You Don't Understand

Chapter 2: Dilemas

The next morning Juvia awoke to a bright sunny day. The exact opposite of her current mood. She had cried all night and barely received any sleep. Slowly she rolled over and looked at her alarm.

Juvia had woken up a little before her alarm was supposed to ring so she voted to just staring at it until it rang. After a while she decided to check her cell phone for any new texts. When she looked at her missed messages a lot appeared. Not to mention most of them were from Gray. Which was not surprising. She had promised her longtime friend that she would go with him and their group of friends to hang out... somewhere, she couldn't remember exactly where. Obviously that didn't happen. Suddenly Juvia's alarm clock rang causing her to jump in surprise and drop her phone on her chest.

"Ugh..." she groaned as she stood up out of bed and grabbed her phone. Then she made her way to her bathroom. She quickly did her routine and trudged to her kitchen. Evidently she didn't live with anyone since her parents died and all her other family didn't really care. Although her parents left a lot of money for her so she used that to buy herself an apartment. She used the rest for taxes and stuff for the house, but she still had to get a part time job. She couldn't depend on the money she inherited for the rest of her life after all. 

When she stepped into her kitchen she began toasting a bagel. Then she grabbed some cream cheese from the fridge and spread it over her bagel. After Juvia finished eating her bagel she checked the time and grabbed her bag. She ran out of the house locking the door behind herself. Then she quickly ran to the bus stop and waited. Although she felt like she had forgotten something very crucial to her day...

~

When Juvia arrived at the school building she ran to her locker careful to dodge the oncoming flood of students. Once arriving at her locker she grabbed her books and put away anything she didn't need. Then she turned around and scanned the crowd. After a minute she spotted Gray and their group of friends. Natsu, Gajeel, Jellal, Erza, Levy, and Lucy. Currently Natsu and Gajeel were visibly bickering with each othr.

"Gray!" She yelled as he turned around to look at her. She smiled at him, but he didn't smile back. "Hey, whats wrong?" Juvia asked as she looked past him at her friends who looked at her with concerned looks.

"Juvia! Where were you last night?" Lucy asked. "Did something happen? Are you okay? You didn't reply to any of our texts or calls after you told us something came up," Lucy continued.

"Oh, my phone just died. That's all," Juvia lied looking down. In truth, Bora had taken it from her and started kissing her the entire time he was there, insisting he had missed her and that she was neglecting him to always hangout with her friends. Which was confusing since he had grown angry at her after she suggested they hang out together after school one of these days... she didn't want him to feel neglected by her. It was probably because she had kept on nagging him after he had clearly stated no.

"Really? Why couldn't you just charge it then?" Gray countered. "Oh wait. Did your charger die too?" Gray continued mockingly.

"What- what do you mean?" Juvia asked perplexed.

"Oh I don't know. Its just that you never come to anything we all plan out anymore. Did you let your phone die so that you would have an excuse as to why you couldn't reply to us?" Gray demanded. "Cause it seems that you always 'misplace' your phone, 'lose' it, or it 'died' whenever you don't show up or back out!"

"N-no thats," Juvia stammered.

"Gray! Stop jumping to conclusions!" Levy shouted.

"Yeah. You keep jumping down her throat. Let her explain," Erza pointed out.

"Fine. Explain Juvia, or can you? Do you not want to talk to us or tell us the real reason," Gray jeered. At that comment Juvia snapped. She looked up at Gray and exploded.

"You know what? Just shut up! I don't want to talk to you if your going to be so rude to me! Would you just trust me and believe what I tell you!" Juvia hollered. Then she glanced at all her friends faces after her outburst. They all had looks of shock on their faces. 

Well except Jellal and Gajeel. They both rarely showed any emotion. "What is it?" Juvia demanded in anger.

"What happened to your cheek?" Gajeel asked pointing at her face. At those words Juvia's anger dissipated and she paled. "There's a bruise," Gajeel continued. "Was it him?" He asked as anger started to fill his crimson eyes.

"No, it wasn't h-him!" Juvia stammered.

"Seriously? That's what happened. Again?" Gray mumbled. "Why do you still date him! He's abusive!"

"No he isn't! Bora loves me. It was an accident. He accidentally swung his hand out and hit me," Juvia yelled trying to convince them.

"Stop covering for him!" Gajeel growled.

"Juvia why don't you understand that we are worried about you?" Natsu asked. "We're your friends not your enemies. We're trying to do whats best for you."

"No!" Juvia lashed out. "You guys wouldn't understand! You all have people that love and care for you in a romantic way! Me, no one does. All of you have people lining up for you. Bora was the first man that ever showed any romantic feelings like that! All the other people used me. So no I can't understand because to me all your doing is trying to take the only thing that makes me happy away!" Juvia ranted.

"So we don't make you happy?" Gray concluded.

"Why do you make everything about you guys Gray? No you guys do make me happy, but you're all in relationships! I don't and I want someone that makes me happy in that kind of way!" Juvia huffed in frustration. 

Suddenly the bell rang.

"Bye guys. I'm going to be late," Juvia sighed then turned and ran ignoring all their protests and cries to wait. 

One thing she learned from this was that she really had to remember to fix her wounds before she went to bed. Other wise her friends would start to worry about her more and some of them would get angry at her. Gray most likely although she never understood why. He had a girlfriend. He shouldn't be nosing his way into her business.

"Why can't you guys just understand that I love him and that he's the only one that will ever love me for who I really am?" Juvia whispered to herself as a single tear began to fall down her face.