Riley.

The Next Morning.

"You stupid mother[expletive deleted]! You could have died, or gotten Astro killed! Nobody really gives a shit if anything happened to Cyrus, but WHAT THE FRIGGING FRICK WERE YOU THINKING?!"

The next morning, when Amber came to see me, she brought Tess and the tyrant in camo. Dee wasted no time in chewing me out; she stormed in, immediately embodying the concepts of thunder and lightning into one terrifying young woman.

[That's an...oddly poetic way to describe me screaming at you for being a noble jackass. Thank you?]

Look, I'm tired and delerious and ready to close this shit out so I can take a nap, Deadra.

"Gah." I winced. Her voice gave me a headache. "Lower your voice, goddamn..."

Tess laughed. With the winter weather over, she was back to wearing a t-shirt again. "What Dee means is, thank you for-"

"No, what Dee means is, you are a frigging retard and should be forced to wear a helmet literally all the time." I almost missed Dee's blunt, well-meaning insults. Almost. "Seriously, Riles, you're gonna be a drooling idiot by the time you're 20..."

"At least I have a brain to damage. Smartass..."

Amber sort of hung shyly by the door, holding a wrapped box, looking a little awkward. Out of all people, I'd expected her to be thrilled to see me...even in a hospital bed.

The door flew open, hitting Amber in the head. "Oww!" She dropped her box.

"Amber!" I sat up in bed, and felt that aching pain in my chest. "Augh..."

Cynthia flew into the room, Lucian right on her tail. "Riley! I can't-oh my gosh, Amber, I'm so sorry!"

Obviously still hurting, Amber rubbed the spot where she'd been struck. "It...it's alright, Cynthia." She picked up the package, sounding just a little bitter. Lucian muttered a hurried "So sorry".

Cynthia rushed to my bedside. "Riley! Holy crap, you look awful. Are you okay?"

I didn't feel in the mood to deal with her or Lucian. I looked at Amber. "Yeah, I'm fine-Amber, what's that you've been holding?"

Amber looked down at the box. "Something my mom wanted me to give you, but Dee's been berating you so long..."

Lucian understood what she meant before his blonde companion did. He put an arm around Cynthia's shoulders. "Come on, we can see Riley later. Lord knows they've been apart too long..."

As they left the room, Amber smiled. God, I'd missed that smile. Amber pulled up a chair, and sat next to my bed. Dee and Tess crowded around us.

Amber put the box in my lap. "It's for...well, everything. You got our pokemon back, you caught my dad as the leader of Team Galactic-"

"Be quiet already, and let him open it," Tess urged.

With my unbroken wrist, I peeled off a corner of the wrapping paper. Amber saw the cast on my other hand, and ripped some paper off as well. "Here, let me help."

When we finished unwrapping and tossed the paper away, a brand new in-the-box Pokegear was sitting in my lap. The box named it as a "cobalt blue" model.

"I can't possibly accept this..." My family could never afford a Pokegear. My mother would just die if she found out I let someone else buy me one.

Amber put her hand on mine. "Momma asked me what you'd like, and I told her you didn't have a Pokegear yet," She pleaded. "Please? Riles?"

I looked at the box in my lap. She really wanted me to have it. "Lemme, ah...let me see what it looks like..."

Hastily, I opened it and took the device out of the packaging. It was about the size of my palm, and flipped open to the keypad and the screen. A charger also came from the box. The Pokegear, it was just as the box said, cobalt blue...just my favorite shade. There was no way Amber didn't help choose it.

"Amber, it...Jesus, it's perfect. Thank you." I didn't really know how else to thank her for the gift.

Amber laughed. "Hehe. Momma also paid for the first month of service, so you can go ahead and put our numbers in."

"And you better give us your number!" Dee ordered. "Running off, like you did...scared us all half to death, you jerk!"

I laughed at Dee, ignoring the pain. "Yeah, alright...how do you turn it on?"

"Just hold this button...here," Amber instructed, moving my thumb to the right button. I held it down and, lo and behold, it turned on.

Amber showed me how to find my number and how to add others' numbers, putting all three of theirs in for me and showing me onscreen how to do it. Tess provided Flint and Volkner's, and they all added my number. It was an exciting experience for me.

Amber handed me back my Pokegear, grinning ear to ear. "You really like it?" She looked nothing like the sullen thing she had been 15 minutes before.

I nodded. "Oh, hell yeah," I confirmed. "I love it...really, thank you."

We held eye contact for, like, two seconds. Dee elbowed her sister.

"Aye, Tessie," She said slyly. "We oughta call those two losers, tell 'em the third Stooge has a Pokegear now."

It took a second, but Tess understood. "Yeah...let's give them Riley's number, too, so they can call." Tess hooked her arm through Dee's, and they rushed out of the room.

Strangely enough, I had been dreading being left alone with Amber. Because we would have to actually talk about our respective nervous [expletive deleted] breakdowns.

With the twins gone, it really felt awkward to talk to Amber. At least Dee could provide a snide remark to break the ice. I looked down at the device in my hands.

"...I'm sorry." We apologized at the same time. It was so creepy. I looked up at her. Amber was blushing.

"What're you apologizing for?" I asked.

Amber held her hand over her mouth, like she didn't want the answer to escape. Then, she drew her hand back a little, and her trembling voice spattered out, "When Astro and Riolu were first taken, and everyone was shouting. I shouldn't...I didn't bother to think of your feelings...I'm so sorry, and after you stormed out, I never got to...and I just wanted to-!"

"Stop." It was painful, to hear her struggle to gather her thoughts into sentences. "That's enough. You don't...I'm not even mad about that. Not anymore. I'm just sorry I'd yelled at you...God knows we would've torn each other to bit if Mark and Dee hadn't stopped us."

"Heh, yeah..." There was a bitter smile on her face. "With Astro back, I think I wanna travel again...although, I could never get enough ribbons for the Grand Festival in time."

"Did Dee?" I asked politely.

Amber nodded. "After the three of us split, her and Tess kept going on the road. Also..." Amber smiled. "The twins' mom, she's getting married during the Grand Festival, at Lake Valor, and me and the twins are all gonna be bridesmaids."

"I thought their mom already got married," I told her. "That guy, Palmer."

"No, Palmer didn't propose until Christmas." Amber smiled again, a hint of a blush still evident. "A-anyway, Dee and Tess already asked Volkner and Flint to be their dates, so, um..." Her hand had found mine, and her skinny fingers were wrapped around mine.

Oh my God holy Jesus [expletive deleted] Christ. "You wanna ask...me?"

"Ye...yeah." Amber laughed out her answer, other hand still covering her mouth. "I...God, this is so awkward. You get hospitalized, and I ask you out."

"Hey, weirder shit's happened," I laughed.

The moment passed before Amber asked, "So, um...will you go with me...?" Her fingers tapped nervously against the insides of my knuckles.

"I have absolutely no nice clothes I could wear."

"I'll ask my mom to buy you some! Hell, I'll ask Volkner's mom if I need to."

She was so deadset on taking me. I tightened my fingers around hers.

"...I couldn't possibly say no," I admitted. "Not if I'm going with you."

Amber let out a sort of squeak. "Ohmigod! Thank you, Riley! It's going to be so great, you'll get to meet Mrs. Thompson, and Barry, Palmer's little boy, he's Max's best friend and he is sooo cute, you're gonna love their whole family, Dee's mom's been like a second mom to me, I love her to death..."

I didn't quite hear a lot of what Amber said after that, it all came at me too fast, but I loved the din of her voice in the background.

There was an actual thing that I was invited to. An event where I would be a girl's date. Amber's date. It was perfect, and I was actually excited, and all I could think was-

"Amb! Tell Riley about the wedding yet?"

"Just did, and he said he's gonna go with me!"

"Hell yeah, I knew you had the stones to say yes, Riley!"

Goddammit, Dee ruined it.