"Shrimp chips?" Sakura offers me as she sits down across from me on her carpet.
Snacks, soda, magazines and every nail polish color possible litter her floor. I grab a handful of the salty goodness from the bag and take a look around her room. A lot has changed in the couple of weeks since I was last here. Her pictures of Tohoshinki are gone and replaced by another semi-nude band. Her room is as big as always, with her bright pink carpet and princess bed. While Sakura's room looked every bit like the room of an innocent five year old girl, she was anything but.
"Which nail polish can I interest you in this time?" she asked as she lined up her nail polish in front of me, rainbow colored order, of course.
"Do we have to?" I asked, with a fake whine attached.
"Do you want me to do makeup and hair on you also?" she asked with a devilish grin.
Sakura works part time at a salon and she knows how to do everything beauty related, not that she needs to work. Sakura is probably the only one of my friends, besides Jiroh, who is rich. However, instead of pursuing more suitable careers in life that her family approved of, Sakura sticks by what she loves. Sakura also happens to go to Erin Academy, another rich school similar to Eitoku. We had met when Sakura had run away for a year to live with her aunt, and went to my public high school. Sakura's family finally relented to giving her one year of freedom, and we've been friends ever since. Now, we were both eighteen and university had started. Sakura had gone back to Erin, to attend the extended college program there, while I had successfully entered Tokyo University.
I smile and pick out a pretty grasshopper green.
"So how is he?"
I smile a little, unsure of how to answer the question.
"I really don't know. I mean one minute we're friends and everything is back to the way it was two years ago. Then, with one little word or move, we're back to that awkwardness and we're both thinking the same thing, only we're both afraid to say it," I sighed.
Sakura nodded sympathetically as she applied the color to my toenails.
"You know, Fiji Hitoshi has been asking about you," Sakura said nonchalantly, probably sensing that I needed to desperately change the subject.
I blushed. "What did he say about me?"
"I saw him when I was hanging out with Hitomi. He was wondering how you were doing," Sakura said with a devilish smile.
I rolled my eyes. Fiji Hitoshi used to be my boyfriend. We dated for a couple of months in the third year of high school, but nothing really came of it. I was busy studying for the entrance exam to Tokyo U and had little time to really have a relationship.
"You should give him another try," Sakura prompted. "I mean you're not that busy with entrance exams anymore. You can stop worrying and maybe date the guy."
I tilted my head to the side and contemplated the idea. Hitoshi and I were good friends throughout high school and I had no idea that he liked me, until he confessed to me a month into our third year.
"He's a nice guy," I admitted as Sakura moved on to my left foot. "I've always enjoyed his company. Perhaps I should give him another chance."
"Excellent! Cause I already gave him your number," she said innocently.
"Sakura!" I whined.
"Sorry Sara. I couldn't help it. He's gotten totally cuter, and you know I want you to be happy."
"It's alright," I said in defeat as I examined my colored toenails. They were really pretty and Sakura had just started to do designs on them.
"Do you still like Nishikado?" Sakura asked nonchalantly.
"Sakura!" I squealed.
"What? I'm just asking to make sure."
"Of course I don't like Jiroh anymore. We are differnet people now," I said confidently with a smile on my face.
Sakura pondered for a moment. "Good. So operation Hitoshi is about to commence."
"Jiroh, I don't think that's a good color," I tried to say with a straight face as he walked out of the dressing room in a bright orange shirt.
"Stop laughing!" he yelled at me but I couldn't help it as the peals of laughter escaped my mouth.
"You look like an oversized pumpkin!" I cried, wiping a few tears from my eyes as I watched him scowl at me.
"You are impossible, do you know that?" he said with a roll of his eyes.
"I think you look very good, Nishkado-san," said the female salesperson as she looked over Soujiro. I had no doubt that she thought him very handsome indeed. For Soujiro has always looked remarkably handsome, even if he wore a shirt that made him look like a pumpkin.
He smiled flirtatiously at the salesgirl, took another shirt, and went back into the changing room. I rolled my eyes. He never gave up a chance to flirt with a girl, never.
"What are you doing this weekend?" he asked me casually as I sat on one of the beautiful white velvet chairs that dotted the fitting room. I had never been in a fitting room so comfortable before. In most of the stores I shopped at, I sat on the floor outside my friends' changing rooms as I waited and gossiped. Here, people brought you champaign and chocolate truffles. It was an entirely new shopping experience.
"Nothing much. Why?" I asked as I took another chocolate truffle from the tray offered by the hostess. I hadn't touched the champaign. It was way too early to be drinking.
"I have to go to a party of a friend of mine, and I was wondering if you wanted to go," he said from behind the changing curtain.
"This is new. You've never invited me to meet your other friends before," I informed him.
He stepped out from the curtains and shrugged. "Do you want to come or not?"
He looked good. Beyond good. It was a nice, dark blue button-up that accentuated his dark black hair and made his eyes sparkle. He looked very handsome indeed and I almost choked on the chocolate truffle I was chewing and completely forgot our conversation.
He smirked as he saw the look on my face, arrogant bastard that he was. "Not an orange pumpkin anymore?"
"It's alright," I tried to say with a small shrug. He rolled his eyes at my attempted lying. Jiroh always knew when I lied.
"I'll get this one," he informed the salesgirl. She nodded, her eyes transfixed on him as mine had been a second ago.
"I don't think I know anyone," I told him honestly as I reached for another chocolate truffle. These were so good, and they weren't the kind of snacks one could buy at a connivance store.
"Yuki will be there," he told me.
"Really?" I asked, surprised. I haven't seen Yuki in months, not since I graduated high school.
"Yeah, she's best friends with Tsukasa's girlfriend. You know, that girl you met."
We both blushed at the memory of our last meeting. There were some things one never got over.
"Alright. I think I can go. Where is it?"
"Ordiva Restaurant. It's Italian food. I'll call you about the directions later," he told me as he changed back into his old shirt.
My cell ran as Jiroh changed and it took me a whole minute to find it in my bag and take it out. I smiled with relief as I said a quick hello, happy that I didn't miss yet another call because I couldn't find my cell phone. Jiroh would often leave angry messages on my voicemail about how idiotic I was that I couldn't find my phone.
"Sara?" said a familiar voice.
"Hitoshi?" I asked, surprised. Sakura had said she had given him my number, but it had been two weeks, and I didn't think he would remember to call.
"Hey, what's up?" he asked in that casual, laidback manner of his.
"Nothing. I'm out shopping with a friend. How are you?" I said, smiling as I remembered Hitoshi's easy smiles and honesty.
"I'm good. Not much has changed. College is pretty easy," he informed me.
"Really? Are you just saying that because you're falling asleep in class?" I teased with a secret smile as I watched my fingers play with the string on my bag. I remember that Hitoshi had given me this bag for my birthday.
"That's mean, Sara," he said, laughing at himself.
"Well you did sit next to me for three years in high school and you slept through every class."
"And you would always let me copy your homework in the mornings," he reminisced.
I laughed. "Weren't you just calling me mean?"
"Was I? You must've heard wrong. I think I was saying that Sara is the nicest girl in the world."
"Nice try, Hitoshi, but I don't forgive you," I said.
"How shall I make it up to you?"
"You can buy me my favorite ramen."
"How's next Saturday?" he asked.
"Saturday is perfect. I can meet you at noon," I told him.
After we made our plans, we hung up and I couldn't help but smile as I looked at my cell phone. I forgot that Hitoshi could make me laugh, and make me feel comfortable. He was a good guy, and it was never awkward between us.
Someone cleared his throat. I looked up and found Jiroh gazing down at me, with an unfathomable expression on his face. I had known him forever, but I had never seen that look on his face before.
"Who was that?" he asked me, his eyebrows raised as he looked at me. The smile fell off my face. Had I done something to offend him?
"Um, Hitoshi. We went to high school together," I said nervously, unused to that expression on his face. It made me scared, and though I knew Jiroh could be tough and scary, he never used that expression on me.
"I can see that. Is he your boyfriend?" Jiroh asked again, with no emotion to his voice. He was not smiling easily as he usually did. Jiroh rarely threw tantrums, and he rarely got upset.
"No," I said slowly, unsure of where to tread and what to say to get that scary look off of Jiroh's face. Was he being an overprotective brother?
"Did you just make a date with him?" he questioned me.
"It's my personal business," I informed him, tired of this interrogation.
"Sara, men aren't good creatures," he told me as though he was explaining to a child.
"You are a man, last time I checked," I said cheekily.
Jiroh rolled his eyes. Good. At least that empty expression was off his face. Now, he was just annoyed.
"Men who want you," he explained exasperatedly, unaware of the double meaning he put behind the words. He took a seat next to me and sighed, unaware that hot tears were forming in my eyes.
"You really shouldn't- Sara! What! Are you okay? Why are you crying?" he asked as he shook my shoulders and tried to find what was wrong with me.
My throat was closing up, and I hated that lump there. I swallowed, but that only made the tears come faster. His hands on my shoulders felt good, but I could still hear those last words repeating in my ears.
"Well, I am sorry," I shouted as I stood up and faced him. He looked absolutely astonished, and that gave me the courage I needed.
"I am sorry that the men who are attracted to me are all evil creatures. I'm sorry that I can't get the good kind of men. But what business is that of yours, Jiroh?" I asked, before I grabbed my coat and stormed out of there, passing the shocked salesgirl at the entrance.