Curtis leaned back on the grey sofa, looking out of the window. It was already getting dark – he watched the sun slowly hide behind the trees and bushes that formed the edge of Celadon City. Vince lived on the northern tip; or, as Vince liked the call it, 'the posh place above the shithole'. Curtis smiled to himself as he remembered this; he and Vince used to play around south Celadon all the time. The dark alleyways always used to creep him out and they explored Celadon's every nook and cranny.
"What are you lookin' so sceptical about, Curt?"
Curtis turned to face the person he was next to; a girl of around his age, with short, brown hair that went down to her shoulders. She was wearing a grey hoodie with a Skarmory pattern embedded on it. If she were to do it up, Curtis knew it would have the words "no fear" written along the bottom end; however, she had it undone as she lay on the sofa, feet up against a leather chair she had pushed towards her.
He smiled at her. "Not much really, just remembering past times, you know, Chloe?"
"Yeah, I get you. Thing with Celadon is that people always have so many memories of this place, unlike towns like Lavender, where it's all just so dead." Chloe reached into her pocket and pulled out a Blackberry with a Kyogre printing so vivid that Curtis couldn't help but envy her. She let out a groan of frustration shortly afterward. "Fucking Vince," she muttered angrily. "The twat says he'll be here in another half an hour."
Curtis laughed. "Does he ever come home on time?"
At this, Chloe burst out laughing. "Not really, no. He says he's stuck in a traffic jam along Route 16. Apparently there's some Snorlax stuck in the middle of the road, and they've only just managed to wake it up." She started typing out a message on her phone. "I'm just gonna tell him he'd better be here soon or he's fucked. I've got a History essay I have to write for tomorrow and I'm not getting screwed over just because Vince doesn't know how to plan his time properly."
Curtis chuckled slightly. Chloe always had a way of turning situations into jokes; he couldn't help but admire her positive attitude.
She got up and put her phone back in the pocket of her shorts. "In the meantime, do you want some tea or something?" she asked. "I'm kinda thirsty, and honestly I'd much rather make it now than when Vince gets here."
Despite Vince's reassurance that he was only half an hour away, the streetlights were already on by the time Curtis and Chloe saw Vince walk down the road towards the house.
Chloe heard the key slowly turn in the lock. "There he is," she muttered to herself. "The fucking Dunsparce himself." Curtis struggled to control his laughter as Vince stumbled through the doorway, seemingly out of breath.
"Hey, Vince…" Curtis called out, but Chloe silenced him. The idea puzzled him for a few moments, but then he chuckled slightly. Chloe always had subtle ways of making bad situations worse… but funnier.
"Hey, babes," Vince said as he looked over at his girlfriend, who was looking down at the phone resting on her shorts. He reached into the pocket of his dark denim jeans and pulled out three Pokéballs, before slamming them onto the desk. Curtis couldn't help but be impressed by the black and red-coloured glamorous one in between the two normal-decorated ones; that was one Pokéball he had not seen before, let alone expected someone like Vince to own one.
"My fucking belt broke when I was in Fuschia, so I had to carry these things in my pocket," he groaned. Curtis looked slyly at Chloe, who exchanged a glance which seemed to say Why the hell am I going out with this guy? before looking away again.
Vince walked over to the sofa which Curtis and Chloe were reclining on before attempting to move in for a kiss. Chloe just turned away, however, facing Curtis with an expression of Fucking help me just as Vince managed to peck her cheek.
"What's the matter, babes? Won't you kiss me now?"
Chloe smirked. "So you turn up an hour late after we haven't seen each other for a while, and you expect me to kiss you?"
Vince seemed to look beaten, but Curtis could still trace some cockiness in his voice. "Babes…it'll happen one way or another. Come on, let's just do it."
Chloe gently nudged him away as he moved in a second time before getting up. "Like that's happening tonight, Vince. You've already put me in enough shit now."
"Babes, what is it?"
"History essay. Something about the Tanoby Ruins or something. I doubt you've even heard of the Sevii Islands, so you can fuck off." Chloe flipped the bird to Vince as she grabbed a synthetic fur coat and turned the door handle. As the door shut loudly behind her, Vince turned to Curtis.
"Girls, mate…believe me, make sure you get a fuck buddy, if anything. Girlfriends are sometimes hell to put up with."
"I can see that," Curtis remarked, which caused Vince to light slap him around the back of the head.
"So…anyway, Curtis…I heard about your little fiasco with Jade there…"
"Only what I told you, remember?" Curtis nudged Vince slightly before starting to laugh himself.
Vince chuckled. "So how you gonna go about…you know…the business?"
"I'm gonna need a Rainbow Badge first, really," Curtis replied hesitantly, while flicking a tuft of hair out of his face. "That's what she said…"
Vince chuckled. "Classic Jade, that is; always testing her potential suitors. She's been like that for years, even when I fucked her. She barely remembers me, though." Vince collapsed onto the sofa in a heap, narrowly missing crushing Curtis, who could hear the wind rush past his face.
Briefly, Curtis considered telling Vince the truth – that he was approached by her, and not the other way round – but the idea seemed to die the moment it entered his head. After all, Vince had been trying to get him laid since they both turned 16, and while Vince was largely successful, Curtis just seemed to plod along behind at a Slowpoke's pace. At least if Vince thought he managed to do it all by himself he'd have at least a bit more respect for him.
Vince looked at him. "Tell you what, mate," he said. "I know your Pokémon aren't that strong, right? Not strong enough to beat Erika, at least." Curtis was tempted to protest, but realized there was a hint of truth in what Vince was saying. "How about you stay over for a bit and we can think this through, yeah? My parents'll be out anyways and I doubt Chloe's coming back tonight. She gets all stroppy and shit at times."
Curtis smiled; although Vince was quite annoying at times, he always had some sort of way of convincing him into doing things. "Alright," he replied, after a short pause. "Sounds good."
"Great!" Vince patted him on the back. "So… what do you wanna do now, then?" Vince's eyes gazed over at his old games console over on the other side of the room. Curtis saw him looking at it. They'd spent hours upon hours playing on that thing when they were kids.
They both seemed to get the same idea at the same time. Vince strolled over and flicked it on, as it sprung to life with a Shadow Lugia theme and the recognisable theme. "Fancy a bit of Apokélypse 2, Curtis?"
It wasn't until well into the nostalgic night when Vince finally came up with an idea.
There was a loud roar coming from the console. "Oh fuck yes!" Vince exclaimed cockily. "40,000 kills with Lucario! Fuck yes!"
"Wow, mate," Curtis uttered, astonished. Even he was impressed; he always used to be the natural at Apokélypse, but his highscore was only around 25,000 – and that was with Rayquaza. "Your guy must be on like Pokérus or something, that's fucking amazing right there."
The victory fanfare blaring out of the console subsided as it got replaced with the main menu theme again. "Wait, Curtis…" Vince turned to face him. "That's it, mate! That's it!"
"What's it…?" Curtis started to say, but his mind went faster than his mouth as his thoughts caught up to him. "Oh, wait-"
"I know, perfect right?" Vince cut him off. "I know a couple guys, yeah? I can just ask them to supply us with a couple shots of Pokérus, right? Then you can inject some into your guys, and BAM! You can watch as they utterly destroy Erika!"
Curtis felt quite sceptical. "It is, like, illegal, though, Vince…"
"Oh, don't worry about it mate!" Vince tried to reassure him, but his shouting didn't really seem to help Curtis. "We've done quite a few drugs before, right?"
Vince was right, thought Curtis. They had done quite a few illegal substances before. However, Curtis knew all too well that Kanto was becoming very strict about its laws regarding Pokérus – the drug specifically designed for Pokémon to cheat their way up levels. If they were caught, however…Curtis shuddered. He didn't want to even think about the possibility.
"Honestly, Vince, I'm not too sure if this is a good idea…"
"Curtis, trust me. It'll be fine." Vince took on a slightly more reassuring tone. "I just know a couple people, all right? I can call them tomorrow, and then we can go and pick up the drugs, and then we can come back, you can put them into your guys and we won't need to worry about it anymore. Okay?"
"Umm…" Curtis thought for a moment. "I guess, as long as we do it together…"
"No worries, mate," Vince assured him. "It's plain and simple. Now, up for another round? I'll be, like, Jirachi this time. Give you a little bit more of an advantage, eh?"
Curtis slapped him gently on the side of his head. Jirachi was pretty much a joke character anyway.
Curtis looked up at the clock. The hour hand was pointed at the 8…or was it the 3? He couldn't tell from the angle he had been sleeping at.
Getting up, Curtis noticed his original assumption that it was eight o'clock was true after all. He noticed Vince had gotten up long before him, now dressed in a dark leather jacket and slim-fitting blue jeans.
"Morning, mate," Vince said brightly. "So you up for picking up the PR today? I've called them and everything."
Curtis nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's cool." He couldn't help but think that although his was sceptical about the idea, it seemed like a good idea now. This seemed to be a once in a lifetime opportunity to him, and his vision of finally losing his virginity overcame his morals about Pokémon training and drugs.
"We're leaving now, yeah? You might wanna hurry up." It took Curtis a short amount of time to quickly grab his shoes and step out of the door. The sky was a clear blue, and he could hear the Pidgey chirping on the edge of the forest surrounding Celadon.
"So, where are we headed then, Vince?"
Vince thought for a moment. "I think they said they wanted to meet us in the shithole – you know, that south end. I think we should take a 19 to the Game Corner and then I think we walk to that pond and turn right. I think he's waiting for us around there."
"Sounds good then, mate," Curtis replied as they started walking. Two blondes walked past in what was obviously their going out gear – Curtis chuckled as he realized they were taking the walk of shame back home. However, that didn't stop them from saying a cheeky "Hey, Vince," as they passed them.
"Slags," Vince whispered to Curtis after they had walked past. "Trust me, I would never waste my time on them."
They arrived at the Game Corner less than half an hour later. As they stepped out of the bus, Curtis noticed that it had gotten considerably warmer than when they had set out from the north side of the city. He had sent out one of his Pokémon as well on the journey – it seemed to bask in the warmth of the sun on his shoulder. Curtis knew that having what Vince called a 'purple ball of fur' on his shoulder was attracting weird looks from people who thought he had become an Ash Ketchum wannabe, but he didn't mind. Having his prized Nidoran there to accompany him just made him feel more comfortable.
Vince looked at Curtis as they stepped off the bus and watched its glimmering green coat of paint fade away onto the road.
"Look, mate…" he said hesitantly, "I kinda have to split now, yeah? You know the directions, right?"
Curtis nodded; even though Vince was leaving, he didn't feel intimidated by the task. It was so simple; find the guy Vince told him about – he had a description on him – get the drugs, and go back to Vince's with a job well done and a surefire way of beating Erika. And then getting laid. Perfect.
"Alright, I'll see you at mine once you get the stuff, right Curtis?"
"Cool, man," Curtis replied. He waves and Vince turned away. "See ya."
Curtis smiled as he turned right towards the residential square where the dealer was waiting for him. His Nidoran shared his optimism, snuggling against his shoulder as he walked.
He had no idea he was being followed.
