Ash wiped off his face with his towel in front of the bathroom mirror. He put it around his neck and ran his hand through his hair, before heading out of his bathroom and to the small living room, where Misty was tidying up the couch. Old habits die hard.

He grabbed a cushion from Misty's hands when she picked it up and sat down, placing it behind his back and grabbing the remote. His father has bought him a small two-bedroom apartment near Celadon University and Misty came often. She said she hated her small dorm room.

Ash didn't know but his mother Delia told Misty to take good care of him. Mr. and Mrs. Ketchum never thought Ash would go off to college. It wasn't a part of their plan.

All of sudden, he was packing and leaving for Celadon. He wasn't even going to join his sisters in Goldenrod.

Overall, his sisters and mother were right about him knowing nothing about cleaning, buying groceries and cooking. Ash just doesn't have the sense of management. He never thinks about buying basics for himself either. Misty has to remind him of what he needs around the house. Dishes soap? Kitchen paper? Salt? Certainly not in Ash's glossary.

"Did you eat all of that pizza?" Misty gestured to the counter where a pile of boxes stood. "There are like ten boxes!"

Ash cursed himself for forgetting to hide the pizza boxes. He could swear he had that in mind.

"No, Gary was here." The question isn't why did Misty count the boxes; the more important question is how Ash succeed in eating ten pizzas in four days without even realizing it.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." His friend was here last week. It wasn't a lie.

"I don't know, Ash." Misty looked him up and down. She pointed at his belly that spilled over his pants. "What this?"

Ash looked down. He yanked down his shirt. "What?"

Misty rolled her eyes and sat beside Ash. "Just stop going to the gym, then. It does nothing."

Ash stopped going to the gym a long time ago, but he thought Misty doesn't need to know. She'll scold him, loudly. If Misty did stop, it's because she takes extra classes sometimes for extra credit. Ash stopped because he was too lazy to move, and according to Misty's logic, that isn't a valid argument.

"But I get hungry after the gym! It doesn't make sense if I don't eat when I'm hungry." Ash played along.

"This isn't the purpose of working out. No wonder you gain weight instead of losing it." Misty sighed. Her boyfriend was really impossible.

Ash put his hand on his belly. "This talk about pizza makes me want to eat more."

"You're impossible!"

"I'm a guy. I'm not supposed to eat like you." Misty let a gasp after Ash grabbed her upper arm. "I could break you!"

"Hey!"

"Oh, Ash! I can't eat this! It's way too greasy!" Ash mimicked her. "You eat it!"

"I don't talk like that!" Misty liked her size-two body. She had the right to worry about it.

"Oh yeah?" Ash put her hand on her abdomen and squeezed her side. "Yours is so flat!"

"Hey!"

"Whaat?"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Eh!"

"Haha!"

"Stoop!"

Ash rested on the couch with Misty between his arms and legs. She put her ear on his chest.

"I can hear."

"It's beating for you."

Misty giggled. "There goes the literature."

"It's better the real life."

"Are you sure?" Misty pulled herself up and ran her hand over Ash's chest. It was soothing.

"I change my mind."

They laughed loudly. They laughs ceased when suddenly, Ash's iPhone started ringing on the coffee table. Misty pulled away from him as Ash sat up to grab the phone.

"Who is it?"

"Oh, it's Serena." Ash smiled and answered the call. "Hi Serena! I was waiting for your call."

Misty blinked.

Serena?

As... Serena Yvonne?

Since when Serena and Ash are friends? She indeed was Misty's friend back in high school and they took several classes together, but she and Ash never talked. They had no contact at all.

"It's alright! Tell me. Have you finished the one I gave you?"

"It's fine. Bring me the 1Q84 Trilogy. Okay?"

"Thanks! I appreciate it." Ash exchanged a quick eye contact with Misty. "Okay, I will. Bye."

Right when he hung up, he told Misty, "She's saying hi."

"Okay..." Misty nodded to herself. "Serena Yvonne? Are you friends with her or something?"

Ash chuckled. "She's in the same major as me."

"She's taking Literature?" Misty gasped. "Can she even read?"

"Way too much."

No offense, but Serena always seemed to Misty like a girl who would cry a river if she breaks a nail. She always had her face splashed with make-up. She wasn't really brilliant at school but Serena was very social and friendly, and everyone was at ease with her. She was attractive and she often got asked out. Now that Misty thinks of it, maybe the only guys who didn't attempt to ask her out are Ash and Gary.

Wait, was that even true?

"Tell me." Misty brought her legs up to her chest. "Did you ask Serena out before?"

"Seriously?" Ash chuckled again.

"Yes."

"I'm with you right now, dating you and being your boyfriend and bearing with your nagging and OCD's for obvious reasons, no?"

Misty glared. "I'm talking about the past."

"Past? What past? I'm eighteen."

"You know what I'm talking about!" Misty huffed. "Answer me!"

"Okay, fine. I've never asked Serena out before. I didn't even attend my classes that much to meet her." Ash rolled his eyes. "She was the one who told me that she knows me from high school!"

"Oh..."

Ash crossed his legs and grabbed the cushion. "I don't find jealous cute, so don't do it. Okay?"

"I'm not jealous." Misty shook her head. She looked away. "I was just surprised Serena is a bookworm."

"You asked me if I asked her out."

"Yeah, because a lot of guys did that."

"Well..." Ash leaned back and tilted his head. "She's alright but she gives a bad impression."

"A bad impression?"

"Yeah." Ash nodded. "With her plastic appearance, she looks like she has no brain. People judge her a lot by the way she looks. She's pretty but repulsive." He blinked. "Woah, that's a good paradox."

"You read too much, Ash."

"She's a good person in the inside." Ash smiled. "People just should give her a chance."

"She's my friend." Misty shrugged. "Well, she was." She pulled close to Ash. "She already knows we're together."

Ash put the cushion away and got up. "She's got really good books which I'm too lazy to buy and she gives them to me. That's all I want."

"Where are you going?" Misty raised an eyebrow.

Ash pouted. "I'm pizza-hungry."

"Okay, fine." Misty spoke up as Ash walked over to the counter. "I'm not the one who'll have my father make fat jokes about me when I get home for the holidays."

"I'll survive."

Misty turned around. She stared at Ash who's taken frozen pizza out. "Really?"

Ash shrugged. "I'll wear a hoodie."

Misty giggled and turned to watch TV.

"You're impossible."

-

I DID IT YAY