I stood with fists clenched beside Dawn as she started sobbing. Standing before us was Paul, who just coldly stared back at the crying girl, as if he didn't care about her feelings at all. Dawn had finally worked up the nerve to confess to the purple-haired trainer, and how did he respond to Dawn's heart-felt confession? He full-out rejected her without the tiniest shred of elegance, trampling her feelings.

"Why would I go out with a troublesome girl like you?" he said. "You annoy me and I really don't like you." he said! Well, I have a few things to say to that jerk. Nobody breaks my best friend's heart.

I walked up to him and frowned, putting my hands on my hips, and putting my face right in front of his. "It's because you're gay, isn't it?"

The shocked look on Paul's face was priceless. His jaw dropped to the floor and his eyes widened. His whole body went rigid and he didn't even breathe. It was like he had shut down completely. It took all I had to hold back my giggles and try to look seriously at him. Dawn, however, started cracking up. She burst into an unending fit of laughter, her sad tears turning into tears from laughing too hard. I turned to face her and smiled. I had done my job.

I walked over to Dawn and smiled at her. "Wanna get out of here and get something to eat?"

She nodded and smiled, already beginning to get over the rejection. I was just that good. I turned to Paul one last time and glared at him, nothing but hatred showing in my eyes. "Oh yeah. I almost forgot to say. If you fuck with my bae again, you won't be gay anymore. Because you'll no longer be a male."

His face twisted in surprise even more. And as I looked at Dawn, she had a similar look. What can I say? I have a dark side that I don't allow to slip out easily. I grabbed Dawn's wrist and pulled her along, ready to escape the desolate park. Paul shouted something at me before I left and I smirked.

"I'm not gay!"

"Keep telling yourself that~!" I mewed back.

~Drowning Emotions~

I'd dragged Dawn off to the nearest cafe and we sat down in one of the booths, each sitting on opposite sides so we were facing each other. She was blushing like crazy and staring at me in shock.

"I can't believe you said all that!" Dawn practically shouted. "I mean, it was funny and all, but..."

"He'll get over it," I replied a bit coldly. "The jerk deserved it. How could he be so mean to you? He could have said he was uninterested in a nicer way."

"And you could've talked to him in a nicer way."

"Who's side are you on?" I whined, sprawling my arms out across the table and laying my head down in defeat. "I thought if I said that, it'd make you feel better. You know that I hate seeing you cry. And people like him somehow always manage to unleash my dark side. I couldn't help myself..."

Dawn sighed and reached across the table to pat my head. "Good dog Pokémon. For helping me out, I'll buy you a bone."

"Does that translate to you buying our food?" I asked, to clarify.

"Yep. Order whatever you want. I've been helping my mom babysit some kids recently, so I've been making some good money."

"Enough money to feed my bottomless pit of a stomach?" I laughed.

Dawn sighed and sweat-dropped. "Well...don't go too overboard."

I smiled happily at the blunette before picking up one of the menus that had been laid out on the table for us. I was practically drooling as I read through it. They had lots of good food options and all of their deserts and drinks looked heavenly. I could have ordered one of everything, but I didn't want to launch my friend into bankruptcy. I finally settled on an order and patiently awaited for a waiter to arrive.

A man did eventually appear and Dawn gave her order. "I'll take the chicken meal along with a glass of Pepsi, please. And the brownie alamode for desert."

"That's it?" I burst out at her. "So that's why you're so skinny. You never eat anything..."

Dawn sweat-dropped. "May...just...order your food."

I smiled at the waiter, who was staring at me like I was crazy, and told him my order. "I'll take the chicken meal also, with some mashed potatoes, 2 things of french fries, 2 burgers, a chocolate milkshake, and cherry pie for desert."

The waiter wrote down the order, nodded, and walked away. Dawn sighed.

"You're going to make my wallet cry..."

"I usually order more food than this," I pointed out. "So you should thank me for only ordering that much."

She rested her head in her hands. "You're hopeless."

I stared out the window I was sitting beside. Dawn's right. I am hopeless. Hopelessly in love with her. Ever since a common friend of ours, Ash, introduced us to each other, we became the best of friends. But somewhere along the way, my feelings changed, and I wanted nothing more than to be with her. I'd always blush at how beautiful she was, and try to make any kind of physical contact I could with her. I'd become entranced by her beautiful blue eyes and beat myself up for falling in love with another girl.

At first, I had tried to convince myself that I'd gotten my feelings mixed up and it was just that I had a strong bond of friendship with her. But that wasn't convincing. Every time she'd tell me about a crush, I'd grow extremely jealous and I wanted to steal her for myself. But I'd never let her know about that. I had her convinced that I was straight and head-over-heels for Drew. I didn't want to lose her. If she knew I was a lesbian, she'd be weirded out for sure.

The only one who knew about this secret crush of mine was Ash. I had confided in him after a long time of holding in these feelings, hoping he'd understand and wouldn't judge me. And he didn't. It almost seemed like he had already pieced it together. And he actually encouraged me to confess to her, in fact. Though he admitted that Dawn had never mentioned having any attractions to the opposite gender.

And since I didn't know if she would ever fall in love with a girl or not, I continued to hold it in. Through the rest of middle school, through high school, and now, here we are, 18 year old girls debating whether or not we want to continue schooling and go to college.

I longed for her to return my feelings, but she only continued to fall in love with different men. Her most recent being Paul and you already know how that went over. I had been so happy when he rejected her and I hated myself for feeling that way. Dawn had been really into him, after all. But it was hard for me to hold back my jealousy. And I had almost ended up confessing to Dawn myself after she had started crying.

I knew eventually I wouldn't be able to bottle up my feelings anymore and I'd confess to her, but for now, all I wanted to do was make her happy. And if getting with a guy like Paul or someone would make her happy, I'd do everything I could to get them together despite my own feelings. And maybe it would be for the better if she got with some guy already. Then, maybe I could finally let go of these feelings. But deep down inside, I never wanted to let go.

Sometimes, it felt like I was drowning. All of these emotions were drowning me, killing me. My lungs were screaming for air and I was soaked to the bone. I only prayed for a breath of fresh air. But Dawn was the only one who could breathe the life back into me. So until then, I would stay under water and hold my breath.

"Are you okay, May?" Dawn asked in concern. "You were all spaced out and making all these sad expressions. What were you just thinking about?"

I blushed and tried to quickly come up with some excuse for my idiocy. "I was...just thinking about how much it would suck to go back to school. All the studying, midnight cram sessions, evil teachers."

Dawn nodded. "Yeah. But there are some up sides to going to college too. It'll help us get a better job and we'll get smarter. And plus, there would be college parties."

I felt my cheeks redden even more as a thought popped into my head, I tilted my head down so she wouldn't see how red I was. "I was just thinking...if we both decided to go to college...would we both go to the same one so we could still hang out?"

"Of course," Dawn responded immediately. "It would completely suck if we didn't go together. Who else would go on midnight strolls to the fridge with me and protect me from perverts?"

I smiled, feeling a bit more needed. "Good. Don't you ever even think of replacing me. Best friends forever, right?"

"Amen," she agreed with a nod.

Our conversation ended as our food was successfully delivered to our table. I eyed it hungrily, wondering what I should eat first. I took a fry and chomped down, quickly beginning to down the others. Soon, one pack was gone and I was on to the next.

"Fries are like smoking," I commented, mouth full of food. "Once you have one, you can't stop eating them."

"That only applies to you," Dawn replied. "And can you not talk with a mouthful?"

"Sorry. It's all just so good..."

From then on, we munched on our food in silence. I ended up finishing my share long before her, of course. She always took her time, eating it like a proper young lady. I wasn't like that at all. I frowned. Now that I thought of it, there were quite a few things about us that were completely opposite. This got me down as I thought about how humans were naturally attracted to someone similar to them.

Pushing all the negative thoughts from my head, I thought of everything we had in common, such as our extreme love of shopping. By the time we were done raiding the stores, we'd have stacked armfuls of bags filled with assorted goods, which was why we'd always drag along Ash or someone on our trips so we didn't have to carry all of the bags ourselves.

Now that the thought of shopping hit my mind, I had an idea. "Hey, Dawn. We are adults now. So why don't we go out and have some fun together?"

"What do you mean?" she questioned as she took a bite of her brownie.

"Well~!" I happily sang. "Why don't we shop for some outfits and then hit the club tonight?"

"I'm not sure about that," Dawn said skeptically. "A lot of perverts come to the club trying to flirt it up with all the girls..."

"Weren't you just talking about how I'm there to protect you from perverts? Besides, if we invite some of our guy friends I'm sure they'd protect us too. Come on! Puh-lease? I'm in a dancing mood. All we've done all week is laze around in the apartment we're renting then go to bed early like old people. Let's get down~! Get your party on, girl~!"

Dawn rocked her head back in forth. Finally, she sighed. It was a familiar sort of sigh. A sigh that said, "Fine, May. I give in to all of your demands."

"I take that as a yes?"

Dawn nodded. "So, who should we invite? I already know you'll want Drew to come, right?"

I faked an excited smile and nodded. "Yup. And Ash too."

"And he could bring that new girlfriend of his along," Dawn added. "Serena, I think? She seems really nice."

"Yeah. And...got any other crushes you want to grind up on at the club?" I teased.

She started blushing and she tore off her hat and threw it in my face. "Shut the hell up! That's...don't say stuff like that..."

I smirked and snickered mischievously. "I'm serious though. Got any crushes who aren't complete bastards?"

Dawn thought for a moment before her cheeks yet again became shaded in pink. "W-Well...I'm a little bit interested in that Gary guy that Ash has been hanging out with."

I took a figurative stabbed to the heart and wept softly in my mind. DAMMIT! WHY THE HELL DID SHE ALWAYS HAVE SOME GUY SHE WAS CRUSHING ON?! ARCEUS! It could never be me, could it? But mark my words, I would find one way or another to get a dance with her!

"Okay. I'll make sure to tell Ash to ask Gary to tag along," I returned with a fake smile.

"Thanks, May," she said with a smile.

My heart started pounding faster and my cheeks grew hotter. Why did she have to sport such a beautiful smile? I wish I were the only one who could ever see it. The only one she'd smile for. I wanted to lock her up and keep her for myself. I mentally screamed at myself for the thousandth time in my life for going and falling in love with another girl. It wasn't right, but yet, it was.

"Alright," I breathed, standing up. "Let's call everyone then head over to the mall."

"Right."

Dawn pulled out her wallet and paid for all the food, also adding in a tip. I noticed the tip wasn't very sufficient though.

"What's up with the lousy tip?" I questioned.

"Because he was making weird faces at you like you were a freak show," Dawn responded, frowning. "If he's going to be rude, he can't expect a good tip."

I tried not to smile like an idiot, but she made me really happy. It was nice to know that she was defending me and cared so much for me. Maybe things could work after all.

Well, this is moe of an intro kind of thing, describing May's feelings and all, so sorry if you felt like not much happened. But next time, we'll get some action in the club and introduce more characters. Please leave a review telling me what you think, and what was your favorite part? I'll try to update soon.

-IchigoHatake