Pokemon Academy: Bonds of Amour

Chapter Twenty Three

Narrator / November 17th

Today, the weather was awfully nice. Ash exited his home alone, ready to go and take on his second gym in Kalos, accompanied by no one other than Pikachu. As soon as he stepped down from the final step on his porch, he knew that he had no idea where he was going, but he decided that he would figure it out along the way. Classic Ash, Serena's voice giggled in his head, and he shook it to clear the sound.

Despite that, he heard that voice call out to him a couple of moments later, but this time, it was real. "Hey Ash!"

He turned around, a bored expression plastered on his face. "Oh, hey Serena"

She jogged over and offered him a genuine smile. "Where are you off to?"

Ash hesitated on telling her where at first. "I was heading to my second gym battle"

"Well, I was hoping we could talk actually" Serena said, pressing her index fingers against each other nervously. Ash thought it was cute, but he brushed that thought off too.

"I don't think there's anything to talk about" Ash said, turning to continue on his way.

Serena decided to catch up and walk next to him. "If you want, I could take you to Cyllage City, and maybe along the way I could um... tell you something"

Ash abruptly stopped in place, and Serena did too. "I think you should go back Serena; Calem wouldn't like this"

"Just forget Calem for a moment" Serena quickly dismissed. "I really need to talk to you"

"That would be a bad idea -- forgetting Calem. He's your boyfriend after all, if there's something you want to talk about so badly, you should talk it out with him"

"But..." Serena tried to protest, but no words came from her mouth

"Go home Serena," Ash continued on his way, "call Calem or something. You haven't bothered talking to me outside of school for weeks, so I'm sure whatever you need to talk about can be sorted out with him"

Serena stood there, watching Ash slowly walk away, until she found words in her mouth -- just not the ones she wanted. "W-Well, it wasn't like you were making an effort either"

Ash stopped again, but didn't turn to face her. "Huh?"

"Friendship is a two-way street, Ash. Sure I may have been a little bit distant, but you could have at least told me how you felt about it" Serena said. "It's not just mine, but both of our fault's that we aren't friends anymore"

"That's right..." Ash agreed. "We aren't friends anymore"

"But that's not the way I want it to be!" Serena said, raising her voice

"Maybe you should have thought about your choices a little bit more than" Ash replied. "Because maybe then, I wouldn't have lost you"

"You haven't lost me!" tears welled up in Serena's eyes. "Why are you being so stubborn? I'm trying to tell you how I feel!"

"It's too late Serena" Ash raised his voice too. "I wanted to tell you too, but it's too late... for both of us"

This time, Ash walked away, and Serena didn't stop him. Instead, she just fell to her knees and cried into her hands, wondering how she could have let such a mistake happen. To her, it seemed like the end of the story between her and Ash, but luckily for her...

help was coming.