The Social Scene

Chapter 2

But just tonight I won't leave
I'll lie and you'll believe
Just tonight I will see
It's all because of me

- The Pretty Reckless

She had only received the call for her next gig the morning of the same day that she was due for work. The ring tone from her mobile resonated through her room, awaking her from her slumber. She opened her eyes groggily, glancing at the time and internally cursing when she read the crimson digits flashing at her like a neon sign - 5:30am.

It was a Sunday and one of her only days off from university, yet someone had dared to disturb her rare sleep. Nevertheless, she glanced at who was calling and realised it was one of the regular wealthy hostesses, no doubt calling about another event she had to wait on.

Reluctantly, she picked up her iPhone from her bedside table and answered the call, greeting the other line with a rather rude, blunt "Hello?"

"Oh hai," replied the caller chirpily. "I hope I didn't wake you..."

'What is this woman on?' she thought internally, wincing at the lady's merry voice. However, she replied with a small shake of her head and a polite 'no', which was customary when talking to the people who literally paid her university fees.

"Great! Listen, Sakura, I know it's short notice, but I've got a brunch later today catering for 200 people, but we were down a waitress, so..."

"I'll do it," she said simply, before hanging up abruptly without another word being shared between them. She slammed her phone back onto her table angrily, before she reclined back into her warm duvets. However, before she could fall back asleep, she was jolted from her bed once again when her phone flashed at her and her ringtone once again vibrated throughout the room.

Frustrated, she threw her duvet covers off her and sitting up in her bed, she grabbed her phone without looking at who was calling and accepted the call. "What?" she rudely answered, but she was too tired and pissed off to truly care.

"Is that any way to speak to your future employer?" the other line answered in a suave tone; and just by that tone, Sakura instantly recognised the voice.

"Uchiha..." she spat out, none-too-pleasantly. "How did you get my number?" she asked, with a hint of annoyance trying to break the restraints on her voice.

"Well, I am well-connected amongst the Tokyo scene..." he said in a patronising way, as if this were common knowledge, which made Sakura boil beneath the surface.

Although his answer was vague, Sakura ignored this and continued with the questions that were plaguing her curiosity. "Why are you calling me so early? What do you want? ...And what the hell do you mean: 'future employer'?" She couldn't help but to utilise her harshest voice; after all, her closest friends knew her as a little spitfire when she was angry – and right now, she was beyond just angry.

"Early?" he replied, a little incredulously. "To be honest, I haven't even gone home or slept a wink yet. Went to this wild party last night; who knew I would be out until dawn."

"Yeah, whatever, Uchiha, I don't care about your crazy night. Just answer the other questions."

"Ouch, you're really moody in the mornings, aren't you?" he said, chuckling through the receiver. Nevertheless, his attempt at drawing another heated reaction from her failed as she breathed in a deep breath, trying hard to control her emotions. "And what I meant by 'future employer' was just to let you know that when I take over my father's empire, I'll be hiring you to grace every event that I hold."

She scoffed as she replied back, "I'm a waitress. Not a celebrity or model."

Her last statement actually made her think; when the words came out of her mouth, she realised that even though she hated to admit these shallow ideas, she didn't have the slightest clue as to why Sasuke was calling such an insignificant person such as she, when his life was full of other more beautiful, more intelligent and more talented people than herself.

And then, it was as if a light bulb turned on above her head. "Are you still drunk...?" she cautiously asked. Wow, it must have been a really wild night if he was still intoxicated, despite it being the early morning.

When she heard a light chuckle on the other side of the line, she realised that Uchiha's just shouldn't normally be this giddy or talkative when completely sober. Even though she had only met him that one time, despite all the events that she had attended as a waitress before, she had known that he was a reserved character with his words, but when it came to things like the media, he talked with his actions.

"Is this why you're calling me? You're still drunk and so you happened to stumble across my number in your phonebook and... here we are now, having the world's most pointless conversation..." Her sarcasm was explicit in her tone, but in his tipsy state, Sasuke couldn't quite register it. However, he managed to understand her general anger towards his state.

"I didn't just call you because of that," he clumsily said. "I just wanted to know if you were fre- Oh, shit!"

She could hear a slight clattering over the line, and a loud car honking, which instantly worried her as she tensed and cried through the phone, "Oh my god! Uchiha, are you still there? Uchiha?"

She heard a stumble and feared the worst; it sounded as if he had been run over by a car! However, a few minutes later, there was a small rustle and she heard the slurring words come through the other line, much to her relief.

"Uchiha, are you there?" she repeated.

"Yeah, it's cool, it's cool," he said calmly. "Just some stupid driver wasn't looking where he was going and I dropped my mobile when I tried to dodge..."

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, trying to get her worried heartbeat back to its normal pace. "You could've gotten killed, Uchiha," she said in a deadpan, although she wasn't even sure why she cared.

"Hn."

And he obviously didn't care either.

"Where are you?" she said in an exasperated voice.

"Err..." she could almost imagine him whipping his head around in a daze to find his bearings. "Roppongi," he replied, referring to one of Tokyo's most wealthy districts, home to nightclubs, foreign embassies, offices and high-rise apartments.

"Look, I'm concerned for you right now, so I'm going to make my way over there. You just stay where you are, okay?" she said sternly, hearing his low, obviously pleased hum on the other end of the line. She simply rolled her eyes, considering the possibility that this was exactly what he had planned.

.&.

When she was out of her apartment, dressed in the first clothing articles she could find, which happened to be a pair of light-wash denim shorts and a simple beige tank top, with a hooded jacket and a pair of ankle boots, she could tell that the sun was just about to rise. The streets were busy nonetheless, filled with businessmen on the way to the office. She grabbed the metro, hopping onto the silver Hibiya line, on her way straight to Roppongi.

When she arrived at the Roppongi station, she made her way to the quiet streets, glancing around her in search of the Uchiha. When she spotted him, chilling and sitting on the edge of a stone fountain, she walked over and plopped down ungracefully next to him.

"You're such an idiot," she greeted angrily, gritting her teeth.

"Hey!" he said defensively. "You decided to come here and help me."

She sighed, knowing he was right, but now that she was here, witnessing the state of him, her help seemed extremely necessary. His hair was an unruly mess, his eyes were bloodshot, his clothes were dishevelled and he looked as if he had beer spilt down the front of him. But the thing was, he looked like he didn't even care about his appearance right now, which was only a sign of how Sasuke must have been so drunk only a few hours ago.

She couldn't help it that it was in her nature to care for people, no matter how annoying, arrogant, self-centred or vain they were. After all, she was at university studying for her degree in medicine.

She took another good look at him and deduced that he should drink some water. "Wait here," she ordered vaguely, hopping off the fountain and running towards a 7-Eleven store, quickly buying a bottle of water in the space of less than a minute. However, when she made her way back towards where they were both seated previously, she didn't see any sign of Sasuke.

Panicking, she glanced around the area, only lit dimly by the street lamps, but nevertheless, he was nowhere in sight. He was such a little kid! She gritted her teeth in annoyance, rolling her fists into little balls and wanting to scream into the air. However, before she could, her mobile vibrated and sang out its usual tune, the screen showing that Sasuke was calling from wherever he had run off to.

"Uchiha, where the hell did you go?" she all but screamed in aggravation through the phone.

She could hear his low, annoyingly arrogant chuckle before he replied, "Follow my instructions..."

His next words lead her down the street, through a small alleyway wedged between two large buildings, clambering ungracefully up a wall, onto the rooftop of a small garage, down into a hidden pathway lined with trees, into a small concrete clearing, into a forest of trees and finally out into green and grey space. Her hair and clothes were all dirtied up by the time she arrived, but when she looked up, she couldn't help the light gasp that escaped her, as she hung up the call from her mobile. Surrounding her was a clearing between dense trees but straight ahead was a cliff edge, looking over the whole city of Roppongi and beyond. You could still see a few lights blaring in the distance from the night before. But now, as it was approaching 7am, the sun was slowly rising along the horizon, and wow, was it such a gorgeous scene.

Sasuke was smiling up at her from his seat on the edge of the cliff with his legs dangling casually over. She sat down next to him, fully appreciating the view.

"Who knew such a gorgeous sight like this existed in the whole of Tokyo!" she exclaimed with a magnetic beam upon her dainty face. Then she turned her gaze cheekily to her companion. "I've got to hand it to you, Uchiha – you were the last person I'd have ever thought who would lead me to this magical place."

"I've never brought anyone to this place. It's my personal Mecca, my enlightenment zone. Where I just go to get away from the world."

She looked at him genuinely as he modestly picked a few weeds from beneath his fingers. She could see it wasn't just the alcohol talking – he looked completely sobered up now and his words were coming from his lips in waves of honesty. A part of Sasuke's humanity had been revealed to Sakura which she had never thought she'd see especially since she had felt an instant dislike to him the first time they met.

Yet, she couldn't help feel a tugging at the back of her mind, which plagued her with curiosity. "Then why did you pick me to show this place to? I mean, we barely know each other."

He raised his eyes up to meet her own and answered in a soft murmur. "Because I'd like to get to know you more..."

"..." Sakura was left speechless in the wake of his answer. She was just blown away with how sincere he sounded when he had shown next to no emotions to everyone else he talked to. Finally, she was able to piece her logic together and find her words. "I don't get you, Uchiha," she started bluntly. "Out of all the beautiful, rich women that surround your glamorous lifestyle every day, you pick a plain-Jane, average, uninteresting university student, slash part-time waitress. I'm sorry, Uchiha, I'm just not convinced."

Yes, that's right – she wasn't sold on the idea that he was being genuine when he said all that heroic, romantic crap. It was just so out-of-character to the person she had picked up a million and one rumours about since they first met. Apparently, he was a player, a womaniser and an ungrateful jerk that just lived off his dad's money, yet apparently, the women still flocked to him knowing full well that he could snap their gullible hearts in two as he so pleased.

That's why Sasuke was going to learn that it would be a lot harder than he could ever imagine to try and convince Sakura Haruno of any of the bullshit that came out of his mouth.

Promise you that the next chapter will be way more interesting... :)

Also, I just totally cried at my first time watching Benjamin Button, it's so moving. Understood it completely, it was so beautiful...

Review, s'il vous plait? Mucho love to readers