Chapter 10

"He did what?" Temari shrieked, jumping out of her desk chair. It toppled to the floor with a clatter, along with most of the blonde's books. Temari was Erina's best girl-friend and the only person she could talk to about this sort of thing. Of course, there was a problem because in this situation the guy she wanted to talk about was Temari's little brother. Erina wasn't exactly sure just how much help her friend was going to be in this situation. "Wha—? W-When?"

Erina hid her face in her hands, shaking her head back and forth. She was about to get ready for work when she saw her roommate studying and just couldn't hold in the events of that morning in anymore. "I don't know," the short muttered, pulling at her short, brown hair. Temari actually had to stop her from ripping it out. "I think... It was kinda my fault, but still it was... I don't know."

The blue eyed girl felt herself panicking little by little. She knew that the reason Gaara was always staying over wasn't just because she was his sister and things were quieter. Since the moment she had introduced Gaara to Erina she had been hoping that there might be a little spark there; Gaara needed more female friends, and Erina was the first girl he had ever shown any interest in, at least that Temari knew of. But Erina just didn't seem interested in her brother that way. She was too interesting in that Uzumaki boy, and lately she had worried that Gaara would end up hurt.

Temari gripped her shoulders tightly. "Tell me what happened exactly," she enunciated slowly. She had never expected her brother to be so bold.

"Well, we were in the basement, and he was making me breakfast," she began, twiddling her thumbs in a nervous manner. Temari's jaw slacked a little at that. Gaara tried to make breakfast? He had never been in a kitchen in his life. "And it was sort of awful. I went to kiss him on the cheek— in a friendly way! But I think he... took it the wrong way and, well, kissed me."

"Erina! You know how bad he is with social situations! Of course he took it the wrong way! The only person who's worse than him is that art major that Naruto hangs out with!" she yelled as she got up and started pacing around the room. Finally, she asked the question that was plaguing her mind. "Did you kiss him back?"

"No, I-I pushed him away, and then we just didn't talk about it..." She had a feeling that if they had talked about it, everything between them would just end up more awkward. She didn't want to lose Gaara as a friend... Temari was right, she should have known better than to put Gaara in an uncomfortable situation like that.

And then Temari said the words that Erina didn't want to hear. "Erina, you probably broke his heart."

She doubted he was going be sleeping on their couch tonight.

Naruto growled in frustration, slamming his cell phone down onto the dining room table. He was having dinner over at his parents' house, and while his mom and dad were slaving in the kitchen, he thought it was a good time to try calling Erina again. Why was she still avoiding him? It had been over a month now, surely Erina had gotten over... whatever it was that she was upset with him about. He still wanted to punch himself in the face for falling asleep in her hallway and missing her. The blonde glared back down at his phone, as if it was the cause of all of this, and got up to go help his mother in the kitchen.

"Girl trouble?" his perverted godfather spoke up from across the table, making Naruto jump. Right, his father had a habit of inviting him over. Minato always said something about how Naruto should be close with his godfather, but how long had he been sitting there?

"No! Well, sort of, I guess," the blonde answered, scratching the back of his head. The long, white haired man continued to gaze at him quizzically. Finally, Naruto plopped back down at table, banging his head against it in frustration. "My friend, Erina, stopped talking to me and nothing I've done will make her talk to me again," he muttered after a while.

Jiraiya brought his hand to his chin as he thought of a way he could help the boy, an idea starting to form in his head. It was an unconventional idea, but it just might work. "What are you doing tomorrow night?" he asked as casually as he could, a grin threatening to spread over his face.

Naruto lifted his head from the wooden surface slowly, cocking an eyebrow up at the strange man. "Huh? Nothing that I know of. Why?" When Jiraiya wanted to take him somewhere that usually meant something was up. Or it meant that he was going to get completely wasted and needed Naruto to play designated driver.

Jiraiya smirked, taking another sip of sake from his glass on the table. "I actually know a girl who could help you with your problem."

"... You aren't going to set me up with a hooker, are you?"