The Confessions Rejections

There was something about nearing the end of middle school that made people suddenly want to confess one's feelings to another as if it was the last time they would ever see their crush. As if they never said anything, they would regret it for the rest of their lives. Sasuke didn't get it.

Not only was the odd need that girls seemed to have was a mystery but it annoyed him tremendously as it was a headache for him. He had intentionally made it blatantly obvious that he had no interest in dating anyone, or having any interest in anyone for that matter. It seemed too soon and pointless. He had watched his peers pair up, break up, and pair up again with someone else in less time than the previous relationship even lasted. Which, by the way, was never very long. And every time there was a break up or new relationship, the school exploded in drama, gossip, and everything else Sasuke disliked.

It made girls jealous, boys fight, and friendships break apart. And for what? Holding hands in the hallways and swapping spit behind the school during breaks for a week? To him it just didn't seem worth it. It was perhaps because he was more reserved, but Sasuke never saw the point in a relationship unless it was going to go somewhere. And right now, none of them were going anywhere. They were still stuck in school, still living with and off their parents, and had far too many more years of it to think that far into the future.

Yet for some reason, girls who he had hardly said a word to seemed to think that if they professed their undying love and devotion to him through a note that was cowardly slipped into in locker or backpack with sickeningly sweet chocolates, he would suddenly be stricken with an infatuation with them. Some were even bold enough to ask to speak with him privately and when he stood them up, they would try to pressure him into accepting their feelings by doing it publicly. It was as if they thought he would care about being perceived as an asshole.

But that's where they went wrong. Sasuke was a natural born asshole from the time he was old enough to frown, which had been earlier than most babies. And he could care less of what people labeled him. If anything he hoped people perceived him as such so they would leave him alone. Unfortunately, his asshole tendencies were never perceived as such. In the crazed obsessed minds of his fans, it just made him look like a bad boy. Which apparently was a good thing amongst his twitterpated peers.

"Sasuke-kun..."

And then there were the girls that trapped him unexpectedly. They waited for him outside the bathroom, cornered him in the courtyard, and trapped him by sitting in the seat next to him during classes. This one had caught him off guard in the stairwell on his way to lunch period after being delayed by a teacher who wanted to talk to him about being distracted in class.

It wasn't his fault he was distracted, he mentally argued. How was he supposed to focus on the history of an ancient group that hadn't existed for centuries, when Sakura was passing notes back and forth with Idate, the new boy in class that she had taken upon herself to befriend because he was quote, end quote: 'new and needed friends'. Why she had to be that 'friend' he didn't know why.

Every time the cursed paper landed on her desk she gave out a smile that Sasuke could not help but follow. This was an action that had become a habit of Sasuke's as of late. Ever since Ino's birthday party, he was always looking at her lips. When she spoke, he read her words more than he listened to them. When she smiled, he memorized the pull of her lips as they revealed her braces free smile that he had still yet to get used to ever since he had noticed that yes, it did make her look different. When she took a drink, when she put on chapstick, when she licked her lips. It all drew his eye.

"Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts, as he focused on the girl before him. Instantly his eyes narrowed and his brows drew together as he glared down at her. It was then he noticed the pink envelope clutched in her hands.

"I-I…" she bent at the waist as she held out the envelope to him as she bowed. "Please accept my feelings for you."

There was a long, drawn out silence before the girl peeked up at him. And then, slowly, Sasuke took the envelope from her hands and looked at it with a bored expression. The girl, interpreting his actions wrong, straightened as a look of hopeful adoration began to bloom across her face and a star struck twinkle in her eyes began to shine. Sasuke had never, never, accepted a gift from any of his admirers. Her heart fluttered as a triumphant smile came to her lips. However it only existed for a fraction of a second before Sasuke tore the love letter in half, not even breaking the seal to read its contents.

When the letter was nothing but scraps of unrecognizable pieces of what it once was, he released them to flutter to the ground like confetti. Only there was no cause for celebration as the girl stared down at the pieces of poetic confession, feeling like it was a representation of the state of her heart. Broken, shattered, and trampled.

"What?" he questioned when she looked up at him with a shocked expression and tears brimming in her eyes. "Did you actually think that I would accept that?"

"..."

"I don't even know who you are? I've never seen you in my life."

"We-we have social studies together," she answered with a broken voice. "And last year I sat right behind you in literature."

"And how does that give you the right to think I would want anything to do with you?"

"..."

Again when the girl failed to say anything, Sasuke had concluded that he had made his answer clear and was no longer obligated to say anymore or linger. "Tch." He stepped around her to continue down the stairs, shoving his hands in his pockets. He made it to the landing with the window before he was prevented to continue down the next flight by the girl's voice.

"It's because of that girl, isn't it."

Sasuke turned around to look up at the girl who was still standing on the stairs where he had rejected her. Only no longer did she look heartbroken and sad, instead she looked angry and jealous. While he didn't show it, there was a tightening in his stomach as an alarm went off in his head at the expression she was displaying and the tone in which she had spoken.

He had seen that look before on other girls in the past. The ones that used to tease and hurt Sakura. The ones who called her names and picked on her because they were jealous of her friendship and closeness with him. It had been a long while since anyone had done that. He was aware of the green eyed monstrous looks those jealous of her gave, but no one had been daring enough to actually do anything in a while.

However, there was something in this girl's eye that didn't sit right with him. She had her immature heart just broken and was looking for anyone else to blame for. Because it certainly could not have been because of her own foolish actions and fantasies. He needed to stop her, stop her right now before she got any notion or ideas to act out.

"Why would I ever have feelings for her?" he said in a cool monotone. "She's a friend. That's all."

"But you don't treat the other girls that are in your group like her. You treat her differently. You treat her special. I remember you used to defend her all the time and get into fights. You almost got expelled because of her."

"And you think that was because I like her?" he sneered, forcing as much contempt into his voice. As if the very idea disgusted him. "We grew up together. If anything she's like a sister. I protect her because she is weak and I don't like cowards who pick on weaklings." He gave her a warning look. "So if I ever hear or even think you are spreading false rumors about my friendship with her, I will make sure that you never set foot inside of any school in this city. Understood?"

The girl, her eyes wide and fearful now, quickly nodded her head as she turned and ran away up the stairs. Sasuke watched her flee before giving a long sigh, shutting his eyes as he leaned against the tall window of the stairwell.

He was irritated at the girl but most of all, he was angry at himself. He hated liars yet he was the biggest one of them all. Never, in the entirety of Sasuke's life had he ever thought or even tried to view Sakura as a sister. She was Sakura and only Sakura to him. However that girl did not know that, nor would she ever understand that. No one seemed to, not even himself. Because the truth was, Sasuke no longer knew how he felt about Sakura.

It had started sporadically and muddled at first. But recently, he found it was everything now. Nothing between them was familiar and no longer felt natural. Some of it he knew it had to do with the physical changes but even then that was not the limit. It was like he didn't know how to act around her anymore. He found himself overthinking his actions and analyzing every reaction that she gave him. And talking to her had become extremely difficult, let alone just looking at her in the eye. Any time he did it was like his mind went blank and could only think about her and him, locked in a closet.

Could it be that he liked her? Like, like-liked her?

He let out a scoff. Of course he didn't. It was the kiss, ever since that kiss, things had changed between them. He knew he shouldn't have done it. He knew it would make things weird between them...but he had been curious. He had wanted to know what it was like.

He felt himself getting warm in the face as he recalled his bold action. Then that pesky thought crossed his mind. What if he did like her? Then what?

The contemplation of such an idea had him opening his eyes and letting out a scoff. What a pointless thought.

So what if he liked her. None of it mattered if she didn't like him back. Why else would she pass around notes to other boys in class? Because she liked them, not him. Why else would she have suggested they just pretend to kiss instead of actually kiss? Because she didn't want to kiss him. No, she would rather kiss that other stupid faced other friend than him. Gaara, Sasuke thought mockenly, what a stupid name. And he probably wasn't even good looking. Probably some freak without eyebrows or something.

It was petty but it made him feel better. And with that happy thought, a fact came to his mind that made him feel better than any loser that may cross Sakura's mind. Because unlike Gaara or any other boy, Sasuke got to see Sakura nearly every day. He didn't need her to like him, he just needed her. And with that thought in mind, he started down the stairs to the lunch room where he would get to see her.

He had just started rounding down to the stairwell when he caught sight of Sakura hurriedly making her way down the stairs.

"Sakura?"

She froze, her foot paused halfway down to the next stair. She looked around with a panicked expression then suddenly jogged down a couple steps without even acknowledging him. Then with a jerky movement she turned around as if to go back up the stairs, taking two stairs before she was retreating down again. Sasuke watched her with a confused expression and she spastically turned in circles before tripping up the stairs towards him.

"OH-Ah…Hey Sasuke, didn't see you there."

Sasuke gave her an odd look. "I called your name...you looked right at me."

"Oh really?" she said, not quite looking him in the eye. "Um...you know my contacts might have fallen out."

"Might?" His brow furrowed. She was acting...weird. "Are you okay?" he asked slowly. "Do you need your glasses? I think I might still have an old pair in my bag." He didn't think, he knew. He always kept them there in case she ever needed them.

"Um...no," she said. "I'll be fine."

He watched her for a long moment but finally nodded. "Well do you want to head down to lunch?" he said, tilting his head to try and catch her still avoiding eyes.

"Uh...no," she declined, taking a few steps towards him until she reached the landing and slinked past him, pressing herself to the middle railing as if trying to keep herself distant as much as possible. "You can go ahead I need to head up to my locker," she said as she waved him off and started heading up the stairs.

"But weren't you already headed there?"

"Yeah but I forgot my math book for next period, just go ahead without me."

"But…"

Sasuke cut himself off from pointing out that they already had math this morning and it was earth science next, when he realized she was already gone. Rubbing the back of his head he started heading down the stairwell, every once in a while he pause to look up and contemplate if he should check on her.

Sakura came to a stop when she reached the roof top and leaned against the brick wall surrounding the edge. Both of her hands came up to her reddening face. Her cheeks burned with heat as she covered her face and let out a loud groan. She was mortified, embarrassed, and felt like an idiot for the way she had just acted.

That interaction had been painfully awkward and she just knew she was not the only one who had noticed. She had seen the odd look Sasuke had given her. And she didn't know if it was because of her embarrassing act of making a fool of herself in front of him or if he knew that she had overheard his conversation with the girl just a few seconds earlier. Or what if it was both?

Another groan left her as she thought about both possibilities. She hoped it was the first and not the latter. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but when her name came up she couldn't help but linger in the stairwell just below and out of sight.

Sakura was no stranger to being a witness to some unfortunate soul who had caught a bad case of the Sasuke-fluenza. It caused them to become delirious with hormones and catch a fever of infatuation that drove them to confess their feelings.

She had seen them come in all shapes and forms. But no matter how they came, they all ended the same way, a harsh and heartbreaking rejection. However, there was something different about this rejection. It didn't seem like another rejected stranger or vaguely familiar girl. It felt personal. As if she herself was being rejected. Because in a way, it was.

And it had hurt.

She had always admired Sasuke. Throughout the years, depending on the point in time, that admiration had been merited for different reasons. When she had first met him, she admired him because of how attentive he was to her...and he gave her fruit snacks. As they grew older, there were times when she admired him because of protectiveness, his loyalty, his sometimes too honest honesty, his dedication, and his motivated ambition. But most recently, she had found herself admiring him for the very same and shallow reason every other girl admired him: his looks. However that admiration seemed to be holding a different meaning lately.

It had started she supposed, in about fifth grade, when every other girl seemed to notice as well. However when she noticed how annoyed Sasuke was by this, she had never dared tell anyone, least he found out. Only one other soul had ever known and that was Ino. She had caught her writing her name with his last name in a sparkly notebook to see what it would look like. They had gotten into a fight which had been the fight that had caused their friendship to fall apart up until year seven when Ino apologized and helped her. But to this day Sakura had still yet to tell another soul. And she had never before planned or even dreamed of doing so.

She had stood by and watched girl after girl bake him cakes, give him chocolates, write him love letters, and confess in person to him. Each time she witnessed it, she dreaded the day when he would eventually accept one of those girls' feelings. She loved and hated the relief she had felt when he sent them off running and crying each time. She felt for the girls as she herself knew what it was like to admire someone so much that you wanted to shout it from the rooftops. But unlike those brave girls who ended up getting burned and their hearts smashed, she remained silent and kept her feelings confined.

For two reasons she did this. The first being that she was a coward and scared of the hurt that would come with rejection. Sure she was miserable in her hiding and keeping her feelings on the sidelines, while practically forever being in his presence. But that was what brought her to her second reason. Their friendship. She cherished it and she knew Sasuke would hate her forever if she ever ruined what they had between them. Because Sasuke valued his friendship with the few people he allowed in his life more than sometimes even his family. If anything, he would see her confession as an act of betrayal to that friendship. He would never speak to her again for such a crime.

It was for those reasons she had been determined to wait it out. She figured if she ignored her feelings long enough, eventually they would go away or she could direct them towards someone else who would be more likely to accept her feelings. She had only been hoping it would happen before Sasuke finally accepted someone else.

But things changed a few weeks ago at Ino's party. The party in which she was locked in a closet with him, where they had kissed. Or to make it more accurate, where he had kissed her. It had been as if her feelings for him were doubled then tripled and there was no more space within her heart to contain it anymore.

She thought long and hard about it and had decided she was going to confess to him. In fact she had just been on her way to ask if they could walk home together after school. She had it all planned and was going to confess to him with a bag of blue and red fruit snacks at the park where they had first met. But then she had come across the unknown girl confessing to him and heard his rejection. Not just his rejection of the other girl's confession but he even told her he did not like Sakura either. It had been a double rejection. A nonacceptance to her confession before she could even admit it.

She was just a friend. A friend that Sasuke cherished and cared about, but not in the way she cherished and cared about him. She had been mistaken. The kiss was just a kiss. It had meant nothing. He had done it because Sasuke Uchiha did not back down to a challenge. It was not because he liked her. Because Sakura was just a friend and you couldn't like-like your friends.

Sliding down to the ground, Sakura tucked her arms around her legs as she brought her knees to her chest and hugged herself. Bowing her head to her knees, she let out a forlorn sigh as tears began to drip down into her lap.

She let herself cry and mourn her little broken young heart. But when her tears dried up, she managed to steadily stand on her own two feet without feeling like a pathetic frail and broken thing. And with a deep breath she started to make her way down to the cafeteria to join Sasuke and the rest of their friends at lunch.

The thought of seeing him, looking him in the eye and knowing how disgusted he would be with her feelings, made her feel weak all over again. But the thought of not having Sasuke at her side was even worse. So she made a promise to herself that she would not let this pain change her friendship with him. She was strong. Yes it hurt and yes things would be tender for a while, but now, Sakura knew why others confessed their feelings even when they knew they would be rejected. Because while it hurts, it doesn't kill. And what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

Before y'all start hating me just remember that sometimes a little bitterness makes the sweet things even sweeter! Anyways. I know this chapter is not as fluffy as usual. I tried to still make it a light and throw in some sweet things for you. They are just not quite ready to be together fully yet, they have a little more growing and developing before they are ready to start handling a full relationship. Either way I still hope you guys enjoyed this at least a little bit.

Up Next: The Home Room Teacher: Our little ones are growing up and have started high school (grade 9). And they are not quite sure what to make of the masked man who will be their home room teacher for the next four years.