Hey guys, how's your summer been? I've been sleeping all day and staying up late watching movies so yeah that's my excuse for taking over a month to write the next chapter ok sorry…enjoy~~
I woke up to shouting.
"No! You come home so late, I'm already asleep by the time you drag your ass to bed!"
"Please, Mitsuko. I have work to do after hours."
"You never worked this late before!"
"Well, things have changed. I've been swamped with new partnerships and I'm on the design team for the new courthouse down by Lakeshore."
"Well it's not difficult to do your work here. At home. With your family. At least come in time for a late dinner once in a while?"
"I can't. I will get distracted and it will take longer for me to get my work done."
My mother's screams died down, her voice weakening. I could hear her sniffling from behind my closed bedroom door. Once I realized what the screaming was about and who was arguing with who, I stayed put in my bed, still enveloped in my blanket.
"Do you not care about us?"
"Of course I do."
I couldn't grasp on to what they said next as they both lowered their voices, the eye of the argument perhaps? Let's hope not.
I finally got my ass up, no longer worried about them realizing I heard their little argument and walked over to my bathroom. I was ready and dressed within fifteen minutes and my mother put on her cheery smile bidding me a 'good morning'. My dad had already left as I heard the garage door rumble while I was emptying my bladder.
My mom offered me a ride to school as I was tying up the laces to my newly-paint-splattered shoes. I like them. They make me seem more artistic. I accepted her offer and arrived safely regardless of my mom taking the left turn lane and cutting off the guy in the middle lane in the center of the intersection. Again.
I was sitting in my seat, sipping on my water when Naruto walked in looking kind of down. Jeez. Was the moron still worried about me presumably hating him? God. I needed to set things straight.
"Hey Naruto, come over here." He whipped his head in my direction, clearly surprised that I spoke to him and hesitated for a moment before he made his way to my desk.
"What's up Sakura?" His lower abdomen (not his crotch, ladies!) pressed against the top right corner of my desk. He had a painful look in his eyes.
"Look, I know that you feel like I don't want to be your guys' friend anymore, but that's not true."
He said nothing, silently telling me to continue my little explanation that I definitely did not practice in the mirror last night!
"I don't know if you caught on or if the others told you but me and Ino had a little fight."
He nodded his head.
"It doesn't really matter what about, she just said some hurtful things and I don't want to be around her."
"Ya, she seems down lately." Naruto [finally] added to the conversation.
I nodded. "We made plans to talk tonight. So hopefully things will be back to normal soon?" It came out as a question.
Naruto seemed to feel relieved. "Good. I've been worried. About what you said. I thought you didn't want to be my friend anymore. You told Shika that something was going on with Ino but you texted me saying that you didn't feel good. I…I felt like you didn't want to talk to me about things that you know…that friends tell other friends…"
I nodded. "Oh Naruto, you know I don't like talking about my feelings. And it was just one of those excuses you say in the moment when you don't want to talk about something. I knew you'd pry and wouldn't leave me alone when I needed my alone time so I just told you that. I didn't mean to hurt you."
He nodded. "Good. I missed you." He rasped.
"I missed all of you guys." I cracked a smile.
He took a seat beside me. "You guys better patch things up."
"I hope so."
In writer's craft, something happened. Something that I would never expect to happen. Ever. In my life. Neji Hyuuga, THE Neji Hyuuga approached me as I walked through the door. And said hi. And asked if my name was Sakura. And proceeded to follow me to my desk after I nodded and said that yes, Sakura was my name, indeed. He did the same thing Naruto did and pressed his abdomen to the same corner of my desk. What is it with guys and their crotches coming so close the very corners of my desks?
"You're friends with that girl Tenten, right?" Ah, I see why he was talking to me but I decided to play dumb for the time being.
I shrugged. "Ya, we're pretty close. Why?"
"Uh well…" He scratched his head awkwardly. Was Neji Hyuuga nervous? Oh my Jesus. I will remember this moment for the remainder of my life.
I raised an eyebrow.
"Ok look," He sat down in Sasuke's seat and turned his body towards me. I mirrored his action. "I think she's cool and I saw her play soccer and she's really cu- I mean, I wanna get to know her…"
I gave him a suggestive smile and wiggled my eyebrows. Just to make him even more nervous.
He chuckled a bit. "So will you help me out? I saw you guys horsing around in your last period class, I was walking by, and I assumed you were good friends?" His last sentence came out as a question.
I nodded. "Ya we're good friends and ya, sure I'll hint to her and start bringing you up in our little conversations." I wiggled my eyebrows again.
"Here's the thing, though. I've never spoken to her before."
I patted his shoulder. "You my friend are hopeless."
He gave a somewhat nervous laugh.
"Don't worry I'll help you out." He still had some traces of worry in his eyes but overall, he looked relieved. He gave a slight nod. "Thanks Saku-"
"You're in my seat, Hyuuga." A familiar voice interrupted.
We both looked up to see a somewhat peeved Uchiha looking down at us –well just Neji – with an irritated expression. I took my hand off Neji's shoulder and said person gave Sasuke the same suggestive smile I gave him as we were talking about Tenten. Aw hell no. He stood up and put his hands up, in a gesture of defence.
"My apologies, Uchiha."
He got up, with the same smirk, and looked in my direction. "Thanks, Sakura-Chan." He put emphasis on my name and the 'chan'.
"Oh, it's my pleasure, Neji-kun." I played along with his game. Sasuke seemed to be more irritated and dropped into his seat quite gracefully as soon as Hyuuga's back was turned.
"What the hell was that?" He pretty much spat in my face.
"Whatever do you mean?" I gave him an innocent smile.
"You know what I mean, Sakura." The way he said my name, the way he said my name. No need to be so rude and abrupt, Uchiha!
"Oh come on. Is it so hard to believe that someone like Neji Hyuuga would ask out someone like me, Sakura Haruno?"
He turned his body toward me like Neji had previously done.
"What?" Some of his saliva spat and I think it would be safe to say that some of that saliva was laced with venom.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. He likes Tenten."
He relaxed a bit (insert giggles here). "And the fool can't muster up the courage to ask her out on his own?"
"Basically." He chuckled. Probably at the fact the Neji Hyuuga needs help with girls and that he actually asked for some. Or at his conclusion jumping.
"So how's Ino?" Thanks for reminding me…
"Conversation of doom tonight at 7."
"Hope you guys patch things up."
I turned to look at him. He was facing the front of the class. "Yeah, me too."
It was 6:54 and I was waiting in front of the sushi place, sitting on the curb of an empty parking space. Me and Ino always waited for each other outside of our pre-planned destinations. I always came early. I hated being late, and if I couldn't come right on time, I'd be there with minutes to spare. I took the bus so I couldn't wait in my [mom's] car.
I saw the nose of a deep blue Honda civic and began to stand up. My heart rate accelerated a bit. Ino waved to me from the driver's seat and began to park in the spot I was sitting in front of. I waved back and we gave each other weak smiles as she slammed her door shut. We walked inside, exchanging 'hey's' and were seated at a booth on the left side of the restaurant.
We didn't start speaking until we filled out the sheets of what we wanted to start with. I check marked pretty much the whole sashimi and hand roll section whereas Ino wanted to start light and checked off miso soup and edamame. We gave the paper menu to the waitress –who barely spoke English, mind you – and began sipping on our drinks. Ino, green tea. Me, water. I hate tea. Especially flavourless green tea.
"Look," Ino started. I averted my gaze on my straw to the girl in front of me. "I really, honestly take back what I said. I just said it to hurt you and so you'd come back to us."
"I und-" "Let me finish." She cut me off, but I nodded and let her proceed. I didn't want to talk anyways. "I feel like shit. I just always kind of, you know, liked Sasuke and wanted to be his friend and be apart of his 'popular' group and when you started hanging around him all the time…I just got jealous and I feel really terrible."
I nodded. "Don't worry about it, he's not stealing me from you guys and I sure as hell will not be hanging around his group of moronic friends."
She gave a light laugh. "I just…I just got worried. I felt like I, we were losing you."
"You weren't. I love you guys and I'm really sorry if I've been distant lately. I've just been really busy and when I had free time I just wanted be alone, you know?"
She nodded. "You did absolutely nothing wrong, don't apologize. Do you forgive me?"
I nodded. "Of course. I understand that you were just PMSing or something… " I broke into a toothy grin. She did as well. "Shut up!" We both laughed.
She got up to slide in beside me and give me a make-up hug. Im not a 'hug' person but I returned it with equal enthusiasm and squeezing. She returned to her seat in front of me and told me that if I didn't eat lunch with them on Monday, she'd "kick my ass". The waitress placed a platter of sashimi that could feed 3 people and a soup bowl on the table.
As soon as she left, Ino decided it was time to pry into my life. "So what's up with you and Sasuke?" She gave me that same suggestive smile that keeps popping up everywhere!
"What do you want to know?" I returned the smile.
"Oh my god!" Her smile broadened. "Do not start with me…" I snapped my chopsticks apart and rubbed them together to get rid of the stringy splinters.
"Well, he hasn't made any moves yet so we're just friends…"
"Yet?" She raised one of her thin eyebrows.
"Well, sometimes I feel like he likes me like the other day he got jealous when Hyuuga was talking to me."
"Hyuuga was talking to you?" She looked confused.
"Oh I see how it is. Everyone thinks it'd be the end of the world if the likes of someone who isn't a loser would talk to me!" She chuckled a bit. "He likes Tenten."
"Oooooh!" Ino loved gossip. Especially if it pertained to ~romance~.
Well, the rest of our evening consisted of me explaining the NejiTen situation (as Ino dubbed it) and the SasuSaku situation (again, Ino).
"Do you like him?"
"What?"
"You heard me."
Ino's question kind of freaked me out. Ya, I'm physically attracted to him and if he hit on me I'd definitely let him but do I like him? Like, would I date him? We have similar interests –especially music, which is the most important thing! – and similar views (we're both atheists and would kill someone if they hurt our family members). We have similar senses of humour and sarcastic ways. I like being around him without the urge to punch him in the throat… he isn't the douche I thought he was…
There was a long pause. And then I finally nodded.
Ino squealed and I could feel the heat rise to my cheeks.
"My little Sakura is growing up." She said in a singsong voice.
Oh dear god, help me.
Sorry if it seemed kind of rushed and if there was too much dialogue, this chapter just turned out like that.
THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS and a special thanks to –drum roll please- ~~~~~~~~~~~~SasuSakuKawaii~~~~~~~~~~~ for gracing me with your lovely comments on almost every single chapter yay~~!