11. Lies

"Wow, I'm so proud of you!" Yuna said to Tidus after class. She gave him a huge hug and he lifted her off the ground as she giggled. "You really did study last night!"

"Of course I did!" He said as he brushed her cheek with her finger. She turned her head away as she turned a light pink color.

"Tidus, I told you, don't do that."

"I'm sorry, but it doesn't look like anything. I'm a flirt," he said as he shrugged his shoulders and put his hands in his pockets. "So, since I did my homework and studied, which is something I haven't done in years by the way, you need to tell me what you meant."

"Oh, how last night was a mistake?" He started to walk her to her locker as she formulated her thoughts in her head. "It's just that...I think that our hormones were out of check last night and they exploded. I honestly think that it would've happened sooner or later, but it shouldn't have happened last night."

"Why not?" He asked her as he gave a high five to Botta on the way. "Yo, man! What's happenin'?"

"Tidus,are hypothetical women going tobe on your mind today or are you actuallygonna focus at practice?" Bottaquipped as Tidus threw him a look. Botta only laughed as he walked away.

"Yeah, anyway, you were saying?" He was slightly embarrassed that Botta said that in front of Yuna, so he cleared his throat and motioned her to explain with his hand.

"That was it," she stated as she reached her locker. As she put in the combination, she continued speaking. "Basically, I'm not your girlfriend, we're not 'dating' or anything...I'm just your tutor."

"Oh, okay," Tidus said as a disappointed frown landed on his face. "It's all good."

"I know you can't keep a serious relationship anyway, and that's kind of what I would want from a guy right now if I were looking for a relationship, which I'm not," she explained quickly as she faced him. "We're just friends, okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine," he said as he leant against the locker next to Yuna's. There was an awkward silence for a moment, and he looked at his watch. "Hey, I gotta go catch up with Rikku before my next class, so I'll talk to you later?"

"Sure," Yuna said with a meek smile. "Have a good day, Tidus."

"Yeah, I'll try," he said as he waved and walked away.

Yuna sighed as she closed her locker and watched him walk away. She knew that lying to him and basically saying that she didn't feel anything toward him was wrong, but being in a relationship with a guy that couldn't be tied down was worse. Looking into those gorgeous blue eyes of his only made her want to crawl into his arms and die that way, so knowing that she just lied to him while looking in those blue eyes broke her heart. She tried not to cry as she sighed and walked to her next class.

"OUI!" Rikku shouted as she saw Tidus. She stormed up to him and shook her fingerright in his face. By the look in her bright green eyes, he could tell she was pissed off. He looked up at the ceiling in aggravation as she spoke. "Fryd dra vilg fyc dryd tecbmyo dryd oui kyua eh recduno dutyo!"

"Rikku," Tidus said in a slightly annoyed tone, letting out a long sigh. "I don't understand you when you go on an Al Bhed rant. Speak in English, please."

"I said, 'what the fuck was that display that you gave in history today!'" Rikku reiterated as Tidus nodded because he finally understood what she was saying. The only times Rikku starts speaking in Al Bhed is if she is either really happy and excited or really pissed off. This time it was because she was thoroughly pissed. "I have known you for 16 years, Tidus, and I haven't seen you pick up a book since we were in the sixth grade and you had to study for our spelling bee that we had that year! The only motivation that you had for even studying was because you wanted to win that new bike, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," Tidus said as he remembered that spelling bee. "I was devastated when I lost to Baralai. Bastard."

"I knew that he was going to win it anyway, but do you remember how hard I helped you study for that spelling bee?" She asked him as he smiled.

"I still can't spell 'photosynthesis' from that," he said with a small chuckle. Rikku made up a song for him to help him learn it, and from that day, he thought of the song. Just for reminiscing purposes, he sang it to her. "You gotta take the 'photo' first, then you 'syn' it with your initials, then you give 'the' photo to your 'sis.'"

"Yeah, and when that word came up in the spelling bee, you spelled it 'p-h-o-t-o-s-i-g-n-t-h-e-s-i-s." She said with a sigh as she thought of how he lost.

"Hey, I don't know about you, but I spell 'sign' s-i-g-n, not s-y-n." They both had to laugh at the recollection. "It's your damn fault that I can't spell."

"No, it's your own damn fault for becoming pussy whipped and resorting to studying to impress a girl." Rikku switched gears from their childhood memories back to him giving an intellectual answer in history. Tidus sighed and Rikku put her hands on his shoulders. "I'm going to be honest with you when I say that I'm really scared for you right now."

"What are you talking about? Why are you scared for me?" He asked as he gave her a queer look. "And I'm not pussy whipped. Is there something wrong with me wanting to do good in a class?"

"Well, maybe you might want to study some English as well, because you can't do 'good' in something. You do 'well' in something. You are hopeless," she said with a sigh.

"I'd like to call it academically challenged." He smiled proudly at her and she couldn't help but laugh.

"Whatever, it's basically the same thing," she clarified, still amused. "Anyway, yes, there is something wrong with you wanting to do well in a class when the reason is a girl."

"Also, Rikku," Tidus started with a shrewd smile as he took her hands off his shoulders. "She did come over to study last night."

"Oh, and what were you studying?" She gave him an icy smile as her voice was heavily laying the sarcasm on. "Anatomy?"

"I told you," Tidus said impatiently as he exhaled. "I did not have sex with her. We merely kissed, that's all."

"She doesn't, like, want a relationship now or anything does she? Because you should let her know that that isn't something that you can commit to." Tidus shot Rikku a very offended look. "What's with the look, Ti?"

"Who do you think you are to tell me what I can and can't commit to?" He scoffed as he looked at his watch. He had about thirty seconds to walk all the way around the school to his next class, but he figured that class could wait because he wasn't going to leave this conversation the way it was. He needed to get some things off of his chest first.

"Wait a minute," Rikku said as she started to put the pieces together. "She turned you down didn't she? She told you that she knew you couldn't commit, didn't she?"

"What if she did?" Tidus pretended that it didn't bother him, but his heart sank a little from thinking about it.

"You're hurt, aren't you?" Rikku asked in disbelief as she crossed her arms again.

"What the fuck is this, Rikku?" Tidus whipped toward her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "You're supposed to be my best friend. That entitles you to support me with whatever I want to do with my life!"

"I don't want to watch you ruin your life, that's why I'm trying to protect you!" She said as tears started to fill in her eyes. With the sight of the tears, he slightly grimaced; mostly from annoyance. "You're starting to shirk your duties with blitzball, you're studying now, you're changing and I can't stand to see that!"

"You don't want me happy?" He asked her as she just blankly looked at him. He knew she wasn't going to answer him, so he continued. "Maybe I'm growing up."

"Maybe we're growing apart," she whispered as a tear ran down her face. Tidus was completely flabbergasted at her saying that and crouched down a little so he could look into her eyes.

"Please don't be a drama queen, Rikku," he said gently as he wiped her cheek. As much as he loved Rikku to death, she had a tendency to become over dramatic just so she could get her way. "We're not growing apart, I'm still the same guy that I was yesterday and last week. Hell, I'm still the same guy that I was about three seconds ago. You also have to remember that Rin did tell me that if I didn't maintain a 2.0 gpa, I wouldn't be able to blitz anymore. We all know that a non blitzing Tidus is a miserable Tidus, therefore I need to keep my gpa. Yuna's just helping me out by tutoring. So could you at least pretend that blitz is the reason why I studied last night?"

"I don't want to lose you to someone else," she said as she turned her head away. Tidus pulled her into a hug, although he was pissed off that she was trying to use guilt on him. Rikku was number one with a guilt trip, and Tidus usually fell for it too. He didn't want to think that Rikku was jealous of Yuna, because there wasn't anything to be jealous of.

"You'll never lose me, okay?" He drawled as she wrapped her arms around him. The bell rang and Tidus sighed. "I'm your best friend Rikku and I always will be. Believe me, we've gone through some fucked up shit in our friendship and if we can overcome what happened then, we can definitely get over something like this. However, we have to get to class, so I will talk to you later okay?"

"Okay," she said as she wiped her tears away and kissed Tidus on the cheek. "Bye."

Tidus waved goodbye and as soon as her back was turned he rolled his eyes and smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. Thank you, Rikku...Tidus thought to himself as he turned on his heel and walked to his next class. That's all I need right now is for you to turn into Pathetic Hormonal Girl...