Chapter 4- Crawling In The Dark

(Sora's Point of View)

I stared at Riku and Amanda wondering what was going to happen. Kairi looked really anxious about the situation. Not a word was said between any of us; that's when it happened. Riku gave Amanda one simple nod before turning to me.

"Can you pass the salad?" He asked reaching over my plate. Kairi let out a breath that she was holding in. Amanda looked at her and then at her drink. So anticlimactic. I took hold of the plastic salad bowl and passed it to Riku.

"Are you kidding me?" Roxas said in an irritated voice. We all looked at him. I gave him a questioning look. "Riku," he pointed toward him with one hand and then used the other to point toward Amanda. "You're not even going to say hello?"

"I think you two should talk. It's been almost a month." Kairi said frowning a little.

"I agree." I said nodding as I leaned back a little. "You two need to talk. It's about time."

"Not now." Amanda said looking at me. "Let's just eat dinner."

"What?" Riku asked setting his fork down on his plate and looked at her. "You don't want to talk?"

"Let's just eat dinner, Riku. It's not the time to be talking about this."

"But they want us to." There was tension building in the air quickly as those two began to glare at each other. Roxas, Kairi, and I just watched back and forth.

"Yes. They do." She replied matter-of-factly. "Doesn't mean they want us to discuss it right this second."

"We might as well." Riku crossed his arms and stared at her.

"Riku. Just eat your dinner. They invited us here to eat, not to argue or talk."

"They didn't invite me. I live here."

"What does that have to do with anything?" I agreed, that was a pretty dumb statement for Riku.

"It doesn't."

"Then why did you say it?"

"Because I wanted to."

"Riku. Shut up."

"Make me."

"You're acting like such a little kid!"

"Whatever. You're the one who won't talk to me about what happened between us." He said standing up. Amanda did the same and pointed at him.

"You know what-."

"Sora!" Kairi quickly stood up. "Can I have a word with you in the kitchen?"

"Sure." I said standing up. I followed Kairi into the kitchen and as soon as we were far from the entry of it, she quickly turned to face me.

"This is a disaster!" She said in a panicked whisper.

"Well, what are we going to do?" I asked knowing she'd have something in mind.

"Hum..." She looked up and went into deep thought. It didn't take long for her to figure out what she wanted to do about our friends though. "I got it!" Kairi whispered into my ear what we were going to do. After a little bit of a discussion, we walked back into the diningroom where Roxas was telling the punch line to one of his jokes.

"And the penguin said, " How did I end up in this tux!" Ha, ha! Get it?" Roxas was laughing at his own joke but no one else was. Riku and Amanda were both sitting down in their seats, arms crossed, and a glare at each other. "Fine." Roxas soon joined in on the crossed arms and glaring contest.

"Amanda, can I come talk to you?" Kairi said to Amanda who nodded. The two walked into our bedroom without closing the door.

"Riku, follow me." I said motioning Riku to get up. He sighed and followed me into his bedroom. He sat down on his bed and I leaned in the doorway.

"What?" He asked annoyed.

"Look, you two need to just let the other one speak. Stop acting so immature." I replied.

"Sora, don't start with me." He glared.

"Riku, just think about what happened. Slightly childish back there." He rolled his eyes. "You two really need to talk and stop acting like a bunch of high schoolers."

"Amanda, you two really need to talk it out calmly." Kairi's voice traveled behind me. I stepped aside outside the room where Amanda and Kairi were walking by. That's when we did it. Kairi pushed Amanda into Riku's room and I closed the door behind them and held the doorknob. Two bodies hit the other side of the door and started pounding.

"Kairi! Sora! Let us out!" Amanda yelled.

"This isn't funny!" Riku said.

"This is what you two get." Kairi yelled back. "Now get talking!"

"Let us out!" They yelled in unison.

"No!" We yelled back.

"Kairi, we should talk about something that's been on my mind for a while." I said putting her hand in mine. Her brows furrowed as she looked at me with concern filling her eyes.

"Okay." She nodded. We sat down on the couch and I still held her hand in mine. I didn't know how I was going to say this but it was killing me and it needed to be said. "What is it?"

"Kairi, you know I love you to death, but I think we need to take a break. We've been together for so long, we're still so young. Maybe a month or a few weeks away from each other will make it feel like new." I said wanting to bite my tongue as the words spilled out. I had no idea how she was going to react.

"Wha…" She was speechless.

"I'm sorry, but it's for the best right now. I have a lot going on."

"I hate you." It was in a low, quiet, deathly tone. Kairi pulled her hand away from mine and stood up.

"What?" I was shocked.

"I hate you, Sora! Don't expect us to get back together. The wedding is off! I want you out of my life!" She screamed with so much anger that I couldn't believe it was happening. Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes as she ran toward the door. "I hate you!" She cried out one last time before slamming the door behind her.

My eyes jolted open. I could feel my heart beating deep inside my chest. It was still dark outside. I leaned over to see that it was only two in the morning. Kairi was sound asleep next to me. I let out a sigh and went into the living room.

I went to get a glass of water before settling down on the couch with my feet at the edge of the coffee table. There wasn't anything on this late at night so I resulted in watching some late night music videos. Riku's bedroom door creaked open. I watched him emerge out of his room and walk toward me.

"I hate you." He said crossing his arms, obviously still annoyed about earlier.

"Shut up." I said turning back to the tv.

"What are doing up?" Riku sat down on the opposite side of the couch from me. "Don't you have school in like 6 hours?"

"Yeah, but I had a bad dream."

"About what?"

"How Kairi will react when I tell her we need to take a break." I sighed.

"How bad did it go?"

"Absolute disaster." I took the pillow next to me and shoved it to my face. "Why is this so difficult?"

"Because you love her." Riku said casually. I slid the pillow off my face to my lap. "So when are you planning on telling her?"

"I have no idea." I took in a deep breath. "But I don't want to dread about it too much longer…"

I finally managed to fall back asleep, but on the couch. Of course Kairi wondered why she woke up not to find me. Another lie only added on. My head was completely congested at school. The thought of my dream with the lack of sleep didn't help me any. Finally, about 12:15 I was done with classes. I still had to go to work, but at least I could hide away in my office. I was walking out to my car when I bumped into someone.

"Sorry." I mumbled looking up. I take it back, I wasn't sorry.

"We meet again." Shawn crossed his arms. He was my height exactly now. His dark blond hair looked just as wilds as mine, just a little shorter. Other then that, he looked like a 20-year-old should. "How long has it been since we last saw each other?"

"Not long enough."

"Agreed. Are you married yet?"

"No."

"I had a feeling you two wouldn't last." He chuckled.

"Shut your face, Shawn. We've been together for four years and we're getting married in June."

"It won't last. Kairi has needs and something in your voice tells me something isn't right. I'm right, aren't I?" A satisfied smirk grew on his face.

"Stay out of my business." I was getting mad now.

"Oh, temper, temper Sora." Shawn said calmly. "Don't take your personal problems out on me."

I let out a deep grumble and walked passed him taking heavy steps.

"Make the right choices!" He called out to me. I was about to completely snap. By the time I got to work I was already beyond annoyed. I tried not to let show when Kairi greeted me.

"Hey you." She smiled softly pulling me into a hug.

"Hi." I said hugging her back.

"How are you?" She asked.

"Fine." I was completely monotone. I could tell by the look on her face that she knew something was up. "You?"

"Um, I'm alright. How was school?"

"Fine. Work?"

"Alright." I could already see this pattern and it wasn't helping my annoyance any.

"I'm going to get started on the documents." I said walking passed her into my office where I shut the door behind me. This wasn't my day at all.

---

"Sora, Roxas is here." Kairi said knocking on the bedroom door. I sat up and saw Roxas enter the room.

"Hey." My cousin said sitting on the love seat we had at the end of the room.

"What's new?" I asked turning off the TV.

"Nothing really. Namine and I finally officially moved in all of our crap into the apartment." He shrugged.

"It's about time."

"Yeah." Roxas stretched out on the couch. "So have you talked to Kairi at all yet?"

"No. It's really hard to even bring it up."

"How long have you been thinking about this?"

"I don't know, maybe about a month or two."

"And you still haven't said anything at all?" Roxas was shocked. I shook my head and frowned a little.

"I shouldn't be doing this but I can't help it." I sighed throwing myself back into the pillows.

"Have you been acting different around Kairi?" I nodded and sank my head deeper. "What are you honestly waiting for, Sora?"

"I want her to be the one to make the break. I don't want to be the bad guy."

"Too late. Just by doing this, you are already the bad guy."

"Thanks." I said sarcastically. "That really helped me out."

"Sora, why do you want to take the break?"

"Because I'm not quite sure I'm happy. I mean, I love her to death, don't get me wrong. I just think we need some time to just be two individual people. We've been a couple for over four years now and we haven't really spent too much time apart. We even lived together back in high school up until now. It can get to be too much, you know?" I stared up at the ceiling thinking about what I was saying.

"Who else knows that you want to do this?"

"Riku and you. I think Shawn has a hunch."

"What does Shawn have to do with this?" I could sense the irritation in Roxas's voice. I sat up and looked at him.

"I ran into him today at school. You should have heard him," I said shaking my head. ""It won't last. Kairi has needs and something in your voice tells me something isn't right. I'm right, aren't I?" It was so obnoxious of him. I can't take this anymore. It's starting to eat me up inside. It hurts even more to see Kairi's face knowing I'm going to hurt her any day now." Roxas stood up from the loveseat.

"Pack up some clothes. You're going to stay in our spare room at the apartment." He said.

"What about Kairi and Riku?" I asked standing up.

"Riku can take care of Kairi. Now, let's go." Roxas walked across the bedroom to the door. He waited for me to gather a couple outfits, my toothbrush and hairbrush before we walked out into the living room with my bag slung over my shoulder.

Kairi and Riku were both sitting on the couch with ice cream bowls in their laps watching some movie. They both looked up at Roxas and me.

"Where are you going?" Kairi asked standing up; placing the ice cream bowl on the coffee table.

"I'm going to spend the night at Roxas's apartment for a couple nights. I'll come back home. I promise." I walked over and kissed her on the forehead.

"Um okay." That was all I heard as my cousin and me walked to the front door.

"Bye." I waved closing the door. Kairi frowned and that was the last thing I saw before stepping into the cold night.

A/N: Ah, so now we know the truth. For those of you who know me personally or have been reading the progress section on the Dear Diary website, you know that my boyfriend and I went through this and this is what inspired me to write this. It obviously wasn't exactly like this since we don't live together and we've been together for over a year, not four. Welp, there's Sora's side of the situation. Reviews are ubber nice of you, so you should send one (yup.. considering I didn't get as many for last chapter as I have for all my other chapters. -Plus, it'll be a nice 18th birthday present for me( October 12th)-smiles-)