Timeline of Errors

Part 18 - The lake, once again

...

"Sorry. What were you doing here?" I asked, looking down.

"...I just thought I'll drop by and see if you need anything," he said and looked down, pulling his hands from my shoulder.

"Look, I appreciate your help and concern, but I'm fine now," I said and pushed myself to stand up.

"Yeah? And how exactly are you gonna catch a water Pokemon after this?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"...I'll figure something out," I said, "don't worry about me,"

"...is something the matter?" he asked, "you look really out of sorts,"

I...

"Why you asked?" I said.

"Because you do look out of sorts?" he asked and raised an eyebrow at me.

"That's nice of you. Look, I just have a lot to do," I said and turned to the water, "the longer I stand still... the more... I..."

"The more Pokemon will die, right?" he asked and turned to me again, this time holding a metal stick with a long thread brushing the ground, "here,"

My hand froze mid-air as I reached out to the super rod. I looked up to see his concerned face as his chestnut eyes looked straight at mine. The soft rustles of the grass filled the absence of our conversation as I quietly took the rod from him. Right then, his long fingers, then feeling a bit rougher than I remembered, brushed mine. Without a word, he walked away and sat by the lakeshore.

"Care for a conversation?" he asked and looked behind his shoulder.

Sighing, I walked up to him and flunked down on the grass next to him.

He sure changed a lot, I thought.

"Sure," I said as I casted the rod.

"...How's your new team treating you?" he asked.

"They're great, probably more competitively viable than my previous team," I said, "Matias really put a lot of thought into it,"

"Yeah? How was he?" he asked.

"Changed a lot. He took on an apprentice in Clemence Hill," I replied.

"Really? Matias?" he said and snickered, "nah jokes aside, it must be some talented apprentice he ran into,"

"Oh, she's good," I said, "she caught Eelektross for me and then caught Zoroark together with Matias,"

He chuckled, saying, "good for them,"

"Do you hang out with him a lot?" I asked.

"We catch up every once in a while," he said, "don't know why he'd be down for that, but..."

"Because you guys are friends?" I said as I continued watching the clear surface of the water.

"...he's a nice person," he replied, "I've just been... extremely lucky,"

The wind blew and brushed past the two of us. The fishing rod swayed slightly leftwards, small ripples formed in the water following the direction of the wind.

"I heard your sister's been badgering you every now and then," I said, "can't be easy for both of you,"

"Yeah, that..." he said, sighing, "look, I felt responsible about thrusting her into this position, but she's been abusing that pity for way too long. She called me every time she wanted to - which is every day for hours, having nothing to say and just expected me to entertain her, then left the call whenever she felt like without hanging up for f*cking hours until midnight. It's like she feels entitled to be my number one priority after work, when it was my rest time. I'm tired juggling so many stuffs on my end, then if I try to say no, she gaslit me for being 'too good' to answer her calls and uses the 'everything is your fault to begin with' card,"