Kaiwe couldn't help it. He blatantly stare openly and stupidly up at the woman on stage as she twirled around, her heels clacking against the wooden floor and her silky sweet voice ringing out through the speakers. He knew his mouth was hanging open. He knew his brown eyes were unblinking and wide. But really, how could any man not stare in open adoration?

She was beautiful. Gorgeous. Talented. Several other compliment adjectives flew threw Kaiwe's mind as he continued watching the lovely young woman perform.

He didn't know what was wrong with him. All he knew was that he'd never felt so entirely attracted to another human being in his entire life.

He'd never before experienced such a dull beat, deep within his heart as his body yearned to join her on stage.

He'd never before thought his mind would flood with fantasies of him and a woman walking on the beach holding hands, sharing drinks at a café, going to bed and much more.

But here he was, dumb-struck with a hole in his heart pierced by Cupid invisible arrow that had shot out straight from the singer's mouth.

"Kaiwe?"

He heard his cousin but couldn't respond. He did, however, feel the smack on his arm.

"What?"

Shauna was staring at him oddly and he frowned.

"What?" he asked again in irritation.

She bit her lip as though trying to hold back a smile. "Um...you were gaping."

Shoot.

He suddenly realized where he was and what he was doing. They were sitting at a booth in The Indigo and Dawn had gone up to the bar to order them drinks. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Now his cousin smirked. "We've known each other since we were in diapers. You can't fool me."

Kaiwe wondered if it would be worth trying to deny the growing attraction that continued to swell and overfill his heart as he could still hear the sweet voice overhead.

"Look, I'm just staring because she sings so well," he said hoping she'd believe him. Which his cousin simply shrugged and returned to the performance. Kaiwe breathed a sigh of relief just as Dawn returned with three glasses.

She slid him his Mexican Sunset while Shauna took her cranberry mix cherry. Dawn took a sip of her Strawberry Burst milkshake.

Kaiwe picked up his drink, staring at the layers of orange and red. It really did look like a sunset. It also reminded him of a flame. Like the flame of passion. He lifted the glass to his lips and took a long swig, gulping the juice down.

"Hard day?" a male voice spoke behind him.

The young man set his glass down and looked to his left. "Ash! Hey!"

Kaiwe motioned to the empty space beside him on the leather seat at the curved booth. He noticed that the girls had turned to stare at the newcomer who joined them, his own drink in hand.

He made introductions. "Ash, this is Shauna, my cousin. And this is Dawn, a friend from high school. Girls, this is Ash Ketchum, my buddy from the college I transferred to after sophomore year. We played soccer together in the play-offs."

Ash lifted his drink with a nod. "Nice to meet you ladies."

"Oh I just read an article about you in the Vanville Vanity!" Shauna exclaimed with an oddly shy smile. "It's so nice to meet you too!"

Kaiwe raised an eyebrow towards her. "An article?" He turned to Ash. "You're that famous?"

Ash grinned. "What can I say? The tech world is big." Then to Shauna he said, "Yeah I saw that article. The reporters who interviewed me were pretty intense. They were all about trying to find some scandal to pin on me but luckily I keep a pretty clean record."

Shauna took a sip of her drink. "Good thing too. I've heard that reporting team is one of the best at getting scoops. You're lucky to have come out unscathed."

"Oh are you talking about the Rocket Team?" Dawn asked.

Ash and Shauna both nodded.

Kaiwe looked between them. "Wait, you mean Jessie and James Rocket? The husband and wife team who bust open that news about the underground fighting ring on Cinnabar Island?"

"That's the one," Ash said.

"That was a few years ago. I remember that incident was their big break," Shauna chimed in.

With a low whistle, Kaiwe leaned back in his chair. "Wow. Yeah if those guys interviewed you, you really are lucky that they didn't tear you apart."

"The article was actually pretty decent. Most of their articles usually end up ending someone's career or ruining lives because of what they uncover," Shauna said.

Ash nodded. "Luckily that didn't happen to me. My partner on the other hand, gave them plenty to write about."

"Gary Oak?" Kaiwe asked, remembering meeting the other man briefly at one of his and Ash's games.

"Yup. But he doesn't even mind. He likes being called the Playboy Prince," Ash said with a laugh.

Dawn scoffed. "He hasn't changed much since graduation then."

"You went to college with him?" Ash asked. "Small world. Wait, don't tell me you went with him?"

"No way! I never even met the guy," Dawn said with a shake of her head. "He was just pretty famous around campus and I guess the name Playboy Prince stuck."

"Should be Perverted Playboy Prince."

Everyone turned to stare at Shauna who was calmly sipping her drink yet her brows were furrowed together.

"Have you met Gary?" Kaiwe asked his cousin.

She nodded with a frown. "Unfortunately. I sort of randomly met him earlier today. Let's just say, we didn't get along."

Ash suddenly pointed at her. "Ooh you must be the singing nun!"

"Singing nun?" Kaiwe replied, curious as to what that meant.

As far as he knew, his cousin was certainly not a nun nor could she hold a note if her life depended on it. Not like the beautiful singer on stage.

"Since when are you a nun?" Dawn asked her friend with a grin. "And you sing?"

"Shut up," Shauna said with a glower. "Excuse me, I'm going to the ladies' room. It was nice to meet you Ash."

"Likewise!"

Shauna stood up and walked away with Dawn in tow, poking and prodding without interruption, asking, "What does he mean 'singing nun'?"

"So you here alone man?"

Ash nodded his head in the direction of the stage. "Nah. She's my date."

Kaiwe followed Ash's eyes towards the front. He couldn't see any girls sitting at a table by themselves waiting for someone. "Where?"

His friend pointed. "On stage. The singer. We have dinner reservations tonight at some French place."

"Oh," Kaiwe managed to get out in a strangled voice, feeling as though the words that had fallen from Ash's mouth literally wrapped themselves around Kaiwe's heart and was squeezing the life-sustaining organ. "So...you two serious?"

With a shrug, Ash said, "Not sure yet. We're uh...sort of in a trial phase I guess you could say."

"Oh," Kaiwe said again, the pressure in his heart decreasing. Immediately he felt guilty. He shouldn't feel happy at the prospect that his good friend and that gorgeous girl might not work out.

He shouldn't want to try and convince Ash to dump someone he didn't even know the name of.

And he really shouldn't want to gouge out his former teammate's eyes out with a fork for casting a warm glance up towards the stage.

Ugh. Love sucks, Kaiwe thought trying to force his mouth into a grin as Ash stood up saying he'd better go greet his date backstage.

Shauna and Dawn returned to the table just as Kaiwe downed the rest of his Mexican Sunset, slid out of the booth roughly, and stood. "I'm gonna go get another drink."

I'm late, I'm late, Serena thought, diving into the train as the doors slid shut behind her. With a deep breath, she looked around and finding an unoccupied seat, claimed it. It had already been an hour since her friends had left. She was supposed to have met them already.

Serena pulled out her cell phone to check the time and noticed that she had missed a text message. It was probably one of the girls telling her to hurry it up.

Flipping open the phone and clicking a button, Serena noticed the message was from Melody.

It read, 'Going on my first formal date with Alvin! Wish me luck!'

Serena put the phone back inside her purse, as though the aggressive action would erase the reality of that message. Sure, Serena knew it was tonight. Melody and Alvin's big date. She was the one, after all, who had suggested the couple try a fancy French restaurant in the heart of the city because the restaurant hired live musicians to play classical music every Friday night. It was the perfect place for a romantic evening and quite reasonably priced.

She should feel thrilled that it was going so well only after a week.

She should feel absolute elation that Alvin Ketter had not stopped by her shop to bother her or call her and that it had been Melody who had updated Serena the past few days. Pure excitement was what her heart should be saturated with.

Her eyes fell upon her right palm and she could feel it still tingling even now.

So why did it feel like her heart had been chowed on by the teeth of a thousand sharks?