A Jewel in Water
Part 25
Rudy was grinning throughout the whole meal. When the steak arrived in front of him, he cheerily hummed as he picked up his knife and fork and sliced the meat. With each mouthful his eyes would meet Elliot or Brock across the table, but the smile on his face never faded. Despite the earlier events Brock and Elliot seemed to enjoy stealing mocking glances at each other, and glancing towards Misty to see her reaction towards Rudy's jolly mood. Every so often, she would look at him and take a deep sigh and carry on eating. Paul seemed unaffected by the whole scene, thinking about how long it would take him to reach home if he set off tomorrow and estimating how angry Reji would be by the time he arrived. He didn't want to indulge in the trivial issues that were occurring around him. For a group of adults, Ash and the gang had such juvenile tendencies. This atmosphere carried for the next hour until dinner had finished. Misty then suggested that they should have an evening drink before heading to bed, and with nothing better to do, aside from Paul, everyone agreed. So they all moved to the lounge to have a drink and try and weed out some juicy gossip from each other.
Meanwhile, Ash was making his was up the central staircase, absentmindedly thinking about how embarrassing the whole situation was, and how pathetic he must have looked towards Misty, when he found himself standing outside Mays' door. When he came to attention he half expected to hear loud sobs coming from her room, but all was quiet. Had she fallen asleep? She can't have, it was barely 7pm. Then out of nowhere, he heard a boom of laughter from the other side of the door. Was this Mays room or had he come across someone elses? No he was sure this was where May was staying, all the guests were on this floor, and everyone else was eating dinner. It took Ash a few minutes to get the courage to knock on the door, but once the second burst of laughter took place he almost collapsed onto the door, thereby reaching the point of no return. The laughter stopped suddenly and Ash heard her blowing her nose before making her way to the door and opening it. She had a neutral look on her face but her brows furrowed a bit more when she saw the person knocking was Ash.
"Hey…" said Ash tentatively.
"Go away Ash," said May, clearly exhausted.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you during something so funny, but I'm glad you're laughing now," Ash explained. The tips of May's ears went red. He had heard that?
"Well, I already embarrassed myself enough downstairs by crying my eyes out. Might as well try to cheer myself up!" she justified.
"Hey, I'm not stopping you, I said I was glad didn't I?"
"Well being nice to me now isn't going to change what you already said."
"Yeah…I know." There was an awkward pause in conversation.
"So you're not even gonna apologise?" asked May in disbelief. Ash looked at her and didn't say anything for a few seconds. Just as May was about to protest, Ash spoke up.
"I am sorry. In a way." He said finally. May sighed.
"I guess that's the best I'm gonna get, right?" Ash stayed silent.
"Look Ash," May began after another sigh, "I don't wanna fight again. I know myself that I'm on a losing side. But as a person who has to live my life with some dignity, I cant agree with you. Not right now anyway."
"I just don't really understand what made you get this way. You used to have such drive." He tried.
"Ash, I'm not like you. I never set off on a journey with one goal ingrained in my mind. I'm still looking for what works for me, and maybe contests isn't it. Maybe all I want to do is just stay at home and have a family. But that's my choice. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but you have no right to say anything about my future goals. If I'm at a slump, I'm at a slump. I know you want me to have drive but I just have none right now."
"It's been 2 years May."
"Ash, you're lucky. Things worked out for you. You became a Pokemon Master after all those years of effort, and you are gonna get your girl. But we can't all be as lucky." Before Ash could say anything, May interjected, "Anyway, I need to sort some stuff out. Let's both sleep on it and talk tomorrow." And she gently shut the door.
"Haha, I wouldn't count myself as so lucky," Ash said derisively, "I'm paying for being so self centred, especially now…"
"Looking pretty in Goldenrod City," exclaimed Mewoth as they stepped out of the magnet train.
"Hey, that rhymes!" commented James.
"Personally, I'm just glad we managed to put a bit of distance between us and the twerps. I thought my head was going to split open." Compained Jessie.
"How comes there were so many in one place anyway? You'd have thought that it was some sort of twerp convention." Cried Meowth.
"Well as long as we have the head twerp looking out for us, we can avoid any nasty revenge plans the others have for us," said James. All of a sudden Jessies' phone rang, with a shrill tone.
Meowth cried and covered his ears. "Mind changing your ringtone a bit? Some of us got sensitive ears here!"
"Oh hush Meowth, I would never use such an obnoxious ringtone, what do you take me for." Moaned Jessie. "It must be because the caller ID is unknown."
"Well, are you gonna pick it up? We only use that phone for the head twerp, maybe he's calling from another phone." Suggested James.
"Yeah, probably. Either that or you've been putting this number down on questionnaires for freebies again!" Jessie replied. "I'm sick of getting calls from these fake shiny magikarp salemen!"
"You'd have thought that we would have learnt after the first hundred times," Meowth sighed.
"Actually it took up 132 times," James corrected but Jessie interrupted.
"Shut up you two, I'm going to pick it up now… Hello, Jessie here."
"Hello Jessie…" an unidentifiable voice on the other side said. "I trust you are well, as are James and Meowth." Jessies face went pale, and anxiety grew in James and Meowth as they watched the colour drain from her face.
"Wh-Why?" she cried.
"It's been a long time. I believe we have some things to discuss, and perhaps some arrangements to make…"