My High School Love Life
Part One
Summer and Ice Cream
~*~
Five years ago. Five years ago, that's when everything began. I didn't understand how I could be so susceptible to falling in love, but I was. Should I regret that?
~*~
She was walking through the hallways of Odaiba High like a goddess. Her brown-red hair, cut short, bounced lightly off her shoulders as she took her steps. She waved to people she knew, and flashed her beautiful, lunette smile at me. "Hey Tai," she said, as she stopped in front of me and my locker.
"Hey," I replied, acting in my usual state: nonchalant. "I heard about you and Hayato. Who ended it?" I asked. I would beat the soul out of the guy if I found out that he hurt her in any way, shape or form.
She smiled at me and waved it off. "I called it off. It just didn't seem right you know? I mean, he's a completely different person when you really get to know him. I just didn't see us fit, so I said that it was over."
I looked deep into her eyes and noticed the clouds forming from her transient bright eyes. She was lying, I knew, but I would just let her go on and tell me when she wanted to. I nodded to her, trying not to show what I had seen. I was happy at that time because the bell just rang. "Well... I'll talk to you at lunch then okay? Oh, and after school. What are you doing then?" I would probably interrogate her then.
"Nothing much. Just the regular homework. Why? Wanna hang out?" she asked. The clouds seemed to move away a little and her voice was on a lighter note than the start.
"Yeah. Just to talk. I mean, we haven't been doing that lately."
She nodded and waved 'bye' to me before turning towards her classroom.
~*~
Okay, so I'll tell you a little about Hayato so you'd understand our conversation. He was her boyfriend. As she said, she 'called it off' so I put it in the past tense. He was just some guy at our school who's dated practically half the girls in the freshman year. I could understand how she acted so cool about it, but then I didn't understand why the clouds arose in her eyes. The guy was a jerk. I warned her, but she always hated it when I told her 'I told you so.'.
~*~
As I walked outside into the fresh Odaiba air, I noticed that Sora wasn't waiting for me at the bottom of the entrance stairs. Her class was closer to her locker than my class was to my locker, so usually she would always be the first one out. I waited for ten minutes thinking that maybe her teacher held her back for a couple of minutes but when she still didn't show, I just walked to my family's apartment and sat on the mat waiting for her to arrive. She would come eventually.
A couple minutes later though, I stood up from boredom. There must have been a better to way to pass time quickly. Since she still didn't return home, I figured that where ever she was, she would be there longer so I decided to take one walk around the park to pass time.
I decided that walking slow would be good to do since it was a pretty small park, and a normal pace around the entire park would be accomplished in just about twenty minutes. Sora would probably still be where ever she was at in just twenty minutes.
Looking around the park, I began to noticed just how much benches there were. Odd... were these new? I've never seen them around before. Maybe I was just unobservant.
As I began counting the benches, I saw a lone figure crying on one. It was a familiar figure, so I decided to rush towards it. "Sora...?" I asked, touching her shoulder lightly.
She looked up at me with her beautiful, but sad crimson eyes. "Tai..." was all she said before breaking down into more tears.
I sat beside her, gathered her petite form into my arms, just sitting there, embracing her in silence. I understood that she didn't want to talk right now. She would tell me everything that happened later. Right now, I just knew to keep my mouth shut. Knowing Sora for fourteen years back then, gave me the knowledge to remain silent until she began the conversation, at times like these.
~*~
That night, Sora went over to my home, and she let everything out about how she couldn't possibly stay with the jerk. He was an ass, and I was right for saying all the mean things that I told her the night she gave me the news of her new 'relationship'. She cried harder because she thought that since she chose that type of guy to be with, she was afraid that she might choose that type of a man to marry. She was scared. Sora was scared.
"You're wrong... It was the first time that you've ever been in that type of a relationship with a guy, and you were probably just caught up in the whole 'Valentine's Week' thing. I mean I know that you're you, and ever since I met you, you were always a tomboy, but you're still a girl. I bet you the only reason why he dated that much girls was because he cheated," I said, trying to make her smile.
She gave me a look of confusion, and I smiled. "What do you mean?". This was my cue.
"Maybe he lets out pheromones that make every freshman girl out there want to go out with him."
She cracked a smiled. My mission was successful. "By the way Tai," she began.
"Hmmm...?" I murmured.
"Those were new park benches," she ended. It was my turn to smile.
~*~
It was a short relationship that she had with Hayato, and boy was I happy. I mean I certainly didn't want my best friend dating some guy who would just end up hurting her, for that long. Besides, it gave me more quality time with her. Why should I complain? Since the jerk got off her back, I had Sora all to my self. So you can call me greedy, but she was my best friend. Who didn't want to spend time with her? I thought that it was the best past time in the world. Unfortunately for me, it back fired.
~*~
I held out an ice cream cone to her, as she sat down on the porch bench that summer. "Want?" I asked motioning the cone towards her.
She smiled gratefully at me and took it. "Thank you so much! Nothing like a cold dessert to cool you off in the scorching weather huh?" she said, looking out towards the view over the town.
"Yeah. We're like ginger bread cookies, baking in the heat. Just two more hours and we'll be ready to eat," I joked.
She laughed, and moved forward a little to peel off her wet back from the bench. She jerked a little too hard, and she accidentally dropped her cone. "Damn!" she cursed.
Damn was right. Her ice cream and mine were the last scoops that I scraped off, out of the container. "Here..." I said offering mine to her. She shook her head.
"Sheesh Tai, you act as if we barely know each other!" With that, she grabbed my hand which was holding the ice cream cone, and she took a bite. "Let's just share," she said.
I nodded. She was right. She was like a sister to me. Another Kari... but this day, when I looked at her, I felt something different. Something that I had never felt for her before. The way she took that bite from my ice cream. The way she touch my hand, and let it slide off when she was finished. The way she smiled.
The rest of the time, we spent throwing Sora's wasted ice cream down on peoples' heads as they walked underneath the porch of my apartment.
~*~
That was I day I figured out I was in love.
~*~
Author's Notes: Okay, a short little chapter for you all. I don't know, but this idea just popped into my head, and I just *had* to write it. I love Taiora, and I haven't made any fics filled with just them so far, so I decided that this would be the best fic to send out. Hope that you enjoy.
Oh, this fic won't be too long, I promise. It will be about five chapters long. Four, for the four years of their high school lives, and the fifth as an epilogue.
O yeah, I know that I said 'A Devil's Halo' was the only fic that I was going to write, but I couldn't help myself. I haven't read any fluffy Taiora's in a while, and I miss them! I MUST write this!!!
Please review!