Disclaimer: take a guess! Anyone who said I don't own ff8 gets ten points and some gummy bears!!!!

Note: well okay, here is another chapter for you lovely lovely readers. I am trying to get this story updated as quickly as possible as a surprising amount of people are enjoying it. I really appreciate all the support you guys. Ok obviously my thanks have to go to reviewers as usual so thanks and love and hugs to Lilnaych, XxPhoenix bladexX, angelz-di (although I'm not sure if you want me to finish it because you really love it or really hate it lol) rinnyheartillyizawesome , jesh18 Renegade seraph and BoAspika for your support on my last chapter. So wow general feeling after the last chapter well Rinoa sleeping with Seifer, she's a daft girl int she? And we all hate Seifer, because he's a bastard and Squall should kick his ass,(am glad that my story is actually inspiring some strongish feelings towards the characters,) and shock horror shock, Squalls got this tanya girl, what about poor rinny? Well read on my friends…!peace and light xx

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The whole quad of Garden was filled with people in elegant formal clothes dancing to classical music. The whole area had been lavishly decorated for the Garden Festival Committee ball and the event was a huge success. Almost everyone in Garden was there. If Squall Leonhart was at a social event, chances are everybody else was! Of course Squall wasn't really having very much fun. He wasn't even entirely sure why he went. Well, he was but he realised now that his reasoning was totally wrong. He had seriously thought that going to the dance with Tanya would help him get over Rinoa. Of course it didn't turn out that way because he couldn't take his eyes of her. She looked so beautiful and glamorous in a gorgeous silky white dress which was the perfect contrast with her long ebony hair. But she was alone. No Seifer. Which seemed very odd to Squall, he had assumed that Seifer would at least keep up the pretences and go to the dance with her. So many times Squall was tempted to go and ask her were Seifer was but since the other morning, he was kind of avoiding her and he got the impression she may be doing the same. It had been pretty awkward for both of them the other morning. Squall felt very uncomfortable knowing what he did, given it was something he would much rather not know. He'd much rather it had never happened.

He actually had no idea where Tanya was. She'd gone off to dance quite a while ago, so Squall just sat there looking very anti social. But moments later he noticed Rinoa was in fact heading straight towards him. He shifted slightly in his chair. He knew this was going to be awkward.

"Hey Squall" she said kind of quietly, not making eye contact

"hey"

"look about the other morning…I'm sorry, I hope…well it's…"

"Forget it" Squall said. "it's not important. So where's Seifer?"

Rinoa shrugged and looked kind of sad "I don't know. He said he'd meet me here, but he didn't come"

"Maybe he's just late. Caught up in something" Squall said, knowing it was actually more than likely that Seifer was standing her up. He just didn't want to say that.

"Yeh. I may just go look for him. I guess I'll go check his room or something. See ya" she said before walking away.

Zell, once again was standing very close behind Squall observing this. Squall was beginning to suspect that maybe Zell just lurked around waiting for interesting moments to comment on.

"you so still like her" Zell laughed

"Whatever"

"I don't understand why you just don't tell her"

"because I don't like her in the way you think I do." which was a total lie, because he absolutely did and he knew it, but he wasn't about to admit it to zell. " Plus she's with Seifer"

"He's an idiot. Is he even here? I haven't seen him."

"Probably stood Rinoa up. She's gone to find him" Squall shrugged

"He's such a jerk" Zell said, and Squall couldn't agree more. And Zell didn't even know about what had happened between him and Rinoa.

"Who's a jerk?" Irvine said, randomly appearing

"Seifer" Zell said with a tone of disgust "he stood Rinoa up"

"Huh" Irvine said "Seifer's that tall blonde guy right? The one with the scar and the big mouth?"

"yeh"

"I just saw him. Well about 20 minutes ago. He was heading to the dorms with some girl. I figured that was his girlfriend"

"But Rinoa was here.." Squall said "Oh crap"

"Dude, is he like cheating on her?" Zell asked "hey wait, didn't you say she'd gone to look for him?'

Squall sensed this was not going to end well. Rinoa was headed to Seifers room. He considered going after her, but figured it was probably too late, she'd be at his room by now, he just hoped and prayed Irvine had been mistaken.

He glanced around the room and spotted instructor Trepe talking to headmaster Cid. So if Seifer wasn't with Rinoa or Quistis, who was he with? How many people was he playing? The answer came soon enough. Loudly raised voices could be heard and they were getting louder. A few seconds later Rinoa came storming into the room crying and Seifer was following her. His hair was messed up, and he was wearing a crumpled, open shirt. It was relatively obvious what he had been up to in that dorm room.

"Oh calm down would you?" Seifer was yelling as he followed Rinoa across the room. Squall wondered why Rinoa had chosen to head back into such a public place, as everyone was now watching her and Seifer.

Rinoa spun on her heel and turned to face Seifer. "Calm down? You're telling me to calm down? You're cheating on me, and you expect me to calm? How…how could you even do this to me?" she yelled

Seifer rolled his eyes "Your such a freakin' Drama queen! I don't even know how I put up with you this long?"

"Put up with me? Is that what you were doing? Just putting up with me. Did you even like me?"

Seifer just laughed a little and said "What do you think"

"Your unbelievable" Rinoa said obviously trying to sound more angry than hurt "You're seriously sick. Well fuck you, we're through!"

"Oh like I give one!" Seifer yelled

"So I really meant nothing to you! Nothing at all! Was I literally just some cheap fun to you? Why, why would you even do it?"

"why would I not. You were that easy"

Instinctively Rinoa grabbed a glass of champagne from the guy walking past with a tray and she threw it in Seifers face, soaking him instantly.

"You bitch!" he yelled as the bubbly liquid dripped form his hair and face. He made an attempt to go for Rinoa, but he was restrained by Irvine, Zell and a few other students who were standing nearby. "yo, calm it down man" Irvine said holding back his arms.

Rinoa dropped the glass on the floor causing it to shatter and ran off out of the room towards the balcony crying. Half of the peoples eyes were following Rinoa while the rest were staring at the soaked seifer. As soon as Rinoa was one step out of the room, the whispering, gasping and laughing started. Squall had no idea what to do after witnessing all of that. Evidently few people did as most of the people in the room had just turned to discuss what had happened with their friends. It had been quite exciting for a formal event! Catching a glimpse of Quistis, squall noticed she looked extremely hurt and angry. It was evident that Rinoa had not been the only one played by Seifer, in the dark about his ways. But Squall had no sympathy for Quistis, not like he did for Rinoa. Squall was torn as to whether to go after Rinoa but he decide after a few minutes that maybe he should do….

Rinoa stood outside looking over the side of the balcony. She didn't really care that it was freezing cold and that her dress wasn't keeping her at all warm. She just couldn't stop crying. Various thoughts were whizzing around her head, fighting for the most attention.

'How could he do this to me' she thought 'I don't get what I did wrong. Was I just not good enough for him? Or was he really just using me? Was he only interested really in sleeping with me and now he's had enough? This is so unfair Why does everyone seem to hate me?'

"Are you okay" came a voice from behind Rinoa

Without turning around she knew exactly who it was. She had become quite good at recognising it. The hardness of the voice, but with an underlying tone of care and concern could only belong to Squall. She wasn't entirely sure deep inside whether he was the person she most, or least wanted to see. He did have this strange way of making bad situations better, but since the other morning she had been avoiding him.

She had been feeling strangely guilty over the whole thing. She didn't know exactly why. Seifer was-at least at that point-her boyfriend so it's not like she had been doing that much wrong. Of course, she now wished she had never done it, but that really wasn't the point. The point was she couldn't place why she had felt so bad on that morning. She thought it had something to do with the look in Squalls eyes when she opened that door. She could swear she saw him look at her kind of like he was ashamed of her. But maybe that was more her projecting her feelings onto him. But regardless she did value his opinion of her a strange amount, and the point behind that was she possibly felt more for Squall than she originally realised.

In way of answering his question, she simply said "no" and put her head back down "are you here to say 'I told you so'"

"Why would I want to do that" Squall asked

"well, you warned me, didn't you. You kept telling me Seifer was bad news and well turns out you were right" she said looking out into the sky, and deliberately not at Squall.

"I didn't want to be right" was all he said

"Did you know?" she asked him. Even to her own ears, her voice seemed odd. It seemed so cold and it had such a hard edge to it.

"Know what?"

"that he was cheating on me?"

There was a long pause before Squall spoke. "yes, I did"

Suddenly the conversation she'd had with him that night in the car, where he;d been so desperate to convince her Seifer was bad , made more sense now

"But" he continued "I didn't tell you because…"

"Doesn't matter" she said cutting him off. In the whole time she still hadn't looked at Squall once, she knew it would be hard. She was starting to get pretty confused about what she felt for Squall…

"I'm sorry" he said "about all of this…is there anything, anything I can do?"

In one second, Rinoa found herself having to make a decision. She could let Squall in or she could push him away. She certainly felt something for him, even if she had no idea what it was. But it didn't even really matter. It was more than likely, Rinoa thought, that he only saw her as a stupid little girl who kept getting herself into all kinds of trouble. Besides all that, wasn't he with someone else now?

"Shouldn't you be with Tanya?" she asked her voice sounding harsher to her than ever before. She hears Squall sigh and say "fine", then he walked away. Rinoa stood alone watching the fading stars with tears dripping down her cheeks and the only thing she could think about everything that had happened was "why?"

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aww bless poor rinoa. shes only just realising she likes Squall, poor noodle. well in the next chapter we see both Squall and Rinoa seperately realise the true extent of their feeling for eachother, but they both ahve therte reasons for believeing the other would never ever care about them. ooh isnt this complex hahah lol! keep reading and revieing guys xx peace and light