Falling Too Far - Gruvia

Chapter 26

Something felt a little off to me when I got out of the shower. Lucy had dumped a bundle of clothes outside my bathroom, and I could've sworn I heard talking when I was in there, yet I couldn't put a face to the voice, and it was too loud to be a phone call. 

I brushed it off anyway. I had too much on my mind to care about anything else, as selfish as it sounds. 

I came back to the city for a distraction. Lucy offered to hang out but I refused. I didn't want anyone's company. How I'm acting now reminds me of my seventeen year old self...

After throwing on something comfortable, I come out of my room to notice a different pair of boots by the door. Definitely weren't there when I got here... They had to be men's boots. I feel like I've seen them somewhere before. 

"Lucy!" I call.

"Yeah?" She yells back from her bedroom.

"Is anyone else here?" 

"Uh..." I catch the sounds of aggravated whispers bickering in her bedroom, "Yeah but he's asking me not to tell you he's here and is hiding in my bathroom like a coward!"

Huh...?

"Lucy!" 

Oh... It's him. 

"She's fucking Natsu!" 

HUH!? 

"Gray!" 

The two exit her bedroom like children ready for scolding; heads down, fiddling, neither looking me in the eye. 

"Can I get... some context?" I nervously ask. 

What on earth were they doing in her bedroom? My brain was already running wild with all sorts of random, revolting scenarios. 

Gray goes to open his mouth, but Lucy cuts him off, "I found him lurking about and being creepy and he didn't want you to know he was here so he hid in my bedroom while I was putting my clothes away."

There's silence. What do I say to that? He was "lurking about"? Why? 

"...She's fucking Natsu." 

I glance from Gray to Lucy, gaping at her in pure shock. I'm supposed to be one of her closest friends and she didn't bother to tell me? 

"We're not "fucking"... we just had this um... kiss."  

"Oh..." Although I'm feeling a slight betrayal that I wasn't aware of this, at least what was happening was nothing like my intrusive thoughts just a second ago, "and you tell Gray, but not me?"

"No! He found out from his lurking..." She elbows him in the arm. "Just don't spread it around, we don't really know what it means ourselves."

As much as I wanted to interrogate Gray about his creeping, I couldn't be bothered. Even after a full ten hour sleep and two hour nap, I'm still exhausted. Plus, I had somewhere I needed to be. 

"Okay... well I hope it goes well for you. I've gotta go now...  I have that thing." She already knew where I was off to, yet Gray seemed to assume I was leaving out of spite. I could tell as he narrowed his eyes as I opened the front door. 

_ _ _

"That's baggier than usual." 

I enter the parlour to be greeted by my roommate at the desk near the entrance. His feet up, and that sinister scowl remains. It'd be odd not to see him scowl like that. 

The parlour wasn't as crowded as I thought it'd be. I could only spot two employees from where I was standing, and they seemed to be on a lunch break. The place had a nice surprising vibe to it. Fake plants dotted all over the place, and the walls covered top to bottom with pictures of perfectly finished tattoos.