Chapter 19

The next morning, Kagura woke up with a gigantic hangover. We had to supply her with a tub meant for holding her vomit, and I was in charge of accompanying her to the bathroom so that she wouldn't fall over. My tiny apartment suddenly felt rather chaotic, and though it was a Monday, all four of us decided to take a day off. Principal Makarov was rather lenient after all, or rather, he didn't really care.

A lot had happened in the span of two, or was it three days? It turns out that Gray had traded in his Prius for a shiny new BMW (privileges of being the son of two successful lawyers), and we basically lived off of delivery and baked goods.

My Monday morning was spent following Kagura around the house, making sure she didn't decide to throw up randomly. It was awfully tiring, but by the time noon rolled by, she decided to take a nap. Honestly, it felt like I was taking care of a five year old child.

Jellal had left the house after lunch, which happened to be finger sandwiches, courtesy of himself, to look for flats that he could rent. I felt like he wanted to stay nearby though, so I recommended him to ask my land lady.

Gray stuck around, giving me the excuse that he was worried that I was hung over too. I really wasn't. But it did feel nice to have him worry about me again. Like the good old days. Through out the day, the two of us worked together to clean up my apartment, which currently faintly smelt like vomit. But as the minutes went by, and as more Febreeze was sprayed into the air. The environment definitely felt a lot more clean.

At around one in the afternoon, Gray and I had settled on the couch, the TV was on, but we were flipping aimlessly through the channels.

"Have you caught up on your studies yet?" I asked him.

His lip curled in disgust. "No. I hate having to make up work."

"Good riddance. Then you shouldn't be skipping school."

"You're doing it too. I don't want to leave you here with Jellal." he said, his eyes beginning to narrow. They weren't focused on me, but rather on the TV. As if Gray were saying these things unconsciously.

I felt heat creeping up my neck. "J-Jellal's not here though. Plus, he's a good guy."

Gray scoffed rudely. "You never know."

His words irked me. It felt like he didn't trust any of my guy friends, except for maybe Natsu. "I don't see why you have to feel so… I don't know, hateful toward him." I mutter.

After a moment of silence, Gray replies, "I just don't like him. You haven't seen him in like, ten years, maybe he's changed."

"Then what about Kagura? I haven't seen her either, why is she okay?" I retort.

"It's just different!" Gray snaps angrily, he looks away from me, but I can see that his ears are tinted red.

It means nothing.

Just as I was about to say something to lash out at Gray again, the doorbell rings. I jump at the chance to escape the awkward situation, and it turns out that my guests are Natsu and Lucy, the power couple of our school.

"Shouldn't you two be in class?" I ask with an eyebrow raised.

"I could say the same to you," Lucy replies with a wide grin.

Natsu rushes into the apartment, tackling Gray with one of those "bro hugs". "Dude, where've you been! Soccer's been losing without you."

"Man," Gray says, dragging out the "a". "I have cuts and burns all over me, there's no way I can play, dude."

"Really?" Natsu questions, a devilish smile surfaces on his face. He squeezes his arms around Gray tighter.

The taller boy yelps in pain. He begins whacking the pink-haired boy's arms all while breathlessly complaining, "Bro, it hurts! It hurts! Ohh…"

Finally, Natsu lets go, and I'm close to laughing. It's been too long since I last saw our smaller group of friends together like this. Though I'm still not sure what to do about Gray. It feels as though he's gotten protective over me, though he has no reason to.

After all, I'm just his foster sister.