Chapter 8: Ice cream is a girl's best friend!

I have been sitting here at the piano for 3 hours now, and the music sheet in front of me was still blank. I could think of nothing to write, or to play. Which was really unlike me. Two more weeks until Sasuke leaves, I thought. Still I haven't talked to him. I haven't seen him since my birthday party, even though I didn't really 'see' him there. And that was somewhat two months ago…

Two more weeks I thought to myself. Two more weeks. I shouldn't be sitting here at my piano, I should be with him. Helping him pack, or study. Helping him, just being with him. Time is running out. As much as I wanted to be with him, I couldn't stand the agony of being with him for the last time. Maybe ever. Just the thought of a life without my dearest Sasuke made me cringe. Hold on, back up. Did I say "My dearest Sasuke"? That's when I realized it, the only one I wanted to be with, the only one I every really loved, the only boy I would ever shed a tear for was… err, IS Sasuke. I looked down at my piano's keys smiling. I started to cry. I shed tears that landed softly on the sea of white and black keys. I picked up my pencil and began to write.

--

"Sakura!" Ino called out to me as I approached the school garden. She was waving her hand in the air; it looked like it was going to fall off. A timid Hinata standing next to her.

"Hi!" I waved back to her.

"You're late you bum!" Ino scolded.

"Ah… sorry." I rubbed the back of my head as a reached them.

"I saw Sasuke the other day." Hinata blurted out of nowhere.

"Did you? That's nice, how is he?" I guess they were surprised by my 'cold' comment. We said nothing as we walked further into the park.

--

We were now sitting on a park bench watching the little kids play. We were sharing a pack of milk chocolate Pocky. I kept chewing on my Pocky stick, taking one small tiny nibble at a time.

"Eh?" Ino was looking at me funny again. "Sakura… what's wrong? You haven't exactly been cheery lately"

"I'm fine." I said finishing off the Pocky stick, and taking another one.

"Are you sure? You don't— " Hinata began.

"I'm fine!" I snapped cutting her off. Ino looked at me angrily; I could feel the tension between us. I felt bad. I didn't have to right to talk to them that way.Her eyes grew soft and she looked upon the children once again.

"What you're doing is wrong. I'm sure Sasuke would love to hear your voice." Hinata said.

"Eh!" I looked at her surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Sakura… can you do us all a favor and just tell Sasuke that you're in love with him already? It's been long enough. I saw him give you that red rose on your birthday, and I saw you smiling. You were happy Sakura! Don't you want that! Frankly I like you better when you're smiling, and happy. I bet Sasuke would agree with me on that!" Ino yelled at me.

I stayed silent, unsure of what to say. 'She's right' I thought to myself, as much as I hated to admit it. Hinata noticed that I wasn't exactly willing to talk about this, and she handed me a sheet of paper. It was a bright yellow flier and it read…

"'Young Writer's Showcase'? What's this?"

"What do you think it is? Dumb dumb!" Ino stuck her tongue out at me as if we were kids again. I'm glad Ino has a short attention span, she had already forgotten her anger.

"I was thinking that it could boost your career you know?" Hinata said, beaming with pride. I couldn't help but smile. I jolted towards her hugging her tightly.

"Thank you so much Hinata!"

She laughed.

"HEY I WAS IN ON IT TOO!" Ino shrieked, joining the hugs.

"Hey come on now, the due date for your registration is tomorrow! Better get cracking on your application"

"Great. Where do I get one?"

Hinata pulled out another yellow paper from her book bag. "Here you go!"

Again I hugged her tightly. "OH MY GOD! THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

We all laughed and giggled all the way back to my place, I decided to submit "Dear you" the song I had just finished. Ino and Hinata helped me record my demo. It's been a while since I've done anything like this. I felt so alive again.

The next morning I went down to the Studio where I was to submit my tape. I was so nervous. I opened the mail slot. My hand was shaking so much. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I sighed and turned to walk away.

"You're not giving up already are you Saku?" I whipped around to see who it was. My eyes widened in shock.

"S-Sa-Sasuke…" He was leaning against the wall. He was wearing a fitted black T-shirt and white karate pants. I could tell he just came from working out; he still had his gym bag with him and a towel around his neck. Damn did he look good! He walked up to me pushing his gelled bangs out of the way.

"Is this your demo?" He asked taking the envelope from my hands. I just nodded. "Well… aren't you going to submit it?"

"Well… umm…"

"Didn't think so…" He said with a smirk. I looked down, ashamed of myself. "Well then, I'll do it for you." And with that, Sasuke took the application from my hands and dropped it into the slot. I stood there shocked by what he just did.

"Sasuke!"

"What?" He laughed. "I knew you were going to walk away."

"Eh!…umm…" I looked away afraid to look into his eyes. I knew he was right.

"So… You want to get something to eat or something? I haven't seen you in like forever so… I… I wanted to be with you…" He looked down. I've seen him like this before, once, he really liked this girl back in middle school so he finally decided to ask her out. He would always look down and blush, and he could never really get the words out. Turned out the girl already had a boyfriend. But now, Sasuke was doing the same thing, to me! I felt myself turn red, my cheeks glowing shades of pink and red. Girls at school would kill for this.

I nodded, "Sure…" I mumbled. He just smiled at me.

We went to the ice cream parlor by our school. I ordered the usual chocolate brownie fudge sundae. Yum! I sat down in one of the window booths. Sasuke ordered his usual Oreo Vanilla sundae. 'Some things never change' I thought as a dig into my sundae. He laughed.

"What's so funny?" I asked

"Nothing…" He said stuffing a spoonful of vanilla ice cream into his mouth. I could tell that he was holding in his laughter. He let out a few chickles though, I guess he just couldn't constrain himself.

"Seriously, what's so funny?"

"Remember when we first came here? We were sitting here in this exact same both, in the exact same spots, eating the exact same thing."

I giggled. "You know what, you're right."

"Oh man… That day was so funny."

'Yeah it was' I thought smiling. I remember that day perfectly well…

I had just ordered this same sundae with the last bit of my money when that mean girl, from school, who had a crush on Sasuke, walked in. She purposely bumped into me and made me drop my sundae.

"Whoops." She said, as if it were an accident.

I just glared at her. The shopkeeper came around and helped Sasuke and I clean it up. The girl didn't look happy when Sasuke used his last bit of money to buy another one for me. He and I sat in the same both every time we came to eat here. Which was pretty much every Thursday.

"I remember that…" I said smiling at the memory.

"I think that's when I first realized it…"

"Realized what?"

Sasuke looked at me as if I was supposed to know. Then it hit me.

"Oh that…" Wow… Sasuke has liked me for a long time then. "Neh… Sasuke…"

"Yeah?" He looked up from his sundae.

"If you don't mind me asking…"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you?" He didn't answer… I felt stupid for asking. I shook my head and went back to my ice cream. "Never mind… Bad question. You don't have to answer."

"Because you were different." He said quietly. He was looking out the window now. His endless eyes glazed over with a sort of softness that wasn't in his usual composure.

"Eh?" I looked back up at him. "Different? How so?" What did he mean? Other than the fact that I had PINK HAIR! I couldn't think of a thing that made me different.

"You're not like other girls…" He started, still looking out the window. "You don't dream about something happening to you and wait for it to come. You go out and get it on your own… You have drive, and ambition. Social clubs and standers mean nothing to you. You're always putting others before yourself. You're kind, compassionate, hard working… understanding." He looked at me, smiling. "You're the perfect person…"

I looked down at my ice cream, stirring the melted stuff in circles with my spoon. "I'm far from perfect Sasu… I'm not even close… No body is."

Sasuke took my hand into his. "You are to me…" He said softly looking into my eyes. I dropped the spoon into my bowl looking into his beautiful endless onyx eyes. I blushed, not knowing what to say…

"Sasuke…"