Nerdy

Twenty-Nine

Sasuke shut the door after him loudly to show that he had returned. He was in no mood to say it.

"Sasuke, dear, you're back already ? Didn't you have an assignment to write ?" asked Mikoto, coming out from the living room.

Sasuke grunted in response and started making his way to his room.

"Sasuke ! Come back here and put your shoes in the rack." she said angrily, pointing down at Sasuke's shoes which he had carelessly taken off.

This time, he groaned loudly. "I'll do it later !" he yelled back, and before Mikoto could say that he had to do it immediately, another door was slammed.

She frowned with her hands on her hips. She knew Sasuke was going through his moody teenage phase but it sometimes frustrated her. It was her first time dealing with it because Itachi had become mature at a very early age and did not go through the 'phases'.

Sasuke, on the other hand, could be a handful at times. She never had any idea what set him off because he had stopped sharing things with her as well. Mikoto sighed and put Sasuke's shoes in the rack.

"Come down when you're hungry !" she said, loudly enough so that it could be heard by Sasuke even through his thick, tightly shut door.

In response what she got was a very girlish scream followed by loud footsteps and the next second, Sasuke was in front of her. His face was red and he was huffing. Mikoto blinked a few times, surprised by Sasuke.

"What is that ?!" said Sasuke, pointing up the stairs in the direction of his room.

"What do you mean ?" asked Mikoto, feigning innocence.

She bit her lip to stop smiling, but she knew it was of no use. Sasuke had reacted in the exact way she had expected him to, and that made her happy. It made her feel that even though her son had grown so distant, she still understood him and everything about him.

"You know what I mean." said Sasuke with a scowl.

"But I really have no idea what you are talking about." said Mikoto, still pretending to have nothing to do with what had Sasuke so annoyed.

"You know what ? Mom, you-- You come with me." said Sasuke and pulled Mikoto upstairs to his room.

Mikoto smiled and followed him silently. Sasuke stopped in front of his room and pointed inside it. Mikoto peeked through the door.

"You're room is clean; I'm impressed." said Mikoto.

"Look. At. That. Mom." said Sasuke, walking into the room and slamming his hands beside a very large frame on the wall.

It was the very same picture Mikoto had found while arranging the wedding photographs in an album.

"Oh, that." she said,  with a wide grin.

"Yes, that. Why is this here ?" Sasuke groaned and ran his hand down his face.

"It's such a cute photo, Sasuke. It deserved to be framed." said Mikoto, taking the frame off the wall and running her hand over it.

"I don't see why it has to be so big." Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest.

It was on the wall across Sasuke's bed and was almost as big as the 42 inch flat-screen TV in his room. It stood out on the pale-coloured walls of his room. It was the first thing somebody's eyes would land on when they entered the room.

Mikoto said nothing in response and hung it back onto the wall.

"I don't want it here." said Sasuke.

The frame's position was such that it was the first thing he would see when he woke up. He did not want to see (Name)'s face the first thing in the morning, especially since she was so cruel to him.

"A little decoration wouldn't hurt." sad Mikoto and started making her way to the door.

"I don't see how that's a little !" said Sasuke, but Mikoto only smiled in return and walked out.

Sasuke groaned and jumped face-first onto his bed, burying it in the pillow. The moment he looked up, his eyes fell on the frame. He got up and took it down. He kept it down against the wall facing away from him. With the size of the frame, he couldn't even hide it anywhere. With that frame, he couldn't have anybody in his room. He would die on embarrassment if Naruto found out about it, because Naruto finding out about it was equivalent to the whole school finding about it. If he were to destroy it, knowing his mother, she would have another ten copies to replace it.

He sighed and laid back on his bed, facing the ceiling. Sasuke couldn't think of anything but her. She was misunderstanding him. She was angry at him. She disliked, probably hated, him.

And all he had done was ask her a question.

If his mother knew what was going on and wanted him to do something about it, the frame was a very good way of reminding him.