She hated this. Sitting in her car, idling outside the one house she never wanted to be around, waiting on the one person she wanted to take and hide away forever. He shouldn’t be here again. Haku deserved so much better than whatever was going on, but the words died on her tongue every time she went to speak them.
It wasn’t her place. Her friendship with Haku was born from other things and this had always been something they didn’t talk about. Sakura already knew more than he wanted her to know, which still wasn’t much, and she already realized that he struggled with asking more of her. That he reached out this time was unprecedented; Sakura couldn’t risk him never doing so again.
I’m outside. The text took a second to send, her signal low in the area. The radio was off and Sakura tossed her phone in the cup holder, tapping her nails on the steering wheel. Nothing would draw her attention enough to help time pass any quicker. She knew from experience that waiting to hear from Haku while he was with him never worked out well for her. Better to stare out the windshield and look at the street.
Such an innocuous neighborhood considering what little she actually knew. The lawns were well kept, though some seeming a week overdue for a cut. Quaint colors and decent landscaping that boasting a small amount of pride the homeowners put into their oasis. The asphalt on the street was in good condition, absent of any holes and cracks that came with the heat spikes in summer and the little row of mailboxes along one side was almost cute.
She snatched up her phone to see that he read the text and turned just in time to see him walk outside.
Unlocking the door was easy; keeping her mouth shut was not.
“Are you hungry?” she finally asked, breaking the silence after twelve minutes of driving. “I didn’t get a chance to go grocery shopping yet, so I was thinking we could hit that new burger place that opened up?”
Her stomach churned. If he said yes, things were okay. If he said no, she would learn something new.
In this situation, Sakura never wanted to learn something new.