"Let's talk."
"About? No offense but you seem a lot more serious all of a sudden... not sure I'm a fan."
Sakura fidgeted carefully under Gaara's gaze In the very same cafe as the day before. To be honest he wasn't exactly sure how he'd met up with her again.
Some things were certain though.
For one, he was fairly certain that he wasn't able to set this meeting up. For God's sake, a dead girl probably doesn't have a phone right? The second thing was that he was 100 percent sure he didn't remember coming here. He'd gone to bed last night a bit flustered by a rather specific warning to stay away from the girl in question, but when he awoke the next thing he remembered doing was bringing coffee back to the table for the two of them. And thirdly, but easily the most important was that none of this seemed to cause him any panic as he took in the sight of her.
"S-sorry." Gaara quickly noticed his mistake and mellowed out his stern gaze. "Late night, last night."
"Late night huh? Already got a girlfriend I should worry about?"
xXx
'Is she flirting? With me?'
Some wishful thinking that ran through my mind as my jade eyes sank between the power of her seafoam. I'm sure I could drown in them if she let me. The way her lips curved into a smile, pushing ever so gently at the borders of her eyes and I can't help imagine that this is what clouds must feel like. Thin layers of pale doing the best they can to cover up so much-
"Gaara."
"Hm?"
'Damn did I space out?!'
"You're staring dear." Her smile has suddenly dropped and her words were playful just like her light-hearted teasing just moments ago.
She'd caught me.
She'd caught me and my mouth was hanging open like an idiot.
"Nooo, it's not like that-"
"I must say Gaara." I could feel myself gulp as she paused between words, her voice unreliable. "It is at least nice to have someone staring at my eyes of all things. See something you like, Home School?" She said, back yet again with the teasing.
There's she goes again, more nicknames. But regardless I let out a deep breath I didn't know I was holding.
xXx
"Must you insist on calling me Homeschool?" He did his best to deject my question, his voice was slightly more confident and his face bares a cheesy little grin. But I know this game all to well. He's nervous. His lip has a slight quiver, he's beginning to sweat and it's hard for him to keeps his eyes on mine now. Oh so nervous. It's almost-
"Adorable."
"Excuse me?" Gaara's demeanor shifted from nervous to confused at the words I just non-purposely uttered.
"I was just thinking about how nervous you are just because of little ol'me. It's kinda adorable."
'Why am I saying all this?'
xXx
"T-thank you-"
"What's your major Gaara?" Sakura interrupted him rather bluntly.
"Huh?" Gaara was pretty off put by her sudden question.
"You know the reason you're in school silly."
"O-oh! I'm here to get a degree in journalism... it's what I've wanted to be since I was a little kid."
"A journalist huh? So am I your first big interview?" Sakura framed her face with her hands. "The pale girl with natural pink hair?"
"That's natural?!"
"Of course it is. Did you think I was that weird to dye it pink?"
Gaara couldn't help the chuckle that left him.
"Maaaybe just a little bit." He punctuated by holding his index finger and thumb close together.
He found the irritated furrow of her brow rather cute.
"Jerk..."
"That's a new one for me, I thought I was the nice guy. So." Gaara stirred the straw in his coffee routinely. "What's your major?"
"English. Writing stories is something I love doing."
He could tell from just speaking with her that she was a bit of an extrovert. Her words flowed so easily and everything she said just seemed to be so genuine. So naturally, It wasn't very off-putting to see she wanted to master the English language.
"What a pair we are then. You, harboring creativity, and me with the boring nonfiction." He said with a casual tone.
"It's funny you say that because I always thought my writing interest was pretty boring." She said with a shrug of the shoulders. "Terror novels don't seem to grab everyone's attention."
"Terror? Don't you mean horror?"
"Haha, no no no. Terror and horror are two different things." She said. "Common misconception."
'Interesting.'
Gaara's confused expression begged for some kind of explanation. She picked up the hint easily enough.
"You see, Terror is kinda like." She mulled over her thoughts as she bit timidly at her nails. "Terror is kinda like a little white lie. It's what's told to cover something up. Give you a false feeling of fear for whatever reason." Gaara's blank look still betrayed confusion so she steadied on. "Terror is that feeling you get when you hear something in your house at night when you're all alone. The anticipation of something...horrible. A shiver in your spine when you think something might be creeping up the stairs towards your room. The thing under your bed, or maybe that shadow over your shoulder. It's interesting stuff really." Despite the serious tone her voice took, Sakura's smile was still present. "I think that kind of suspense is hard to capture."
He felt his own shiver run down his spine as he he listened to the cool edge of her voice explain something so daunting.
'Her being the scary type wasn't exactly my first thought.'
"I suppose that makes sense... so then what's horror?"
"Oh, that's much more simple. The truth. The feeling of fear as it's, ya know, happening."
After receiving his mysterious text message, Gaara moved forward with a new found motivation. There was a story to be told here, and he wanted all the answers. So maybe there were some boundaries to be pushed.
"Speaking of the truth." A pause." I heard you were with Sasuke?" He said in hopes of diverting the subject to something hopefully more lighthearted.
"HAH! Who put you up to that vicious rumor? Naruto?" Sakura was all smiles but the hurt in her voice was painfully evident. "I tried chasing that jerk since we were kids..."
'She mentioned Naruto? That's new..'
"No not him, just some rumors around the class. So it's not true then?" He secretly hoped it wasn't. But if there was no truth to the statement, then why had Naruto bothered to mention it?
Sakura leaned across the table. Her voiced hushed as she looked dramatically around the little cafe. "Wanna know a secret?" Gaara could only nod his head yes. "Well come here!" Her voice was filled with excitement as she almost mistakenly exceeded a whisper. Playfully gesturing Gaara closer with her index finger. She pulled a pen from her pants pocket and quickly began to jot down a few words on the napkin in front of her.
He could feel her breath on his ear as he nervously leaned in. It was oddly cold against his cheek.
"I wouldn't be on a second date with the new guy if I had a boyfriend already now would I?" She said, slipping the note in front of him.
"D-date?" Gaara wasn't aware he could stutter until he felt the heat begin to flood into his cheeks. His eyes immediatelyIs found the table and words less than intelligible spewed out of his mouth.
"I-it's not like that. I'm just trying to make friends-"
However, his bold faced lie only met his own ears, because when he looked up she was gone. No trace of the girl he was just speaking to, nor the coffee she sipped, or even the chair she sat in.
Just Gaara left alone with his thoughts, a view of the dreary campus, and the note that seemed to have an address scribbled on it.
'6352 Crane street, Konoha?'
xXx
Gaara lazed through class after class. His freshman schedule was more or less "stacked" to make room for his goals. A pretty easy schedule under most standards that would leave more than enough time to write. Something he hasn't been doing since his first day.
The first few days were proving to be tiresome.
"Mr. Sabaku. Does there seem to be a problem?" Kakashi questioned lazily, a thick stick of chalk in his hand as he paused to observe Gaara's odd behavior.
"...No, sir. Would you mind excusing me for a moment?"
"Do as you feel. Just don't find yourself sleeping again." He said rather ironically, paying no attention to the sleeping Nara in the front row. "You'd be wise to wake up."
'Wake up?... Had I been sleeping?'
Gaara found himself in the bathroom moments later. Copious amounts of water splashing against his face in hopes of snapping him out of his stupor.
He'd been doing it again.
He woke up in class and he wasn't at all aware of anything he'd been doing prior. Just like when he found himself in that café.
"What's going on with you?" He asked himself quietly. Looking at his dripping face in the mirror. His eyes told him whatever it was he'd been doing, not much sleep was involved. "Where the hell have you been-"
"Hey! I'm talking to you!"
A loud thud could be heard as Gaara fell to the ground at the sudden voice. The redhead scrambled to turn and see black hair and aggravated blue eyes.
"Menma? Jesus Christ don't scare me like that." Gaara held a hand to his chest in an attempt to gain his breath back. His book bag had fallen unceremoniously on the ground.
Menma bore the same cold look he had when they'd met. His new classmate gave him a hand from his embarrassing position on the ground.
'How long had he been yelling at me?'
"Are you alright bro? Looks like college has been getting the best of you." His voice held an air of concern Gaara couldn't entirely say he was all to familiar with.
"What do you mean-" Gaara halted his question as he dusted himself off, looking down at himself he noticed what he meant. He'd lost an alarming amount of weight. His black KU tank top hugged his abdomen a little looser then he'd wanted it too and the shorts around his waist seemed to have trouble staying on his frame.
'Why the hell am I wearing a tank top in fall-'
"And I know we look a lot alike man, but come on. Me and my brother have completely different colored hair." The laugh that came from the boy startled him a bit.
'Come to think of it, they even sounded a bit different.' Menma voice had been so gruff, yet the boy he talked to now was a much more energetic and raspy tone. The long locks falling down in front his eyes were definitely blonde.
'Blonde?...'
"Y-Yeah. Sorry. Just adjusting still is all." The confused boy said with a fake chuckle.
"How long do you think you'll be 'adjusting'? It's been forever already."
"...What the hell are you talking about?"
Gaara didn't mean for his question to be so blunt but his question was a bit out of line. A few days in a new city far away from home wasn't enough to adjust under any means.
"Gaara you passed your holiday midterms with some pretty great grades and summer is right around the corner. Haha don't you think it's time to-"
"Summer?"
Naruto stopped his speel to reiterate what he'd already said.
"… Yeah bro, that's typically what comes after spring-"
Naruto kept talking but it sounded more like white noise. A static of sorts that filled Gaara's head as he focused on that one particular piece of information.
'It's… it's spring? I got here in August. School started in August. I was wearing a hoodie and gloves because Konoha is already freezing in fucking August!'
His chest began to rise spastically in an attempted calm himself down, the thudding of his heart much like the repetition of the same thought-
'Get out. Get out. Get out.'
Over and over again.
"I- I got to go. Tell Menma I said hey, I'll see you later. " Gaara interrupted, making a bee line for the door. The boy left in such a hurry that he didn't really notice the absence of his bag.
"Yeah man." The other boy said, picking up the forgotten back pack. Pulling out the bags only item, a small, blank, napkin. "We'll be seeing you around."
xXx
AN: Yeahhh that took forever didn't if? Sorry about that. Me and my muse had some issues we needed to work out. But any way!
What are your thoughts on Gaara's predicament? Crazy theories? Characters you want to see? Leave a review and let me know.