Disclaimer: I own nothing InuYasha.

Author Note: Another story, I know. Bear with me! The others are not forgotten, this was just a new, and nagging, idea.

Tricky Business

Chapter One

I giggled as InuYasha wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me, swinging me around. He always did things like this after my cheerleading games and competitions. He was always there for me, it never failed. I had my sunset streaked hair tugged into a high ponytail that curled loosely at the end, which was around the middle of my back. Despite the fact that all five pounds (or so I was sure) of my sparkles shimmered, my turquoise blue-green eyes twinkled. He had a way of making me have that kind of reaction. My spunk always grew around him.

All of my friends were so sure that I was going to be the girlfriend, sometime fiancée, and eventual wife of the boy standing before me. He was a punk kid who had a habit of dying his fohawk this silver color, and popping in golden eyes to stand out. For a football player, he didn't follow the rest of his clique. Neither did I.

When he put me down I turned around with a large, white smile. He seemed equally as happy. Except, he seemed a little happier than usual. I could feel my heart pounding. I ignored all the surrounding sounds. This was it: I was going to be his girlfriend. After years of dating worthless guys and rejecting hundreds I was going to get my dream guy.

"Ayame," he grabbed my wrist, "I want you to meet my girlfriend, Kagome."

My heart crashed through the floor and I felt like I was going to vomit. The girl greeted me with this adorable smile and all I wanted to do was kick her face in. My mouth opened and wobbled but nothing came out. I didn't wait for all these years just to be disappointed!

"What the fu-"

"AND THE WOLVES CAME IN FIRST PLACE FOR THE COMPETITION!" a man with a booming voice announced conveniently over my profanity. Kagome turned large eyes towards her new boyfriend, obviously confused and wondering if he heard what I had said.

I didn't have a chance to explain, I was drug out to the middle of the floor. I was the captain of our team, so I had to put on this fraud little smile and stand there beaming with this glorious trophy in my hands. I should have felt like a million dollars, instead I felt worthless.

InuYasha always dropped me off and picked me up from cheerleading. Today I snuck out through the back and stood waiting for a public bus to carry me as far as possible back to home. I called my best friend, Sango, and arranged for her to pick me up.

"I don't understand." I mumbled as I tried to push the tears in my eyes to the back so that they wouldn't spill out over. I was sitting on my temprapedic mattress looking at a picture of InuYasha with an arm slung around my shoulder. We looked so cute together, we looked so happy.

"Baby," Sango mumbled as she sat down beside me and rubbed my back as she used the nickname I'd be given forever ago, "He'll realize soon enough that he made a mistake. I mean, you've always been there for him and you two are so close… Just don't get yourself worked up about it. Besides, you and Kagome have been friends forever."

"I know that, and it makes it even harder to accept that fact that she stole the one guy I was seriously into. She knew it too, I told her almost everything about him and how bad I was crushing on him. I honestly thought she was my friend, Sango. Like, we used to be even closer before, but we still call each other best friends… Best friends don't do this to each other." I sniffled.

As if on cue I heard somebody at the front door, pounding loudly and rapidly, like they needed to be let in now. My heart leaped as I realized InuYasha was coming back to finally claim me as his after realizing that, just one night with Kagome, couldn't compete to one second of us being together.

I closed my eyes tightly and took a deep breath before running to my window and peeking out, to look at his vehicle. I squealed a 'He's here!' before I bolted out of my room and down the stairs. Well, technically I bounced 7/8 of the way down the spiral staircase before I put a little extra 'umph' in my bounce and ended up tumbling the rest of the way down.

"Shit," I mumbled as I pinched my nose and ignored the dripping blood. Now was not the time to worry about blood, my future fiancée was waiting at the door for me! I flung my door open and, in this horrendously geeky voice, said "Hey InuYasha, what's up?"

"Oh my gosh Ayame, are you okay? What the hell did you manage to do? You feel down the stairs again, didn't you? You need to learn to take your time." He said with a genuinely worried voice and a small frown.

"It's fine," I brushed it off, "What brings you here?"

"I wanted to talk to you. I don't know if Kagome got a hold of you and told you already… she felt really bad and she thought you'd be really eager to here this. So if you're not busy this Saturday night, I was thinking –"

"I'm game!" I sputtered before he finished.

"Great! Here's Koga's email address. You should start to IM him and get to know him right away, that way it'll be less awkward for the double date. I guess Kagome really couldn't hold it in. Anyway, she claims he's a really nice guy and he's back in town again so he just might be the right one for you Ayame, you never know." InuYasha gushed as he handed the slip of paper to me.

I tried not to let him see the tears start up in my eyes, or the silent sobbing motions that my body was about to make. I tried not to let him know that my heart was breaking and my world, as I knew it, was crumbling into little pieces before me. All I could do was watch as my future suddenly turned to ash and was blown away by the wind. I dropped my hand, no longing caring just how badly my nose was bleeding, and gave him a pathetic smile.

"Thanks, I think I'm going to do that right now. I'll talk to you later InuYasha." I said in this sad little voice that I tried so hard to hide. He just studied me for a second, and I could tell he thought about hugging me as we both just stood there looking at each other.

"Yeah… well I better go, Aya, make sure you take care of that nose." He replied back in a small voice before he turned around and walked out of my house. It was as if he vanished into thin air. He disappeared, just like he did in my future. InuYasha was gone.

I had been covered in blood before and he had been dating a girl, yet he still hugged me. InuYasha always hugged me before he left, no matter what. It was just our thing. We were so close that it was expected. Yet neither of us protested that night, we both just knew. If Kagome made him happy, I wasn't about to stand in his way. He deserved happiness; I just wished it could have been with me.

-0-0-0-0-

"There's no harm in checking this guy out." Sango pointed out as she cautiously touched the slip of paper InuYasha had given me. She was desperate not to touch the now-dried blood (which had turned that nasty dull brown color).

"I guess," I mumbled. It wouldn't heal a broken heart, but it might make it better. "Type it in, I'm going to make sure all the dried blood is scrubbed off my face and I'm going to throw some makeup on. I just feel like I know the person more and feel safer if I can see their voice and environment." I reminded as I ventured into the bathroom adjacent to my room.

"Friend request is sent, and I'm about to Facebook request him as well." She informed, although I really didn't care. She could Facebook request all the boys in the world and it still wouldn't be my boy, the one I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. "Wow Ayame, he is drop dead gorgeous. He has a face and body to die for."

"Cool." I replied half heartedly as I zombie-walked back into my room. You know the zombie-walk, right? It's when you just feel like death because you're life is miserable and you just want to throw up and toss your limp body off a 782 foot cliff, therefore you walk like you are the living dead. And, for us girls, it's almost always about a boy… or our periods of course, but they don't count.

Demented_Illusion has accepted your video chat request.

Demented_Illusion: Oh no, is this the girl Kagome is trying to hook me up with?

"He's an asshole." I pointed out bluntly, forgetting that the speaker in my laptop would clearly pronounce my voice out to him. When I realized it, I didn't much care. I didn't even bother to take a look at the boy, I didn't care to see his face.

"You look miserable." He raised an eyebrow as he looked at the cam me.

"I'm done." I said, carelessly, as I walked away and let Sango to fed for herself against the arrogant boy.

"Ayame! We need to talk!" I heard a voice yell out as the door flung shut. I closed my eyes and growled. My big brother, Kane, knew everybody and everything. Of course he'd know that InuYasha had a girlfriend, which would kill me. And, as sweet as it was, he annoyed me by caring a little too much as to whether my feelings were hurt or not. Well, up until the point where I get drunk, which was the cool part about having an older brother.

Demented_Illusion: Kagome tried to hook me up with a taken girl?

Sylence_Killz: She's not taken, that's her older brother. He's a total babe.

Demented_Illusion: That's nice to know, who are you?

Kane busted into my room and placed a large cooler on the ground, heavy enough to make his arms flex. Kane had this whole thing with being physically sculpted. I think it was a little too much muscle; enough to make it look like his skin was tight and about to rip.

"I know you don't want to talk so here's all I'm going to say: InuYasha pulled a dick move because you were obviously crazy about him and, if I trusted my friends to be respectable towards you, you'd have a ton more of guys offering you dates than you already do. One sided love is miserable and he's in for a big loss, now DRINK." He mumbled quickly.

"It's days like this that remind me I have the best big brother in the world." I said with a cheesy smile. You're the greatest Kane, but I'm guessing that knew friend of yours was the one to get the alcohol?"

"You mean Miroku? He's here actually and –"

"Make him leave!" Sango turned around with her eyes blazing fire. "He is the worst human being on the face of the planet. He is a disgusting creature of habit and he does not belong on this planet. Don't you dare even let that idiot near her."

"How do you know Miroku?" I asked curiously, having never met the guy.

"There was a party; you were at a cheerleading competition. You were spending the night at a hotel." Sango explained quickly. "In fact, I believe I've met this kid on the internet there, but my memories still pretty hazy from it. Believe me; you didn't miss out on anything."

And yet somehow I felt like I did. I didn't care though. It was bottoms up for me. I pulled the Jaeger out of the cooler Kane had thrown to the bedroom floor and proceeded to open and lift it to my lips. I needed the feeling of the burning alcohol swishing down my throat. I had enough problems, I didn't need relationship issues.

Most people find me perfect, the absolute most gorgeous person in the world. I can't. My hair, despite the bounce and sheen and natural highlights, just looks like it should be something… better. I feel like it should be blonde, or black, or really really dark brown. My waist could be smaller, and my legs could be slimmer. My feet could be little and adorable, while my hips get taken in a couple inches. My boobs could be bigger, and my face prettier. Yet, despite all this, I was pursuing the career of a model. I didn't know why I was even kidding myself.

I grabbed my iPod and blasted 'Bleed it Out' by Linkin Park. I only paused to catch my breath between downing the alcohol. It was a bad habit, but something I couldn't drop in a split second. It was like my body needed the alcohol sometimes. I wanted to break something, anything.

Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around... - Vanilla Sky