4 The Hole Called Love

What was there to lose? Nothing. She'd lost the love of her life, Naruto, whom she'd loved for nine years. Nine freakin' years! Most people would call her obsessed. But she knew she wasn't. She just happened to be unlucky, tripped and fell into a deep, shitty hole called love. She just couldn't find a way to get out of that hole for nine freakin' years.

So there was nothing to lose, right? That Sasuke guy was really good-looking too. Such a tease. Maybe he was the person that could get her out of this stupid hellhole.

"I'll try you out."

"Sorry?"

"I said, I'll try you out, Sasuke."

Ah, so that was what this was all about. She'd decided to use the number he gave her after all. His lips turned slightly upward.

"Where would you like to go, Sakura?"

"Huh?"

"Just tell me. We've got a date."

"I-I…Uh…the a-art gallery?"

"Which one? Is the 808 Art Gallery okay?"

"S-Sure!"

"Pick you up in half an hour."

The painting she was looking at was doing nothing to help her situation. It was of a saddish purple sky with bare tree branches all over the place. Sigh. She peeked at the handsome guy next to her. Why'd she agree to do this again? And why'd she pick the art gallery out of all the places to date?! Sure, she really did like the art gallery, but that didn't mean that she'd have to reveal this nerdy weakness to other people!! She couldn't believe her own nerdiness.

"Sad, isn't it?"

She started. So, he was actually paying attention to the displays?

"Y-Yea."

He decided to tease her a bit.

"I didn't mean the painting."

She turned to look at him, confused.

"You. You're sad."

She hfmped at him and walked away towards the next display.

"Tell me, what do you see in Naruto?"

She looked at him. This wasn't a sarcastic question. He really was curious about it.

"I don't know. I don't know what I see in him, Sasuke. I'm so stupid."

She sighed again and pretended to be absorbed in the painting. She couldn't do that for long, since an arm snaked around her waist from behind and pulled her close.

"But you've got his best friend now, hm?" he whispered against her soft cheek.

She was about to push him away, but decided against it. I'll play along. Yes, that's the way. I have to have an open mind. If I act happy around this guy, I'll soon be happy for real…

She nuzzled back into him.

"Hmm…yes. I've got you, haven't I, Sasuke?"

To her surprise, he let go. He looked slightly displeased, but that might have been her imagination., because the expression disappeared almost immediately.

"Let's go eat. It's almost lunchtime."

"Sure!" she smiled at him her cheeriest smile, and followed him into the Italian restaurant.

This was getting too much. The girl was being annoying. Excessively annoying. Sure, he knew that she was trying to be nice and not make him feel bad, but her pretend-happy act annoyed him to no ends.

Not to mention, she was a really, really bad actress. She giggled at everything he said. She acted interested at every story he had to tell (and he purposely put in some really lame and boring ones to see how she'd react). She smiled too much. Hell, she even added a "kun" at the end of his name now.

"Sasuke-kun, do you want to eat the mushrooms? I don't like the mushrooms."

Her voice dripped with sweet insincerity.

Calm, Sasuke, calm. She'd just been heartbroken. You can't really drag her into the bathroom and fuck her senseless right now just because she's being a bit annoying. No, no, no.

Without replying, he stabbed three mushrooms from her plate, put them in his mouth, and glared at her as he chewed. For a moment, she looked at him, confused, but she resumed her stupid, stupid happy-act.

"S-Sasuke-kun? Is anything wrong? Are you sick?"

She reached a small hand over to measure his non-existent temperature, but he caught her wrist.

"Stop it, Sakura. It's annoying."

"W-What?!"

"Stop pretending you're happy. It's pissing me off."

After a moment of comprehension, she hotly snatched her hand away from his grip and glared at him.

"Oh, so there goes all my effort to be nice to you. This is over, Sasuke. It's not working."

She opened her zebra-striped bag, pulled out some money, slapped it on the table, and got out of the restaurant as fast as she could. A few minutes later, she felt a pull on her elbow. Ugh. Not him again.

"What do you want?" she demanded angrily.

He grabbed her bag and shoved some money into it.

"I'm paying," was all he said.

"Whatever."

She tried to walk away again, but he wouldn't let go of her.

"Oh, no, you're not just going to walk away."

"What?! Why not?! You just said you're annoyed with me, and now I'm annoyed with you too. Mutual understanding, okay? So let go of me, so we can both go back to our own lives."

"You're a terrible date."

"All the more reason why you should take your dirty hands off me."

He smirked.

"I'm not letting you off that easy. You annoyed me for a whole day and you're going to need to get some punishment."

"Wha--?! Oh, come on. Just go away already."

Again she tried unsuccessfully to get away.

"Hey, Sakura, didn't I tell you that you have me?"
"Well, yea, you did, but you don't have me."

"I know that."

She gave him an extremely exasperated look.

"So," he explained, "you don't have to pretend that I have you. You don't have to pretend to be happy around me all the time. Just act how you feel…I'll try to understand."

For a long while, she looked at him. From his jet-black hair to his sharp eyes to his straight nose and prim lips. Was this really the man that'd been sent to help her out of the hole? A raindrop fell from the sky and landed on the tip of her nose. He wiped it away. For some unexplainable reason, she blushed really hard.

"Y-You little liar."

"Hm…?"

"You let me act stupidly a whole day, and didn't say a single word until now."

"No worries, I'm going to collect due punishment anyway."

Her face got redder.

"And what's that?"

He smirked again. The rain was beginning to pour down now.

"Get in the car, and you'll find out."

Yes, this guy…he might be able to help me out of the hole after all.