Chapter Fourteen

The second break-up

Friday arrived and Sakura was quite nervous, she didn't feel like going to Eriol's house and being alone with him. Whenever she had been there, Syaoran was with her too.

She sighed and left her house, telling her parents that she was going to Tomoyo's place to watch a movie. She had to lie because Syaoran was the only one she was allowed to go home with, she couldn't do it with any other boy.

As she walked down the street, she sent a message to Tomoyo explaining her lie, and promising her that on Monday she would tell her everything. Once she arrived, she rang the intercom with a trembling hand. Sakura wasn't sure what was going to happen that afternoon.

She heard Eriol's voice and the buzzing of the gate opening. Sakura entered and approached the door of the large mansion. He was standing there, waiting for her.

They entered the living room and Sakura saw that he had a few DVDs on the sofa, and a bowl full of popcorn was on the small table in front of it. The uncomfortable feeling still made her skin crawl.

She sat down next to Eriol on the sofa and they both chose to watch 'V for Vendetta'.

During the whole hour, Sakura just watched the TV and ate popcorn while the two of them commented some scenes of the movie, not making eye contact with Eriol, but out of the corner of her eye she saw that he kept glancing at her, and that he was getting closer and closer to her.

The film ended and Sakura sighed in relief. She could finally go home and Eriol hadn't tried anything with her.

He walked her to the door, but just before he opened it, Eriol looked her in the eyes. Sakura didn't have time to react, he had trapped her against the wall and his lips were on hers.

She closed her eyes and let herself go, trying to figure out if she could like him. Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck and dug her fingers into his dark blue hair, while Eriol ran his hands up and down her back. His tongue invaded her mouth and she shivered, but played along. A few minutes later they broke apart, their breathing a little heavy.

Sakura looked into Eriol's blue eyes, and thought that he was a handsome boy, she liked him a lot, she felt a lot of affection for him... maybe she did like him a little in a romantic way.

Besides, the kiss had been very intense and she had loved it.

"I like you a lot, Sakura," he whispered, still staring at her.

She blushed and looked down, embarrassed. Eriol opened the door and kissed her goodbye with a peck on the lips.

Sakura sighed as she walked out of the garden, closing the gate behind her. She walked home thinking about what had just happened and all that she had felt, climbing the stairs to her room and plopped down on her bed.

She needed to clear her head and for that nothing better than the help of her best friend. She dialled his number and waited.

"So, what happened?" Syaoran asked as a greeting.

Sakura snorted.

"When I was about to leave... he kissed me."

He laughed.

"I knew it, I knew he would. And you let him?"

"Yeah, I... I don't know, it was very unexpected," Sakura answered as she touched her lips, still feeling a bit confused.

"So... Do you like him?" asked her friend curiously.

"I think so, I like him a little bit... but I don't want him to be my boyfriend, Syaoran."

"Let it all flow, keep spending time with him. It doesn't have to be a serious relationship from the beginning," Syaoran proposed.

"I'll do that, I need to know if I really like him or not before I think about those things."

"Relax, Eriol won't ask you to be his girlfriend so fast."

Sakura twisted her face.

"I hope so."

Two weeks later, Sakura had been three more times with Eriol and all of them they had kissed again. She liked him, she liked the boy... but she didn't want anyone to see her holding hands with him or anything like that. Eriol had tried to do it once while they were walking but Sakura had flinched, thwarting his attempt.

Tomoyo thought Eriol was very cute, as did Chiharu and Meiling. They spent the breaks asking Sakura for details of what she had done with him.

In one of those breaks, the four girls were talking sitting on a bench in the park that was in front of the school, and not far from there Syaoran and Natsumi were leaning on a tree, kissing each other.

"Yesterday... he touched me a bit here, over my clothes," Sakura muttered to her friends while she pointed to her butt.

Meiling and Chiharu stifled a laugh.

"Where was that?" asked Tomoyo.

"We always go to a square that is close to his house, there's no risk of someone we know passing by and seeing me with him," she answered, glancing at her.

Tomoyo nodded.

"I'm sure he'll ask you to be his girlfriend very soon."

"I think he hasn't done it yet because he doesn't see you as very receptive, Sakura," Chiharu added thoughtfully.

"It can be, if you don't let him hold your hand and you don't date him more, he's going to think that you don't like him," said Meiling, raising her eyebrows.

Sakura sighed.

"I do like him, but... I don't think I'm going to fall in love with him".

It was nice to spend time with Eriol, his kisses, his caresses over her clothes... but she couldn't imagine having a relationship with him. She would have to like him a lot more for that.

"Give yourself more time, not everyone falls in love as fast as your friend," Meiling growled, pointing her gaze at Syaoran, who was still having his kissing session a few feet away.

The four of them got up to go back to school, the bell was about to ring.

"Hey, lovebirds! We have to go back to class now," shouted Sakura, looking at the couple.

Natsumi broke away from Syaoran and looked at her.

"Yes, we're coming!" she replied, pulling his arm and starting to walk quickly.

The six of them walked up the stairs together and said goodbye to Chiharu and Natsumi, who were in the other class.

The rest of the day Sakura was texting secretly with Natsumi, laughing with the witticisms of her new friend. At last one of Syaoran's girlfriends didn't feel jealous, and besides, she had managed to get along great with her.

Time continued passing, Sakura had already been dating Eriol and sharing kissing sessions with him for a month. Sometimes, he appeared at the door of her high school at the dismissal time with his motorbike, and that annoyed Sakura a lot.

If he saw her, she had to go with him on the bike, and she was ashamed that everyone saw they were together.

But most of all, it bothered her because she felt that Eriol was invading her space. She had never asked him to come and pick her up. More than once, she managed to sneak away by hiding among the other students, thus avoiding having to get on Eriol's blue motorbike.

Of course he never kissed her if there were other people around. That had only happened once when Syaoran, Eriol and she were together at Eriol's house. Syaoran left them alone for a moment while he went to the kitchen to get drinks for the three of them, at which point Eriol took the opportunity to pounce on her and snog her.

They stopped when they heard Syaoran chuckling, and when they later left, Syaoran showed her several pictures he had taken of them secretly while they were kissing.

Sakura forced Syaoran to delete those photos, totally embarrassed.

Syaoran and Natsumi had been together for almost four months, and everything was still fine between them.

They were already in the second trimester and they were starting to have exams again. Sakura approached Tomoyo's desk and waited until she finished picking up all her books.

They left the classroom together, out of the corner of her eye she saw that Natsumi was giving a letter to Syaoran before leaving. At the main door, they met Chiharu and Naoko, and the four of them walked together for a while until their paths diverged.

Sakura was listening to music and humming quietly. She saw her little yellow house in the distance, and was surprised to discover a motorbike standing by the gate. She accelerated her pace and when she arrived she saw that it was Syaoran, and he had a dark face.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked as she stood next to him.

Syaoran said nothing and extended a paper to her. Sakura recognized it, only twenty minutes ago she had seen how Natsumi gave it to him. She began to read it and her face turned pale.

In that letter, Natsumi said that it had been a lot of fun being with Syaoran, that the sex was great and that she liked being with him, but they had been together for too many months now and she didn't feel like being with the same person for so long, so it was better for their relationship to end.

Sakura looked up and met Syaoran's teary eyes.

"She lied to me, Sakura... She told me that she was in love with me, but it wasn't true. She's tired of me and now she wants to be with others," he murmured, his voice cracking.