C12
Hinata was fairly sure as soon as she woke up that the elephants storming across the space of her skull were going to crush it.
She was fairly sure that the light leaking through her window's curtains were going to blind her.
And she was definitely sure this was hell.
"Good morning!" A voice much too cheerful and shrill for--Hinata glanced over at her alarm clock next to her on the bedside table--nine o'clock chirped and slammed open the bedroom door with a flourish. Skipping up and sitting down on the edge of her bed, Tenten leaned forwards with deep interest, a large Cheshire grin set upon her fair face as she asked, "So…I guess last night went pretty well, eh?"
"No…Tenten…" Hinata moaned and rolled over, bringing the comforter over her head to burry deep beneath its covers. "Loud…bright…you…I'm dying…"
"Ah, right. I figured." She produced a bottle from her jacket pocket as well as a bottle of water, both of which she placed on her bedside table. "Advil. Lots of it." When Hinata merely grunted and made no move towards to proffered drugs, Tenten stretched across the large queen sized bed and solicitously peered up through eyelashes under the pretences of examining her short fingernails. "So."
"If I give you any info, will you leave me to crawl under my c-covers and die?" Hinata groaned and sat up to pop back two Advils and wash back with a swig of water.
"But of course!" Tenten grinned and sat up cross legged on the bed, nearly bouncing herself right off. "Do tell." An arched eyebrow was raised as she rested her head in her palm. "So things went well with Naruto last night, hm?"
"Why w-would you say that?" Hinata rubbed her eye drowsily. The elephants were still raging as violently as before and she was wondering where those sunglasses she had put away for winter had disappeared to.
"We found you collapsed on the couch passed out at midnight when Neji came to check if you had come back yet. He was pretty worked up about this whole thing." A sheepish grin formed on her face as she recalled the memory. "Anyways. We tried bringing you upstairs and taking off the jacket you were wearing, but you kept whining and yelling that it smelled fantastic and you just refused to take it off." Wriggling her eyebrows, she giggled. "I noticed that the jacket was noticeably a male style. What did you do with Naruto last night?"
"I…I didn't do anything w-with Naruto…Sasuke…" She abruptly stopped, slapped a hand to her mouth and looked at Tenten with horror.
Sasuke.
Every memory of last night came flooding back to her in a rush. Naruto's abandonment, HEB's drunk advancements, Sasuke's heroic rescue, the dancing, the vodka shots, the kissing, and the vomit.
The kissing.
Her face turned a ferocious red colour as she leapt out of bed, pushing Tenten out of her room. "Can't talk now! Elephants--t-too much stomping! Gotta f-find my sunglasses!"
"What the hell? Did you end up doing something other than drinking? Because really, weed is one thing, but shrooms? That's bad news--"
"Bye!" Hinata hissed and gave one last final shove to get Tenten out the door before slamming it shut behind her and sliding down ungracefully to the floor. She stared down at her outstretched arms which were clothed in the comfortable fabric of his jacket. Hesitantly, she grasped the collar of it and brought it up to her face to inhale softly. It did smell fantastic. It smelt like Sasuke…
Oh, Sasuke.
Hiding her face behind her hands, she bit her lip and let all the details sink in of last night. She kissed him. She made out with Sasuke. She made out with her boss. She made out with her friend.
Who was a damn good kisser.
She slapped a hand over her mouth and felt her cheeks boil. She was not allowed to think of these things. Not at all. Just the thought of thinking about it made her stomach flop and simmer mercilessly…the way he had held her, and talked to her, and made her feel, and--
Stop.
Choking back a sob, she recalled her last words she had said to him before she had found the first soft thing to pass out on.
"I don't hate you."
And she didn't.
She should've, she knew. She should've been ashamed of him and furious that he had taken advantage of her overly drunk state, that he had known normally she would've done nothing of the sort and went ahead and kissed her like that.
But…she couldn't. She couldn't do it for some reason. Probably because she desperately wanted someone to feel that way about her…to want to kiss her like he did…to tell her all those comforting things that he did…
But this was Sasuke. Sasuke. Sasuke, the demi-god from school, Sasuke who only girls like Sakura had a chance with, not Hinata. Not the shy wallflower weirdo.
This time, she let the tears fall as she realized one thing. He must've been lying to her. He must've been trying to spare her feelings. And he must've been at least some what drunk after taking that vodka shot for her. Her room was filled with her constant hiccups and sobs as one last thing clicked into place.
It shouldn't have hurt this much if she only thought of Sasuke as a friend.
--
"Hinata!" Kiba crowed and threw his arms around her in a bear hug. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!" Sitting back down and tossing his backpack on the seat next to him onto the floor, he eagerly invited her to sit down next to him with a large grin set upon his face.
"Thanks," She whispered and placed her lunch tray on the table. It had been ages since she had seen him.
"How was your weekend?" He asked as he stuffed a fry into his mouth. It almost broke her heart that he was acting completely normal. As if she hadn't hung out with him and Shino for the past two and some weeks.
"It was f-fine." She gave him a small smile and bit her lip before chancing the same smile to Shino who returned it with a faint nod of his head. Feeling relief, she allowed her smile to grow slightly and asked in return, "And yours?"
"Fucking fantastic!" Kiba exclaimed and pumped a fist out for Shino to bump, to which he only raised an eyebrow at and picked up his sandwich to delicately bite into. Recovering from the momentarily awkward moment, he turned back to Hinata, his enthusiasm back within seconds. "We totally crashed this one party Ino was holding. We got super wasted--well, I did. This kid's a fucking tank."
Shino merely shrugged modestly and took another bite from his sandwich.
"Anyways." Kiba turned back to her and continued. "Point of this whole story is: Ino got wasted and took off her shirt, I made it to second base with her. With Ino. Possibly the hottest chick in school. Me." His eyes took on a glazed look as he recalled the memory almost wistfully. "Totally could've made it all the way with her if her huge ass boyfriend hadn't come in threatening to break my spine in half." He shivered at this and scarfed down another fry. "He could've done it too, I'm pretty sure."
"I say you would've deserved it too, almost getting into the pants of the girlfriend of another guy." Shino pointed out mildly and tossed the crumpled up ball of Saran wrap which had held his sandwich into a garbage can a few feet away.
"Hey, shut up, Shino. You're ruining my story." Kiba whined and chucked a fry at his friend who merely glared back and flicked said fry off his shoulder. "So, after that we went to McDonald's and got some food--" He glanced down at Hinata's pale face in alarm and quickly amended. "Sorry, Hinata, I know that you don't approve of us doing this sort of stuff!" He wrapped an arm around her consolingly.
Hardly even close to the point, Hinata felt sick as she recalled her own night's activities which were starting to sound eerily similar to the ones Kiba was telling her about.
"But that's why we love you!" He crowed and ruffled her hair. "Because you're our sweet, innocent good girl!"
Sweet.
Innocent.
Good.
But, of course.
--
The next three days had been spent doing three things: avoiding all contact with Sasuke, ignoring the whispers and gossip about her activities that went on at what happened to be a girl named Karin's house, and avoiding all contact with Sasuke.
Her first real attempt to escape from him had been in her biology class.
No longer did she sit right behind Naruto (partly because every time she stared even at the back of his head, she got a sickly feeling of embarrassment and disgust, but mostly because she could no longer see Sasuke's eyes boring into her. However, she could feel it nearly as well as she could've seen it), but in the window seat next to a chubby boy named Chouji. Which was perfectly fine with her considering Chouji turned out to be an extremely nice boy who almost always offered her one of his ever-present chips.
However, such Sasuke-less bliss was not meant to last.
As soon as the bell had rung, indicating the end of class, the faintest of flickers had crossed the border of Hinata's vision. Already, she had been set on edge from her earlier fiasco in English where girls had snickered or glared at her throughout. However, as soon as she caught the familiar shade of dark hair she bolted, leaving behind her math text book.
And leaving Sasuke very, very far behind.
--
Her second evasion had been during lunch hour.
The whispers had quieted down by then, though not so much she could no longer hear them and eating lunch with Shino and Kiba seemed habitual yet again. She had nearly finished her sandwich and was on her final bite when Kiba had elbowed her in the ribs and hissed, "Hey, look, it's your best friend."
Confused to say the least, Hinata turned around to see Sasuke walking up to her table with a steady gait and a determined look upon his face. Choking on the last bit of sandwich, she managed to squeak out, "I gotta go to the washroom!" before sprinting towards the girls bathroom where she had hid there for the next twenty minutes of her lunch hour.
And it was only Tuesday.
--
However, it proved much more difficult hiding from Sasuke at work.
It hadn't been a very long shift. Just a four hour five to nine shift on a Wednesday evening. In fact, Hinata had been counting on Sasuke not being there due to the fact Kiba had complained to her about the important and difficult test happening on the next day in chemistry; a class that Hinata knew he also shared with a certain Uchiha.
It was not meant to be, though.
Sure enough, at her very check stand lounged Sasuke at the end of the belt, waiting for her and ready to bag items. She didn't even spare him a glance or a single word as she went up to her register and offered her first customer a shaky smile and greeting.
The first three hours went by smoothly without a single drop in customers as they came through her check stand in a steady flow. Her break had come and gone and she was there waiting for another forty-five minutes to pass before she finally was able to leave when the store had decided to go dead quiet and customers were scarce and far in between.
"So," Sasuke leaned against the counter and coolly stared at her. His eyes, though almost chilling in its glare still held that smouldering undertone to it that made Hinata's bones turn to jelly.
"So," Hinata echoed in a faint whisper and leaned back against her register, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the counter in front of her.
He glanced down at her knuckles briefly, but made no comment about them before flickering his eyes up at her and saying, "You still have my coat."
As Hinata stood there, red faced and floundering for words, she whipped her head towards Iruka who was at the front desk assisting a red faced and extremely violent looking elderly lady. "Iruka!" She yelped and stabbed her sign off key on the register. "I'm going to do returns!"
"Eh? But--"
Before he could even finish his sentence, she had already raced down an aisle, her heart pounding, her knuckles white against the cart's handle and her eyes wide. Leaning against a shelf, she closed her eyes and drew her eyebrows together in a pained expression.
Just another three days until the weekend.
--
