Paul and Dawn: First Light

Chapter 28: Late

Chapter 28: Late 

"Hey Paul, I'm back." Dawn hurried through the bushes. Her hat was askew and Piplup was balanced precariously on the top of it because her hands were full of groceries. Her hair had a couple of twigs in it. She looked like she'd been in a huge hurry to get back and was looking at her bags, checking inventory.  

My Pokemon instantly backed away from me, fading into the forest. Bagon slid off my lap and followed them with a swift glance back at me, and then motioning to Piplup to follow, before climbing onto Torterra's back. Piplup frowned, but followed the other Pokemon into the forest before Dawn had even finished counting all the bags she held. 

The second it was just the two of us, me and Dawn, my anger flared. Where had she been? It didn't take all day to grocery shop- even Dawn wouldn't take longer than twenty minutes to find if a certain type of snack food was available in a pink box instead of the normal color. 

"I can see that you're back. I have eyes, don't I?" I said with malice. 

Instantly, she looked up and found my eyes. "You ok?" 

"Of course I am. I'm always ok," I replied bluntly. "Nothing's happened to me to make me forget where I said I'd be and when."

Dawn put the bags down on the ground and looked up apologetically. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so late-"

"But you were late. Over an hour late." I let the words sink in before continuing, "I thought you'd lost that nasty habit of not knowing how to tell time, Dawn." 

Dawn stared, her eyes searching me. I stared back, feeling bold as anger burned in my veins. Her blue eyes still seemed to see something other than anger as they softened.  

"You were worried about me, weren't you?" Dawn's voice sounded full of what I assumed was pity. 

"Don't be ridiculous. I thought you'd lost all my money." I lied, refusing to wince as I remembered my own promise that I would never lie. 

"Paul-" 

"You said you'd be back before sunset." I sneered. "Did you forget what sunset was?" 

"I lost track of time, ok?" Dawn defended herself. "I ran into a Contest friend." 

"Oh, you found your dear Kenny again?" My anger seemed to increase tenfold with this new information. "Did you get married while in town and come back just to say goodbye to me?" 

"Listen to yourself!" Dawn yelled. "You always assume when it comes to me. You assume I don't know how to do things. You assume I'm stupid and have a horrible memory. You assume that I was with Kenny, but really I was with Zoey!" 

"Zoey?" The name was unfamiliar. 

"Yeah. You know, my red haired Contest friend you love to insult. You met her in Snowpoint." Dawn crossed her arms. 

A memory of Zoey defending Ash bubbled into my brain. My temper dwindled, my stride into a higher level of madness halted. "And that's why you're late?" 

"Of course." Dawn sounded a little relieved at my quieter tone. "I wouldn't just leave without saying good bye." 

"So is that your intention?" 

"No." Dawn sighed. "Why don't you let me finish my story before you come to your faulty conclusions?" 

I remained silent, indicating she could talk. 

She took a deep breath. "I found out that Verdanturf has a Contest Hall, so I went over there as soon as I could. Zoey was there and we started talking and, before I knew it, it was almost sunset. I hurried over to get my supplies, said good bye to Zoey, and here I am."