Dodging the Raindrops Chapter 2: Plot by: The Can-Can group Disclaimer: I don't own...
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"Sakura?" Came Tomoyo's frantic voice from the other side of Sakura's bedroom door. "Are you okay?"
Sakura pulled the pillow over her head, trying to drown out the sound of her friend's voice.
"Sakura?" Tomoyo knocked. "Come on, open this door." She pleaded.
She took a peek at her radio clock, located on the nightstand next to her bed. 7:35 flashed on its screen.
"Open up, what about Suzo? You haven't made her dinner yet."
Sakura let out a groan and lazily got out of her comfy bed, her hair in random places everywhere. She opened the door; Tomoyo was in a position that suggested that she was about to kick it open.
"What do you want from me?" She ask groggily, she blinked, "And how did you get into my apartment?"
"Remember giving me an extra set?" Sakura nodded. "And I was wondering where to put Li's stuff." Tomoyo lead her to the living room where the small amount of bags where located behind the couch, near the door.
Sakura shrugged, "Put them in the guestroom."
They started to place the bags into the guestroom. Sakura started to reflect on what happened a while ago. She lost control of her emotions, something that rarely happened. But whenever someone assumed that she was a whore, it kind of irks her. Just because she's a single parent doesn't make her a prostitute. Still she felt sorry for slapping the guy when he didn't know.
But still he had no right...
"So is that it?" Sakura asked as she placed the last suitcase on the bed in the guestroom.
Tomoyo nodded. "Yep, I'm going to met Eriol somewhere and," she gives her auburn haired friend a stern glare, "Don't you forget about the promise you made me."
Sakura stiffened, she always hated being the center of attention, must of been the weather yesterday, she concluded. "Yea, okay, I'll see you later." Tomoyo shuts the door after herself.
Sakura went to Suzo's room. The light coming from the door caused the little girl to stir and wake. "Oh, hi mommy," Her emerald eyes looked as groggily as Sakura's had did, "What's for dinner?"
Her eyes softened, "How does pizza sound?"
Her daughter nodded eagerly in agreement. She got out of her bed, following the only source of light, which was coming from the hallway light.
Suzo went to the living room, yawning and stretching and plopped on the couch. The sound of the TV turning on followed.
Sakura ordered the pizza. Kero bounded around her, knowing that something was going to be coming soon.
"So, what are we watching?" She asked as she took a seat on the couch.
"CSI." Suzo replied, she blanched; there was a close up on a mutilated body.
Sakura hurriedly changed the channel, landing on Monk.
"Aw, but mommy, they were just about to find out who did it." Suzo pleaded, in hopes of changing her mother's mind. Of course, it didn't work, Sakura just ignored her. The little girl grumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest and laid back into the couch.
The little tantrum ended quickly as it came, soon she was laughing. Monk had to teach a class and he was writing his name on the board. However, he kept on erasing the letters because they weren't perfect enough.
Sakura tried to stifle a laugh.
"Com'on, laugh, I promise I won't tell anyone."
Sakura twisted her body around to see Syaoran standing there, with a grin on his face.
"How'd you get in here?" She scowled.
Syaoran raised a hand and jingled the set of keys in them. "Your friend gave me an extra set."
She glared at him and turned around, returning her attention to the TV. Sakura tried to ignore him, but his intense gaze was aimed right in the back of her head. She turned around again. "Look, I'm sorry that I slapped you."
He smirked, "Apology accepted."
Sakura blinks. "Isn't there something else you should be saying?"
"Nope."
Sakura frowned, "What about apologizing for calling me a whore."
"I didn't call you a whore, and even if I did why would I apol-" He was interrupted by a knocking at the door.
Sakura hastily got up to answer it. She put her eye up to the little eyehole. "Pizza's here."
She opened the door. A guy wearing a uniform that had a polo shirt, khaki pants, and a baseball cap, was standing there, looking at a small piece of paper.
"One large cheese pizza." He handed the box to Sakura, still looking at the receipt. "That'll be seven ninety five." He looked up as Sakura started to search her wallet for money.
"Wow." He said, looking at her features. He started to scribble something on the receipt.
"Here you go." Sakura hands him the money.
"And here you go." He hands her the receipt.
She looks questioningly at it. "What's this?"
"My phone number."
"Why would I need that?" Suspicion replaces the confusion.
"So that you can call me if you want to go out with me. Which I'm sure that you do." He said with confidence.
All the girls at his school consider him as 'the looker', and popular. Most of the girls fell in love with his spiked black hair, for others it was his red 'enchanting' red eyes.
Sakura stiffened, her defenses shot up, as Syaoran dually noted. "No thanks."
The pizza guy faltered. "What? Why not?" He started to get frustrated and angry.
"Um... I don't go out with guys that I don't know." Her knuckles started to grow white as she gripped the box harder in her hands.
"That's why you go out on a date, to get to know one and another better." He said trying hard not to hurt her.
"I can't"
"And why not?"
"Um... my uncle is sick and I need to go and take care of him." Sakura lied, hoping that he will buy it.
Kero came up to Sakura, he noticed her distress and started to growl at the offender.
"How about another time?" He asked, slightly frightened by the massive and ferocious dog.
Syaoran sighs. Might as well save her before she ruins the pizza. He walks up into plain view. "What's going on here?"
Sakura breathes a sigh of relief and follows his lead. "Nothing honey."
The pizza guy gasps at the tall size of Syaoran and the size of his muscles that are barely visible underneath the business suit. "Um... enjoy the pizza." He leaves, almost running down the hallway.
"Thanks." Sakura says as Syaoran closes the door and takes the box out of her hands.
"Its nothing." He walks to the kitchen and places the pizza on the table. He turns to her. "I'm sorry that I implied that you were a whore." He reflects on what just happened as Sakura's lips started to lift upwards. "If you were, he would have been in your bedroom by now."
He smirked seeing Sakura's shocked and insulted expression.
Before she can rebuke, Suzo entered and grabbed a piece pizza.
She had seen what had just happened, and there was a small grin on her face. Sakura notices this. "What's with the smile?"
"Nothing." Suzo replied as she went back into the living room. Got to tell Auntie Tomoyo about this.
Kero was whining at the table, a look of hope and hunger in his black eyes.
"No." Said Sakura firmly.
He sulked away to the living room, knowing that Suzo would give him a piece of hers (Which, of course, she did.)
"I smell a conspiracy." Sakura mumbles.
Syaoran looked at her questioningly. "Why do you say that?"
"Her smile is like one of Tomoyo's, the one that says that she knows something that deals with me that I don't know." Her eyes narrow. "I really need to stop letting Suzo hang around her."
Syaoran shrugged.
They grabbed the box with the pizza, headed into the living room, where they finished eating it and watched TV.
(The next morning...)
Sakura just left the preschool where Suzo went most days of the week. Early that morning, Syaoran had left for work, when he left, Sakura didn't know, she never got up as early as seven.
There are patches of ice on the ground. The rain from yesterday didn't completely evaporate and had frozen over during the night. Sakura could see her breath as she tightened her hold on her coat.
Men and women in the usual dark business suits were everywhere, ignoring the world around them as they talked on cell phones and went over what they were going to say at the 'huge and big and very important meeting'.
Some venders, crazy enough to sell stuff in the cold, were calling out items and their prices. Smog came out of the exhaust pipes of passing cars and buses. The sun is shinning brightly over the busy city, as if trying to make everyone's dreary morning full with hopes for the new day.
Sakura enters a retail store. Another day, another dollar. She sighs. Sakura has always pondered as to why she stays at the store. There have been rude customers; the manager acts as if he has a stick stuck up his ass. Plus guys are always asking her out and hitting on her. She shakes her head and enters through the sliding door.
A few of the other employees look up with disinterest, which changes instantly. "Wow, Kinomoto's here early..." A few murmur.
Sakura ignores the whispering and heads to the back to punch in her time and put on her nametag, she heads towards the front.
"Hello Sakura." A males voice comes from in front of her. She stiffens as she tries to walk past him.
"How come you didn't call last night?" He asked.
"Please, leave me alone Koji." She mutters.
"Huh? Why?"
Sakura takes her place at a cash register.
"Why?" He asks again.
"How old are you?" She asks out of the blue as she turns the register on and unlocking the cash box to count how much is in it.
"I'm sixteen, why?" Confusion is evident in his hazel eyes.
"Have you ever thought about mine?"
"No, I assumed that you were my age."
"Well, you assumed wrong, I'm twenty two and with one kid." She replied dully.
"You look like a highschooler."
Sakura didn't say anything to the comment, its not like its never been used before. To her it's a cliché statement; everyone she has ever met has said that at least once to her, after awhile, she just ignored the statement.
"Wow, I'm sorry that I was bugging you." He left without saying goodbye.
Sakura stared after his retreating back. A customer came up with some purchases. She got to work on ringing her up.
(After work, sometime in the afternoon...)
Sakura left the retail store, her paycheck in hand. The cell phone in her pocket started to ring. She took it out and answered it.
"Hello? Oh, hi Tomoyo..." She listened as her friend asked her something.
"Nope, I'm not busy... at five? I'll be there soon."
She closed her cell phone and replaced it back into the pocket where it had come from.
Sakura turned around and went in the opposite direction she was originally traveling in.
A few moments later she arrived at a restaurant/ cafe, searching for her friend.
Sakura spots the person and head towards her. "Hello Tomoyo."
The woman turns around at the voice of her friend. "Hello Sakura, come and sit down with me." She pats the seat next to her. Sakura takes her spot in it.
"So..." Tomoyo gets an expectant look in her amethyst eyes. "How was your first night with Li?"
Sakura frowns, why does her friend only want to talk about this, just because there was a guy in her apartment doesn't mean that she is going to start dating him.
Tomoyo cocked her head. "Don't want to talk about it?"
"He's rude, arrogant, self-centered-"
"I'm not that bad, am I?"
Sakura turns around and glared. Syaoran is standing behind her with a mock- hurt expression.
Tomoyo laughed. "Come and have a seat with us."
Syaoran took a seat next to Sakura (much to her horror).
"How was the meeting?" Tomoyo asked.
Syaoran shrugged. "It was okay. Pretty much boring though."
"I hope that you die of that boredom." Sakura mutters.
Syaoran gives a sigh. "Kinomoto, why do you hate me so? Is it my looks, my personality, my existence all together? Please enlighten me on why you hate me so. Then maybe I can fix it to your liking."
Tomoyo laughed before Sakura could say anything. "Its not you, its her."
"Tomoyo!" Sakura yells in order for her friend to get the hint and stop.
"She dislikes most men and doesn't trust them because her-" At this point, Sakura put a hand over her talkative friend's mouth.
What she had said was true and Sakura knew it, the only men she ever trusted was her father, her brother, and Eriol (it took a while for her to trust him, though)
So, Kinomoto has a secret.
Sakura stared dully out of the glass window, next to their table, looking at and watching the passersby.
"What's with the bored look?" Syaoran poked her arm.
Sakura looks over towards him. Tomoyo is talking on her cell phone, possibly to Eriol, she figured.
Syaoran took this time to ask the defensive woman next to him a question that's been bugging him since the night before. "So, exactly who is Suzo's father?"
She placed her elbow on the table and used her palm to support her head up in the air. She turned her dull emerald eyes towards him.
"Why do you want to know so much about me? What about you? Have you ever been married? Do you have any siblings? What about your parents? When's your birthday? How much money do you have? What's the size of your-?"
Syaoran blushed and cut her off before she could finish the last statement. "Okay, I get the point. No more personal questions. Man I'd to see you when you're PMSing."
Sakura's eyes flashed dangerously.
He turned and looked out the window, ignoring the glares he got from Sakura.
Tomoyo snapped her phone, grabbing the attention of both of them.
"That was Eriol, he was wondering where you went." Tomoyo raised an eyebrow. "He also said that you might of 'sneaked out.'"
Syaoran got up and left without saying a word.
"Good riddance." Sakura mutters.
Tomoyo shakes her head. "At least give him a chance."
Sakura acted as if she ignored her or didn't hear. Tomoyo didn't buy that act the least bit, but acted as if she did.
"You are way too stubborn." Tomoyo got up. "Well, I've got to get going."
Sakura got up also. They left the cafe, said goodbye and went their separate ways.
Authoress's Notie
Review, please...
