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A/N: GAH THE LAST CHAP GOT CUT! IM SORRY:Sobs: IM SOOOOORRRRYYYY, well anyway, here's the REAL chapter. .

DiScLaMeR

Blah Blah, read on.

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Obsession

By Reina Kashara

Chapter 4 -

Bathroom Talk

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Leon pushed me through the open door of the girls' bathroom. Grudgingly, I walked to a sink and turned on the water. I let the cool water wash over my hands. Closing my eyes, I cupped my hands and splashed the water on my face. Then I realized Leon was standing behind me. I grabbed a paper towel and wiped my face as I turned to him.

"You know this is a girls' bathroom," I said, but Leon didn't answer, he looked up, deep in thought.
I sighed and let my shoulders slump. I ran my hand through my hair only to remember it was soaked with sticky Coke. Groaning, I turned back to the sink and dunked my head under the running water. After a few moments I felt the wall for the soap dispenser since it was better than nothing. But Leon's voice stopped me.

" I can't believe you did that." his voice was not pleased. I sighed again, and turned to him.

"Leon...I dont understand why you care. Its no big deal. Its not as if I gave up everything for him."

"But you stood up for him. Nobodies will be nobodies. Always and forever."

"I don't care, I did what i thought was right, and to me that's all that matters." I snapped. I normally never get mad, but right now the least Leon could do was leave me alone.

"Reina, you know your Sephroth's target too."

I knew it. And I wanted Leon to leave.

"Leon...just...just go."

I felt Leon stare at my back.

I rinsed my hair.

"What?" he said.

I wrung the water out of my hair into the sink. "I wish you wouldn't always nag at what I should and shouldn't do."

"Well, I…" he drifted off, and suddenly he had his arms wrapped around my waist. I straightened sharply.

"Leon, this isn't the time."

He just buried his face in my wet hair.

"Leon…"

"I hate to see you sad," he murmured.

"Huh?"

"You're only happy around your friends, but you'd leave them to help another? Even if it causes you pain or embarrassment?" The way he said it made it seem more like a statement than a question.

"Wouldn't you?" Again, a statement. There was a moments silence before I answered.

"Yes," I said firmly. "It isn't me to ignore people when they need help." I looked up only to see our reflection in the mirror. I now understood why we had been voted second best couple in the "School Votes" event last year. (Second best to Aerith and Sephiroth, of course.)

We looked good together, there was no explaining it. We just did. But… I wasn't sure I liked him that way. We had been friends since middle school, and nothing more. To me, at least.

No, this was wrong.

I moved quickly away from Leon.

"I'm sorry Leon. But this is who I am. No one can change it. Not you, not me, not anyone."

He looked at me with the exact opposite of a smirk and closed his eyes. After a while, he opened them, and his normally mischievous, blue eyes, were sad and heavy.

"I'm sorry too, but I can't just go and turn off how I feel." And then he was gone and the meaning of those words sunk in as the door closed with a quiet 'bang'. Leon loved me, and he had since he had met me. It was so obvious now. When he crossed the boyfriend/friend line, sticking up for me all the time, buying me ice cream sometimes at lunch or on my free period, not liking me talking with Cloud… I WAS SO FREAKING BLIND! I mentally screamed at myself.

And now he probably thought I had known and had been leading him on this whole time. I slammed my fist down on the sink's edge.

Gah! I'm so stupid!

I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice Riku and Vera slip in through the door. Riku turned off the running water and Vera put my change of clothes on the edge of the sink.

"Hey," Riku whispered quietly, handing me a stack of paper towels for my hair. I turned to them.

"Guys, did you… um… know Leon liked me?"

Vera bit her lip.

"He didn't confess it in the bathroom, did he? 'Cause that's just really unromantic-"

"Riku," I moaned impatiently. But Vera spoke up instead.

"Reina, it was really obvious. Well, like, all the time he spent with you, and he-"

"-Stares at you like a lovesick puppy," Riku cut in.

Vera hit him on the shoulder. Riku sighed.

"I knew," he confessed. "Leon kept telling me that one day he was gonna ask you out… and then today in music, he told me it was gonna be today…" Riku shrugged.

No one spoke for a few minutes. But then Vera said, "We'd better go. I'll see you in art, okay, Reina?"

But when I didn't answer, they both hugged me.

"We think what you did was right. Leon just doesn't want to see you hurt. Inside or out."

"Thanks guys," I whispered, clinging on to them.

"Hey, what are friends for? Now go change," Riku grinned.

"Yes Sir," I said, finally smiling. Then a thought crossed my mind. "Hey, Riku. How'd you know? You were in detention. How are you even here?"

"Oh. They let me out of detention for the last fifteen minutes of lunch. I ran into Vera on my way out of the office when she went to grab your clothes. She filled me in on the way to the cafeteria. When lunch is over its back to the old dungeon," Riku smirked. Vera put a hand on his shoulder and they both headed to the door, leaving me to change. But then, the person who brushed past them drained the little happiness they had given me away.

Cloud.

I saw Vera give Riku a wide-eyed look of terror. She also knew he was the last person I wanted to see.

He stopped about two feet away from me and looked at the girl who had defended him: a soaking wet, miserable girl.

I put my hand on my face and whined, "Why can't anyone see this is a girls' bathroom?"

But he said nothing so we stood in silence. I could distinctly hear the muffled noise of the cafeteria. Finally, I turned to a bathroom stall. "Okay then, nice talking to you."

But his firm hand grabbed my shoulder and stopped me from going anywhere. "Why did you do that?"

"Wha-oh that." I sighed and pinched my nose bridge. "You weren't defending yourself, and Sephiroth is a jerk." I stopped pinching and sighed again. "I guess it was somewhat of a reflex."

"Well, next time, control yourself."

"Next… time?"

At those words he glared at me, "It happens everyday. It's like a goddamn routine."

"He makes a scene of taking your Coke, and mocks you in the process? Everyday?" I asked, shocked.

"And if you're so reflexive, you would have noticed," he snarled. I stepped back into the stall door.

He froze and looked away. He had lost his cool, calm composure and was struggling to regain it. I felt a sharp pain in my heart, and was suddenly overwhelmed by sadness.

"What made him hate you so much?" I asked, my voice was barely above a whisper.

"I don't know, he's trying to impress… her." I suppose her was referring to Aerith when he said 'her'. "When I was… normal, I liked her."

For some reason, at those words, I felt weird, but the feeling was gone in a second.

"But Seph," Cloud continued. "He liked her too, and he has everything. Money, friends, you name it, and plus, he's popular. Aerith left me for him…" he trailed off.

"Sephiroth is trying to rub it in your face, isn't he?" I asked quietly.

Cloud looked away again.

"Why don't you just tell him to stop? Or, as a last resort, tell a teacher," I said, stepping closer to him. "You need to defend yourself."

His head snapped back in my direction. "Don't you think I've already done that?" he demanded. "But he won't stop. Struggling only gets you more tangled in his web of pranks. So I've stopped trying, stopped defending myself, so maybe, when I'm no more fun, he'll go taunt someone else."

But he wasn't done talking. I stepped back again, into the door.

"So don't try to help me. He'll just go after you too!"

"I… I'm sorry," I said, shaken.

"Don't give me your pity!"

I pressed myself against the stall door, only to fall as the door swung open Cloud made no move to help me up.

"Don't do it again." His voice was a whisper and his eyes flashed an angry blue, which cut into my heart like ice. "Stay away from me; it's what's best for you."

He turned his back and strode toward the exit. He left me feeling sick, and cold, dripping wet on the outside, all confused and pained on the inside.

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Review section

I dont feel like replying to my reviews at this moment, so ill do it for the next chap. Okies?

Much love!

Reina

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A/N- Anyway, ...yeah. This was the most terriblest chap ever. Dont deny it. But thanks to Vera-chan aka Arwen for editing and typing this up. Review please! And Thank you for reading!