The black phone lying on the side of the table suddenly burst into life.

Curtis Springs opened his eyes slightly and let the intense bursts of light slip through and burn his eyes. He attempted to muster up the strength to move his arm up and bring his watch into his line of sight, but stopped short and instead tilted his head to the right, brushing his long, brown hair off his face. His phone danced on the bedside table, seemingly nudging the Pidgey-themed alarm clock next to it, which glistened with the numbers 8:46 in bright, neon digits.

8:46? Who the fuck phones people this early in the morning?

He half-heartedly reached for the phone before lazily sliding it towards his ear.

"Hello?"

"Curt? Hey, it's me! I'm back from my journey now!"

"Vince…?" Curtis only managed to utter a short response. "What are you…?"

"Remember, mate? Indigo Plateau? You know, Pokémon League, all that shit? Well, you know since it's the first time I've seen the guys in quite a few months, we're all coming down to Celadon Park, near the gym. Meet me there in 20, okay?"

"But Vince, mate…" He tried to murmur an excuse about how he was ill, but as soon as he found the right words Vince had already hung up. He stared at the message displaying on his phone:

Disconnected call 0:19

"Oh, for fuck's sake…" Curtis slammed the phone down with annoyance before tossing the blanket aside. He knew Vince had just come back from a journey that had taken him all the way around Kanto and to the Indigo Plateau, but at that moment, as he slipped on his grey jeans and glasses and combed back his brown mess of hair, he couldn't help but wonder why he was friends with him. This thought kept processing through his head, even as he slipped out into the warm, fresh Celadon City air.

It was about half an hour of aimless wandering around the park before he finally noticed Vince, smoking a cigarette with a whole bunch of people in the middle of the lawn, along with his trusty Scyther. He couldn't help but notice how out of place Vince's first Pokémon looked compared to all his mates around him, even though he knew too well how tame it was.

"Curtis!" Upon seeing him, Vince got up almost immediately, his dark, wavy hair glistening against the morning sun. "You're late, where the hell have you been?" His tone sounded quite positive, but as Vince hugged him Curtis couldn't help but feel a sting of bitterness in that. Vince always seemed to have a way of getting to him.

"Yeah, hey, Vince…" Curtis glanced at the people around him. He remembered some from school, but he dropped out of school the year before. It really just didn't seem that attractive to him. But looking around at the old faces, and some new ones as well, brought back memories of the time he had there.

"Hey, Curtis, man! It's been a while, yeah?"

Curtis turned around, noticing a familiar face whom he hadn't seen in quite a while.

"Oh, hey there Alton," Curtis replied, walking over to him hesitantly. "How's life been?"

"Oh you know, the usual stuff, right?" Curtis noticed Alton had grown out his once-short ginger hair into a decently sized afro. Alton was 17, only around a year older than he was, and was pale-skinned. His image, which now consisted of a T-shirt with an Absol decoration on it and brown cargo shorts, didn't really seem to strike Curtis as the most impressive outfit in the world, and that was slightly surprising when he noticed the two girls Alton had on his shoulders. He recognised one; the girl on his left shoulder, Wysteria. She was resting her head against Alton while playing with her long, straight, blonde hair. Curtis knew those two had had some sort of thing when he was still at school, but he didn't realise they were still together. The girl sitting by his right he had no idea about; she was tanned, with platted dark auburn hair. As he glanced over at her, he saw her gazing back, almost seductively.

"You get me, right? Sleep all day, party all night?"

Curtis snapped out of his thoughts almost as quickly as he had entered them. "Oh right, yeah… you could say that," Curtis managed to reply. "I-I haven't seen you in a while, yeah? Where've you been?"

"Mate, I've been all the way round, like everywhere man," Alton said, almost dreamily. "Parties all over Kanto, you know?" Alton pulled the girls closer to him slightly, as if to emphasize. "Guys round here can't have any sort of rave without me hearing about it!"

Curtis laughed nervously. "Yeah, I guess…"

Alton let out a loud burst of laughter. "Don't worry mate, I can get you in literally anywhere you want, right? Just say the word. If you don't believe me, feel free to ask anyone."

"Yeah, sure, I mean like…" Curtis stumbled on his words. The tanned girl giggled slightly.

"You know, there's one in Saffron City like…this weekend. Proper hardcore, you know? Not like the pussy parties you get round Vermilion and stuff, like properly hardcore. I mean, Luxray Guard are playing. You heard of them lot?"

Curtis nodded; he remembered all too well about how Alton kept going into tangents about parties.

"Well, see, Vince was invited, but since I'm the one arranging tickets I really don't want him to go, you know? So, I was wondering…you up for a little partying?"

"This weekend…?" Curtis tried his hardest not to stammer again. "I'll see if I'm free, okay?"

"Alright then, mate, just drop me a call if you're coming yeah?" Alton held out his right hand and put on the signature smile Curtis knew all too well. It was the kind of smile that he put on whenever he felt like he had just done something amazing. And in a sense, getting Curtis into a party was quite amazing. After all, he did know that he wasn't as socially active as most of the people around.

Curtis took his hand, but exchanged another glance at the tanned girl, becoming increasingly wary of how much she was looking at him. "Yeah, alright…I've got your number, so don't worry, I'll call you."

"Alright then, I shall see you at Saffron this weekend then!" Alton said, with a slight cockiness in his voice. Curtis caught sight of the tanned girl winking at him, but by the time his brain had registered it he had already turned tail and started to head back to the main group. Don't worry, he thought to himself. It's for the better you didn't stay.

He found himself a small space in the circle just as Vince finished explaining his final battle in the league. He didn't really see why, anyway; it wasn't as if everyone had seen it on TV already.

"…Yeah, so there was this massive explosion, right? And like you couldn't see shit through any of it. But then the smoke clears, and I can literally just hear so much shit in my head…but then I look, and I see this little bastard," he nodded at Scyther, who was drifting away to sleep, "I see this bastard standing next to that Magmortar, and then it turns out Magmortar's fainted and he's fucking won it!" Vince took out an almost-empty packet of cigarettes before opening it and spilling out the remaining two still intact in the packet onto the ground.

He picked them up and threw the empty packet over his shoulder, disrupting a young couple sitting on a bench by the main path. He turned to Curtis. "You feel like a fag right now, then, or…?"

Curtis hadn't really smoked properly before, but he felt like he had to, seeing as it had been quite a few months since he had last seen Vince. "Alright, then…"

"Alright, cool then mate," Vince replied before getting up off the grass, signalling for Curtis to come with him. Curtis pulled himself off the ground, subconsciously aware that the grass he had sat in had dew formed on it and anxious that some of the people around were able to see a wet patch on the back of his jeans. Nevertheless, he continued and followed Vince down the path, pulling up next to him a mere seconds later.

It was around that moment when Curtis realised that the tanned girl he had noticed earlier was sitting by the path, staring at him with that same seductive stare that had somewhat intimidated him before.

"Hey."

Curtis turned to face her, trying not to look overpowered. Vince smirked; he backed off slightly and started to light his cigarette. "Hey there," he replied nervously.

"I'm Jade."

"I'm Curtis…" He shifted awkward, trying to stop the thoughts of how sexy she was in auburn plats and a skimpy blue top entering his head.

There was a short awkward pause. Vince tried his hardest not to laugh from afar as he lit his cigarette and puffed.

Jade giggled. "You realise I know full well you're staring at me right now?" There was another short pause as Curtis's cheeks turned red.

"Let's just cut to the chase here, shall we?" Jade put on a cynical look. "It's blatantly obvious you want me. And to be honest, you are kinda fit. So…I'm prepared to strike up a bit of a deal with you." She sidled up close to him. "If you manage to beat Erika…I'll have sex with you. How does that sound?"

Curtis could barely do anything but stand there, blushing and paralyzed. She pushed him playfully. "Of course, that's if you can beat Erika."

"Y-Yeah…" Curtis could barely even stammer, let alone properly respond.

"So," Jade continued, with a smirk painted across her face, "show me that Rainbow Badge soon, okay? I know it'll be very rewarding for you." She giggled again. "See you this weekend, I hope."

Curtis just stood and stared as she walked, both completely shocked at what happened and baffled at how lucky he had just gotten.

Before he could even think, Vince was next to him again. "Oh my god, fuck me Curts," he said excitedly, "strangely enough, I cannot believe how fucking in there you are!"

Curtis tried to find the correct words to respond to that; however, he eventually submitted to watching two Meowth playing on a dustbin while Vince struggled to control his laughter.

"You are absolutely fucking priceless, you know that mate? Just amazing, absolutely amazing." He put his arm around Curtis and headed back to the group, dragging Curtis along with him. "Absolutely fucking amazing…"