Chapter 2: In which he meets a pink girl and some romantic plot is developed (just kidding i'm a failure)
Paul isn't really sure when it happens but suddenly he's got a new "best-friend" as Barry puts it and he doesn't really miss the solitude of his old single dorm.
It's kind of weird having a friend. He's had rivals and enemies and family and even a couple lovers (Regardless of the fact that Cher likes to make fun of him and calls him a prude on a daily basis). Sure he's been forced to go to Ash's Christmas parties a couple times alongside his little sister, but Ash isn't his friend. He is an enigma, a mystery of a boy that pats him on the back and wishes him good luck. Barry is stupid and simple, an open book an easy laugh, and that's why he's Paul's friend.
(It's still kind of unusual)
He's stuck on the cashier and Barry's finally been moved back to the machines. It's a slow day and Paul didn't get to call Cher today because of some "business" apparently on her end, so annoyance and boredom is creeping up him like a disease. But he's in college and completely normal so he just yells at Barry a little bit and ignores it and nothing amazing or special happens.
Paul's studying at his desk in their dorm room that night when Barry, who's an idiot, challenges him to Truth or Dare.
"I'll fine you if you don't say yes."
Paul's never had a friend before so he agrees, and Barry who's polite let's him go first.
Truth.
What's your favorite color?
That's stupid.
Shut up.
Orange duh, Green's next.
What are you a pumpkin?
No! Well whatever, your turn. Truth or Dare.
Dare.
I dare you to pick Truth.
You can't do that, I would have already did a dare and then my turn would be over.
I dare you to pick Truth next time.
Fine. Stupid though you wasted a turn. Truth or Dare?
Truth.
Again?
Yeah, Dare's are stupid.
Okay. Do you, or do you not want to ask Ursula out.
...
You're blushing.
No I am not!
Well do you?
(Barry mumbles his answer into a pillow and it's completely incomprehensible but like Paul said, Barry is an open book so it doesn't matter)
Okay. Truth or Dare.
Truth, only because you're making me.
(And because Paul's never had a friend the next question is a surprise)
Do you ever feel lonely?
No.
(And because Paul's first friend is stupid he believes him)
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It's all wrong.
It's also all stupid.
But mostly it's not fall anymore which has Paul singing praises on the inside. However winter's here and now he remembers that he doesn't really like any season, with good reason of course.
(It's too cold. But if he says that his sister would hug him from across the world and say his insides are hot chocolate and his heart is a marshmallow)
"I need the frappe, the machiatto and the two lattes." He tells Barry while his fingers twitch out a Leila and Maisy onto the two latter cups. The orange-eyed freak just hums and starts brewing the coffee at a speed that only an equally caffeinated person could.
Last night he got to talk to Cher.
("So you and your lonesome finally got some real human companionship, huh, that's funny. Next thing you'll know you'll have a girlfriend or something."
"Shut up."
"As talkative as always my dear brother, but really you'll be married the next time I see you."
"Cher, stop it."
"You'll even have a baby."
"No."
"I want to be his godmother. And name him, uh. Well I actually have no idea, what should we name him?"
"How do you even know it's going to be a boy?"
"I can feel it Paul." Her voice morphed into some weird combination of a mountain dwellers accent and gargled rocks. "I can feel it in meh bones."
"No. Please don't."
"I'm not joking though. Really, there's love in your future."
Paul was quiet because he's been called freakishly perceptive before and suddenly he remembered that day where Cher couldn't call him because of "business" and how happy and stupid (and maybe just in love) she sounds so he asked:
"Got to go Cher, your fault though. You're the one who got me a job that makes me wake up at an ungodly hour in the first place.")
(It's because he's a coward)
Pretty soon Barry's handing Paul the orders because even if Paul gives him a lot of crap of having the coordination of a child, Barry is strangely adept at maneuvering his way around the coffee beans and milk pitchers. He turns and passes the cups to their customers while rattling of the orders.
One of the girls giggle and waves at him.
(It's annoying)
Suddenly there's a crash. Not really actually, it's the smack of a person shoving the door open so hard that the bells ring like there's no tomorrow and the plastic handle smashes against the uncrackable windows and Barry's hair actually moves a little bit in the resulting gust of cold air.
She looks like a Slurpuff.
Her clothes look pretty high quality he supposes and her tall pink boots jingle silver zippers. But as she pulls down a thick knit white scarf her nose is red and pink and scrappy, and her lips are pale and chapped. She's like some moving machine, striding towards the counter and shedding layers of now unwanted coats and wool simultaneously. Her jacket isn't that long, pulling in tight under her chest and flaring out to only parallel of her knuckles. White socks catch at the tops of her knees, and Paul can't help but think that she's one of them. The people who wear clothes too short and too flimsy because they want to look good even in the middle of winter, but the girl is puffing slightly and she doesn't look cold in the slightest, in fact she looks really really warm. The warm where they pull you close and heat you up and Paul wonders if thats why his skin feels like it's on fire so who knows. And of came the scarf, which along with the tipped white cap is thrown inside her bag. Soon she's standing right up in front of Paul, but her eyes are glued to the electronic on her left wrist while her slender pale fingers unbutton the big pink hooks from her red coat and loosen her collar.
"Black. 2 shots." Paul barely hears her words as her thin mouth prints out the words, crisp and clean, because even Barry (whose an idiot) notices and he stares at the most easily rememberable feature, despite the new color.
Two strawberry pink clips on navy gloss.
"No." Paul cuts back and "Dawn!" Barry shouts.
She jerks up her head, eyebrows pulling in confused until she sees purple and yellow. Suddenly her cheeks flush red and she stumbles back because, oh, their faces really are actually very very close. Her jaw falls open and it looks like she's about to say something, but it snaps up like a fish and she breathes out a soft
"It's you."
And Paul finds that he was about to say something too, but instead he (sees her snub nose and thin eyebrows that reminds him of adventures and being young again, just travelling around Sinnoh, juvenile and stupid and) growls (laughs laughs laughs) back a
"Troublesome"
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She's a sophomore too, and it's actually kind of a surprise that they all haven't crashed into each other sooner.
Paul and Barry's shift ends in only about half an hour, so Dawn laughs and waits at the counter with the steaming bitter drink clutched between her gloves. She chats easily with Barry, passing the cup to her right hand to lift her left arm and make sweeping gestures with her twisting wrist to mark some point in their discussion or another.
It's only a couple more customers and soon he finds himself sitting on the plushy stool in between Dawn and Barry who are both, kind of ridiculously, way shorter than him.
She goes to a PokéStylist and Co-ordinating school, which is why she's rooming with May, a junior with a future in competitive co-ordinating, and enemies with Ursula, mainly co-ordinating some styling, and who just so happens to be the subject of Paul's roommates current affections. She's going to be a PokéStylist, she says with a smile and a certainty that waivers a little bit in the back of her throat, but she still competes in tournaments occasionally, even if it is just for the money bonus.
"What about you?" She gestures towards Paul with a tilt of the head, "What are you doing right now?"
(Paul thinks about when they were rude)
"I'm actually sharing a dorm with idiot over there actually."
Barry makes a spluttering noise and Dawn laughs again, her jugular jumping up and down like a heartbeat.
"Who are you calling an idiot?" He yips indignantly. "You," Paul answers, "I'm calling you an idiot."
And that's when she smiles.
The flaky skin peeling back thin as Barry punches Paul's arm, teeth shining and bursting out this breath-taking heart-wrenching gut-punching knees-shaking soul-killing exploding brilliant smile. It's stupid, that wasn't even funny in the slightest but she does it anyway when she cried and that's when Paul remembers the smile that Barry smiled and why it made him remember something, remember this something right here.
(it's the first time they've seen each other in five years)
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A/N
Umm.. Not really anything to say...
Smile!
-HeyHeyDoIKnowYou
("You is smart. You is kind. You is important.")