In the span of a few hours, Misty's life had gone from a fairy tale to a tragedy. Well okay maybe she was being a little dramatic, but things had certainly taken a turn, seemingly for the worse. She was getting married in just a few days in a wedding she had only dreamed about as a child. And then after the wedding she was poised to live a story-book life in a beautiful seaside house with a wonderful man who thought the world of her. It was almost exactly how she'd dreamed it since she'd been a young girl. The exception was the identity of the man these things would be happening with, but she was over that. 'WAS' being the key word.
Then by some cruel twist of happenstance, she'd lived her dream. A dream she'd had since she was a young girl. A dream she'd held onto until eight months prior that she had finally given up on. She had sex with Ash Ketchum. Not only that, but they'd basically both admitted, albeit in a drunken stupor, that they'd been…they were in love with each other.
Okay, sure her dream had morphed slightly as she became a teenager and then matured. She didn't dream of the more adult things until her mid to late teens. She'd never dreamed of anything so physical while she'd traveled with Ash till around her 13th birthday. But the dream of some sort of a romantic relationship with him had started nearly from the day they met.
She wasn't sure when exactly she figured out that she was in love with him. She did remember feeling something from the moment he'd caught that dumb caterpie. But by the time they had to part all those years ago, she was hopeless. And the feeling didn't stop when they had parted. Ash continued on his quest and she figured he'd forgotten all about her. But she never forgot him. She couldn't. So she did the only thing she could. She lived her life hoping that someday they would reunite. She hoped that deep down, when they had been together, something had stirred in him too, and that one day they would get another chance to explore more than just a close friendship. That hope had led her to shun all attempts at romance from any other potential suitor. Yeah, she'd been on a few dates, but her constant remembrance of Ash Ketchum ruined any chance any of those relationships had. Her romantic focus on the one man she seemingly could ever love had ruined it for any other guy.
But then Rudy, who she also hadn't seen in many years, had just happened to visit her at the Cerulean gym about a year and a half ago. This after word got to her that Ash had been seeing some girl he'd met in Kalos. She still held on to hope, but she had decided to give Rudy a longer shot than any other guy she had up to that point. And what could one say about Rudy? He was a great guy! A gentleman in all senses of the term. He showed her respect, and showed that he was completely committed to her happiness. He showered her with gifts and compliments. He revealed how he never stopped thinking of her. And he never tried to push the relationship beyond where she wanted to go.
And then he proposed. And she didn't say yes immediately. Because Ash Ketchum was still a person who existed and there was still hope. Right? That was until she had heard the news eight months ago that Ash had gotten engaged. Her world became very weird upon hearing that news. Slowly but surely something died within her. It took a couple of weeks, but she then went to Rudy and accepted his proposal.
Did she love Rudy? No, at least not in the way she had loved Ash for so many years. But she figured since Ash was going to find some semblance of happiness in a relationship, she should darn well try to herself. Could she learn to love someone else? She didn't know, and frankly didn't care. Her dream was dead, and she needed something to help her feel alive.
And in the months since, she had genuinely become happy. She had actually gotten over Ash Ketchum (or so she told herself). Preparing for the wedding was just the distraction she needed, and Rudy was an absolute dream through the entire process. And he still never pushed her to do things in their relationship she wasn't comfortable with.
Plainly stated, Misty had assumed that her first time would be with Rudy in their dream house by the shore. But it wasn't. It was with Ash Ketchum…just like she'd always dreamed. Well okay she hadn't dreamed the whole drunk stupor thing, but give her a break, okay?
And as she stood in the descending elevator, trying her best to smooth her dress and hair so she would at least be halfway presentable to the world as she made her way back to her own hotel, she wondered just what the hell she was supposed to feel now!
She checked her appearance in the reflective surface of the hotel elevator, hoping she'd been able to wipe enough of the smeared mascara off her cheeks and that her side ponytail wasn't too frazzled from being pulled on by Ash while he rode her like…
And she attempted to put that out of her mind as she exited the elevator and quickly made her way to the busy Saffron City streets. What are the odds we'd both choose Saffron as a wedding destination? What the hell!?
She couldn't believe how late she'd slept in. It was already around 11:45, and she had promised to meet Rudy's sister for lunch that day. Ugh. Just thinking of her sweet future sister-in-law made the guilt already eating at her gut grow even stronger. She loved that girl, she really did. She was one of the reasons Misty had decided to accept Rudy's proposal. But now, everything just felt wrong, like she'd betrayed two people. How on earth was she going to deal with this!? Misty had decided she'd approach it like she had her romantic feelings for a good decade; she'd hide it.
The Saffron streets were busy as she made her way toward her hotel. Luckily for her, it was only around a half mile away from where Ash was staying, so walking there wasn't going to be a big deal. She'd have to get a ride back to the shopping district's parking area to collect her car (and her wedding dress) later. She began to notice people on the street take second glances at her. Shit, she thought, my hair must be worse than I thought.
She pulled out her cell phone to call Mahri and tell her she'd be late, but as luck had it (which had all been bad for the last 24 hours or so) it was completely dead. So she picked up her pace as her hotel came into view, and as the populous of Saffron City seemed to continue to take a disturbing interest in her disheveled appearance.
She quickly made her way through the automatic doors of the large hotel and rushed through the lobby and toward the elevators while attempting to avoid the now annoying glares from the people therein. Even the receptionist was giving her the stink eye. What the hell!? Hasn't anyone here had a bad hair day before!?
The elevator door slid closed behind her and she released a relieved sigh when she ended up being the only one on it. The ride seemed to take forever, and she burst out of the elevator and nearly spinted down the hall to her room, swiping the key, and slamming the door shut behind her as she slid to the ground, back against the door, and decided to just chill for a few moments.
A shower and some brief preening and makeup application did wonders for the youngest Waterflower and she rushed to gather her partly charged phone and purse and bolted out the door. She still had time to make her 1 o'clock lunch with Mahri if she hurried. She yanked her phone out and shot a quick text to the younger girl, a tad surprised when she finally noticed she'd missed 14 prior texts and 9 calls from various people. She guessed that's what happens when you have a dead phone for half a day.
Resolved to catch up to her messages later, she shoved her phone back in her purse and made her way down the street to the small coffee shop they had decided to meet at. She slipped inside and looked around for the younger girl. Not seeing her, she decided to go ahead and grab a coffee to enjoy while she waited, desperately needing the kick the caffeine would give her after recent events.
She wasn't a fan of how the young barista gave her the once over while she ordered, nor of some of the looks the patrons of the small coffee shop were giving her. She knew it wasn't her hair this time after the time she spent on it before leaving her room. Shrugging, she grabbed a magazine and began to read it as she enjoyed her coffee.
Fifteen minutes passed and she took the last sip of her drink and looked around. Mahri still hadn't shown up and new patrons entering the shop were still giving her strange looks. Something must have happened to make Mahri that late, so Misty stood and left the coffee shop while reaching for her phone. She dialed Mahri's number and and waited as the line began to ring. She suddenly heard an audible ringtone from behind her. She spun around and there was Mahri, looking much different than she normally did. Had she been crying?
"M-Mahri," Misty stammered, "I was waiting…"
"Do you ever check your messages!?" the young girl yelled, attracting several passerby's attention.
"Uh, I haven't had a chance today," Misty said, shocked at the typically sweet young girl's sudden anger, "I was in a rush to meet you!"
"Were you in a rush because you were so busy cheating on my brother!?" she screamed as Misty's jaw AND stomach both dropped.
"I-I…how…?"
Mahri practically threw a newspaper at Misty, scattering several sections at their feet. But it was the front page that grabbed Misty's attention, and she felt like her life was basically over as the pictures of she and Ash entering his hotel room in a sultry embrace caught her eye.
"You home wrecking bitch!" Mahri yelled at her, venting all her anger as the crowd of people continued to grow, and they weren't taking Misty's side. "Who would have thought you'd turn out to be the biggest slut in Kanto!? We loved you! My brother loved you!"
Loved? As in past tense?
"Mahri…I…it was a mis…" she was cut off as a white hot pain radiated through her left cheek as Mahri slapped her. The young teenage girl then promptly turned around and stormed off, pushing through the crowd of people that had appeared.
Misty just stood there, her hand on her face, not really processing everything that was going on around her. She may have heard some of the people in the crowd mumble words of pity Some seemed to mumble words of condemnation, saying she got what she deserved. But the world was dull and blurry to her at that moment. Everything was falling apart, starting with a relationship with a young girl that she treasured.
Rudy! She had to talk to Rudy before….Misty finally snapped out of her stupor and hurriedly pulled her phone out, taking a second to glare at the bystanders angrily, which seemed to be enough to get them moving along.
She quickly scrolled through her messages and was horrified at what she saw. First her sisters had texted her demanding an explanation for the pictures in the paper. They were followed by messages filled with hurt and anger from Mahri. And finally, Rudy had sent a few messages. She couldn't read any emotion in them. They just seemed flat. But the last one flatly stated he was going to Ash's hotel to find her.
Oh no! She had to get back to that hotel to stop Rudy from doing something he'd regret…and to save Ash's dumb ass.
Note: Sorry these chapters are kind of short, but that's kind of the nature of this story. I'm intending it to be kind of a quick-hitting thing. Are you all liking it? I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to go with everything, but I do have a general idea in mind. Anyone you'd like to see show up to shame our poor protagonists, haha? I had a bit of writers block with the end of this chapter, but I think I'm generally okay with where it went.
Let me know what you think!
