Limerence | gruvia

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||THE STRANGER IN THE RAIN||

editing ...

"Hello," Juvia called nervously as she walked to her boyfriend who was sat on the park bench. The sky was a dark grey, rain would fall soon enough. She couldn't believe she had to cancel their meal. He had always been the one to cancel them, never her.

His head heavily lifted up to look at her. "Yeah," he said lowly, his light hair poised perfectly. "Hi."

Juvia sat beside him, noticing his unusual behavior. "A-are you okay?" Juvia asked timidly as she rested her hand on his shoulder. Even after a month of dating, Juvia still felt like she didn't quite know him enough. She hoped that as time went on they wouldn't be so distant and she would find out his true personality as they grew. Little did she know he'd show his true colours right this minute.

"Juvia. I can't do this anymore," he said suddenly, looking up at her with stern brown eyes.
His words were clear, but they didn't resonate with Juvia's ears at first. 

Her stomach sank. He must know she's cancelling their dinner tonight. Nervous, she lowered her head and whispered, "I'm sorry I'm cancelling tonight, it's just-"

"What?" He asked, cutting her off. Juvia glanced up at him, "Our date tonight, I have to cancel it."

He cleared his throat and nodded. "Oh." 

Juvia furrowed her brows at him, she could tell something wasn't right and it wasn't her cancelling their date. Which only worried her more. "That was what you were talking about, right?"

He sighed and dropped his head down again. He had been so distant lately. They'd been going out for a month now. But still to this day, no matter how hard she tried to keep their connection...he just wouldn't reciprocate. Her boyfriend continued to speak. "No, actually. I mean us. I can't do it anymore," he replied, shrugging Juvia's hand off his shoulder and crossing his arms across his chest. 

Juvia's breathing became shallow. Everything seemed to heighten. The sound of the wind in the trees. The cars in the distance. Her boyfriends silence felt the loudest of all though until he said, if it was not clear enough, "It's over."

Everything seemed to stop. She couldn't think clearly. Like the dark grey clouds above her had been pushed in front of the words she desperately tried to find. This couldn't actually be happening. She loved him, didn't she? A memory of overhearing a hushed conversation between some girls at school came back to mind, talking about their relationship being a fake, a stunt even......Had he really been stringing her along all this time?

"Over? As in----your telling me that----but weren't we----you don't..." Juvia continued to stutter, "...love me anymore?" 

The word 'love' sounded so unnatural, and that embarrassed her further for even saying it, making her question whether the word had ever been appropriate in their relationship; which chilled her heart to ice.

He scoffed, "Love you?" he turned to face her, the anger rising in his voice as if Juvia had said something so awful. "You made it difficult to even like you Juvia."

Juvia said nothing. She could only feel her chest growing tighter and her stomach dropping like she was on a rollercoaster. Though she'd never been on one she imagined that's what it would be like.

Growing angrier at Juvia's silence, he threw his hands up in the air as if she was proving his point further. "You're... too different for this place. We don't work. It's embarrassing. People talk."

By this point, Juvia couldn't answer. Her words were lost somewhere in a void of nothingness.
She had been living a lie with him, and never even knew.