Out of Time (part 2 of 7)

a Sailor Moon fanfiction by Lara

Back to Part 1
DISCOVERINGS 	 

The class was crowded and noisy, and even though someone was talking 
to her,  she was somewhere else, though her mind still couldn't figure 
out where. "...and so, what do you think?" 

Minako opened her mouth realizing she didn't have any idea what he was  
talking about, and could only mumble "huhh?" 

"what do you think about going to the movies tomorrow, you know, is 
Friday,  and we can go anywhere else after that, it doesn't matter if 
it gets late" 

'He is cute' she thought... 'for a picture, but not for a date, and   
definitely not for me'. 

"No, I have plans, sorry" she said, and he walked away, like someone 
that got  caught on the bus without a ticket and sees the guard coming 
for him.  

"I thought that you liked him, you said he was cute the other day, are 
you  ok Mina?"  Ami could notice that something was bothering her 
blonde friend.  

"Yes, I've just been feeling an emptiness in those dates that I'm not 
even  interested in, I don't know why I go sometimes, I'm gonna give 
myself a break  this weekend. Don't worry, must be a teenage thing 
Ami, think I'll go shopping  or something..." 

"Ok, you can stop at my house any time if you want, though you know 
I'll be  studying", after saying that she decided not to ask Mina any 
more questions.  

'I know what you mean' she thought, 'I'm not too interested in any 
dates either,  but my reasons are probably different. I'm in love with 
Mako-chan, and I'm  terrified to talk about it, so I hide behind my 
books and put my energies  on my future career...if it wasn't for 
that...I would explode.' 

"Come on Ami, give yourself a break too, let the books cool down this 
weekend,  you're gonna burn them if you don't put them on the 
bookshelf once in a while"  Makoto gave a big smile to her and sat on 
her desk taking the book from Ami's  hands, whose face was turning red 
with a growing blush. "I'll make a nice dinner tomorrow night, do you 
all wanna come?" 

Usagi was lost in her own thoughts for a moment, and then she said  
"As much as I hate to turn one of your meals down, I have a date with 
Darien  tomorrow, and I promised him we would be alone, I guess we 
need that, he's a  college guy, you know, and he'll get tired of all 
this hunging around together  all the time" 

"fantasize about someone is one thing, but reality is different, I 
guess that  it surprises us in a good way sometimes..." and with a sad 
look in her eyes  Mina added "...or it disappoints us others..." 

The bell cut through the moment like a knife, and suddenly everybody 
was moving, picking up books, bags, and pushing each other to the 
hallway. Chibi  Usa  ran towards the senshi group and started blabbing 
about her new teacher,  and her classmates, and Hotaru, and with her 
energy broke the worried glances  the girls were giving to Mina, that 
suddenly cheared up like she always used  to, in part not to worry her 
friends with something she herself couldn't explain. 

On the way home, she decided to go for a walk, she needed to be alone 
for a  while, and didn't want to give any explanations. Her mom could 
be too nosy  sometimes, and she wanted to avoid conflicts this time.  

The street had a thin cover of ice, probably from the night before, 
and  only a few patches of snow here and there. The wind burnt with a 
cold touch  in her face and her legs regret the short skirt of the 
school uniform;  closing her jacket in a tight embrace she felt deeply 
lonely for the first  time. Her eyes were focused on her steps, 
carefully dodging the ice patches  the winter placed randomly during 
the night, and as she couldn't see someone  coming in front of her, 
she bumped into Setsuna Meioh with enough force to  drop both of them 
clumsily on the floor. 

Setsuna fell over melted snow,  and her skirt was soaked and rapidly 
freezing on her back. Even though in  other circumstances she would 
have died of embarrassment, this took her by  surprise, and she 
couldn't help it and laughed, but her laughter soon fade  away when 
she saw the girl in front of her crying. Her formal self came  back 
for a moment  

"Are you alright? ..."  

But for some reason the vision of Minako sitting in the snow, shedding  
tears with a soundless sorrow, pushed a needle in her  heart, and she 
got up on her knees and hold her.

Onwards to Part 3


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