Driving Me Crazy chapter 6
Wow, I really did get 50 reviews! I even got 55! YAY! That's cool! I'm glad everyone likes it... I know at least a couple people asked about the hole and the voices, and all questions will surely be answered in Lavender Town. Everything's connected... ^-^ Anyways, I'm thinking maybe more than two more chappies now, but nothing's for sure, so I guess you will just have to keep checking back and reviewing. BTW if you have any good ideas for the story or anything like that, you can say that in your review (or e-mail me, if you'd rather). Okay, that's all! Enjoy the story! Ja for now!
***
"Beep beep beep, beep beep beep, get up, get up!" (AN: More wonderful appliance noises- woohoo! Even the alarm clock does it! Sheesh, when I did the doorbell thing I had no idea where it would lead... ^-^) Misty blinked the sleep out of her eyes and glanced over at the table between the two beds.
"8:30," she murmured. "The alarms must be preset." She saw Ash stir. He lifted his head up from within the mass of blankets.
"Go back to sleep, Ash," she said, "we only have about a half hour's drive left to Lavender and it doesn't matter."
"No," he answered. "I'm up already." As he said it, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and walked to the bathroom. Misty sat up and yawned, pushing strands of red hair out of her face. She faintly remembered something important happened while she was awake last night, but didn't actually remember what it was. She thought maybe she was asleep, and had just dreamed it, but... she remembered waking Ash up. Maybe he'd remember.
In the bathroom, Ash was brushing his teeth. He'd had the weirdest dream after he'd informed Misty that she was delusional. He was floating through the air, and there was a cloud across from him. He could tell it was solid, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't touch it. He figured it came from what Misty had said before about hearing someone talking about clouds, although he still thought she was dreaming. He spit into the sink.
Come to think of it, something else had happened last night, too. Misty had said something to him right before he drifted off to sleep. He hadn't quite heard it, although it gave him an odd sense of déjà vu, but he'd supposed, in his lethargic state, that she had said she loved him.
And then he'd told her-
He froze with his hand halfway to his mouth to wipe the toothpaste residue.
He'd told her he loved her too.
Looking into the mirror, he saw his own eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. Without thinking, without moving, without any thought about the logical thing to do at this point-
He screamed. Loud.
Misty came running into the room quite extraordinarily quickly. When she got there, he had stopped yelling and was now hyperventilating quite badly.
"What?" she said nervously. "What's wrong?" He looked at her, panicking.
"Um-" he stammered. She looked at him, her aqua eyes searching his face. Finally, he decided to take the only route he could think of- the honest one.
"Do you remember what you said to me before you went to sleep last night?" She frowned thoughtfully. "Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing."
"So you don't?" he said hopefully.
"Hmm... I remember waking you up, but that's about it. If you gave me a little while to think I could probably remember more-"
"No!" he cut her off hastily. "I mean, that's okay, it wasn't important or anything, I just wanted to know." She nodded, but had already begun thinking about it. Suddenly, as she was walking out of the room, she turned abruptly and looked at him.
"Do you?" He felt an impending sense of certain and probably painful doom- he knew how bad he was at lying.
"N-no," he stammered, feeling his face turn red. She looked at him suspiciously.
"You're lying, aren't you?"
"No," he lied, "it's just hot in here."
"Well, I do remember you calling me crazy-"
"Not crazy," he shot back defensively. "Delusional." She looked at him triumphantly.
"I knew it. You do remember. Now talk." He ducked under her arm, which was resting on the door frame. "Don't we have to get going?" he asked her. "Like the Professor said, the sooner we get there the better." She sighed deeply. He wasn't telling her something, and she was gonna get it out of him, one way or the other.
***
Once Ash, Misty, and Pikachu were once again on the road, she immediately turned to him. He was driving, and she knew there was no way for him to dodge her now.
"So, Ash," she said casually, "how about telling me what I said last night?" He glared at her.
"Why won't you believe me? It isn't important! I'm telling you, it's not!" He could tell she didn't believe him.
"Right," she said skeptically. "That's why your face turns the color of my hair every time I mention it. C'mon, what happened last ni-" Suddenly she was struck with an awful thought. "What if I said *the words* to him?" she wondered to herself. "Oh God... maybe I don't wanna know what happened... well, it's not so bad, after all, his reaction can't possibly be any worse than... last time..." She turned to him, deciding to use Plan B no matter what.
"Ash," she announced sweetly, "either tell me what happened last night, or I'll hit you over the head and drive us off the road." He rolled his eyes. She wouldn't do that... would she?? He hated being threatened by her. It made his stomach feel like he was falling off a building. And that wasn't even that bad, but she could still tell that she'd hit a nerve.
"You talked about voices you heard talking about Pikachu, and clouds, and something else, like chocolate, and uhhhh... afterthatIthoughtyousaidyoulovedmesoIsaidIlovedyoutoo." She blinked.
"What?" He didn't answer her, just nervously drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. It was obvious within a few seconds she would figure it out. He could see her face out of the corner of his eye, see it as her face changed from confused to shocked to some emotion he couldn't read.
She was perfectly horrified. "I said- I said-" God, she thought, I knew it. I just knew it couldn't be good.
And then she remembered the other thing he'd said- "I said I loved you too." She looked at him and sat there quietly, not talking, not moving, it almost seemed she was barely breathing. Before she spoke again, it couldn't have been more than a minute, but it seemed like days.
"You love me," she said very softly, almost inaudibly. It wasn't a question, more like a confirmation. He sucked in his breath.
"Never know what you've got until it's gone, Ash?" she said, louder and more angrily. He still didn't look at her, but he did speak. "It was before you left," he said quietly, but void of emotion. She snorted.
"Really. So the Pokemon Master's a big fat liar." He frowned, confused. "What the hell are you talking about? No one ever asked me." She gave a little laugh of disbelief.
"Are you kidding me? No one ever asked you. No one... ever... *asked* you!? Just because they never said 'Do you love Misty?' What about me, Ash?"
"What about you?" he shot back at her. "What about you? What? Are you saying you love me? Is that why you've been insulting me the entire trip? Why you might as well have informed me that you hated me?"
"After the way you treated me, don't tell me I didn't have a right to be angry!"
"The way I treated you?" he said incredulously. "Misty, the last time I saw you was five years ago when I became Master!"
"Duh!" she screeched. "And you don't remember what you did? What you said? I loved you, Ash! I loved you, and you... you could have had the decency at least to let me down easy-" Her voice broke. She was really crying now, tears running down her cheeks.
Ash opened his mouth, but no sounds came out. He shook his head. "Wha- what?" Suddenly, he remembered that day. He remembered her cupping her hands around her mouth.
And he remembered where he had heard the faintly recognizable words from Misty's mouth... the same ones she had yelled to him five years ago.
The same ones he hadn't heard.
"I-" he choked out. "Misty, I never heard you." She looked up at him.
"W- what?"
"I never heard you that day." He told her about the press turning around. About how he'd shaken his head and mouthed, 'What?' to her. How she'd run out before he had a chance to ask her what she'd said.
"It was...confusion?" she murmured.
"What?"
"That day, I saw some emotion on your face... I never figured out what it was. I always thought it was rejection. But it was confusion."
"I guess," he answered quietly.
After that, their brains had only half-digested the information- but they still had their doubts. Misty maintained he'd loved her then, maybe, but now he was probably in a relationship. And Ash just didn't know what to think. Still neither of them spoke. Misty fiddled nervously with a piece of her hair. Ash kept his eyes on the road, never even glancing at his female companion.
As they saw the tall Radio Tower of Lavender Town nearing over the horizon, Ash said uncertainly, "Keep a look out for anything out of the ordinary." She bit back a sarcastic comment and nodded.
The ride was silent for the rest of the way to the Radio Tower, which Ash had a strange intuition about, so he pulled into the parking lot. The redhead didn't comment.
Getting out of the car, lost in his own thoughts, Ash stared up at the tall building. His hands were shoved into his jean pockets, and he cocked his head thoughtfully, craning his neck to see the top of the building. Misty walked past him and into the building without waiting for him.
Alone in the lobby, she walked around, looking at all the people chatting happily and going in and out. The receptionist and the Lucky Number man were talking with an attractive woman perched neatly on her stool. Misty walked over to them.
"Excuse me-" she began. The woman looked up.
"Oh, hello, dear. Would you like to take a short quiz? Answer five questions correctly and you can win a TM." (AN: I know it's a radio card in the game, also the questions will be different, but for the sake of the story just pretend this is how it works- use your imagination ^-^)
"Oh!" said Misty in surprise. "Well, okay... sure!"
"Great!" smiled the woman. "Okay, first question: True or false: Kurt makes his custom Poke Balls from Apricots."
Misty frowned. "Apricots? No, false. Apricorns."
"That's right," she said brightly. "All right: True or false: Magikarp evolves into Gyarados."
"Easy," answered Misty, "That's true!"
"Right again! True or false: The other Radio Tower is in Goldenrod." She had to think about that one.
"Um... Goldenrod... I'm gonna say true."
"Great! Two more! True or false: Jigglypuff is not an evolved Pokemon."
"False," she said immediately. Two weeks earlier, she'd done a story on Baby Pokemon. Igglybuff, which evolved into Jigglypuff, had been one of her focuses.
"All right, answer this one and you get the TM! True or false:" The woman paused, trying to think of a good question. Her eyes fell on the paper she had been reading: "Pokemon Master's Pikachu: Level 100?"
"The Pokemon Master is dating Alison Jennings." Misty got very quiet. Ash? He'd never actually told her whether or not he was dating anyone. He'd said he loved her- but that had been in a sleep-induced haze. And Alison Jennings? She was a model, wasn't she? There were always rumors, but she couldn't be sure.
"I-" she began, and her face crumbled. "He probably thought I was his girlfriend..." she thought, "...and he probably is dating her."
She opened her mouth to answer.
***
Finally- I'm done with this chappie!! I got writer's block on it twice, and I had to re-do a part of it... Yeah, me and my excuses. ^^ oh well, it's done now!! As always, much thanks to all the people who reviewed! There won't be *too* many more chappies. Maybe 3 or 4 at the most.
I would like 80 reviews... sooo everyone get typing! Right now I have- *checks* 62! So I need 18 more reviews- lol, I feel so smart now!! I figured all that out in my head ^-^
Thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much all you people who reviewed ^^
Ooookay, well, Happy Bright Green T-shirt Day everybody! (It's today! August 2!)
Buh-bye! *lavenderespeon*
Wow, I really did get 50 reviews! I even got 55! YAY! That's cool! I'm glad everyone likes it... I know at least a couple people asked about the hole and the voices, and all questions will surely be answered in Lavender Town. Everything's connected... ^-^ Anyways, I'm thinking maybe more than two more chappies now, but nothing's for sure, so I guess you will just have to keep checking back and reviewing. BTW if you have any good ideas for the story or anything like that, you can say that in your review (or e-mail me, if you'd rather). Okay, that's all! Enjoy the story! Ja for now!
***
"Beep beep beep, beep beep beep, get up, get up!" (AN: More wonderful appliance noises- woohoo! Even the alarm clock does it! Sheesh, when I did the doorbell thing I had no idea where it would lead... ^-^) Misty blinked the sleep out of her eyes and glanced over at the table between the two beds.
"8:30," she murmured. "The alarms must be preset." She saw Ash stir. He lifted his head up from within the mass of blankets.
"Go back to sleep, Ash," she said, "we only have about a half hour's drive left to Lavender and it doesn't matter."
"No," he answered. "I'm up already." As he said it, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and walked to the bathroom. Misty sat up and yawned, pushing strands of red hair out of her face. She faintly remembered something important happened while she was awake last night, but didn't actually remember what it was. She thought maybe she was asleep, and had just dreamed it, but... she remembered waking Ash up. Maybe he'd remember.
In the bathroom, Ash was brushing his teeth. He'd had the weirdest dream after he'd informed Misty that she was delusional. He was floating through the air, and there was a cloud across from him. He could tell it was solid, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't touch it. He figured it came from what Misty had said before about hearing someone talking about clouds, although he still thought she was dreaming. He spit into the sink.
Come to think of it, something else had happened last night, too. Misty had said something to him right before he drifted off to sleep. He hadn't quite heard it, although it gave him an odd sense of déjà vu, but he'd supposed, in his lethargic state, that she had said she loved him.
And then he'd told her-
He froze with his hand halfway to his mouth to wipe the toothpaste residue.
He'd told her he loved her too.
Looking into the mirror, he saw his own eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. Without thinking, without moving, without any thought about the logical thing to do at this point-
He screamed. Loud.
Misty came running into the room quite extraordinarily quickly. When she got there, he had stopped yelling and was now hyperventilating quite badly.
"What?" she said nervously. "What's wrong?" He looked at her, panicking.
"Um-" he stammered. She looked at him, her aqua eyes searching his face. Finally, he decided to take the only route he could think of- the honest one.
"Do you remember what you said to me before you went to sleep last night?" She frowned thoughtfully. "Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing."
"So you don't?" he said hopefully.
"Hmm... I remember waking you up, but that's about it. If you gave me a little while to think I could probably remember more-"
"No!" he cut her off hastily. "I mean, that's okay, it wasn't important or anything, I just wanted to know." She nodded, but had already begun thinking about it. Suddenly, as she was walking out of the room, she turned abruptly and looked at him.
"Do you?" He felt an impending sense of certain and probably painful doom- he knew how bad he was at lying.
"N-no," he stammered, feeling his face turn red. She looked at him suspiciously.
"You're lying, aren't you?"
"No," he lied, "it's just hot in here."
"Well, I do remember you calling me crazy-"
"Not crazy," he shot back defensively. "Delusional." She looked at him triumphantly.
"I knew it. You do remember. Now talk." He ducked under her arm, which was resting on the door frame. "Don't we have to get going?" he asked her. "Like the Professor said, the sooner we get there the better." She sighed deeply. He wasn't telling her something, and she was gonna get it out of him, one way or the other.
***
Once Ash, Misty, and Pikachu were once again on the road, she immediately turned to him. He was driving, and she knew there was no way for him to dodge her now.
"So, Ash," she said casually, "how about telling me what I said last night?" He glared at her.
"Why won't you believe me? It isn't important! I'm telling you, it's not!" He could tell she didn't believe him.
"Right," she said skeptically. "That's why your face turns the color of my hair every time I mention it. C'mon, what happened last ni-" Suddenly she was struck with an awful thought. "What if I said *the words* to him?" she wondered to herself. "Oh God... maybe I don't wanna know what happened... well, it's not so bad, after all, his reaction can't possibly be any worse than... last time..." She turned to him, deciding to use Plan B no matter what.
"Ash," she announced sweetly, "either tell me what happened last night, or I'll hit you over the head and drive us off the road." He rolled his eyes. She wouldn't do that... would she?? He hated being threatened by her. It made his stomach feel like he was falling off a building. And that wasn't even that bad, but she could still tell that she'd hit a nerve.
"You talked about voices you heard talking about Pikachu, and clouds, and something else, like chocolate, and uhhhh... afterthatIthoughtyousaidyoulovedmesoIsaidIlovedyoutoo." She blinked.
"What?" He didn't answer her, just nervously drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. It was obvious within a few seconds she would figure it out. He could see her face out of the corner of his eye, see it as her face changed from confused to shocked to some emotion he couldn't read.
She was perfectly horrified. "I said- I said-" God, she thought, I knew it. I just knew it couldn't be good.
And then she remembered the other thing he'd said- "I said I loved you too." She looked at him and sat there quietly, not talking, not moving, it almost seemed she was barely breathing. Before she spoke again, it couldn't have been more than a minute, but it seemed like days.
"You love me," she said very softly, almost inaudibly. It wasn't a question, more like a confirmation. He sucked in his breath.
"Never know what you've got until it's gone, Ash?" she said, louder and more angrily. He still didn't look at her, but he did speak. "It was before you left," he said quietly, but void of emotion. She snorted.
"Really. So the Pokemon Master's a big fat liar." He frowned, confused. "What the hell are you talking about? No one ever asked me." She gave a little laugh of disbelief.
"Are you kidding me? No one ever asked you. No one... ever... *asked* you!? Just because they never said 'Do you love Misty?' What about me, Ash?"
"What about you?" he shot back at her. "What about you? What? Are you saying you love me? Is that why you've been insulting me the entire trip? Why you might as well have informed me that you hated me?"
"After the way you treated me, don't tell me I didn't have a right to be angry!"
"The way I treated you?" he said incredulously. "Misty, the last time I saw you was five years ago when I became Master!"
"Duh!" she screeched. "And you don't remember what you did? What you said? I loved you, Ash! I loved you, and you... you could have had the decency at least to let me down easy-" Her voice broke. She was really crying now, tears running down her cheeks.
Ash opened his mouth, but no sounds came out. He shook his head. "Wha- what?" Suddenly, he remembered that day. He remembered her cupping her hands around her mouth.
And he remembered where he had heard the faintly recognizable words from Misty's mouth... the same ones she had yelled to him five years ago.
The same ones he hadn't heard.
"I-" he choked out. "Misty, I never heard you." She looked up at him.
"W- what?"
"I never heard you that day." He told her about the press turning around. About how he'd shaken his head and mouthed, 'What?' to her. How she'd run out before he had a chance to ask her what she'd said.
"It was...confusion?" she murmured.
"What?"
"That day, I saw some emotion on your face... I never figured out what it was. I always thought it was rejection. But it was confusion."
"I guess," he answered quietly.
After that, their brains had only half-digested the information- but they still had their doubts. Misty maintained he'd loved her then, maybe, but now he was probably in a relationship. And Ash just didn't know what to think. Still neither of them spoke. Misty fiddled nervously with a piece of her hair. Ash kept his eyes on the road, never even glancing at his female companion.
As they saw the tall Radio Tower of Lavender Town nearing over the horizon, Ash said uncertainly, "Keep a look out for anything out of the ordinary." She bit back a sarcastic comment and nodded.
The ride was silent for the rest of the way to the Radio Tower, which Ash had a strange intuition about, so he pulled into the parking lot. The redhead didn't comment.
Getting out of the car, lost in his own thoughts, Ash stared up at the tall building. His hands were shoved into his jean pockets, and he cocked his head thoughtfully, craning his neck to see the top of the building. Misty walked past him and into the building without waiting for him.
Alone in the lobby, she walked around, looking at all the people chatting happily and going in and out. The receptionist and the Lucky Number man were talking with an attractive woman perched neatly on her stool. Misty walked over to them.
"Excuse me-" she began. The woman looked up.
"Oh, hello, dear. Would you like to take a short quiz? Answer five questions correctly and you can win a TM." (AN: I know it's a radio card in the game, also the questions will be different, but for the sake of the story just pretend this is how it works- use your imagination ^-^)
"Oh!" said Misty in surprise. "Well, okay... sure!"
"Great!" smiled the woman. "Okay, first question: True or false: Kurt makes his custom Poke Balls from Apricots."
Misty frowned. "Apricots? No, false. Apricorns."
"That's right," she said brightly. "All right: True or false: Magikarp evolves into Gyarados."
"Easy," answered Misty, "That's true!"
"Right again! True or false: The other Radio Tower is in Goldenrod." She had to think about that one.
"Um... Goldenrod... I'm gonna say true."
"Great! Two more! True or false: Jigglypuff is not an evolved Pokemon."
"False," she said immediately. Two weeks earlier, she'd done a story on Baby Pokemon. Igglybuff, which evolved into Jigglypuff, had been one of her focuses.
"All right, answer this one and you get the TM! True or false:" The woman paused, trying to think of a good question. Her eyes fell on the paper she had been reading: "Pokemon Master's Pikachu: Level 100?"
"The Pokemon Master is dating Alison Jennings." Misty got very quiet. Ash? He'd never actually told her whether or not he was dating anyone. He'd said he loved her- but that had been in a sleep-induced haze. And Alison Jennings? She was a model, wasn't she? There were always rumors, but she couldn't be sure.
"I-" she began, and her face crumbled. "He probably thought I was his girlfriend..." she thought, "...and he probably is dating her."
She opened her mouth to answer.
***
Finally- I'm done with this chappie!! I got writer's block on it twice, and I had to re-do a part of it... Yeah, me and my excuses. ^^ oh well, it's done now!! As always, much thanks to all the people who reviewed! There won't be *too* many more chappies. Maybe 3 or 4 at the most.
I would like 80 reviews... sooo everyone get typing! Right now I have- *checks* 62! So I need 18 more reviews- lol, I feel so smart now!! I figured all that out in my head ^-^
Thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much all you people who reviewed ^^
Ooookay, well, Happy Bright Green T-shirt Day everybody! (It's today! August 2!)
Buh-bye! *lavenderespeon*