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Follow Me

A Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver Story

Chapter Twenty-Seven
Doubleslap

"You what?" Soul asked, not believing what she was hearing.

"What, are you deaf all of a sudden; I said I'm done," Silver said, strolling past her. "As in I quit. I'm through with this bull crap."

Something inside her snapped, like a branch she'd been standing on for far too long. Without hesitation, she snatched his arm and whirled him around. "What do you mean you quit? You can't just quit!"

"To hell I can't!" Silver shouted. "I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life freezing my ass off searching the whole world for a stupid old man! He obviously doesn't want to be found, so let's leave him the hell alone!"

"Silver, we've barely started our search! You can't just give up so quickly!"

"And exactly what evidence have we found in this whole escapade, hmm? A grody old button in a cave! That's it! And that doesn't even tell us anything about where he is, just where he's been!"

"Well, what else were you expecting?" Soul spat as Chocobo, sensing the on-coming argument, lept from her arms and chirped worriedly at her feet. "Did you think we'd be stumbling upon a clue every week or something?" The sudden reddening of his ears told her that this was exactly what he'd been thinking, or at least secretly hoping. She scoffed in disgust . "Honestly, Silver, I didn't think you were this much of a whiny-baby that you'd quit the second things started to look just the slightest bit difficult!"

"You shut the hell up! The only reason you came along with me in the first place is because you want to get in my pants!"

BAM! She struck him sharply in the face with the full force of her palm, knocking him backward. She stood there for a moment afterward, arm still held aloft, quaking with fury.

Silver recovered quickly, revealing the bright red mark she'd left on his cheek. He raised his arm, shouting, "You think I won't hit a girl? Try it again and see what happ—"

BAM! She slapped him a second time, across his other cheek, shoving him into the outside cave wall. "You listen to me and you listen good!" she shouted, whole body trembling. "I've given up my time, my effort, my supplies, and all of my energy to help you! Not because of how I felt about you, but because I genuinely wanted to help you find your father! I've dealt with your mood swings, your attitude, and all your b-s, and God knows I've done my best to do it with an effing smile on my face just to try and keep the peace! And this is the thanks I get? You mouthing off to me and threatening to hit me?"

"You hit me first!"

"Doesn't matter!"

"Yeah, well no one asked you to come on this trip with me, anyway!" Silver shouted.

"If you never wanted me to come with you, you should have just said so!"

Silver let out an exaggerated laugh, regaining his footing. "I did! But you wouldn't let me! 'I want to help,' you said, 'I'm going with you,' you said! Ha! I bet you never even cared about helping me at all! You just wanted to stay close to me because of your stupid crush! As a matter of fact," he said, pointing accusingly at her, "I bet you never even saw my dad in the first place! You probably made the whole thing up just as an excuse to stick close to me!"

"I did not!" Soul yelled, angrier than ever. "I only told you I met him because I thought you'd be interested to know he was still alive; how was I supposed to know you'd want to go on some wild Zangoose chase around the whole world to try and find him?"

"Yeah, well it doesn't matter, anyway! I'm giving up on finding him and moving on!" He turned away and tightly gripped the strap of his backpack, adding in a quieter voice, "If he wanted to be in my life, he would've tried to find me. But he didn't, so there's no sense in me bothering to look for him."

"And what makes you so sure he hasn't tried to find you?" Soul argued. "Have you ever considered that as hard to as it is for you to find him, it's twice as hard for him to find you?"

"Say what you want, Soul, but I honestly don't care any more," Silver said, entering the mouth of the cave again.
Gathering Chocobo, who'd added flustering his wings to his protest of the two humans' argument, Soul tore off after him. "And where exactly are you going? We're not through talking yet!"
"Like hell we're not!" Silver called back. "And stop following me; seriously, don't you have someone else you could bother?" he spat, whirling around.

"I have to follow you; this is the only way out of the cave!"

"Fine!" Silver said, getting in her face. "You go that way, and I'll find my way out this way!" He shoved past her, back out toward the Ruins.

A long, frustrated moan from Soul echoed off the cave walls, followed by stomping footsteps headed in Silver's direction. She exited the cave mouth to find him skulking off toward one of the buildings. "Silver!"

"Okay, seriously, now you're just being annoying," Silver said, whipping around. "What in God's name do you want from me? Oh, wait," he said suddenly, "I know. The whole, 'you'll follow me forever,' thing, right?" he said, making finger-quotes. "Well, here, I'll solve that little problem for myself. I will never feel about you the way you feel about me, because there is no force in this universe that would ever make me see you as anything more than an annoying, busy-bodied pain in the ass. I don't like you, I've never liked you, and I never will like you! So leave me the hell alone!"

This was obviously the breaking point, because she didn't say anything. She just stared at him with wide, glassy eyes, as if she'd mentally checked out, and when the first tear slid down her face, he realized that he had perhaps gone one step too far.

Inhaling deeply, Soul adjusted her shoulder strap and turned. "Fine, Silver," she said in such a quiet voice that he almost didn't hear her. "Have a nice life." She and Chocobo disappeared together into Union Cave, leaving him alone amidst the broken buildings and overgrown grass.

Silver stood for a moment, dizzy from the adrenaline rush of the argument. He was free. After putting up with her for over a month, he was finally rid of her. No more listening to her chastise him about sleeping in, no more putting up with her constant cheeriness. He was done with her, and would probably never see her again, if she had anything to do with it. That meant he'd never have to look at her face again. Her face...The one that had smiled at him when no one else would...The one that had pushed him forward when he felt like he couldn't go on...The face that belonged to the only person in the whole world who probably cared about his existence. The face of his rival, the girl who'd always challenged him in a way he both hated and loved. That girl, who'd only been trying to help him...The girl he...

Fists clenching, Silver dashed toward the cave entrance and made his way through. Surely she hadn't gotten too far in; she'd probably found some corner to sit and cry, he was sure of it. As he neared the north exit, however, he grew more anxious as no sign of her turned up. Shielding his face as his eyes readjusted, Silver walked into the dark daylight on Route 32, gray clouds filling the overcast sky. But Soul was nowhere in sight. Turning around, he doubled back to the south exit, but to his dismay, she wasn't to be found there, either. He stood there in the cold on Route 33, misty puffs of breath rising in the crisp air. Large, icy flakes drifted down from above, landing on his red hair: the beginning of the first snowfall of winter. Soul was gone...and it was all his fault.

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