Sweet Till The End

9 - Peanuts and salt and garlic

I hate clubbing. I never want to go again. No, that wasn't true – I only hated it because of Ajeel and the alcohol. The day after, I woke up with a terrible hangover. I'm just happy the girls haven't decided to go to a club any time soon.

Although it was Saturday, the weekend, and I should be enjoying my time away from studying, I felt sad. Why? Because it was the last day of March, the last day of the month, the last chance to have our beach date. Well, I mean, we could have a date at the beach whenever we wanted to but it was the promise that made it so special. Instead, I was spending the day studying.

As I was doing my work, my phone rang and I instantly picked it up.

"Hey Lucy," I said after checking the caller ID.

"Erza! Get over here now!" Lucy instructed.

I frowned as I tried to hear her clearly. Other sounds through the phone interrupted her speaking – sounds that seemed like other people talking and waves.

"Lucy, where are you?" I asked.

"I'm at the beach, of course. Didn't I tell you?" she answered.

"No," I sweat dropped. "But why are you at the beach?"

"Because it's the perfect day to go to the beach. The weather's so nice and warm – it's perfect. Also, it's a girl's day out at the beach today!"

"You never told me that!"

"Well, I did now. So get your ass over here."

"I can't," I replied. "I'm studying and doing homework."

"That is the lamest excuse is history. It doesn't even work for 15 year old boys cos they need to save the world. You, need to let loose and have fun at the beach with us. It's a Saturday."

She did have a point, or several. I guess it wouldn't hurt to go. Wait, I'm meant to go with Jellal to the beach, but he hasn't talked to me in a while and we haven't actually made arrangements to go. I guess we weren't going to have our date at the beach this month after all. 

"Erza?" Lucy called.

"Yeah," I replied, finally making a decision. "I'll come."

"Great! See you here soon!"

She hung up and left me to get ready in my empty dorm room. I hummed a happy tune as I slipped on my bathers. On top of that, I put on a pair of shorts and a casual t-shirt. Since it was just us girls, there wasn't a need to dress up.

I took the usual bus to the beach and headed to the sandy area where we were last time. As I looked left and right, I couldn't see Lucy or any of the girls anywhere. Maybe they were in the water...

To my right, someone cleared their throat loudly. I turned towards them and I was shocked to see Jellal there. There was none of our friends with him and he seemed to be alone. He stood in front of me with a small, hesitant smile and a beautiful, bouquet of red roses in his hand.

"Jellal?" I asked confused. "What are you doing here?"

I was meant to meet Lucy here but for some reason, Jellal was here. That was weird. Why wasn't Lucy here?

"I... I'm here for our beach date that I promised we would have by the end of the month and today is the last day of the month," Jellal said.

I couldn't believe it. Jellal remembered; he planned this all for me. My mouth turned up into a huge smile and I got slightly emotional, my eyes tearing up a bit.

"I know I just made the deadline but I hope you'll forgive me for the wait and my behaviour this month. I'm so sorry for the way I treated you; I shouldn't have said the things I said or done the thing I did. Now that things are better, I can finally explain to you why I ignored you and why I reacted so badly," Jellal continued.