apeirophobia

"Are you sure? Are you really sure?"

"No means no, Sakura."

"Well, you're no fun."

Sakura crossed her arms and slumped back in her overstuffed chair. Giving up on persuading her companion for the moment, she huffed and blew a piece of hair out of her eyes. Silence pooled between the two, cloaking the boy who was really just trying to get some work done and the girl trying to get his attention.

Sakura began to chew on a piece of hair that had tumbled back down across her face. A thought had just occurred to her.

"Say, Sasuke?"

"Mm?"

"You don't... have other plans, do you? I mean, you haven't forgotten about Naruto and I while studying your ass off? I mean, it's okay if you've met new friends in this study group thi-"

"It's 'Naruto and me'. You're substituting it for 'us', so you should use the objective case."

"Whatever. Answer the question please."

Sasuke sighed, and finally looked up from his textbook. Running a hand through his hair, he glanced over at Sakura. She was gazing at him, contemplatively winding a pink lock around her finger. He rolled his eyes.

"Stop going all five-year-old on me. Relax. Seriously, if I didn't know you any better, I'd think you were stalking me. You two pop up everywhere, ready to drug and kidnap me at the closest opportunity."

Sakura smiled. She was sure that Sasuke had no idea how attractive he was when he groused; the way he became animated and the way his hair (softer than hers; how fair was that?) fell into his dark eyes and was irritatedly pushed back were so endearing to Sakura. But he didn't need to know that. She was as close to a best friend to Sasuke as she would ever get. And he would be not-so-minorly creeped out if she started spouting declarations of love.

"The library is closing now! Please don't forget anything because we won't let you back in!"

Sakura mouthed the words along with the librarian, sighed, and pulled herself out of her chair. She stood up, swinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Come on. We better get going."

She glanced down at the table, only to find Sasuke already standing in front of her, backpack on his shoulders, looking on in faint amusement.

"Aa."

"How do you do that? I swear, you were still writin-"

"Oi. Let's go."

Sakura walked beside Sasuke (always a little behind) as her sneakers scuffed along the pavement. She opened her mouth, glanced at her companion, then shut it. Silence seemed to suit Sasuke better than chatter, no matter how much she wanted to convince him to come to Naruto's party. Really, it wasn't even a party, she thought to herself, just a small get-together. What was so hard about at least pretending to be social for a few hours?

She opened her mouth again, determined to say what she had just thought, but her voice came out timid just the same. "Sasuke?"

He turned his head. Sakura shrugged. That was probably as much acknowledgment as she was going to get.

"Really, I wish you would come. It would mean a lot to Naruto."

And to me, she added silently, but that wasn't important for him to hear.

"No. I have to finish my studying."

"Oh. Okay then. That's okay." Sakura smiled sweetly, hoping he wouldn't notice that it was only with her mouth, not her eyes.

She made an abrupt turn onto a side street.

"See you," Sasuke heard quietly.

Momentarily nonplussed, Sasuke blinked as she left. He hadn't finished his sentence. And where was Sakura going? He shook his head and opened his textbook once more.