cringe at my superior awkwardness. "I mean, hi. Can I talk to you?" I say as confidently as I can.

Over her initial surprise she smirks, "Well you can talk to me."

I grumble under my breath, same ole' sarcastic Erza is still here. What was I expecting. "No really though, it'll only talk 10 minutes of your time."

"I seem to recall you saying something about 'I don't want to be involved in your life,'" Erza says, mimicking my voice. "But whatever, I'll hear you out ice-for-brains

I cringe; she hasn't said that particular pet name since 4th grade. "Let's just find a room that we can talk in without having to shout. And you-" I stare pointedly at Wendy. "Please just take pictures of Natsu and Lucy?" She gives me thumbs up sign and proceeds to ask people if they have seen a guy with weird pink hair.

There is silence as we walk opposite the cloud of people streamlining toward the next exhibit. Finally Erza asks curiously, "So how did you know I was here?"

"I have my ways," I say to her vaguely. But really it was just and educated guess. Natsu clearly had an extra ticket in that pocket of his.

We turn right and find ourselves in an empty room devoid of anything besides the arguably the most famous painting in the world, The Tragedy of Mavis and Zeref. Everyone knows the grand, fatal tale of the two lovers. I silently snort; of course we end up in this room. It seems as if fate enjoys irony.

Closing my eyes for a moment, I say the words that I held back because of pride. "Erza, I am so sorry. I didn't understand your situation, and it made me so confused that I didn't want to. A remark about re-writing today turned my "almighty" perspective 180 degrees. A lot still doesn't make sense, but I do know apologizing does."

Erza takes a step back, "Whoa there buster, I umm, appreciate your apology but I'm really confused and honestly still hugely ticked off." Crossing her arms she continues, "I've been waiting for your answer ever since that day, why are, or where you so agitated about my past?"

I stare at the floor, struggling to come up with a decent explanation. "It's because I thought you were a liar. You've always had these nightmares you could never remember, and when I found you on the floor before our show at The Sub, that was the catalyst to me wanting to know what caused you those nightmares."

My mouth moves quicker and the words just spill out. "When I met Kagura at your old hometown she said the complete opposite of what you remembered about your parents. And then when your house burnt down that's when I lost it and had to ask you for the truth. Then that day I asked you, you said your parents died in a fire but you denied that your house burnt down. You don't even know who Kagura is but I believe all the things she said about you and my patience broke when you denied all of it." I quietly say, "But today I realize I think why you deny it. I don't know the details and forgive me if my assumptions are totally wrong, but I think you literally rewrote some of your sad memories, I just don't know how you did it and I have no evidence. All I know is your not purposely lying or trying to be dramatic and I want to make things right again."

She looks at me one last time and without saying a word or looking back she disappears from my sight.

My hands are shaking and the laugh I try to shake off the hurt with ends up being a sob. A fierce distorted, disjointed sob that I've never experienced before and suspect won't ever feel again.

A/N: I can't believe it's chapter 18 already. Just so you guys know this story only has a few more chapters left. I feel like I shouldn't say that but I don't want to be like "THE END!" suddenly one day. It's just a little heads up. Haha speaking of the subject I thought it would be really funny to put a The End after the last paragraph. But really I as the author would only think it'd be funny. Everyone else would kill me. xD Up next is the shout-out corner.

Thank you for the fave AzureMarie! And thank you to everyone who has followed. :)

BridgeBurn100 - Mmm yeah school is annoying. I mean, can you believe how many doctors there are considering all the extra school they need to go to?

AbsoluteZERO999 - This was totally a Grayza chapter. There wasn't even a mention of Lucy xD

Bird person - Thanks for the heads up on pacing. It's hard to make everything cohesive as sometimes it takes me a while to update.

FairyTailErza12 - lolololol I love your profile pic- it literally made me laugh aloud it's so great. And I'm totally guilty of binge reading too xD