Play Mates and Dream Dates

Chapter One

"Silver, what did you do?" I yelled, looking at the box in the trash can. He did not do what it looked like he did. Again. Did he? And I wasn't jealous. No way. I was so completely over Silver. The last time I even looked at him and felt butterflies in my stomach… I couldn't even remember. That was how over him I was.

Silver came out of his room in just his boxers, grinning at me when he saw what I was pointing to. Oh, no, even when he walked around the apartment in only his boxers, with no shirt to cover that chest of his, I still felt absolutely nothing. I was so over him that it didn't make a difference to me anymore. Oh, no. Definitely not. Completely not. I didn't feel a thing.

Not at all.

I had no idea when it all started, but sex never really seemed like his thing. I was notorious for seeing the best in people, looking for the signs of innocence. Somehow, I missed this. Then again, we had been so young when we met. Now that we were both in our twenties and living in an apartment together with Ethan, I probably should have known better. But I didn't.

He shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning against the wall. "Don't you mean who?" He winked at me, and I threw my hands over my ears, spinning around. That was definitely something. He had something of a confidence boost over the past few years, and he wasn't too afraid of sharing information that I didn't particularly care about with me.

"Ew, Silver, I don't want to know who you've been sleeping around with." I dropped my hands from my ears, shaking my head at him and crossing my arms. I kicked the trash can, and the box wiggled further down. "You know that's dangerous, right? I'm not preaching abstinence here, but… you should really think before you—" I coughed, trying to be subtly, but he just rolled his eyes at me. For some reason, he thought I was the epitome of innocence. "If you know what I mean."

"Lyra," he said, pushing himself off the wall and stepping a little closer to me. My heart didn't jump. My pulse didn't rise. None of that happened. "I do think before I cough." He rolled his red eyes once more before sighing. "Come on, I don't invite just any girl back whenever I go out. I only take the special ones."

"Who you find every single time you go out. There are obviously a lot of special girls in Johto," I pointed out, and Silver laughed. "Silver, I'm serious! This isn't something to joke about! You could really get in trouble if you keep doing this. I have no problem with you doing what you want; I have no authority over it. But when you get sick or hurt or worse, don't come crying to me. Because you brought this all upon yourself."

Silver just shook his head, and I could tell he was getting bored with the conversation. "Lyra, will you just live a little, please? You're way too much of a hopeless romantic. I know you say that you're waiting for the perfect guy, but let me tell you a secret: there's no such thing. There are no more Prince Charmings out there. This isn't the 1800s."

I put my hands on my hips, narrowing my eyes at the redhead. "Are you saying that I should just settle? Is that what you're doing? Yeah, well, you're settling with a lot of women, Silver, and I'm not really that type of girl. There has to be a guy out there that still wants a meaningful relationship and doesn't just… have sex. There has to!"

Throwing an arm around my shoulders, Silver began walking, dragging me down the small hallway of our apartment to his room. He gestured to the undone bed, and I closed my eyes, not really wanting to think about the things done in that bed last night. That was just too much, and I was not okay with that.

"There are no such things as relationships anymore, Lyra, never mind meaningful ones. Guys aren't looking for someone to hang out with. That's what they have their guy friends for. It's all about getting in a girl's pants," Silver tried to tell me. But I couldn't bring myself to believe that. "Waiting around is stupid. It's a different kind of love now."

He left me standing in the hallway, staring at the slammed door of his bedroom. I couldn't believe that. Not all guys had as few morals as Silver. Ethan didn't bring home a different girl every time he went out on the town, though occasionally he brought some familiar lady friend over. At least it was the same girl every time.

Well, when I got married before Silver, what would he say then? Would he admit that he was wrong, that people could have relationships and fall in love. Different kind of love? No, it was just different people with different moral standards. I could have the love I wanted, more emotional and beautiful, and he could have his, more physical and… sexual.

Silver would never be able to hold onto a single girl for longer than a week, let alone long enough to get married. In fact, I bet he would never get a girl to say she loved him. Because no girl in her right mind would love him if that was all they did together. That was no way to get to know someone, and you couldn't fall in love that easily.

People actually looking for love didn't just throw the word around.

I knocked on Silver's door, finally finding myself so annoyed that I couldn't deal with this anymore. If he wanted to torment me, then he could. But I wasn't just going to sit there and take it. I would show him, like I showed him all those years ago when we first started out on our journeys, that he was wrong. And I would prove I was right. Meaningful relationships could still happen.

"What?" Silver asked, opening the door back up and giving me an annoyed look. He had put a shirt on now (but, like I said, seeing him shirtless really had no impact on me anymore), but he was still wearing those blue-striped boxers. I swallowed, trying to think about why I had knocked on the door in the first place.

"Um." I folded my hands together, fumbling with my words as I tried to think about what I wanted to say. Well, was I mature or what? I just needed to spit it out. "I think you're wrong."

Silver raised an eyebrow, appearing mildly amused now. "You think I'm wrong? Lyra, you're not the one who has been out seeing these people. You spend your time in here doing your… research, and I actually see the real world. People aren't like they used to be. No one is 'waiting until marriage'. It's just not happening."

"You're wrong!" I felt myself growing irritated with his insistence, and my voice was starting to rise. "I mean… not everyone is like that. If I'm here, then there has to be some guy out there who feels the same way as me. There's someone out there for everyone, right? There's someone out there for me. So, you're wrong."

Silver started to shut the door, but I stuck my foot out to stop him. I wasn't quite finished yet, and I never let anyone get the last word over me. If he wanted to do this, then we were going to do it right. I hadn't been Champion all those years ago for nothing.

"How about a little friendly competition? First one to get engaged wins." I held out my hand towards him, and his jaw slacked a little as his eyebrows went up. Staring at my hand, he pushed it away from a moment, holding onto it with both of his hands. But I didn't feel anything when he did that. Nothing.

"Engaged? Don't you think that's a little intense? It sounds like you're just trying to get a guy just to beat me," Silver said, crossing his arms. Well, I hadn't really meant it like that. But if that motivated me to get out and meet people, then that was fine with me. Because I was going to beat Silver if my life depended on it.

"Nah." I shrugged, releasing my hold on the door. "I'm not going to use him to beat you. I'm just going to play this game the way I want and watch you fail at your way. Because I highly doubt any honorable girl worth marrying would be okay with the fact that you've slept with half of the Johto region."

I smiled smugly, and Silver laughed. "Wow, all right, I am definitely taking that as a challenge after that comment. First one to get engaged, it is." He shook my hand, still holding it with both of his, and winked at me once again. "You're on. But what's the prize? I'm all for it either way, but there's got to be something."

Pondering this, I pulled my hand away from Silver's much larger ones. "If I get engaged first, then you have to give a speech at my wedding saying that I was right all along," I offered, and Silver shrugged. It seemed like something simple enough for him to do if I won, and it was like retribution for being a player. "And if you get engaged first…"

"If I get engaged first, you have to come to my wedding dressed as a whore. Just because I want to see that." Silver smiled, starting to close the door again as soon as my jaw dropped. At least I was nice about mine! All I was asking him to do was get rid of his pride and tell the truth, but he was asking me to go completely against my morals.

The fool.

"Fine," I agreed, and Silver stopped shutting the door, looking slightly impressed that I had agreed to his terms. "I'll do it. But just so you know, I'm not losing. There is no way that you can get engaged before me because you lack the commitment to do ask a girl to marry you. You can barely stay with a girl a whole night without wanting a different girl there with you."

"You make me sound like such a jerk to women," Silver said, and I just smiled, turning around and beginning to walk down the hallway. Oh, it was true that he definitely had been a jerk to me when we were younger, but he was a jerk to everyone. It took him a few years to actually become social and personable. Now, he was way more social than I was. Maybe I should never have changed him all those years ago.

But that was what he got.

"Well, if the boot fits, Silver." I winked at him, and he rolled his eyes at me before shutting the door once again.

Author's Note: So… I wanted to write this before finishing "Stockholm" just to give everyone something to look forward to (if you choose to continue reading my work). To all you new readers, welcome! I'm Liz Hollow! This is not my typical writing, and I'm sorry if you find it… intense for a Pokémon story.

I feel I must explain. Being in college, I notice things. I really consider it a great tragedy that relationships are really… nonexistent, and I wish that weren't the case.

The next chapter won't be out until "Stockholm" is done, but I figured I would get this out there. It's the strangest thing, but while I was writing this, I kept on writing in Spanish. I just… I would be typing in English one minute, and then the next my sentence would be in Spanish. I don't really understand. XD

If you don't understand some of the… innuendoes… you probably shouldn't read this. (Still, nothing actually happens, but this is rated Teen for a reason).

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.