I look into the mirror, making sure to get all the traces of me crying off my face. The only thing left was my puffy red eyes, with glints of amber peeking through. I sighed thinking about how the conversation would play out with Jace, but when I tried to figure that out, my thoughts drifted to how worried Natsu's face was when he saw me crying. No one had ever looked at me like that before, my face heated up. I shook my head violently and started walking out of the bathroom. When I rounded the corner Jace wasn't there, I started feeling panicked and then I heard someone call out to me.
"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" I looked over to see Natsu sitting cross legged against the wall outside of the bathroom. A blonde girl, holding some rather risque undergarments, looked up at me and glared. If she was wearing any less clothes she might be arrested for indecent exposure, and what's with that look she's giving me? I just shake the thought from my head and look back to Natsu who stopped in front of me with a cautious and worried look on his face. I just nod and smile.
"Y-Yea" my voice cracked, I started to cough clearing the last of the tears from my throat. I smiled at him awkwardly. "Lets just say today isn't my day."
"You're Lavender right? I've seen you around during my classes at the college." My face warmed up, he noticed me? But I'm so average I didn't think anyone would ever take notice in me. "Here" he reached into his pocket and pulled out some eye drops. I looked at them in confusion. "Your eyes are still red from when you were crying" He gave me an apologetic look.
"O-oh." I paused taking the eye drops from him. I fidgeted for a second "T-thank you Natsu." I weakly replied. He beamed at me with a huge smile.
"So you do know me." I nod my head as a reply.
"Its hard not to, when you run around campus, and some guy in his boxers is chasing you yelling your name and slurs of insults." I giggle, dropping a few eye drops in my dark brown eyes and handing them back to him.
"That nudest is so weird, he's always starting shit with me." He said, with an impish smile on his face. I giggled, then someone from his group of friends called out to him.
"Yo Pyro! You better not be talking about me!" The guy comes out from the group and he's in his boxers! I gape at his stripped body. Thank god he has boxers on, I think to myself. He was also well toned, he had black hair and eyes to match. He stood there in an intimating stance, like he was ready for a fight.
"Grey your clothes." A red headed woman says, in an exasperated voice.
"Crap! Not again!" He dashes off. I just kind of stand there in complete confusion. After a couple of minutes in an awkward silence, I heard an all to familiar voice.
"Lav! There you are." I took a deep breath and swallowed the lump growing in my throat. Jace rushed up to me. He gave Natsu an empty stare, then turned back at me. "Are you ok? When you didn't come out for awhile, I got worried." He hugged me tightly.
"Yea I'm fine. I just really had to go." I backed up and glanced at Natsu with a look that he understood all to well. Don't let him know I was crying or I'll kill you. He just nodded and smiled at Jace.
"Hi! I'm Natsu, we're in the same college." Natsu extends out his hand. Jace just looks at it with a blank stare.
"I'm Jace, nice to meet you." He says in a monotone voice, turning and starts pulling me towards the exit, ignoring Natsu's extended hand.
"Hey Lavender! If you want we could hangout tomorrow or something." Natsu piped in as Jace was dragging me towards the exit. I stop and look back at him with a surprised look. His cheeks are flushed, his arms where stretched behind his head, and I could see the nervousness in his eyes. "I mean as an apology for knocking you over earlier." Natsu looked down and scuffed his shoe against the floor. I felt Jace's grip tighten around my wrist. What's his problem, it's not like it'll be a date or anything... Or will it? I smile at Natsu, warmth spreading across my cheeks.
"Definitely! Here," I shook off Jace's tight grip and held my hand out. Natsu kind of stared at it for a minute. "Let me see your phone, I'll give you my number." He smiled and handed a black Nokia flip phone to me. "Wow this is old!" I slapped my hand across my mouth. That was rude, nice one Lav. "Sorry." I mumble through my hand. Natsu blushed and looked down.
"It's okay" He chuckles "But it's the only phone that won't break on me." I type in my number in the contacts and hand the phone back to him.
"It is pretty sturdy" I give him a reassuring smile. "Go ahead and shoot me a text just to make sure I got my number right." I smile at him handing his phone back. He's so cute, he's like a kid in a man's body.
I blush at the thought and heard the door swing open and slam close behind me. Jace had stormed out looking very upset. What's wrong with him. I think to myself. I look over to see Natsu concentrating hard on the screen of his phone. He texts so slow, I thought to myself, giggling at the sight of him struggling.
"There!" He smiles with the look of achievement at his screen and clicks the send button. A few moments later my phone chimes, I pull my phone out of my pocket, and check it. "I think ur rlly cute" My face goes bright red and I click my screen off. I look up at him in pure shock. He has a big cheeky grin on his face. "It's better than getting slapped!" He sticks his tongue out and winks. "See ya tomorrow!" I stand there feeling like I got hit with a mental ton of bricks, as he walks back to his group of friends. The blonde girl wraps her arm around his and smiles at him then looking back at me with what almost looked like pure hatred. I shake it off and walk out to find Jace, but he wasn't there. My phone buzzed again. Speak of the devil himself.
"I had to get home. I'll see you later. Bye." He really is upset with me for some reason. I just shrug my shoulders. I didn't really care, I should be completely distraught about the thought, but I'm just not. I looked back at my messages.
"I think ur rlly cute" The text on the screen made my stomach knot up and I smiled at it. Save contact, name, N-a-t-s-u, save. There we go, all done. I stared at my phone for a second smiling at the text one last time. I start heading for home.
It was sunset, and it was finally getting cooler out. There was no noise on the street, the wind had stopped as well so the only noise was my soft footsteps on the pavement.
I started getting frustrated. What gives Jace the right to be upset? So a guy was talking to me. It's not like Jace likes me anyway. My throat chokes at the thought, and I stop moving. I still like Jace even though Natsu was flirting with me. It's not like I'll stop hanging out with him, even if something was to happen between me and Natsu. I look up at the cerulean sky that was starting to turn into hues of pinks, oranges, and reds for what felt like an eternity. The town was eerily quiet now, and the street lamps started flickering on, but the thoughts of Jace and Natsu were enough to give me a headache. I stand there for a moment, letting the wind graze across my face as I contemplate what to do. I shake the thoughts out of my head, covering my eyes with my palms, in attempt to push the headache away.
"Hey, you look like you're about to cry again." I jump at the voice and turn to see Natsu standing there with a look of unease on his face. My face heats up, and my heart starts to pound from being startled.
"Um..." I start to stutter and stammer, tripping over my words.
"Where's your boyfriend?" Natsu asked looking around in curiosity.
"J-Jace?" I shake my head. "He's not my boyfriend, just a really good friend of mine." Natsu sat down on the curb of the sidewalk.
"That's good." He looked up at me and smiled "because I really like you." My face grew warm. I sat next to him and glanced over at him. He was staring towards the dark sky, his face had a peaceful expression, and his eyes were fiery with excitement. Or was it nerves?
"You barely know me." I break the silence. I look up at the sky and watch the sun disappear behind the horizon, and the stars flickering into the sky one by one. My smile faded with the fear of being hurt.
"But I do I know you." I look back at him and he has this intense look on his face, his dark eyes peering at me with a look that was almost desperate, like he was scared of telling me these things, and direly wanted me to accept him.
"N-Natsu..." I just stared at him in shock of how open he was being. After a couple seconds of staring at each other, I looked down at my hands. "Why do you like me so much? You only talked to me just today." I glanced at him. "And trust me" I felt tears burning the back of my throat. "I'm nothing special." I attempt to blink them back so I don't start crying again.
"That's bullshit." He speaks firmly. I look over at him, his eyes looked fiery with rage. "Who ever told you that can burn in hell." His eyes softened and he sighed grabbing my hand. "And I like you because you're genuine and you don't try to fit the common mold. You are your own person and I always notice you during classes. Your art is amazing, and you're always smiling." My eyes widen and I just stare in astonishment. He really does know who I am. He blushes and quickly looks away. "You um." He rubs the back of his head and faces me. "You-" He fidgets with his hands, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath. "You have a really nice body too." He says then flinches like he expects to get hit. My eyes widen and I look down. My shirts coming down and my chest is showing quite a bit of cleavage. I quickly pull up my shirt a little and snicker. He opens one eye,still wincing, and I just start laughing harder. "I'm not lying Lavender!" He gave me an uneasy look. I wipe away a tear.
"Please, just call me Lav." I wink at him. I stand up and stretch. I rubbing my tailbone as Natsu stands up shortly after I do. I look around and realize some thing. "Where are your friends?"
"Oh, they all went to do some odd jobs to get a little money."
"Odd jobs?"
"Yea, we do that sometimes. Anyway is it okay if I walk you home?" He gave me a kind smile and held out his arm. I smile and take his arm.
"Sure." I look him in his deep onyx eyes, his eyes glittered with the reflection of the stars. "I'd really like that." I felt my cheeks flush when he gave me a big captivating smile.
We laughed and talked the entire way back to my place. When we reached our destination, we said our good byes. He turned and skipped down a step, sending me a big, goofy, lopsided grin. He stretched his arms behind his head and started walking down the street singing "All the Small Things" by Blink-182, quietly to himself. I giggle, He likes punk rock? I closed the door and leaned against it with a huge smile plastered across my face. I can't wait to see him tomorrow. I think to myself.
"Woo, whats that look for Lav?" I looked over to see my mom sitting on the couch watching TV. "Jace finally confess his love?" the smile left my face at the thought of what happened today.
"No" I shook my head. My phone vibrated and I looked down at it.
"I cant wai 2morrow" My smile came back at full force and I giggled a little bit. I peek out the window and Natsu waves at me from the street.
"I can't wait to see you either ;)" I hit send, staring out the window and biting my lip. Natsu looks at his phone and He looked up at me with a big toothy grin. I giggle and look back at mom. She had a confused look on her face. "No he didn't" My smile grew bigger. "But I've got a date tomorrow, with a really cute boy."