Authors Note: FINALLY! Chapter Five, My best friend Sean (ex boyfriend ;-;) will truly be happy now that it has finally come. This chapter is kind of, how do I say it, confusing? Like you all already know, Cloud is a walking talking contradiction. He doesn’t know where his feelings lie, who he trusts and who he doesn’t. Maybe you all go through this, just not knowing yourself completely, well that’s what Cloud is going though. Later on in the story he will be able to finally realize who he is.

Disclaimer: I do not own FFVii. Also, this is a yaoi…so….if you don’t like it you can shove it.
Cherry Soda Boy

Chapter Five: Stalking Is Another Name For Love.

The rest of the day was not that eventful. Seriously, I think I may have almost killed my self with a dull pencil during math. You know, I think people should stop giving me pencils, me and pencils do not work well. To make matters worse, I had no way to get home…safely. Vincent seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth, Cid decided to take a 4 hour lunch break (meaning he left after lunch and never returned) and finally Barrett had a football game at Tottenville High school, leaving me with out any method to get home. I refuse to take the bus alone, since my name seems to be on our neighboring High schools hit list. Now, normally I would not be afraid of this sorry excuses for mortals, but I am too tired to fight…really…I am. So lets look at the other possibilities.

A..Call car service and jump out of the car before he asks you for money.

B..Call mommy who is probably still drunk and will take her about an hour to find the car.

C…which I haven’t thought up yet….

“HEY STRIFE!” That annoying voice calls out to be for like the third freakin time today. Damn what I would do for a pencil right about now. I look in front of me only to see, Reno yelling from the driving side window of a BMW. And just when I thought I couldn’t hate him anymore than I did…

“You seem a little, stranded.” He says almost laughing. My my, how observant he is.

“No…” I say coldly. This only makes him laugh louder.

“Come on I’ll drive you home.”

I raise my eyebrow at the offer, and mentally note option C: Hitch a ride with a Shinra dog. This option is looking rather promising…

“No thank you,” I murmur.

“Come on Strife, stop being a stubborn and get in my car,” He snickers at the dirty thought of me in his car…oh wait…that’s me snickering at the dirty though of being in his car. Damn…I got issues.

“Whatever,” I say getting into the passenger side of his very attractive black BMW…oh…leather seats…

“So, tell me Strife,” Reno finally speaks after about a minute of silence, “What’s up with you and Aeris.”

I sigh, not wanting to talk about HER. Jeez people, let the gossip go man.

“Nothing,” I lie.

“Pffft, you are such a bad liar, now come on, tell Dr. Reno your problems.”

I shoot him a death glare, which causes him to laugh yet again. Dammit, did this boy take happy pills…and if he did can I have some?

“I do not have problems.”

“HA,” he practically screams in my ear, rather annoying, “Please, I saw you staring at her in lab, do not give me your, ‘Oh I have no problems balablabalabal. Come on, I want gossip.”

“Why?”

There is a very long awkward silence, and I can tell he is trying to think up a good excuse…hn, probably doesn’t want me to know that he REALLY wants gossip to use against me in the court of SHINRA! Yeah! I am on to him! Those forest green eyes that you could get lost in….for…hours…DON’T FOOL ME! The smart and cunning Cloud Strife knows all!

Yeah…I am only a little paranoid…

BUT ONLY A LIITLE!

Really….

“Well to be honest…”

See I told you…

“I just want to make conversation…I hate awkward silences…”

…

“And well…I guess I just wanted to talk to you.”

Uh…it is still a trap!

“Why do you want to talk to me?” I say suspiciously, earning a sigh from the red heads soft…pink…lips.

“I don’t know, maybe because there’s no one really to talk to at school,” he responds in a almost “hurt dog,” tone.

“What about…your buddies?”

Besides me using the word “buddies”, another thing disturbs me greatly. Reno’s eyes drastically turned darker, more serious. Now, I haven’t known the boy for very long, but I can tell already I wouldn’t like the “serious Reno.” He just looks so…how do I explain this so everyone in the audience can understand…a cross between Vincent and Sephiroth. And evil, sadistic vampire….yeah that’s it.

Anyway, him looking all, evil sadistic vampire…ish…when I mentioned his “buddies,” hints to be they were not exactly his “buddies” more like people he was supposed to hang around with because he could be severely tortured if he didn’t. I could just be reading to much into it like I do everything…

“They aren’t the kind of people you have a conversation with. Maybe Elena, but…she usually talks about boys and make up and other stupid things girls talk about.”

“She probably gossips,” I shrug.

“Hn, yeah, but it is never anything cool.”

“So, Aeries and my private life is the “coolest” thing ever now?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Then what do you mean?”

There was another long pause coming from the red heads side. He allowed a smile to dance across his lips as he whispers with a slight chuckle, “I guess there really isn’t a point…”

I am about to ask “point to what?” but I opted to keep my mouth shut. I spoke more in this short car ride than I have in my two years of high school…and it was kind of tiring. I lean back into the car, staring out the passenger window, watching the little kids play their little kid games. Wasn’t life easier when we were kids…and we happy just playing with one another regardless of what level of the social ladder you were on. Now, its all about “who knows what people,” and “who has the most money.” God forbid you are a rich girl seen hanging out with a poor boy or visa versa. You’re rep would be destroyed! And the sad thing is, people actually care about their rep…

That was probably the reason Aeries broke up with me. Sure I am richer than God, but my personality is not up to par with what is socially accepted. I am withdrawn, silent, mysterious, strange, weird, a loser. Aeries however is peppy, fun, popular, pretty. See, total opposites. Now I am not about to quote that horrible excuse for punk princess, Avril Lavinge, but she has a point. All her friends got all snotty because I don’t dress in Abercrombie and Finch or whatever all the “cool kids are wearing,”, and thanks to peer pressure she broke up with me. Well, she didn’t exactly break up with me, more like she found someone better and “in style,” and forgot to tell me. At least, that’s what I think it was.

Finally the car stops at the hell hole I call, my house. My house is big, no doubt, big and white. That’s about the only thing I want to say about my house. It is a liar and I do not like talking about liars. It sings “Welcome to a happy home.” Happy home my white ass! Miserable home more like it. Dads never home, Moms never mentally home, and son has on many occasions tried to permanently run away from home. So tell me how this is a happy home, when no one wants to stay here? Oh sure, maybe at one time it was happy, we were all happy.

Or were we? I have no memory of this happiness my house implies is or was there. Maybe if try a little harder I could find the happiness that may have once existed in this dungeon, but as you can plainly see I am not even sure it ever existed…so what is the point of looking?

I swing the door of the black BMW open, still remaining the in seat dreading the thought of home.

“Heh,” Reno laughs, “happy to be home?”

I don’t bother to answer him since he probably meant it sarcastically…but it did get me thinking…how the hell did he know where I lived?

I turn and look at him suspiciously…even more than before, and ask him coldly, “How did you know where I lived?”

He looked at me, the first time in what seemed like forever, and returns the question with an obvious answer, “I live around the block. I saw you last weekend hanging out on the stoop of this house looking insanely bored. I would have said hi or something if I wasn’t with Hojo.”

“Oh…” was all I really could say. The boy has lived around the block from me, and I didn’t even notice? I walk up and down that block every night looking for Sephiroth, and I didn’t even notice him? Am I really that dense? IMPOSSIBLE!

“Okay…bye then.”

I get out of the car, and slam the door before Reno could say anything. I know it seemed a little on the rude side not to thank the kid, but I really just wanted out of that car. Now I can possibly forget about the whole experience. Sure you may be saying I am overreacting since it was a short car ride and not much information was exchanged, however, I guarantee he would have had me talking all about Aeries in only a few more moments. Can’t you tell, he has that aura about him. Despite your best efforts to keep your mouth shut about your problems, he makes you want to tell him because of some slight chance he would understand. Could he possibly understand what I had gone through with her? Or maybe this is just me wanting to tell someone. Even the strongest, most emotionless person can’t hold their pain in together. And for a split second wanted to tell him, but when I turned around, the black BMW with the red head in it was just a memory on this street.

And I was sad…

But only for a second.