Chapter Ten:

Amu Hinamori was very pleased with herself. By the end of the week, she had made a full recovery from her break-up with Kukai. She was back at school and secretly kind of enjoyed the attention she was getting from people. Although most people didn't know why they broke up (and even Amu wasn't entirely sure either), they all seemed to side with her and labeled Kukai as the bad guy. Even Ikuto had given her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder when he saw her at her locker.

She owed it all to her best friend, of course. She was sure that without Utau by her side she would have fallen apart. She was there for the late night talks and helped her through it by literally threatening her to get out of bed and back to school so that she could copy off of her.

In fact, Amu was proud to say that she had hardly thought of Kukai at all this past two days.

Unbeknownst to her, her best friend was having a harder time forgetting the young brunette man.

When Kukai had crossed paths with both the girls on their way to history, Utau had to be the one to support Amuand give her a comforting hand, when Utau was the one who wished she was the one who had someone to lean on. She was the one who wanted desperately to be allowed to cry into her pillow – but instead she had to fix a smile on her face and be cheery for Amu. She hopes that perhaps if she kept it up long enough and play the denial game; then she'd start to believe it herself.

So far it wasn't working.

Especially when Kukai wouldn't leave her alone.

She slammed her locker hard when she sensed his breath on the back of her neck, sending down shivers she didn't particularly want. He was there again. She sighed and gave him a cold stare.

"I'm still not talking to you." She chided as she brushed past him. He followed. Over the last few days this had become a routine. He'd always try to talk to her when Amu or no other people were around.

"I know, but we really do need to talk. You just can't keep avoiding me."

"I don't want to talk."

"Look, I've been thinking and I really think that we ought-" she turned to face him.

"Kukai, please, this is getting desperate. Oh, and FYI, sending emails, leaving voicemails and notes on my car windscreen is not cute. It's stalkerish."

"I'm sorry but you won't return any of my calls."

"For good reasons," she lowered her voice when a group of juniors walked past them and gave them a look; wondering why Utau was talking to her best friend's ex – with a fierce expression on her face. Hopefully they thought she was telling him off for hurting her friend. They were half right. "You hurt Amu."

"This isn't about her, Utau. She and I are over." He said exasperatedly. "Who cares about her?"

She gave him a look. "What happened to the nice, deep, caring Kukai?" she questioned. "When did you get so mean?"

"It's not-"

"Yes, it is. If you can treat Amu like that, then you're not really making yourself sound very appealing." She raised an eyebrow.

"Does that mean…" he seemed to perk up at her comment. She scoffed.

"It doesn't mean anything other than you're an ass." Utau said bluntly before she shook her head. "Look, can you just leave me alone?"

"I don't want to. I'm sorry if I'm hurting you but I can't help how I feel."

"Yes, you can!" she cried, "Bury it or something and maybe you'll forget it. That's what I'm doing with you but it won't work if you keep following me. Just stop telling me you love me because it's just crap and you're making me feel like the worst person in the world."

"I'm sorry," he offered.

"Save your apologies for Amu. You owe her that much." Utau spat back at him. Kukai frowned and followed her as she walked off again.

"So you want me to tell her everything?" he questioned, emphasizing the last word. She stared at him horrified.

"No!" Utau lowered her voice when she realized she'd caught people's attention. "You don't have to tell her everything because I've done nothing wrong. You kissed me once. And I didn't even enjoy it!"

"But we still kissed, right? And even if it didn't mean anything to you, you still did something that you feel guilty about." Kukai sighed, "I'm not saying this to be mean, Utau, but I think it's pretty unfair for you to go around acting like none of this was your fault."

"None of this was my fault!" Utau cried in frustration. She couldn't believe the gall of Kukai trying to shift the blame onto her. Kukai was also frustrated. He had done everything to try and get the girl he wanted, but she was pushing him away because of her best friend – even though it seemed pretty clear to him that Amu was over him anyway. It seemed that Utau had more of a problem with the notion of the two of them than Amu ever would.

She just kept pushing and pushing him away, even though he knew that she felt something for him.

"Look," Kukai pinched the bridge of his nose, "right now I don't even think that Amu's the main issue here anymore. I think that you have a problem with us being together, and for whatever reason, you're hiding behind her so you don't have to deal with it."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it? You admitted that you would have dated me if Amu and I never happened. I can't change that, Utau, but Amu and I are over. I know that we just broke up but given time I think that she could come around to the idea. We've just got to try. Maybe she'll be supportive-"

"If the tables were turned, I don't think I could be supportive."

"Maybe that's because you care too much."

"About what?"

"Me. I know that if I saw you with anybody else, I wouldn't be able to take it." He stepped closer to her and she turned her face away from him. She could feel her knees begin to quiver and she feared that any second they'd buckle from beneath her.

"Stop it." She pleaded. He placed a hand on her arm.

"Utau, I've done my part. I've told you times and time again how much I want to be with you, and I can't do anything more. It's up to you now. You can either take a chance on us – or you can put your mask back on and pretend. I just thought I was worth more to you than that." She had closed her eyes when he'd touched her arm. She had willed herself not to react or look at him. When she opened them again, he'd already begun to walk away and had left her alone with only his words hanging over her.

Sighing, she gently massaged the temples of her head and willed for time to go back to when she didn't have to deal with people like Kukai Souma.

Kukai, however, had walked away and quickly locked eyes with Rima Mashiro across the courtyard. She was looking in the direction where he'd been standing with Utau just a few seconds earlier. Rima had a sort of deer-in-the-headlights look about her and he wasn't quite sure what she had seen – or thought. He approached her and decided to do some damage control. Just in case.

"Hey," he greeted. She looked at him warily.

"Hey yourself. What was that about?" she gestured in Utau's direction, where the blonde was making her way back into the school building and far away from them.

"Oh… just Utau."

"I can see it was Utau." Rima replied. "What was going on? It seemed… intense."

"Utau was just giving me hell for breaking it off with Amu. I don't blame her. You know Utau."

"No, I don't. And I don't think Utau's really the type to be talking with her best friend's ex in a dark corner."

"You're right, Riri, you don't know Utau." Kukai shot back before walking off, leaving his own best friend wondering whether or not the conversation she'd seen between the two of them was innocent or not.

Utau sat down next to Amu in the empty gym as they both set down their duffle bags and began preparing for cheerleading practice, which was due to commence in precisely ten minutes. Utau looked at the clock as it showed the time as ten to three in the afternoon. She knew that she would have to be honest with Amu about the Kukai situation very soon – it was just picking the right time – if there ever was a right time.

Glancing around, she realized that none of the other cheerleaders nor the basketball squad would be in the gym until three on the dot. Most of the girls took their time getting ready to impress the boys and spent more time on their make-up during this time than in the mornings for school.

She figured ten minutes was enough time to talk it through with her best friend and make sure Amu knew that there was absolutely nothing between her and Kukai. It was just some weird fixation he had on her. Right, that was her story. Earlier Utau had decided that Amu would be cool about it and the two would ignore Kukai and stick together through it all. They'd support each other and maybe then Utau could start forgetting Kukai just like Amu had seemed to. Although it didn't stop Utau from stealthily moving the pom poms away from her just in case she got angry and did something drastic.

"Um hey, Amu," Utau cleared her throat when she realized she'd squeaked it out rather than spoken. "I need to talk to you about something…"

"So what's the deal with you and Kukai?" Amu seemed to not have heard her. Utau, however, had heard Amu loud and clear and was terrified to hear what would come next. "Rima said that she saw you two talking this afternoon. She said it looked pretty heated and you didn't seem too happy."

Rima! That snitch! Utau silently cursed the tutor in her head.

"Why did Rima say that?" Utau scratched the back of her ear nervously.

"I was looking for you at break but I couldn't find you. I ran into Rima and asked her if she'd seen you." Utau took a deep breath as Amu continued, "Look, I know I was pretty down after he-who-shall-not-be-named dumped me last week, but I'm okay! You don't have to fight my battles for me," Amu grinned, "although I love that you do."

Amu's misinterpretation of the situation almost broke Utau's heart. She considered whether she should leave it as that, but Utau knew that she had to do this.

"About that," she began, "that's not exactly how it happened."

"What do you mean?" Amu questioned with a smile.

"Well you see…" Utau glanced up at the clock and sighed as she read eight minutes to three, "it's kind of my fault that he broke up with you. But it also isn't."

"That's confusing," the pinkette said. "How is it your fault?"

"Kukai has it into his head that he and I are supposed to be together or something. Of course it's a load of B.S. and I told him he was being stupid – but then he went and broke up with you for me! Can you believe that?"

Amu's smile had fallen somewhere in the middle of that sentence. "Wait… so he, what, told you that? When?"

"Well, he told me that when he broke up with you, but then he said he wanted to be with me a couple of weeks ago at the dance. I told him that whatever 'feelings' he had for me had to go because he was with you – and then he broke up with you and came to me." She explained.

"Are you dating?" Amu's fallen smile now became a frown. She looked angry.

"No!" Utau insisted, "I would never date a guy while he was with you… or date something you've dated without your permission!" Amu seemed to click onto what Utau was trying to convey, just as some cheerleaders and basketball players began filtering in. She panicked as she realized they were early.

Of all the days to heed Utau's punctuality rule.

"Oh, I get it!" Amu laughed loudly and dramatically, garnering everybody's attention since the gym was large and good for acoustics. "You're telling me this because you want my blessing for you and the guy that broke my heart to be together?"

"Amu—" Utau tried to stop her from jumping to conclusions without hearing her out. She's never seen Amu get so angry so quickly before.

"You know, that's fantastic, Utau! It really is. Is Kukai not ballsy enough to come and ask me or did you just draw the short straw? Did you have a great time laughing about it behind my back?"

"It's so not like that, Amu, you have to understand."

"I knew you liked him before we got together, but I thought you were over that because you seemed to be our number one supporter. Or were you really just waiting for us to break up so you can get your claws into him? I know we share things, Utau, but I didn't think it applied to boyfriends." Amu's rage seemed to get the better of her after the revelation that her best friend and her boyfriend supposedly had something going on. "I'd repay the favor by dating one of your ex-boyfriends but I bet they're much less 'boyfriends' and a little more 'one-night stands'" There were a few 'ooohs' that flew from the mouths of their peers, and Utau felt the sting.

"That was low, Amu." She whispered.

"Yeah, well not as low as what you've done to me." Amu retorted, "Date him if you want. Use him like you use everybody else. Just don't expect to have me as your best friend." Amu gathered up her bags and stormed out of the gym with everybody's eyes following her. Once she was gone, their eyes flicked back to Utau, who stood frozen to the spot. She glanced at a sheepish-looking Kukai on the other end of the gym before shaking her head, grabbing her bags, and walking as fleeing from the gym using a different exit.

Kukai sighed inwardly as he followed Utau, trying not to let the stares and the gaping students get to him.

"Utau, wait!" he called after the blonde who eventually stopped as her legs begged for her to stop. Jogging over to her, he was grateful for the chance – until she spun around in tears.

"Go away, Kukai!" she bit out.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay after Amu…"

"After Amu exposed me for the crappy friend I am?"

"You're not a crappy friend."

"Oh yeah? Everyone in there heard what she said. Every single person in that gym heard hert call me a slut and a cheater. They all think I'm a manipulative bitch trying to get in your pants behind my best friend's back. And by tomorrow, the whole school will too."

"So? Forget them. They don't know you. You have me." She laughed bitterly as he said this.

"You? You're the whole reason this mess started. Hos over bros, Kukai! I've ruined a friendship that I depend on. Do you know how much I hate going home? How much I can't stand my family? Amu's the only one who understood that and I need her. But now everything's ruined because I actually let you make me think that being honest with her was the right thing to do. I actually pictured this going differently and me and her standing in this hallway together telling you to get lost. Or, by some out-of-this-world miracle, tell me that maybe it was okay for you and me to be together. What an idiot, right?" Utau wiped her tears roughly from her face and began walking back towards the car park.

"Please wait," he begged.

"Just forget it, Kukai. Forget everything." She muttered as she walked as far away from the school – and Kukai – as possible.

Author's Note: So I hope you like this Chapter. This story will end soon. Maybe three or five Chapters.

Review lovelies ~*