Falling in Love with You Is Just the Beginning
By: Aya
The sun rose higher and Tifa loved every minute of it. She
needed to have something as beautiful as the sun to get rid of past thoughts,
including her stumble upon Reno Talor,
whoever he was. She had to admit, though, that he was remarkably striking and
his eyes almost certainly had to be his best feature. She shook him out of her
mind, however. Promising to never, ever
fall in love again was a top priority. Followed by that, she guaranteed that
she would begin a new life as a whole new person and that was the way it was
going to be.
~*~
"I'm tired! Reno, stop!" A small girl, about fifteen years
of age, tagged behind her older brother, who was walking a tad bit faster than
she would've expected. She took off her baby blue sweater and wrapped it around
her petite waist. She lifted the sunglasses in front of her eyes and rested it
on her head. Her straight brown hair, which took after their mother's, flailed
lightly as she ran to catch up with her brother.
He sighed and turned around. "Could you be any slower?"
His green eyes twinkled and her eyes shared the same magnificence.
"Well, it's not like this is a life and death situation.
Let me inform you that you're taking me into a bar full of women, and I might
as well confess that I've been grabbed a few times by those drunk men.
Honestly!" She grumbled.
"Hey, you've never complained before! Why now?"
"I dunno."
"Then don't complain." He took a hold of her hand and they
began walking once more. She needn't have protested against his grasp because
when it came to her, everything was gentle. To other women…well, that wasn't
anything to get into detail.
~*~
Tifa continued walking down the sidewalks of Midgar and
looked at the silver bracelet hanging loosely on her left wrist. She pondered
the day when her ex-boyfriend had given it to her. She smiled at how sweet he
used to be. She scoffed. Used to be.
Flashback
She sat down on the swing, slowly pushing herself. It was a
beautiful day and a warm breeze began flowing through her hair. The scent of
spring brought liveliness throughout town, especially her. She absolutely loved
it.
Soon, a pair of hands ran gently up her neck and covered
her eyes.
"Guess who." The voice whispered in her ear, making her
spine tingle. She giggled and pulled away the hands from her face. She turned
around and found her boyfriend grinning at her with that cute, boyish grin of
his. It was really heart melting.
"Hey." She greeted and he leaned down to give her a tender
kiss on her rosy pink lips. Then, picking her up he sat on the swing and placed
her on his lap. In response, she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned
her forehead in with his.
"Hey yourself. You feel like doing anything?" A coy smile
made its appearance on his face. She smacked him playfully and played with the
fabric of his shirt.
"Cloud! That's not nice."
"Oh come on. We were close, weren't we?"
Tifa ran a finger down to trace his jaw. "Hm, yeah. I
remember. And you were tweaked when your mom came home."
She giggled…He groaned.
"Oh gods. Don't remind me. And you, love, just had to
leave me, didn't you?"
"I couldn't just hang out. I looked as if I was been
played with." She defended herself.
"Oh. I thought you looked a thousand times sexy."
"Oh, so you don't think I'm sexy now? How rude." She
smiled internally and giggled as he tried to gain back attention.
"Aw, c'mon, Tifa! I was just playin'! You know I love
you." He snuggled closer to her. "You'll always be mine. Always."
"That a promise?" She said, carefully taking a peek at
him.
"When have I broken a promise?" He queried, innocently.
"Oh, a couple-
He stopped her. "I know. But those were nothing. This
time, it's for sure. You're the sun that brightens up my day and I'd rather die
than lose you."
She felt her eyes become watery and she sniffled.
"How does that sound to you? Do you think that when I'm
that serious, I would lie?" He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand.
"Don't worry, sweetie. I'll never break your heart. And here's something that
will truly keep our promise."
From his pocket, he took out a small box, beautifully tied
with a red silk ribbon. She untied it carefully and opened the box, revealing a
silver bracelet.
She was practically speechless. "Oh my…Cloud! This must've
cost a lot! How could you? You know I tell you not to spend your money on me!"
He smiled at her scolding. She looked pretty. "No, but I
figured that I would for this one. You mean so much to me."
Tears finally covered her face and she buried her face in
his chest. "I love you, Cloud…"
"And I love you."
End Flashback
That was when they were fifteen. They had broken up four
years later and look where she ended up. She was lonely and she was virtually
meandering around with her life. They had been going out for three years. Now,
that wasn't a lot of time but it sure meant a lot to her.
She sighed. Even though the day she saw him cheat on her,
she still loved him. She didn't know when she could let go. However, it is said
that you can't forget your first love. How true is that? She mentally slapped
herself. What he said meant the world to her but now, it was just words.
Soon, she spotted a bar. I should have a drink…it
wouldn't hurt seeing as how shitty I feel. She walked on and didn't see the
boy and his little sister come around the corner…
~*~
"Alright, we're here."
"Yay." She said, not enthusiastic about this whole
situation. She didn't know why she was concerned. They did this as a daily
routine. Who knows. She was a girl and girls usually had "problems"…or maybe it
was just her.
They were about to turn around the corner when…
They collided with someone.
"Aw man, Reno get off me!" His sister struggled until he
finally got off.
"Jeez, lady, are you trying to kill somebody?" He yelled.
Brushing himself off and helping up his sister he said, "Just my luck. The bar
just has to be on a bloody corner. What do you think of that?"
"Sorry…didn't see you." Reno was taken aback. He just
yelled at a woman. Oh, this was bad. And she was the stranger whom he met
earlier. What a way to make an impression on yourself, Reno boy. Now do you
think she's still gonna call ya?
"Sorry Miss. Here, let me help you." He held out a hand
and she took it gratefully.
"Hehe…did Reno just yell at someone he met? Huh? Huh?" She
sniggered and elbowed him in the ribs. "Don't worry, Miss. He's always nice to
beautiful women."
Tifa slightly smiled. That was the same man she had met on
the bench. It is true then. He's a womanizer. Just like my ex. She was
about to open the door when he quickly took the handle and opened it for her. Reminds
me of Cloud…damn, this is disturbing. She nodded and entered. With a head
held high, his sister approached the door.
"I can tell she's not interested in you."
"How?" Reno balked. Sure, his sister wasn't that smart but
she was when it came to women. His women that he spotted.
"Well maybe every time she looks at you, she gets a
melancholy expression. Plus, she didn't look too happy when you opened the door
for her. And I might as well add that you guys bumped into each other and all
you could do was yell at her. Seriously, brother, if you wanna get attention
from ladies, you really need to work on chivalry." She stated,
matter-of-factly.
"Chival-wha?" Reno was dumbfounded. "Anju!"
Too late. She had already entered the bar. He shook his
head and followed, welcoming the loud beat of music that was reaching his ears.
Many people he called "friends" were in there as well. He finally spotted Anju
and the mystery girl sitting next to each other having a friendly conversation.
Anju, you're makin' me look bad. As he advanced towards the two girls,
he found that the female stranger was having fun. This is outrageous…even I
can't get a lovely conversation with a girl.
"Hi Reno! I found out her name." Anju whispered to him as
she leaned over.
"You find out before me? This is insane!" He said,
incredulous. He sighed and gave in. "What's her name?"
"Tifa. Tifa Lockhart. Sounds pretty different from all
your other girlfriends. I mean, Cassandra's quite popular. Terra's been used
quite a few times. And Andrea? I think that is a bit too overrated. And what
about Sara who-
"Alright, alright, I get your point. I'm a boring man."
"Man?" Anju snorted and resumed in conversation with Tifa.
Reno slipped into a seat beside Tifa and ordered a drink. He watched his sister
and Tifa laughing merrily.
"Yep. And he's got one hell of a reputa-whoa!" She found
herself being shaken by Reno. "It would be-whoa-nice-urk-if you stopped shaking
me, Reno."
"What the hell do you think you're doin'? She's one of a
kind, Anju. One of a kind!" Reno snarled. She giggled and patted him on the
nose.
"Don't worry, Reno baby. I won't ruin your status that
much." She winked and hopped back on her chair.
"What was that all about?" asked Tifa. For brother and
sister, they had a strange relationship. Not that it was unusual to find
siblings fighting with one another.
"Oh. He's getting all irritable again. He's like that you
know. If I seem to let out his so-called secret, he starts scolding me. It's
really unheard of!" She smiled. "Then again, it's my brother. What would you
expect?"
"Nothing. He reminds me of someone." Tifa claimed, her
eyes wandering around the barroom.
"Who, who?" She was enjoying her talk. "I won't tell.
Honest!"
"My ex. We went out for four years if you can believe
that. I know that that's not a long time but-
Anju held up her hand to discontinue her sentence. "Say no
more. That's pretty long compared to the time span Reno can keep a
relationship."
"He's that bad?"
"Nah. He just can't keep a girl satisfied. It's a shame,
really."
"I see."
"Hey bro! Long time no see, eh? Catch any babes lately?"
Reno asked the boy that walked inside.
Anju turned around and rolled her eyes. "Here we go
again."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Reno and his good ol' buddy hang out every now and
then to go babe hunting and it sucks 'cause I have to go with them. Though I
have to admit that his friend is h-o-t! But you didn't hear that from me okay?"
Tifa smiled. "Sure."
"Hey Ju-Ju." Reno's friend spoke.
"He gave me that nickname. It sounds awfully funny but
it's kinda cute. Don't tell him I said that." She whispered in Tifa's ear.
"Hiya!"
"Who's your friend?"
"That's-
"Tifa?" His eyes widened at the sight of her. She held
back tears, which she accomplished, and answered with a bitter tone.
"Hi Cloud."
¤*.¸¸.·´¨`·.´¨`·.Author's Notes.·´¨`·.´¨`·.¸¸ .*¤
Gee, fancy that. I wrote the next chapter the day after! What a miracle! Hehe, anyway, I'm going to have the next chapter of French Kiss up. I would have Ethereal Glances but like I said, I have writer's block for that one specific story. If I had to guess how much of a percentage it was done, I'd say about 80%, give or take. So bear with me. It's going to be awhile 'till the next chapter goes up but I'm seriously going to post up the next chapter for EG. ^^;;
Reviews are appreciated! Thanks!
