The Memories That Follow

Chapter 7: I'm Sorry

Her message made me smile for some reason. Serena was so thoughtful. No wonder I fell in love with her.

I then text Gou back so he knows that I'm okay:

[Hey Gou. I slept over at Serena's house. Sorry if I worried you. I'll come back later. Sorry for not responding sooner]

I then walk over to the kitchen to open up the fridge and eat whatever Serena had left. It was a Sandwich with an apple. I quickly ate it up since I was starving. I walked over back to the living room and  sat down on the couch.

I can't believe yesterday really happened. Red formed on my face as I thought about what had happened. I finally told her how I felt and I felt more carefree than ever. I patiently waited for Serena to come back

25 minutes later

I heard the door open and it was Serena.

"Hey Ash!" She says as she walks over to me and sits down next to me

"  I was practicing for the performance coming up in a couple days. I really want to do well so I can compete for Kalos Queen again." She says.

"I really hope you're able to come see me"she says as she smiles.

"Of course! I'll be cheering you on like I always do!" I say happily.

The next couple of days were spent hanging out with Serena. I would go to her rehearsals to cheer her on so she could give it her all when it was her turn to perform.

4 days later. (1pm)

It was almost time for her performance. The competition was tomorrow so she pretty much  spent the whole day rehearsing her stunts. Gou even came along to see her.

While we were watching, Gou asks me something I never thought about.

"So.. Are you and Serena a thing? I mean you guys kissed that one time and even hugged recently. You also told me you told her you loved her and she felt the same way. Have you asked her to be your girlfriend?" He says

I never thought about that. Although we both spent a lot of time together, it was basically as friends. I don't know much about this "Girlfriend and Boyfriend" thing but I do know it's very serious.

"I didn't really think about that. Should I ask her to be my girlfriend? I ask him.

"If you love her, obviously! How dense are you?!" He says jokingly.

I thought about it for a while and thought it was time to tell her soon enough.

5 hours later.

After her rehearsal, we went to go eat but shortly after Gou went to look for Pokémon so me and Serena went back to her hotel room to talk for a bit.

I left pikachu and Greninja in a separate room with Serena's Pokémon while her and I talked.

We talked about normal things for a while until I thought it was time to tell her.

"Serena... I want to tell you something"I say

" Everytime Im with you, I feel so carefree and happy. Ever since we met again in Kalos, you became the person I cared for the most. After our goodbye, I spent day after day thinking about you and how I wanted to tell you how much I loved you. These past few days we've spent together quickly became the best days of my life. So Serena... would you please be my girlfriend?" I say as my face turns a bit red.

"I—uhh.... Yes. I'll love to be your girlfriend." She says with a smile.

" I've felt the same way ever since we first met. Back in kanto I thought I would never see you once you left but fate must of brought us back together. I went on a journey with you through kalos so I could be a better person for you but thanks to you and many others, I found my true goal." She says as a tear falls from her eyes.

I then quickly stand up and hug her tightly. It hurt to see Serena cry but this time it was for good reasons so I wanted to make her even more happy.

We yet again hugged for a long time.

I then thought of my own goal after thinking about what she said. I already finished my main goal but there's still one more.

"Hey Serena, Once you win, can we go on another adventure? I still want to be a Pokémon master and winning a league won't compete that goal. I want to go to Kalos with you once you go back to compete for Kalos Queen." I say

"Of Course! We could spend more time together" she says while she blushes.

1 day later.

It was almost time for Serena to perform. The stage was bigger than most of the stages she was used to performing on but the scariest thing was the 3 judges sitting down all the way back near the audience. A lot of people messed up and started crying since they felt stressed at the sight of a big crowd staring at them.

We chatted for a while before I had to go back into the audience to sit with Gou and my Pokémon. I gave her words of encouragement so she could feel confident. She was nervous since she felt she would fail even thought she practiced tirelessly for the past months. This was a very important performance as they wouldn't let her Compete for Kalos Queen which was her biggest goal.

We talked a bit more until she was almost next. The person before her had barely gone so I had time to do one more thing.  I move closer to her and say something.

"Good luck Serena. I love you" I say as I pull her closer to me and kiss her. It felt great doing that after a year or two of constantly thinking about her. As I walk away I turn around to see her dumbfounded expression as she was left with shock. I wave goodbye and make my way over to my seat.

After I sit down we watch someone else perform until they finished.

It was then Serena's turn.

She walked out and they announced her name and everything. She then proceeded to perform.

She did a couple of stunts that I hadn't even seen before. Most of them got a really good reaction out of the crowd. She kept ok performing and most of what she did had the crowd cheering. It was a big audience too since this one was in Hoenn and it had more seats than most other places.

It was then time for her to do her last Stunt. While she was doing most of the setup parts, I realized she had twisted her ankle a bit. It was really apparent since you could see her choppy movements but even so she kept on dancing. She kept on going with her finishing stunt as planned until she suddenly tripped on her dress.

Although she fell, she quickly got up and sort of made it look like it didn't hurt but you could tell she was somewhat in pain. She tried to finish of her performance correctly but she messed up yet again. Her trick was supposed to leave a big cloud of smoke which was going to smell a lot like Poke Puffs and with flamethrower and electricity, it was going to make A shape of a heart.

Instead though, Her Plusle and Minun used the wrong move which ended up making a big ball of electricity. Her Pancham and Delphox still did what they were originally told to do and the result was an odd looking shape of a pikachu. It looked like the mixture of A pikachu and a luvdisc

Some of the crowd was cheering since they didn't know it went wrong but the rest sat in silence. It was too hard to make out their faces but I could see the Judge's face since they had a light which they used to write. One of them was smiling but the other two looked disappointed.

I looked back at the stage to see Serena walking  away with a sad face. You could tell she was angry,sad and disappointed. I didn't like it so I knew I had to do something

I quickly got up from my seat and ran backstage to see if she was alright. Once I got to her dressing room, I knocked on the door but I got no response. I looked around until I heard crying coming from inside a storage closet.

I opened the door to the closet and to no surprise, I see Serena crying while her Pokémon try to comfort her.

"Why am I such A failure?" Serena says as she cries harder than ever.

"I'm sorry,Ash. I won't be going back to Kalos with you"

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This is probably one of my worst chapters lol. Anyways, sorry for not updating! Had a lot of things I had to do. What did you think of this chapter? Let me know! Thanks for reading :). (I realized I put chapter 6 on accident so I changed it to 7)