Yay! New chapter already!

Man. I don't know how much you guys are into like anime and manga and stuff, but I just recently got into the new craze everyone's talking about.

It's called "Katawa Shoujo". It's been in production for 5 years. I know it's an 18+ Visual Novel (which is basically an interactive novel, pretty much a game) so a lot of you won't play/read it on here (but I mean, who's 18+ gonna stop, right?)

But it's so strange. I mean, it's one of those things where you actually get emotionally attached to the characters, right?

But the VN itself is just too much. And I watch people on youtube, and so many of them actually CRY about the characters and the story! One guy literally broke up with his real girlfriend because he was so emotionally attached to a girl in the VN! :O.

I mean, I read it. I'm not done yet. I'm following Emi. Maybe I'll follow others if I have time. It's true; you develop an emotional attachment to the person when you're playing. You actually begin to CARE about them and enjoy their presence. But once you stop playing, shouldn't it go away as you think and do other things?

I guess the moral is if you get too sucked in to a fictional world, you begin to lose perception of reality, which I think is a problem for a lot of people, and it leads to depression. It's okay to obsess. Do it to your heart's content. Just make sure you're not living too much in a fantasy world, because or else reality will fade away from you, and you will never want to return. People just don't want to deal with reality, and they withdraw too much into their own fictional worlds where everything is better. And that's not okay.

Anyways, just a bit of late-night thinking, I guess.

So this chapter was written while listening to VERY sad music, as you will probably be able to tell.

Please keep on reviewing, it'd be great. I have no idea how many of you are still reading, or are still interested in reading this story. But I'll continue anyways.

Sorry for the sadness and what not. There had to be at least ONE like this :).

Chapter 18

Truly, that dream was going to change my life. I mean, how could it not? But how could I convince people? It was next to impossible, as the woman said. I wasn't even going to attempt to try and convince my mom for the moment.

Finally it started to lighten up outside, and it was time to go to school. I woke up from the dream at around 4:30 am, and I sat on my couch for about two hours, thinking, until I had finally reached my conclusion of becoming a pokemon trainer.

After eating and getting ready, I headed to the bus stop, and waited a few minutes before it came. When I got on, I caught May's eyes looking into mine. She had a worried look on her face. As I got closer, she stood and opened her mouth, but I waved her off before she could speak, indicating that it was still too early to talk about yesterday's incidents. I finally took my normal seat.

Dawn got on the bus right after. I wasn't even worried about the fact that people didn't know that we were "together" yet. I was worried about the fact that I didn't even think about how I was going to explain everything to her!

She came and sat directly beside me. She put her arm around mine and rested her head on my shoulder. I was getting strange looks from May, but she was too engulfed in her conversation with Gary to really care. I started to get hot and slightly sweaty.

"Hi." She said softly.

"Hey." I smiled back.

"Hmm, you left a little too fast last night. But the movie was cute."

Holy crap. NO WAY was I telling her just yet. No way! It was too hard to do, and I was unprepared. But I was determined to do it before the day ended. It was going to be really hard, but it HAD to be done.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I had to leave, too. But I slept well. You?"

Slept well, haha. Not exactly, but I still had to make conversation somehow.

"Yeah, I slept alright," she said. "Would have been better with you there, for sure."

Ah wonderful. How the HELL was I supposed to tell her now?

We just had our little small talk all the way until we entered the school. I clearly decided I wasn't going to tell her just yet. She came down with me to my locker, which just kept making me more nervous.

"Haha, well I don't know about that, but you definitely need to help me more with homework." Dawn said, continuing our conversation.

I was just about to reply, when I caught a familiar face in the corner of my eye. It was Brock! And he was with Jasmine. No, really, I mean he was WITH Jasmine.

"Hey, uhh, Brock, Jasmine." I was slightly confused at them holding hands.

"Haha!" He laughed at my confusion. "I see you're confused, but it's true! Jasmine and I are dating! Since yesterday!"

Jasmine started to blush a little. I mean, you couldn't say that this was unexpected, because after all, they went to Kenny's party last week together, but it was surprising nonetheless.

Dawn chuckled. Oh no. This was bad.

"That's really funny! Because…"

I pulled Dawn away by grabbing her by her wrist. It almost seemed cartoonish. Jasmine and Brock stared, confused. No. It had to be now. Before anyone found out. Prepared or not, now was the time. It had to be done.

"Jeez, Ash, what's with you?" She whined.

"Look, Dawn, I really don't know how to tell this to you, or how you'll take this, or if you'll believe this, but… look, we just need to talk." I crumbled.

"You're supposed to say THAT first…" She replied impatiently.

"Serious, Dawn." I had no idea how to go about this, so for some reason I thought it was best just to spew out as much as I could. "Look, we just got together. And I'm really happy about that. There's nothing I would ever do to change our relationship together. I worked so hard just to get you to acknowledge me, and to get you away from Paul. There's no doubt in my mind about that. For some reason, you meant everything to me, and I couldn't help that feeling. I went with it."

She was flattered, but that feeling would not last.

"And we're together now. We haven't exactly known each other for long, but we connect. We've been through a lot. But I'm sorry Dawn." Her face immediately changed from happy to worried. "I don't know how much we'll be able to see each other. Because… well, I won't be attending school for a while. And I'd really like to tell you why, but you'd honestly think I was mentally ill if I told you."

She said nothing. She just stood there. Finally, "Tell me." She said. No. She didn't say. She DEMANDED.

"Okay, but this is the honest truth I'm telling you, Dawn. I'm not lying." She nodded. "Well, I've been chosen to become a pokemon trainer. At this age. There's something big happening, Dawn, and I don't know what it quite is, but there's serious danger. And I don't know why they've picked me, but they said that they have their reasons."

"You 'don't know what it is'? And who's 'they'?" She asked.

"Well, not much has been revealed. Dawn, well, I have to embark on a journey to train and become stronger. I wont be around for a while, but I promise I'll come back as soon as possible!"

"And I can't come along?" She inquired impatiently again.

"Well, they only let you travel in pairs, and, well, I was already given a partner. She's really great though, don't worry!"

"Oh. She's sooo great, huh! Well, I didn't realize…"

Crap, why did I say that!

"No, Dawn, c'mon! I didn't mean it like that. She's a professional! You know that nothing would ever happen between us!"

"Well, how will I know that, if…" She started to tear up. "You won't even let me come with you?"

"Dawn…" I put my hand on her shoulder, and felt like crying too. But I held my composure. She threw my hand off.

"I don't even know what you're telling me. Or if you're even telling the truth. Because all it sounds like to me is a bunch of bullcrap. Ash, you should never have even kissed me if you felt this way, and if you already had feelings for someone else! Why would you put me through this if you felt this way!"

She was REALLY crying now. So was I at this point. I don't care. Call me a wimp. Call me a pussy. I don't care. This was the worst thing that could possibly happen to me. And I had to enforce it. Because it was the right thing to do. But it hurt so badly.

"Dawn! I don't have feelings for this girl! I just met her last night! You would be my first choice by a longshot if I could choose whom to travel with! Dawn, I love you! I am NOT breaking up with you!" I pleaded.

"Yeah, well you might as well be!" She screamed. She began to run off. I grabbed her by the arm.

"Dawn. Can't you trust me?" I begged one last time.

"Ash, I really want to." She turned around and smiled. "But my heart tells me I shouldn't. Maybe we've been through a lot, Ash, but after all, like you said, we hardly know each other. Just when I thought it was all right, Ash." She ran off for good this time.

I didn't even bother calling her or going after her. I guess my predictions were right. Maybe Dawn wasn't the one for me, after all. She couldn't trust me. This was my most important test, and she didn't trust me. I ached and pained inside. No words could describe what I felt like. I pinned up against a locker and sunk down to the ground, clutching my hair. I sat there, defeated. This was truly the end here. Nothing left anymore.

"Oh, Ash! Great news!" Brock said as he approached with Jasmine. "Coach talked to me. You made the soccer team! He really thinks you're good! He just wants to know how your arm is!"

Not great news at all to me at the moment. Nothing could be great news. Depression took over. I was finished here. Jubilife High. What was the point of returning now? For friends I hardly even knew? For a girlfriend who hated me?

"It's fine." I mumbled.