Thank God for painkillers, right? I finally finished the seventh chapter, please enjoy! c':

Part Seven

The next day turned out nothing like I planned it. Itachi saw right through my feigned sickness and much to my reluctance, sent me to school telling me if I skipped out a single class he'd have me do after school classes for the rest of the year. Apparently, his opinion was for me to just take the bull by the horns and deal with my embarrassment of yesterday. To say I disagreed was only useless.

In school no one bothered to hide their stares. I felt like a piece of meat in a lion's den, ready to be consumed by the starving public. I was the talk of the school, again. It had come to the point I was almost getting used to it. Perhaps this was my greater calling in life; to be of the amusement of others? Either way I was beginning to believe my theory of being cursed was true.

The library was my escape during lunch break, Sakura and Hinata had tried calling me out but I refused to leave my sanctuary. During lunch the library was mostly empty and so I didn't have to deal with people's stares or crude comments. It was nice for a change and in there I could catch up on some much needed studying.

Lunch break neared its end when a shadow cast over my books and made me look up. I was surprised to see Naruto standing in front of me. Wetting my lips I found myself speechless as I remembered his comment from yesterday.

Naruto wore a troubled expression as he took a seat across of mine. "Hey." He said casually but I could tell there was slight hesitation in his voice. "I've been looking for you."

"Why? To make fun of me like you did yesterday?" I bit back, my hurt from before coming back to me. Somehow whenever it came to Naruto I lost whatever confidence I had and left was only a bundle of anxious nerves.

"I-" Naruto began to say but I quickly cut him off with a glare. My eyes were starting to sting and I sure as hell wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of knowing how much power he held over me.

"You know what. Whatever you have to say keep it to yourself. I don't give a fuck." I said my throat feeling thick. "I need to go." Without waiting for a reply I stacked my books into a pile and took them under my arm and left. Once out of his vision I grabbed at my heart and let out a dry sob. As much as I wanted to hate Naruto I couldn't.

Feeling a buzz in my pocket I fished up my phone and slid my thumb across the screen. Reading one new message I opened it and groaned upon seeing it was from Anko the school counselor.

Hiya Sasuke! Come to my office after school, we'll share some dango and do some seriously wicked boy to girl talk! Inoriiite! Sounds great doesn't it! Can't wait!

Xoxo Anko

Just what I needed! I willed my twitching brow to a stop, Naruto momentarily forgotten. I wanted to reply to tell her what I really thought of her but my better judgment held me back. Knowing Itachi, he would only tell my parents and that was a circus I rather avoided.

I grunted as I thought of the letter lying on the desk in my room at home.

3. The only people more pathetic than you are your friends. Drop the dead weight.

Whoever wrote the letter had obviously not met Anko. The woman was an incarnation of the Janitor from the show scrubs. They were just as awkward, annoying and odd only the Janitor was just a fictional character, Anko was not. It wasn't hard to guess what role she had played out in High school. Che.

The rest of the day's classes passed in the blink of an eye. The second to last class was finally over when Hinata and I waved Sakura good bye. She took history while we had art class. On our way passed one of the bathrooms I pulled Hinata to the side and told her to wait outside. Caught by surprise Hinata nodded and slurred something under her breath I couldn't make out.

Inside the bathroom I went up to one of the faucets to wash my hands. It was during our last class I'd accidentally touched something gooey that now made my hands smell like something akin to a rotten fish. Yeah, it was pretty disgusting.

Out of pure habit I looked up when the door to the bathroom opened and watched a rather tall guy with a strange grin on his lips enter. I silently scoffed at his macho looking attitude and went back to drying my hands. When I turned to walk back to Hinata the guy stepped in front of me and if possible his beaming smile grew even wider. Feeling my private space being invaded I tried to walk passed him but he extended his hand and grabbed a hold of my wrist. "Hey." He said his voice smooth and in my opinion way too confident. It wasn't hard to figure out what he wanted.

I pulled my hand back and fixed him under a glare, trying to look as intimidating as I could even if he was about a head taller than me. "Look, I need to get to class so would you move." I said while clicking my tongue annoyed. It took a lot of restraint to not just push him out of my way.

The guy chuckled as I watched him close the remaining distance between us. "I saw the posters yesterday and I must say I totally dig." No fucking way. No one says 'dig' anymore. I watched him, horrified, as he made a pass on me and actually dared to touch my butt. I quickly slapped his hand away my glare intensifying. "Don't ever do that again!" I growled and shoved him out of my way, tired of playing it nice as it so obviously didn't work.

But the guy was persistent and jogged up to me. "Don't be like that." He said, apparently dead set on keeping me in the room and reached out to grab a hold of me again. Feeling my temper had reached its limit I boxed him in the stomach effectively knocking the breath out of his lungs. For once I felt thankful Itachi used me as his own punching bag when we were younger, at least it had taught me how to defend myself.

I left the guy on the floor, rolling my eyes at his easy defeat. When I then exited the bathroom students were gathered around the door in a half circle, ogling me as if I had just killed a man.

"What?" I asked my voice coming out darker than it should have. The door wasn't see-through, it was impossible they knew what had happened on the other side. I scanned the small crowd and noticed Naruto was one of them. For some reason he gave me a look of anger and then walked away with a shake of his head.

I searched for Hinata and quickly found her asking her what I had so obviously missed.

"T-the guy who entered said he and you were going to do s-stuff…" Hinata explained, her eyes shifting nervously from side to side. "D-Do you know him Sasuke?"

"Of course I don't." I said grounding my teeth. I'd never seen the creep until that moment ago and I rather had it stay that way. "Exactly what do you mean by stuff…?"

"Y-you know, s-stuff…"

Feeling my face heat up, I snatched back my books from Hinata. "We're getting late to class." I mumbled annoyed and without waiting pushed my way through the dissolving crowd.

When school was finally out I drew a silent breath of relief, now I could go back to hiding my face for the rest of the day. But first, I had to make the quick stop by the student counselor. The talk with Anko was a repeat of our other exchanges. Her overly elated brashness annoyed me to the point I almost considered stabbing her with the pencil she used to twiddle between her fingers with.

Whatever I said she always gave my words a misleading twist.

"I want you to know we're doing everything to find whoever did take that picture of you yesterday Sasuke. It wasn't a very nice thing to do."

No shit. "Hn."

"It's okay, between you and me as soon as we find them, we'll make them pay. Won't we Sasuke?" Anko winked and leaned back satisfied in her seat.

"Right..." Crazy woman. Not sure of what to say I decided to change the topic. "I have a question…"

"Really?" Anko cheered almost jumping in her seat. I could only guess why. "Tell me!"

"Uh yeah," Frowning, I hesitated for a second to choose my next words wisely. "I've been wondering when I can stop coming to these meetings…" It was weird. It felt like I was breaking up with her.

"Stop coming…" Anko repeated while quirking her eyebrows making it easy for me to read her surprise.

"Yeah…"

"Why do you want this to end? Don't you like me is that it? You think you're all better and don't need me anymore right?"

"I-" I began but was cut off.

"Because I'll tell you right now, you might think you're all high and mighty with those good looks of yours but that doesn't allow you to walk all over me. "

"But I'm not." I pressed my brow strained.

"You have to understand the reason I'm doing this is to keep you safe and alive." Anko gave me a look of pity and that was all it took for me to cry out, "I don't need your protection. There's nothing wrong with me!"

Anko pursed her lips and I could tell she disagreed. "You can't bottle everything up Sasuke. You're only human and it's definitely not healthy. I want you to see my room as a safe zone, a place to share your secrets. It would pain me a lot if you were to try committing suicide again. You're my most favorite student don't you see that?" She leaned over the desk and playfully nudged me in the stomach but before I had the time to tell her off she was already back in her seat, arranging the papers scattered on her desk.

"I think that finishes everything for now unless you have something else to add?" She said and gave me an expectant look.

"Hn." Schizo bitch.

Xx

Come nightfall and I laid on my bed checking my blabberzone account. Since my recent boost in 'popularity' my notifications was filled with random friend requests and inappropriate comments. So far in total eight people wanted to date me while two just wanted to fuck.

I rolled to the side and let out a sigh of exasperation. Apparently people weren't ready to let me forget my most recent embarrassment just yet. I gazed back at the computer and halfheartedly scrolled down the site to see if there was anyone worth answering.

Need 2 talk 2 U…

My heart made a small hoop when I noticed Naruto had messaged me but I quickly clicked delete, set on ignoring whatever he had to say. When it came to Naruto, my best choice was to just forget about him. And that was just what I would do.

I shut the lid closed, deciding on watching a movie to take my mind off of everything else. Thirty minutes into the movie I started nodding off. The movie I watched was In Time but the plot was getting old and the main characters Robin Hood complex was growing annoying.

I sighed out loud and made to shut the movie off when I felt someone standing behind me. I threw my head to the side, half expecting it to be Itachi back from work, but instead my eyes landed on a tall blond. "What are you doing here? Never mind how did you get in!" I asked although I already knew the answer to the latter one. Stupid Itachi.

"Please just hear me out before you kick me out." It was Naruto standing in my room. Had I fallen asleep or was Naruto actually standing in my room?

"Hn." I said somewhere between a scoff and a grunt. A part of me jumped of joy, while the other questioned the blond's motive. To say I was surprised was an understatement. I watched him nervously shift his feet on the thick carpet, his eyes going everywhere but me.

"Uhm," he started. His face looked troubled and all I wanted was to say something to ease his anxiousness but I remained firmly in place, reminding myself of what Naruto had said the other day. "I'm here because you… you won't let me apologize… I'm so sorry. About yesterday… What you heard."

"It's fine. I'm over it." I mumbled looking away from Naruto. It was a lie but I didn't like when others held an upper hand over me. Better I felt like shit rather than anyone knowing about it.

"But it's not fine!" Naruto barked out obviously frustrated but by what I couldn't tell. He closed the distance between us and grabbed my hand to squeeze it lightly. I wanted to pull away yet my hand remained still.

"I want you to know I wasn't trying to make fun of you. I guess I just wanted to take some of the attention off of the pictures, trust me. I actually think you look pretty hot... "A long moment passed when we just stared at each other, my mind busy fighting a minor civil war on whether to forgive him or not. However, it didn't take long until I settled on which one.

I drew a heavy breath enough to make me slightly dizzy and stood on my tiptoes to press my lips against Naruto's. I could tell Naruto's insecurities but as soon as I pushed up against his body to deepen the kiss, his hands came to rest on my hips and he responded by pushing his tongue inside my mouth. The kiss we shared seemed to last forever before we pulled apart to catch our breath.

"You're an idiot." My voice came out below a whisper even though I tried to put as much force into it as possible. Naruto had once again managed to sweep me off my feet and I was immediately thrown back in Lala-land.

"I know." Naruto chuckled but I could tell he was serious. Naruto cared and by knowing that I pressed our lips together again. Perhaps it was time I made some lemonade out of all the lemons.

tbc

I just want to steal a second to once again thank all of you for your lovely reviews. They help keep me going! love you guys~