Chapter 8
Tidus' new Foe
--------------------------------------
"ICE-SKATING!?" the three men cried in unison.
"Ah ah, no complaining. I've already booked it so as soon as we arrive there we have the whole place to ourselves." Lulu announced with both of her hands placed firmly on her hips.
"God, whatever." Squall mumbled, running his hand through his hair. The simple gesture caught Rikku's attention and immediately she started to blush. Upon feeling the burning heat on her cheeks, she abruptly turned around, hoping in vain to hide her rosy cheeks. Being the observant person that he was, without delay, he noticed that the petite blonde standing in front of him had found his before-action in a way 'sexy.'
"Okay, we're leaving in fifteen minutes. So you all better be in the van by then!" Lulu yelled out to all her companions, as one by one they began heading back to their assigned rooms, preparing for their trip.
Rikku, still embarrassed with what happened moments ago, reluctantly made her way into the room. Afraid that her cheeks may still be slightly pinkish, she kept her head down as soon as she got into the room. She kicked herself mentally as she realized that it was probably more obvious by keeping her head down than the other option, acting as though nothing had happened.
Standing there like an idiot, Rikku finally decided that the latter was the better option; therefore she took a deep breath and lifted her head up. She didn't know whether to thank God for this moment or slap herself silly for embarrassing herself even more, but basically she knew she was most likely going to faint. Squall stood there shirtless looking at Rikku with an amused expression. However, after a while he decided quickly to slip on his white T-shirt as the atmosphere was starting to get a little awkward with Rikku staring intently as his chest.
Finally snapping out of her trance-like state, she blushed harder than ever, "S-sorry, I didn't know you were changing," she stuttered, her cheeks crimson red, her eyes downcast and her heart beating furiously.
"Nah, it's cool, umm, maybe you should get changed soon, we both know Lulu ain't the most patient person here." Squall joked trying to ease the tension a bit.
Smiling and nodding at the same time, Rikku hurriedly walked into the en-suite, grabbing her belongings on her way.
I'm such a stud.
------------------------------
"It's cold in here." Rikku pointed out as soon as she walked in.
"No Rikku, it's hot in here," Lulu replied, sarcasm heavily detected in her voice.
Yuna simply laughed and placed her skates on, eager to get on the ice. She managed to put them on with ease while Rikku struggled to fit her foot in. The guys on the other hand were already ahead of them and were by now racing each other on ice. Judging by their reaction before, one would not believe how skillfully talented they were.
Finally, after helping Rikku with her skates, the three girls were able to make their way over to the ice. Carefully yet expertly, the three of them started gliding on the ice. The men stood there in silence for a while just watching the girls ice skate.
"What are you guys doing? Why aren't you skating?" Lulu asked.
Tidus and Squall simply dismissed Lulu by waving their hands or shrugging their shoulders.
Not long later, after no one had spoken to each other since they were all occupied with their own skating, Squall grew sick pf the silence. He skated at a fast speed and abruptly stopped, digging up the ice on the floor. He bent down and picked it up molding it into a ball, he looked around at everyone and finally decided whom he was to aim for. Yuna, unluckily, was standing at a perfect distance from Squall for him to be able to get her, therefore without realizing Squall had already taken aim, she merely stood there.
Suddenly, she felt something cold, hard and wet hit her. She turned around immediately to see what had struck her and saw Squall once again pissing himself laughing. She slowly dusted the ice off her and dug up some of her own ice and molded it in a circular shape. Not being as accurate as they both thought she would be, she missed, causing Squall to continue his laughing. With an evil glint and a mischievous smirk, she began skating at a rapid speed towards Squall.
He noticed straight away once she started charging towards him and fled as quickly as possible. Yuna chased him around countless times not willing to give up, until suddenly, she felt slightly dizzy after all those rounds. She did not stop however; instead she merely slowed down her speed, but this still could not keep herself balanced. So, trying to push the dizziness aside, she closed her eyes hoping that the heaviness of her head would soon disappear. But once her eyes were squeezed shut, she gradually felt herself falling and yet she was too dizzy to react to it.
Just as she thought she was going to hit the cold hard floor, she suddenly felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist and back. It took a while before she finally regained her consciousness. Once she did she slowly opened her eyes to find that it was Tidus' arms that were around her. What she did next surprised them both…she merely stared at him. Her mind told her to push him away, but something inside of her refused to follow her orders. Tidus on the other hand, was surprised that he didn't get the push away he was expecting, not that he really minded being so close to her.
They just stood there for who knows how long looking at each other, studying their facial features, analyzing every single flaw on their faces and trying to read each other's minds. Yuna had to admit, he was a jerk at times but overall he was indeed exceedingly good looking. Eventually her mind was able to gain back control, so with her instincts kicking in, she quickly yet gently released herself from his grip.
"Thanks." she softly mumbled so that only he could hear it.
"No problem." he managed to reply back, backing away from her slightly.
The whole group had been standing there watching the whole thing happen but decided to remain quiet knowing that they could only make the situation more awkward for them.
"Hey we have to go now, I only booked this place for an hour guys." Lulu said, breaking the silence.
Receiving nods as the groups' replies, they made their way out, taking off their skates before they arrived to the counter to return them.
The silence had melted away and everyone once again started their own conversations as they walked into the parking lot. Yuna, however, chose to remain silent, mentally punishing herself for thinking what she thought about Tidus before.
With her mind occupied, she didn't notice someone ahead of her hence making her bump into that person.
"Oh sorry." she stammered, but kept her eyes fixed on the ground.
"Yuna?" the male voice spoke.
At this point, the group had turned around to see what was happening. Yuna shot her head up immediately to the sound of that voice. As soon as she was looking at the black haired, good-looking man in front of her she couldn't help but glare at him. She knew her cheeks were going red but she didn't bother hiding them, simply because she just didn't give a crap. Her heart starting beating at a rapid speed, she could feel it, yet again, she didn't try to stop it, because she couldn't.
She seemed okay with the flushed cheeks, but her eyes proved to differ. Her cheeks were reddened as anger took over her. Her heart increased its speed as rage overcame her. And her eyes couldn't help but squint at the sight in front of her.
"Justin…" Rikku mumbled.
Without one word spoken, Yuna stormed off towards their van, forcefully flinging off his hand when he tried to prevent her from leaving. The group all stood there speechless with Yuna's sudden change of mood. Ignoring the man supposedly known as 'Justin' to Rikku, they hurriedly walked after Yuna. As soon as they arrived to their van, Yuna was already sitting right at the back corner where Squall was sitting before, looking out the window.
"Yu-," Lulu started but was stopped when she realized Rikku had raised her hand and gave a disapproving look.
Therefore the group silently stepped into the van and drove off back to their cabin. The group had quietly chatted amongst themselves while Rikku, with all her effort, tried to start a conversation with Yuna but only receiving nods occasionally. Never once did Yuna take her eyes off the blurry clouds outside.
Once they arrived back, everyone got off the van and waited for Lulu to unlock the door to their cabin. Tidus continuously glanced at Yuna, but never saw her face for she was always either looking in another direction or just staring at her feet. Once they walked inside, Yuna calmly yet hurriedly walked into her room, grabbing a pile of clothing before making her way into the bathroom. She closed the door behind her and locked it. She looked at herself in the mirror and to her surprise, her eyes weren't blood shot nor were there any signs of her crying. Wait! That's because she didn't cry. Sure her eyes were blurry a few times, but it was only caused by the rage inside of her.
Why hadn't I cried today, just the way I cried in the past because of him? Have I already forgotten about him?
------------------------------
Right after they heard the water pouring down inside, everyone showered Rikku with questions.
"What the hell happened before?"
"Who was that guy?"
"How do you know him?"
"WAIT!" Rikku exclaimed shutting everyone up.
"I'll tell you everything I know, just keep your voices down. Don't wanna let Yunie hear us do we now?"
The group merely shook their heads and paid full attention to the petite blond in front of them.
"That jerk before was Justin…Yuna's ex boyfriend," Rikku sighed, pausing for a while.
Immediately Tidus had already formed a disliking towards him, unknown to himself.
"They were inseparable back at Besaid high. He was a perfect boyfriend towards Yuna. He also got along with all her friends…especially Teresa… one of Yuna's closest friend. Well one day… one day Yuna wanted to give him a surprise at his apartment because she had come back two days earlier from camp. But as soon as she walked into his bedroom, she saw him cheating on her… with Teresa." Rikku finished and sighed out loud.
The grouped all had their eyes wide opened, not believing how much of a jerk that Justin guy was.
"The weird thing was, no one and I mean no one ever saw Yuna cry afterwards. I don't know, maybe she thought the situation was real clichéd or something. Or maybe she never really liked him, I don't know." Rikku laughed nervously, trying to break the tension.
Tidus felt the hatred towards this guy growing every second inside of him. Suddenly the running of the water stopped, indicating that Yuna was going to come out soon. Therefore Rikku quickly ended that conversation and changed the topic.
------------------------------
Yuna cautiously stepped out of the shower before grabbing her towel and wrapping it around herself. She stared back at the reflection in the mirror and started analyzing herself. After seeing Justin, she was reminded about too many of the bad things that happened to her. This made her feel self conscious. She continuously asked herself, 'Was I not enough?' A while later after staring at herself for a rather long time, she decided to put her clothes on as she felt a shiver run down her spine.
Walking out of the bathroom, she noticed that everyone had also changed into the 'not going out clothes'. As for her, she was simply wearing her baggy pants and tank top.
"Yuna, are you going somewhere?" Rikku asked.
"Um, yeah, I'm just going to the beach," Yuna answered, looking straight at Rikku with an obvious fake smile.
"But it's already dark, why don't you just stay in here. We can have a drinking competition again since you're such a pro." offered Wakka
"It was water Wakka-," "WHAT!"
"Yuna, just make sure we'll be able to find you when dinner's here okay?" Lulu continued after being rudely interrupted by Wakka.
With a nod, Yuna made her way out of the cabin brushing past a slightly worried Tidus on her way.
------------------------------
"IT WAS WATER?!"
"Shut up Wakka, we all already knew that. Anyway Rikku, how did you and Yuna end up coming to Zanarkand high, I mean no offense or anything, but Zanarkand high is sorta like a rich school." Squall asked.
Rikku placed her hands on her hips and faked an offended look, "Squall, how insulting!"
"NO! I didn't mean it that way, what I mea-," but he was interrupted by Rikku's laughter.
"I'm only kidding, don't worry." she giggled.
Squall, relieved that she didn't take his comment to heart, urged her to continue by waving his hands as a sign of 'go on'.
"Well firstly we got kicked out of Besaid high-," she earned a chorus of gasps or 'what?' after hearing her say that.
"No, I haven't finished," she declared before getting shouted in the face to continue.
"Okay okay, word was spread quickly throughout the school after the incident meaning it came to Yuna's friends' attention. They felt bad for Yuna so they decided that it was payback time. Yuna and I had nothing to do with it though, well Yuna didn't even know that it was even happening, but I did. The only reason why I didn't stop them was because I also felt bad for Yuna, and I, just as much as everyone else, wanted to even the score for her, but I knew Yuna didn't like people butting into her business, so I stayed out of it."
After getting a few nods, Rikku continued.
"It started off to be little things such as ruining their lockers, or spreading false rumors or just anything humiliating. But then, they took it further, they needed to do something that would also hurt them as much as they hurt Yuna, so one of them, her name was Courtney, decided to play a real mean trick on them. Well long story short, basically she set him up by getting him all drunk and pretending to sleep with him. This was all caught on camera. Of course, she didn't actually sleep with him; the video ended just enough to imply that it happened." Rikku paused, taking a deep breath before starting again.
"So they showed the tape to Teresa and of course she broke down in tears, well actually she broke down. The principals eventually heard about the 'little games' they were playing, so not knowing where the orders came from, he was planning to expel the entire group. Yuna, who was completely innocent about it all, stood up and lied that it all came from her and that she had told them to do it. Yuna sort of felt that it was her fault so she took the blame not holding a grudge on anyone of them because she knew they did it for her. But I think deep down inside Yuna wanted to leave anyway."
"Of course I wasn't going to let Yuna get all the blame for it, so I stood up as well and said that I was apart of it. So yeah, I also got expelled as well. How we got to Zanarkand high? Let's just put it this way, Yuna is not a poor girl, in fact she's slightly above average, money wise, but because of some umm, problems she chose to leave home. And that's why we share an apartment together. But still, we had to work our asses off to pay for the rent and the school fees during school break." Rikku had finally finished her explaining.
"I'm not actually sure about her 'problems', she never talks about it so it'd be best to keep it between us." Rikku added.
Lulu smiled at Rikku before saying, "I'm not so sure about Yuna being alone, I think someone should go outside with her."
Rikku was about to walk to the door when Squall stretched his left arm out to stop her. He eyed Tidus, silently indicating to her that Tidus would be better. Without a word said, Tidus walked out of the cabin in his shorts and white t-shirt and made his way over to the beach. He looked around for a second until he saw a familiar back facing him. He quietly jogged over to where she was sitting, stopping a few meters away from her.
She appeared deep in thoughts, looking up in the black sky filled with twinkling stars, her hands playing with the silky sand beside her. She didn't even notice the presence of someone else sitting next to her.
"Beautiful night isn't it?" Tidus said, making himself obvious that he was there.
Yuna turned her attention to him, surprised that she didn't even notice Tidus and basically surprised that it was him. She stared at him for a while, still stunned that he came out after her. He slowly turned his head to look at her and smiled when he came face to face with her. Not a cocky smile, just a relaxed comforting smile. Feeling a sudden liking towards him, she nicely returned the smile and averted her concentration back to the stars.
"Yeah, it is." remembering his question he asked before.
An expected silence fell among them as they both stared into the never-ending night sky. Feeling slightly awkward, Yuna decided to start a conversation.
"So um, what are you doing out here?" she asked, looking at him.
Tidus merely shrugged, still concentrating on what's above him, "I don't know, guess I felt like it was the right thing to do."
Yuna gave him a confused look, "You felt like it was the right thing to do?"
"Yeah." He said still not looking at Yuna, while she on the other hand was studying his side face.
She remained silent, not exactly knowing what to do or what to say.
"Look," Tidus said, finally looking at Yuna, "I know about the whole thing."
Yuna looked at him, not knowing what he was going on about until she remembered about the Justin incident today.
"Oh, so I guess Rikku told you guys," she said lowly, a sudden look of sadness spread across her face.
"Hey, don't let that asshole bother you, he's just an all round dip shit."
Yuna simply giggled, "Yeah you're right, he is the biggest jerk,"
"Ohhh," Tidus whined, "I thought I was the jerk. Thanks, I guess you found someone to replace me," Tidus joked, acting hurt.
Yuna suddenly burst out laughing, not a fake laugh but a whole-heartedly laugh.
"Look, my point is, that Jordan guy-,"
"Justin."
"Yeah, whatever, well he doesn't deserve you. I mean come on, you're like HOT and still he che-… I just think you're too good for him." Tidus said looking straight into her eyes.
Again, Yuna started laughing at what he just said making Tidus smirk himself.
"Oh I think someone here has a little crush on me," Yuna said teasingly yet making it sound sarcastic.
"Yeah, so what if I do," Tidus replied casually, looking up in the sky once again.
"W-what," Yuna asked, not believing what she just heard come out of his mouth.
Tidus turned his gaze back at her, "I said, So…What…If…I… Do," he repeated, emphasizing every word.
Yuna sat there speechless. Was he joking or was he for real? She felt like running away from the awkwardness but her legs were numb. She couldn't even breath properly now and she knew her face was burning red.
"I uh…I-I,"
"YUNIE, TIDUS! DINNER'S READY!" Rikku called out to them from the cabin.
It felt as though a huge rock had been lifted off of Yuna's shoulder as she breathed a sigh or relief. Thanking God silently, she decided to quickly leave."COMING," Yuna called out, hurriedly getting up and walking away, also silently thanking Rikku for interrupting that awkward moment.
Tidus on the other hand cursed under his breath as he slowly got up from his position on the sand.
Rikku, I'm gonna kill you for this------------------------------
"Damn I'm full," Wakka said while rubbing his stomach.
"Yeah, me too, I think I'm gonna explode," Rikku added.
After the six teenagers finished their 'dinners' they all started talking about what they were going to do tomorrow. The guys huddled in their little group and quietly discussed something whilst the girls packed up their take away dinners.
"Hey Lulu tomorrow us guys are off to the Gym alright? So you girls can do whatever you want," Squall said.
"Okay, but when are you guys going?"
Squall turned to the guys before Tidus answered for him, "We're going at like noon or something, why?"
"Oh nothing, we're just gonna go shopping so we might meet you guys outside the Gym okay?"
"Sure," Squall finished.
"Hey! Wanna play truth or dare?" Rikku suggested again only getting loud moans and groans.
----------------------------------
An: Thank-you to all the people who reviewed chapter seven, as I always say, it's really encouraging! After this chapter, the updates won't be that continuous. When the time draws close to an update, I will announce it in my bio. I think chapter eight will be updated probably at the end of October or beginning of November. But bear in mind, this fic will not be discontinued.
SkyeLight