Title: You Pushed Me Away
Summary: I am in love, so damn in love with you. AU. Sakura-centric.
Pairing(s): implied sasusaku
Rating: K+
WordCount: 1,980 excluding footnotes.
Author: CryingInsideOut
A little something something I wrote in a rare free time moment I had. Yes, I used to be "iCrystalineeee", so I am in fact the same person.
Disclaimer: The Naruto characters fully belong to Masashi Kishimoto, and the song Teenage Hearts belong to the band Allstar Weekend. I do not own anything except for the plot line.
Haruno Sakura looked once, twice, before crossing the street even though the pedestrian walk sign had been lit up. As she neared the end of crosswalk, she couldn't help but curse quietly under her breath as a taxi cab whizzed by so fast that the wind had almost blown her navy blue skirt up. She quickly pressed down on the back of her skirt so she wouldn't flash any one that was watching.
As the fifteen-year-old hopped up the low curb, she brushed back a lock of her pale-pink hair that gotten in front of her viridian eyes. She hooked the slightly long piece of her bang behind her ear and looked up to see a lone figure in front of her.
Her breath hitched in her throat as she recognized the familiar black hair with a hint of blue, all spiked up in back. Her eyes scanned his outfit; an ordinary high school uniform consisting of a black blazer with a white undershirt and black slacks, but on him, it looked like a casual outfit that fit his frame perfectly.
Picking up her pace unconsciously, she neared the five-foot-five teenager as her heart rate also sped up. She could hear her own heavy footfalls as the heels of her black biker boots hit the sidewalk. When she approached close enough to touch him if she outstretched her hands, Sakura hesitated, wondering how she would start the conversation.
"Hello! I'm Haruno Sakura, from your homeroom, P.E., and Algebra 2 class!"
No.
"Hey! Do you remember me? I asked you if I could borrow a pen a week ago."
No.
"Uchiha Sasuke right? I've seen you play soccer in P.E., and I just wanted to say you were amazing! So how was your weekend?"
No. Even if Sakura was from any of his classes, there was no way for her to just approach a fellow student and speak to him like she had known him all these years like they were close friends. In fact, she was certain Uchiha Sasuke would place a restraining order against her if she became too annoying.
Before Sakura could come up with a better excuse to talk with Sasuke, the said boy turned his head slightly to the left, finally noticing the five-foot-two girl. He arches a perfect eyebrow and pulls one hand out of his pocket to take an ear bud out of his ear, his music blaring loudly. Sakura hadn't even noticed he had been listening to music all this time.
"Can I help you," he asked quite coldly.
Sakura's mouth grew dry as his velvety voice reached her ears. She opened her mouth to answer, but found out embarrassingly enough that she didn't know how to answer.
"Hi," she finally managed to squeak out.
Sasuke's obsidian eyes narrowed slightly and plugged his ear bud back into his ear. The pale-pink haired girl managed to catch a glimpse of the song lyric: You are afraid;you pushed me away.
Not giving Sakura a chance to redeem herself, Sasuke shoved his hand back in his pocket and continued to walk to school. Sakura bit back her tongue to keep herself from saying something stupid. She let out a disappointed sigh and grudgingly trudged after Sasuke's retreating back.
You are afraid; you pushed me away.
Sakura twirled her pencil with her fingers as she stared blankly at the chalkboard. Kurenai-sensei's back faced the students as the white chalk in her hand made imprints of an Algebra 2 problem. Sakura's viridian eyes scanned the classroom lazily, and she noticed that most of the boys were drooling over their teacher's curvy body; her simple white collared shirt and black pencil skirt complimenting and almost exaggerating her curves. Too bad she's married, Sakura smirked almost sadistically.
As Kurenai-sensei placed the chalk down and turned around, her ruby red eyes flickered from a few students to Sakura. Sensing the boredom in Sakura's face, her lips smeared with ruby red lipstick curved to a slight smile.
"Sakura," Sakura's eyes widen and she dropped her pencil, quickly lifting her head off the palm of her hand. "Would you please solve this problem for us?"
As all eyes stared at the back of the room where she sat, Sakura gulped and slowly stood up, the legs of her chair scraping the tiled floor. She walked feigning boldness to the front of the class and picked up the tiny chalk with trembling fingers. As she read the white numbers, she realized that it didn't mean anything to her. The numbers jumbled up, and it looked like some American language.
"Sakura, we're waiting," Kurenai-sensei spoke calmly, with a slight touch of impatience.
The fifteen-year-old hung her head miserably, knowing she wouldn't be able to solve the problem.
"Sit down Sakura. Sasuke, you may take her place."
Sakura scolded herself mentally. It was a simple Algebra 2 problem; a review question from yesterday's homework assignment. Sure, she had no problem doing the homework yesterday, but today was different. Today it seemed her dyslexia had been worse than yesterday.
Although she stood frozen in place, the tiny piece of chalk was gripped tightly between her two fingers. As Sasuke shuffled to the chalkboard and stood beside Sakura, she finally looked up, viridian eyes locking with obsidian eyes.
"Sit down Sakura." Kurenai-sensei ordered once more.
Sasuke stretched his hand outwards, the palm of his hand facing up. Oh. Oh, Sakura realized. He needed the chalk. She shyly dropped the chalk into the palm of his hand, unable to stop the slight tremor of her hands. To her dismay, Sasuke hadn't even muttered a quiet thank you. He just tore his gaze off of her and immediately set to work, completing the problem before Sakura could even get back to her seat.
"Thank you Sasuke."
Sakura noticed that he had given their teacher a nod. Why didn't she get at least a nod? Right, because Kurenai-sensei was the teacher. He probably didn't even know she existed until this morning. But for crying out loud, how hard was it to ignore someone with pink hair, who was in at least three of your classes?
As the lesson ended with fifteen minutes left to spare, Kurenai-sensei ordered the students to get started on their homework. Before Sakura could pull out her textbook and notebook from her desk, she had been summoned to speak with her teacher outside the classroom. Everyone's eyes were once again focused on the pale-pink haired girl. She slowly followed Kurenai-sensei out the classroom, only looking up once to see Sasuke's eyes had flickered to her before flickering back down to his notebook. Her heart sped up and her body tingled with excitement, as she was acknowledged by the Uchiha even if it was only for a second.
"Sakura, you need to go to tutoring."
"I can't," she mumbled quietly, nervously tugging on the hem of her skirt.
"Why not?" asked Kurenai-sensei.
"My mother is very strict when it comes to walking home alone."
"Don't you walk to school alone everyday?"
"Yes," she hesitated, "but she only lets me because it is bright out in the morning. She will not let me if it is dark out, sensei."
Sakura's mind whizzed as she recalled back to the day when she was five and almost got kidnapped. Nothing serious had happened, she remembered. As soon as her mother noticed she was missing a few minutes later, she had called the cops and the cops had found her being dragged off by a scary looking adult.
"It wasn't hard to find her when you told us she had pink hair."
"All right then. I will have a talk with your mother tonight and we will make plans. But you really need it Sakura. Your grade is at stake right now, dangling dangerously close to a D. I know dyslexia can be hard to overcome, but you have to fight it."
Sakura gave a silent nod walked back into the classroom.
You are afraid; you pushed me away.
"Your math teacher called today, Sakura." Haruno Haruka spoke after swallowing.
Sakura nodded mutely and scooped some rice into her mouth. As she chewed silently in thought, Haruka slammed her bowl on the table, startling her daughter.
"Seconds," she commanded and Sakura grabbed the ceramic bowl, refilling it with white rice from the rice bowl sitting next to her. She placed the bowl on her mother's awaiting hands.
"She told me you're having trouble with math and that you need to go to tutoring. Hah! What a joke. My daughter does not need to go to tutoring." Haruka gave an unladylike snort and reached her chopsticks over to her daughter's plate to steal a piece of beef.
"Actually," before Sakura could finish her sentence, Haruka held a hand in front of her face, silencing her.
"Don't give me excuses that involve your dyslexia." Sakura nodded, closing her mouth and placing her bowl neatly on the table with her chopsticks on top. As she stood up from kneeling on the floor, she picked up her bowl and plate and walked into the kitchen.
"She said that I should let you go tutoring and to not worry because there will be an escort for when you go home. Do you know of this?" Haruka lays down on her side as she peeks through the doorway to the kitchen, getting a full view of her daughter washing the dishes.
"An escort?" Sakura asks and turns around, shock evident in her eyes.
"Yes. She said your mentor would be some Uchiha Sasuke boy and he will escort you home when you are done with your lessons."
"Uchiha Sasuke!" Sakura gasps. Haruka smirks at her daughter's reaction.
"Is he your crush or something, Sak-chan?" The older woman laughs loudly, as a blush adorns Sakura's cheeks.
"M-mother! Don't say stuff like that!" Sakura ignores the barking laughter of her mother and quickly runs to her room.
"Crush, huh?" Sakura murmurs.
As much as she hated to admit it, Sasuke was definitely her crush. Ever since they were younger, Sasuke had always been in her classes although they had never spoken to each other unless necessary. Sasuke was a quiet boy, keeping only to himself. He rarely even tried to make friends or have an actual conversation with their classmates that didn't include him grunting an "hn".
But it was true nonetheless; Uchiha Sasuke made her heart beat faster than normal and gave her butterflies in her stomach. Just one glance from Sasuke sent shivers down her spine and her made fingers tingle with excitement. If anything, Sakura might even call it love.
You are afraid; you pushed me away.
Before Sakura went to bed, she laid on her stomach and pulled her laptop in front of her as she racked her brain, trying to remember the lyrics she had heard from Sasuke's ear buds. Her fingers typed in the words skillfully and gracefully, immediately getting a result of the song with the lyrics in them.
"Teenage Hearts," Sakura murmured and rubbed her eyes tiredly. It was already past 2 o'clock AM, and she had to get up in three hours to get ready for school and make breakfast for her and her mother. She snuggled deeper into the safety of her warm blankets and clicked a link.
The link sent her to a music blog, and the soft strumming of an acoustic guitar played in the background. For the rest of the twenty minutes she had struggled to stay awake, Sakura had already repeated the song at least seven times and remembered the lyrics by heart. The next time Sasuke would walk her home, she would cross her fingers behind her back and hope he would be listening to that song so she would be able to sing along, because
She was just so damn in love with him.
Fin
Please do not ask me about Blood Lust. I will update whenever I have time, which will be difficult nowadays.
To be honest, I had actually finished 20% of chapter 10 so far, but I don't know where I left the document. It could possibly be somewhere in my computer or even in my iPod.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. I love each and every one of my readers equally. xx