Pink Lemonade

Lampposts

Sometimes I wonder why lampposts are even there if all of the lights from the shops and apartment buildings light up the streets anyway. I don't know. I think about the most random things sometimes. My breath fogs up the dirty glass window that I stare out of literally everyday so I draw a smiley face on it. 

People pass by with grayish brown clothes wagging in the wind while the smell of rust and rot traces the air. We don't care though, we're used to it. Erza walks down the street casually while her fancy 'boyfriend' walks with her carrying an umbrella. Normal. Guildarts lets out a cough and it doesn't sound to good. Especially when I turn around and there is a trace of blood on the floor. Not normal. 

I start to kind of freak out and make him chug down a whole glass of water even though I know it's not going to work. After he's done, he lets out a raspy statement that's saddening to me. "You have almost a week more with me Natsu. Please find someone...if you don't, I'll, I'll, I don't-" "I know." I cut him off and hug him. 

"I'm trying my best." And I smile sadly. "I know you are." He smiles too, and hugs me back. We stay like that for a long time until someone knocks on my door. I walk over to the door while the floorboards creak under my feet and open it. I'm expecting Gray or the apartment company asking for our rent but instead I see a girl, Lisanna. 

"Um, hey Ms. Strauss." I say awkwardly, avoiding eye contact. "Hi Natsu! This might be a weird question to ask but" Her face turns pink. "there is a party tonight for couples and my parents and everyone are going to be there and um...I kinda told them I had a boyfriend so they're expecting me to be there and-" She chatters away about how they are counting on her and she can't let them down and stuff when I say out of pure sympathy that: "Okay Ms. Strauss. I'll pretend to be your...um..." "Great! Thank you so much Natsu!" And with a swish of her green scarf she disappears down the stairs. (Eww! NaLi moment...disgusting.)

I turn around to see a certain smirking uncle behind me. "She was pretty." He lifts his eyebrows up and down at me and it creeps me out and disgusts me. "Eww. No! She's my boss and you're to old for that! I mean, you flirted with my cousin and that didn't end well!!" I shout at him before he can say anything else. His eyes light up. "Ooh! You'll be rich with that lady!" I ignore him and say under my breath: "Besides, I've already got someone in mind." 

________()________

I feel self-conscious as Lisanna guides me through the crowd of suited men and done-up ladies. Lisanna never said the party was going to be fancy so I wore a nice wrinkled white shirt, a long black jacket lined with gold on the edges, sandals, and some puffy white pants that I found somewhere in the closet. Plus my scarf for extra comfort. Everyone looks at me like I'm the clown in a castle. Whenever I pass someone, they whisper to each other and stare at me. 

Lisanna seems to mind a lot. She tries to hide me behind her when her friends come up to talk to her and she is really embarrassed when her family see's me too. Whne I say I'm Lisanna's accomplice, not her boyfriend, she kicks me in the shin with her stilettos, whenever I lick my fingers at the snack bar she drags me away and tells me to eat right, then she told me to hold her hand. "No." I said. She glared at me then took my hand and dragged me away anyway. Finally, I'd had enough. 

"Can I please go to the bathroom?" I ask. "Sure I guess, take your time." She tells me like she really wants to get rid of me for the evening. I walk through the stuck-up crowd and into the bathroom. There is a sink that has no bowl to stick your hands in, just an indented surface on the counter. Weird. And it gets even more weird when I walk into a stall and there is a golden toilet standing in-front of me. What the heck?

A window rests above the weirdest toilet I've ever seen in my life and it's cracked open a smidgen. I guess they wanted to let in some fresh air or something. Nobody is in the bathroom at the moment so I crack it open a little more and slip through landing on my face on the turf that surrounds Kardia Cathedral. I lift myself up and look at the new grass stains on the knees of my pants. "Great, how am I going to to explain this to Guildarts?"

I slowly sneak out of the lawn and into a church nearby. I'm not that religious but I can worship God for 2 hours. (I've never been to church so I'm sorry if I don't know what you do there. And I'm sorry but whenever I talk about religion and stuff like this I always have to say that I don't mean to offend people if I do. :) ) I walk inside the musty old church and see lots of rows, benches, and people. 

I walk down the center aisle and sit down next to and old woman with cream colored hair and a smile. She talks to someone beside her and I turn my attention to the priest who talks about the upcoming events for the church and facts about Christianity. Halfway through singing I see a blonde headed girl with a little girl standing by her in the front row. It's Lucy. Then the priest says something about letting the party begin. Everyone gets up and filters into a smaller room with lots of stained glass windows. 

I'm leaning against the wall when the old lady from earlier drops her cane and can't pick it back up. So I walk over and lean forward to pick it back up again. I hand it to her and she smiles. "Thank you very much young man!" she says, squinting through her rounded glasses to see me. "No problem." I say, then smile. 

"Mom! Mom! Do you need help?" Asks a familiar voice sprinting through the crowd. She pauses when she sees me. "Natsu?" 

_________()________

"So you were supposed to go with your boss to a formal party as her date?! That is the most absurd thing I think I've ever heard!" says Lucy, shouting in the street underneath the dark clouds that explode with pouring rain. "I know right! I mean, why the heck would she want someone as poor and ugly as me to go to a formal party with her?!"

"Your not poor and ugly." Says Lucy, stopping at a lamppost. I smile. "Thanks."

"No, thank you for what you did yesterday. It means a lot to me. I mean, if you weren't there I might as well have not been here today!" She says, then hugs me. I hug her back. "Can I ask you something crazy?" I ask, my voice growing quieter next to her ear. "Sure." She says, then comes apart from me. "Will you come with me to meet my uncle?" 

"Like a date?" She asks.

"I guess so." I say back. 

"Well, um, I'm only aloud to date people that I've actually kissed." My heart sinks.

"Oh, well forget I asked th-"

She leans towards me and presses her mouth against mine. My heart flutters and I feel like doing a thousand flips. 

"Your the exception." she says, once she breaks apart for air. 

Now I know that lampposts do actually have a purpose. 

YAY! NALU  MOMENT!!! Hoped that warmed up your end of November.

So anyway, I was thinking about changing the point of view to Lucy for the next few chapters so you can see her side of the story. What do you guys think? Tell me down in the comments. 

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving went well. :D 

See ya later people! The next update will come sometime soon in December. 

- Everything_Counts