The next day I felt too tired to get out of bed and my eyes were so red and puffy, it was hard to focus my vision. My head throbbed with such intensity that it felt like I had a hangover, instead of me crying myself to sleep the previous night.

Lucy stayed with me all night, soothing me with gentle words and strokes, not at all questioning what was wrong, but I could guess she already knew. The entire building basically heard my door slam close and Gajeel stomp out. The sound of his heavy boots clomping down the hallway is still echoing in my mind, mocking me.

Just the thought of his name brings me to the brink of tears with hoarse sobs springing from my throat.

"Levy?" Lucy asked resting a limp hand on my shoulder. I heard her stretch and groan from behind me as I desperately wished she didn't see me this way. All snotty and teary eyed with a hint of morning breath.

"Hmm?"

"How are you feeling?" she asked sitting up slowly in order to get a better look at my face. Shining me a sympathetic smile, I tried my best to hold in the tears that threatened to break free.

Shrugging my shoulders, I said, "I'm ok. Thank you for spending the night. You really didn't have to do that."

"You're my best friend, you know I'll do anything for you. Now are you going to tell me what happened or not?" she asked watching me sit up, averting my gaze from hers.

Taking a glance at my clock, the bright red numbers shone on its black background, reminding me that class will start soon. The thought of even going to class made my body sag with exhaustion and my emotions bubble up to the surface.

"Levy?"

"I ruined everything, Lu. I confronted Gajeel and I got so angry, we both got so angry and I asked him to leave. He promised I won't have to worry about him or his stupid mouth and walked out with Lily. He-I messed up." I spoke trying to ignore the crack in my voice. It came from the hole in my heart that was becoming more familiar with each passing minute.

It was a suffocating feeling, like there was a heavy weight on my chest that pressed with fierce intensity every time Gajeel's face appeared in my mind. My eyes pricked with pain as tears threatened to fall, but nothing came. I'm all out of tears.

"It's not your fault, Levy. You didn't know he would get so angry."

"But, I did know, that's why I've been pushing it off for so long. I didn't want to face him, but how will I face him now?" I asked with pleading eyes.

"I can't answer that for you and you know that. You'll find out when you do face him. It'll be ok." She said softly draping an arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to her. Her familiar warmth was comforting but it wasn't the heat I craved and it left a weird ache in the pit of my stomach.

Leaning my tired head on her shoulders I asked, "Did you hear us arguing all the way from your room?"

She shook her head no, "I heard him stomp his way out of the building mumbling to himself. I was actually on my way to come see you, when I ran into him and if you think he wasn't hurt, then you're wrong. He looked like he was on the brink of tears and he had the weirdest frown on his face."

"But he always frowns."

"No, this one was different, like he was sad or disappointed. And poor Lily, he was whining trying to figure out what was wrong. I'm pretty sure he could feel the tension in the air."

Poor lily, this is his first morning in a while not waking up in my room, but I'm pretty sure he's ok. Gajeel was his real owner after all, him leaving was going to happen sooner or later anyway. I just didn't imagine it like this…like me never seeing that adorable ball fur again.

Well, there's me seeing Gajeel around campus and possibly running into him while walking to class.

"Oh crap! We have class!" I announced jumping off my bed, then feeling a sharp pain run up my leg as soon as I landed. My ankles gave out from under me, causing me to crash into the floor with a shriek.

Lucy was instantly by my side hovering above me with a concerned look on her face. "Levy! Are you ok? Was it your bad ankle?" she asked her hand hesitantly touching my leg.

"No, I'm ok. I guess I moved to fast. I'm fine, promise." I sat up testing my lower limbs, feeling a slight tingle in my hurt ankle. I guess, that's better than no feeling or serious pain.

"I think you should get some rest, you've been pushing yourself so hard ever since we got out the hospital. It's ok, to miss one day, so just rest, please?"

"I can't miss a day without an actual reason, it's not like I'm sick or anything."

"You will be if you don't get some rest, now promise me you'll just skip class today and get some sleep. I know you barely got any last night." She demanded with a deep frown and a worried glare.

Scooting myself to my bed, I rested my back on the bed frame, leaning my head back to stare at the ceiling. A long breath escape my lips as I ran my hands down my face, feeling the fatigue soak into my burned out body. Lucy's right, ever since we were discharged from the hospital I've been hitting the books harder than usual just so I could catch up. Being injured made it difficult to stay focused but I did it and now my body is paying the price.

"You're right, I do need to get some rest." I huffed running a hand through my messy hair, trying to comb the nots out with my fingers.

"Good. I'll tell the teachers that you just have a minor cold and you'll be ok by tomorrow. Now, I have to go get ready before I'm late." She said standing up and yawning.

I hugged her goodbye before walking her out. Watching as she sprinted down the hallway to her room, I wished I could just disappear for a while or even crawl under a rock and not be bothered.

Looking at myself in the bathroom mirror, I saw how sickly I actually looked. My eyes were bloodshot, puffy and irritated, with my blue hair going in all different directions contrasting against my pale skin.

"A shower is much needed." I muttered stripping out of my pajamas.

The hot water beat against my skin like mini warm pebbles, massaging my stiff muscles into relaxed fibers. With my mind wandering while I cleaned myself, I didn't notice how long I was in shower until my skin turned a deep shade of pink and my fingers pruning at the tips from the constant onslaught of the hot water. The faint smell of my citrus body wash lingered in the air along with the cloud of steam that made it difficult to see in the small bathroom.

Once I dried off, I slowly pulled on a pair of pajama shorts and shirt, then cuddled up in my bed with a few books. I wanted to keep my mind off of everything and the best way to do that is to immerse myself in a multitude of stories.

Throughout the day, Lucy would send me text messages that would make my lips curl up into a small smile.

'I hope you're resting...well you better be or I'll tell Professor Freed you didn't read the assignment he gave.'

'Omg! Someone just farted! It stinks so badly! It smells like garbage and rotten ham!'

'Cana just walked in with a water bottle, but I don't think it has water in there. Do you?'

'Water bottle confirmed to not have actual water. Cana just told me. Lol.'

'Jet and Droy were asking for you, but worry not my friend! I told them you just needed rest and made them promise me not to bug you, so you can sleep. :)'

'I hope you're not reading one of Erza's smutty books again. Remember what happened last time! Your nose was bleeding for 10 minutes! Well…maybe not that long, but it was still a very long time!'

'If you are…tell me what happens.'

With a day full of messages from Lucy and reading, I not once felt the urge to cry and thought I was doing pretty well for a person who just ruined a relationship with a guy she wasn't even dating. Of course, dinner was brought to me that night by an awesome best friend. As long as I kept my mind busy, I was going to be ok…I hope.

Sulking in my seat, I looked absentmindedly at my food as a sigh left my mouth. Today was pasta day in the cafeteria, but I just wasn't feeling it.

"Why are you huffing and puffing, is the food not good?" Lucy asked giving me a sympathetic look.

She knows why, she just doesn't want to outright say it.

"Maybe, it's because Gajeel has been avoiding her for-OW!" Natsu yelped covering the back of his head where Lucy hit him.

"It's ok, Lucy, Natsu's right. Gajeel has been avoiding me for almost three weeks now. I haven't seen him since I kicked him out. Well, it was that one time walking to class, but he just quickly turned around and ran." I sighed again, sulking even further at the lunch table.

Three weeks….three weeks without Lily or the meanie's dumb face. He won't go anywhere if I'm there and goes a hell out of his way just to avoid me. In the beginning, I was pretty sad and heartbroken, but I'm now starting to get irritated and offended. I would rather put up with awkward tension than this. This…this is just wrong.

"Look on the bright side, it's Friday." Lucy smiled brightly remembering our promised girl's night with Cana, Juvia and Erza.

"I don't understand why I can't go." Natsu pouted with a noodle dangling from the corner of his mouth.

"Girls only, sorry." I giggled as he pouted even more.

"Don't care, I just don't want to be around the grump any longer than I have to. He's even grumpier since you're not around anymore, Levy."

"I somehow doubt that." I frowned taking a bite of chicken.

"All he does is mumbles to himself how stupid he is and scowl at everybody. I think you should talk to him."

"I'll talk to him when he decides to stop being a big baby and face me." I huffed standing up from the table. "I'm going to go for a walk. I'll catch you guys later."

"Levy!" Lucy cried out as I quickly made my way out of the cafeteria and into the cold sunny day.

Fall was slowly turning into winter, with the trees shedding its leaves and the days getting colder and the nights getting longer. Hugging my jacket closer to my body, I felt the bitter cold wind whip around my bare knees that my skirt didn't cover. It numbed my senses as I aimlessly walked around campus in a daze.

Talk to him? Why should I? He's the one ignoring me, not the other way around. If he walked up to me right now, I would…most likely kick him for being search a jerk for ignoring me.

But, aren't I the jerk as well? I yelled at him just as much as he yelled at me and I pushed him to tell me. He even told me to let it go, but I kept pushing and pushing. I guess all of this is my fault; I made all of this happen. How could I-

"Levy?" a sweet voice asked, snapping me out of my thoughts and back to the real world.

Looking around, I noticed I stopped short of the pond near a familiar gazebo that was perfect for watching the ducks swim around.

A figure appeared from the inside with a questionable look on her face.

"Hey, Juvia."

"What's wrong?" she asked. Shaking my head, she just continued. "You looked really lost in thought and had this deep frown on your face. It reminded me a lot of Gajeel." She smiled but soon stopped when I averted my eyes.

"I'm ok, Juvia."

"Juvia, knows what's going on and think both of you guys should talk to each other."

"Why should I? He's the one ignoring me!" I shouted throwing my hands up in the air.

"He think he's protecting you. He did the same to Juvia once, but as you can see we're still best friends." She smiled. "When we were kids, Gajeel would get in a lot of trouble for his…adventuring nature. He was my first friend and Juvia followed him to no end, but when Juvia got hurt, he swore that it would never happen again and distanced himself. That of course only made it worse, since at the time Juvia thought he was mad at Juvia for something, when in reality he was beating himself up over it."

"What did you do to get him to talk again?"

"Cried," she giggled, shaking her head. "Juvia was so confused when he wasn't angry but instead was more upset with himself. When he told Juvia everything, Juvia finally understood what type of person Gajeel was."

"Yea, very stubborn."

"So are you, but Juvia thinks that and many other reasons is why he likes you so much." She stated as my cheeks turned a bright shade of pink. "You two are more alike than you think."

"I don't know, Juvia. Maybe, he really wants to avoid me."

"He still talks about you, you know." She said making me sputter. "He may not show it, but he misses you very much. You should talk to him."

"You're not the only one who's said that to me today. Maybe, I'll talk to him but not tonight, we have our girl's night at Cana's."

"And Juvia is very excited for it!" she smiled clapping her hands in excitement.

We talked for a little while longer beside the pond, with either of us bringing up the pierced man in our life, but of course a certain black haired shirtless man came up.

The talk ended up with us feeding the ducks and talking to them, with my mind finally being able to wonder somewhere else for a while. Hopefully tonight will be the same. Just us girls goofing around, eating junk food and having a good time.

Well at that time that's what I thought, I didn't know it'll turn into a night of angry tears and confrontation.