Chapter 5:

"Hi! My name is Sakura Haruno, I ordered a piano a few days ago and it was supposed to come by now."

"Hello, Miss Haruno. Yeeees, I see you in the data base. Your piano will be there tomorrow afternoon."

"That's two days late..." I say annoyed.

"We know and we're sorry but the piano had some functioning problems and we had to change it."

"Yeah, ok. Look. I need to ask you something."

"Go ahead."

"I need you to deliver the piano in secret, no one can see you, is that possible?"

"...Umm, sure. May I ask why?"

"...Ummmm,of course you can. It's because-it's because tomorrow is my friend's birthday and I don't want her to see it. You know how it is with gifts." I banged my head against my locker.

"I see. We'll see what we can do about your request. Is that all?"

"Yeah, thanks." We say goodbye and I hang up. I close my eyes in embarrassment not sure why.

"Who's birthday is it?" Great! Sasuke!

"Birthday? What birthday? Who's birthday?" Can I be more idiotic?

"I don't know. You tell me."

"Ahh, well I don't know what you're talking about. I think you're going coo-coo" Laughing hysterically and not being proud of it.

"Right, suuure. Look I don't know what's going on, but if you want to get me a present my birthday is in a month." What? This guy has a way of getting under my skin!

"Why would I want to do that, I barely know you."

"That's nonsense, we're good friends?" Since when?

"Are we, really?" I ask raising an eyebrow.

"Come on. Remember when I comforted you that day. And when we got Ino out of that situation together and you always give me your books. If that's not friendship I don't know what is."

"I don't give you my books, you take them. And we didn't get Ino out of anything, I did. And I would like you to stop talking about that day." For once I was quite amused at his attitude.

"Alright! So we don't know each other that well. But now that you are friends with Ino I think it's only fit we get to know each other better." He sort of made sense. But the way he was throwing that smile at me made me all confused. Probably anything would make sense right now. Let's face it. The guy is good looking and quite charming despite all my complaining. Who wouldn't want to steal a kiss from those full lips, white teeth and sometimes minty breath...oh God! He needs to get away from me. "Are you okay?" He asks.

"Me? Yeah! I'm good."

"So what do you say?"

"About what?"

"I just said that I won two movie tickets for the local cinema and that it would be a good opportunity to get to know each other." I smiled.

"That's not true is it?"

"What is not true?" He asks amused.

"You didn't win the tickets."

"Well, I didn't. But I still want to ask you out." Ask me out? That made me feel good and cheery and all warm inside. It's been soo long!

"Depends on the movie."

"Really!? Okay! You're pick!" Ain't he happy.

"But it's not a date, right? We're just going as friends." I asked to be sure.

"Um..." Long pause.

"It's not a date right?" I ask again.

"Umm...it sort of is." He says scratching the back of is neck.

"What if it goes wrong? Mia will be crushed!"

"What? Who's Mia and why would she care?"

"Mia is our locker. I tend to name things." I had a pen named Ben and a chair named Stacy. Ben died and Stacy let me down. That was a clever pun I'm mentally hi-fiving myself.

"Well, Mia has nothing to worry about cause it won't go wrong. Come on say yes." I don't know what to do...Ino and I are actually getting along and Karin keeps bothering her, but not as much since I'm her new target. My night tremors and my panic attacks sort of stopped. I still have them but only once a week or so, which means I'm actually starting to recover. But Sasuke still doesn't know about my past and I'm afraid that if I go out with him I'll have to tell him. Would that be bad? Telling him? I could use someone that knows how to deal with me. After how he handled that episode I had I think he's got what it takes. So it's settled then. I'm going out with him. Gosh, this feels strange, but in a good way.

"I-I...sure. I'd love to." I bite my lip and look down. This brings back actual fond memories.

"Yeah? Okay! Great! Tonight okay?"He asks smiling and I can see the shadow of a dimple. What is up with this guy!? Why haven't I seen this before?

"Tonight is great actually. Where are we going?"

"The movies, of course. I'll meet you here at 7?" I am looking at my shoes, at his shoes. I see his hands casually shoved in his pockets, then I see his smile, warm and just for me and for the first time in several months I feel the butterflies in my stomach going crazy. Such an embarrassing reaction but I'm enjoying every single moment of it.

"Meet you here at 7." I agree. And then there was awkward silence. "I have to go now..."

"I have to go now..." We both say at the same time and then laugh about it.

"I got History."

"I got Music Theory." I answer back.

"Okay then, bye!"

"Yeah, bye." This is ridiculous. I bet I'll re-live this moment all my high school life.

We both walk away from each other and I breathe in and out trying to pull myself together. It actually went better than I thought now that I go over it in my head.

At lunch I sit at the usual table, in front of Ino and I eat my usual cookies.

"School alright?" She asks like she always does.

"Yeah. You?"

"Just fine." Then we both take our books and we read. This has been lunch for two weeks now. There is this comfortable silence between us. We just understand each other without having to talk.

I don't know if I should tell her about Sasuke. I guess that if she's meant to know Sasuke will tell her.

"I know about Sasuke, if that's what's bothering you. I was the one who told him he should ask you out." What? Seriously? How did she know?

"How did you know?"

"I just figured. And you're holding your book up side down." I was? I was! God! What has become of me! "Relax! He's been wondering if he should do it for almost a week and I told him he should."

"But he barely knows me."

"Not really. He knows you better than I do plus he's always looking at you absent-minded. He says he knows all your silly habits." I don't know if it's cute or creepy. "For example before you read a book you always smell it and you always look at the cover for a very long time. He tells me this stuff like it's interesting to me. I told him it was creepy." I actually felt like laughing. I never thought Sasuke was like that.

"Really?" I ask amazed and slightly amused.

"Yeah, but you didn't hear this from me." She winks. I smile. I've been smiling quite often.

"Hey, are you up from another movie this Friday?" I ask excited. I promised myself that I would make this a tradition.

"Sure, can I pick the movie this time?"

"Yeah, sure. But if it's a bad one you'll have to go through my annoying comments every 5 minutes."

"I'm willing to do that." We both get back to our books. Behind us Karin is laughing like a lunatic again. Probably at us since she is throwing looks our way ever so often. She's trying so hard, isn't she? I can't wait for the day when I'll finally have enough.

Time passed and it was almost 7. My butterflies were at it again and while I was waiting I decided they were ten and that I should give them names. I only got to the sixth one when Sasuke showed up.

"Hey! Been here a long time?" I actually have because I'm lame like that but he doesn't need to know that.

"Nope. Just got here actually."

"Let's go then. After you."

"I would go but I don't know which way." I smile.

"Right! Then follow me." Okay! So things were awkward so far, at least on my side.

We have been walking for 5 minutes now and we are silent. I don't know how to break the ice. I could ask him about his family but I'm afraid that would be weird.

"So tell me about New York." He says. Thank God!

"Never been to New York?"

"I have actually but I bet I see it differently. I'm interested in your New York." That makes sense.

"My New York?...Well it's my home town. I don't know what to tell you. There is the best ice cream place in the world right around the corner from my building. My dad and I always went there on Sundays. There is the Broadway of course. Every month my dad and I would go see a cheesy musical. I don't know I guess New York has a lot of sides to it."

"I guess so. Maybe you'll take me to that ice cream shop some day." I look at him and smile.

"Absolutely. I'll even order for you."

"Sounds good! I have something to tell you."

"What's that?"

"I found out why you came here." I don't know if I should be scared or relieved.

"You did?"

"Not really. It's just a rumor going around school." God! He scared me for a moment. "They say your dad is a convict and that your mom left you. That's why you came here. Is it true?" He asked amused. He knew it wasn't true.

"It is true, actually. My dad murdered someone." I say amused.

"Did he, now? Gun?" Sasuke joins in.

"Knife."

"Of course. Of course. In all seriousness now. Can you tell me cause I've been going crazy about this." I guess it was time. Date or not it's about time somebody find out.

"...yeah. Just promise you won't avoid me afterwards."

"Come on! It can't be that bad."

"Just promise me."

"Fine, I promise." And as he said that he touched my hand with his and slowly put his fingers between mine probably to give me comfort. Either way it made my ten butterflies multiply.

"Some time ago my dad found out he had a brain tumor. It was a simple surgery because the tumor was in a perfect spot, easy to remove. But the anesthesiologist was drunk and my dad woke up during the surgery. The surgeon was surprised because my dad woke up screaming and his scalpel slipped and damaged my dad's brain. Obviously he died right there." I am not going to cry! I don't feel it anymore. I'm just angry at the doctor and angry at my mom and just angry at the world. I was squeezing Sasuke's hand and I noticed he was squeezing back. I didn't scare him off yet.

"That's where it all started. I took a small dose, just a small one to help me forget. I thought I could control it. I was so wrong. It started out with heroin but soon enough that wouldn't do the trick. My mom was oblivious to all this. Mainly because she shut herself in her room and didn't talk to me for weeks at a time. I didn't care. Most of the time I was drunk or high or hangover. It helped me forget though. I kept going like this until I woke up one morning in a strange bed...naked. I didn't know what had happened, but I knew it had to stop. I told my mom I'm going to grandma's and I went to rehab for 3 months. Then I came here because I no longer wanted to see New York or my mom...did I scare you off already?" I wanted it to sound like a joke, truthfully I am hoping he's going to say no.

"It's clearly not what I had in mind." He looks at me still squeezing my hand. The hard part is over I guess.

"What did you have in mind?"

"I thought you were just a rich kid who was tired of her parents and wanted to prove a point. Sorry for that."

"Appearances, huh? Hard to deal with them."

"Absolutely."