Social Scene

Chapter 4

I will not drink until I'm dead
I'll make the most of it.
I don't know what it's like to be alive,
To say goodbye,

- Ellie Goulding

Just knowing that Sasuke was going to be at the brunch made Sakura tempted to call up her employer last-minute and make up a lame excuse to cancel on her. How he even found out she was working this afternoon was beyond her. But for a moment there on the cliff edge, she had very almost believed him when all the romantic crap came spewing from his mouth – he seemed to have that affect on people, like he was pathologically lying to people just to manipulate them into feeling sorry for him. But what she saw in his eyes wasn't genuine, and that's what gave him away.

When Sakura returned from Roppongi to her apartment, she hadn't any time to catch up on her lost sleep. Instantly, she was getting ready for her job, dressing in her usual waitressing attire, before she made her way to her employer's penthouse apartment on the top floor of a five-star hotel, where the brunch was going to happen. Sakura was one of the first people there, setting out the food and preparing the tables along with the other workers. She was dreading the moment when the elevator would open and in would step all the guests, including the Uchiha.

But nevertheless, she wouldn't let him distract her from her job and she planned on ignoring him for the next few hours. After all, the place was filling up pretty fast; there could be a chance that Sasuke wouldn't even see her.

But, as it so happened, Sasuke didn't end up seeing her first. Naruto did.

"Hey! Sakura! Look, Sasuke, there's Sakura," he shouted from across the room just as he had exit the elevator. He pushed through the crowd, grabbing a champagne flute from a passing waiter on his way. He turned back, and without Sakura knowing that any words had even been exchanged between the two, he whispered to Sasuke, "I hope the bet is all working out, Sasuke. Remember: New Year's Eve is your deadline." He gave a cheeky wink over his shoulder, before turning back around and running up to the pink-haired waitress.

At the sight of the energetic blonde, Sakura couldn't help but to slink back slightly, trying to magically merge in with the egg-shell, baroque walls, but unfortunately, there was no escaping the suffocating hug which Naruto thought she deserved. He slung his arms around her neck, the thick muscle of his biceps almost strangling her. Why he should think that they were friendly enough to be hugging so intimately made her weirdly suspicious...

Sasuke didn't seem too pleased either as he slowly followed his friend. He watched with bitter resentment as Naruto hugged Sakura. Of course, Naruto didn't mean anything of it; he always unknowingly got attached way too easily to people.

Naruto finally let go of her, flashing a toothy grin at her as he did so.

Sakura suddenly remembered a little trick which her friend had once taught her which seemed to work wonders on her parents whenever they were annoying her. Instead of furiously lashing out on them and starting a scene, she would simply take a long breath in, close her eyes for a second and when she opened them again, she would have a polite smile on her face and act as if she were overly interested in everything they said. Although it wasn't exactly the same situation, Sakura had a feeling that it would manage to irk both of the friends off – or, at least, Sasuke, because Naruto would obviously be too dense to realise if anything was wrong...

And this is exactly what she did. She relaxed her fists which had been instinctively screwing themselves up, preparing to hit something or somebody. She took a long breath in, closed her eyes, and then instantly opened them. In an instant, she had transformed her tense, irritated expression into a radiantly fake smile, which didn't seem to quite reach her eyes. Nevertheless she chimed out in a sickeningly sweet voice, "Hi, guys!"

Sasuke knew something was off as soon as he saw her smiling face. For one, Sakura never seemed to smile around him, and secondly, only moments before when Naruto had hugged her, she had looked ready to gorge Naruto's eyes out, grab a tray full of the mini bruschetta appetizers and stuff one each into his empty eye sockets.

"Did you just get here?" she asked, feigning interest. Her gaze pointed mainly to Sasuke, as she couldn't keep the scorn out of her eyes. He knew something was up. He couldn't seem to keep the shivers from running down his spine as he was on the receiving end of Sakura's cold glares, made even more sinister by the fact she was still smiling.

"Yeah, but this brunch is bore-ring!" Naruto complained. "I want to get really drunk and forget I was ever here..." he whined childishly, but he still found his idea rather appealing as he downed the rest of his champagne.

Noticing that his glass was now empty, Sakura found the perfect opportunity for her escape. "Let me go get you a refill," she offered, taking the champagne flute out his hands and leaving no room for him to interject. Swiftly leaving the two guys behind, she made a beeline to the kitchen, forgetting all about getting Naruto another drink.

In the kitchen, the expert chefs were working, leaving her to be undisturbed as she got herself a glass of water. Her boss wouldn't like to know that she had been hiding from the party, but then again, it wasn't in the job description to handle two annoying males on top of her waitressing duties.

Finding herself alone, her fatigue suddenly caught up with her and she realised for the first time that day how tired she had been. It seemed like days ago when she was sitting with Sasuke, looking over the gorgeous Tokyo skyline, but in reality, it had only been a few hours ago. She leaned on the kitchen counter, tempted to just rest her eyes and fall asleep whilst standing up, until she was jolted back to reality, as a hand lightly tapped her shoulder.

She cracked an eye open, only to come face-to-face with one of the chefs. His eyes were a similar shade of green to her own, but his seemed much paler, which was accentuated by his heavy guy-liner. A tattoo was scantily hidden beneath scruffy red hair, and a white chef's hat sat on the crown of his head.

"You're not supposed to be in the kitchen," he bluntly informed.

"Ah, s-sorry," she apologized, caught off-guard at the sudden interruption. "I was just taking a quick break." She didn't exactly know why she felt the need to explain herself to him, when he didn't look all that much older than her, but something about his cold demeanour just screamed that he was in high authority.

"Some of the guests want more champagne," he replied, flicking his gaze over to an empty tray near boxes of Moët, implying that she should be doing her job instead of standing around in the kitchen.

Before she could stop herself, she rolled her eyes, and replied in a passive voice "Yeah, yeah." It was always this devil-may-care attitude which got her fired because she had let her true feelings be shown in the past. However, she could really care less, and she knew for a fact that this red-headed dude, who thought it would be alright to boss her around, wasn't her employer and he definitely wasn't the head chef, who was famous all around Tokyo for catering for wealthy people. She walked off, grabbing the tray and loading a couple of flutes of champagne onto it, before exiting the kitchen without even taking a glance behind her.

However, this red-head simply smirked to himself as she left the kitchen. Despite standing up to him and showing him the boldness of her fierce personality, she still complied with his order; otherwise she would have left the kitchen without the champagne...

.&.

"Sakura! Where did you go?" Naruto called to her as he spotted her coming out of the kitchen. "I waited ages for that champagne!"

Sakura rolled her eyes, grabbing a flute off the tray which she was balancing in one hand. "Well, here you go, Naruto," she said coldly, thrusting the glass into his hand before walking off in the opposite direction. That encounter with that red-headed chef had just dampened her day even more, and even trying to act nice to Naruto and Sasuke seemed like too much effort.

Naruto and Sasuke both shared a look; one which said 'Whoa, what's with her?' Nevertheless, Sasuke ran after her, dodging through the crowd. When he finally reached her, he gently pulled on her arm, strong enough to tell her to stop and turn around to face him, but weak enough not to spill the tray in her hands.

"What do you want?" she hissed out at him, holding the tray above their heads. The crowd around them seemed to be suffocating them in, so that they couldn't help but to be only a few inches apart.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"You really want to know how I'm feeling?" she asked, with a daring look to her eyes. Obviously, she didn't feel 'okay'; her day just kept getting worse and worse and she really doubted that anyone would want to listen to her rant for hours on end about how crappy her life was looking. Nonetheless, he nodded his head slightly, looking her square in the eye.

"Why don't you tell me all about it after your shift?" he offered, hinting at something which should have made Sakura slightly sceptical. However, when one wanted to rant and yell their true feelings to somebody, it was better when that somebody was willing to listen and not just caught between a rock and a hard place.

She took a deep breath, not sure if she was doing the right thing or not, but she nodded her head at him, consenting to meeting him after her shift ended in an hour.

His face lit up, or at least his eyes did. Half of him was victorious over the fact that this would be the perfect opportunity to get Sakura to fall for him, but the other half of him actually felt compelled to just know the real Sakura – the one with all the problems and the human emotions.

"That would be nice," she replied. "I'll meet you by the escalator in-!"

Sakura didn't get to finish her sentence as she was shoved by the crowd behind her, so that she was sent tumbling forward – right into Sasuke's arms. The tray in her steady hands was knocked to the floor, as shards of glass scattered everywhere. But Sakura couldn't seem to register anything except for the strong hands which had caught her by the waist. The chest which she had fallen into flexed beneath her pleasingly and the smell of Sasuke's pristine white shirt was musky and clean, mixed with a faint smell of nicotine, pine cones and Bleu de Chanel. For a moment, all she could do was stay still and take advantage of the rather compromising situation that she was in. But when she felt a stinging sensation by her ankle, she let go of Sasuke, pushing him back a bit to inspect her leg. It turned out that a small shard of glass had scratched the skin at her leg, and had created a small trickle of blood down her lower calf.

There were a few squeals from the women in the vicinity, but the older males were trying to control the situation, thankfully, making people step back from the accident. A few waiters came along to clean up the mess.

"Sakura, are you alright?" Sasuke asked, a droplet of concern in his voice. "Your leg – it's bleeding."

"No shit," she commented back dryly. She tried to swipe at the blood with a finger but she grazed over the cut which made her flinch with pain.

"Come on, we'll get you cleaned up," he said, leading her by the arm to the kitchen, where she hobbled along after at a slow pace.

As soon as they were out of the party and into the nice seclusion in the kitchen, Sasuke immediately went in search of a first-aid kit. He had lifted her onto the counter, as she sat there patiently, waiting for Sasuke to return.

"Back again?" she heard a voice to the right of her ask. She flicked her eyes at the newcomer and slightly swore beneath her breath. It was the same red-head as earlier.

"I'm not in the mood to be bossed around by an arrogant little prick like you again," she said, glaring at him with as much hate as she could muster.

He smirked at her confident reply, but decided to change the topic completely. He flicked his eyes over to Sasuke who was searching through cupboards at the other end of the spacious kitchen, too busy to notice them talking. "Is that your boyfriend?"

Her eyebrows shot up at the question. "Sasuke? No!" she replied, but the chef could tell that she was embarrassed at how she had answered a little too quickly. She blushed a little, before going on the defensive, stating "Why do you even care?"

He smirked at her before replying "Well, I hate seeing vulnerable girls like you being taken advantage of from guys like him," he gestured subtly towards Sasuke.

She scoffed and replied, "I can take care of myself, thanks."

Her cold tone was supposed to send him on his way, but he stayed for a little while longer, just to add, "Well anyways, you should be careful. I can tell he's up to something."

As mysterious as his statement was, Sakura couldn't begin to explore it further as the chef turned his back to her and walked away out of the kitchen, just as Sasuke came back over with a first-aid kit in his hands.

"Hey, what was that chef doing talking to you?" he asked, an infuriatingly arrogant smirk plastered onto his face as he regarded the back of the red-headed chef with superiority.

Sakura noticed this and looked back at Sasuke with a blank look. "He was just telling us to be quick in here. We really shouldn't be in the kitchen." The little white lie had slipped through her lips almost on instinct.

However, Sasuke didn't seem to realise and scoffed a little. "Yeah, whataver." He opened the first-aid kit, continuing to clean up the small gash on Sakura's leg. The whole time, he couldn't stop thinking about the bet. And then he remembered how he was in the middle of arranging meeting Sakura after her shift before she dropped her tray.

"Anyways where were we before – I believe you were about to give a time to meet me at the escalator after you finish up here," he hinted, looking up at her through his eyelashes.

Sakura hoped he wouldn't bring that up again; after the conversation with the chef, she was suspicious of Sasuke's intentions. She knew that she shouldn't listen to everything that the chef told her, but a part of her couldn't deny that the red-head, whom she didn't know the name of, had a point.

"Yeah, about that..." Sakura started lamely, racking her brains for an excuse to get out of it. "Can we take a rain check? I forgot that I have this exam tomorrow which I have to study for."

He knew something was up, but trying to win her heart meant not pressuring her to do anything, despite the short few months which he had left. "Yeah sure. Just ring me some time if you need to chat," he offered with a smile that he had flawlessly practised in his mirror. It had a 99.3% chance of making a woman's heart beat a little faster, although he should have known that Sakura wouldn't have been affected in the slightest.

"Thanks," she said, grateful for both the offer and helping her with her graze, as she hopped off the counter. "I should get back to my job," she added, excusing herself from the kitchen, leaving Sasuke confused as to the changing demeanours of Sakura.

Okay, I realise that it was cheeky of me to not update in so so soo long, but I was drowned in so much coursework and mock exams! I'm sorry if any of you have lost interest!

I'll try and update more frequently but A Levels seriously take it all out of me. Still, please review and keep me motivated!

But if any of you have a tumblr account, follow my shenanigans. It's pretty new and I don't have many followers, but I like to follow back so... - it's myparisiandream followed by the usual address after it.