This is my first fic. I hope you like it, I update very regularly and can't wait to see how it turns out.

The Choices we Make

Sasuke took another deep breath of the cold mountain air as he returned from a day of school. He envisioned the air traveling down into his lungs and wished he could watch the oxygen permeate his veins and bloodstream. Wearing only a brown turtleneck and shorts Sasuke felt completely under dressed for the temperature. Chouji walked beside him, oblivious to his surroundings and attempted common conversation.

"So... Sasuke, whats agoin' on?"He jostled and waited patiently for a reply.

"Nothing. Well, I overheard that we have the possibility of a pop quiz in math tomorrow."

"Again! We had one like, two days ago!" Chouji shook his head in disgust.

"I know." Sasuke said calmly and stared into the bluish sky.

Sasuke's house was closer to the school, about a quarter mile away, but for personal reasons it was usually best for the two to do their homework at Chouji's place.

Conversation dwindled then started again then repeated the cycle. After a minute of complete silence they would be laughing or should I say Chouji would be laughing. Sasuke was always more reserved than Chouji or anyone in Twilight Town for that matter and hardly spoke a word unless provoked. But Chouji made up for his absence of speech by being as lively and as talkative as any slightly overweight high schooler could be.

"Here we are." Chouji walked over to the obvious hide-a-key and unlocked the door to the two story duplex. He peeked inside then pulled his hand to his mouth indicating to be quiet, not that it was a problem for Sasuke.

"Dad's asleep." Chouji mouthed and motioned to go around back. Sasuke walked around and was followed by an exaggerated stealth master Chouji with the key. It chinked and clicked to the unlocking of the door and they snuck inside. The TV was on and was playing sex and the city proving that Mr. Otari had been asleep for a while. Sasuke noticed the root beer bottles strewn across the floor and chuckled at Chouji's fathers childishness, both of them knew that Mr. Otari never got near any alcohol whatsoever but put on the drunken look most of the time pretty well.

They walked upstairs and into Chouji's room past a spazzy cat and his brothers room. They opened his door and revealed a completely trashed room. There were dirty clothes on the TV and an upside down slice of pizza on the carpet and Sasuke didn't even want to know what was in the closet. Chouji jumped down onto his bed and turned on the television, he felt right at home. Sasuke got out his English homework and began scribbling down drabble.

"I tell ya', I am sick of all of all of Naruto and Hayner's bull. What did I ever do to them?"Chouji asked.

"You got in their way." He replied in a deep and melancholy tone.

"Yeah, once, but that's not reason enough to torment me for my entire life."

"True." Sasuke finished his English vocab sentences and started on math.

"They should just leave us alone."

"Just ignore them."

"Its not that easy. I got off of myspace because their plague had spread to that area as well. I'm afraid that we may have a world wide pandemic on our hands Sasuke." Chouji finished patriotically.

A lengthy pause ensued filled with thoughtful daydreaming of a better world. Then it stopped and they got back to their homework.

I'm hungry. Sasuke thought and cleared his throat.

"Can I get a snack?" He asked.

"Yeah sure, we've got chips and uh, basically everything you need, you know where to find them."

"Thanks." He said and walked downstairs. Sex and the City had finished and now the asleep Mr. Otari was watching 'Top ten Summer Fashions' and completely unaware of Sasukes presence. He walked not all that carefully down into the kitchen to pick up a box of poptarts and a drink. As he was pouring himself a cup of orange juice he saw the reflection of a beautiful girl walking down the street in a mirror and couldn't help but stare.

Her blonde hair caught in the brisk wind and she brushed it out of her eyes with the back of her hand. She wore a light blue and light red striped scarf around her skinny neck and a pair of black jeans. He could only infer what she looked like in normal clothes.

Stop being a pervert! And clean up this mess you made! While stargazing Sasuke forgot entirely about the orange juice and it managed to spill all over the counter. He picked up a ring of paper towels and wiped up the mess. When he had cleaned up completely he looked up and out the window, strangely the girl had gone. He felt a tinge of sadness as if he had lost something forever and missed her absence already. He hadn't even seen her face.

Mr. Otari grumbled and shifted on the couch. Not wanting to disturb him Sasuke jogged carefully with the snack and drink back upstairs. There Chouji was laying on his bed reading teen vogue magazine.

"Come on man, you can do better than this." Sasuke joked and threw the magazine on the floor.

"What! I'm doing... reconnaissance." He mumbled in response.

"Yeah. Sure."

"Seriously! I'm finding out the things that girls look for in guys, see it says here that 'make sure he cares about you and will never judge you,' cool with me." Chouji explained. "Ooh another one 'and if he's too interested in your looks then dump him on the spot.' Mehehehe." Sasuke smiled. "If I ever get a girlfriend that one will be hard for me."

Sasuke nodded his head in agreement and stared at the TV screen.

"See ya man." Chouji waved goodbye to a departing Sasuke who returned the gesture. He walked slowly through the yard onto the sidewalk and began his trek home. As he stepped on a crumpled leaf he began to worry about his mother. She was prone to sporadic instances of depression, at the blink of an eye she could change moods. Hopefully when he arrived she would be in one of her more passive moods and not throw anything at him out of distress.

A biker flew by and deftly got out of its way. He had a strange urge to tackle the man riding off his bike and onto the grass. Sasuke hated bikes, he hated all fast things. Why waste all that speed and energy just to get to some meaningless destination quicker. Running was fine but bikes and skateboards were too loud for Sasukes tastes and had a much higher possibility of injury involved. Taking things slow and enjoying every last detail was the way that he lived.

He reached his house within five minutes and was happy to see his mom cooking dinner on the stove. It smelled like pork chops.

"What's for dinner?"

"Pork chops."

"Ill help make a salad."

"Okay, I think I bought some lettuce yesterday. Its in the fridge." She pointed with a spatula.

Sasuke opened the door to the refrigerator and was astonished at how empty it was. There was a few apples, half a carton of milk and some lettuce.

I'm happy I went to Chouji's, would of starved here.

"I thought you were supposed to go to the grocery store today."

"Sorry, I was... busy." It was then that Sasuke noticed the water stains on her sweater and her somewhat red eyes.

"Mom, you have to see a doctor about this-."

"Oh hush, I'm fine. Tell you what. Right after you go to school tomorrow I'm gonna go get 30 dollars worth of groceries, okay?" She smiled at him.

"Alright, then you go up to that laundromat down the road and talk about that empty job slot they have."

"Deal."

That night Sasuke slept soundly and didn't worry about a thing. He didn't have the best life but that was okay, and he could deal with that. He never dreamt of anything but that night the girl in the scarf crept into his mind.

He was chasing her through a maze like mansion and from the angle he was running from he could never see her face. She was only walking but Sasuke was always far behind her. Then finally he grabbed hold of her arm and turned her around to at last see her face-

The alarm clock buzzed. 6:30.

Shit. Sasuke kicked off his blankets and turned off the annoying buzzer. He cursed in his mind and walked over to the bathroom for a shower. In his early morning daze he stepped in before the cascading water warmed up and got pummeled with what felt like icicles.

"SHIT!" He exclaimed loudly jumping around naked in the shower and wildly turned the faucet away from him. As you can tell he greatly looked forward to school in the mornings.

Please review. ;)