James looked in the mirror one more time before leaving his room, "Are you sure I look alright, Growlie?"
"Growl Growl!" the Pokemon responded happily while bounding around the room. He knew he wasn't going to get much in the way of attention this evening, but he was happy that his trainer would be pleased.
"Thanks pal, although I'm not sure why I take fashion sense from a being that goes around naked all the time."
With that, the doorbell rang. James and Growlithe both jumped, as neither was expecting the interruption.
"Jessie? Early? A lot has changed," James said with a shrug and headed towards the living room.
Outside, Cassidy dealt with shook up nerves and calmed herself down while James came to the door.
"Jessie!" James said with a big smile on his face. "You never guessed it was me, did you?"
"Uhh..no. I had no clue," Cassidy said in her false voice while stepping into the threshold.
"You're not mad at me for it, are you?" James asked with a concerned look on his face. "It was the only way I could think of to get you to come over here without asking too many questions. It does surprise me that you're here fifteen minutes early, though. You were never known for being punctual."
'Shit,' Cassidy thought. Jessie was going to be here soon. 'Oh well,' she reminded herself. 'I have fifteen minutes to convince James to get out and not come back. I should only need ten,' she thought. This lack of time meant she must start soon, however. The only issue was, she had to get James totally away from the apartment before Jessie got there. After quickly raking her mind for a solution, she found one. She didn't like it in the least, but it had to work.
"It's been too long, James." Cassidy began with a seductive tone in her voice. "I was beginning to think I'd never see you again." She inched in closer toward the former Team Rocket member.
"It sure has been a long time," the oblivious James agreed. "Would you like a grand tour of the place?"
'Oh boy. This boy is not getting it at all,' Cassidy thought. She decided to go another path. "You know James; it's been two years since we've been together, and in those two years, I've began to think about my past and my future. Haven't you done the same?" Cassidy questioned with a hungry look in her eyes.
James began to think that something was different about Jessie, but he dismissed the question with the thought that he had no clue what had happened to her in the past two years. "Well sure, I've thought about my future and past. It's made me realize what I want in life and what is important. I've got so many things to tell you." James looked down at the floor unsure of what to say next. "Oh, I forgot. Can I take your coat for you?"
"Well we agree on part of it, James," Cassidy said with a grin. She gingerly removed the coat and let it fall to the floor rather than giving it to James. "We know what we want know, and I want you." She slammed him up against the wall and kissed him. She cringed as she did, but tried to feign passion in order to somewhat arouse him. She cringed again at the thought.
James didn't know what to do. He liked Jessie, he knew that for sure, but something was wrong. Jessie could be a real bitch at times, for lack of a better word, but this was not her style. She wouldn't throw herself upon someone like that. She may be slightly psycho, but she had class. James pushed Jessie off him. "What are you trying to do?" he asked with an angry tone in his voice.
Cassidy stumbled, trying to come up with the right response. She knew time was running out, and if she couldn't make him happy, maybe she could make him mad enough to leave. "I'm trying to make up for lost time," she said with a smile before getting a firm grip on one of James' belt loops on his trousers and pulling her towards him.
"What the hell is this?!" Jessie exploded as she entered the room. It took her a minute to distinguish what was going on, but the first thing she did was determine who she was looking at. It was James. James was alive. James and her. This wasn't the truth. This was someone playing a prank on her. A horribly twisted prank. Jessie backed into the wall. "This is sick. I don't know who you are or what you're trying to prove to me, but this is sick." Threat or no threat, Jessie couldn't be in the room any longer,and she ran out before either other person in the room could warrant a response. Tears welling in her eyes, she ran all the way back to her apartment.
"What is going on? James asked while pushing Jessie off him a second time." That girl could have been your twin. James thought a little harder before pushing the girl back again. "Wait. You can't be Jessie. We weren't allowed to keep uniforms." James scrambled to a chair, trying to put farther distance between him and the mysterious girl in his apartment. "Who are you, and why are you here."
Now Cassidy really didn't know what to do. Her plan had failed completely, and she had simply succeeded in messing things up even more. Not knowing what else to do, Cassidy did the same thing the real Jessie had done, and fled without another word.
Jessie was in tears when she got to the apartment. Someone was trying to hurt her. Someone was purposely rubbing her failed past in her face. It was disgusting. She had to tell someone. Cassidy was probably sleeping by now, but Jessie decided this was a big enough thing to wake her up for.
"Cassidy," she whispered quietly while entering the darkened room. Jessie was afraid of tripping and decided to just turn on the lights and wake the sleeping beauty. "Cass—" she began. Then she realized that Cassidy wasn't there. What was there, however, was disturbing. Jessie cringed as she picked up an empty box of red hair dye. "That sick minded bitch!" Jessie exclaimed while running back to the door of the apartment. She didn't want to be there when Cassidy came back from her escapade. Jessie ran down the flights of stairs to the street and started running again.
James was stunned. There was no way to describe what had just happened. He tried saying it aloud to see if it made sense. "So someone came by in an almost perfect Jessie disguise, even down to the voice, and tried to seduce me. Hell, she might have even tried to rape me if she had the chance." James shook his head from the sheer insanity of the thought. "Then," he continued, "the real Jessie came in as I had planned, saw what was going on and it spooked her." Growlie cocked his head to the side, showing his own confusion as well. "It doesn't make any sense," James said with a perplexed look on his face. "But Jessie must not be happy wherever she is. In fact, she's probably really hurt." James sat on the floor cross-legged on the floor. "I hope she's not feeling too bad."
Growlie, who was normally very pleasant and supportive of his owner, nudged James' arm almost violently.
"And what's your problem?!" James retorted, almost yelling.
Growlie ignored the yell and nudged James again, almost pushing him over in the direction of the door. To further get his point across, the Pokemon ran a few times from James to the door of the apartment.
"You think I should go after her? How am I going to know where she is?" James said with a dissatisfied sigh. "I do know one place she might go, however. Do you think I should take a chance?" James asked the Growlithe.
Growlie didn't have to answer with howls, because he had James' wallet in his mouth so James could go out the door.
Cassidy walked dejectedly on the path back to the main part of town. She knew she couldn't stay at her apartment that night, so she called Butch. After five rings, it went to Butch's voicemail, something that Cassidy had never had happen before. "This isn't good," Cassidy said aloud. "He always answers his phone." Cassidy broke out in a full run toward Butch's apartment, trying to find her spare key in the small purse she brought along.
