Author's Note: Hello again, everyone! I've been on sort of a writing spree this week and I hope you enjoy this chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it. I would like to apologize for writing long chapters where there's not a lot of plot development - this one is mostly just fluff - but it's going to start picking up more in the next few chapters and I'm really excited to share them with you! Please tell me if you see any huge inconsistencies/grammatical errors/spelling. I've been re-reading these myself before I post them, so they might not exactly be perfect. Hopefully that won't get in the way of the story!
Thank you everyone for the kind reviews, I'm glad you like my story. :) Please let me know what you think about this chapter!
I sit next to Ino, fuming. We're at the homecoming dance my senior year, and my boyfriend Kiba was flirting with some sophomore girls, completely ignoring his actual girlfriend. We had just gotten into an argument and that was how he was handling it - by trying to make me jealous, I guess.
"Why didn't I just realize that he was a jerk?" I complain to my friend, who has sympathetically left her date (Shikamaru) to come console me. "He's always so great when he wants to be."
"You're better off without him." Ino insists. "I don't know why you dated him anyway. He's so not your type."
"He's cute." I say, probably sounding like an idiot.
"I know," Ino squeezes my hand, "but that's not enough to fix the fact that he's an ass." Ino was the first of my friends, besides Sasuke, to make note of her disapproval of my relationship with Kiba.
A tear escapes my eye and I quickly wipe it away. I was already embarrassed enough, I didn't want anyone to see me cry. I never cried.
"What's wrong?" I hear Sasuke's voice. I'm surprised - I thought that he was only staying long enough to make an appearance since he was Student Body President. Sasuke actually hated dances.
"I thought you said you were leaving," I look up at him, still looking great in his formal clothes. From afar, I can see other girls staring. I hoped they didn't see how red my eyes probably were.
"Ino texted me," he replies, looking concerned. "Come on, let's get out of here for a minute." He offers me his hand and I take it.
"Take care of her," Ino says to him. There's something in her eyes that makes me think that she knows something I don't. Before I can ask her though, Sasuke leads me away out of the school gymnasium.
Once we're outside, he takes me to a bench and has me sit down. I feel numb, just following what he's telling me to do. Tonight was going terrible, I thought, how would I ever face the humiliation of what Kiba did to me?
"Do you want to talk about it?" Sasuke asks. "What happened?" Despite his demeanor, Sasuke was always nice to me. I was so lucky to have a friend who cared that much.
I shake my head. "It's stupid," I say. "I'm stupid for thinking that Kiba would change. You saw him. Everyone saw what happened!"
"You're not stupid," Sasuke says darkly. I can tell he's angry. "Don't say that about yourself. The only stupid person is Kiba."
"Thanks," I reply, looking down. " I think I'm more angry because he's ruining my night. I wanted to have fun! This is my last time to go to homecoming... I guess I just wanted it to be perfect."
"Nothing's perfect," he says, "but it's still salvageable."
To my surprise, and dismay, the tears start falling down my face, probably ruining my makeup. "Great," I tilt my head up and blink a few times, trying to get them to stop. That was my coping technique if my emotions got too out of control. "Now it's even worse."
Sasuke says nothing, just pulls me to him, and suddenly I'm embracing him and crying into his dress clothes. He was the only person, besides my parents, who saw me cry. Even though we were just friends, I had never been closer to anyone.
He waits patiently until the crying subsides. Still embarrassed, I look up at him. "I ruined your shirt," I point out. "I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about that." Sasuke says. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," I admit, although this wasn't how I thought I would be spending homecoming. "How bad does my face look?"
"You look fine," he says, but I don't believe him.
"Liar," I accuse, but a quick check with my makeup mirror confirms that most of my makeup is still intact. "Oh... you were right." I wipe the bottom of my eyes and it doesn't even look like I had been crying. I take a deep breath.
"Do you want to go back inside?" He asks.
"I thought you were leaving." To my surprise, I laugh. Everyone knew that Sasuke hated dancing, even though he wasn't bad at it. I knew that because of all the times I had made him dance with me anyway.
"I can stay," he shrugs. "Or we can get out of here."
Part of me wants to run away, but the other part - the part that's feeling better from crying - just wants to have fun. "Let's go back in," I decide, "but dibs on you for my dance partner for the rest of the night."
"That won't be a problem," Sasuke assures me. Then, he takes my hand and we walk back inside the building.
There's a slow song on and I can see Ino and Shikamaru dancing nearby. Ino winks at us from her position on the dance floor. I don't see Kiba anywhere, but I don't care anymore, to my surprise. I embrace Sasuke and we start to dance. It's comforting, feeling the weight of his arms around me. I didn't know why, but I missed it for some reason.
"Thanks for doing this," I say. It's easy to talk during a slow dance. We did it every time.
He shrugs. "Only for you." The feeling of anguish that I had gotten from seeing Kiba flirt with the other girls intensifies suddenly. I look at Sasuke, and I feel pain. Why do I miss him so much? He's right in front of me.
"What's the matter?" He sounds concerned again.
"I miss you." I say, and every illusion of this being real shatters. "I miss you so much, Sasuke."
"I'm right here," he insists. He carefully brushes a lock of hair from my face. My face burns where he touches it. "I've been here this whole time."
The next day, after my friends went home, I spent the morning finishing up some homework and prom-planning for the Student Council meeting the next week. We almost had everything in order and I was starting to get excited. Despite the debauchery of last night (could I even call it that, really?) my friends and I had gotten all of our plans in order.
I thought about the game of Truth or Dare, and wondered if I had done something good by getting Tenten and Ino to be friends. They really were like-minded when they worked together, it was kind of scary. Still, I was happy that they had finally reconciled - or, at least, that Tenten had stopped being so territorial over her friends.
My parents were going to be out of town until Sunday afternoon, so I was by myself that day. After my homework, I ended up cleaning up my room and then the rest of the house. I even skimmed through a few of my favorite parts of Pride and Prejudice. Finally, I had to admit to myself that I was bored. Once I had finished everything, I realized that I was kind of lonely too. All morning, I had been working hard to forget about the dream I had last night. It had been one of those dreams where I had to wipe the tears out of my eyes when I woke up before anyone else saw them. I missed Sasuke and I didn't want to be sad about it.
An idea came to mind. Why didn't I just go see him? After all, he had said that he we would see each other today - there was no time specified, although I had said I would bring him dinner. I just really wanted to see him, honestly.
That was how I ended up at the door of Sasuke's house.
"Hey," Sasuke answered the door, still wearing pajama pants to my surprise. It looked like he had been up late, which wasn't like him. "Is it evening already?" He checked the time on his phone. Had he just woken up? That wasn't like him - it was already noon.
"My parents are out of town and I'm bored," I admitted. "Is this a bad time?" After the dream I had, seeing him in person made me feel ten times better. The feeling of despair and anguish subsided when I saw him. I didn't want to know what would happen if I had to leave.
"No," he stifled a yawn. His hair was still messy from sleep, but it actually still looked great. "You can come in."
I walked inside his house, feeling relieved and surreal. "Sorry I don't have food," I apologized, "but I figured we could just get it later. You know, since we agreed on dinner."
He smirked at me. "I'm glad you remembered. Especially after all I did for you last night."
"I'm sorry for what happened last night," I said, "but you really helped me out. Truth or Dare is serious business." Especially when you were playing with Tenten, who actually had rules.
He snorted. "I didn't realize how serious it was."
"You don't know how intense Tenten and Ino are together," I laughed. Thankfully, last night's events didn't make things too awkward between us. It just seemed like he thought it was funny.
"Sorry about the mess," he acknowledged the pile of blankets that were on the floor of his living room. "Naruto stayed over last night. He's actually coming over later this evening too." That's right, Hinata was doing a family thing today and would be out of town for the rest of the weekend.
"Looks fine to me," I sat down beside him on the couch. My house would have looked messy too if I hadn't been cleaning so fervently all morning. "What have you been doing today?"
"I just woke up," he admitted. I knew it!
"How late were you guys up anyway?" I was curious.
He shrugged. "I didn't keep track of time. I haven't seen Naruto in a while, so we were mostly just hanging out."
I nodded. "We had a pretty eventful night besides... you know... I know what we're doing for prom now!" I said brightly.
"Really?" He looked dubious. "So I'm guessing that you found my prom date?" Something in the way he said that made me feel like he was just trying to catch me in the act. He really didn't think I was going to find anyone.
"Actually, yes," I replied haughtily, "but you'll have to wait until prom to find out, because it's a surprise." That was part of the plan I had come up with last night.
"Is there a reason why I'm not allowed to know now?" He was smirking like had everything figured out.
"Yes," I shrugged. I was scared that he would reject the idea I had in mind outright, without giving it a chance.
Sasuke just sighed. "You don't have to do this, you know." He met my eyes, and I caught my breath. "It's not like I was even looking for a date to prom in the first place. You know I'm just going because I'm Student Body President."
"I know," I rolled my eyes, "and you hate dancing anyway." Still, I was glad he was humoring me. I would have expected him to shut the challenge down completely. I looked around the room, and then focused on Sasuke. "What do you usually do on Saturdays?" I hadn't spent the day with him since the week during Christmas break with him and Naruto.
He shrugged. "I usually get my homework done. Sometimes Naruto comes over. Oh, and I work on student council planning."
"Don't you relax?" I complained. "Read a book for fun or anything?"
"I've had to work this hard," he said, "because I want to go to Harvard. My father always told me that I wouldn't go far if I didn't work for it." That was the first time he had talked about his parents to me after he had forgotten me.
"You've worked really hard," I agreed. "Now we need to have some fun."
"I think you've had enough fun," he smirked.
"Hey!" I argued. "That wasn't my idea!"
"I don't think I've ever met anyone who has the audacity that you do." Sasuke laughed. The sound of his laugh elated me.
"Get used to it, Uchiha," I replied, "because now you're basically stuck with me." Until graduation, that is.
"Oh, great." He said, but he was still smiling.
"Go get dressed," I ordered. "We're going to do something today whether you like it or not." Where was this bossiness coming from?
Sasuke just rolled his eyes, but he stood up anyway and went to his room to change. Today was going better than I thought it would, especially since Sasuke seemed like he actually wanted to be around me. I really had come far from the beginning of last semester.
He came back a few minutes later, dressed in jeans and a grey t-shirt. His hair was still a little messy, but I still thought it looked good on him. It kind of made me want to run my fingers through it. "Where are we going?" He said.
"Why don't we get coffee first?" I suggested. "I think you just need to get out." I definitely did.
"Okay," he agreed. I could tell he was still a little groggy from staying up so late.
Going to the coffee shop we had frequented before was a good idea, I decided. Sasuke perked up a little after getting some caffeine into him. I was still a little surprised that he had been so willing to spend time with me that day. I wasn't sure, but it felt like something had changed about him, I just couldn't put my finger on it.
It was almost like it had been all those times when he still remembered me. I even managed to make him laugh a few more times. Being able to just talk to him meant so much to me. Just talking to Sasuke was something great in itself.
"How have you been lately?" Sasuke asked, at one point once he was more awake. "You've seemed stressed this week." Was it that obvious to everyone?
"I'm okay," I stirred my latte, thinking about what I should say next. "I am stressed about graduation, and what's going to happen afterwards, but isn't everybody? I don't even know what college I'm going to yet." I tried to play it off like it was something normal.
"Everyone is stressed," Sasuke said. "That was a pointless question."
"It wasn't pointless," I disagreed. "Just observant."
After that, we walked around the shops nearby. Sasuke didn't seem too interested in going back to his house yet, and I wasn't either. We wandered around a used book store, where I found a vintage copy of Pride and Prejudice that I considered buying for at least fifteen minutes until I realized that I didn't have much money on me.
"Dammit," I said. "I love this book."
"Do you read anything else?" Sasuke asked. He knew that I was obsessed from the countless times he had seen me rereading the book in class. "Don't you ever get tired of Pride and Prejudice?"
"It's not just a book," I insisted. "It's comforting. I know these characters so well by now..." I trailed off, realizing that I had been using the book as sort of an emotional crutch. I guess that was another coping mechanism for what I had been going through. Of course, I had really just loved it to begin with. "Also, I just realize that I read it all the time when I'm stressed out," I admitted.
"So you've been stressed out this whole year?" Sasuke looked skeptical.
"Maybe it's just been a tough year, Uchiha." I said, without thinking.
He eyed me for a second, but decided not to pursue the conversation any further. I ended up straying from my beloved copy (having realized that I would never be able to afford it) and looked at some other vintage-looking books instead.
We continued to walk around that area for about another hour, still carrying on a conversation. I couldn't help but think that this could definitely have been a date, but I still couldn't tell if he felt the same way about me. He was definitely more interested in hanging out with me, but Sasuke was like that with all of his friends once he got to know them. At least, he was with Naruto. How could I be sure I wasn't just some female version of Naruto for him?
That being said, it was still worth it.
"What do you guys want for dinner?" I asked Sasuke and Naruto that evening. Naruto had just come over to Sasuke's, complaining that he was hungry. "I'm buying."
"Wow, really?!" Naruto exclaimed. "Can we have ramen, Sakura?"
"We're not having ramen, Naruto." Sasuke said. "We had that last night."
"I know!" Naruto argued. "It was good!"
"What if I just order a pizza?" I suggested. "Or would you rather have something a little nicer?" We were sitting in the living room - Naruto had reassumed his place in the pile of blankets on the floor, which left Sasuke and me on the couch again.
"Pizza's fine," Sasuke was watching Naruto flip through stations on the TV.
I ordered our dinner while Naruto and Sasuke found a movie for us to watch. This was what they usually did when they hung out on the weekend, Sasuke had admitted to me. With everything that they had to do during the week, it was nice to just sit down for a little while. I knew that, of course. I used to be the person he hung out with. Of course, when we were friends before I would drag him to parties with me more often.
I had a good time hanging out with the two of them. Back when everything had been normal, we used to hang out a lot more. I actually missed Naruto's company more than I thought, I guess I took it for granted when we were better friends.
Naruto and Sasuke had decided on a horror movie that they hadn't seen yet. I wasn't big on horror movies, but I was used to it when we used to hang out together. I didn't get too scared usually, but I stole a blanket from the floor and hid my face in it every once in a while during the really intense parts. Sometimes when I looked up I would see Sasuke smirking at me, which would just make me want to hide my face again for different reasons.
After that movie, they picked out another and then another. Suddenly I realized that it had gotten pretty late - it was a little after midnight. I thought about going home, but no one had said anything and I wasn't ready to leave Sasuke yet. Part of me was too scared to go back to sleep. I wasn't sure if I could handle another nightmare, or dream where everything was okay.
So I stayed longer, and it wasn't until I was being gently shaken awake that I realized that I had accidentally fallen asleep.
"H-hey," I yawned, still feeling half asleep. I opened my eyes slowly, wincing, and looked around. "What time is it?"
"It's about four in the morning," Sasuke said. He was way closer than I had thought. I suddenly realized that I had been leaning against him in my sleep. My face went hot.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled, shifting around so I was facing him. "I didn't mean to fall asleep..." I looked over at Naruto, who was snoring lightly on the floor.
"I meant to wake you up after the last movie ended," Sasuke replied. To my surprise, he was smiling a little. "That didn't work, obviously. I fell asleep too. I didn't want to move you, you seemed like you needed the sleep." Had I fallen asleep on him? How did that happen?
"I guess I did," I shrugged, still feeling groggy. "I've been having nightmares lately."
"How long has that been happening?" He asked, looking a little concerned.
"Since the beginning of last semester," I confessed. "It's okay, they come and go... I had one last night though. It wasn't really a nightmare, but it ended up being worse, in a way."
I expected him to not have anything to say about that. Instead, he nodded. "I've been having those too lately. Maybe it's just a stress thing."
"Probably," I agreed. "What are you having nightmares about? If you don't mind me asking."
"It's hard to explain," he said. "Do you remember the friend I used to have, the one that I told you about?" I felt my breath catch. All of a sudden, I was more alert.
"Yeah," I replied. "I do."
"They've mostly been about her," Sasuke looked distracted, "but the thing is, I can't remember much when the dreams are over... Sometimes I don't know if she was even real. It's the strangest thing." He was more talkative now, I realized, when he had just woken up.
I am real, I wanted to say, I'm here, Sasuke. Instead, I placed my hand on his. "She's real," I said. "Maybe it's just been too long or something." I knew that was a lame response, but I was worried about saying any more. I didn't know how strong the magic was, even if he was breaking through a little.
"I hope so," he said earnestly. "She was my best friend... I loved her." I hadn't been expecting that part, and it hit me like a punch in the stomach. Sasuke must have been really out of it if he was saying this kind of stuff to me.
"I should probably go," I said, my voice was still hushed because I was worried that we would wake up Naruto. That didn't seem to be a problem yet, though. He was still sound asleep in his make-shift bed.
"You can stay if you want," Sasuke said. "If you don't want to drive back home this late. You could have my room, if you don't want to sleep in here with us." He honestly looked like he was about to pass out. Sasuke really needed more sleep.
I thought about it. I was still feeling drowsy and emotional. I wasn't sure if I felt comfortable driving home that late. "Okay," I agreed. "I'll stay, but I am going into the other room... no offense." I wasn't sure if I could handle being so close to Sasuke when I was sleeping right now, not after what he had said.
"I understand," Sasuke nodded. "You can borrow some clothes if you want something else to sleep in. I'll see you in the morning." Those last few words were mumbled as he put his head back on the couch pillow and promptly fell back asleep.
I walked to his room, feeling dizzy. I hadn't been in Sasuke's room ever since we had been friends and it was exactly like I had remembered - minimalistic and clean, with an MVP trophy from the football team on his desk. The only thing that was missing were the pictures of Sasuke and his friends that I had painstakingly made for him our sophomore year in high school in an attempt to brighten his room up a little.
I changed into one of his shirts and a pair of pajama pants that I had to roll up a few times so I wasn't tripping over them. Then, I crawled into his bed. It smelled like him, and made me want to cry all over again. He still loved me. He just didn't know it was me. Those thoughts ran through my mind until I finally passed out.
The next morning, Sasuke didn't seem to remember much from our late-night talk besides inviting me to stay over instead of driving back home so late. I was glad, because I wasn't sure if I was ready to talk about his "friend" anymore for a while at least.
"Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys all day." I said, before I left around noon. Naruto was still fast asleep on the floor, completely unaware.
"It's no problem, Haruno." Sasuke answered. "I hope that you got enough sleep."
"I should be saying that to you," I laughed. "Anyway, I'll see you on Monday!" I wanted to get back before my parents got home.
I spent the rest of the day doing some more prom planning and spending a lot of time on the phone with Ino, who wanted to know all about my "date" with Sasuke.
"Stop calling it that," I said. "We were just hanging out."
"It was totally a date," she insisted. "Shikamaru and I have been arguing about this all day."
I debated about whether if I should tell her about the sleepover or not, just in case she got the wrong idea. I ended up telling her. "Don't get the wrong idea," I warned. "We just fell asleep. Naruto was there the whole time."
"He totally loves you!" Ino shrieked through the phone. "Sasuke would never let anyone do that! He didn't even let Karin into his room when they were dating."
"Really?" That surprised me. I guess I was just so used to being allowed in there that it never crossed my mind.
"Yes," she sounded serious. "This is a big step for him... just wait until I tell Shikamaru that I was right!"
"Ino!" I shouted, but she had already hung up on me. I sighed, and flopped back down on my bed. Did it really matter if Shikamaru knew? Apparently everyone in school knew that I liked Sasuke already. It was only a matter of time before the whole world knew.