Digimon does not belong to me! If it did, Tai and Sora would be together, and I wouldn't be writing this!! Thankyou so much to everyone for the reviews! ^_^ Hope you enjoy this next chapter just as much!
Chapter 7: There is No Mathematics to Love
"I don't get it! How could she misunderstand me like that?" Tai complained loudly, leaning back on his chair.
"Maybe its cause you told her you didn't think of her as a best friend anymore," Mimi said absentmindedly, texting on her mobile phone as she sat next to Tai.
Tai stopped leaning backwards and straightened up, rocking forward and hitting the desk with his elbows, a frown on his face.
"But that's not what I meant!" and the poor boy let out a world-weary sigh. He simply didn't understand, could not work out the complex infrastructure known as the female mind.
Tai and Mimi were sitting at their desks in Maths class. As usual, class time was used for talking and mucking about, not actual learning. Since Tai was pretty good friends with Mimi and Mimi was Sora's closest friend after Tai, he figured that she might be able to tell him what had happened.
After all, girls were weird. He and Sora might be best friends, well, were best friends until now; but their best friendship was different from others. Sora was still a girl, like every other girl, and had to talk and chatter with Mimi and her other girlfriends constantly. In the same way, Tai needed his mates to talk and mess around with.
But STILL! Tai felt like tearing his hair out. IT DOESN'T MEAN WE CAN'T BE BEST FRIENDS!!
Mimi actually put down her phone, and turned to look at Tai with a serious expression on her face. "Then what did you mean?"
Tai's voice was stuck in his throat and at once, his face began heating up. He tried to pull himself together, find his voice. He tried to chuckle. "Eh, wait?" he managed.
Mimi wasn't going to fall for it. Her brown eyes were narrowed as she stared at him. "You told Sora that you didn't think of her as a best friend anymore. But you didn't mean that in the way that she took it."
Suddenly, Mimi paused and her eyes widened a little as though something had just clicked. And then, a small smirk pulled at her lips and she snickered, "What other way could you have meant it?"
"Huh?" Tai felt his pulse increase. "What? What are you talking about?" His voice came out harried and nervous. His cheeks slowly turned red.
Mimi ignored him and went on to look at Sora, sitting near the front of the classroom. She had greeted Tai this morning, but it was obvious she had been giving him the silent treatment since then. Mimi turned her head back and looked at Tai, who was sinking down deeper into his chair.
"Tai!" Her voice came out accusingly, and Tai cringed. "You like her, don't you?"
"What?" Tai said automatically, "No! No, of course not, what on earth made you think that? There's no way- Oh, who am I kidding?" Tai sighed and slumped over.
Mimi looked at Tai incredously. And her smirk deepened.
Tai flushed. "Okay!" He burst out, "Leave me alone! I like Sora! So what?" He was meant to sound angry and defensive, but failed, his voice sinking fainter and desperate as he face-planted himself into the desk, covering up his red face with his hands.
Mimi smiled to herself as she picked up her phone and started texting again.
---
"Matt? What's up?" Tai frowned at his blonde friend, who was being surprisingly silent all day.
"…Nothing," Matt replied, somewhat sullenly, closing his locker door heavily, ignoring the love letters that were falling out and getting caught in the door.
"No, seriously," Tai walked faster to catch up with his friend. "What's up? Are you okay?"
It was strange to see his usually cheeky friend be so quiet. Tai knew that Matt often acted shallow and superficial at school, when the girls were constantly throwing themselves at him, but he knew Matt much better than that.
Matt continued to ignore Tai, but as a group of girls passed by, he casually lifted a hand and smiled gorgeously at them, causing them to trip over each other as they turned back to gaze in awe at him.
"Matt! Wait up!" Tai cried out and gritting his teeth had to run through the crowded corridor. "Tell me what's wrong?"
But just then, walking right past him was Sora, and Tai had no choice but to stop and turn, stare at her as she passed by. She was still giving Tai the silent treatment, and didn't even lift her head to look at him. She went on her way, with Mimi beside her, talking cheerfully.
"Tai…"
Tai was surprised to see that Matt had also stopped ahead of him in the corridor. The blonde boy turned around slowly, his icy blue eyes flashing angrily.
"…yeah?" he looked at his scary friend.
"I saw you talking with Mimi during Maths today." Matt deadpanned, "How come you wouldn't tell me who you liked?"
"What?" Tai was stunned, his face suddenly growing pink.
"Don't try to deny it!" Matt snapped. "I'm like your best mate! Why wouldn't you tell me?"
"But-" Tai started.
"I'm not stupid!" Matt said, his eyes narrowed as he pointed a finger at Tai accusingly. "It's Mimi, isn't it?"
Tai stared gobsmacked at Matt. "…what?"
"Like I said, you were talking to her this morning. And yesterday, I did see you looking at her! And just then, you turned around just as she walked past." Matt said, his voice getting faster.
"No, no, no, no, no, Matt!!" Tai burst out. "You're wrong!!"
Matt stopped, and his eyes widened. As though he couldn't possibly believe that he could be wrong. "What?" For some reason, he couldn't help feeling a little bit relieved.
Wait! This is stupid, Matt shook his head. Why am I relieved? He snuck a look down the corridor at Mimi and sniffed to himself. Ha, I'm just glad Tai's not stupid enough to fall for someone as annoying and bossy as her!
Tai's face was bright red. "It's not Mimi, okay?" He said, "It's…" Tai scowled and glared down at the ground, his face flushing. "…Sora," he muttered.
"Oh." Matt blinked. "Oh." And then, almost as fast as he had snapped and lost his temper, his impertinent grin was back on his face. "In that case…" The blonde walked back over to Tai and slung an arm around his shoulder, "Why don't you ask her out already?"
Tai was confused. Matt really marched to the beat of his own drum. Just a second ago, he was acting angry and now here he was, all chummy and charming again.
"But- I-I can't!" Tai cried. "She's… she's my best friend!!"
At Matt's cynical look, Tai added, sullenly, "…well, she was."
Tai turned, but down the hallway, Sora was already gone.
---
It was the afternoon after a long school day. Tai wandered miserably from his locker to the oval for soccer training, his gear bag slung over one shoulder. Sora had been ignoring him all day!! He kept trying to find her and apologize! Even if she went back to thinking they were best friends, it'd be better than being ignored by her! 'cause he very much preferred for her to be beside him, rather than acting like he didn't exist. He'd rather her not notice that he thought of her as more than a friend, than not have her friendship at all.
"Tai!"
He could recognize that voice anywhere!
"Sora!" He turned to face her, his heart beating faster, so glad that she was talking to him! But then his heart quickly fell.
She wasn't quite meeting his gaze, her eyes were lowered somewhat to the ground and her delightful smile was nowhere on her face. Beside her stood her friend, a girl with long blonde hair whom Tai had seen before.
"Tai," she said quietly, till not quite meeting his eyes and smiling faintly. "I wanna introduce you to my friend. This is Catherine."
Tai blinked in confusion, and then forced a smile. "Hi,"
Catherine smiled and blushed. Tai raised a hand to his head and scratched his brown hair thoughtfully.
"Um…" Catherine bowed her head, her face flushed. "Actually, I've been watching you for a while, Tai, and I've seen all your soccer matches and I…"
Tai watched the blonde girl stammer out her words quietly, flushing the whole time. Looking up, he realized that Sora was carefully walking away, leaving the two of them alone together.
He couldn't help it, watching his former best friend- the girl of his dreams- walk away like that…
"I… I'm sorry!" He burst out, bowing his head to Catherine in apology; and running down the corridor as fast as he could after Sora.
---
"Sora!! SORAA!! Wait!!" Tai shouted as he went tearing down the corridor and down the stairs, out onto the pavement.
He knew she could hear him, but damn, that girl was still as feisty and stubborn as ever!
Dammit!! Tai swore under his breath as he ran even faster. His gear bag was thudding against his side heavily and he was going to be late for soccer training if he kept running in the other direction!
"SORA!!" He screamed out.
What's the big idea? Dammit, Sora, I will never understand you girls! So we had an argument yesterday! You wouldn't even give me the chance to explain!! You say hi to me this morning and then ignore me for the rest of the day!! What the hell?
Why are you introducing me to some other girl now??
Tai breathed hard, but didn't stop running. He could still see Sora in front of him, her red hair glinting in the sunlight.
"SORA! LISTEN TO ME!!" He shouted, finally catching up to her, reaching up to her and grabbing her arm.
She turned grudgingly, her red eyes irritated, refusing to look at him. "What?"
"Why have you been ignoring me all day? And what was with that just then?" He demanded.
"You're the one who said you didn't want to be best friends with me anymore!" She retorted, and her voice was angry, but her facial expression was obviously hurt.
"But you didn't give me any chance to explain! And you've been avoiding me all day!"
"Fine," Sora snapped. And she crossed her arms and stood there, staring at Tai. "Give me an explanation."
"I didn't mean it yesterday," Tai tried to sound as genuine as possible. "Sora, you're my… best friend." he managed to say, even though he knew he was lying and damn, it hurt to even say that.
Sora- lovely, beautiful Sora just stood there, her red eyes focused on him cynically. Finally, her gaze softened a little.
"I'm sorry, Sora!" He said, "I'm sorry that we had a misunderstanding, that we had an argument yesterday. But I really, really am sorry, Sora! And I can't stand it when we're not talking, when you're ignoring me all day, can't we just…"
And he knew he was lying to himself, and he felt his heart break all the time while he was speaking. Tai lowered his gaze so that she couldn't see his eyes. "Can't we just… be best friends again?"
Sora's eyes were wide and he looked up again to look at her dear sweet face.
He had to clench his hands into fists and gather up all his courage to keep talking. "'cause I do think of you as a best friend!" he said seriously. And as he kept going, he felt his heart sink deeper with every word. "You will always be my best friend, Sora!"
And Tai watched her critically. And slowly, Sora smiled, her lovely honest smile.
"You idiot, Taichi." she said bluntly and pulled a face at him. She laughed a little and walked up to him and hugged him quickly. Tai felt his face flush.
"It's okay!" she said cheerfully. "We'll always be best friends forever, Tai!"
But hearing those words seemed to make it hurt even more. And having her hug him so quickly, just like that, made him feel empty as she left.
"Oh yeah!" Sora turned around for a moment. "You really are a dolt, Tai! Catherine's been wanting to meet you for ages! She even wrote you a love letter, but you stupidly threw it away!"
"Ehh? What?" Tai cried, his face turning red.
Sora grinned cheekily. "I think she likes you," she sang teasingly.
What? WHY?? Tai thought desperately. He gazed forlornly at the girl walking away from him. Yeah. Just my luck. To get introduced to a girl by the girl I like.
Tai watched his 'best friend' walk away, his heart thumping painfully with each step she took. He couldn't help it, suddenly, she turned around again and he was shocked and there was this stupid hope that seemed to jump inside him.
Sora was sticking out her tongue at him. "Why are you still standing there, Tai? You're already late for soccer training!!"
"…what?" Tai blinked. "AHHH CRAP!!"
And Taichi Kamiya went running crazily through the school again.
Sora has spunk! Actually, I've written so many taioras, but I never really got a chance to show Sora's feistiness and stubbornness! After all, who didn't love Sora and Tai's fight in Digimon the movie? I needed a chapter title and it just popped up suddenly from an Anberlin song that started playing! I'm also afraid that Matt's appearing really shallow and stupid currently, so I'll have to do a bit of developing on his part. FEED ME REVIEWS!! …please! ^_^
