Today was the party to celebrate midyear exams. It was going to be in the frat house of the fraternity group that Mest belonged to. It was close by so we didn't need to rush.

I put on a red skirt and a white, strapless top. The other girls were wearing nice party outfits as well. When we were all ready, we met the boys outside and walked to the frat house.

"You excited?" Jellal asked as he snaked an arm around my waist.

"A bit. I'm also nervous. I hope nothing bad happens," I replied.

"It's just a party. What could go wrong?" Natsu said from the other side of me.

"Don't jinx it."

"Nothing bad is going to happen." Natsu turned around to walk backwards as he faced me. "It's gonna be totally awesome."

Natsu pumped a fist in the air. Then, as he was stupidly walking backwards, he tripped on a rock and fell backwards. He landed on his bum and we all winced as it looked painful. Natsu jumped up, rubbing his butt.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Nothing happened," he forced a smile.

We all just stared at him before laughing. That made me feel slightly better. I relaxed into Jellal and wrapped my arm around his waist.

When we reached the frat house, I was shocked. It was a big, double-storey house with a grassy yard out the front that was covered in rubbish and red cups. People mingled about on the lawn in very revealing clothes. Music blasted from inside the building and bright lights flashed from it as well.

The nervousness creeped back into me. What if I did something embarrassing? What if everyone hated me? I closed my eyes, trying to block out the loud sounds. A tug on my hand made me open my eyes again. Jellal pulled me gently and gave me a reassuring smile.

"It'll be fun," Jellal convinced me.

"I know." I bit my lip worriedly. "I just have a bad feeling. I feel like something's going to happen."

"I'm sure it'll be alright."

I nodded, squeezing Jellal's hand. We walked after our friends who were a few feet ahead. Passing drunk college students, we entered the huge house. The loud music hit me like an elephant. It was some sort of electronic dance music that people bopped along to. There was students everywhere doing other things as well, such as making out, talking, or playing beer pong.

We weaved through the crowd and stopped at a more spacious area in the living room. Strangers walked by with identical red cups in their hands.

"So, what do we do now?" Levy asked us.

We all shrugged in response, not sure how to approach a frat party.

Before it got anymore awkward, Mest appeared in the room. He brightened when he saw me and gave me a hug.

"Erza! I'm so glad you came!" he said.

"Yeah. It's nice to see you too," I replied.

Mest took a step back to greet all my other friends, giving Jellal a civilised handshake.

"Have you seen the whole house yet?" Mest asked me.

"No."

"Come on. I'll give you all a tour."

With nothing better to do, we followed my friend through the big house. There was a cool games room in the basement with a pool table, a pinball machine and a huge TV. People lounged about on beanbags playing the games and video games in the room. We then explored the kitchen, dance room and other rooms on the middle floor. Upstairs held several bedrooms. In the backyard, there was a big pool surrounded by chairs. Students splashed about in the pool and hung about around it.

"This place is awesome," I commented.

"Yeah! I'm all fired up! Let's get drunk!" Natsu yelled.

He headed back into the house and Gray reluctantly followed to make sure he didn't cause any trouble. We decided to all go back inside to the dance room, leaving the two boys who went to the kitchen bar.

I danced with Jellal as the music pounded in my ears. My hands hung around his neck and his arms wrapped around my waist as we swayed to the beat. After a while, we got thirsty so we went to the kitchen. It was nice and quiet there, which I appreciated, and the bench was filled with many drinks and alcoholic beverages. I didn't want to have alcohol anytime soon so I opted for a lemonade – the same as what Jellal chose. We stood around in a circle, sipping our drinks and relishing in the peacefulness.

"Erza!" Mest shouted, barging into the kitchen and our quietness. "We're playing 'truth or dare' upstairs! Wanna come?"

I looked at all my friend in question and they shrugged so I said 'yes'. It's been a long time since I played 'truth or dare' and I wasn't particularly excited about playing it with strangers but it might be fun. We went into a bedroom upstairs and joined the circle of people on the floor next to the bed. Mest sat on my left while Jellal was on my right and my other friends on the other side of him. The game quickly started and it was pretty funny and exciting. It had been roughly 10 minutes with several people doing truths and dares.

"Truth or dare," a girl with pink hair said to a boy with green hair.

The boy grinned. "Dare."

"I dare you to drink the whole bottle of beer in one go."

"Lame," the boy said before impressively chugging down the whole bottle.

Once he finished, he slammed it down on the floor and let out a disgusting burp. He surveyed all the people in the room before his gaze stopped on me. A grin grew on his face.

"Erza... truth or dare?" he asked me.

I was confused on how he knew my name but seeing him next to Mest, I realised that Mest must've told him.

"Pick dare!" a random guy said and his friends around him started chanting "Dare, dare, dare."

I wanted to go with a nice, easy and safe 'truth' but of course, the peer pressure was overwhelming. Besides, I was in college at a frat party. You only live once and I might as well have fun while I'm young.

"Dare," I said confidently.

The boy smirked. "I dare you to kiss Mest."

"No way," I blurted instantly.

I realised that probably sounded rude and felt bad. "No offense, Mest," I told Mest. "I have a fiancé."

"Come on," whined the boy who gave me the dare. "It's a dare. You can't back out now. Just kiss him."

"No. I have a fiancé. I'm not gonna cheat on him, especially for a dare."

My cheeks were now red like my hair as anger stared coursing through my blood. How dare he? What kind of person would make that dare? What kind of person would do that dare? Turning to my left, I saw that Mest was looking at me, his cheeks also red with embarrassment.

"Come on, don't be a party pooper," another boy yelled.

The boy who dared me pushed Mest so he leaned forward and his face was inches from mine. My eyes widened from the sudden movement. Jellal pulled me closer to him and away from Mest.

"She said 'no'," my fiancé stated firmly.

He glared at the other boy fiercely but the boy just grinned smugly and said, "You think you're so tough, don't you, blueberry? Well, let's see about that. Let's fight."

The boy stood up and gestured for Jellal to fight him. I tugged Jellal's arm, hoping he wouldn't give in. Unfortunately, Jellal got up on his feet. I muttered a curse under my breath. Why do boys always want to fight? I thought this was going to be a nice, fun party. This, this is anything but fun. My stress levels were rising as I tried to get them to calm down but nothing worked. They stepped closer together into the circle of us sitting around them.

"Fight, fight, fight," people started to chant.

I looked at my friends worriedly and they help the same nervous expression. This was not a good idea and it wasn't going to end well.

"Mest, do something," I pleaded my friend.

"I'm sorry, I can't. Whenever he's set on something, he's going to do it," Mest replied apologetically.

Everything happened so fast. The music from downstairs blurred with sounds of people egging on the fight. Jellal and the boy who dared me lunged at each other. A random girl ran into the room. She screamed that there was a fire. The fight stopped. Everyone jumped up and immediately, we flooded downstairs.

It took a while to process everything but once I did, I managed to get down the stairs safely. I searched for my friends and found them ahead of me. Like the girl before said, there was indeed a fire in the house. It was a huge mass of flames that destroyed the kitchen and begun eating whatever else I could. The smell of smoke stung my nose. We coughed our way out of the house and soon, there was just an empty house and dozens of young adults on the front lawn.

"It wasn't me this time," Natsu joked.

He kind of likes fire and he has set things on fire a few times before. No one said anything as we just watched the house get swallowed in red and orange. Soon, the whole frat house was completely destroyed. I stood there in shock. I can't believe that just happened. How did it even happen?

"Are you okay?" Jellal asked me, squeezing my hand comfortingly.

"Yeah. That was intense though," I replied, still coming back to reality.

In the distance, I heard the siren of a firetruck coming our way. I looked around at what was left – not the house, of course. People around us were talking and crying. Some even held miscellaneous things which I assumed they rescued before the building was gone. I even spotted someone carrying ten bottles of beer. The remains of the party could be seen on the lawn with decorations, drinks and other objects strewn around on the floor. I kicked a soda can next to my foot, shaking off the sand that was somehow on my shoe.

When the fire brigade arrived, we were all interviewed to find out what happened. No one could tell what started the fire; the most someone knew was that they saw a fire in the kitchen with gasoline around. They probably could've tried to get rid of the fire but they were drunk. Luckily, no one was hurt. After the questioning was done, we were free to go.

We went back to our dorms and went to sleep. Images of the night ran through my head as I thought about everything that occurred. The fact that there was petrol on the kitchen floor in the frat house didn't seem like a coincidence. But why would someone want to burn down a frat house? Hopefully, nothing bad will happen again anytime soon. And with that last thought, I drifted off to sleep.

The rest of the weekend went by happily and I went out with my friends and my fiancé. I also heard that the people who lived in the frat house got to stay in some free dorms or they could stay with people they knew. I felt sorry for Mest but he was grateful for the new big room he got.

Today was Monday and it was back to school. Since Jellal and I's classes didn't start until much later in the day, I went out to breakfast with him. We were sitting in a small café eating pancakes and waffles.

"So, Natsu asked me to be one of the groomsmen for his wedding with Lucy – well, he actually told me I had to be one of the groomsmen," Jellal said.

"That's exciting," I said through a mouthful of strawberries and pancakes. "Lucy also asked me to be a bridesmaid."

He chewed a forkful of waffle before swallowing it down. "I can't wait to see you in your beautiful bridesmaid dress. You're going to look even better than the bride."

"Don't say that. Lucy's going to look amazing, much prettier than me on that day."

"For some people, maybe. But that day, my eyes will only be on you."

I rolled my eyes and threw a blueberry at his face. He swiftly caught it in his mouth, acting as if nothing happened.

"But you know what I'm even more excited for? Seeing you in a wedding dress," Jellal said.

I blushed bright red. I stuffed some more pancakes in my mouth so I didn't have to say anything. Lucky for me, Jellal had more to say.

"But you know what I'm even more excited for? Taking your wedding dress off after the wedding."

Unluckily for me, it made my cheeks go redder. I coughed through my food and quickly drank water to ease my throat. My eyes darted around the room as I prayed that no one was watching or listening. If they were, I'd be embarrassed for life. I whispered for Jellal to stop talking about things like that and I was relieved when he complied. 

We rushed through the rest of breakfast since class was approaching soon. After exiting the café, we started our walk to university. My hand clasped Jellal's as they swung back and forth softly.

"We should do this more often," Jellal commented.

"What? Hold hands?" I replied.

"Well, that too. But I meant walking to class together."

We hardly walked together to class because we were usually off doing other things like studying or hanging out with our other friends. I usually walked with Mest since we mostly have the same classes but after the incident on the weekend, Mest decided to take a day off.

"I don't like it when you walk with Mest," Jellal continued. "I should be the one who walks you to class."

"Why can't I walk you to class? I'm very capable of looking after myself, you know? But are you?" I retorted jokingly.

"Oh, I know you are very capable of taking care of yourself. You could kill hundreds of people if you wanted to. But I want to be a gentleman and a good fiancé."

"Well, I want to be a gentlewoman."

Jellal chuckles and I can't help but smile wider. It's moments like these when we have small, silly bantering that I love.

"Fine. Let's compromise. You can walk me to class and then I'll walk you to class," Jellal grinned cutely.

I giggled. "And who's going to walk you back to your class?"

"Myself."

I pretended to think about it, humming softly. "Okay. But I get to walk you back to our dorms."

"Deal. And then, we can make out in my room."

I choked, stumbling in my step. Also, the times when Jellal so bluntly tells me that he wants to kiss me make me feel giddy and happy inside.

"We can't always make out. I have homework to do," I lamely blurted, not knowing what else to say.

"If you were my homework, I'd slam you on the table and do you all night," Jellal flirted cheekily.

I laughed loudly, an unladylike laugh. I was somewhat used to his flirting. They either made me embarrassingly embarrassed or they made me laugh a lot. This time, I decided to try and think of a pick-up line to throw back at him.

"Well, if you were... if you were a strawberry cake... I'd eat you all day," I failed at flirting.

Jellal snorted at my pathetic attempt to do better than him. I pouted, not that he was looking. We just reached campus and were now heading to my classroom.

"That was terrible. Maybe you should stick to letting me do the pick-up lines," Jellal said.

"That's a good idea," I replied.

Suddenly, we both stopped in our step. The sight in front of us made our jaws drop in shock. I couldn't believe it. The entire music building was burned to the ground. It seemed that it also happened to the art studio next door as it was in the same state. All around the crumpled and ashy mess, there was caution tape prohibiting entrance and police officers and the fire department surveying the scene. People stared at the damage but were mostly ushered away by the police. Near the front, I spotted Brendon talking to a police officer.

"Jellal, let's go talk to Brendon," I suggested quietly.

I looked at fiancé and saw he had a similar expression of sadness. He nodded and we made our way to our friend. I felt sorry for Brendon. Our regionals trophy was in the music room as well as expensive instruments and other things. How could two buildings burn down? It must've been an accident, surely.

When Brendon finished talking to the police, he noticed us standing nearby and walked closer. I put my hand on his shoulder in comfort. He seemed deeply upset and distressed.

"What happened?" Jellal asked him.

Brendon took a big, shaky breath. "I came to here for class a few minutes ago but I saw it like this. I don't know how it burned down. I asked the police but all they said was that it probably happened yesterday."

"Don't they have security cameras or something? Surely someone saw what happened."

"No. There's no cameras here."

Well, don't we suck.

"I'm sorry, Brendon. It must be awful to see this," I said.

"I'm fine. I mean – sure, I'm bummed that our first regionals trophy is gone but at least no one was hurt. And we can rebuild and buy more instruments and stuff. It's just... it's going to be very expensive. I don't know how the university is going to like that, especially since they have to rebuild the frat house that got destroyed since it was owned by the university," Brendon explained.

Trash the music room. Make the university lose a lot of money to fix the facilities. Why does this seem familiar? As my gaze wondered down to the ground, something small caught my eye. It was sand scattered in the grass. Immediately, everything clicked in my head. The fire wasn't an accident. I know who burned down the frat house and the two university buildings.

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I'm so sorry!! It feels like it's been forever since I posted a chapter. I really should've thought about this before starting this story. I didn't realise year 12 would make me this busy and stressed. Please VOTE and COMMENT!! Also, I watched Avengers: Endgame and I just can't even... it was amazing and sad  :(