"You just lost the game!" I told Drew, who was in the middle of explaining the rules of Monopoly to Harley.
He stiffened for a moment, looked over at me, and muttered, "Oh. Shit."
Harley looked appalled, "Language, young man! Better go wash that out with soap!"
"I'm fifteen!" complained Drew.
I smiled, "And he is slightly more mature than you, Harley."
Drew smirked at Harley, triumphantly, and then reached over and gave me a knuckle touch.
Harley's expression turned sour, "Stupid love birds! Screw this game. I've already lost it!" He stomped off, wringing his hands maniacally. He thought we were in love, but we still denied it. Harley didn't have to know the truth, an, quite frankly, we'd prefer it if he didn't.
Drew and I gave each other quizzical looks, but then Drew said, "Oh Harley."
I sighed dramatically, "Oh, I'm so miserable," I said, making huge arm gestures.
Drew caught on, "I can't have ranch dressing on my salad!" he shrieked, in the perfect pitch, "It must be LOW-FAT!"
Solidad had been looking through travel brochures, but Drew's scream made her jump, spilling her tea all over herself. She looked wildly behind her.
"Harley? It's breakfast time!" She whipped her head around and glared at us, realization sinking in.
"Was that you?" she asked angrily, her eyes piercing into Drew's, "Don't do that! Thank Arceus that wasn't hot!"
Drew chuckled so low that Solidad couldn't hear.
"It was a good imitation, wasn't it Solidad?" I piped in, "I mean, that could be useful someday, right?"
Solidad couldn't keep herself from laughing. "I'll give you that one, Drew."
The past few days had been slow. Drew had recovered slightly, but still he'd break down every once in a while. We had to careful with our words. I did not mention my mother and Solidad stopped drawing hearts on papers the way she used to. Solidad knew what had happened, but Drew forbade us from telling Harley anything, so we did not. Harley must have thought Drew was crying because of his mid-life crisis, or something else that Harley believed in.
We were now in Cerulean City, and had avoided taking Mt. Moon for obvious reasons. Instead, we hiked over the cave, our Pokemon, especially my Blaziken, assisting us greatly.
I hadn't visited Misty yet. We weren't particularly good friends, and Drew didn't really care for her either. Still, I felt guilty and made amends to see her before we would leave.
Solidad, Harley, Drew, and I walked about downtown Cerulean, taking in all the gorgeous scenery and clean, impressive buildings. We saw the Cerulean gym, that Drew didn't bother going to because he said the Pokemon league was not his "thing." We walked through the Oceanic Museum and saw the breathtakingly beautiful pearls on display there.
Soon enough, Drew and I were getting bored of walking and decided to split off from the group. I caught Solidad's eye as we crept away, but she seemed to turn temporarily blind. Harley did not notice we left for a while. He also pretended not to notice according to Solidad.
"I wanna just take a walk," Drew told me, taking my hand and leading me through the streets.
We took our walk, hand in hand, although it was romantic, it was more like he was the dog and I was walking him, the way he constantly rushed ahead and urged me to go faster.
Eventually, we took a rest on a park bench outside of the Pokemon Center. Drew was still holding my hand, and I found I wasn't as nervous around him as I usually was.
"I think that one's Orion," Drew said, looking up and pointing out a constellation.
"Hmm..." I searched the sky, looking for a familiar pattern, "That's a "w", I think. It's Andromeda."
"Well then," Drew scanned the sky carefully, looking for something impressive, but then said lamely, "That's the little dipper."
"And there's the big dipper right next to it," I added, pointing up at the bright stars.
Drew leaned in toward me and my heart almost stopped.
"There's May," he said, leaning in more and kissing me.
Alarmed at first, I kept my eyes wide open and surprised, but gradually I fell into my comfort level and my eyes fluttered shut.
He pulled back smiling, and, to be honest, I have no idea how weird my expression must have been.
"Well, that was nice," I commented sheepishly.
"Yeah," he agreed, standing up and stretching with a yawn.
"It's getting late..." I started.
"...We should get some sleep," said Drew, holding out his hand again, "After all, I wouldn't want Harley to get any ideas about us." He winked.
"No, no," I replied. It was our little inside joke, "That would be at the top of my list of things never to do."
"Ditto," said Drew, as we glided into the dimly lit lobby of the Pokemon Center. My lips were still tingling.
