At Magnolia High, everyone steers clear of the cool kids. They're practically royalty - adored, feared, and, in the infamous heartbreaker Gray Fullbuster's case, resented. But sometimes the image people have for the world to see is really just anoth...
"Gray, my love, where were you yesterday?" Juvia asked, tears already flowing from her eyes as she approached her boyfriend.
"At home, why do you care?" Gray didn't care much for drama, which was one of the downsides of dating Juvia, probably the biggest crybaby in the school. Sure, she was arguably one of the hottest girls around, but her crying could be worse than Niagara Falls.
"You promised we were going to meet at the cafe! I waited for five hours!"
Well, that certainly takes dedication. "You know, I never actually promised anything," he pointed out, slamming the door to his locker closed.
"But... But that's not fair! I thought you were going to be there!"
"Life isn't fair. See you at lunch?" Gray bent down slightly to give Juvia a quick and half-hearted kiss, smirking at her before he left the lockers and made his way down the crowded hall.
Still Tuesday. 7:57 am. Further down the same hallway.
"So, Erza, what did you end up doing yesterday?" Lucy asked.
"You know, after you ditched us?" Natsu added, which resulted in a sharp jab in the ribs from Lucy's elbow. "Ow!"
Disregarding Natsu's statement entirely (as she did with many things he said), Erza replied, "Homework, training, studying, nothing different than usual."
"You do the exact same thing every day! Doesn't it get boring, especially without any free time?" Natsu asked, thinking back to what he did last night.
Monday. 9:48 PM. Natsu's apartment.
The smell of freshly made popcorn had spread throughout the small apartment. As Natsu's dad, Igneel, was often away on business, Natsu didn't actually need that much space. He lived in a small place with his blue cat, Happy, and his weekly pay paired with the checks his dad sent him each month were enough to cover the rent and groceries, but it clearly wasn't enough for a car (which is why Natsu had to walk home each day.)
The volume on the TV was turned up loudly to allow Natsu to hear over the loud crunching of the popcorn he'd miraculously avoided burning. Happy meowed loudly, jumping up onto the couch and knocking an empty bag of chips onto the floor as he laid down beside his owner. Natsu reached over to pet the unusually colored cat, almost but not quite dropping his bag of popcorn.
His phone rang, and he felt around on the couch before finally locating the device. "Hey, Lucy, what's up?" Natsu asked, setting the popcorn on the table and pausing the tv.
After a short discussion about assignments and such, the conversation was over, and Natsu was free to resume watching tv.
"It just sounds boring because you prefer watching tv all day," Lucy reminded her friend.
"But at least I watch different shows! My schedule, unlike Erza's, has variety," Natsu gloated.
Throughout this conversation, Natsu's voice rang louder than the voices of anyone else, echoing through the hallway until the words ended up with Gray, whose gaze went cold as he continued walking, already annoyed with the pink-haired idiot.
As he approached the far end of the hallway, he caught sight of the brightly colored hair of the one he couldn't get out of his head the night before.
"Oh! Gray, right?" Natsu called as soon as the other male drew nearer to him. "Look, man, I'm so sorry about yesterday. I wasn't looking where I was going, and-"
"Shut the fuck up," he growled, tightly grasping Natsu's wrist and yanking him down the hallway.
"Natsu!" Lucy shouted.
"Can't say I didn't warn him," Erza shook her head, sighing loudly.
"Hey, what's going on? I said I was sorry-" Natsu was immediately cut off, having lost his breath as Gray slammed him up against a wall of lockers.
"'Sorry' isn't good enough, you asshole!"
"What did I do?" Natsu screeched, attempting to somehow avoid the only foreseeable fate (death).
"Ever since you ran into me yesterday like the idiot you are, I haven't been able to get you out of my fucking head! You don't even know how annoying this is for me!"
"Uh, I'm... Sorry, I think? Hey, wait, is this your way of telling me you like me or something, because-"
"No! Why the hell would you think that?" Gray shouted, and because of the slight pink hue appearing on his face, Natsu couldn't tell if he was blushing or just really mad.
"Then-"
"I'll put it simply for you, then, since your tiny brain is clearly too stupid to understand what I've been saying." Gray took a step closer, pinning Natsu against the lockers. "Don't talk to me, don't look at me, don't even go near me again, or you'll be sorry."
As Gray walked away, Natsu rubbed his back. "Why couldn't that have happened against a regular wall? Lockers are more painful than they look," he murmured.
"Natsu! Are you okay?" Lucy called out, running up to her friend with Erza not far behind.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I guess. Did you know it really hurts to be held up against a locker?"
"Do what I told you, Natsu," Erza warned. "Stay away from him, for your own safety."
The bell rang, and the three said their goodbye as they went their different ways to their first period classes.
Bonus: text conversation between Gray and Sting
Gray: why the fuck won't that guy just leave me alone?? (Sent at 8:01 AM)
Sting: idk, i don't think he's trying to annoy you (Sent at 8:01 AM)
Sting: maybe he's just trying to be nice?¿ (Sent at 8:01 AM)
Gray: followup question: how do u get someone to stop trying to be nice because its pissing me off (Sent at 8:02 AM)
Sting: idk how to help you dude (Sent at 8:02 AM)
Sting: shit i gotta go class is starting (Sent at 8:02 AM)
Sting: (image) (Sent at 8:02 AM)
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Sting: here have a meme ill talk to u later (Sent at 8:02 AM)
