Chasing Shadows

Try

-Try

Silence, there was nothing but silence among them. The air felt thick and suffocating to Juvia. Time seemed to go by slower, second by excruciating second. Tick. Tick. Tick. The soft clicks of the clock was the only sound to be heard, it read 9: 45 pm. They'd been sitting in silence for over 15 minutes. Even Stranger seemed to notice the tension, at the back of the room his beady eyes stared at the still humans in front of him.

Jordan held an ice pack against the unexpected visitor's horribly bruised cheek while the man stared at the paintings hanging on Juvia's walls, biting his lip. He was probably waiting for hell to open beneath him and swallow him up. Juvia looked down at her hands, examining them with intense interest, carefully stealing glances at the man in front of her from time to time. Gray slouched against the couch, his arms folded across his chest, irritation plain in his face, sitting across Juvia with his bags beside his feet. The movie was long forgotten, with the psycho serial killer's face paused on the screen, also seeming to stare at them from behind the TV, menacing and mocking.

"Awkward" The man Jordan called Zef finally said, shattering the silence with his deep voice, effectively making the situation much queerer. Zef was the drummer in Jordan's band, tall and skinny. His features were very striking and unusual. Everything about him felt dark and full of depth starting with the deepness of his voice that was so odd on a man of his physique. He had bright auburn hair, messy atop his head. Above all, his eyes were the most interesting, Juvia thought they were brown at first but on closer inspection, his eyes were deep black voids. Juvia immediately noticed the constant sadness in them. 20 and a full-time musician, he was the son of a wealthy business-owner, which explained the fact that he owned a 2 story house and a motorcycle and the reason why he was a musician, full-time.

"Shut up Zef!" Jordan scolded. "It wouldn't be this way if you didn't suddenly show up" she turned and regarded the rest of the company. "Holy baby Jesus, okay as he said this is really weird, so before we go on punching anyone, why don't we all make sense of this situation". Jordan emphasized the word punching, glaring at her brother. Gray didn't seem to notice as he was staring intently at the air above Juvia's head. She turned towards Juvia. "Okay Io, you start"

"Don't look at me. I just opened the door, and Bam! Zef here kisses me" Juvia said pointing a little accusingly to the bruised man.

"What?!" Jordan exclaimed, looking wildly at Zef "You. Kissed. Another. Woman?" Her voice rose with every word. Juvia saw Gray scowl, his hands tightly balled into fists under his arms.

"Hey, Hey wait, I thought she was you" Zef said in a panicky voice, backing up and raising both his hands as if to surrender. "Jordan, honey, sweetie-pie, I-I came here to apologize, I just got excited when I came and I thought she was you, at the door." Zef swallowed hard. Juvia couldn't help but snicker at the pet names. Shuddering as she imagined being called like that.

"What we fought over this morning was stupid, I understand that now. I just overreacted a little, please princess you know how I am. I'm sorry I screamed at you. I swear that won't ever EVER happen again, even if you don't change the tissue paper, or even if you burp out loud sometimes, I won't even get mad if you call me Zeffy-boo in public" Zef said hurriedly.

Jordan's face was still angry, though it seemed like she was considering the idea. After a few more ticks from the clock, finally her face softened and she smiled sweetly at Zef "You stupid silly mongrel, I'm sorry too" Jordan whimpered, tears in her eyes. She reached out and touched his bruised cheek. Juvia placed a hand on her chest, letting out a sigh of relief, it seemed like all was settled between the weirdly affectionate couple.