My Great Big Adventure
Curtis was calling… again.
I suddenly felt like my heart had a hiccup. My throat was dry and it was hard to breathe. It must have been the altitude… or maybe the xtransceiver ringing in the dark scared me. Whatever this weird feeling was, it was unsettling. And so, I decided to mess around with the call.
"Hi, thanks for calling Castelia Pizzeria! How may I take your order?"
It was very hard not to laugh…
"Oh! Pardon me, I must have the wrong number…" Click.
I stared at the device expectantly, and sure enough, it began to ring again.
"Castelia Pizzeria, how may I help you?" Snerk.
"Oh, umm, my I dialed the wrong person again… that's so weird because this is definitely my number…"
I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing. "I wish I could have seen the look on your face!" I doubled over, still at the front door of reformed Team Plasma's house. "Too bad your xtransceiver doesn't have a screen…"
"Rose!" Curtis realized, sounding hurt. "You… you tricked me!"
I tried to calm down, but giggles kept escaping me. "I'm s-sorry, I just needed a good laugh I guess…haha."
"Oh? Are things too serious over there?" Ever the concerned one…
But, he had a point. I sighed audibly. "Well, maybe…"
"Do you want to talk about it?"
I didn't realize until Curtis asked, how much I did want to talk about it.
"Well, long story short… My best friend drives me crazy! He expects me to do whatever he says whenever he wants. He doesn't care what's going on with me; it's always about him! And he has this vendetta against… some people, and I'm just getting tired of it." I had started to pace up and down the walkway. I wanted to rant a lot more about Hugh, but I also couldn't reveal too much. I still liked Hugh, being the stupid girl I am.
"That does sound serious," Curtis commented, sounding deep in thought.
"Have you ever told him any of this?"
"Umm… well, not in so many words…"
And then I didn't want to talk about it anymore. I felt like I was betraying my friendship with Hugh by talking about him behind his back. I felt weird talking about it with Curtis. I felt like I didn't want to know what Curtis thought of Hugh anyway. I didn't want things to get that personal with Curtis.
"Let's talk about something else, ok?" I asked.
"You sure?" I could tell he wanted to talk more about it, but I had already clammed up.
"Yes. What about you, Curtis? What's going on with you?" I asked, happy to jump topics.
"Oh! Hmmm, well, I was just listening to some music! Classical music is wonderful!"
"Really? I like classical music too," I said, surprised. Not sure why I was surprised though… what sort of music had I expected him to listen to? Wait, that's stupid, I hadn't expected anything because I don't think about Curtis that much to have ever thought of anything! Right? Ok honestly, I would have guessed pop…
"You too? That's great! Yeah, I like vocal music too but… sometimes I just get tired of words, you know? Too many words to sing to."
Err…? I felt like Curtis meant something else by that, but it sounded like a load of waffle.
"Sure… I mean, I can't sing along to wordy songs…?" I had no idea what I was talking about anymore, though I wasn't sure I even cared. I was slowly heading down the hill, back towards the Pokemon Center.
"Rose, your voice would go well with any type of music!"
I felt a huge blush spread across my face. "N-no, you're mistaken…!"
"Aw," Curtis said in a weird voice, making me jump, "are you blushing? I bet you look—"
But I never got to hear what Curtis thought I looked like.
The xtransceiver suddenly switched off. A finger had pushed the Off button… I followed the finger up the hand, arm, shoulder…
"Hugh!" I blurted, stumbling backwards.
He caught my wrist. "Who was that?" he demanded to know, his eyes flicking down briefly to the xtransceiver and back to me. He didn't look nearly as angry as back in Rood's house, but there was something still off about him… I couldn't put my finger on it.
"What did you do that for?" I growled, struggling to pull my hand away. "You had no business butting into my call!"
"Who was it?!" he asked again, a slight edge to his voice.
"Hugh, back off! What is your deal?"
He stepped closer, still gripping my wrist. "What's my deal? I want to know who you were talking to. Do you even know who you were talking to? You couldn't even see a picture! Rosa, what if it was someone from Team Plasma—!"
Of course. His precious Team Plasma! It's always about them!
"He's not on Team Plasma, for crying out loud!" I retorted, trying not to let him push me around this time. "Why does everything always have to be about them, Hugh?"
"Because they're dangerous! They could trick you and lure you away somewhere," he huffed. "I don't need to be slowed down having to come rescue you—"
That did it.
If I was such a friggin burden to him, why the hell did Hugh keep bothering with me?
I didn't care anymore.
I dug the heel of my foot into his shoe, hard. Surprised more than hurt, he released my wrist and I sprung away instantly. My heart cracked at what I was about to do… but I had to. I was going to crack anyway and at least this way I would have the last word.
"I'm sorry I'm such a burden to you," I spat. "I didn't realize our friendship was holding you back. Well, fine, Hugh, have it your way."
He seemed to sober up. At least, he looked confused more than angry.
"Rosa, what are you saying?"
I called out my Tranquill and hopped on, giving Hugh one last look.
"I'm saying good-bye."