Update April 2013: This chapter has been updated and revised from its original version. Past errors have been fixed and adjustments have been made but the plot of the chapter, characters, and events have remained the same.
I'm pretty proud of myself for getting this chapter up early. I usually update around midnight, but since tonight's New Year's Eve, I figured I'd get it up sooner rather than later. Anyways, before I head out to meet up with some friends, I'd like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! May the new year treat you all very well and bring you all things good! Thanks for supporting me! I love you all, happy reading and please review! And I also hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas! :D
Responses to Reviews...
EeveeTransformed: HAH! I literally laughed out loud at the part about your sisters! I envy you, I wish I had sisters. :\ It'd be terrible if all three of my best guy friends liked me! I wouldn't even know what to do! Poor May...and Brendan...I'm so mean. :p
ColbyDanielle: Thanks for the tree and for telling me that you're never disappointed in this story! Both meant very much, thanks a bunch! :D
WinxyBtrXOXO: Thanks for all of the reviewing that you did for me! Glad to have you as another one of my readers. I'm also very happy that you love my story! :D
chocolatehell: Thanks Samia! I hope you had a merry Christmas, too, even if it was wet and rainy where you are. It didn't snow where I am either! :( And yeah, it is extreme. Hehe :P But thanks for the compliments!
misspokemonpro: Why thank you, you're very kind. :3
Obviously Citra: Thank you!
Jace'sVampiress97: Haha yes, in a way, it is! xD Thanks very much!
Chi-chiwawa: Well, you are smart! :D And of course I'll answer your reviews! Getting to respond to the reviews is actually my favorite part of updating! (after the writing part of course ;D)
The Last Poison Apple: It was :( I really did cry as I was writing it and as I was going back and editing it. I felt so terrible, but, unfortunately, it's part of my story plot. But thank you for saying that about my story! :)
LoveLoverGrl: Thanks! ;)
xxTheBloodyRosexx: I cry for him, too. But Drew does have to do things silly! He's been having to fight for May's affections ever since he saw her! He'll be doing a lot more of that during their journey, I can assure you. He will receive your anger. :D And why would I receive it negatively? Take back that apology! You did nothing wrong; no negative feelings caused. :)
iCanSeeTheLight: I will definitely be incorporating some of their arguments! I've always found them funny, too hah! :D
Pear-Shaped: Thank you, I'm glad you like it! :D
Claudette14: Thank you very much for reading, I hope you had a happy holiday as well. :D
Fprmr1: LOL! That sounds exactly like me and poetry. I remember I had to write a book full of poems for an English assignment and I was totally stressed out! But once I wrote the first one, the rest just came to me like I've been writing poetry for my entire life. Strange. O.o
Shadow Lillies: Aw, sorry to hear that! I've been doing the same thing, except I've been watching a lot of sad movies instead of reading sad stories. I think I've cried out all my tears for a month. :p
Love Unexpected chapter 12
The wait at the Lilycove City Harbor to board the S. S. Tidal had been a short one, much to the relief of Drew and May. Both were more than eager to get on board so that they could get to their cabins.
The two of them had gotten up at around three in the morning to catch the ferry, which meant they were both running on only two hours of sleep. The only thing they wanted to do was to go back to sleep in their cabin beds, and they did just that after they arrived at their own separate cabins.
May found herself struggling when she attempted to fall asleep in her cabin bed. Not only was the rigid feel of the mattress too foreign, but she also had too much on her mind. The memories of the night before were still fresh in her brain, haunting and torturing her with the constant reminder that she had hurt Brendan. That she was the one responsible for his misery. That she had single-handedly broken her best friend's heart.
She hadn't gotten very much sleep the night before, either. After Drew had managed to soothe her enough for her to get into her house, she had gone straight to the bathroom to take a shower. The hot water had felt so good—the perfect relief to her pain—that she wound up staying in the shower longer than usual in the hopes that the water would wash away all of her troubles the longer she stayed in.
By the time she had gotten to her room, it was already almost one in the morning. From there, she had struggled to fall asleep, even after she had taken the shower, proving that the soothing effect had only been temporary. So when she had to wake up at three to catch the ferry with Drew, she had only gotten about an hour of sleep.
Despite all of the fatigue that had been engulfing her all morning, she still found herself tossing and turning in her cabin bed uncomfortably. She tried her hardest to drift into a slumber, but did so to no avail. That was just the problem with sleep: the harder one tries for it, the less likely one was going to get any. It took May a good hour of fidgeting until she finally succeeded in falling asleep, only to wake up with a start a mere hour later.
Her memories from the night before were still torturing her, even in her subconscious mind, coming to haunt her in her sleep in the form of nightmares. When she had woken, she found her pillow soaked from the tears that she hadn't even realized were streaming down her face. She was thankful for the box of tissues that was being offered on the bedside table beside her.
She reached for one to dab her wet cheeks with, while sniffling to stop the oncoming flow of snot. Her long lashes were lathered with wet tears, so she blinked them off and stared up at the ceiling. Another hour passed before her body finally allowed sleep to take over once again.
Three hours later, after the sun had risen above the horizon and its light had seeped into the ferry, May found her way out onto the deck. The scenery outside of her cabin seemed to mock her glum mood: the clouds parted to reveal a lovely blue sky, the wingull and pelipper sung a pleasant melody, and the ocean sparkled beautifully.
May sighed sadly to herself when she approached the white railing of the ferry. She crossed her arms over the top bar and propped herself up on her elbows, so that she could gaze at the horizon. The rushing breeze combed through her hair, tickling her chin with it, and raised goosebumps along her exposed skin. She found herself wishing that she hadn't left her jacket back in her cabin.
"I knew I'd find you out here," a familiar voice piped.
May didn't even have to turn around to know that Drew was the one who was approaching her. He was beside her on the railing in seconds, leaning his back against the white bars so that he could look at her without the wind blowing in his eyes. He appraised her jacket-less outfit.
"Where's your jacket? I'll bet you're cold," he concluded, watching as she rubbed her upper arms with all of the motions being in her wrists to avoid changing her position.
She was revealing quite a bit of skin being dressed in only a cami and a pair of shorts, that hit just above mid-thigh. Her slim legs seemed to go on endlessly until his eyes fell on the pair of short hiking boots. The outfit was so simple, but she still looked so incredibly sexy to him that he had to resist the urge to lick his lips.
The wind blowing through her hair certainly didn't help much with his attempt; it just made her look more alluring. To keep himself distracted, he unzipped the black track jacket he was wearing and took it off.
"Here—put this on," he instructed while handing the jacket to her.
May turned to look at his jacket, catching the smell of cologne that wafted from it. After taking it from him, she lifted it to her nose to take a whiff.
Drew furrowed his eyebrows.
"Does it smell bad?" he asked.
"No, it smells good," she murmured unabashedly before she slid her arms through the sleeves and adjusted the oversized jacket on her shoulders.
He couldn't refrain from pulling her hair out of the collar as he watched her put it on. His fingers lingered on her neck afterwards for a second longer until he pulled his hand away.
"Is what happened last night still upsetting you?" he asked cautiously after a minute, afraid that he might trigger another crying session from her.
He hadn't planned on bringing it up again, but seeing her so upset last night had gotten him worried. It pained him to see her nod.
"I'll assume that you're still not in the mood to talk about it then, huh?" he guessed.
May nodded again.
"Yeah," she sighed. "Not until some more time passes at least."
Drew hummed in understanding.
"Whenever you need to talk to someone about it, then. I'll be here," he promised.
A small smile tugged up the corner of May's lips, but she didn't look at him.
"Thanks Drew," she said softly, her eyes not leaving the horizon and her smile falling as quickly as it had appeared.
Seeing this, Drew felt an overwhelming urge to just wrap his arms around her. Figuring that she needed the comfort and company, but not entirely sure if he was the comfort and company that she wanted, he tentatively wrapped his arms around her midsection, drawing her into him. He felt her tense under his touch.
"Whatever it is, it'll be fine," he assured, while waiting anxiously for her response.
To his relief and surprise, May leaned into his chest instead of pushing him away.
"Thanks, I needed this," she murmured.
Drew smiled softly in response.
"No problem May," he told her, and continued to hold her as they stared out into the horizon together.
It was a while until May finally pulled away from Drew. Her stomach had begun to grumble, so she needed to find food to satisfy her grumbling stomach, much to his dismay. But nonetheless, he walked with her back into the ferry to find food, content just so long as he was in her company.
The rest of the ferry ride took about another five hours until the ferry arrived in the Kanto region. In those five hours, Drew and May hadn't done much aside from having brunch at the ferry's restaurant and taking another nap right after to get in as much sleep as possible before their arrival. They were woken up by the sailors who worked on the S. S. Tidal when it docked at the Vermillion City Harbor. When they stepped off of the ferry, they saw that it was already late afternoon.
Nostalgia overtook May in a wave upon setting foot onto the harbor of Vermillion City. Being in such a foreign city naturally brought back the memories of her first journey away from home with Ash, Brock, and Max. She still remembered the fascination and uncertainty that she had felt whenever she had encountered anything new at that time and how they'd always been there with her through it all.
Despite having already been on another journey without them by her side, it was difficult as always to adapt without them. Perhaps it was just her need for a close friend, or at least someone who she trusted enough so that she could confide in them for anything. She hated herself for being so dependent, but perhaps her recent conflict with Brendan had something to do with it. She knew that she was going to need someone to talk to about the situation, but she had no one.
Though she did have Drew, she still found herself hesitant in telling him everything. But somehow, she knew that she would soon give in to the need to vent and to seek guidance from someone, so she would end up doing it eventually. She just didn't know how soon.
"Let's go sight-seeing before we check in at the Pokémon Center," Drew suggested suddenly.
Having taken May's glum mood into account, he concluded that what the girl needed most at the moment was to do something fun rather than something responsible. She needed something to take her mind off of her recent conflict with Brendan. Responsibility could wait.
"But shouldn't we check in first instead?" May insisted, not seeing the motive behind his suggestion. "The center may run out of rooms."
"Don't worry—it won't," Drew assured. "We can check in tonight."
"Are you sure?"
He answered her question first by giving a nonchalant wave of his hand.
"Definitely, so don't worry about it. There will probably be a ton of rooms left for us to check in to," he insisted. "Let's just go catch a movie or something, and then we can go out for dinner. We'll make it back before nightfall, and then we can check in."
May sighed and shrugged as she walked ahead of him.
"Let's get going, then," she called over her shoulder.
Drew smiled and followed her.
Everything went according to Drew's schedule for the rest of their first day in Vermillion. The first thing they had done was find a local movie theater (with the help of some directions from some local citizens) where they had managed to purchase tickets for a romantic comedy just before the movie started.
The movie basically revolved around the lives of a boy and girl, who had met one another at very young ages when the boy moved into the house across the street from the girl's. At the first sight, the girl had instantly developed a little crush on him that eventually turned into a sort of obsession for the next eight years of their lives. She spent them pining after him, while he spent them thinking of ways to avoid her.
Things stayed the same year after year until they entered the tenth grade, where things slowly began to change. In that one year, their situation flipped entirely. The girl lost her feelings for the guy after many cowardly decisions on his part. In respect, the guy developed feelings for her just as she finally got over him. He began to do many silly things to win her heart back, even going so far as to attempt to kiss her in front of their whole class.
It wasn't all that funny a comedy, but it did manage to coax a laugh or two out of May, and that was all Drew cared about. He had specifically chosen a comedy for the sole purpose of seeing her smile again, but when he heard her laugh instead, he was thrilled. The melodious laughter was practically music to his ears.
After the movie, they went out to eat at a quaint little restaurant that was made famous by their amazingly good ramen noodles. Drew had suggested the place with the hopes of cheering May up some more since she had returned back to her distant mood after leaving the theater. Though he wasn't particularly fond of ramen noodles, he knew that they were May's favorite food, so he decided to sacrifice a satisfying meal in exchange for her happiness. It helped to ease down the noodles somewhat when he saw a smile spread across her lips when she took a whiff. She had begun to return back her to her regular cheery self after a couple minutes into the meal.
Once it was over, they quickly made their way back to the Pokémon Center to check into their rooms. They had been so engrossed in the conversation during dinner that they wound up leaving the restaurant half an hour later than they had originally planned.
It was almost ten thirty by the time Drew got to the front desk of the building, where a Nurse Joy was sitting in front of a computer to keep record of all who entered and left the Pokémon Center. He turned to May with a worried expression after telling Nurse Joy that they wanted to check out two separate rooms and receiving her answer.
"Uh, I have some news," he told the brunette girl behind him.
May had been absentmindedly toying with the two PokéBalls that dangled from the gold charm bracelet that Marina had given her. One of them contained Blaziken, while the other contained Lillipup, who she could not leave behind despite her original plan. Her hand closed around both of the PokéBalls when she saw Drew's expression.
"Good or bad?" she asked warily.
"Bad."
"Oh, that's great," she said with a grimace. "What's the news?"
"...there's only one room left."
A moment of silence fell upon them as May took some time to take in his words. Or rather, she was waiting for him to start chuckling and telling her that it was a joke. It wasn't until the silence started to become uncomfortable that the honesty of the statement began to set in.
When it did, she narrowed her eyes at him.
"You planned this," she accused him.
"No, I didn't!" he exclaimed, his eyes widening to back up his innocence.
"Then why did you suggest checking in at the last minute?"
"That was pure coincidence!"
May snorted in disbelief to show that she wasn't convinced. It really was a mere coincidence that the Pokémon Center was out of rooms; Drew hadn't planned it, but she didn't choose to believe it at all.
"Just get the darn key so that we can head up to the room," she growled and stormed over to the elevator without waiting for him.
Drew sighed before getting the room key and going after her.
Another uncomfortable silence filled the atmosphere around them in the elevator as they rode it to the second floor. May had spent the entire ride avoiding Drew's apologetic stare, while he tried desperately to meet her eyes. Once they got to the second floor, where their room was located, and he opened the door, they both got to take a look at the room. It was a fairly big room that was furnished with a television, a closet, a small round dining table, four chairs, a small couch...and one bed.
"You're sleeping on the couch," May told Drew immediately after taking in the furniture.
He turned to her with a disbelieving look, but she was already walking to the closet to put away her bag and denim jacket.
"You can't expect me to sleep on that thing," he said incredulously, coming up behind her. "You probably wouldn't even fit on it!"
"Then you're sleeping on the floor."
"I didn't exactly plan on camping out so soon."
"Oh, so you chose to plan this out instead?"
"I told you, I didn't plan this! It was a—"
"Oh, hush Andrew," May groaned, turning around and placing a hand out to silence him as she thought about what to do next.
She considered kicking him out of the room, but she couldn't bring herself to do that. Her conscience wouldn't let her, so she had to let him stay. With a frustrated grunt, she turned back to the closet, where she spotted a pile of spare blankets. Reaching a decision, she bent down to pull the lot out with one hand and tucked it under her arm. Then, she crossed the room and kicked off her shoes before she climbed onto the bed.
Drew watched with bewilderment as she began to create a barrier with the blankets, dividing the bed in two equal halves. She turned to him afterwards with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Fine. If you're not going to sleep on the couch or the floor, then it can't be helped. You'll have to sleep on the bed with me," she sighed. Then, her expression turned serious and her eyes narrowed menacingly. "But you'd better not touch me or you'll find yourself incapable of fathering children for the rest of your life."
Drew couldn't contain the smirk that came to his lips at her words, but he was able to hide it from her when she began to tuck herself in under the covers. When she looked back at him, with her eyes repeating the very same warning that she had given him just a mere minute ago, he raised his hands in a surrendering gesture and tried to conceal his smirk the best way that he could.
He said nothing in response as he made his way over to his side of the bed, where he stopped to take off his shoes, making sure to avoid a pair of sapphire blue eyes along the way to prevent himself from laughing. But a few minutes after he got himself settled into bed, he decided to give into the temptation to tease her one last time before going to sleep.
"You know, this is somewhat a good thing," he said. "If you think about it, we're actually saving money by just renting one room. Maybe we should just rent one room from now on. I certainly don't mind—"
"Shut up, Andrew."
Author's Note: I can't believe that in about another hour, 2011 will officially be over and 2012 will be taking its place! Where has the time gone? This year went by way too fast. :\ Regardless, I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year again! Thanks for reading, please review. :)
Oh, and about my new Contestshipping fanfiction: I'd originally intended for it to be a rated M fanfiction, but as I was writing down the basic plot, I found that there really isn't any rated M material aside from the rated M scene in the first chapter that I had published. My plot took a different turn entirely so I will be deleting the old story and then publishing a new one with the same name with the same summary whenever I get done writing the new first chapter. It should be up around next Wednesday. Please be sure to give it as much support as you've been giving this story! Thank you loads. :D
P.S. The romantic comedy I was describing is based off of the movie and book called Flipped. You should go check out if you haven't heard of it before; it was my favorite story as a little girl. :)