-Revenge is Sweeter than You Ever Were-

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-Epilogue-

-Revenge is Sweeter than You Ever Were-

Winter formal was on a Saturday. There were three more days of school the week after and then we were on break. I genuinely felt like crap, for a myriad of reasons, and I convinced my mom to let me stay home that week.

So, I had several days where all I could do was stay in bed and think; process the past few months of my life, take stock of what had changed and what hadn't. I started with myself.

I rolled over in bed and sat up. I had a full-length mirror hanging on my wardrobe directly across from my bed. I looked pretty terrible. My make-up, which I hadn't bothered to take off after the dance, was smudged and smeared. My dark eyeliner mixed with the dark circles under my eyes, from a recent bout of insomnia, and made me look remarkably like a racoon. My hair, which I hadn't combed in a few days was knotted and stuck up at odd angles.

I flung myself back down on my bed, not wanting to see myself as a confused, heartbroken slob any longer.

Aside from my appearance, I took stock of my personality. I had been, for so many years, the invisible girl. No one would ever pick me out of a crowd. Then someone had. Ino, Hinata, and Tenten noticed me and altered my entire sense of self. I was no longer invisible.

I lay in bed, not even checking my phone. What had once been my solace, my sole source of communication and human interaction had turned against me. My Instagram, which contained pictures of books and food, nothing terribly controversial, had been filled with snake comments. I'd voluntarily suspended my twitter because the vitriol was soul crushing. I'd even had to turn on my do not disturb and blocked more numbers than I could count as people somehow got my cellphone number.

But did I regret any of it? Did I regret stepping out of the shadows, where I was safe and anonymous? Did I hate all this negative attention? That last one was an easy yes, but did that negate everything else? I'd been on one crazy adventure, had experiences that I'd never had before and would probably never have again, and despite our occasional friction, I'd made some great friends.

"Look, you have probably guessed what all the school gossip is, so I won't fill you in on that," Ino said rather awkwardly, perched on the end of my bed. It was Monday, the first day back at school after the disastrous Winter Formal, and the three girls had come over to give me my missed work and fill me in on the latest goings-on at school.

It was actually fairly sweet because none of the girls were in the same class as me. So it wasn't like they could just grab an extra copy of the assignments; they actually had to go out of their way to collect my missed work.

"Thank you guys for all of this, really. I just couldn't face – everything," I said, smiling as warmly as I could at the girls.

"It was no problem, really," Tenten spoke, "especially since Hinata got her flirt on with your lab partner." Tenten then ribbed the raven-haired girl playfully. Hinata blushed bright red and buried her head in her hands.

Despite our differences, those girls made all the other crap worth it. For the first time in my entire life, basically, I had friends. So no, I didn't regret that part.

And my mom had turned her life around, in some small part I think, because of me. Either because she saw me going down a similar path as she was and didn't want her fate to be mine or because she saw her younger, supposedly less mature daughter standing up for her. Either way, my mom was eating far more frosting on cakes and less straight from the spoon.

What I did regret was Sasuke and what we'd done to him. He may have started off as a terrible person. In the end though, at least to me, he was just a flawed, immature boy. He was a pig, a cow, a myriad other names, but he was also sweet and hurting and damaged.

I just hope we hadn't done anything irreparable…

It wasn't until January, after winter break, that I finally returned to school and saw exactly what I'd done…

The girls and I decided that a united front, that walking in to school together on Monday after the break, would be the best way to go about it all. So, Hinata, Ino, Tenten, and I met at my house, as it was closest to school, and walked the two blocks together, light chatter passing between us. When we arrived in front of the school, we linked our arms and walked into the building with our heads held high.

As we moved through the hall, stopping at each person's locker and then moving on to the next, the students we passed turned and looked at us; they whispered behind their hands and stared us down, but no one came up to us. Being with friends, it was easier to withstand the staring and whispering. I knew that, no matter what those people said, I would have people who supported me.

Unfortunately, because none of us had class together, we did eventually have to split up. With a meaningful look at each other that expressed our desire for each other to stay strong, we each went our separate ways to our separate classes. Hopefully, if I kept my head down, a well-practiced skill of mine, I wouldn't be noticed too much. For once, I actually wanted to be invisible.

Luckily, it seemed like the three days I didn't go to school and the two-week break had dampened people's anger and outrage. People whispered, but they'd been doing that around me for months, almost since I'd arrived at this school. It was almost like a comforting background noise.

I made it through most of the day without incident. I ate lunch with the girls and the classes were too well structured for anything besides learning to happen. I was floating as I walked towards my chemistry class, having lasted almost an entire day.

Then, the world came crashing down on me, or rather, I came crashing down on the world.

Apparently, I didn't pay attention to where I was going as I floated and I'd run into a brick wall, or a man resembling a brick wall. Then I'd ended up sprawled on the floor.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Sasuke's voice asked me. I must have hit my head when I'd fallen because everything was swimming slightly.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Sorry about running in to you and everything." I responded, trying not to look Sasuke in the eye. This was not something I needed today.

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke said, his tone unsure and a little awkward. "I just want to make sure you're fine." Sasuke then extended his hand and he helped me up. Once I was standing, he didn't immediately let go of my hand. Instead, he used it to hold me close and look into my eyes.

I was pretty sure he was checking to see if I'd had a concussion or something, but it felt extremely intimate. I couldn't help but blush as we stood there and, as my face reddened, a shimmering warmth spread through Sasuke's eyes. It was only a moment and then he dropped my hands, but it was still a very powerful moment.

Maybe I haven't totally messed things up…

The End