Chapter 13: Complications and misunderstandings

I stared at the book in front of me, as I had been doing for the past 30 minutes. The black letters written across the pages made no sense to me. I idly wondered how complicated things had gotten in a span of 2 minutes.

It had all started a week ago, when I had my first 'kiss' from Syaoran, well if you could call it a kiss. It had lasted for about 3 seconds- that's right- 3 seconds- before a red-faced Syaoran suddenly pulled away, his eyes wide, muttered something on the lines of sorry, and ran away- leaving me totally confused.

And as I stood there in the library my confusion turned to hurt. Had he expect me to react and kiss him back? But I barely got the chance to recover from the shock...

Or maybe it had been a mistake... but how could you kiss someone by mistake? Then why? Was I that repulsive or something? The thought made my heart cringe.

He even started avoiding me at school. He would never look at me and always kept his face down. If by some chance our eyes met, he would look away immediately, for some reason, a pink tinge on his cheeks.

And of course, to top it all, Meiling had to go ahead and notice something was wrong.

She had recovered quite quickly from Syaoran's telling-off and was back to being her air-headed self again, looking very pleased whenever she noticed the awkwardness between Syaoran and me. I wanted nothing more than to wipe that stupid look off her face. And if the rumours were true, she had got back with her ex- what's-his-name. I never talked to her these days, and I didn't want to.

In fact I didn't want to talk to anyone- even Tomoyo. She had asked me every detail of what had happened when I had been eaves-dropping. And I had told her everything, including what I had heard in the library, but left out the last part- about our 'talk'. Tomoyo had been delighted to hear that Meiling no longer had a chance with Syaoran, and I wished I could share the feeling. I wished Syaoran had never approached me and the kiss had never happened.

But Tomoyo being Tomoyo definitely saw that everything wasn't right. When she saw that we were avoiding each other, she couldn't help frowning. And seeing that frown I knew that one of these days she was going to grab a chance to confront me.

I opened the door to be welcomed by a not-so-welcome sight- Meiling making out on the couch with her boyfriend. Feeling repulsed, I quickly shoved Kero in and closed the door.

Meiling's eyes opened at the sound and she looked at me. I caught her look and it became obvious what she was trying to say- 'I have a boyfriend and you don't!'

I had the urge to say- 'But you don't have Syaoran!' But another thought made stop from saying it- neither did I.

Feeling a wave of nausea wash over me, I quickly left the living room and entered my room. I was surprised to find Tomoyo sitting there, on my bed.

"Sakura, we need to talk."

"He said that?"

I nodded dumbly, a hint of color on my cheeks.

"He said he liked being alone with you? And you didn't even tell me?" Tomoyo gasped out, her face red from excitement.

"Umm- I"

"And then?"

I blinked. "Then what?"

"Then, after that, what happened?" she asked impatiently.

"He-er- he sort of kissed me."

"HE KIS-!" I closed her mouth with my hand before she could scream out the whole sentence. But that didn't stop her from leaping out of the bed in excitement. And the force caused both of us to tumble out and land painfully on the floor.

I groaned. "Tomoyo, you don't have to get all excited- it wasn't that much of a kiss anyway," my voice was bitter, "it was something a brother would give his sister."

"A brother would never kiss his sister." Tomoyo stated, matter-of-factly, an amused smile on her face.

For some reason, I started feeling irritated at her. "Well, you know what I mean, Tomoyo." I felt my voice cracking, a hint of wetness at the corner of my eyes. "I-he- oh Tomoyo, I'm so confused." Unable to control myself, I broke down, venting out the past week's frustration. I didn't want to think I had been rejected- by another guy, by Syaoran. Again.

Tomoyo looked shocked at my outburst. She placed at a hand on my shoulder. "Why? What happened?" she asked, concerned.

"Well he started kissing me, and suddenly he stopped, and then- then he just ran away."

She frowned. "What? Why?"

"I don't know. He's been avoiding me ever since."

"Is that why...?"

"Yes, you saw him. He doesn't even look at me these days." I said desperately.

Tomoyo looked at me carefully. "But why- why would he do that?" She leaned back against the bed post, still frowning, as if in deep thought. And then suddenly she slapped her hand against her forehead, and giggled. "Of course! Oh Sakura, you're so naïve. Both of you. You're so thick, you can't even see- you..." she said between spurts of laughter.

I blinked and looked at her. "What...?" was all I managed.

She swooped down on me and pulled my cheeks. "You're so adorable, so kawaii. You'll both make such a cute couple!" That made me widen my eyes even more.

Then without warning she skipped to the door. "I've to go now- got to talk to Eriol." With that she went out of my room, closing the door behind her.

Leaving me even more confused than before.