Chapter Text
“Hey, do you think we’ll always be friends?”
“Are you stupid? Of course we’ll stay friends!”
“It’s just... you’re moving far away, and - “
“Don’t worry about it too much, okay?”
A pause.
“....if you want, you could write me some letters?”
“Really?! You won’t throw them away, will you?”
“What? No! I’ll treasure them, promise!”
“...pinky promise?”
“Pinky promise!”
________________________________________
Jade eyes pulled open slowly, fingers questing to shut off an impatient alarm clock, and Sakura allowed the light coming through the tiny cracks of her blinds and thin curtains beside her bed to wake her gently. In the early morning, the particles of dust looked like flecks of gold, and she couldn’t help but quietly look on, feeling caught in a snare of some spell as her dream whispered through her head. She can’t remember all of it, only a small conversation, an important promise being made, but she can’t help but smile at the memory.
It had been warm.
After a moment, a deep inhale, she shuts her eyes, shuts them tight, and even balls her fists up against them. She waits, watches as the darkness sparks shapes of white against black, a kaleidoscope in shades of silver and gray, and finally drops her hands away. Her eyelashes flutter, opening to look again, and she watches the spots behind her eyelids turn into stars.
Watches them dance with the gold dust floating, ethereal, in the early morning sunshine.
She really doesn’t want to pull herself up from bed, from the soft and comfortable cotton sheets, but glancing at the clock, - at the bright red 8:13, - she realizes that she’ll have to if she wants to make her nine o'clock class. And with that thought, as if seeing the time, the spell breaks and the world outside her window presses in against the glass. The dull hum of traffic outside her apartment seems to grow louder, like a beast awakening from slumber.
Sakura huffed and got up with a quiet grumble to set up her kettle and to take a shower.
Memories are pushed aside this morning; just as they usually are.
________________________________________
“Come on forehead, you can’t be serious?”
Sakura let out a sigh, long and tired, and pushed aside her schoolwork to rest her chin in her hand, elbow pressed against worn wood. She was trying to ignore the growing headache the textbooks were starting to give her, and while she loved Ino to a fault, her voice, loud and raucous, was not helping her at all. Her eyes look out at the quiet library, from the cornor she'd sequestered herself in, away from the roving eyes of the librarian. She could see fellow students studying, could see groups of them quietly talking or laughing. Overall, it had been peaceful.
Until Ino had called, of course.
“No, Ino.”
“Are you that socially inept? Because I raised you better than that. “
Sakura can already feel herself rolling her eyes, shutting them against the bright glare of the lamp tilted a little too high for her liking, and she adjusted it down with a quick hand. “Just because I want to stay in and study for my test on Monday? Forgive me for giving a damn about my education.”
“No, because that’s all you seem to do! You can study Sunday if you need to so bad, but I am going to take you out to a nice bar or out clubbing and we’re gonna have some fun!”
Sakura could honestly not understand what was so important about going out, getting pissed drunk, and then stumbling home with her heels in her one hand and a chattery, and equally drunk, Ino in the other. She had done it plenty of times, but it seemed it wasn’t enough for dear Ino and Sakura really didn’t want to have any part in it. Especially if she would be curled up in bed the following morning with a horrible taste in her mouth and a hangover from hell.
“Why is this so important, Ino? You know I’m swamped with my schoolwork, my extra classes, and my test next week. We can always go drinking, but my test? Can’t really push that off, you know.”
“I know that, billboard brow, but it’s because you’ve been so stressed out that I’m wanting to take you out. You’re near ready to tear your own hair out! And I know you’re pulling on it, so stop that before you go bald!”
Sakura froze where she sat, blinking at she realized she had been doing exactly that, leaning into the phone with her other hand moving to tug gently at her pink hair. She felt embarrassment rush up, warm and bright and unpleasant, and proceeded to set her hand quite pointedly down. She said nothing in response to Ino, but the blonde was one step ahead of her and gave a very proud sounding ‘humph’ before continuing.
“Come on, Sakura. It’ll be fun! I’m gonna drag the other girls with us too! I’ll even get Hinata!”
“You sure? Ever since her and Naruto got together, it’s been impossible just to get them away from each other.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me. It sickens me with how sweet they are sometimes. Gag me with a spoon.” Ino groaned on the other end, and Sakura could already picture the pinched expression on her pretty face.
Sakura snorted at the mental image.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get it figured out. Threaten Naruto for me a bit, and it shouldn’t be a problem. He can go have a guy night or something with Kiba and the others.”
Sakura hummed in consideration. She honestly didn’t want to go, but it did always ended up being fun with Ino in a ‘I regret my life choices’ sort of way afterward. And her school work really wasn’t going to go any where. She had the rest of the weekend, she could do it, right? It was a precarious sort of decision, but she knew which one she would choose without much more deliberating. She'd really had been stressed out recently, and maybe getting shit-faced with some of her friends would help.
“Alright, fine, but - “
“Fuck yeah! Don’t worry, it’ll be great and you’ll be thanking me for the next few weeks how awesome I am! We’ll see you tomorrow night then!” Ino chattered off into her ear, cutting off Sakura as easily as breathing, and hung up the phone.
Sakura was left, mouth hanging open, with a silent phone in her hand.