"I was catching up to tomorrow
Or I was caught up in the past
These days it's hard to tell what's out in front from what's behind"

-Cloud Cult

Nothing much happened the next week. It was mid-January now, and I felt like all my progress with Sasuke had gone down the drain. It was like I was back to mid-October or something.

I didn't confront him again until later though. Not until it drove me crazy enough to do it.

It was a particularly cold day that month, and I had given up on matching my winter clothes and focused more on staying warm. I heard a few snickers from Karin's friends about how I looked like my grandmother's closet exploded or something, but I was used to it. Screw them, I was going to do what I wanted.

Sasuke had been practically avoiding me by now, besides some forced conversation whenever we were around friends. It was so strange, I had no idea that he would get this way and I was desperate to find out why he was doing this now. Had he suddenly decided he hated me or something?

"I asked Shikamaru if he said anything," Ino said to me before English one day. "He said he hasn't heard anything."

"I don't know why he's doing this." I said. I probably sounded frustrated - and I was. "Whatever, it's not worth dwelling over right now." After thinking about it, I realized that if Sasuke had decided that he didn't want anything to do with me I definitely didn't have much time left. I was upset, but I would have to start thinking about the time I had left with my friends.

I didn't think I would see Sasuke later that day, until I ran into him at our now-usual spot by the tree in the park by our neighborhood.

"Sorry," he said, and started to leave. "I'll leave you alone."

"Wait." It was now or never, I thought. "What's up with you lately? Are you sure I didn't do something? Because you're still acting like I'm a total nutcase or something." I wanted to scream at him, actually.

He just sighed. "It's not you, Sakura."

"Then why are you avoiding me!?" All of the emotions that had been building up finally came out. "I thought we were friends. You seemed like you wanted to be my friend over winter break..." Don't cry, I thought to myself. Please. I didn't want to feel vulnerable anymore.

He shook his head. "If you think this is easy for me-"

"That is literally the last thing on my mind." I said bluntly. Really, was I trying to get him back or did I just want to chew him out? I had never been very confrontational before - this was actually really weird for me. "Just tell me if you want me to leave you alone and I will. I don't want to waste your time." This was it.

"No..." To my surprise, he sat down by the tree. "Don't do that."

"I don't understand." I crossed my arms.

"It's hard to explain," he said.

I sighed, and took a seat next to him. "I've got all day," I said, "and I know Naruto's out of town so you have time too." I looked at him expectantly.

It was weird. Usually I would never act this bossy around Sasuke. Not now, at least, when I was trying to get him to like me again. But now it was like I didn't care. He was going to give me some sort of explanation, dammit. Especially if I might end up dying for him. He owed me that much, I decided.

"It's not that I don't want to be your friend," he said hesitantly. It sort of felt like I was being broken up with, to be honest.

"Then what is it?" I prompted.

"I don't know," he said. "This is going to sound crazy but... do you remember when I told you about how you remind me of a friend I used to have?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I said, "I remember."

"I couldn't remember her very well before," he said, "but there were small parts of her that I could..." He shook his head. "I probably sound crazy to you right now, but it's like I could see her sometimes. I don't know why I can't remember her as well anymore. Ever since we started hanging out more, it's like I'm losing her completely." He looked at me, almost embarrassed.

I felt myself tearing up, but I held it back. I wasn't going to cry this time. "Was she... special to you?" I asked.

"Very," he said. "Which is why I don't know why I can't see her anymore. She was important to me. I-" He stopped talking, like he almost let it slip out.

"Did you love her?" I whispered. Could this really be true? Was he distancing himself because the memory that he had left of me before was fading? How ironic, I though, that the very memory of me was what was getting in my way.

There was a long pause, and then he responded. "Yes," he admitted, not meeting my eyes. I wanted nothing more but to be able to tell him that he wasn't losing me. That I was already here.

"You know," I said, when I finally found the words to say, "I don't want to lose you either."

"I know," he said, "and I'm sorry. I feel stupid now."

"I didn't know her," I said. Lies. All lies. "But I think that she wouldn't want you to dwell on it. I don't think she's lost forever because you can't remember as much of her now. That's just what happens," I said, "when you don't see someone for as long. And maybe you're forgetting because the memories with me are taking her place, but that's not so bad, is it?"

"No," he admitted. "It's not bad at all."

"Good," I suddenly felt relieved.

Things seemed to go back to normal after that. Sasuke went back to being friendly with me. He started actually carrying conversations with me again, and we even met up after school one day to work on student council stuff.

Even though I had managed to fix everything with Sasuke, I still couldn't keep my mind off of what we had talked about. Did he still remember me from before? Could I use that to my advantage, or was he already forgetting? I was touched that he had tried so hard to preserve my memory (at the expense of our relationship now), but another part of me was in despair. Obviously he didn't love me yet, if the fading memory of me produced stronger feelings for him than spending time with me now.

I just wanted to tell him, but something told me that it wouldn't work.

"You're here early," I observed. Konan had appeared in the hallway when I was putting away a textbook in my locker after school. It was right before I was about to go to a student council meeting, actually. I hadn't even jumped.

"You called me last time," she reminded me, "and I don't usually answer calls from mortals." Was I supposed to feel special?

"I actually wanted to ask you something," I said. "Does Sasuke still remember me? Like, deep down somewhere? I thought you said that everyone's memory of me would be gone." It was weird standing around a bunch of frozen students. I don't think I would ever get used to her strange time-control.

Was it me, or did Konan look startled for a second? I wouldn't know, because as soon as the emotion showed it was gone. "Sometimes," she said, "if an emotion is strong enough it can fight our powers."

"So are you saying that he's fighting it or something?" I looked at her skeptically.

"Your friend's love for you was stronger than I expected," she replied vaguely.

"Is that why he's so afraid of forgetting me?" I said. "Is he going to lose those memories forever?"

"That is why he's afraid, yes." I noticed that she didn't answer my last question.

"I can't just tell him, right?" I figured I had better just ask now.

"You could try," she gave me a small smile, "but you wouldn't succeed."

"What," I said, "is there something preventing me from doing it?"

She didn't answer. "Your time is limited," she said. "It would be wise for you to remember that."

"Oh believe me," I said. "I wouldn't forget that... Hey," I said, "before you leave... you said something about 'our powers'. Does that mean there are more of you out there?"

"Of course," she said, like it was something that everyone should know or something.

"What are you?" I said, but she was gone. I found myself saying it to some poor student that had been passing by me. Dammit Konan, way to put me in the most awkward situation when you leave.

"Sorry," I apologized quickly, and then hurried away. I wasn't about to give an explanation.

Student council meetings were probably one of the highlights of my week at this point of the year. For one thing, I got to sit by Sasuke. But that wasn't the only reason. I liked having a voice about what was going on in school. The week that I had confronted Sasuke was also the week that I was supposed to meet with the Dance Committee to decide on a theme for prom. It had been interesting, especially since the committee was mostly underclassmen who wouldn't get to go anyway (plus Tenten).

"Okay guys," I said at the meeting. "The choice of themes we came up with are as follows: black and white, masquerade, Paris, Hollywood, video game... and Princess." I said the last two slowly. Those must have been the themes that some of the freshmen came up with.

Ino, who had been sitting a few chairs away from me, snorted. "So we're definitely not doing the last two."

"Video game would be cool," said a sophomore representative. He was ignored.

"Let's narrow it down to two choices," Sasuke interjected, "and then we can have the student body vote on it." He read each theme while I counted the votes. We ended up picking masquerade or Paris. Because I had been to prom the last time, I had an inkling of what the theme would be.

"Sakura," Sasuke said, "could you set up a voting ballot system that we can have during lunch?" He gave me an apologetic look, but I was in charge of basically everything prom so I wasn't worried. Besides, it wasn't like I wouldn't have help. I was basically in charge of the Dance Committee now, and because of my help with homecoming they loved me.

"Got it," I grinned.

We moved on to other matters that we all voted on. Some of this was actually kind of boring. I had thought that we would get more done in student council than we actually did. A lot of what we discussed had been tabled for next week's meeting.

"That's how it usually is," Sasuke told me after the meeting. "It's a lot of conversation with little result."

"We should try to do something big," I said, "before the year's up."

"You're saying that now, but wait until it gets closer to prom," Sasuke sighed. "It's going to be a lot of work..."

"Are you going to prom?" I asked him. It wasn't until the beginning of May, but I was still curious.

"Only because I have to," he replied. It was true - last year, he didn't want to go either. Who had he gone with? I couldn't remember. I had ended up going with Kiba, which hadn't been bad at first. Then we broke up for good, but it's not like I regretted anything.

"Well, I'm definitely going," I said, "since I'm basically in charge of it."

Sasuke just shook his head. I wondered if I was reminding him of myself again. How weird, I thought, that it was even possible.

Weeks passed, until it was the beginning of February. Student Council had been putting on a fundraiser for prom that involved "candygrams" that students could send to each other for Valentine's Day. I thought it was kind of stupid, but we had gotten a lot of money from it so far.

"I'm surprised," Tenten said, when she was manning the candygram table during lunch one day, "I didn't think anyone would actually want to buy one of these."

"Maybe you'll get one," I winked. Tenten and Neji were still at the "talking" stage of their relationship, even when they were almost two months into it.

She blushed. "I doubt it," she said. "We decided we aren't going to do anything for Valentine's Day, since it's stupid. I don't want to feel obligated to go out for one day in a year." Leave it to Tenten to be stubborn.

It struck me later that day that this would be the first Valentine's Day I would go without dating someone. It made me feel a little weird - had I been so desperate in high school that I couldn't be alone? Anyway, I thought, it certainly wasn't the worst thing I had to worry about.

"What are you doing for Valentine's Day?" I asked Hinata later.

"Naruto won't tell me," she said. We were sitting inside her room the weekend before, writing papers that Kakashi had assigned at the last minute. I guess he realized that he should start preparing us for the AP tests that were coming up. "He says it's a secret."

"Ooh," I grinned, "that sounds romantic."

"I just wish he would give me a hint," she laughed. Hinata and Naruto were such a good couple together. I wondered why I never noticed before the first time around. I guess it was because I had been so preoccupied with myself.

"It's going to be great," I assured her. And it would be. Naruto had told me a few days before that he had made reservations at a nice restaurant in the city for them. He had probably saved up for weeks.

Valentine's Day itself wasn't very exciting. Thankfully, I hadn't been charged with the task of delivering the hundreds of candy-grams (or sorting them out - I pitied the unfortunate students that had to do that), so I went through the day normally. It wasn't until the last period of the day (Calculus, for me) that the candygrams were actually delivered.

"E-excuse me," an underclassman that I had seen in the Yearbook Club meetings opened the door carefully. "I have candygrams..."

Asuma, who had just given us a packet to complete for the day, looked bored. "Get on with it," he said.

To my surprise, I got four of them. Sure, they were just heart-shaped lollipops with a messaged tied to them on pink paper, but I was still flattered. They read:

U R SWEET (Like that was original.)

Have a GREAT Valentine's Day! Love, Your Secret Admirer (just kidding, it's Ino)

Will u be my Valentine (Who was this from, anyway?)

U are an amazing person and i hope ur vday is awesome!

I just read them and laughed. When I was done, I turned to look at Sasuke and froze. His desk was covered with at least twenty-five candygrams.

"Don't. Say. Anything." He said, but it was too late. I had tears in my eyes from the suppressed laughter. Now I remembered. Every year Sasuke always got tons of stuff for Valentine's Day from his many admirers.

"This is great," I said, watching as he shoved the pile of candy into his bag. "You'll have to tell me what they said."

"No way," Sasuke replied.

"You're the only person I've ever heard complain about free candy," I told him, opening the candygram I had gotten from Ino. I had sent her one too, actually. Along with Hinata and Tenten.

"Valentine's Day is just about consumerism." Sasuke said stubbornly. Of course he thought that.

"I prefer to look at it as a day where I can stay inside and eat as much junk food as possible," I told him. It was true, ordering pizza and watching Pride and Prejudice (the one with Keira Knightly) were part of my plans for the night. Hey, I hadn't seen the movie version in awhile, and my parents were obviously going out tonight.

"I'll walk to your car with you," I told Sasuke, under the pretense that I could help protect him from any other admirers. I really just wanted to see if anyone would approach him.

Unfortunately for me, no one did. Maybe I really did scare them off. The only person who talked to us was Naruto, who wanted to ask what he should wear on his date (really, he's hopeless), and that question was more for me.

It wasn't until I was in my pajamas on the couch that evening that I had an idea. Sure, Sasuke was the most wanted guy in the school (at least, for the single girls), but he never said anything about having plans. It was with that logic that I found myself outside his door with a pizza and a bag of candy that my parents had left me (hey, free candy).

"What are you doing?" Sasuke looked at me, probably noting that I hadn't bothered to change out of my pajamas.

"I brought dinner," I grinned. "Now can I please come in? I'm freezing."

He let me in, and he was still staring at me so I continued. "All of our friends are busy tonight, and I got bored."

We sat in the living room, where he had been doing homework - boring. Next to his textbooks was the pile of candygrams he got. I added my candy to the mix, and we spent the rest of the night watching a marathon of an old sitcom and eating the pizza and Valentine's Day candy. It was actually really fun.

"You know," I told him, "you could pretty much date anyone you wanted."

He rolled his eyes. "Not really."

"Oh whatever," I said, "do you see all of this?" I gestured to the pile of heart candies on the table. "Those were only the ones that worked up the nerve to say something."

"I thought I found the right person," he said, "but I was wrong. I don't know if I even want to date anymore before we graduate."

My stomach sank a little, but then I reminded myself that my main goal was to be friends with him. "Do you think so?" I had forgotten that he had said something like this last time. Or chosen to ignore it.

He nodded. "If I did date someone right now, where would it go anyway? I'm going to college in the fall and it wouldn't work anyway."

"You have no faith," I teased, but really I was serious.

"No one here is really my type anyway," he said.

"I bet I could find your type." The words came out before I even thought of what I was saying.

"I'm not like our other friends," he smirked. "You can't just set me up with someone and expect it to work out."

"Are you challenging me?" I put my hand to my heart, like I was offended. "The person who has managed to help practically all of our friends be happy? You don't see any of them around right now, do you? That's because of me!"

He smiled a little. I was glad I could still make him do it. "Fine," he said, "but only because it's amusing."

I felt proud for a second, and then realized what I did. Great, I thought, now he's going to expect me to actually do something. Why couldn't I just keep my big mouth shut? Oh well.

"My parents are going to be back soon," I realized. "I should probably get back. Thanks for letting me hang out with you!"

"No problem," he smirked. "It wasn't like I had anything better to do."

I left him then, thinking that if the circumstances had been a little different that it could have been a date.

Author's Note: I feel like the flow of this chapter could have been better, but there was a lot that I wanted to write about so I'm sorry! I'm still looking for a Beta (which is something I recently put on my profile too!), so please let me know if you're interested. Like I said, even if you aren't that great with grammar it would just be nice to have someone to read over what I have before I publish it, just to give me an idea of what you think and if anything makes sense. Thank you!

Also, I would like to thank GoldenPiggy for reminding me that Valentine's Day was coming up in my story. Sorry if this wasn't exactly the best situation, but I had a lot of fun writing it! As always, please let me know what you think! I really appreciate hearing from you guys! :) I'm trying to update as much as I can too!