Chapter 43: Drama 

The next day, Dawn called Zoey on her Pokegear from the hallway right outside our room and argued about how many people Zoey had blabbed to about her injury. It was very satisfying to hear Dawn standing up for herself and not take 'no' for an answer.  

"No, you can't ever tell Kenny anything that's happening in my life! If you tell him what I'm up to again, even if I tell you I had oatmeal for breakfast, I swear I'm not going to talk to you anymore. You know how much I hate him!" Dawn yelled. 

I told myself I wasn't listening in, but it was too tempting. Not to mention loud. She had a big mouth- I knew that better than anyone. 

"Dawn, he's not that bad-" 

"Not that bad!? He almost hurt my fractured wrist! If it weren't for Paul-" 

"Paul!? You're still with Paul!?" 

"YES, I'm with Paul!" Dawn shrieked.  

"Like... with with Paul or just with Paul?" Zoey was quieter, calculating. 

"Like with- oh, it's none of your business!" 

"Dawn, you're scaring me." 

"I'm scaring you? Seriously? Why don't you learn to mind your own business and stop asking me about my own private feelings!" 

"So you DO have feelings for him!" 

"I didn't say that." A defensive tone. 

"Dawn, Paul's a horrible person! You shouldn't-" 

"Good bye, Zoey." 

The conversation ended- Dawn had hung up. I put my book back up to my face as she stomped through the door.  

"Hi." I didn't look up, pretending to be immersed in whatever was on the page- I hadn't checked. 

"Your book is upside down," Dawn informed me, grabbing it with her good hand. Her intuitiveness grew every day just as mine seemed to slip away- an upside down book, really. Surely I wasn't becoming that weak minded.  

I sat up quickly, getting out of Dawn's way as she sat down roughly on my bunk and made herself comfortable. "So, what'd you think of our conversation?" 

She seemed pretty angry and I decided to play it safe with my answer, "I think you've really grown a backbone, Dawn." 

"Funny. I traded my wrist for a spine." 

"You should be proud." 

"I'm just... angry at Zoey." She frowned. "Why does everyone have to be so manipulative and have to think they know what's best for me?" 

I shrugged. 

Her face turned towards me. "You're never manipulative. You just let me do what I want. You give advice and you only ever order me to do something if it'll keep me safe. Like at Meteor Falls. You don't go around matchmaking and say you know what's best for everyone." 

I nodded slowly, wondering where this was going. Her mood was so different than normal. 

"Why can't everyone be like you???" Dawn asked loudly. 

"Because if everyone was like me, there wouldn't be kind, optimistic people like you to make the vast hoards of Pauls feel all kinds of irritated." I sighed, wanting to put my head in my hands and rub my face. I'd never really wanted to do that before. Strange. 

"What do you mean by 'all kinds' of irritated?" Dawn questioned. 

Oh, just that our growing collection of "moments" together kept resurfacing in my mind, making it hard to sleep at night, making it hard to even reply to what she was saying without feeling the need to-! 

I cut off the growing annoyance and shrugged. 

She seemed disappointed by my answer, but I couldn't think of an actual answer. I didn't even know how I felt. How to proceed. How she felt, making it feel pointless to proceed, to ruin the friendship that had somehow bewilderingly grew over the past months, the only one I'd ever formed with someone. 

But then again, how cowardly was I to say nothing, to continue to be tortured by her presence and the internal struggle that took place almost every time I looked at her? 

"Are you ok?" Dawn asked. 

I said smoothly, "I've been better." 

Dawn was quiet as she watched me. She wasn't wearing her hat today and I studied the way her head looked bare without it since I was so used to it. The more I stared, the better I liked her without it. I'd never liked hats anyway. 

I felt my breath leave me and I was forced to take a deep breath after forgetting to refill my lungs for fifteen seconds. She'd distracted me from something that should be involuntary- breathing. 

"You scare me, Paul," Dawn said gently, patting my arm before getting up and sighing. "I'm tired of this room. Want to go outside and train? I'll watch you battle someone. Bagon could use the practice." 

I nodded, not trusting my voice. Those same words, "you scare me", had formed in my head about her as she'd said them. She did scare me and our synchronized moment was just another reason to add to the list of why. Dawn stretched and grabbed her bag with her good hand, heading for the door. I stood up, noticing that my legs seemed unsteady.

I battled five trainers that afternoon- three of them with Bagon. He lost the first battle to an Azumarill, which was expected considering it was a Fairy type. His second battle, against a Grumpig, went far smoother with a few Crunch attacks. His final battle was against a Manectric, which was interesting and a great battle to test his Flamethrower counter shield against, though it didn't work too well. He still won with his quick use of Dragon Claw and Zen Headbutt. The other two battles I fought with Gastrodon and Honchkrow who won easily, their moves flawless. 

Dawn watched the entire time, sitting in the sunshine by the field and cheering my Pokemon on. They weren't used to the encouragement and showed off a little more than necessary, which was amusing to watch. I'd allow it this one time, but cockiness led to sloppiness, which was something I would never allow. 

"Bagon, that was incredible! I can't believe you've mastered that Dragon Claw attack. It looks really difficult." Dawn gushed as Bagon walked up to her after our last battle, pleased. 

"Two out of three battles. Not bad," I complimented. 

Dawn smiled to herself as she patted Bagon on the head. 

"What's so funny?" I raised an eyebrow. 

"You. Would it kill you to actually tell him how awesome Bagon did?" Dawn teased. 

"He did do excellent. He won. To me, that's pleasure enough." 

"So you're saying winning is all that makes you happy?" Dawn smiled slyly. 

I blinked in surprise and had to concentrate on choosing the right words. "I never said that. Becoming stronger means you have to lose sometimes as well. Losing is how you learn, not winning." 

"What else gives you pleasure, then?" Dawn asked, her tone serious. 

"I've never really thought about it before. Why do you ask?" My eyes narrowed suspiciously.  

"We've never talked about it. We don't really ever talk about you. It's mostly discussions about Pokemon. And I'll talk about me, of course." She blushed, embarrassed. "So I thought it's about time that I learned about you." 

I stared at her. No one had ever wanted to know anything about me before. Reggie? Sure. I'd get that a lot. "Hey, Paul! How's your brother Reggie?" "Is Reggie doing alright?" "Is Reggie in town?" I was always excluded. 

"So, what do you say?" Dawn asked, pulling me from my thoughts. "Will you tell me about yourself if I ask you questions?" 

"Yeah." My voice was strained. I couldn't describe how I was feeling- I just knew I'd never felt it before. "Ok."

Hello Readers!

I hope you enjoyed the newest bit of drama in Paul's life :P Amazing how he avoided it all his life and now he's stuck with it. 

Thanks, as always, for reading. If you liked it, make sure you vote, follow, and/or comment. It always makes my day when I see that people have been reading my story and show some feedback. :)

Pokemon Question of the Day: What's your favorite Pokemon episode? (Make sure to add a little description about it, especially if you don't know the title. I want to make sure I know which one you're talking about)  Mine is "Primeape Goes Bananas" from the first season- who doesn't love all the protagonists getting beaten up by a weird puffy pig monkey thing. Ash's hat getting stolen, Brock throwing "donuts" at Primeape, and Ash getting one step closer to becoming a Pokemon Master by catching it? 

Tell me your favorite in the comments below. Have an awesome day!

-Flips