Chapter 6 – Not What I Was Expecting
It was safe to say that her heart was pounding. Not just thumping, not only skipping beats and going ridiculously fast, but actually pounding away in her chest, to the point where Sakura was certain she needed to see a doctor, because surely this wasn't healthy? Part of her wanted to run through the car park and search for him, while the other–
There he was.
Her pounding heart stopped momentarily and she paused in her walk, though forced herself to keep going.
There he was. Tall with dark hair and leaning ever so slightly on his right leg, tapping away on what she presumed to be his phone. His back was to her and his head was tilted away, making Sakura bite her lower lip with anticipation.
However, the closer she got, a strange, twisting feeling filled her stomach, only growing worse by the second.
What…?
She knew this guy from somewhere. That was what her mind was telling her, though her heart would hear none of it. And now, standing in the chilly car park, lit up only with natural light considering it was still early in the afternoon, Sakura was beginning to wonder if this was such a good idea after all. Her gut instinct had rarely ever been wrong before.
Narrowing her eyes, Sakura walked forward calmly. This was definitely Avenger–S, as he was wearing a blue shirt and black jeans, exactly what he'd told her he'd be wearing. But as Sakura finally approached him, finally stood behind him, Avenger–S shifted every so slightly, his hair immediately sending a lightning bolt of recognition through her.
She only knew one person with hair that stuck up at the back.
The smile that had appeared to be permanently on Sakura's face for the past couple of hours faltered as she saw who Avenger–S actually was.
Uchiha Sasuke.
Uchiha fucking Sasuke.
"You've got to be kidding me."
He seemed just as stunned as her as he turned around quickly, almost dropping his phone as he took in her red dress. "…Sakura?"
"Is this some kind of joke?" she demanded, feeling absolutely humiliated and stupid and fuck! What the hell? "Please tell me you're not actually Avenger–S."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're not the only one who's surprised."
"I'm not the one who was pretending to be a completely different person!"
"Weren't you?"
A humourless laugh burst out of her before she could even stop it. "No. You don't know me. We were friends for about a year before you decided I wasn't good enough to be your friend anymore." His eyes widened a fraction, but just as he was about to speak, she cut him off. "Bye, Sasuke."
"Wait. You're just walking away? What about all the stuff you said–"
She whirled around, glaring at him angrily, but what stunned him the most were the tears in her eyes. "What about it?" Sakura shook her head. "None of it even matters now. You made it perfectly clear that you hate me, that I annoy you."
"We were twelve!"
"And you think it makes much of a difference now? You hated me back then."
"You hate me now," he muttered. "I guess I'm the guy you're always complaining about."
"Yeah, you are." She sighed irritably, glaring down at her feet for a moment before she was looking back up at him. "Delete those pictures I sent you and we can just… pretend like none of this happened. We'll go back to ignoring each other." There was a pause. "Is that why you're trying so hard to actually speak with me now? Because you want something out of it?"
Sasuke honestly couldn't help but stare at her in shock. However not a second later, his eyes were narrowing once more with his own vicious glare. "What the hell did I do to make you hate me so much? I get that I was a dick to you when we were kids, but that's the point! We were just kids. I did anything and everything I could back then to please my father." When he was met by silence, Sasuke's eyes narrowed further. "I came here because I was willing to try. For you. The only person acting like a dick right now is you, Sakura."
She nodded, averting her eyes and glaring at the car park wall. "You're pathetic, Sakura. A waste of my time. If I keep hanging around with you, you're going to drag me down to your level and if that happens, I'll be a disappointment to everybody." Her eyebrows knitted together as she heard his sharp intake of breath. "Please, Sasuke-kun. I love you with all my heart. I'd do anything for you!" She chuckled humourlessly, a single tear slipping down her cheek. "Tch. You're so annoying." Sakura's eyes snapped up to his. "You wonder why I hate you? How about the fact that you knocked my confidence so low that it never came back up? How about all of my friends abandoning me when I needed them most, because you kicked me out of that 'popular group', huh?"
"Sakura…"
Yanking her hand away from his when he reached out for it, she spat at him, "No. Leave me the hell alone."
Instead of taking the hint that she didn't want to be touched, Sasuke once again grabbed her hand and pulled her forward, capturing her lips with his.
But then she was ripping away from him and her hand was lashing out, slapping him harshly across the face.
"Bye, Sasuke-kun."
The two in the car jumped as Sakura all but ripped the door open and climbed in, slamming it shut after herself. She was trembling, but whether it was because of anger or of sadness, they couldn't tell immediately. It was when a tear slipped down her cheek that they knew it was the latter.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto murmured with a frown, both he and Hinata having witnessed the whole thing. "I'm–"
"Don't say it." She choked on her own sob, turning away from them both and furiously wiping at her eyes. "Don't."
He exchanged a look with Hinata via the mirror, only to see her sadly shake her head, silently telling him to start driving. While he wanted nothing more than to go and speak with Sasuke, to demand what the hell was going on and whether or not this was all just a joke he played on her, Naruto knew he shouldn't. Not only that, but he'd seen Sasuke's reaction to Sakura. He'd seriously been expecting someone else. Like Sakura, both Naruto and Hinata had seen his expression fall, no matter how blank it was supposed to be.
Narrowing his blue eyes, Naruto watched as Sasuke turned towards them and made his way to the car that was three rows in front of his own. If he wasn't mistaken, then that was Itachi's car. Damn. It seemed Itachi had had front row seats to the whole thing that just went down, whereas he and Hinata had only seen expressions and movement. Naruto wondered what had been said, but most of all, he wondered what it meant for Sasuke to reach out to Sakura like he had done. As far as he was aware of, Sasuke had never initiated physical contact and preferred not to be touched by anyone, so for him to reach out to Sakura, to kiss her–
"Naruto-kun," Hinata murmured, leaning forward and boldly touching his shoulder. He did his best to ignore the shaking of her hand. Sakura had explained to him not too long ago that the Hyuuga had an anxiety disorder. "Perhaps it would be best that we leave now?"
Gritting his teeth against the urge to get out the car and demand answers out of Sasuke, Naruto nodded once, waiting for Hinata to buckle in once more before he was leaving the car park, heading straight to Sakura's home.
That was…
Itachi didn't look at his cousin even though he felt Shisui's eyes on his features.
Brutal.
It had honestly been brutal to watch. Not only for Sasuke, but for Haruno Sakura, also. He inwardly debated on whether or not he should get out of the car and go to Sasuke, for his younger brother seemed to be in shock as he stared after Sakura. However, just as Sakura breezed past the car, holding a shaking hand to her trembling lips, Sasuke's eyes slid to the car beside her, meeting Itachi's. The confused, pained look instantly vanished and if it weren't for the harsh redness of his cheek, it would have been impossible to guess what just happened. Why would Sasuke hide himself from his older brother? Itachi refrained from frowning.
Instead of looking back to Sakura, who had now disappeared into a car somewhere behind them, Sasuke made his way over to them, shoving his hands in his pockets as he did so.
"Itachi?"
He glanced over at his cousin.
"What just happened? I remember that girl. She was in an assembly–"
There wasn't time to continue or for Itachi to answer because Sasuke was suddenly opening the car door and sliding in, shutting it firmly after himself. A faint twitch was in his left eye, Itachi vaguely noticed from the rear view mirror and now that they were closer, the cheek Sakura had slapped looked much worse. He honestly wouldn't even be surprised if it bruised, considering the strength she'd put behind it (Sasuke's head had literally snapped to the side with so much force he almost lost his balance, clearly taken by surprise).
"Sasuke…"
"Just drive, Nii-san," he muttered, watching as Naruto's car pulled out of the car park, suddenly realising that that was why the blond was busy.
Itachi regarded him for a moment longer before sighing and starting the car.
"Sakura-san?" Hinata called as she helped the other girl up the stairs to her apartment, Naruto a few steps in front of them since the elevator was out of order. Hopefully, Mebuki would be home.
No answer.
Since leaving the car park, Sakura had been silent. There had been an awkward moment when Itachi's car pulled up beside Naruto's at the traffic lights, both she and Naruto glancing over at Shisui and Itachi, who in return, looked straight back at them. Sakura had refused to raise her head and, from the looks of things, so had Sasuke. Only half a minute later and Shisui was muttering something to Itachi, just as Naruto began muttering under his breath. Thankfully it hadn't lasted too long and they were going in their different directions.
It had taken them at least fifteen minutes to arrive at the apartment and every single minute, every single second that ticked by, Hinata could honestly say that she felt like her heart was breaking for Sakura. After all those excited smiles, after the barely restrained grins and squeals, the nervousness that had threatened to consume her completely… Avenger–S turning out to be Uchiha Sasuke had to be torture for her.
Pitifully, Sakura wiped at her eyes, uncaring of her make up and allowing Hinata to guide her safely up the stairs to the third floor. There were a few pauses along the way as she had to find Sakura's keys to open the first door on the ground floor (which refused entry to anybody without a key or permission from one of the apartments), but eventually they made it.
Naruto accepted the keys when they were held out to him and opened the door just as silently as they had walked, stepping aside and pushing it open so that the two girls could go first. His blue eyes saddened at the raw pain in his best friend's eyes, wanting nothing more than to take it away.
"Sakura? Is that you?"
Naruto quickly slipped off his shoes and left the hallway, going through the archway that led them to the living room. It would be best to give Mebuki some warning before she saw the state of Sakura and presumed the worst. Worrying her would only bring forth more questions and then Sakura would have to sit through them all and answer. After all, she was dressed in her best dress, leaning against Hinata and crying. There could be several reasons for that.
The moment Hinata removed her own shoes and set them beside Naruto's (straightening his out as she did so), she stood up straight and watched Sakura for a moment before sighing and helping her with her shoes, also. It took all of two seconds considering they were simple flats and when they were done, she was leading her into the living room, where it looked as though Naruto had finished informing Mebuki of what happened.
Said blonde turned to face the two girls, her eyes saddening at the sight of her daughter. "Sakura."
Sakura's bottom lip trembled, her features scrunching up as she threw herself into the woman's arms. "M-Mom…"
The Uchiha home was silent as the three men entered, though considering that both of their parents' cars were in the garage, they knew the home was not empty.
Sasuke barely registered that fact and when his mother stepped out of the kitchen, beginning to walk towards them down the oversized hallway, he ignored her. He ignored Shisui opening his mouth, about to tell him it was rude to dismiss his own mother in such a way. He ignored Mikoto calling after him. He ignored Itachi murmuring for them to give him time to be by himself.
Fall–of–the–Blossom was… Haruno Sakura. How could that even be possible? The two of them seemed like completely different people.
…Whatever.
As soon as he entered his room, Sasuke shut the door silently and made his way over to his bed, collapsing backwards onto it.
Sakura made it pretty clear that she wanted absolutely nothing to do with him and Sasuke honestly couldn't blame her for it. Like she had said earlier: he was a dick. All those times he'd snapped at her, told her that she was annoying and then eventually dismissed her completely, effectively making her the most unpopular kid in school. He… He deserved her anger. Sasuke hadn't even remembered what he'd previously said to her until she brought it up, until she was spitting the words at him with tears in her eyes and now… Now he couldn't forget them. They kept repeating themselves in his mind and all he could picture was what her expression must have been like when he said those words to her.
His eyebrows mashed together, causing his features to be marred by a scowl. Why was this effecting him so much? Why was he even bothered? It was only Haruno Sakura. He had never allowed her to bother him so much before. It was only–
There was no 'only'.
Anger washed over him when he felt tears of frustration stinging his eyes, his arm covering his face to hide said emotion.
He'd lost Fall–of–the–Blossom.
What was he supposed to do now?
A/N - Since this chapter is so short, and the last one got so many reviews, I decided to post it today as a treat for you all.
Honestly, I've been feeling really stressed lately because of college and the fact I've been entered into an exam I have no hopes in passing, which means I'll have to pay to resit. There's not only that, though. There's also the piles of assignments and then the amendments and resubmissions. Before this year at college, due to personal reasons, I refused to leave the house for two whole years. I just couldn't bring myself to go out. And now, I'm at college from Monday to Friday. Some days I'm there from 8-5 (not including travelling).
I'm just exhausted all the time and during the break, all I did was sleep and even now, I'm still exhausted. The stress is getting to me so much that I can just about eat one meal a day, my skin has broken out in horrible, painful spots and my hair has been falling out. Writing these stories actually makes me feel a little better because, as cheesy and cliché as it sounds, I get lost in them. Like, I feel as though I'm living in the stories, instead of out there.
I'm eighteen, going on nineteen in a few months, and I can't do what all other people my age are doing. I can't go out with friends, I can't go out and do the things they do, all because I'm worried about this year and the fact that, if I fail even a single class in my course, then I can't go on to do my a-levels. So basically, it's like those two years being stuck in my home, in my room. Only this time, I've got the added stress of college and coursework and exams.
I've taken another day off college and I'm going to try and speak to my personal tutor tomorrow or Thursday about the stress. We get this thing called a bursary in my college, which is £70 a month if our attendance is over 95% (which mine most likely isn't anymore) so either way, I'm going to have to speak to her about it. It's just so awkward to talk about it in person, though! I'm the type of girl who shies away from stuff like that and who prefers to stay in the back, quiet, than have all the attention on me. It makes me so uncomfortable.
ANYWAY. Sorry about the rant. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I might surprise you all with another chapter some time this week, but that depends ;-)