Disclaimer: It's been a while, I'm in college now, haha. I should technically be doing anything else besides this, but it's kind of stressful, so I'm letting off some steam by writing.

Before I write this, I feel like I should clarify that I have never had a boyfriend before, so I'm really basing this chapter loosely on a friendship I had a few years back. Hope you guys enjoy. 

Anyway, I do not own Naruto or Town of Salem (which yes, I do play).

Sam, I hope you're feeling okay. I worry about you constantly...even on good days. Although, the good days I usually worry about what trouble you got into...(just kidding)

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It's a beautiful October day; the leaves in the trees outside are either a beautiful shade of orange, red, or yellow. The air outside was crisp and cool, perfect for reading a book or eating s'mores by a fire. Honestly, I was debating going outside instead of letting myself be trapped within the house, but one thing was stopping me.

"Are you sure you don't want to go with me?" Sasori asked. I turned to face him. We were both on the couch in the living room. He had been playing on his phone for the past three hours while I did homework.

"No, I, uh, have a lot of homework. You know college, it's a pain," I lied.

Well, it wasn't a lie. College was a lot of work, and I was fairly behind in notes. I just wasn't planning on catching up this weekend. After high school ended, I got a pretty decent sized scholarship to Konoha College, so I never left the area. Yet...I began to procrastinate when I entered college.

"You can't even take a two hour break to go to this lecture with me?" Sasori asked, looking up from his phone.

"I mean, it's not like I can't take a break, I just...well...um," I struggled to find the words. Luckily, my best friend just happened to still be in the house.

"She would rather play Town of Salem than go to a f**king boring a** lecture with you," Sam said, sitting between Sasori and I. Sasori scowled at Sam, going back to his phone.

"I thought the last one we went to together was fairly interesting," Sasori retorted.

"Sasori, I'm glad that you have something that you like, but I really just am not that into it," I said.

Really, though, that wasn't the only reason. Sure, the art lectures were kind of boring, I would rather play Town of Salem, and I really did need to get homework done, but there was actually one reason above everything else about why I didn't want to go.

"Plus, I mean, isn't it awkward to ask your ex-girlfriend to go with you to something that can be perceived as a date?" Sam asked.

Just like that, everything was quiet. I stopped writing my paper, and Sasori even put his phone away before standing up. I made a point to stare at my paper, but out of the corner of my eye, I could see him glance at me. I felt that he wanted to say something, but he just left the room without looking back. It was silent for another minute before Sam moved over to Sasori's spot and I resumed writing my paper.

"Geez, you two still haven't settled everything yet," Sam remarked.

"What's to settle? We both realized it wasn't working out, so we called it off," I lied.

"Really? So, you can say, for a fact, that it was mutual?" Sam asked. I sighed.

"Sam, I just don't want to talk about it right now, okay?"

"Are you sure? It's been about a month-"

"Yeah, I, uh, really just need to, you know, get back to my assignments," I said, cutting her off.

There was no one else in the house. Pein and Konan were on a date, all three of the Uchiha boys were at a family gathering, and everyone else was off doing whatever. Sam would usually be hanging with Itachi or Shisui, but she stopped doing that this month. I feel like every time I choose to stay home, so does Sam. I think she's concerned about me, or something.

"Hey...I'm sorry for trying to bring it up. Would you feel better after playing a match of Town of Salem?" Sam asked, smiling tentatively at me.

I stared at my paper. This thing was due in two weeks, and I knew that if I didn't start on it now, I would most likely not do it until the night before. The smart, responsible thing to do would, of course, be to start on my paper. To not have a life, be antisocial, and have at least three existential crises a day because I am forced to do homework that I see no point in doing. Just like high school. All over again.

"Yeah, actually, that sounds great."

*one hour later*

"Argh! Why do I suck at this?" I complained, leaning back in my chair. I could hear Sam's laughter from my bed, where she was playing my 3DS, propped up against my pillows.

"Because you suck at lying?" Sam answered. I groaned. It was kind of true.

"Well-"

"I mean, seriously, you do know that if someone accuses you of being a serial killer you're supposed to pretend you are a different role?"

"Yeah, but, then if I pretend to be a certain role and that role is killed by someone else-"

"Then you say 'well, I guess there were two of us,'" Sam said.

She had a point. It's not that the game is hard, although it actually can be, as much as the game was just hard for someone like me to play. I'm not very comfortable with lying, even if it is to random strangers and the lies help me advance in the game. People like Sam, on the other hand, are amazing at this game because of their strategic take-charge attitude. Kind of made me jealous.

"Whatever, one last game and I'm done," I muttered, already wanting to be done. My win to lose ratio was atrocious. I had double the amounts of losses as I did the amount of wins. It really was pathetic.

"Yeah, okay. You say that now, but you'll either lose this and want a rematch, or win this and get the addiction of victory."

"Whatever, one more game," I said, stretching.

I signed up to play another game, this one looking promising. This was an afternoon game, after all. Games in the afternoon were typically better than the ones at night. I don't know why, but mid-morning players are always more serious and civil than night players. They make losing more enjoyable. Especially considering they don't treat you like an idiot for not being good at the game.

"So, I know you said you don't want to talk about it...and we don't have to, but, well...you and Sasori. I just want to know what happened. I'm not saying it was a bad choice, it's just, you know, it was really fast. Like, no one saw it coming. I mean, at least I didn't see it coming, but-" Sam babbled on before I interrupted her.

"Sam?"

"Hm?"

"What do you think happened? Like, if you had to take a guess on how and why we broke up, what would you say?" I asked. Sam turned off the 3DS to look at me. Without hesitating, she answered.

"You broke up with him because you're scared?"

"Scared? Of what?" I asked, mildly surprised. I wouldn't have guessed that that would be her answer.

"Of disappointing him? I mean, I honestly thought that since you're a perfectionist you would constantly be trying to pretend to be all put together around him, acting like the perfect girlfriend and stuff, but...maybe it's because you're scared of him getting serious."

"Well, you're half right, I guess? It's kind of complicated. I mean, I am the one that called it off, but I wasn't lying when I said it was mutual. Sort of," I explained. Sam looked even more confused than ever.

"What the h*ll does that even mean?"

"Let me explain..."

*flashback*

"Hey, Sasori?"

We were at Konoha's public park. It was pretty late in the night, so no one else was around us. There were a lot of stars in the sky, but this night wasn't that beautiful to me. I knew I had to get this off of my chest, but I was afraid of doing it.

"Hm?" Sasori turned to look at me with the same disinterested stare.

"How long have we been dating?"

"Ah. About three months. Why?"

I took a deep breath. I could do this. This was nothing.

"Well...do you think we got any closer?"

"Manga, why are you asking these questions all of a sudden?" Sasori interrogated. I looked away. His gaze was too intense and I was too scared. Nervous. Worried. Guilty?

"I-I think that we...we need to...Sasori, we aren't working out. Let's stop," I muttered.

Everything was silent, so I wondered if he heard me. I glanced at him to see that he was now vacantly staring ahead, not even bothering to look at me. Before I could say anything else, he began to speak.

"Yeah, I was thinking that too. I was hoping that I would feel something after a while, but I guess I was incorrect in assuming that."

I don't know why, but it hurt to hear that. I knew I said in the beginning I was okay with no romance, but after being together with someone for so long, you come to expect some sort of commitment to them.

"So, what now?" I wondered, more to myself. He answered, regardless.

"What do you mean? We just go back to being members of the same organization. Nothing else."

"Like, not even friends?"

I was hoping he would say that yes, we could still hang out. Hoping that maybe he would tell me why he was distant. I mean, I know in the beginning we agreed not to have a super obvious relationship, but still...that doesn't mean I didn't want to know him more.

"Are you stupid? Why would we not be friends just because we're breaking up? Come on, let's go back. It's getting late. The brat probably blew up his room by this point."

Just like that, we got up and left. The whole walk home we didn't speak or even look at each other. The air was ice-cold that night. 

*flashback end*

 "Seriously, you guys never talked it out more than that?" Sam stared at me as if I was an imbecile.

"You know what's weird? He was more talkative when we went back to being friends than he was when we were dating," I commented, ignoring the question. Luckily for me, she didn't pick up on it.

"Huh. That is weird."

During this time, I died in the game. I was the serial killer. Why can I never win as serial killer?

"Lost again. Oh well, I'll root for the town now," I informed Sam, talking with the other dead folk.

"Dude, stop. What are you doing? Stop," Sam rushed over to the computer, peering over my shoulder.

"I'm just telling the medium whose defense was too strong to kill?" I replied. What was so weird about that?

"WHY ARE YOU HELPING THEM?! WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF THIS?!" Sam yelled. I covered my ears.

"Geez, can you not yell so close to my ear?! I don't know! I just want to help the town out, more people win if the town wins."

"WHY DO YOU CARE?!"

"STOP YELLING!"

*ten minutes later*

"Oh my dear gosh, lol, I'm literally dying! Help!" Sam stated, clinging onto the back of my chair as we both stared at the computer screen.

"Should I-"

"This is why you shouldn't be overly nice to people!"

I was chatting as I always do with fellow players, with a civil attitude. I talked to everyone, asked how they were, complimented them on doing their roles, and helped the medium to identify two of the three mafia players. The town people won at the end of the game, everyone complimented me in return calling me "best sk ever," and one of the female players said, and I quote-

"HAVE MY BABIES!" Sam yelled once again. The past five minutes she has just been repeating this phrase.

"Should I have informed her that I was a girl?"

"LOL! NO! Where's the fun in that?!"

She picked on me for a few more minutes before we both heard the front door open. Thinking that it would be one of the Uchiha boys, Sam started to run off, only stopping to grab me and drag me with her. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, however, we just saw the "art duo" of the Akatsuki group: Deidara and Sasori.

"Hey, un. I'm starving. That lecture sucked a**," Deidara greeted. He seemed fairly happy, so it couldn't have been too bad.

"I thought it was two hours long?" Sam asked, eyeing them suspiciously. Sasori looked uninterested, and for some reason Deidara looked nervous. Or was the guilt? What did he do?

"Hey, yeah. I forgot to tell you, Sam, but the Uchiha b*st*rd...I mean, your boyfriend, wanted me to tell you something. He only wants you to hear it, so let's go in the kitchen, un."

"Why would Itachi tell you something-" Sam began to question, but Deidara cut her off by dragging her away. He can be so weird.

"How was the lecture?" I asked.

"It was a complete waste of time. His view on art is utterly horrific. Even the brat's idea of what art is seems to make more sense than what that speaker deemed art signified," Sasori ranted.

"Wow. He must have been pretty terrible. Well, I'm glad you and Deidara have something to bond over. I'll get back to my work," I began to walk away, but he reached out and gently grabbed my wrist. He didn't apply pressure, so I'm guessing he only did it to get my attention.

"I'm sorry. I thought it would be easy."

"Sasori-"

"I'm not asking for another chance at dating. We tried that. The results were less than ideal. I just wanted to give you closure, and I wanted some in return."

"What type of closure?"

Just as he was going to respond, the door burst open and Kisame came walking carrying a gym bag. Considering that he was carrying that type of bag, was all sweaty, and looked tired, he must have been at the gym. He stopped walking when he saw us.

"Hey shortie...puppet-boy. Am I inter-"

"Nope! We were just talking about the art lecture, and he was demonstrating something about what the teacher was comparing art to," I lied.

"Manga, you know that it's easy to tell when you're lying, right?" Kisame asked, somewhat amused.

I simply laughed before promptly turning around and heading upstairs to "work on my paper." Another ten games of Town of Salem couldn't hurt.