"Come in," Itachi commanded in response to a knock on the door to his room.
Shisui and Sasuke entered, bearing more cupcakes and also pizza and soda.
"Sakura, I'm sorry," Shisui began. "We should've told you that it was a fake fight. It's just difficult to trust strangers."
"Tell me about it," I replied sarcastically. "Apology accepted, I shouldn't have gotten so upset about that," I continued, swallowing my pride as I admitted to having overreacted.
"Me too," Sasuke agreed, and thrust the box of pizza in my direction. "Here."
I raised an eyebrow; Sasuke hadn't specified whom he was agreeing with, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed he was agreeing with Shisui's apology. Apparently the younger Uchiha had more trouble forming the words "I'm sorry."
Sasuke opened the pizza box so I could see what kind of pizza it was: half bacon and half meat-lover's. How very manly a choice. I couldn't hold anything against the choice because bacon pizza smells majestic, so I tore a piece off and started eating it, only realizing how hungry I was when the slice was suddenly gone and I was reaching for another one.
Just how long have we been working? We finished reading Candide, now we just need to start creating our ten-minute play summary. It's good to have a comedy because people always like a performance better if you make them laugh. Might be difficult for them to laugh at Itachi though… Hmmm…
"…right, Sakura?" someone asked me.
"Could you repeat that?" I asked, a little embarrassed that I was so focused on ways to tell people it would be okay to laugh at Itachi. My mom would always complain that I was never focused on now, but rather always focused on then or if.
"Shisui was telling us how amazing you thought his cupcakes were and how you even thought he should open a shop to sell them," Sasuke affirmed.
I smiled and reached for another cupcake, finishing it off before I replied.
"Most definitely. I can't believe you haven't had any yet, are you cupcake-abstinent or something?" I questioned, looking accusingly at Itachi. "I mean, I knew you were prude, but that's a bit extreme."
Shisui started laughing and Sasuke smirked, both obviously enjoying my verbal jab.
"If I'm cupcake-abstinent, that makes you a cupcake whore," Itachi replied matter-of-factly, looking pointedly at what would be my fifth total cupcake.
Sasuke glared at Itachi and Shisui slapped Itachi's arm, saying, "Don't you dare say that to her, even if you're talking about cupcakes."
"It's okay," I intervened. "He's just jealous because he's not a cupcake."
I let a smirk slip across my face and stood up.
"I should be getting home now, I guess I'll see all of you tomorrow," I concluded. "So who wants to drive me home?"
Itachi stood, handing me my bag from its place at his feet. As I slipped the strap over my shoulder, Shisui got up and spread his arms out in my direction, which confused me until suddenly his arms were around me. I tensed, and then relaxed, remembering it was Shisui with his arms around me, the boy who gave me cupcakes, the boy who wasn't interested in women anyway. He said goodbye and pushed a box of what he said were brownies into my arms. Sasuke started in my direction, unsure of how to say farewell and I extended a hand to give an awkward handshake while trying to hold onto the oblong brownie box with my other hand.
Itachi led the way back to the foyer with the skylight, where I fastened my shoes. I looked out the large, star-shaped skylight, noticing that it was late enough for the stars to be pinching the black from the ceiling of the world.
How long have I been here?
We walked to his car in silence, the only sound being the grating of shoes against stone steps and then their scuffle against smooth tar.
Itachi unlocked his car and I opened the passenger door gingerly, deciding how I would get in without bumping my bag or the box against his perfect paint job.
"You can put those in the back," Itachi offered, popping the trunk open. He took my bag and box, set them down himself, and closed the trunk all in one smooth motion.
I stroked the car with the back of my hand, marveling at how it seemed to sparkle in the dim light. I didn't know that the color blue could be that luminous.
"Would you like to drive it?"
I blinked, completely sure that I had imagined those words falling from Itachi's mouth.
"Did you just offer to let me drive?" I asked, not even bothering to disguise the surprise in my voice.
"No, I asked you to tie my shoe."
I looked down at Itachi's shoe, the very same shoe that I had been so happy to see earlier that day, the shoe that waited in front of my new apartment to make sure I got in, the shoe I accidentally kicked a pebble at, the shoe that led me to cupcakes and an exciting day, and the perfectly tied shoe that was now offering to let me drive an Audi R8.
"If I'm drooling, it is so not my fault," I replied in awe as Itachi dropped into the passenger seat.
"Just be gentle with her," Itachi said as I walked around to the driver's side.
"Her?" I queried with a smile as I sank into the slick leather seat and set my hands on the wheel.
"I name my cars too."
"Do you now? What's her name?"
"Pushkari. Kari for short. It's Sanskrit for 'like the blue lotus.'"
That's a nice meaning and all, but it's so obscure… What will he name his poor children?
It was nerve-wracking to drive such a nice car; I was so paranoid of hitting things that I was reminded of my first day out with Gala.
However, despite how nervous I was while driving the car, I felt absolutely exhilarated when I parked, so exhilarated that I didn't stop myself from hugging Itachi the second he stood from the car.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou," I told the grease stain on his crisp white shirt.
He was stiff in my arms.
"You handle it well. I apologize," he replied, and gave a quick, weak hug back.
I let go and stepped back, wondering what he was apologizing for.
"…that makes you a cupcake whore"
Ohhhh.
"It really wasn't that offensive a comment. If you called me an actual whore, however… Well let's just not find out what would happen if you did that. Anyway, don't worry about it. Oh, what are we going to do about finishing our work tomorrow? Or we could do it Sunday, it should only take a couple of hours to create and practice a mini play," I rambled on.
"Tomorrow would be better."
"Okay, then how about we do it at one of our homes?"
Itachi raised an eyebrow at me and I realized how what I just said could be taken the wrong way. I bit my thumb at him.
"These aren't Shakespearian times; people are more likely to be turned on by that than insulted."
I blinked. I was surprised that he realized I was biting my thumb as a Shakespearian insult instead of as a bad habit.
"It's that much better when someone doesn't know you're insulting them, I was actually surprised that even you noticed," I replied.
"Even me?" Itachi smirked. I almost smacked myself for implying that he was someone special.
"Yeah, you're a senior. You're supposed to know more than me, even if we are in the same literature class. Romeo and Juliet was a terrible play anyway, I should have taken something from Macbeth."
"You just get more and more interesting," was Itachi's response and it seemed to surprise him as much as it did me.
"What's so interesting?" I asked with a furrowed brow.
"While some people might call Romeo and Juliet cliché or inane, they wouldn't call it terrible. Especially if they were a girl."
"Oh don't be so sexist. It's terrible because Romeo's a pansy and Juliet's overly dramatic."
"'Oh no, Rosaline won't have sex with me, life is over, love suc— Look at that girl, I must be in love, she even understands my euphemisms!'" Itachi said in a purposely high voice, mocking Romeo.
"'Hey Romeo,'" I began in as deep a voice I could muster, "'touching hands is like making out. Why are you Romeo? You should be Fred or Joe; I can't be seen with a guy named Romeo. Let me fake my own death to be with you, then you can change your name.'"
"'Juliet is dead! How can I live without her? I can't, she wouldn't want me to live and be happy; I should just kill myself so we can both be dead!'" Itachi slumped to the ground, pretending to be dead.
"'Romeo is dead! He must have thought I was dead! Sweet dagger, kill me because Romeo wouldn't want me to live and be happy, he'd want me to die!'" I mimed stabbing myself and fell dramatically next to Itachi.
I burst out laughing and he joined me. We sat there laughing until my sides hurt. Finally, Itachi stood, said he needed to get going, and pointed to the door to my apartment, where my sister stood waiting for me.
Maybe it won't be so hard to get people to laugh at our play after all…
A knock on the door to my room woke me up the next morning. I fell asleep after showering, putting away all of the things I brought from our house, telling my sister not to eat my brownies, and moving my bed next to the window. For some reason, Dearest Sister hadn't badgered me about who the boy she saw me with was. Maybe she'd never ask.
"Hey, Pinky, there's a boy at the door who says you have some project to do. I let him in because he looks like the same one as last night," Dearest Sister informed me.
I bolted out of bed, grabbing some clothes and heading to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth and tugged a hairbrush along at the same time. Thankfully I like to shower at night, so I didn't have to shower before meeting Itachi. I threw on a new set of clothing and dashed out of my room and into the main room of the apartment.
I didn't realize that we forgot to make plans to meet.
"I was concerned that perhaps you had morning plans," Itachi began with a bemused expression, "but it seems as if that is not the case."
What is he so smug about?
I glanced down to make sure I'd dressed myself properly. Yep, all my clothing was in the right spots, but…
"It was my mom's," I explained, my fingers fiddling with the hem of the shirt I was referring to. "I got it for her last Christmas."
"I'm guessing she was blond," Itachi replied.
"How did you know?" I asked sarcastically, knowing full well that the shirt insinuated that much.
I thought back to that Christmas morning; things were so simple then. It was before Mom met that American man, Craig. She was single and happy to be unattached. When I handed her the slim box wrapped in blue snowflakes and tied with a silver ribbon, she smiled at me. When she ripped open the wrapping paper and even tore the white box a little, she smiled even wider, holding the shirt up so Dearest Sister could see too. It was blue and said "Dumb Blond" with a picture of a blond girl who had a zipper instead of a mouth. My sister put on a serious face and asked what it meant. Mom and I started laughing until we realized she was serious. Thank goodness Ayame hadn't inherited our mom's hair color.
"Hun, 'dumb' is another word for 'mute.'"
And then Dearest Sister was laughing too. Mom promised to wear the shirt the next day she had work and it became Dearest Sister's turn to open a present.
I frowned.
Mom smiled like that when she met Craig too. And the last time she smiled—
Itachi's hand waving in front of my face broke my train of thought.
"Are you okay?" he asked. He had a frown to match my own; he must have been trying to catch my attention for a while.
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," I said with finality. "Now stop finding excuses to stare at me and let's get to work."
Does anyone know if they actually sell shirts like that? I would so buy one.
Anyway, leave a review; let me know what you thought of this chapter :)