Pretty Good
It was 3:44 AM when his phone vibrated under the pillow next to him, a low ringing noise coming shortly after. "Who in the ever loving fuck," poured out of his mouth as he flopped his arm over his blanket, his hand quickly pushing down on the lock button. After a few sniffles and eyes rubs he tried to focus on the call he had just declined. Before he could adjust his eyes enough to read the name a low ringing filled up the room again. "Fuck," he groaned as he swiped his finger along the bottom of the screen.
"Paul?" a soft voice came from the phone, "Were you sleeping?"
As soon as her voice hit his ears he knew who it was. "Of course I was fucking sleeping, why aren't you?"
"I…" she paused and breathed a few times. "I had a bad dream."
"Dawn, it's four in the goddamn morning, you are twenty-three years old, why the fuck are you calling me about a dream?" his words were angry, but to be fair they usually were.
"It… It was really bad.."—she sniffled a few times—"and I didn't know who else to call…"
Paul gave a sigh and rubbed his face. "I can think of about five people you could have called, all of which would actually give a shit."
"C—Can you put your camera on?" she asked, nervous he would snap at her again. "I really wanna see your face…"
"Troublesome," he mumbled as he pulled his phone from his ear and tapped the top corner of his screen, his messy hair and sleepy eyes flashing onto her screen. "Happy?"
Dawn's blue eyes met his as she smiled and sighed happily. "Very."
"You've been crying," he said coldly as he noticed her red cheeks. "You could've called Zoe, you know. I'm not in the mood to coddle you as you suck snot and act like you're a child."
Her smiled widened as she let out a small giggle. "You act like I don't know how you are. I didn't call you to be coddled. I called you because I wanted to hear your voice and see your face."
"Well, you've accomplished both of those things," he said as he rolled his eyes. "So, I'm going to go back to sleep and you are gonna do whatever it is people do after they cry," he finished as he put his thumb on the lock button.
"Wait!" Dawn called out, desperately trying to think of a reason for him to not hang up, "It's almost impossible to fall asleep alone after crying…"
He took a breath before glaring at his screen. "Dawn, it is"—he paused to look at his alarm clock—"too fucking early for this shit."
"I know, but it would make me feel better if I didn't have to sleep here. I'm home alone since mom is in Hearthome," she explained, tears welling up in her eyes again. "I mean.. I can always call Reggie but I figured—"
"Nope, nope, and nope," he interrupted, just the thought of his brother bitching at him for not letting Dawn over made him want to chuck his phone. "Just"—he sighed and ran a had through his hair—"just fucking come in through the back door. Reggie won't hear you since all his pokemon know who you are."
"Thank you so much," she said before locking her phone and ending the call.
Paul rested his head on his pillow as he waited for his neighbor, falling in and out of consciousness. By the time she cracked his door open, he was almost as deep into sleep as the first time she woke him.
It was 4:17 AM when Dawn lifted herself onto her tiptoes and tried to close the door behind her quietly. She looked at his sleepy figure and smiled, he looked so nice when he was asleep—his usual hostile glare was replaced with a soft half smile, messy violet hair covering his ever brooding brow.
He must have felt her staring because a few moments later his eyes opened and he rolled over to look at her. "It's kind of creepy how you're just standing in my door way."
"Sorry," she whispered before walking towards his bed and sitting on the far corner. "I just didn't want to wake you, I guess…"
"That didn't stop you an hour ago," he snapped as he lifted his upper body to sit next to her. "Now, why in the hell did you want to come over?" he asked as he reached for the shirt he had tossed on his extra pillow earlier that night.
Dawn diverted her eyes to her lap and prayed the darkness would hide her pink cheeks as he lifted his arms above his head. "Well.. I just… I didn't want to sleep alone…"—she looked back over at him, confident her cheeks had faded enough for him to not notice—"and you're the closest house."
He scratched the back of his head and adjusted his shirt a bit before responding. "I guess I get it. But now we are both awake at the ass crack of dawn and the sun rises on this side of the house."
Her messy, day old curls fell into her face as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I know, but I feel better now than I have in hours."
Paul tensed up the second he felt her hair his his neck, but he shook it off and made sure he squared his shoulders before speaking. "So, do you want the floor or the bed?"
"How about we both use the bed?" she asked as she lifted her head to look at him. "I promise not to lay too close."
His gaze leveled with hers as he took a few seconds to turn the idea over in his head. "Fine," he decided before letting himself fall back into the bed. "But if Reggie comes in to wake me in a few hours, I'm not the one explaining why you're in my bed."
Dawn nodded and scooted next to him, leaning herself against his headboard. Thoughts ran through her head as she pulled her knees to her chest and watched the boy next to her roll his back to her. It had been years, a little over half a decade, since they had shared a bed; it had been months since they shared a couch, even.
"Are you gonna sleep or just sit there?" he mumbled into his pillow. "You can do what you want but the sun will be up soon and it will be harder for you to sleep."
"Aren't you going to ask me about my dream?" her voice was quiet.
"I can't really stop you, so if you wanna talk about it you can, but I'm not gonna promise I won't ignore it and fall asleep," he quipped, his tone wasn't as cold as he wanted it to be, he blamed on how tired he was.
"Do you remember back when we were kids? When we both were in that after school therapy group?" she asked as she tucked some hair behind her ear. After pausing for a few seconds she decided to continue, figuring he wanted to pretend he was sleeping even though she could hear his breathing wasn't steady enough for him to be. "I had a dream that mom never moved us out to Veilstone. We just stayed in that small ass town of Twinleaf and I never met you. Hell, I never met Zoe either. It was just me and Kenny, trying to figure out how to deal with death."
Paul grunted a few times as she spoke. "I don't see how not meeting me is worth crying over, but I don't understand half the shit you do."
Dawn sighed and shook her head. "You were pissed off at the world when I met you, hell you still are," she started with a chuckle. "When my dad died I was so fucking angry. I wanted everyone else to be angry too, and you did that. We both spent every day in that group therapy just pissing on everyone."
A low chuckle came from Paul as he thought about how they used to spend hours just talking shit on the kids that came through after school therapy, both of them thinking that having a dead parent trumped whatever could be going on with someone else.
"It wasn't even the dream that made me cry," she explained as tears rimmed her eyes. "I started thinking about how we never even talk anymore. Even in high school we used to mess around in between classes. We were always getting glared at by teachers for coming out of storage closets, but no one could say anything because how are you gonna scold a kid who's dad died mining the coal they use to heat their homes."
Paul gave up on ignoring her and rolled over, staring at his ceiling as he spoke, "We were kids, then. It's been a few years since I've pulled you into a closet to skip math class."
Dawn shrugged her shoulders and slid her body under the covers, resting her head on her pillow and joining him in staring at the ceiling. "I know that. I know we aren't sixteen and trying to piss people off anymore, but we should at least be able to say something to each other once in a while."
"We say stuff to each other," he said as he rolled his eyes. "We just don't spend hours talking, which to be honest, we never did."
"I get that, I get that we never really sat and talked for hours on end but holy shit," she snapped, frustration ringing in her words. She rolled over to face him and propped her head up on her hand before continuing, "We never used to fucking avoid each other. I go off and win a few ribbons, you win a few badges and suddenly we come home for the holidays and we can't even look each other in the eye when we wish each other a happy new year."
Paul opened his mouth to speak but decided against it, opting to lift his arm and rest it over his eyes. He never understood why she cared so much about him, about them. Over the years Dawn had dated a few boys, even had a few hook ups that were spread over tabloids after she won a grand festival the other year. But every time she broke it off before it got too serious, every person who had entered her life romantically was slowly pushed out and forgotten—except him.
"I just want to end all this fucking tension," she half-pleaded, her voice filled with anger and hurt, trying to get a reaction from his was so difficult. Paul had always been this boy that was just past her fingertips, was was always able to touch the edge of his coat but never able to pull him back to her.
It was 4:53AM when her lips pressed into his, the sun was slowly rising, a small amount of yellow light entering through the slits in his blinds. He reacted quickly, putting his hands on her waist with the intent to pull her off, but as soon as he felt her skin against his something stopped him. A part of him wanted to put a hand towards her pants, treat the moment like a class period in high school, but he knew better.
An hour or so later Paul was on top on Dawn, his hands on either side of her head, his eyes staring into hers as they both breathed heavily. They hadn't done so much as hug each other since they were teenagers, and now Dawn's shirt was hitched below her breasts and his was on the floor beside them.
"I missed that," she said, biting the lower corner of her lip. Her gaze shifted from his face to the half open window across the room, the sun had almost fully risen. "Do you have anything important to do today?"
A rare smirk crossed his face as he shook his head. "Not really," was all he said. He lifted himself away from her and sat upright, scratching the back of his head. He glanced at his alarm clock and sighed. They had messed around for too long and now he could either sleep another hour or give up and just wake up for the day.
Dawn yawned and rolled on her side, she stared at the muscles on his back as he stretched his arms over his head and let out a groan, trying to wake himself up. "So," she started coyly, putting a hand on his back and watching him tense up, "how was it? Did you miss it like I did?"
Paul rolled his shoulders and tried to relax his back. "It was pretty good."
"Excuse me?" she snapped as she shot up, her flirtatious expression turning deadly. "You cannot face away from me and say it was 'pretty good' all nonchalantly when seconds ago you were out of breath and you're still shirtless and sweaty."
He chuckled as he ran his hand through his hair and turned back to her for a second. "Fine, it was pretty," he paused and looked away from her, "great, pretty great."
An exasperated sigh came from behind him. "My bra is on the other side of the room and the best you can come up with is 'pretty great'," she growled as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You're a real piece of work, Paul."
"So are you, Troublesome," he commented as he stood up. "I'm gonna get dressed and head downstairs. You can go to sleep if you want, I don't really care."
Dawn watched as he walked to his computer chair and pulled a shirt off. His muscles flexed sightly as he pulled it over his head. If she hadn't have known better she would swear he was chubby the way his shirt hung on his body, at least a size or two too big. "I think I'm going to get some more sleep," she said softly, pulling a handful of blanket towards her. "I haven't slept well in days."
Paul replied with a grunt as he fastened his belt and walked towards the door. His hand hovered over the knob for a few seconds before he spoke, "Maybe after the holidays die down and we head back out, we can travel in the same direction. I guess a little company wouldn't kill me."
A smile covered her face as she thought about being able to travel with the boy who had always been just out of her reach. "I would like that."
being in ur early twenties is really confusing but sometimes shit works out ya know :shurg