Disclaimer – I don't own Pokemon. I also don't own Melissa and Will, I kind of stole them from Sweet Vally Senior's because I don't like them because they're always mean to Jessica and she has the same name as me.
Claimer – I own all the other minor characters (except maybe Tracey depending whether you consider him minor or not). You hear that Stephanie, Kris, I own you.
Reasons of the Heart – Hanging by a Moment
Ash looked out the window dejectedly.
'What a day to be sick,' he thought to himself upon seeing one of the nicest days since the new semester began.
Students were lounging about outside on the grass listening to music and working on their tans. They acted like it was summer all over again paying no attention to the fallen leaves that were strewn across the ground around them.
It was just the sort of day Ash loved. It was the sort of day when he would battle in the middle of the courtyard, or play baseball with the guys, or just relax under the closest tree thinking about Misty.
And there was that name again. It was inescapable; he could barely go a minute, let alone five, without hearing her name echoing through the crevasses of his brain. He could see her face everywhere he looked and everywhere he didn't look. Her image danced through his head continuously capturing his imagination. But he didn't care, Misty could consume every thought in his being (not that she didn't) and he just wouldn't care. He couldn't do a thing about it, and he didn't want to.
'Temporary insanity,' he reasoned with himself jokingly, knowing that temporary insanity was more like 9 minutes and definitely not 9 month, or basically 9 years for that matter
But then he didn't even buy temporary insanity as a murder excuse. To him, temporary insanity was breaking into someone's house and ironing all his or her clothes for hours on end, this was a whole new ball game.
'I'm sure it's some form of insanity,' he told himself. 'I bet Misty could even tell me the name for it.' He sighed contently as an image of her flowed through his brain.
'But Misty believed in love,' he argued with himself. 'Misty was always telling me that love was more than a state of mind, coming up with the clichés, sighing happily as she watched the perfect sunset of purple and orange spread gracefully across the sky. Misty was skeptic of everything, and love was one of the few things she believed in and until I met her, love was one of the few things I didn't believe in.'
"Why did it have to be you?" he asked the picture of a thirteen-year-old girl with red hair and aquamarine eyes staring back at him from the silver frame in his hands.
It could have been anyone. They all knew he had plenty of offers, some of them he was even too dense to notice unless someone pointed it out to him. But he ignored all of them instead turning to his side where Misty had always stood beside him.
Then one day, he turned and she wasn't there. He never really realized just to what extent he loved her until she wasn't there, until she was gone.
'But you never do,' he thought to himself sadly. 'Not until its too late. I thought I could live without her, that she was just a girl, but I always knew, deep down that the only person I was fooling was myself. I've always known that Misty isn't just some ordinary girl. Maybe that's one of the reasons that I love her . . . not that I need anymore.'
Ash sighed again. Maybe today wasn't a total waste.
Desperate for changing
Starving for truth
I'm closer to where I started
I'm chasing after you
I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held on to
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you
Forgetting al I'm lacking
Completely incomplete
I'll take your invitation
You take all of me now
I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held on to
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you
I'm living for the only thing I know
I'm running and I question where to go
And I don't know what I'm tapping into
Just hanging by a moment here with you
There's nothing else to lose
There's nothing else to find
There's nothing in this world
That could change my mind
There is nothing else
There is nothing else
There is nothing else
Desperate for changing
Starving for truth
I'm closer to where I started
I'm chasing after you
I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held on to
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you
I'm living for the only thing I know
I'm running and I question where to go
And I don't know what I'm tapping into
Just hanging by a moment here with you
Just hanging by a moment
Hanging by a moment
Hanging by a moment
Hanging by a moment here with you
(Life House 'Hanging by a moment)
Misty's hand hung inches above the phone on her dresser as she battled the pros and cons of the phone call she was threatening to make.
'Maybe I should just go,' she reasoned with herself as she pulled her hand away from the phone. 'I'd have to sooner or later. Its just a stupid meeting anyway, nothing special.'
'Liar, liar, pants on fire,' the voice in her head argued. 'Its way more than that, and you know it. Liar.'
'So I should cancel,' she told herself. 'Its too weird as it is. I'll just figure it out by myself.' She reached for the phone but stopped suddenly her hand hovering just above the phone.
"I give up," she sighed to herself dropping her hand back to her side in frustration.
She got up and started going through her draws searching for something to wear. She needed something casual; she didn't want to look like she had spent hours getting ready. But still, she had to look presentable, this wasn't just some guy she'd picked off the streets, it was Ash and his opinion meant more to her than he would ever know.
Jeans was the obvious choice but she'd worn jeans last times so that ruined that plan. She finally settled on a patchwork denim skirt and a long-sleeve red-checkered shirt thrown over a black singlet. She wore a silver chain around her neck with an obelisk of rose quartz hanging from it and she wore her favorite strappy sandals on her feet. She pulled her hair into a ponytail before making her way downstairs.
"Where are you off to?" Melody asked coyly from the kitchen.
"Meeting," Misty called back as she went out the door.
She headed to off campus to the ice-cream parlor they'd agreed to meet at.
'Time to get up,' Ash encouraged himself, trying to get his aching joints to agree with his proposition.
It seemed throughout the day he had only got worse and that nothing seemed to be working. His head felt like someone was attacking it with a sledgehammer. His stomach felt like it was trying to eat and regurgitate itself at the exact same time. His nose felt like it had been stuffed with a couple of thousand pairs of tube socks and he didn't even want to find out how he looked.
He felt sick all over and all he wanted to do was lie in bed for a few minutes more.
But he knew he couldn't. She was waiting for him, and he didn't want to let her down by being late.
So he tried to coax himself out of bed. He reminded his body how important it was and tried again. Her face flashed before his eyes and suddenly he felt just that little bit better, his newfound strength letting him escape from bed.
He inched around the room slowly as he got ready. He avoided looking in any mirrors knowing it would only disgruntle him further and put him off going all together. He just needed to see her, to look into her eyes and he knew he would feel better.
The problem was getting there. He felt too sick to walk, and driving was out of the question thanks to his supposed non-drowsy flu medication. He would have to ask one of the guys to take him. It wasn't that far and he would find it easier on the way back.
Ash grabbed his wallet off the floor and shoved it into his back pocket as he went out the door. He made his way cautiously down the stairs pausing to le the room stop spinning.
"Non-drowsy my ass," he muttered to himself as he finally made it to the bottom of the stairs.
"Our fearless leader finally rises," Brock called jokingly from the kitchen.
"You should be in bed still," Tracey told him as he carried a couple of brown paper bags to the kitchen. "You don't look good."
"That's nice," Ash told him groggily.
"You hungry?" Brock asked. "I'm making my five star chili."
Ash shook his head. "I have to go somewhere," he said his hand going to his head as he felt the impact of his own voice.
"I think Tracey's right," Parker said as he suddenly appeared from the lounge. "You should really go back to bed."
"All I need is someone to take me to the ice-cream parlor, I know I'll be alright as soon as I get there," Ash told them.
"I'm not going to be responsible for you getting pneumonia," Brock said holding his hands up in resistance. "I don't know what Sabrina might do to me, and I don't even want to think about what Misty would do."
"How 'bout you Tracey?" Ash asked.
"No way," Tracey replied.
Ash looked to Parker. "Look, I'm supposed to meet Misty there," he told them.
"Don't look at me," Parker said. "do you know how much shit I'd be in if I let you get Misty as sick as you are? See that's three sisters, Melody and probably Sabrina as well as the rest of her sorority, not to mention you as soon as you realize what a bad idea this is."
"I have a meeting," Ash pleaded.
"Cancel it," Tracey told him. "She'll understand. You go lie down on the couch and we'll go call Misty and let her know you won't be able to come."
"I don't want to let her down," Ash told them.
"You won't be," Parker replied. "Just postponing."
Ash sighed exasperatedly. "I'll be in the lounge."
"You ring her," Brock said holding out the phone to Parker as soon as Ash was out of hearing range.
"You call her," Parker said shoving it towards Brock.
"Why me?" Brock asked.
"Because you've known her longer," Parker reasoned.
"Which is why I know better," Brock told him. "Anyway," he added, "she's your sister-in-law's sister. You guys are practically family."
"Your closer," Parker said.
Tracey sighed. "Why don't you just flip a coin?" he suggested.
Brock pulled a coin from his pocket. "You call."
"Heads," Parker said.
Brock flipped the coin into the air and caught it slapping on his hand. "Damn," he cried out as he saw the shiny heads side gleaming back at him. "Best of three?" he suggested.
"No way," Parker said defiantly. "I won fair and square," he said handing the phone back to Brock.
Brock quickly dialed the number of the sorority.
"Hello," Sabrina said as she picked up the phone.
"Hey Sabs," Brock said.
"Hey sweetie," she replied. "What's up?"
"Why must you always presume that whenever I call you its because I want something?" he asked his voice full of mock defensiveness.
"Because it always is," she replied. "So how can I help you?"
"Do you think you could get Misty for me?" he asked hopefully.
"What for?" Sabrina asked suspiciously.
"She's supposed to be meeting Ash somewhere but he's really sick right now and can't make it," Brock explained.
"Ok, just a sec I'll go find her."
There was a long silence on the other end of the line as Sabrina searched the house for her friend.
"Misty's not here," Sabrina said as she returned. "Sorry."
"It's ok," he replied. "Are we still on for tomorrow?"
"Maybe," she replied teasingly.
"I'll see you then," he said before hanging up.
"What?" he asked as he saw Tracey and Parker laughing at him.
"I was just demonstrating to Tracey why the speaker phone was such a brilliant invention," Parker replied. "you know you always looked more of a muffin to me."
Brock blushed.
"so should we tell Ash that Misty's waiting for him?" Parker asked.
"I think he's asleep," Tracey replied quietly after taking a peek in at Ash.
"let's just let him rest, we'll tell him when he wakes up," Brock suggested.
"He's earned it," Tracey commented.
Misty sat waiting in an almost empty icecream parlor picking at her icecream sundae.
"Are you ok?" a jolly looking man at the counter asked. "You've been nursing at that thing for an hour."
She sighed. "I was supposed to meet a friend here," she told him.
"Well than I'm sorry to say Miss," the man told her, "but it looks like this friend of yours has stood you up.'
"I've been thinking the same thing for the past hour," she sighed. "good night," she said as she picked up her things and started heading back to campus.
She'd barely been walking for a minute when it started to poor down with rain.
'I'm going to kill that boy,' she thought to herself as she started taking long angry strides towards the frat house. 'And then I'm going to make him wish he were dead.'
The rain was hard and stung her skin. Her once tidy hair looked even redder than usual as it hung limply around her face in long wet tendrils. Her clothes were drenched right through, and she was just glad she had decided against wearing the white shirt.
There was no doubting it.
Misty was angry, and Ash was going to find out just how angry the hard way.
"nobody, but nobody stands up Misty Waterflower," she muttered angrily.
~ to be continued ~
This is a change from my usual chapters. Misty's on a mad rampage and Ash is lying on the couch with the flu. This should be one hell of a meeting.
Please review and I'll try to make the next chapter a bit longer.