Chapter Eight

The first break-up

Two weeks later, the relationship between Meiling and Sakura was very damaged.

All because of the jealousy she felt every time she saw how close her boyfriend was with his best friend, she was quite sure that Sakura was in love with Syaoran and wanted to take him from her.

And, at the end of January, her suspicions were confirmed.

During recess, Syaoran had told Sakura that he needed to speak to her alone. They walked away from the others, in the park across from their high school where they used to spend the thirty minutes of break. Sakura was a little worried, lately Syaoran was not as happy as always.

"What's wrong with you, Syaoran?" she asked her friend, once she was sure no one could hear them.

"I'm gonna break up with Meiling" he mumbled, looking down.

Sakura covered her mouth with her hands.

"What? Why?"

He looked up, his brow was furrowed and he had a serious face.

"I cannot stand it anymore, every day she gets more jealous. This week she tried to force me to say my password to her and let her read all my messages. And almost every day she tells me that you and I are too close, and I need to stay away from you. I'm done, I've had enough."

Sakura's heart raced.

"If you do that she will hate me, she'll think it's all my fault."

"No, you have nothing to do with it. She doesn't trust me and we cannot be together anymore. She's obsessed about you being secretly in love with me."

Her face went pale.

"Really? Did she say that? It's not true, Syaoran."

He smiled and caressed Sakura's face.

"Relax, don't worry about it. After school I'll talk to her, telling her all I think about this. And I'll make sure she doesn't blame you at all."

She gulped, she was sure Meiling would blame her for the break-up.

"Go easy, don't be too harsh with her."

Syaoran nodded.

"It's the right thing, we can't be happy together because she needs me to stay away from you, and I'm not doing that."

Sakura felt so bad, she didn't want a couple breaking up because of her. Syaoran guessed what his friend was thinking.

"Sakura, look at me."

She looked at him with watery eyes.

"If you had a boyfriend who tells you that you can't be my friend, you can't hug me or be close to me... what would you do?" Syaoran asked.

She didn't have to think twice.

"I wouldn't want to be with him."

He smiled.

"That's exactly how I feel, don't blame yourself."

Sakura nodded, blinking a few times to control the tears. They went back to where their friends were and finished their milkshakes before going back to school for the next class.

The last class ended and almost everybody went out like they were escaping from a fire. Sakura smiled, she didn't understand why her classmates hated classes and high school that much. She loved to be there, everyone was nice to her and the teachers were quite interesting, classes were never boring to her.

When she was next to Tomoyo's desk, she noticed that Syaoran was talking to Meiling at the end of the classroom. She grabbed her friend's arm and both left the room so quickly.

"Why are you running, Sakura? I was waiting for Meiling" Tomoyo said with a confused face.

"Syaoran needs to talk to her, so they will be there for a while" she answered as they went downstairs.

Tomoyo frowned, quite surprised, but Sakura didn't say anything else.

On the way back home, Joshua took off his hat and put it to Sakura, giggling and saying that it fitted her so well.

That made her blush more than ever. She was starting to be confident with him, in fact she had his phone number though they barely sent each other messages.

She said goodbye to them and walked the last streets alone, until she got to her two-storey yellow house.

The noise of one scooter engine startled Sakura. She stuck her head out the window and saw that Syaoran had just stopped in front of her fence, and he was removing his helmet.

She descended the stairs so fast and went to the garden, telling her mother that Syaoran was there. When she was next to the fence, her friend was trying to comb his hair with his fingers.

"How are you feeling?" Sakura asked in a low voice.

He looked at her and made a face.

"I'll be fine soon" he answered, getting off the motorbike.

She opened the fence and Syaoran left the scooter in the garden. Both sat on the ground, leaning their backs on the fence. It was the only place where no one could watch them from inside the house.

Sakura leaned over his shoulder and he sighed.

"It has been complicated... Meiling has cried a lot, she got mad and yelled at me... but at the end, I think I got her to accept it."

"I'm sorry, I know you loved her" she mumbled.

"Yeah, but she wasn't the love of my life. I know I'll be okay, but right now I'll be sad for a couple of days."

Sakura snorted with annoyance.

"Why does everything have to be so difficult?" she asked into the air.

Syaoran smiled and pinched her cheek.

"At least you and I are great, do you think we'll get angry at each other ever?"

Sakura thought about it for a moment.

"I don't think so... every time I get mad, you make me laugh" she answered with a smile on her lips.

"Were you jealous of Meiling?"

Sakura looked up with a shocked face.

"Why would I be? If you had stayed away from me because of her, maybe... but you didn't."

"I told you that's not happening, with Meiling or anyone else" Syaoran said, leaning his cheek on his friend's head.

They heard a weird noise, like a little buzz.

"What's that?" he asked with a whisper.

"My mum just picked up the intercom behind us, she's trying to know what we're talking about."

Syaoran rolled his eyes and snorted as she started to laugh.

"Your parents are such snoopers" he grunted with annoyance.

"I know, Syaoran."

"You could come home with me and sleep there... my mum is out of town and I don't want to be alone."

"I can't, we don't have an exam coming and they won't let me go" Sakura said, sighing.

Syaoran made a face.

"I'll call you tonight, we have free calls so we can talk as much as you want" she proposed, hugging him.

Syaoran snaked his arms around her and leaned his head on her neck.

"Okay, I'll settle for that."

A while after that, they said goodbye with another hug and Syaoran left. Sakura had a bad taste in her mouth, she had never seen her friend so sad before. After dinner, they talked on the phone for hours until the boy fell asleep.

The next day, when Sakura woke up she had a new message.

Syaoran: I'm not feeling well and I'm feverish, I think I got a cold because of the motorbike. I won't go to class today, tell the teachers. I'll call you this afternoon.

Sakura answered him not to worry and to stay in his bed, she would give him all the notes from the day. She put her uniform on and had breakfast so quickly, she had spent a lot of time in the bathroom and didn't want to be late.

She sighed with relief when she was crossing the high school gates on time and climbed the stairs till the first floor, entering the 4.C classroom.

Almost all her classmates were already there.

She got close to the front row and greeted Tomoyo, but she felt a chill running down her spine. When she looked back, Meiling was staring at her with hatred in one corner, surrounded by three of her friends who were also giving her a dirty look. Sakura sighed and kept talking with Tomoyo until the teacher came.

The second hour they went to the auditorium, that day teachers would explain to them the subjects they could choose for their next year, when they would start baccalaureate.

Sakura was one of the firsts to arrive there and sat on the second row, taking out a notebook and a pencil to write down everything. She saw a hand hitting her desk and, when she looked up, she found Meiling's crimson eyes. The three girls from before were at her side, Sakura didn't know them but she didn't dislike them.

"You are quite happy, aren't you? You finally got him" Meiling grunted with anger.

Sakura frowned, most of the students from her year were already in the room and they were looking at them with curious eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about" she answered in a low voice.

"Are you trying to play dumb? You're a big slut, you have been wanting to take Syaoran from me for months, and you finally did it."

Sakura felt something painful inside her throat.

"I thought we were friends, Meiling. I've told you a lot of times that he doesn't interest me that way."

"Friends? Friends don't steal each other's boyfriends" said one of the girls next to Meiling.

The room was almost full, and everybody was looking at them.

"I didn't steal the boyfriend from anybody!" Sakura shouted, her voice shaking.

"You are such a slut and a bad person, I hope you enjoy it while you have him... Syaoran will tire of you very soon" Meiling said with a hard voice, walking away to sit near her friends.

Sakura tried to breathe normally and hold back the tears that wanted to fall from her eyes.

"What has happened here?" Tomoyo asked her, she had just taken a seat with Chiharu next to her.

She looked at her two friends, still quite affected by Meiling's words. She knew she would start crying if she spoke. Furthermore, she could perfectly hear how a lot of students were whispering about her, and that brought back bad memories from her other high school.