Chapter Sixteen — Living In the Moment
When Sapphire grabbed his wrist and was given the confused looks from both Lisia and Ruby, she finally realized her actions and mistake. Before Ruby could ask her what she was doing, Sapphire released his wrist and ran towards the restrooms on four feet, shoving through the crowd and ignoring the stares she was getting. Mutters rose when she left and worried looks increased.
Yellow stood up in her seat and glanced around the room to the other girls, who glanced back, nodding. Shuffling over, they all went to the restroom to comfort her.
"I'll make sure no one comes in, you guys talk to her about what just happened," Yellow told them as she stood guard in front of the door. She knew she couldn't just go in carelessly since she was cross dressing, and someone had to do the job one way or another.
"Got it," White responded for them, pushing her way in with Crystal and Blue following behind.
When they entered, they found Sapphire banging her head hopelessly against the wall, causing a small crack to appear.
"Err... Sapph?" Crystal cautiously called out, approaching her gently.
Sapphire quickly swerved around and faced them, a small tick of blood coming out of her forehead. "O-Oh hey!" she greeted stiffly, looking as if it was on a script or something.
"What happened out there?" Blue questioned straightforwardly, placing a hand on her hip.
"Blue," Crystal chided the brunette for her harsh tone. She replaced it with a gentle one. "Sapph, we just want to help out."
"I-I don't know," Sapphire admitted. "I just feel really sad when I see Ruby together with Lisia, and I'm just done with everything."
"Could it be..." Blue stopped for a dramatic pause before going into a large grin. "... that you're jealous?" Crystal immediately elbowed her in her side for being a ship monster. "Ow!" Blue rubbed her side. "Hey! I'm just telling Sapph why!"
The brunette turned to her with a serious face. "Look, what you're feeling is probably jealousy. Right now, all you want is Ruby to yourself, no? That means you love him and your icky, sad feeling when he's with another girl is a sign of jealousy, which happens to be a sign a love. Once again, you love him." Crystal elbowed her once again. "Ow! Stop that!"
"You stop that!" Crystal scolded, rolling her eyes.
"I mean, Blue sounds insane most of the time, but she's right about this," White addressed it, gaining their attention. "I don't know if you're love with him or whatever, but that feeling you have is jealousy, Sapph."
"No way!" Sapphire denied, looking disgusted. "Me? Like Prissy Boy?"
"She's in denial. What should we go?" White whispered to Blue and Crystal, putting a hand in front of Sapphire and acting like she couldn't hear when she's in front of them.
Sapphire slapped it out of her face. "I'm not in denial!"
"Don't worry, ladies," Blue reassured. "This is a very common stage."
"Blue, I'm literally right in front of you!" Sapphire snapped.
Blue ignored her snappy attitude, and put the comforting hand on her shoulder once again much to Sapphire's dismay. "Look Sapph, do you like him or do you not? What other explanations are there? I mean, sure you have a thing for your childhood dreamboat crush and it was all cute, but it's been years since you last saw him, and right now, you're living with Ruby in the present. It's not surprising that you've developed feelings after spending all that time with him."
"I hate to say this, but Blue's right," Crystal added. "How do you feel about it, Sapph?"
Sapphire just looked unsure and let out a long sigh. "I don't know," she repeated. "I just... want to end this night. Can we not talk about this right now and save it for later?"
"You do know you'll have to face it sooner or later," Blue stated.
"I'll face it tomorrow. Right now, the party is not for my feelings but for Brendan and May, so I don't want my troubles to ruin that."
"Okay," White agreed, nodding. "We'll talk about it tomorrow then."
"Okay, how about—"
"—No."
"You're not listening to me—"
"—No."
"But—"
"—Shut up."
Gold finally gave up his attempts to let Green hear about his wonderful scheme to help Sapphire. Red laughed nervously when he saw Green giving the boy no mercy. Green paid no attention to his ideas because he felt like it was going to be a waste of time and effort, and it'll probably make him look stupid. Every time Gold had an idea, everything would go wrong. Blue's ideas are crazy, but they usually end up mostly successful.
Gold moped as he chewed on his straw. His eyes trailed over to Ruby dancing with Lisia happily.
"You're kind of staring," Red told him, hoping he would look away before he was too obvious.
"Aren't you guys the tiniest upset?" Gold stopped and put out his arms dramatically as he continued. "Red, Sapph is your home girl, and Ruby is your roommate for years. Don't you want to be a wingman and help?"
"I like helping out, but when it comes to these things, I think it's best to leave it to them," Red replied, speaking maturely. Last time he tried meddling for his friends, he ended up breaking them up by hooking the girlfriend up with someone else on accident. He was not going to make another mistake of butting into people's love lives again.
"Why are you even begging? Usually, you wouldn't care and do it anyways," Silver stated, shoving food in his mouth afterwards. He was getting annoyed and he wanted the pleading to stop.
"I need at least two people," Gold answered. He leaned closer to Red, making the older actor slightly uncomfortable. "C'mon, Red, my man! If you do it, I'll give you pictures of Yells when she was four! I have her baby pictures too!"
"Do you seriously think I would want that?" Red asked him.
"Well, yeah," Gold replied, shrugging.
Red's face heated up. "You're such a sick person."
"No, Green is the sick person. I'm the cool one," Gold corrected.
Green adverted his eyes over and gave him another glare to make him shut up.
"Hey, you guys!" Blue came over to the table, swinging her arms around Green and Red, surprising literally everyone at the table. Red looked uncomfortable under her arm because he felt like she was going to choke him, while Green looked irked as usual.
"Blue! You want to help me with a little plan?" Gold asked, getting the biggest meddler involved.
Blue immediately perked at the word 'plan'. "What is it?"
"Oh no, you are not involving her in that weird idea," Red denied for her, knowing how much worse it would be if Blue was a part of it.
"Weird? Sounds fun! Let me in!" Blue begged, looking extremely interested.
"Glad you— ow!" Gold rubbed the arm that Silver had punched. He turned over to the boy, extremely peeved.
"Don't drag her in," Silver said, basically explaining why he did that. He looked over to Blue. "This idiot just wants to explode soda onto the dance floor so that Lisia and Ruby would be ruined during the dance. That'll ruin the party."
At the sound of the plan, Blue became very disinterested. "Oh..." she mouthed. "Well, if something doesn't happen in the next hour, then I'll let you do that."
"Don't." Crystal appeared behind her, narrowing her eyes at Gold.
Gold only greeted her nicely in return. "Hey Super Serious Gal. Don't be such a stick in the mud and join the fun. Don't you want to help Sapph out? Plus, it'll be funny seeing Ruby shrieking in the soda rain."
"That would be funny," Emerald commented, popping up besides Crystal.
"No Rald," Crystal told him, covering his ears so that they wouldn't be polluted. "Gold, don't even try anything! Also, don't involve Rald in your stupid plans!"
"Sheesh, stop acting like class rep, Crys!" Gold responded, shrugging her demands off.
Crystal was about to say something back until Blue interrupted them. "Hey Greenie!" Now Blue's full attention was on Green. She wrapped her arms around his neck playfully, and Green tried to push her off. "Let's go dance!"
"No."
"I'll dance with you, Blue," Silver offered.
"Thanks Silv, but I feel like it'll be too obvious if I went with you," Blue replied.
She grabbed Green's arm and shoved him off the chair, yanking him away from him and his plate of food.
"Hey, let go, you pesky woman," Green told her, pulling his arm back.
"This is another helping Sapph operation!" Blue said, trying to persuade him. "Don't you wanna help your junior?"
"You guys act like there's drama around, but you guys are the ones who create it," Green stated, ignoring her plead.
"Oh, just c'mon!" Blue said, linking arms with him and dragging him off forcefully.
"I'm worried about Sapph, but you guys might be worse," Crystal commented, rubbing her temples to calm her stress down.
"Speaking of which, where's Sapph? I don't see Yellow either," Red asked, knowing they came out together.
"Oh, them? They went to hang somewhere," Crystal replied.
"Well, I've always wanted to dance with someone, so I guess it worked out for me," Yellow said, thinking optimistically. "But I'm not good with being the guy, so me leading you is out."
"I'm not a dancer either, so your lead would probably be better than mine," Sapphire replied.
Both the girls were dancing on the dance floor, doing the usual ballroom dancing like everyone else. Yellow wanted to do something to make the girl feel better, and since food was too obvious, she thought dancing with her would be another alternative. She was dressed as a guy anyways, so it wouldn't be weird for everyone. However, she wasn't the best at dancing so it wasn't the greatest idea to come up with.
It grew silent between the two until Sapphire spoke up. "So um, this is just a guess, but do you want to know what happened in the restroom?"
Yellow stiffened up when her curiosity and nosy intentions were exposed. She tried to start off chill and nonchalant about it. "I'm curious about it, but before anything, I just want you to be happy, whether you choose Ruby or choose someone else. I'm pretty sure it's the same with everyone else. So if you really do like Ruby, instead of going against it, you should just go with it."
"Is that how ya are with Red?" Sapphire asked.
"RED?!" Yellow exclaimed loudly, a blush immediately appearing on her face. "W-Why would you bring that up?"
"You have a crush on him, right?" Sapphire inquired bluntly, proceeding.
"W-Well..." Yellow responded uncertainly, but Sapphire could tell she was on point.
"How do ya know if ya really like someone?"
"I mean, you like that guy who saved you years ago, right? What caused your affection and how did you feel?" Yellow asked, trying to give her a general idea.
"My feelings for him? I just really thought he was really admirable and brave," Sapphire answered honestly, feeling open for once. "I strive to be like that so much, which is why I became like I am. I didn't really end up admirable now, but at least I have the guts to do things most of the time."
"How are your feelings towards Ruby?" Yellow inquired further.
Sapphire grimaced when she was called out on it. "He's an annoying, prissy, whiny princess. He complains too much, even about the smallest things like a wrinkle or speck of dirt on his clothes." Her face cleared up when she thought about other things. "But even though he acts like one and always insults me for no reason, I think he's a good person and I really admire the way he sees things. Sometimes he goes too overboard with his pickiness where everything has to be perfect though."
"Do you have the same affection for him as you do with the other guy?" Yellow asked her. "Ow!" Technically, Yellow did and didn't get an answer. When she had asked, Sapphire crushed her foot.
"I'm so sorry, Yellow!" Sapphire immediately apologized. This whole time she's been doing her best to avoid her feet, but failed to do so when her mind drifted off somewhere.
"It's okay," Yellow assured, though inside she felt like her feet was crushed by a bolder. The numbness already appeared.
"Are you sure? You're kind of cringing," Sapphire pointed out.
Yellow tried to muster the biggest smile as she could. Unfortunately, she was a horrible liar and not an actress. "I'm totally fine. I'm just gonna... sit down."
"What are you scheming, you pesky woman?" Green immediately interrogated her once they hit the dance floor. He had enough to deal with. Gold was going insane with his stupid ideas, and he's been surrounded by the most dramatic people in the dramatic scenes they caused. It was getting on his nerves a bit.
"Oh, why would you say that, Greenie?" Blue answered, acting clueless. Though she said that, he could see how she adverted her eyes over to the right every ten seconds. And when she does, she follows their the same direction of her eyes, leading them there as well.
Finally, when she stopped, Green looked over to where her attention was focused on, only to find Lisia and Ruby like five feet away.
Of course it's about this, Green thought, rolling his eyes, distressed.
"If he ends dating her, then who cares?"
Blue stomped on his foot, crushing it. "How dare you say that?"
Green resisted the urge to punch her and released her hands. The only reason why he went along with her in the first place was because he thought she would shut up about it after ten minutes of dancing and leave him alone for the rest of the night. But with Blue's usual meddling, this could take hours. His precious hours.
"Hey Ruby, I want to tell you something." The two was about to start a fight until they heard Lisia's voice close behind them.
Blue quickly grabbed Green's hands again forcefully and tried to blend in as they went closer.
"What is it?" Ruby asked, not having an idea of what she's going to ask.
At this, Lisia looked uncertain and flustered for the first time. "Umm... Okay, I'm just going to go out and say it! The truth is, I've had a crush on—"
"—Hey! Get back here!" a shout interrupted her.
Green turned around and saw a little kid running towards their direction with something in his hand. He ran past the people Blue was spying on, and behind him was one of the newest actors, Pearl, sprinting behind him. In all of the chaos, Pearl managed to run so fast that he couldn't stop when he saw Lisia in the way, and in the end, he knocked her down onto the floor. Finally, the boy stopped running and immediately apologized to her.
Beside him, he could hear Blue pumping a fist, quietly whispering, "Score! Nice, newbies!"
"Did you plan this?" he accused her.
"I wish," Blue replied, making him shake his head disappointingly.
"Pearl!" Diamond came over, out of breath from chasing Pearl. Green didn't know why he was so exhausted when he seemed like he was jogging the whole time. "Did you catch him?"
"Oh, shoot! I forgot!" Pearl exclaimed, looking over to the direction where the kid disappeared to.
Ruby helped Lisia up. "Maybe it was a horrible idea to be dancing at this time," he said. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm totally fine," Lisia reassured, giving him a faint smile. "Who were those guys anyways? I haven't seen them before."
"They're the new cast," Ruby answered, glancing over to them.
"Oh, really? Wait, that's not it. I would like to get back to what I was saying before. The truth is—"
"—Ruby."
Lisia stopped in mid-sentence when another person appeared. She jumped slightly to the side, surprised of the girl's appearance. The girl only stood there, giving her a questioning look as to why she did that, but quickly waved it off.
"Pardon me, I'm interrupting, aren't I?" Platina noticed. "Who is this?"
"This is Lisia, one of my old friends," Ruby introduced, Lisia giving the girl a small wave. "And this is Platina, or Missy as she preferred to be called."
Platina bowed slightly. "Hello there," she politely greeted. "Do you mind if I were to take Ruby for a moment? I need to ask him something. It will be just for a moment."
"Umm..." Lisia hesitated, wanting to reject it but felt that she couldn't because it would be rude and unreasonable. "Yeah, go ahead." I have him for the rest of the night anyways, she remembered, letting out a small sigh that slid to a smile.
"Sorry Lisia," Ruby apologized.
While Green watched Ruby exit with Platina to somewhere, he saw Lisia looked slightly dejected before clearing herself and heading over to the buffet table in a normal fashion. Beside him, he could hear Blue do another fist pump and smile like a maniac.
"You're too obvious," Green remarked.
"Look, I don't hate Lisia, but I really want Ruby and Sapphire together," Blue clarified, trying to relieve her non-dark feelings.
"Are you sure you didn't plan this? It seems too convenient," Green commented.
"Who do you think I am?" Blue feigned hurt, placing her hand on her heart. Green gave her a stoic, unsympathetic face, obviously not caring. "Okay, I get it. I like to meddle in people love affairs, but this totally wasn't me. I wouldn't sabotage unless told to, and Lisia is a better person than I thought she was, so I let her do whatever and didn't interfere. It was fate, not me this time. Although interrogating Sapphire's feelings for Ruby by making the juniors do it for me was all my planning. I told them it was an acting exercise."
"Hmm..." Green stared at her face, trying to judge whether she was telling the truth or not.
"Anyways, I want to dance~! Let's go!" Blue said, dragging him onto the middle of the dance floor.
"Wait, why? They're gone!"
"Because dancing seems fun now and I need to relieve some stress! Meddling is harder than it looks!" she replied.
"Gold, I'm going to say this now like six months ago when we did this scene in the drama. You suck at dancing," Crystal deadpanned, getting annoyed that he stepped on her feet for the tenth time.
"Hey, but at least I'm a handsome partner, right?" Gold responded, grinning cheekily.
Crystal rolled her eyes. "Very," she replied sarcastically. "Anyways, cutting to the chase, you're not actually going to pull through with the plan, are you?"
Gold leaned in closer, to the point where their eyes were inches away. "Oh? Do you want me to? We can dance in soda rain like how people do in the movies," he suggested, smirking.
Crystal ignored his approach and only continued the conversation, "Soda rain that's shooting at you like a geyser and natural rain are two different things." Gold let out a small chuckle at how she retorted. "I'm just asking about it, so I can know in the long run. I know you're doing this for your own pleasure rather than the other reasons you stated earlier."
"Geez, what's up with all you gals today? You all are so caught up in Sapph's love life," Gold commented.
"H-How—"
"How do I know?" Gold interrupted, already knowing what she was going to say. "Please, you gals are like an open book. Plus, Sapph's huge scene earlier with that chick and Prissy Boy was sort of over the top and obvious. Even Red noticed all the drama circling, and he's pretty dense to this stuff. That's the reason why Fire doesn't have a love romance yet."
Fire, Red's character in the drama, is one of the few characters who aren't in a relationship. They tried to get Blue as his love interest before, but Red couldn't relate in romance scenes and it ended up ruining things, so Blue's character ended up with Green's. Well, there was that, and the fact that Fire's character wasn't cut out for romance since he had a depressed, quieter character.
"Is it that obvious?" Crystal meekly asked, embarrassed to be transparent.
"Extremely," Gold replied. "I can help, you know."
"It's already enough as it is," Crystal responded, rejecting his offer.
"Yeah, Blue's on board with it," Gold agreed, thinking about it. "It's so nice to be young and in love, huh."
"You're only a year older," she pointed out, giving him a weird look. "... even if you do act like a kid."
Gold raised an eyebrow, challenging. "Oh, I'm the kid? Which one of us likes to nag about rag-smelling marills? How's your mom, by the way?" Crystal opened her mouth in shock as to why he knew about that, but before she could really ask, Gold only hinted that she likes to sleep talk.
She gave him a narrowed look and released his hands before pushing him away. She dug into her one-piece pocket and pulled out her phone when she felt a vibration.
"What's wrong?" Gold asked, leaning over to read her text nosily.
Crystal gave him an irritated look as she pulled away her phone from him and read the text. She quickly closed her phone and slid it back into her pocket. "Well, I got to go, so see ya!"
Gold grabbed Crystal's wrist before she escape though. "Wait!" he called out. "What happened? Did something happen with Sapph again?"
"No, Blue is in the restroom, puking," Crystal lied in a monotone voice, looking dead serious.
Gold released her, looking incredulous. With his hand free, he pointed over to Green and Blue dancing. "Isn't that her over there?" When he received no answer, he turned to look, only to find Crystal gone already.
"Okay, I'm going to be honest and say we need to do stop doing this."
"What do you mean?" White inquired innocently.
"This!" Crystal emphasized the situation by waving her arms around. "Meeting in the restrooms like some crazy council obsessed with Sapph's love life!" she answered, letting out a sigh. "Also, why is Black here?! This is the girl's restroom!"
Black raised his hand obediently as if he needed permission to speak. "Uh yeah, I'm wondering that as well," he spoke up awkwardly, gathering the attention of the girls.
"Black has to be with me at all times. I'm a busy person," White claimed.
"I'm pretty sure all times doesn't include the restrooms," Black retorted.
White ignored him. "More importantly, where is Yellow and Blue?"
"Blue's dancing with Green right now, and Yellow... uhhh I think she's still dancing with Sapphire," Crystal answered, not really sure. "Well, at least Black's here to fill the void. So what did you want to talk about?"
"I asked Missy to interfere with Lisia, but now I realize that what we're doing is wrong," White announced.
"Uh yeah, White, you should've realized it when we made this crazy plan to make Ruby dump the confession and let Sapphire take over," Crystal responded, skeptical on how she's just realizing this now.
"What? That's what you've been doing this whole time? You guys are messed up! Stop exploiting the newbies!" Black commented. He knew they were talking about Sapphire's love life and supported her, but he didn't know that they were purposely interfering with Lisia so that their friend could get the lead.
"Thanks Black," White told him sarcastically. "For that reason, I wanted to abstain in stopping Lisia. Who knows? Ruby might reject her anyways."
"You're like one of those mean cheerleaders who pick on the nice girls in the movies, Prez," Black remarked.
White elbowed him in the side to shut up. "What do you think, Crystal?"
"Well, honestly the situation couldn't get worse with Sapphire, and I didn't planned anything for Lisia, and it was all you and Blue. If you decide to stop, then stop. The only thing I've been doing is supporting Sapphire and helping her out, and I think that's what we should all do," Crystal answered.
"Okay, yeah, I'll do a better job at that," White agreed. "Gosh, seeing the look on Lisia's face after Platina dragged Ruby away made me feel extremely bad, but now, I'm gonna stop and start out new."
"Great, we solved the situation. You realize you're a horrible person. Now let's leave," Black insisted, not really caring anymore.
"Black, why are you so negative right now?" White asked, feeling as if she got one of his rare attitudes.
"Well, if you haven't noticed, I'm a dude in a girl's restroom, having some 'girls' meeting' about sabotaging love when I should be stuffing my face with fancy food. I'm as negative as another guy in my situation," he defended.
After the strange and confusing conversation with Platina, Ruby proceeded over to Red's table where he met the boy himself, Sapphire, Emerald, and Yellow. His approach wasn't welcoming at all, and just being there made the whole table awkward. Emerald quickly fled to go get seconds.
"Hey," Red greeted, trying to change the mood. Everyone had ceased conversations when he came over. "How was dancing?"
Yellow bumped his elbow lightly, giving him a look that literally said "change the subject and don't mention anything in front of Sapph".
Before Red could comply, Ruby already answered, "Good, I guess? I'm not big on dancing, but I like to stay in the spotlight in a way. Did you guys go out dancing yet?"
"Nope," Red responded. He opened his mouth to talk about Pokémon (his only conversation changer), but then stopped when he thought of something brilliant, or brilliant in his mind anyways. "You know what, I'm going to get myself some action." He turned over to Yellow. "Dance with me?"
Yellow somewhat received his idea of isolating the two, and in the end, she went along with him. It didn't make Ruby or Sapphire curious at all, considering they thought it was because she wanted to dance with her crush and it was normal. But now it was just Ruby and Sapphire.
"So... did you need something earlier?" Ruby asked, starting the conversation.
Sapphire's face reddened, embarrassed to think about what happened. "I-I wanted t-to say that yer shoes were untied!" she blurted out.
Ruby raised an eyebrow, completely incredulous of her claim. "I'm wearing loafers."
"I meant yer hat was crooked!" Sapphire quickly retorted, trying to find another ridiculous excuse.
"Err... thanks?" Ruby said, not even in the slightest bit believing her. "So do you want to dance with me?"
Sapphire choked on the water she was drinking. "What? Why?! Where's Lisia?"
Ruby turned around in his chair and looked around the room. When he found the girl, he pointed at her. "Over there, getting food. You're done eating and free right now, and I would love to show off my beautiful design, so what do you say? If you want, I'll even excuse your stomping during the dance like every other year."
"Y-You!" Sapphire spluttered.
"You know, I mentioned it before, but you're acting extremely weird today. Food didn't help either," Ruby confronted her once again.
Sapphire's chair squeaked as she stood up immediately. "Let's dance," she said, wanting to change the subject immediately.
A pang of guilt smashed Sapphire's chest when she held onto Ruby's hands and began dancing. She thought she'd look extremely obvious about her feelings if she were to reject the offer, but even though she did, she couldn't help but feel bad for somewhat breaking her promise with Lisia. She did kind of fulfill it, but every time she got closer to Ruby, Sapphire felt as though she was taking him away from her.
"I'm going to be blunt since you're the most bluntest person I know. What's up with you today?" Ruby interrogated once he saw her troubled look. He thought she would've felt better earlier since she said so during the balcony, but then she grabbed his hand before running away randomly.
"U-Uh nothing!" Sapphire continued to feign innocence.
Narrowing his eyes, he gave her another suspicious look. "You might be decent at acting, but you're not when it comes to lying," he commended. "You remind me of Red when he tried to hide the fact he ate my cake on accident one time."
Sapphire's face turned crimson red when she was found out. She immediately released his hands and pushed him away. She tried to find another excuse for her strange behavior, knowing that she couldn't continue to deny it her whole life.
Unfortunately, the words that came out of her words weren't the best ones, "I need to poop."
Sapphire wanted to kill herself.
Why poop? She didn't have much of a problem before, but she just found the excuse to be... kind of weird. It wasn't something you would bring up during dancing, and she even knows this. Now her last words before she dies of embarrassment was "I need to poop", and she could never take it back.
She looked in the mirror with little confidence. The makeup Ruby applied on her eyes were slowly coming off, and her sweating was washing off the highlighter.
"Sapphire~!" A sing song voice called her name, surprising her once again.
She turned around to see Lisia walking over to her with a smile and wave. This bathroom let her avoid Ruby because it was an all-girls zone, but it didn't help her avoid Lisia at all.
"Lisia," Sapphire responded, feeling unsure on how she should feel.
"Hey, so I want to talk girl to girl with you this whole night, and this place is perfect!" Lisia claimed, grabbing her hands.
"Look, if it's about earlier—"
"—Yeah, that's the thing," Lisia began, immediately cutting her off. "In this world, the reasons for girl talks are either gossip or love lives, or maybe both. I wanted to talk about our love lives, specifically yours with Ruby." Sapphire opened her mouth to deny it, but Lisia didn't give her a chance to talk. "Look Sapphire, I know you harbor feelings for Ruby too. I've been watching both you and him this whole night, and your behavior is extremely odd and you even tried to grab him earlier."
"My behavior is odd because I'm a horrible liar when I try to avoid him!" Sapphire defended.
"Is that really it?" Lisia questioned, much like an interrogating tone. "Sapphire, you don't have to force yourself for me. You can like Ruby too! That feeling of nervousness in your heart is that wavering love for him! I can tell you have it!"
"I don't—"
"Ruby already rejected me," Lisia suddenly confessed, her expression turning slightly more serious but sincere. "My chance is over. Yours is just starting, so don't give up so soon when the fight hasn't begun before I get pissed off at you. Now go out there and actually dance with him without being so concerned."
"Lisia, I—" Sapphire choked on her words. She did have that wavering feeling Lisia mentioned, but she didn't know whether she shared the same feeling Lisia had for Ruby. Ruby was literally the most annoying person she's met before, and it just irked her to even think about him sometimes. But what if everyone's right and she actually does have a crush on him? What would that mean?
Lisia released her hands. "Well, whatever you do is up to you, and I can't force you. I just wanted to tell you that before I leave."
"You're leaving?" Sapphire looked at the clock in the bathroom. "It's only 11 PM."
"Yeah, I have plans tomorrow and I'm tired. I can't stay for these 3 AM parties like you celebrities," Lisia told her. "Anyways, it was nice that we got to finally meet, and good luck on your dramas. I have to hurry up and head out. My ride's on the way. Bye Sapphire!" Lisia leaned over and wrapped her arms around her, giving her one final hug.
While being pulled into her warm embrace, Sapphire thought back to the moments she had with Ruby and reviewed her behavior. Sure he was crude in many ways, but there were many good traits as well. There were times where he was actually a good person, gave her good advice and actually cared, which she liked. They argue a lot, but that's normal since they're completely different, and even though that was true, they still hung out with each other more than almost anyone.
Sapphire's face turned completely red. Lisia was right. She really did like him.
After releasing her arms and giving her goodbyes, Lisia went over to exit the bathroom, but Sapphire stopped her.
"Thank ya for telling me this, Lisia! Good luck on yer... fashion thingy or whatever!" Sapphire told her, genuinely meaning it.
Lisia's mouth grew into another smile. "I will!"
The leftover guys, Gold, Ruby, and Black were at the table, enjoying the last part of the night with food. It was one of the rare chances where they get to eat really good, so they took this chance to really stuff themselves. The other remaining girls went to go get more food as well, following their example. Meanwhile, since it was around midnight, Yellow couldn't stay awake anymore, and Red offered to bring her home. Green, Emerald, and Silver left as well, done with the party.
"I'm surprised she's leaving already," Ruby commented.
"It's nearly midnight," Black reminded. "I would've left too, but I'm waiting for Prez to wrap things up."
"Well, now I have no use for my big plan," Gold said, sighing at all his wasted efforts to set it up. His fingers played around with a metal box that had a large visible red button.
"What plan?" Ruby inquired for both Black and himself.
Before Gold had to chance to answer, a shout interrupted him, "RUBY!" All three heads turned over to the shout, watching Sapphire run in their direction. Once she reached the table, she immediately grabbed his wrist, which made him slightly scared and surprised. "Let's dance!"
"U-Uh okay?" Ruby replied, confused of what the heck was happening.
"Thanks for ditching me in the middle of a dance," Gold sulked, giving a look at Crystal when she arrived to the table with White and Blue.
"I was busy," Crystal replied, showing no remorse for her actions.
"Look at them!" Blue said, taking a seat and nodding her head towards Ruby and Sapphire who were one of the people dancing. "The night was successful after all!"
"With a lot of meddling," Black added. "I know you guys are doing it for a friend, but you guys need to know when to stop."
"I know when to stop," Crystal retorted, throwing all the blame onto White and Blue.
"Hey, if it's almost midnight, the spotlight dance will come soon, right?" White changed the subject, turning her attention on something else. She remembered Blue mentioning it to her once, saying that a single spotlight goes on a couple dancing randomly at midnight. Obviously, it was some random thing Blue made up.
"Yep!" Blue answered, getting up from her seat. "I'll go get the lights ready! Come with me, Crys, White!" Blue motioned them. The two, knowing they couldn't defy her at times like this, went with her. It didn't matter much anyways since this plan wasn't as drastic as the others.
After the girls left, it was back to the two guys.
Gold stared at the dancing couple with bored eyes. "I'm starting to get tired," he said, rubbing his eyes.
"I'm used to staying up this late. Prez always stays up way later," Black announced, sipping on a glass of juice. After he placed it down, something shiny and red appeared in his eyesight. "Hey, so what's this supposed to be?" he asked, holding the metal box that Gold was playing with earlier. It had a button on it, but he wondered what it was for if it wasn't to activate that spotlight dance scam Blue tried to make.
"Oh, that's for Ruby and Sapph. It was in case things went the wrong way, but in the end, we didn't really need it," Gold stated.
"What does it do?" Black inquired.
"Sprays soda from the ceiling onto everyone," Gold replied.
Black's face wrinkled. "How'd you do it?"
Gold rubbed his nose proudly. "Good question, my dear friend."
Sapphire stared at him intensely. Did she really like him? She knew how it felt to have feelings for someone, but she didn't think she'd get over her childhood friend, much less think it'd be for some prissy guys who annoys her.
"Err... Sapph, why are you glaring at me for no reason?" Ruby asked, uncomfortable with her gaze. It was more like a glare than a gaze if anything else.
Sapphire's cheek stared to turn rosy before adverting her eyes away. "No reason," she immediately replied.
"Well, whatever," Ruby shrugged it off, and tried to change the conversation. "I can't believe the night is already over. It was short, but fun, I guess."
"Huh? Um yeah," Sapphire replied, not really paying attention.
She was too focused on staring at his face to see if she would react romantically, but by doing so, she felt really embarrassed because she seemed stupid if she thought about it. But first before she did anything, she needed to give an explanation on her strange behavior. There's no way she'll put her confession in her excuse though.
"I know you're worried about my 'strange behavior', so I'm just gonna tell ya," she began. "I was just thinking about the multiple scandals lately, and hoped nothing bad would happen."
"Oh? Is that it?" Ruby asked, completely believing her this time. When they first became co-stars in the drama together, he had the same feeling so he empathized with the girl. In the end, they were forced to fake date though, so scandals with her weren't exactly a worry anymore.
"I'll ask White if we can schedule more press conference for it then."
"Thanks," she mumbled meekly.
"It's pretty normal to have bad rumors swarming around though. People just desperately want their own weird fanfiction thing of us outside of a Pokémon world context, so they make up their own stories," Ruby told her. "They don't even know you're a caveman who can crush a building with only her fists—" Ruby stopped talking to dodge the said fists that were aimed his way. Sapphire's movements slightly constricted though because of her dress. Grabbing her arms to forcefully stop her, he grinned while laughing, "I'm just kidding!"
Sapphire's growl soften up when she saw his laughing face, her face slowly turning red again. "Stop laughing!" she said, trying to rip his grip off of her.
Okay, if I like him, I should confess, right? It's only fair that Lisia did it, so I should do it as well! Sapphire thought, her intense glare returning.
"Sorry, but when I think about it, it's funny," Ruby replied, the teasing smile still plastered on his face.
"Anyways!" Sapphire screamed, grabbing his collar and pulling him closer. Her face turned an unbelievable shade of red, surprising Ruby when he saw it up close. "I'm going to say this once, so you better listen! I—"
"AH—!" A high-pitched shriek interrupted Sapphire's confession. Following that scream, Ruby and Sapphire felt a wave a stickiness and wetness hit them, and the feeling of the gross liquid made Ruby grimace. Sapphire looked up, recognizing the scent.
"Soda...?"
"I don't care what it is! This is gross!" Ruby screamed. "Ah! And the clothes I made are getting ruined!"
Sapphire watched Ruby move frantically in panic, trying to find cover from the soda rain, but failing hard.
Ruby's expression wrinkled into a grimace. "Whose grand idea is this?!"
"GOLD!" The fake couple turned towards the sound of a scary shout, only to find Crystal glaring daggers. Sapphire could've swore she saw a fire surround the girl.
"Hey! It wasn't my fault! Black accidentally pushed it!" Gold defended, running away from the girl.
"Black! I can't believe you did that! You're the one who kept giving me all of this criticism about meddling, and yet, you did this!" White reprimanded her assistance once she heard the news. She had to get back at him for all the comments he made about her in the restroom.
"It was not my fault! Gold dropped it and I happened to step on it when I went to go get food!" Black tried to explain.
From beside Sapphire, she heard a sigh escape Ruby's lips. "Why is it whenever I hang with these people my clothes get ruined..."
At the scene, she felt all her nervousness wash away in the rain and started to giggle, eventually evolving to laughter.
Noticing this, Ruby asked, "Huh? What's wrong?"
"N-Nothing!" Sapphire tried to say between her laughter.
"Hey, this isn't funny!" Ruby said, assuming that the source of her laughter was his ruined clothes.
"Yeah, yeah," Sapphire shrugged him off, waving off the assumption.
Suddenly, she felt a coat cover her shoulders and head. Her bright blue eyes blinked and looked at Ruby, who let out a sigh. "Try not to get too much soda on the dress. My outfit is somewhat dispensable, but yours isn't. I spent so much time and effort creating it just for you."
Sapphire's cheeks heated up. "Thanks," she breathed, holding onto his coat.
Finally the soda rain shower stopped, and groans were heard all around. Ruby and Sapphire ignored it though, in their own world.
"And when I say thanks," Sapphire continued, clarifying. "I don't mean for yer jacket, but I mean thanks for the dress and trying to make this night fun for me. I'm sorry ya had to worry about me so much."
"Of course! We're partners," Ruby replied as he started to squeeze the soda out of his top in disgust. "It's normal to care about you."
She took a deep breath and smiled her usual toothy grin. Putting a hand out, she asked, "So do ya still want to dance? We never finished."
"Forget about dancing! I'm soaked and sticky!" Ruby whined, grossed out by the texture created on his arm. "Let's bail out early before our outfits stain!"
Typical Ruby. Caring about clothes before anything else. But thinking about it, that's one of the things Sapphire likes about him.
Sapphire let out a small chuckle and grabbed his hand this time, rather than his wrist unlike earlier.
"Yeah, let's leave before Blue comes out with some crazy idea!" she joked, dragging him along.
There was a time where she wanted to confess to him right away to get her feelings out, but after everything that happened tonight, for now, she decided to live in the moment.
Chaz shoved his car door open and walked over to the girl waiting outside coolly, his hands in his pockets. Lisia's dazed face looked up when she heard his footsteps, and at the very sight of him, she let out a sigh before giving him a small, faint smile. He cocked his head.
"You got rejected?" he inquired bluntly, catching hints from her face expression.
She rose up from the bench she was sitting on. "Not directly, at least," she replied, sighing again.
"Did you not confess?" he asked, confused of what she meant.
"Nah, I decided not to," Lisia answered, walking towards the car he came with. "It was obvious he wasn't interested in me. During the whole entire party, when I looked at him, his gaze was fixed on Sapphire."
A/N — Hello! I don't know what to say after going onto hiatus for 5-6 years and popping back alive randomly. At first, I planned to finish this story back in 2018 after I finish writing the chapters, however, life happened and I managed to only write a couple chapters before I lost interest again. Looking back onto this account and rereading some Pokemon manga, I wanted to at least post the chapters that I've written years ago instead of letting them stay as drafts in my documents, especially since I left y'all with that horrible cliffhanger. I don't know if the regular readers are able to read this after all these years long, but thank you for all of the kind reviews that you guys left in my absence, and I'm sorry I never updated or kept my promises to update.
Comparing this story to my other three ongoing ones, this one is almost finished or reaching the conclusion, and I want to try to at least make it through, or try to post the chapters I've written so far. I still need to proofread them, but at least I'll not leave you guys on that horrid cliffhanger last chapter! Again, I dunno if you're reading this or if you're new, but thank you again for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites and support in general! I'm about to enter my junior year of college (crazy asf because I started this in middle/high school), so when there's a break I'll try to proofread and at least post the written chapters. Thanks again!
