Thanks for all the reviews, everybody! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter!! Sorry for the very long wait! Anyway, here's chapter 2! Please enjoy! ^_^ emichii.
Tai had known Sora for as long as he could remember. They had grown up together, spent just about every day together, acted like stupid little kids together, everything…
But how can you possibly spend so much time with someone else without really seeing them?
Chapter 2- I am not jealous!! Just possessive!!
Tai was feeling kind of miserable.
The weather was grey and dreary and he had loads of homework to do. But instead, he was lying on his bed, on his back, pondering life's miseries with his bedroom ceiling.
I mean, come on!! This is ridiculous! Tai grumbled as he rolled around onto his stomach and glared down at the floor. She's my friend- my childhood friend- my BEST FRIEND!!
They'd gone through so much together! They went to the same school; both went to that weird summer camp, ended up in a different dimension, spent that time in the Digital World together, they were just friends, yeah?
Tai slowly sat up, his brown eyes serious. Surely, it had just been a trick of the eyes or something! He saw Sora everyday at school; she couldn't have just changed like that! She was still Sora!
He concentrated hard, trying to work out when it had all started, when this horrible disaster had reared up its ugly head.
But actually, he'd worked it out. Sure, he may have been the dim-witted and clueless Taichi Kamiya, but he could put two and two together. It wasn't Sora who had changed. It was him.
'cause people don't just grow up in the space of two seconds. It had probably been gradual, which was why he'd never noticed it till now. Sora had grown up.
Tai found his heart pounding away and his face heating up. He covered his mouth with a hand, still trying to get over the shock of yesterday.
He'd finally realized. Poor old dense Tai…
She wasn't just the rowdy tomboy best friend anymore. Sora was a beautiful teenage girl.
---
Tai glared over the top of his textbook with a look that could kill.
Sora was sitting across on the other side of the classroom. He wasn't glaring at her, of course not! But that… that guy!
There was a boy sitting at the desk in front of Sora Takenouchi. He had turned around on his seat to face here, and sat there, swinging back and forth, talking enthusiastically to her. Sora had a bit of a bewildered expression on her face at first but then laughed.
Tai felt his fingers tighten over the pages of his maths textbook so that the paper crinkled. His eyes were narrowed like slits as he stared across the classroom.
He grit his teeth and shot death glares across at the unsuspecting boy. DIE! DIE! DIE!! He seethed.
Suddenly Sora happened to raise her head and look across the classroom and met his eyes. Tai immediately changed his facial expression to one of absolute pleasantness.
The corners of her eyes crinkled as she smiled a small smile back at him before turning back to the boy in front of her. Tai went back to chanting death curses at the boy.
"…Tai?"
Tai looked up to see Izzy standing next to him, trusty laptop in hand as usual. Izzy had both eyebrows raised so high there were almost touching his hairline.
"Why, hello Izzy!" Tai smiled politely.
"…what's with you, Tai?" Izzy wondered.
"What are you talking about, man? I'm completely fine!!" Tai kept smiling as he turned his head back in Sora's direction, pulled a most hideous face and turned back towards Izzy, smiling as wide as ever.
Izzy's face distorted with disbelief.
"Do you… think… mmhm sm kkka… t'be… hm…" Tai mumbled.
"What?" Izzy frowned. He looked down at his good friend, who was now staring rather depressingly at his textbook, his knuckles turning white from how hard he was clutching it.
Izzy looked at Tai and then towards Sora, where Tai had been repeatedly staring at for the last ten minutes. The boy sitting in front of Sora was still deeply engrossed in conversation, and his hand was lightly touching her shoulder as he spoke.
Tai sunk lower in his seat and looked somewhat frustrated at the maths problems in the text book, his cheeks grew a little pink.
Izzy's super-fast brain was working at super speed, putting together facts from what he had witnessed and from Tai's strange behaviour.
"Hey…" Izzy tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow, "You're not jealous, are you?"
Tai's face went bright red and he suddenly jumped up onto his feet, knocking his chair over noisily as he stood. "…I- I AM NOT JEALOUS!!"
The whole classroom was silent. The only sound was the clattering of his chair against the floor.
Tai picked up his chair and sunk into it, mortified.
The class slowly got over what had happened and became noisy again. Izzy bent down and looked worriedly at his friend. "Tai?"
Tai had buried his head down on the desk, his arms covering his eyes, textbook falling down onto his head.
"I'm… not… jealous, okay??" He muttered. "…I'm not!"
A cheeky grin crossed Izzy's face. "Sure fooled me," the computer geek smirked as he walked off.
Why would I be jealous? What have I got to be jealous over??
The textbook slid down over his face as Tai turned to look at Sora. She was smiling and laughing and talking, just like always. She'd been his best friend for so long, this was the girl he'd spent so much time with and yet… how come he'd never noticed how beautiful that smile was?
He grit his teeth as he watched the other guy smile right back at her, a smooth lazy smile. He was standing now, at Sora's side, one hand on her shoulder, the other one gesturing and making actions as he talked.
That was another thing, Tai realized as he let his chin rest on the desk. They were best friends, weren't they?
…was it normal for other boys to just touch a girl's shoulder as they talked? Was it okay for them to just do that? Surely… no-one ever gave it a second thought… right?
But… she's my best friend…
He'd never thought about it. Even when they spent time together, whenever they walked together, they never touched. Was it some unspoken rule that they couldn't bump shoulders, that apart from high-fives or something, they weren't to touch?
It's not like… I should even be thinking this much about all this… His face burned a little and he turned away again. I just… I dunno… its okay to feel a bit possessive, isn't it?
After all, she's my best friend! It's okay to feel angry and want to murder that guy over there, right?
I just… I wanna tell him to back off. To stay away from her. Because she's my best friend!! I just… I just wanna look after her! That's normal, right?
There's nothing wrong with being a little possessive, yeah?
"NOT YOU TOO!! GET AWAY FROM HER!" He screamed as another boy headed towards Sora's desk.
---
"You were really weird in Maths today." Sora said good-naturedly as she and Tai walked home.
Tai flushed with embarrassment. "Mmph…"
Sora laughed a little. "Haha! You're always so goofy, Tai! Like when you suddenly stood up and knocked your chair over!"
Tai grumbled inaudibly and walked a little faster.
Sora hurried to keep up with him. "Hey, Tai!" she pulled a face. "It's okay! You were just really out of it, that's all! You don't have to be embarrassed about it!"
Tai turned to look at her, half skeptical and half hopeful.
She smiled so bright it shocked him.
He stared at her, completely dumbstruck for a second before hurriedly looking away. His heart was racing, and there was this strange, desperate longing in his chest. He felt his face warm up and he desperately told his heart to calm down.
What is this? He thought hopelessly. Why am I reacting like this? As if I haven't ever seen her smile before!!
But… this is all your fault, Sora! Why did you have to smile so cutely at me??
He kept his eyes focused on the ground, one hand clenched tightly to the bag strap over his shoulder as his walked, unable to look at Sora again.
She didn't seem to mind. She was happy, just walking along, humming to herself, her left hand swinging carelessly at her side.
Sometimes guys just put their arms around girls, even when they weren't going out or anything. Sometimes guys were just really casual with this stuff, the girl never seemed to really mind.
But…
Tai glanced at Sora's hand beside his and almost immediately he shoved his hand quickly into his pocket. He couldn't bring himself to even touch her hand.
But sometimes… on a day like today… he wanted to just reach out and grab her hand.
…not because he liked her, heck, of course not!! Hah, that would be ridiculous!
No… just because… just 'cause he was sick of all these guys hitting on her and he wanted to protect her from them.
Just 'cause she was his best friend.
Yeah. Tai thought to himself, feeling somewhat relieved. Just because of that.
Once again, sorry for the long wait! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please read and review!! ^_^ emichii
